GOV/MIL Main "Great Reset" Thread

[marsh]

The 2022 Election is the Opening Salvo in the Repudiation of America’s Elites

A massive Republican victory in the 2022 midterm elections is imperative in stopping the disastrous policies of the Marxist left. However, far more important and potentially more enduring than a temporary victory by the Republican Party, is tha...

www.americanthinker.com

The 2022 Election is the Opening Salvo in the Repudiation of America’s Elites

By Steve McCann
October 25, 2022

A massive Republican victory in the 2022 midterm elections is imperative in stopping the disastrous policies of the Marxist left. However, far more important and potentially more enduring than a temporary victory by the Republican Party, is that this election can be the American citizenry’s opening salvo in the permanent repudiation and marginalization of the American Elites or ruling class. They are a clique that has betrayed and broken faith with the American people through their mindless infatuation with Barack Obama and near-psychotic obsession with defeating Donald Trump.

The elites can be loosely defined as those in the small minority of wealth, power, and prestige who have influence or control over the structures and institutions that govern a nation and stage-manage its culture and society.

This cabal can be further defined within three categories based on who they are:

1. The political or governing elites: those who take an active or influential role in the administration of political power whether through government or various non-government institutions such as universities and the corporate media.'
2. The economic elites: those who are the wealthiest Americans by income and net worth, many of whom oftentimes use their wealth to influence or abet government and manipulate society.
3. The cultural elites: those that have an over-sized influence through their social standing and prestige emanating from the entertainment complex, sports or media, many of whom frequently use that status to shape and affect the culture.

Over the past 14 years the bulk of the American people have been forcibly awakened to the breathtaking level of narcissism, obliviousness, and megalomania of this ostensibly well-educated and influential cabal (who are overwhelmingly members of the Democrat party) but who are also scattered throughout the Republican Party hierarchy.

In 2008, because of his skin color and ability to deliver a speech, the American elites embraced a juvenile infatuation with Barack Obama and unabashedly catapulted him into the presidency. While the elites mindlessly acquiesced, Obama mainstreamed American Marxism into government and society and facilitated the de facto takeover of the Democrat party by these same Marxists.

For eight years of Obama, the American people were exposed to overt denigration of America and its history as well as cultural disintegration, racism and racial animosity. For the last two years, Americans have endured the economic, foreign and societal disasters of a senescent Joe Biden, an Obama minion stage managed by Obama administration puppeteers like Susan Rice and Valerie Jarrett.

On the other hand, for four years the American people experienced the forthright pro-Americanism and overwhelming economic and foreign successes of Donald Trump.

This unavoidable comparison has caused a growing majority of the American people to finally begin to awaken from their 75-year slumber and decades of mal-education to realize who their antagonists are. It is not the few died-in-the-wool Marxists but the far larger number of gullible and spineless American Elites who are now intimidated by and acquiesce to the Marxists in order to maintain their status in American society.

The growing naïveté, obliviousness and narcissism of the elites has become so dominant among the upper classes within American society that the future of this nation as a prosperous and freedom loving country is in serious jeopardy. The potential descent into the pitfalls of collectivism by the nation that has done more than any country in world history to lift vast swaths of mankind out of poverty and despair would precipitate a catastrophe, not only for the American people but for the rest of humanity.

There is little doubt that a major contributing factor to the ignorance and gullibility of much of the elite class can be traced back to a Marxist leaning education establishment that has been increasingly focused, for the past fifty years, on indoctrination and not education.

Concurrent with a precipitous drop in achievement in the core subjects of math, reading and science, curricula previously used for over a century in secondary and higher education, designed to foster appreciation of the Judeo-Christian basis of the nation’s founding as well as the development of reason and independent thinking by the students, were deliberately abandoned. Most notably at the nation’s colleges and universities. In their place was an emphasis on grotesquely revisionist American history, so-called self-esteem and its corollary, victimhood.

While this calamitous makeover of the education establishment is a major underlying factor in the growth of gullibility among the ostensibly well-educated, there are other dynamics at play as well.

Four generations of Americans have been born since this nation experienced a catastrophic national crisis and attendant hardships. Over those eighty years of unprecedented peace and prosperity, a mindset of “it could never happen here,” coupled with “the omnipotent entity known as government will take care of any problems” took root among the upper classes. This overall viewpoint essentially replaced a belief in God with a reliance on man and his institutions.

Thus, when combined with an inculcated inability to reason or generate an original thought, far too many have willingly accepted any inane pronouncement or machination proffered by the Marxists in the ruling class. Mindlessly believing and acting on these proclamations has revealed the herd mentality of the vacuous among the elitists.

In 2020, these same overwrought upper-class dupes were single-mindedly determined to oust supervillain Donald Trump by any means fair or foul. They, with premeditation, unconstitutionally and fraudulently changed election laws in numerous states, exploited mail-in ballots and ballot harvesting, and had thousands of “mules” stuff ballots in drop-off boxes. They, thus, succeeded in installing Joe Biden as president. However, thanks to their inability to reason and think independently, they gullibly believed that once Trump was removed from office America would return to their version of normal with a “moderate” Joe Biden they could control.

But that did not happen. The Marxists, through political blackmail, control and manipulate Joe Biden and his Administration. They dominate the dissemination of ideas through the universities and news through the corporate media. Further, the violent tactics of their militant arms, Antifa and Black Lives Matter, have been tacitly legitimized by the quiescence of the American Elites. Thus, they will never agree to any form of the liberalism that much of the current elites claim to espouse.

The Marxists cannot and will not acquiesce to any attempt at appeasement or compromise. The true believers in the media and the universities have confirmed this mindset, as the ostracization of Bari Weiss and James Bennet from The New York Times for being insufficiently obeisant to current Marxist dogma verifies. Media figures initially and foolishly seeking to accommodate and placate their Marxist colleagues rarely succeed. The examples of similar blacklisting of professors and academics who did not 100% toe the party line while seeking to appease their Marxist colleagues or students are legion.

The only way to defeat the Marxists is through an unarmed revolution that focuses on permanently marginalizing their abettors, the American Elites. The opening salvo of this revolution is to not vote for anyone running as a Democrat in 2022, regardless of the office. The second stage is to purge any elite-affiliated elected Republican over the next two years through the primary process while the America First Movement fully takes over the Republican Party and the Democrat party is left in shambles with no viable elitist or Marxist candidates.

 

[marsh]

DANGER: 20 Terrorists Caught Crossing Southern Border Last Month Alone

As reported here yesterday, the illegal immigration crisis is raging out of control, hitting a historic high for the fiscal year ending in September as

theamericantribune.com

DANGER: 20 Terrorists Caught Crossing Southern Border Last Month Alone​

By WillOctober 25, 2022

As reported here yesterday, the illegal immigration crisis is raging out of control, hitting a historic high for the fiscal year ending in September as millions of illegals rushed across the border and Team Brandon mumbled more about “equity” or other woke ideas than keeping America safe. As we reported:

In fact, the number of illegal immigrants that broke across the southern border in fiscal year 2022 and were stopped by CBP (border encounters) topped 2.76 million! (The exact number was 2,766,582 encounters), That massive number broke the previous record by a whopping 1 million, according to Customs and Border Protection data. So Biden gets the dubious honor of being the president with the worst border situation ever.

And while the year was horrible, the month of September was pretty bad too.

The CBP statement on the month reported as much, admitting that 15% more illegals crossed in September than August. In its words:

“The number of unique individuals encountered nationwide in September 2022 was 182,704, a 15 percent increase in the number of unique enforcement encounters over the prior month, driven largely by an increased number of asylum seekers fleeing authoritarian regimes in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua.”

Among those nearly 200,000 illegals were 20 terrorists, bringing the total number of terrorists caught at the border in the fiscal year of 2022 nearly 100. Fox News Digital reported on that horrifying aspect of the CBP report, saying:
CBP uploaded the border numbers on Friday night in what was the highest number of encounters during the month of September in Department of Homeland Security history.

CBP’s numbers also show that there were 20 known or suspected terrorists arrested at the southern border in September, bringing the total terror watchlist arrests at the border for the fiscal year 2022 to 98. The number of terror watchlist arrests at the border for the last five years combined was 26

 

[marsh]

Energy Customers Should Pray for Global Warming This Winter

EIA forecasts that average U.S. household spending will increase for all heating fuels this winter, including gas (28%), oil (27%), electricity (10%), propane

www.americaoutloud.com

Energy Customers Should Pray for Global Warming This Winter

by Larry Bell | Oct 25, 2022 | Energy, Global, Politics

The Biden administration and Democrat Party can expect to feel a chilling climate of self-inflicted energy-price-driven inflation following the November elections.

A recent report released by the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) warns that American household heating bills will increase dramatically this winter as consequence of soaring natural gas prices due to self-inflicted supply shortages, which are compounded by coal plant shutdowns that have increased U.S. and global demand.

EIA forecasts that average U.S. household spending will increase for all heating fuels this winter (October through March), including natural gas (28%), heating oil (27%), electricity (10%), and propane (5%).

Whereas anti-fossil fuel Democrats are pushing for electric furnaces or heat pumps (which aren’t very efficient in colder climates), EIA says that households with gas-fired furnaces will spend about 31% less.

As noted in The Wall Street Journal, Northeasterners who use oil for heating will spend on average $2,354 this winter, up about double from $1,212 two years ago.

And despite price hikes, folks with gas furnaces will spend only about $1,094.

Nevertheless, Democrats in New York are blocking pipelines that would transport natural gas from Appalachia that are not only impacting neighboring states, but also forcing New England to import more liquefied natural gas (LNG) from overseas, which costs multiples more than domestic gas.

Importing LNG when America was so recently a profitable net exported makes no sense whatsoever, especially at a time when there is an urgent global shortage made worse by Western Europe’s Green Party obsessions that have made them highly vulnerable to dependence upon Russia for more than a half of their natural gas and about one-third of their oil.

So dire is Germany’s condition, that the government has agreed to nationalize the country’s biggest natural gas importer, Uniper, which has already virtually declared a shortage emergency after being forced to withdraw fuel from its own storage sites to replace cutbacks in Russia deliveries.

Having eviscerated their own fossil and nuclear industries to become dependent on Russian oil and natural gas, Europe faces a stiff challenge in socking away enough to get through next winter while there is time to do so.

Earlier this month, the International Energy Agency (IEA) confirmed that “Europe’s security of gas supply is facing unprecedented risk as Russia intensifies its use of natural gas supplies as a political weapon,” and that “The possibility of a complete cut-off in Russian gas deliveries cannot be dismissed ahead of the 2022/23 heating season — when the European gas system is at its most vulnerable.”

Following an unhappy Democrat October election surprise from abroad, OPEC+, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its Russia-led allies, resisted Biden White House pleadings to produce more oil and did exactly the opposite, voting to reduce production by two million barrels daily.

As reported in the Wall Street Journal, Brent crude immediately rose back more than 2% above $93 a barrel, and OPEC+ which produces more than half of the world’s crude oil seems to want the price to go above $100.

Neil Beveridge, a senior energy analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, predicts that these OPEC+ cuts, combined with growing demand from China as its economy emerges from pandemic lockdowns, will lead to new shortfalls in oil supply that could push crude prices back to $120 a barrel by the end of 2023.

Desperate to show the public that it is doing something ahead of next month’s elections – short of ending its war on fossil fuels of course — the Biden White House is draining our U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) which was instead intended for non-political energy emergencies.

The SPR, which President Biden has already depleted by more than 40%, has previously only been used for three critical occasions: Operation Desert Storm in 1991 (17.3 million barrels), Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (20.8 million), and the Libya oil disruptions in 2011 (30.6 million).

The Administration first started tapping the SPR last fall to combat rising gas prices.

With the alarm clock ticking ahead of a Nov. 8 showdown, it now plans to go ahead and sell the last roughly 15 million of 180 million barrels they had authorized for sale back in March.

The White House claims that it plans to buy crude from international markets to refill the SPR — now down to the lowest level since 1985 — when prices are again at or below about $67-$72 per barrel.

Expect to see a cold day in hades before that happens so long as Democrats control Congress.

 

[marsh]

Escobar: The 'War Of Terror' May Be About To Hit Europe | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Escobar: The 'War Of Terror' May Be About To Hit Europe

TUESDAY, OCT 25, 2022 - 11:00 PM
Authored by Pepe Escobar,

Never underestimate a wounded and decaying Empire collapsing in real time...

Imperial functionaries, even in a “diplomatic” capacity, continue to brazenly declare that their exceptionalist control over the world is mandatory.

If that’s not the case, competitors may emerge and steal the limelight – monopolized by US oligarchies. That, of course, is absolute anathema.

The imperial modus operandi against geopolitical and geoeconomic competitors remains the same: avalanche of sanctions, embargos, economic blockades, protectionist measures, cancel culture, military uptick in neighboring nations, and assorted threats. But most of all, warmongering rhetoric – currently elevated to fever pitch.

The hegemon may be “transparent” at least in this domain because it still controls a massive international network of institutions, financial bodies, politicos, CEOs, propaganda agencies and the pop culture industry. Hence this supposed invulnerability breeding insolence.

Panic in the “garden”​

The blowing up of Nord Stream (NS) and Nord Stream 2 (NS2) – everybody knows who did it, but the suspect cannot be named – took to the next level the two-pronged imperial project of cutting off cheap Russian energy from Europe and destroying the German economy.

From the imperial perspective, the ideal subplot is the emergence of a US-controlled Intermarium – from the Baltic and the Adriatic to the Black Sea – led by Poland, exercising some sort of new hegemony in Europe, on the heels of the Three Seas Initiative.

But as it stands, that remains a wet dream.

On the dodgy “investigation” of what really happened to NS and NS2, Sweden was cast as The Cleaner, as if this was a sequel of Quentin Tarantino’s crime thriller Pulp Fiction.

That’s why the results of the “investigation” cannot be shared with Russia. The Cleaner was there to erase any incriminating evidence.

As for the Germans, they willingly accepted the role of patsies. Berlin claimed it was sabotage, but would not dare to say by whom.

This is actually as sinister as it gets, because Sweden, Denmark and Germany, and the whole EU, know that if you really confront the Empire, in public, the Empire will strike back, manufacturing a war on European soil. This is about fear – and not fear of Russia.

The Empire simply cannot afford to lose the “garden.” And the “garden” elites with an IQ over room temperature know they are dealing with a psychopathic serial killer entity which simply cannot be appeased.

Meanwhile, the arrival of General Winter in Europe portends a socio-economic descent into a maelstrom of darkness – unimaginable only a few months ago in the supposedly “garden” of humanity, so far away from the rumbles across the “jungle.”

Well, from now on barbarism begins at home. And Europeans should thank the American “ally” for it, skillfully manipulating fearful, vassalized EU elites.

Way more dangerous though is a specter that very few are able to identify: the imminent Syrianization of Europe. That will be a direct consequence of the NATO debacle in Ukraine.

From an imperial perspective, the prospects in the Ukrainian battlefield are gloomy. Russia’s Special Military Operation (SMO) has seamlessly morphed into a Counter-Terror Operation (CTO): Moscow now openly characterizes Kiev as a terrorist regime.

The pain dial is incrementally going up, with surgical strikes against Ukrainian power/electricity infrastructure about to totally cripple Kiev’s economy and its military. And by December, there’s the arrival on the front lines and in the rear of a properly trained and highly motivated partial mobilization contingent.

The only question concerns the timetable. Moscow is now in the process of slowly but surely decapitating the Kiev proxy, and ultimately smashing NATO “unity.”

The process of torturing the EU economy is relentless. And the real world outside of the collective West – the Global South – is with Russia, from Africa and Latin America to West Asia and even sections of the EU.

It is Moscow – and significantly not Beijing – that is tearing apart the hegemon-coined “rules-based international order,” supported by its natural resources, the provision of food and reliable security.

And in coordination with China, Iran and major Eurasian players, Russia is working to eventually decommission all those US-controlled international organizations – as the Global South becomes virtually immune to the spread of NATO psyops.

The Syrianization of Europe​

In the Ukrainian battlefield, NATO’s crusade against Russia is doomed – even as in several nodes as much as 80 percent of the fighting forces feature NATO personnel. Wunderwaffen such as HIMARS are few and far between. And depending on the result of the US mid-term elections, weaponization will dry out in 2023.

Ukraine, by the spring of 2023, may be reduced to no more than an impoverished, rump black hole. The imperial Plan A remains Afghanization: to operate an army of mercenaries capable of targeted destabilization and or/terrorist incursions into the Russian Federation.

In parallel, Europe is peppered with American military bases.
All those bases may play the role of major terror bases – very much like in Syria, in al-Tanf and the Eastern Euphrates. The US lost the long proxy war in Syria – where it instrumentalized jihadis – but still has not been expelled.

In this process of Syrianization of Europe, US military bases may become ideal centers to regiment and/or “train” squads of Eastern Europe émigrés, whose only job opportunity, apart from the drug business and organ trafficking, will be as – what else – imperial mercenaries, fighting whatever focus of civil disobedience emerges across an impoverished EU.

It goes without saying that this New Model Army will be fully sanctioned by the Brussels EUrocracy – which is merely the public relations arm of NATO.

A de-industrialized EU enmeshed into several layers of toxic intra-war, where NATO plays its time-tested role of Robocop, is the perfect Mad Max scenario juxtaposed to what would be, at least in the reveries of American Straussians/neo-cons, an island of prosperity: the US economy, the ideal destination for Global Capital, including European Capital.

The Empire will “lose” its pet project, Ukraine. But it will never accept losing the European “garden.”

 

[marsh]

The EU Is Driving 'Polexit' | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

The EU Is Driving 'Polexit'​

WEDNESDAY, OCT 26, 2022 - 12:30 AM
Authored by Rafał Woś via Remix News,

Thanks to the work of Brussels and Berlin in alienating Poles from the EU, the topic of Polexit is no longer taboo...

It now looks certain that the money from the EU Recovery Fund owed to Poland will not arrive in Warsaw before the 2023 parliamentary elections.

This dramatic move is a purely political decision taken in Brussels and Berlin to “starve” the unruly Poles.

Now, there are leaks in the media that the remaining EU funds owed to Poland will also be frozen. This is no surprise given that the EU establishment has abandoned any pretense of even-handedness. It is logical that Brussels brings out all available weapons against the hated conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government.

The objective is to make Poles vote the right way and choose the right government. It is meddling in the internal and sovereign affairs of a member state, which has little to do with democracy.

This is not in the spirit of EU treaties and founding principles. Principles such as subsidiarity and the notion of a Europe of equal and sovereign member states — a voluntary union that pools rather than takes away sovereignty.

Now, the EU seems to be about breaking rebellious provinces and making them accept central decision-making authority.

This is not the first time this has happened. The same was done to the Syriza government in Greece in 2015. It was forced to adopt policies imposed by the troika of the European Commission, International Monetary Fund, and European Central Bank. A democratic mandate was overturned in the name of democracy. It would all be funny if it was not so serious.

European institutions have also done this to Italy, changing governments to ones that followed its strictures. Pressure was also applied to Ireland, Portugal, and Spain. Now, it is Poland’s and Hungary’s turn.

The EU establishment is determined to avoid any change to the way it does things. It has learned nothing from the financial crisis of 2008, the euro crisis, Brexit, or the total collapse of its energy policy as a result of the war in Ukraine. They do not welcome calls for reform that would make them share power. When that kind of challenge arises, they react sharply, calling opponents extremists and anti-Europeans who must be stopped.

The EU elites are always right and never at fault for anything.

We cannot rule out that they will succeed in breaking Poland in the same way as they broke Athens and Rome. But if they do, it will not be without consequences.

Polexit could become a self-fulfilling prophecy as the people turn against the EU or as the EU establishment effectively pushes Poland out of the EU. The groundwork for this is being laid before our very eyes.

 

[marsh]

In Britain, Free Markets Are Dead | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

In Britain, Free Markets Are Dead​

WEDNESDAY, OCT 26, 2022 - 02:00 AM
Authored by Alasdair Macleod via GoldMoney.com,

The British government’s desperate dash towards free markets has failed, badly bungled. The establishment in Whitehall and Westminster is back and realigned with the international government consensus. The socialist wealth redistributors, the interventionists, and the anti-Brexit Remainers now formulate government policy. In Britain, free markets are dead.

Citizens of other western nations should take note of these developments. The replacement of Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor of the Exchequer by Jeremy Hunt, an establishment man and deemed to be a safe pair of hands, is set to guarantee the continuing authority of the state over its electors. The underlying problem, that the electorate can no longer afford its government, is lost in the noise.

We must abandon any hope of a reversal of rapacious government policies that continually strip electors of their freedom and personal wealth. With a rapidly approaching financial crisis, which is now widely expected, the UK government will double down on its anti-market, anti-sound money policies. We can expect more price subsidies and price controls — paid for, of course, by yet more currency debasement.

It’s not just the UK. All advanced economies are approaching an endpoint in their governments’ anti-market policies. The global status quo can now only be challenged by markets. Rising interest rates, driven by collapsing purchasing powers of the major fiat currencies are bringing on that challenge, triggering a global financial and currency crisis.

The destiny of financial markets is already becoming evident, with asset values in an intractable decline. The contraction of OTC derivative markets is in its earliest stages, a factor of which the public is generally unaware, but will have enormous consequences. Bank credit for the non-financial sector is in the firing line as well, leading with certainty to a slump in global GDP. And we can be sure that policymakers everywhere will do their utmost to rescue the failing system by new rounds of quantitative easing.

Welcome to an outlook dominated by the accumulated errors of the global establishment, all set to hit us at the same time. As for the return to free markets? Not until considerable volumes of political and intellectual water have flowed under the bridge.

An obituary for free markets
After a long illness, the death last Friday of free markets was announced in London. Market freedom had been increasingly suppressed since the First World War. In its comatose state, the last flicker of life was extinguished by the sacking of the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, and the reversal of bungled policies designed to liberate the British economy from increasing state control. The Prime Minister might be be ousted as well — possibly even before the ink dries in this article.

There can be no doubt of the fate of this one last attempt at a return to free markets. The blob killed it off — an apt term for the amorphous Westminster (politicians) and Whitehall (civil service) establishment that tried to prevent Brexit. What was particularly striking was the collective attitude of the Conservative Parliamentary Party, which is now exposed as full-on socialistic in supporting tax redistribution from the haves and their businesses to the have-nots, and entirely interventionist in their anti-market policies. The legacy of Margaret Thatcher is long gone.

Whether Liz Truss survives this coup is now immaterial to the course of government. The blob would prefer to get rid of her so that it can pursue unfettered its agenda of increasing the state’s control over the people, closer integration with European governments, and even a reversal of Brexit. In the absence of unexpected developments, individual freedom only remains to be finally buried.

This sad outcome is enough to turn frustrated libertarians into anarchists, wishing for a collapse of the whole rotten system — the sooner the better. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the increasing progression of statist control and suppression of free markets has nearly run its course. A financial crisis of humungous proportions is lurking in the wings, which in this analyst’s opinion has a fair chance of wiping out all rapacious states’ income entirely by collapsing their fiat currencies. For with their authoritarianism, they have bred economic and catallactic ignorance, which will certainly lead to their destruction.

As Ludwig von Mises put it in an essay entitled A Critique of Interventionism written in 1930,

“Only the naive inflationists could believe that government could enrich mankind through fiat money. Government cannot create anything; its orders cannot even evict anything from the world of reality, but they can evict from the world of the permissible. Government cannot make man richer, but it can make him poorer. “​

Besides his close attention to valid economic theory, the authority for Mises’ thesis came from his experience in the post-war years, when he witnessed at first-hand the economics and politics of the Austrian hyperinflation, closely followed by that of Germany. In the century since, we have forgotten the lesson. So too, it appears, have the Austrian and German people whose forebears suffered catastrophic destruction of their wealth. Furthermore, it is almost certain that when the currency collapse becomes fact will we be ignorant of the follow-on consequences so vividly described in Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom. It chronicled the likely political developments that follow a government’s impoverishment of the masses by inflation.

But we can only consider one thing at a time. Borne out of statist ignorance and intellectual arrogance, today’s disregard by governments for the rights and individual freedoms of their peoples is responsible for the economic and catallactic crisis now before us. Our political leaders, hiding their coordinated attack on everyone’s freedom, are beginning to realise that their tenure is ending in crisis. Like those of a car whose brakes have suddenly failed while dashing downhill, the levers of power no longer function.

Arranging a reset is increasingly talked about. The current bankrupt system is expected to be replaced with another, allowing the political and bureaucratic classes to retain their power and control. In their new reset, they are even planning to take total control of bank credit away from commercial banks by the introduction of central bank digital currencies. They say a CBDC will be used to control and direct our spending for greater economic effect. Those of us in the authorities’ favour will get more state credit, while those who are not, such as those suspected of tax evasion, will be denied it. Some say we will be chipped like dogs and traced through our actions. If this seems extreme, these plans are echoed by the World Economic Forum, one of which’s acolytes told us we will own nothing and be happy.

We must dismiss these utopian fantasies of socialising interventionist politicians seeking to jump ship from their current failing system. They lack the ideological pull of Marxism, required to persuade the intelligentsia and the middle classes. They will never overcome nationalism, never get their long-suffering populaces to support them. Instead, they only inspire conspiracy theories.

The current political system mixes socialist intentions with interventionist policies. But as policies they differ distinctly. Socialism seeks to achieve its ends by seizing command of the factors of production: that’s what Marx intended. But western governments currently do not intend to nationalise swathes of industry. Instead, they wish to regulate them, leaving possession of property in private hands. It is interventionism that has killed off free markets.

The long road to ultimate failure
Particularly since covid lockdowns, it has become fashionable for politicians to tell us to “follow the science”. But what if the science is flawed? What if the politicians have selected a theory that suits them, rather than having properly considered its validity? This is what has happened in the field of economics, starting with interventionist policies.

The history of these errors is as long as ruling classes have existed. In its modern form it started in America in the 1920s when the Fed began to manage credit, culminating in the disastrous boom and bust of 1927—1932. While the Fed was manipulating credit, as Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover was trying to manipulate the economy. He became the first truly interventionist president, taking over from a laissez-faire Calvin Coolidge. In 1928, Coolidge is reputed to have said of Hoover, “That man has offered me unsolicited advice for the last six years, all of it bad.”

Hoover’s interventionist policies were so bad that he was thrown out in a 1932 landslide win by Franklin Roosevelt, who merely doubled down on Hoover’s economic intervention. The depression was prolonged as the process of creative destruction, the redistribution of capital to more productive means, was obstructed. This was despite a 40% devaluation of the dollar in 1934, which by countering declining prices was intended to be a proto-Keynesian stimulus.

Looking at the economic situation from a statist viewpoint, the evidence was that despite pulling on all the levers of power, the depression continued. At that point, if not before, politicians turn to advisors. Naturally, as a politician you pick advisors who agree with your basic premise of interventionism. And if you intervene, you need to be able to measure outcomes. This gave birth to econometrics during the 1930s depression, which sought to measure the unmeasurable. All that was then needed was a credible economic argument, and that was provided by Keynes.

The son of a university professor at Cambridge, John Maynard Keynes was a noted author on economics. He was a member of the fashionable Bloomsbury set and pursued a successful career in the UK’s Treasury ministry as a leading economic adviser. But his intellectual discipline was mathematics. As a mathematician and at the heart of the establishment, it would be understandable for him to seek a new mathematics-based way to promote the role of the state in economic affairs. The task he set for himself was to overturn the rationale and supremacy of free markets, by replacing the theory of the division of labour embodied in Say’s law. Macroeconomics was created, which somehow would soar above the petty prejudices of savers and entrepreneurs. This is what his General Theory, published in 1936 was all about.

As events have now proved, Keynes’s new mathematically based macroeconomic science was badly flawed. Authorised by Keynes, governments pull their new levers of economic power to create short-term benefits, resulting in medium- and longer-term crises. No matter: with governments having assumed control of education, the new, mathematical Keynesian economics was promoted to the exclusion of the classical, which few state-educated economists believe is relevant today.

The error is to regard economics as a natural science, subject to the laws of mathematics; and not a human science, having its roots in psychology. And every time this misconception is challenged by markets, the statist answer is to impose more restrictions on humanity. In monetary policy, the first stage was the gradual and then final removal of the people’s money, legally that is gold, from any role in state-controlled currency and credit. This allowed a gradual, and then accelerating drift away from sound monetary policies, when government budgets were entirely funded through taxation, to an increasing (and accelerating) element of state finances funded through monetary inflation. And it’s not just domestic spending: there is the funding of expensive military ventures abroad. But by a combination of reallocating tax revenues notionally collected for other priorities and through funding by inflationary means, foreign policies can be pursued that would not otherwise be permitted by taxpayers in a true democracy.

The blob, the establishment that controls governments, now enforces its authority through fear of the consequences of any divergence from its groupthink. The amorphous blob’s control extends to international cooperation with similar statist organisations. G20 meetings are the ultimate in groupthink synchronisation, where meetings between leaders, as well as subsidiary meetings between finance ministers and central bankers, coordinate mutually agreed state control on the world stage. Any leader who does not conform to the script comes in for condemnation.

This was the fate faced by Liz Truss and her then chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng. The IMF quickly denounced their break for free markets and favour for Hayekian policies. Joe Biden was dismissive, breaking the taboo not to comment on another country’s economic policies. The Archbishop of Canterbury weighed in with his establishment view. And suddenly, we find that the majority of Conservative MPs, fearing for the loss of their seats, have overwhelmingly rejected this attempt to return to free markets.

We can point out that liberty is not collective, but personal. All liberty is individual liberty, as President Coolidge once said. But today, this truism is deeply buried. The political reality is that we have ventured down the rabbit hole of interventionism too far to turn back without facing serious economic consequences. Statist desires for dominance over free markets have led to self-serving beliefs, a pig-on-pork error upon error, and increasingly intense efforts to maintain control. It is not just Britain; it is every western nation that is on a common path leading inexorably towards a financial version of mutually assured destruction.

The reversion to the status quo ante
The hurriedly appointed new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, has reversed nearly all of Kwarteng’s tax cut proposals. His get-out clause was to reassure markets. And indeed, gilt yields initially fell sharply and sterling rallied. For the very short-term at least, it was estimated to have saved the government £20bn in interest costs, assuming the initial 0.4% fall in the yield on the 10-year gilt holds.

This is not so much evidence that the markets are right, but simply confirms that the investment world is dominated by Keynesian actors who see risk in that context. But they cannot ignore a new trend of rising interest rates and the withdrawal of commercial bank credit, driving financial assets into an intractable bear market. Bond investors are now acutely fearful of anything that disrupts their rosy assumptions: hence their panicked reaction to Kwarteng’s budget and their relief at its reversal by Hunt.


Part 1 of 2

 

[marsh]

Part 2 of 2

Putting these short-term sentiments aside, what Hunt is doing is returning to the status quo ante, the continuing drift into higher taxation and increasing government spending as a proportion of the total economy. In his promises to MPs, we have heard similar statements from previous Chancellors time and again:

“We are a country that funds our promises and pays our debts and when that is questioned, as it has been, this Government will take the difficult decisions necessary to ensure there is trust and confidence in our national finances. That means decisions of eye-watering difficulty.”

It is meaningless claptrap. It should be noted that “funding our promises and paying our debts” are achieved by debauching the currency. And the use of “difficult” as an adjective has become a cliché repeatedly deployed by all government ministers, depriving the word of its meaning.

Hunt’s statement was followed by a Treasury statement that every ministry would be instructed to find savings in their spending, and that health and defence would not be exempt. When have we not heard that before? Hunt also announced the establishment of a new economic advisory council populated with independent economists. We can be sure that if any appointee is not a Keynesian — a monetarist for example — he or she is bound to be outnumbered, making his or her dissentions irrelevant. We can be certain that at the Treasury, in line with the Bank of England, a common Keynesian groupthink will prevail.

These are the actions of a so-called competent establishment man, a Remainer who called for a second referendum to reverse Brexit. As a supposedly safe pair of hands, he is bound to get on well with that other appointee as a safe pair of hands, Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England. Between them, they are likely to ensure the establishment view prevails unchallenged, and any drift towards free markets is strictly curtailed.

The economic background to Hunt’s U-turn is beyond any government’s control, because driven by rising prices and rising interest rates, bank credit is now contracting globally and will continue to undermine not just financial asset values, but bank lending to non-financial actors as well.

Hunt’s policy reversal is short-termism, realigning with the economic and monetary policies of other governments in Europe and North America. The stranglehold on private sector activity will continue to intensify. Britain is condemned to sink along with its international peers into financial depression, a full-blown production slump, depression levels of unemployment, and assuming the political imperative to prevent all this by inflationary funding prevails, a final destruction of the currency.

It may not have been much different if Kwarteng’s budget had stood. But at least it was worth a try.

Rising interest rates are set to collapse the establishment
While interest rates were in long-term decline, the consequences of increasing state dominance appeared benign. Put crudely, so long as falling interest rates were driving financial asset values ever higher, the global investment community happily turned a blind eye to the inevitable consequences of Keynesian macroeconomics. Investors were content to buy government debt in the knowledge that values were underwritten by monetary policy.

Now that the inflationary consequences have finally arrived in the form of consumer and producer prices rising out of control, the spell of zero and negative interest rates has been shattered, and investors face growing losses and a widespread loss of confidence in the future.

Banks enter a phase of rising interest rates and falling asset values with overleveraged balance sheets. Bank directors are duty-bound to protect their shareholders from these changed circumstances. They have started to do so by reducing their exposure to financial assets, notably including bonds and collateralised loan obligations. They have also reduced their exposure to margin accounts used by speculators to leverage gains.

We are beginning to see activity in the $600 trillion mountain of OTC derivatives being curtailed. Troubled banks, such as Credit Suisse, are axing trading desks, and as part of its restructuring said to be looking to sell its structured products unit. Though it is in its early stages, the withdrawal of OTC paper supply will have profound effects on markets and commodities. Market participants will have to adapt to other strategies for hedging risk. And the removal of paper supply of energy and commodities will divert demand into physical stocks, driving prices yet higher. Failure to meet margin calls will become a serious problem.

So far, non-financial businesses, Main Street as opposed to Wall Street, have generally found that their bankers are reluctant to extend loan and overdraft facilities. But the banks are so highly leveraged, particularly in Europe, Japan, and Britain, that the contraction of bank credit is bound to undermine their GDPs. Other commercial banking networks less leveraged are bound to follow.

The contraction of GDP is because commercial bank credit in the form of customer deposits settles nearly all transaction payments recorded in GDP, with the exception of a relatively minor proportion of payments settled in banknotes — which for our purposes can be ignored. When bank credit deployed in GDP contracts, GDP itself contracts as well. It is the contraction of bank credit which drives the fall in GDP, not a reluctance of economic actors to act. Irrespective of economic and monetary policies, contraction of bank credit is evidenced in a slump. It becomes a self-fulfilling event, with bankers increasingly acting as a cohort.

The initial rise in interest rates currently experienced exposes malinvestments, and bankers’ commercial information informs them of deteriorating lending conditions. Therefore, they are further discouraged to extend loan finance and will seek to liquidate loans to businesses generally. What starts off as a prudent policy of risk containment rapidly degenerates into a bankers’ panic, driven by fear of losing all shareholders’ capital. And the higher the balance sheet leverage, the greater is the fear.

Faced with rapidly contracting bank credit, the establishment blobs around the world are sure to coordinate their actions in an attempt to save market values and offset contracting GDP. With a high degree of confidence, we can forecast that they will reintroduce quantitative easing, offer banks loan guarantees, rescue failing banks and double down on supressing interest rates. They are already managing prices and subsidising production in energy, actions likely to be extended to other consumer products. They might even try to suppress ownership of gold. In short, they will do whatever it takes for the financial and non-financial status quo to survive.

Government establishments need to take these actions for their own survival. The common factor in these policies will be an accelerating debasement of government-issued fiat currencies. It is a trend already apparent. Sterling, the euro, the yen, and China’s yuan are all sliding against the world’s reserve currency, the dollar.

But the dollar’s strength is an illusion because its debasement is happening too. The Fed’s intention to quantitative tighten will shortly be abandoned: after all, these are hardly the conditions for it to contract credit. Instead, along with the other major central banks, the Fed will seek to replace contracting commercial bank credit with expanding central bank credit and provide support for collapsing bond markets. And when observers see the Fed coordinating its policies with the other central banks, its safe haven status as the world’s reserve currency will be exposed for what it truly is — just another fiat currency facing infinite inflation.

After the currency apocalypse
Following the collapse of fiat currencies, will libertarianism arise from its grave? The politics suggest that is unlikely, but there are positive outcomes. Even if a currency loses almost its entire utility as a medium of exchange, it will still be useful as a mechanism for distributing its replacement. Tying it however tenuously to legal money, which today is only physical gold, can be expected to stabilise the situation. Subsequent economic and monetary policies will then determine whether a replacement currency will last.

The global groupthink that currently coordinates and drives economic and monetary policies will not survive a currency collapse. Nor, it can be said, will the Keynesian economic beliefs which got us into this mess. The evidence from eighteenth century France, which experienced the collapse of John Law’s livre in 1720, is that his proto-Keynesianism was discredited. And it wasn’t until the French revolution in 1789 that the new revolutionary government, against widespread doubts in the French Parliament, resorted to issuing assignats to address the revolutionary state’s imminent bankruptcy. They quickly became worthless.

As was demonstrated in both Germany in 1923 and Hong Kong after the Japanese military yen collapsed, the only use for a discredited currency is to facilitate the public distribution of a replacement. Plucking figures out of the air, we might see a million fiat currency units refixed to an ounce of gold. Remembering that the true legal position is that gold is money and currency no more than credit, the task is to turn a currency into a sound money substitute. But it is likely that that will only happen as a last resort when the monetary authorities have no other option.

Initially, the public will want any scheme to be successful. On 15 November 1923, a combination of a notional fix of one trillion German reichsmarks to one rentenmark, backed by a promise that the quantity of rentenmark would be strictly limited, was sufficient to stabilise the currency situation. But there is no guarantee that statist attempts to restore confidence in the currency will work today. A key difference from 1923 Germany is in the level of mandated state commitments to wealth redistribution and intervention. That must be abolished by any government wanting a new currency regime to stick.

Instead, the inflationists might be tempted to merely lop noughts of the currency, as Turkey did with the new lira replacing a million old lira in January 2005. At that time, Turkey could still raise funds in foreign currencies despite its own currency sliding. But Turkey’s monetary situation was entirely different from the one we now face, where every major western currency faces a groupthink coordinated collapse.

We should note two things about a global currency reset. The first is that despite current beliefs that they will be a function of government, it will be brought about by markets reflecting the actions of ordinary people. Therefore, government abuse of currencies will be firmly rejected. Secondly, it must be admitted that some nations will do a better job of stabilising their currencies than others. And some countries will resort to intensive nationalism, a kneejerk reaction as chronicled in Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom.

By destroying the ability of nations to finance wars by inflationary means, perhaps America and others will alter their foreign policies to stop interfering in business which is not theirs.

Above all, fiat currencies facilitate wars.

Without ruling out Hayek’s warning, on balance the demise of fiat currencies can be expected to contribute to a more peaceful world.

And as for free markets rising Phoenix-like from the ashes of fiat currency destruction — that cannot be taken for granted. It is far too early to consider a resurrection of practical economics, sound money, or economic progress based on free markets.

 

[marsh]

Who's Freezing In Europe This Winter Due To Lack Of Money | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Who's Freezing In Europe This Winter Due To Lack Of Money

WEDNESDAY, OCT 26, 2022 - 03:55 AM

Even before the outbreak of war in Ukraine and subsequent energy crisis in Europe, Germany's Federal Statistics Office estimated that 2.6 million people in the country could not adequately heat their homes in 2021, for financial reasons.

But, as Statista's Martin Armstrong notes, looking across the EU though, Germany wasn't even close to the worst affected country.

People living alone and those in single-parent households are affected more often than average.



Infographic: Freezing in Winter Due to Lack of Money | Statista

You will find more infographics at Statista

On average, around seven percent of the EU population are too poor to heat their homes properly...

This problem is particularly pronounced in Bulgaria, where almost a quarter of the population is struggling.

At the other end of the spectrum is Finland, where only 1.3 percent have to freeze due to a lack of money.

While significantly fewer people were affected there in 2021 than in the previous year (9 percent), an increase is expected again in 2022 in view of the energy crisis resulting from the Russian attack on Ukraine.

 

[marsh]

World "Still Needs Russian Oil To Flow" Amid "First Truly Global Energy Crisis"; IEA Chief Warns | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

World "Still Needs Russian Oil To Flow" Amid "First Truly Global Energy Crisis"; IEA Chief Warns

WEDNESDAY, OCT 26, 2022 - 04:20 AM
Authored by Irina Slav via OilPrice.com,

“The world is in the middle of the first truly global energy crisis,” the executive director of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, said today in Singapore.

IEA projections show global oil consumption growing by 1.7 million barrels a day in 2023. Russian crude will be needed to bridge the gap between demand and supply, Birol said.

As Reuters reports, a U.S. Treasury official told Reuters last week that it is not unreasonable to believe that up to 80% to 90% of Russian oil will continue to flow outside the price cap mechanism if Moscow seeks to flout it.

"I think this is good because the world still needs Russian oil to flow into the market for now. An 80%-90% is good and encouraging level in order to meet the demand," Birol said.

The official went on to warn that natural gas and LNG markets would tighten further in 2023, with only 20 million tons of new liquefaction capacity scheduled to come online in that year, Reuters reported.

Speaking at the Singapore International Energy Week, the head of the IEA also said that while supply remains tight, demand for gas will continue to be strong, especially in Europe and possibly in China.

Birol’s warning comes amid expectations that this winter will not be the toughest for Europe.

Next winter is believed to be potentially much worse because, during the first half of this year, the EU could stock up on Russian pipeline gas, which is unlikely to come back next year, leaving the EU with a supply gap that other suppliers would be hard-pressed to fill.

Meanwhile, as many as 60 LNG tankers have turned into floating storage off European coasts as there is not enough regasification capacity on the continent to unload the cargo.

This, CNBC reports, is delaying some of the tankers’ return to the Gulf Coast to reload, and pushes gas inventories higher, Andrew Lipow from Lipow Oil Associates told the network.

“The wave of LNG tankers has overwhelmed the ability of the European regasification facilities to unload the cargoes in a timely manner,” Lipow said.

The shortage of LNG import capacity is aggravating Europe’s gas supply crisis but there is no quick solution to this problem except floating regasification units that Germany, for one, is seeking to deploy by the end of the year.

Price is also challenging, with LNG a lot costlier than the pipeline gas Europe was used to. Earlier this month, French president Emmanuel Macron slammed the U.S. for setting double standards in this respect, pointing to how gas cost much less on the U.S. market than on the international LNG market.

 

[marsh]

The End Of The "Growth" Road | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

The End Of The "Growth" Road

Wednesday, OCT 26, 2022 - 05:20 AM
Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Everyone caught by surprise that the infinite road actually has an end will face a bewildering transition.

The End of the "Growth" Road is upon us, though the consensus continues to hold fast to the endearing fantasy of infinite expansion of consumption.

This fantasy has been supported for decades by the financial expansion of debt, which enabled more spending which pushed consumption, earnings, taxes, etc. higher.

All the financial games are fun but "growth" boils down to an expansion of material consumption: more copper mined and turned into wire which is turned into new wind turbines, housing, vehicles, appliances, etc.

There are three problems with the infinite expansion of consumption "growth" paradigm.

1. Everyone in developed economies already has everything. The "solution" is planned obsolescence and the obsessive worship of marketing, which seeks to manipulate "consumers" into buying stuff of marginal utility that they don't actually need with credit. This is sold as "fashion."

The reality is many consumer goods are of far lower quality than previous generations of products and services. Some of this can be attributed to lower quality control and the relentless pressure of globalization to lower costs, but it's also a systemic expansion of planned obsolescence: product cycles, low-quality components, designs intended to be unrepairable, etc. have all been optimized for the LandFill Economy where products that once lasted for decades are now dumped in the landfill after a few years of service. (As for recycling all the broken stuff--that's another endearing fantasy.)

Bright Panels, Dark Secrets: The Problem of Solar Waste: Generating photovoltaic electricity takes more than sweetness and sunshine.

The purchase of "fashionable" replacements and marketing gimmicks are the only real driver of "growth" in developed economies. Life is not being enhanced with better quality or utility; it's supposedly being enhanced by "new" stuff, the only benefit of which is that's it's "new." The claimed benefits are marginal.

2. Those who could actually use more stuff don't have any money. China's unprecedented development enabled 500 million people who previously didn't have the earnings or credit to buy vehicles, high-rise flats, etc. gained the income and credit to buy all the middle class goodies. This immense expansion of the global middle class boosted the global economy for 30 years.

But the rest of the developing world has a harder time duplicating the staggering flood of capital into China that funded its transition into "the workshop of the world." Global corporations might be able to sell snacks and soda and cheap mobile phones to developing economies, but vehicles and high-rise flats--those require expansions of earnings, capital flows and credit that cannot be generated by financial magic.

3. The easy-to-get materials needed to build another billion vehicles, high-rise flats, etc. have been extracted. While the faithful await new technological miracles that will keep the "growth" system expanding forever, those tasked with actually building the new techno-wonders are looking at real-world limits and costs. Read these two twitter threads for a taste of reality:

COPPER redux: I live near one of the largest copper mines on earth (Kennecott Utah Copper - KUC). I helped manage a smaller copper mine for 8 years. Observation: Wind/Solar/Battery Proponents and ESG bean-counters are completely out of touch with copper mining and production.​

Is "Renewable Energy" Renewable? Part 1: PV & Polysilicon​

​

The logic of "growth" is to consume more materials, not less. Consider the premier consumer product globally, the automobile. We're constantly told the value of advancements in safety and comfort are the drivers of higher vehicle prices, but the reality is the advances that mattered occurred in the 1970s. Since then, vehicles have become much larger and heavier, consuming more resources for marginal gains.



My 1977 Honda Accord (built 45 years ago) was a considerably different vehicle from the 1962 Dodge Dart my Mom drove. It had far better fuel efficiency, far more power per cubic inch of engine displacement, and was far safer and more comfortable. The same can be said for the modest-sized 4-cylinder Toyota pickups we drove for work.

The modern versions of this car and truck are far larger, heavier and consume far more resources than previous models. If we scrape away the marketing mind-tricks we would conclude the 45-year old vehicles were far more environmentally sound than the bloated modern versions, and the supposed advances (rear cameras, bluetooth sound systems, etc.) are either marginal or annoyances.

I looked through a Toyota Prius manual a few years ago. The majority of the thick book addressed the convoluted, complex sound system. Issues such as why the starter battery went dead if the car wasn't used constantly were unaddressed.

Electric vehicles and hybrids use far more of the planet's resources than simple ICE (internal combustion engines) vehicles, and they don't last as long as their heavy, costly batteries must be replaced long before the basic ICE vehicle reaches the end of its useful life. Only an inconsequential percentage of lithium-ion batteries are recycled, and regardless of rah-rah marketing claims to the contrary, this isn't going to change.

The environmentally sound approach would be to make vehicles that were radically lighter, less powerful, more efficient

and slower, vehicles that would get the equivalent of 200 miles per gallon of fuel (or electrical charge) and last 20 years without major overhauls, battery replacements, etc.

But the logic of marketing and debt expansion demands bigger, heavier, more complex, and more costly everything, and the replacement of everything sooner rather than later. Only if we consume and squander more real-world resources can we continue running the marketing / planned obsolescence / expanding debt machine toward the goal of infinite "growth."

Marketing and debt are not substitutes for real-world limits. A great many people are enamored of techno-promises of limitless energy, etc., but they don't look at the vast material consumption needed to build and maintain techno-wonders such as fusion reactors (incomprehensibly complex), nuclear reactors (huge, complex plants that take years to build) or the mining operations needed to dig up and process all the copper, uranium, bauxite, etc. that all these techno-wonders require in the real world.

We've reached the end of the "growth" road in which the expansion of marketing and debt magically increase the materials we can consume. Debt and marketing have their own limits, and our reliance on them has generated second-order effects few understand.



The road ends, and the trail beyond is narrow, rough and unmarked. Those who are deaf to marketing and debt and attuned to self-reliance will do just fine. Everyone caught by surprise that the infinite road actually has an end will face a bewildering transition.

 

[marsh]

China's Yuan Soars Most On Record After Beijing Orders Banks To Dump Dollars | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

China's Yuan Soars Most On Record After Beijing Orders Banks To Dump Dollars​

WEDNESDAY, OCT 26, 2022 - 05:36 AM

Just hours after the offshore yuan hit a new record low amid chatter of wealthy Chinese capital exodus, and questions about whether the PBOC is 'allowing' the communist nation's currency to devalue, Beijing appeared to step in and spark the biggest rise in the currency on record...

After weeks of fixing the onshore yuan far stronger than the offshore yuan (to no effect), having barely adjusted the fix during the Party Congress, last night saw the fix slightly stronger (for the first time this week) and then offshore yuan leg dramatically higher, almost up to the fix...



Desk chatter suggested Chinese state-owned banks were actively selling dollars - no doubt under orders from party HQ - triggering stop-losses and sparking the biggest single-day gain in the offshore yuan in history...



It's certainly not the first time we have seen the very visible hand of Beijing in the currency markets, but traders are not piling on to the trade for now...

“The PBOC is experienced in managing onshore-offshore spot basis and spot-fixing gap, by always choosing the right timing,” said Ju Wang, head of Greater China FX & Rates Strategy at BNP Paribas.

The offshore yuan had traded below the lower end of the PBOC's peg band, likely another reason for Beijing's sudden entrance...



Finally, not to be left out, Yen is rallying on speculation of yet another round of intervention...



Given our comments last night on the broken JGB market, they may just have to keep intervening.

Idiocy? Yes. But once you are in the endgame of MMT and helicopter money, that's all you have left.

 

[marsh]

Were US Citizens Tracked Via Secret 'COVID Decree Violation' Scores? | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Were US Citizens Tracked Via Secret 'COVID Decree Violation'
Scores?

WEDNESDAY, OCT 26, 2022 - 05:54 AM
Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

Tens of millions of US citizens were given a “COVID-19 decree violation” score as a result of a data harvesting program conducted during the first lockdown by voter analytics firm PredictWise.

“These Covid-19 decree violation scores were calculated by analyzing nearly two billion global positioning system (GPS) pings to get “real-time, ultra-granular locations patterns.” People who were “on the go more often than their neighbors” were given a high Covid-19 decree violation score while those who mostly or always stayed at home were given a low Covid-19 decree violation score,” writes Reclaim the Net’s Tom Parker.

The data collected was then used by PredictWise to help Democrats target over 350,000 “COVID concerned” Republicans with campaign ads relating to virus prevention measures.

“PredictWise understood that there were potential pockets of voters to target with Covid-19 messaging and turned high-dimensional data covering over 100 million Americans into measures of adherence to Covid-19 restrictions during deep lockdown,” the company states in its white paper.

This information was used to help identify 40,000 “persuasion targets” for Senate candidate Mark Kelly, who was subsequently elected.

As we highlighted throughout the COVID lockdowns, chilling components of the surveillance grid were weaponized against ordinary people.

At one point, a senior government minister in Australia refused to rule out citizens being forced to wear electronic ankle bracelets, even if they were fully vaccinated, to make sure they were complying with home quarantine orders.

Conservative MP Jeremy Hunt, who was recently promoted to become Chancellor of the Exchequer, called for the government to use GPS tracking technology to ensure Brits were complying with COVID quarantine measures.

“Daily contact with those asked to self-isolate – using GPS tracking to monitor compliance if necessary as happens in Taiwan and Poland,” said Hunt.

Police in the UK also used surveillance drones to monitor and threaten people who dared to go out into remote countryside to walk their dogs.

In Australia, tracking drones were deployed to catch people who didn’t wear masks outside and to keep track of cars that traveled further than 5km from home.

 

[marsh]

John Kerry Pushes For Divestment From Oil And Gas, Contradicting Biden’s Statements

White House Climate Envoy John Kerry said Tuesday that the world cannot stop the "climate crisis" unless groups reduce investment in fossil fuels.

dailycaller.com

John Kerry Pushes For Divestment From Oil And Gas, Contradicting Biden’s Statements

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
JACK MCEVOY
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT REPORTER
October 25, 2022

President Joe Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, said during a Tuesday speech that the world cannot stop the “climate crisis” without “dramatically” reducing investment in fossil fuels, contradicting the president’s previous call for increased investment in the oil and gas industry.

Biden told oil and gas producers to use their “record profits” to increase production and refining capacity during a speech he gave on Oct. 19. Kerry said that the world cannot hit its emissions reduction targets unless private companies, governments and international banks divest from oil and gas, claiming that for every $1 that is invested in green energy, $1.10 is invested in fossil fuels.

“The math and science unequivocally make clear, we just can’t hit our [emissions] targets unless we dramatically change that ratio,” Kerry stated.

Kerry said that some private financial firms were beginning to backslide on the “net-zero” emissions, commitments they made at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference and urged firms to ramp up their efforts to invest in green energy instead of fossil fuels. However, Biden told oil companies to increase production in order to bring down high gas prices and energy costs for Americans, a move that would require increased investment in the industry.

“You’re sitting on record profits … and we’re giving you more certainty, so you can act now to increase oil production now,” Biden said after announcing his administration’s plan to buy back oil from companies to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The White House climate envoy said that financial institutions need to do “even more” to meet emissions targets and prevent future “climate disasters.” Kerry also stated that Multilateral Development Banks like the World Bank were needed to fund green energy initiatives all over the globe.

“We need a greater synergy between public and private finance … it’s gotta happen,” he said.

The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

^^^^
Apologies to Dobbin, but Kerry is a

 

[marsh]

GOLD

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snPLaibxHuY
14:29 min

Why a HUGE ‘migration’ of gold to Asia should WORRY YOU​

Glenn Beck

Bloomberg recently published a piece called, ‘The Gold Market’s Great Migration Sends Bullion Rushing East.’ The article notes that China has imported 160 TONS of gold since April, India has added 80 tons, Turkey 62, and the list goes on. Is the U.S. — or other Western nations — selling gold to China? And if so, why wouldn’t we be buying it, instead? Carol Roth, financial expert and author of ‘The War On Small Business,’ joins Glenn to make sense of this ‘head scratcher.’ She theorizes what’s REALLY going on with gold, and she explains why the U.S.’s lack of longterm thinking regarding gold, should worry you.

 

[marsh]

GOLD

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeSXkGXIzl0
12:41 min

They Stole Their Gold What's Next​

The Economic Ninja

They Stole Their Gold What's Next. Will Russia and Europe move to buying Gold Mining Stocks. I believe so.

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmVq_lL3_0M
15:09 min

And So It Begins... (NO ONE Will Escape THIS!!!)​

(UK: Who is Rishi Sunak and what was he put in place to do? New laws that they can't talk about UK leaders. Loans written off, money unaccounted for.
Rishi announced CBDC in 2021. Wife's worth in shares in Indian company (Infosys?) that made software for their digital ID. A CBDC is controlled by gov. a crypto-currency is decentralized and dispersed. CBDC, thought police enforce certain agenda. Gov. working together on how CBDC might relate to energy efficiency. G7 public policy on CBDC. Rishi is a WEF Young Global Leader.

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6PcmWopJeA
17:18 min

Sheriff Deploys Security As Armed "Vigilantes" Appear At Ballot Drop Boxes​

Timcast IRL

Hosts: Tim @Timcast (everywhere) Ian @IanCrossland (everywhere) Luke @WeAreChange (YouTube) @LukeWeAreChange (Twitter) Serge @sergedotcom (everywhere)

(No summary given. Did not watch)

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMKmzONpjIs
14:37 min

Did Xi Jinping Actually Purge Hu Jintao?​

China Uncensored

Dramatic footage of former Chinese leader Hu Jintao being escorted out of the 20th Party Congress has led to wild speculation. Was this a public purge of a former top Party official, or was Hu simply not feeling well, as Chinese state media claims? In this episode of China Uncensored, we look at what happened in the leadup to Hu being escorted out, Hu and Xi Jinping's relationship, and why Hu Jintao might have been trying to see contents of the red folder placed in front of him.

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syWsvR0bw7I
1:30 min

Why did Census undercount some red states, overcount blue? - Just the News Now​

Oct 26, 2022

Just the News

Just the News Now: October 24, 2022 Why did Census undercount some red states, overcount blue? One lawmaker demands answers


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Why did Census undercount some red states, overcount blue? One lawmaker demands answers

Rep. Troy Nehls says the errors cost Texas a congressional seat, vows an investigation, calling the miscount "deeply concerning for the legitimacy of our Democracy."

justthenews.com

Why did Census undercount some red states, overcount blue? One lawmaker demands answers

Rep. Troy Nehls says the errors cost Texas a congressional seat, vows an investigation, calling the miscount "deeply concerning for the legitimacy of our Democracy."

Updated: October 23, 2022 - 11:26pm

The U.S. Census Bureau admits it undercounted populations in five Republican-led states while overcounting people in six Democrat-leaning states, a disparity one congressman says cost Texas a congressional seat to which it was entitled.

Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) told Just the News he is demanding answers from the population-counting agency because the disparities uncovered by the 2020 post-enumeration survey show errors in counting large enough to impact the tools of U.S. representative democracy, such as electoral votes and congressional apportionment.

"The numbers don't lie," Nehls said. "Texas was undercounted by 2%, which means we were cheated out of an additional seat in Congress. And four other Republican states were as well. As a result, these red states have less representation in Congress, fewer votes in the Electoral College, and therefore receive less federal funding.

The Census Bureau earlier this year said a post-count analysis foud the 2020 census undercounted populations in five red states — Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennesee and Texas — as well as one traditionally Democrat state, Illinois. Likewise, the agency found it overcounted populations in six blue states — Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island and Joe Biden's home state of Delaware — as well as two GOP-led states, Ohio and Utah.

Census officials acknowledged they were disappointed by the accuracy rate of the 2020 count, which they said was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

None of the under and overcounts can be fixed for apportionment, but the survey will be sued to try to make the 2030 count more precise, they added.

"Achieving an accurate count for all 50 states and DC is always a difficult endeavor, and these results suggest it was difficult again in 2020, particularly given the unprecedented challenges we faced," Census Bureau Director Robert Santos said.

"[W]e know there is still more work to do in planning future censuses to ensure equitable coverage across the United States," he acknowledged, "and we are working to overcome any and all obstacles to achieve that goal."

The undercounting was most severe in Arkansas, where 5.04% of the population was missed, while Texas was undercounted by 1.92%. The latter, however, was more consequential, since Texas is a much larger state and was already close to securing another congressional seat.

The undercount in the Lone Star State represents more than a half a million residents, and Texas needed only 189,000 more people to gain another congressional seat. On the flip side, Hawaii and Delaware were the most overcounted.

Nehls said he fears some of the erroneous math may have been intentional, an effect of bureaucratic partisanship.

"This wasn't a coincidence because things like this don’t just happen," he said.

"The bureaucrats in Washington have an agenda. They want Democrats in power and won't let anything get in their way. We must get to the bottom of what happened."

Nehls said if Republicans win back control of the U.S. House, as polls indicate they might, lawmakers "will use our oversight authority next Congress to investigate the Census Bureau and determine how and why these significant errors happened to ensure this doesn't happen again."

The Texas Republican began the early work of such an investigation, sending a letter Friday demanding several answers from Santos as to why blue states were mostly advantaged by the erroneous counts.

"As a result, these blue states will now have more representation in Congress, more votes in the Electoral College, and receive more federal funds than they should," the congressman wrote. "This is deeply concerning for the legitimacy of our Democracy."

Among the questions his letter asked:

• What caused the inaccurate count, and how were those causes determined?
• Why was there such a difference in the error rate from the prior, 2010 census, which showed a statistically insignificant error rate of only 0.01%?
• What steps are being taking to ensure these errors don't occur again?
• Was the agency instructed by anyone in the executive branch or otherwise to take steps differently than in 2010 that would lead to the inaccuracy?

 

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National digital ID clears congressional hurdle amid fears it could be politically abused

Recent headlines involving Kanye West (Ye), Sam Brownback and others sharpen anxieties about linkage of online financial access to ideological conformity.

justthenews.com

National digital ID clears congressional hurdle amid fears it could be politically abused​

Recent headlines involving Kanye West (Ye), Sam Brownback and others sharpen anxieties about linkage of online financial access to ideological conformity.

Updated: October 25, 2022 - 12:17am

Anational digital ID system for U.S. citizens is fast becoming a reality following a vote by the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to advance the Improving Digital Identity Act.

Digital IDs act as online, data-laden representations of human beings. Many analysts, such as the authors of a 2019 McKinsey Global Institute report, argue they could be the key to unlocking access to financial services, various government benefits and educational opportunities, as well as a number of other critical services. Some of the same analysts, however, also warn that the "risks and potential for misuse of digital ID are real and deserve careful attention."

Although the concerns about digital IDs are real, it's important to separate the facts from the fearmongering fiction.

In simple language, a digital identity enables an individual to prove who they are in the virtual world. Proponents claim digital IDs offer greater privacy than traditional forms of identification and can help minimize some of the risks associated with physical documents such as driver's licenses, passports, etc. Others, though, are quick to sound the alarm, warning that the introduction of digital IDs will almost certainly lead to an erosion of civil liberties.

"Digital is often touted as the 'future,' and many people cast such a transition as inevitable," writes Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the ACLU, who believes digital IDs could prove to be a privacy nightmare. "But digital is not always better — especially when systems are exclusively digital."

"There’s a reason that most jurisdictions have spurned electronic voting in favor of paper ballots, for example," Stanley writes. With voting software in some states vulnerable to outside interference, paper ballots increasingly appear to be much safer.

Similarly, digital IDs are vulnerable to attack. Horror stories involving people's identities being stolen are not uncommon. Remember, digital IDs are synonymous with data, and if there is one thing hacker's love, it's data — especially the data of U.S. citizens.

If digital identities are introduced in the U.S., which looks increasingly likely, they will be inextricably linked with financial services. Financial institutions, after all, are being encouraged to lead the way in the development of comprehensive digital identity solutions. Digital IDs, we're told, will become more critical as online and mobile banking becomes more popular.
Recent headlines make it easy to see why so many people, fearful of the enforcement of political/ideological conformity through financial control, are hesitant to embrace digital IDs.

The banking behemoth JP Morgan Chase recently cut ties with Kanye West, who now goes by the name Ye. While the bank's notification to him reportedly predates recent controversies involving the outspoken rapper and designer — he sported a White Lives Matter tee shirt and made remarks widely condemned as anti-Semitic — Ye appears to hold certain viewpoints that don't align with those held by the multinational's executives.

Around the same time as Ye found himself being kicked to the curb, JP Morgan decided to freeze the bank account of the National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF), a nonpartisan nonprofit founded by former Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback. Brownback, who served as ambassador-at-Large for international religious freedom in the Trump administration, was offered no explanation for why the account was frozen.

Meanwhile, it recently emerged that PayPal, an online payment system used by tens of millions of Americans, planned to fine users $2,500 in damages if they were found guilty of spreading "misinformation." Although PayPal has since reassured users that the policy won't be introduced, this reassurance came only after considerable backlash, including mass account cancellations by users and a sharp drop in the company's stock price.

Earlier this year, GoFundMe, a for-profit crowdfunding platform headquartered in Redwood City, Calif., froze donations to Canadian truckers opposing Covid vaccine mandates. Shortly afterwards, Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, who reportedly favors digital ID, threatened to freeze the bank accounts of the truckers.

The high probability of digital IDs being closely associated with access (or lack thereof) to finances and the growing link between ideological leanings and financial exclusion are fueling much of the resistance to digital identification.

But the concerns don't end there. Brett Solomon, the executive director of Access Now, an NGO that defends and extends the digital rights of users at risk around the world, argues that these IDs are ripe for abuse and that the threats of implementing them far outweigh the benefits.

Citing his decade of experience tracking the perils and promise of technology for human rights, Solomon wrote in a 2018 Wired article that "digital ID, writ large, poses one of the gravest risks to human rights of any technology that we have encountered."

Coupled with "facial recognition technology and other identifiers," Solomon warned, digital IDs have "the capacity for geo-location of identifiers." In other words, tracking citizens' every digital movement.

Solomon's ominous warnings tie in with fears that someone, somewhere is always watching, and if Big Brother doesn't like what you're doing, punishment will surely be served — fears that have only been heightened by recent headlines.

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MnZuRZQX8c
44:50 min

This Is Their Plan​

The Economic Ninja

(No summary given. Did not watch.)

 

[marsh]

Cortes: Biden’s Created Inflation Crisis Has Destroyed Any Good Outlook Left For American Economy 6:46 min

Cortes: Biden’s Created Inflation Crisis Has Destroyed Any Good Outlook Left For American Economy​

Bannons War Room Published October 26, 2022

Tech companies signaling a bad economy ahead.

 

[marsh]

Ed Dowd Joins WarRoom To Discuss Grim Outlook On Global Economy 10:50 min

Ed Dowd Joins WarRoom To Discuss Grim Outlook On Global Economy​

Bannons War Room Published October 25, 2022

(No summary given. Have not watched.)

 

[marsh]

Steve Cortes: Democrats Are Finally Waking Up To The Reality Of America's Crime Issue 8:58 min

Steve Cortes: Democrats Are Finally Waking Up To The Reality Of America's Crime Issue​

Bannons War Room Published October 26, 2022

(No summary given. Have not watched.)

 

[marsh]

ZEROTIME: Is Democracy Dead in the West? China World Order - Who is Really Pulling the Strings? 1:04:57 min

ZEROTIME: Is Democracy Dead in the West? China World Order - Who is Really Pulling the Strings?​

mariazeee Published October 26, 2022

This week we delve into the Chinese Communist Party and their shadow influence on the West, exposing how their existing Social Credit System is coming to us... and fast. Lieutenant Colonel Loughrey joins us for his insight.

We are also joined by Scott Johnson from Scorpion Media Group to cover the public's response to the insane new legislation introduced in the state of Western Australia, and discuss whether democracy is dead in the West.

 

[marsh]

Congresswoman MTG: Joe Biden’s CCP Ties Ushered Xi Jinping’s Swift Rise To Emperor Of China 13:20 min

Congresswoman MTG: Joe Biden’s CCP Ties Ushered Xi Jinping’s Swift Rise To Emperor Of China​

Bannons War Room Published October 26, 2022

(No summary given. Have not watched.)

 

[marsh]

Former Trump Adviser Blasts Senate Democrat's Plan To Lower Heating Costs 2:16 min

Former Trump Adviser Blasts Senate Democrat's Plan To Lower Heating Costs​

The Daily Caller Published October 26, 2022

'Thick Blanket Of Amnesia': Former Trump Adviser Blasts Senate Democrat's Plan To Lower Heating Costs

 

[marsh]

Something BIG is happening and the WEF is being exposed | Redacted with Natali and Clayton Morris 2:24:44 min (starts at 31:00 min)

Something BIG is happening and the WEF is being exposed | Redacted with Natali and Clayton Morris​

Redacted News Published October 26, 2022

For the past two years, the unelected globalists at the WEF have told us that the rising price of fuel can be blamed solely on one catastrophic event. The covid pandemic. The WEF told us this was the case, and then every major western leader, parroted that storyline, but then something unexpected happened to ruin their script: Vladimir Putin.

 

[marsh]

"Woke capitalism" as more states pull money from BlackRock 6:10 min

"Woke capitalism" as more states pull money from BlackRock (ESG)​

One America News Network Published October 26, 2022

State treasures across the country are pushing back and pulling money out of asset management firms like BlackRock. One America's Stella Escobedo spoke with Scott Shepard, from the National Center of Public Policy Research, about the dangers of what is happening.

 

[marsh]

Did Joe Biden REALLY Beat Big Pharma? - #021 - Stay Free with Russell Brand 1:04:09 min

Did Joe Biden REALLY Beat Big Pharma? - #021 - Stay Free with Russell Brand​

Russell Brand Published October 26, 2022

Did Joe Biden REALLY Beat Big Pharma? - #021 - Stay Free with Russell Brand. With Guest Oliver Bullough

Also - Rishi Sunak, oligarchs and London.

 

[marsh]

Iowa Farmers Face Loss of Their Property to United Nations’ Agenda 2030-inspired Carbon Pipelines 15:50 min

Iowa Farmers Face Loss of Their Property to United Nations’ Agenda 2030-inspired Carbon Pipelines​

The New American Published October 26, 2022

Ted and Kimberly Junker have been farming in Iowa for more than 30 years. Now, a private company called Navigator CO2 wants to install a pipeline across Iowa, and they’re planning to take property from farmers like the Junkers to do so.

The issue impacts not just these farmers, but every American who owns private property and who relies on the nation’s agricultural products in their daily lives. The Junkers encourage everyone to post comments with the Iowa Utilities Board at Filing a Comment, Objection or Letter of Support | Iowa Utilities Board and to educate themselves about the agenda behind projects like this pipeline – a United Nations scheme called Agenda 2030.

 

[marsh]

In Focus - Biden Claims Democrats Are The Party Of Fiscal Responsibility 8:05 min

In Focus - Biden Claims Democrats Are The Party Of Fiscal Responsibility (Dave Brat)​

One America News Network Published October 26, 2022

(No summary given. Have not watched.)

 

[marsh]

‘He’s Gotta Own It’: Harris Faulkner Spars With Dem Consultant Over Biden’s Blame For Economy

Fox News host Harris Faulkner clashed with a fellow panelist on “Outnumbered” Tuesday over how much blame President Joe Biden should shoulder for the economy.

dailycaller.com

‘He’s Gotta Own It’: Harris Faulkner Spars With Dem Consultant Over Biden’s Blame For Economy

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
HAROLD HUTCHISON
REPORTER
October 25, 2022

Fox News host Harris Faulkner clashed with a fellow panelist on “Outnumbered” Tuesday over how much blame President Joe Biden should shoulder for the economy.

“You can’t just blame inflation on the Biden administration, you just have to look at facts,” Leslie Marshall, a Democratic consultant, said. “The facts are you gotta look at the Feds. There is definitely certainly a global issue, my party is not that powerful that they can affect an international inflation rate in an international economy. Three, Putin invading the Ukraine and the war there certainly had an effect. Lingering economics and the pandemic certainly has an effect and we have to go back once again to the Feds, our Feds were slow and not aggressive enough to act with regard to inflation when they knew it was coming.”

Faulkner responded by pointing out inflation had been climbing the previous November, months before Russia invaded Ukraine. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 6.8% year-over-year in November 2021 and climbed 7% year-over-year in December 2021.

WATCH:
Video on website 7:24 min

Experts, including former Obama administration official Steven Rattner, claim the spending in legislation like the American Rescue Plan Biden signed into law in March 2021, helped send inflation to levels not seen for decades. The CPI increased 8.2% year-to-year in September after rising by 8.3% in August, 8.6% in July, 9.1% in June and 8.5% in May.

“The war shouldn’t even be a calculation then,” Faulkner said. “It was cooking almost as high as what we have now at 8.1 or 2, which is a 40-year high, as it was in November of 2021. You cannot even fathom anything other than these policies getting us there because nothing else had taken hold yet.”

Faulkner also hammered Biden for his response to the economic downturn, including a claim that the economy was “strong as hell” during a visit to Oregon.

“All Biden has said is how resilient we are as an economy,” Faulkner added later. “He blames Russia, he blames all of these other things. But when you look at it, you have to look at his spending. You have to!”

“Let me ask you, can you name one politician, left or right, that has ever said the economy’s bad, it’s on me? Nobody,” Marshall responded.

Faulkner continued to press the point about Biden.

“’I feel what you’re feeling, I know how you’re feeling and I want to make it better and here is what I’m going to do,’” Faulkner said, describing what Biden should have been saying. “Instead, know what they did? They touted a lie and put lipstick on the pig and called it Inflation Reduction Act. It had nothing to do with reduced inflation. It reduces the deficit and that is a beautiful thing but there is not a one-to-one match. CBO said it, we didn’t get that score out on that Friday before they rammed it through over the weekend when they passed this. Look, I could go on for hours like this, let’s just call it what it is. He’s gotta own it. He’s gotta own it.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

 

[marsh]

https://www.agweb.com/news/business/conservation/new-report-economic-psychosocial-and-data-management-barriers-inhibiting

New Report: The Economic, Psychosocial and Data-Management Barriers Inhibiting Farmer Participation in Carbon Markets

Three key findings from the report include: Farmers are aware of carbon markets but not ready to engage; Producers want credit for existing practices; Data capture, management and validation is fragmented.

By FARM JOURNAL October 26, 2022
Farm Journal’s Trust In Food released its inaugural “Ready or Not? Ag Carbon Markets and U.S. Farmers” report, highlighting perspectives from 500 U.S. row crop producers on pathways and barriers to participating in carbon ecosystems.

The full report featuring exclusive data and analysis: TrustInFood.com/carboninsights

The majority of farmers surveyed report serious concern about overcoming technical and financial roadblocks to success in carbon markets. In addition to more fundamental warning signs, producers fear that costs will outweigh benefits; that ongoing compliance will require too high a burden; that existing conservation ag practices will not be compensated fairly; that data will not be handled appropriately or will be difficult to collect; or that upfront investments will be a barrier to entry. More than half of farmers surveyed labeled each respective concern a “significant” challenge to carbon market entry.

“Our initial findings suggest that even the most carbon-curious farmers are signaling that their participation under current market conditions would require prohibitive investments of time, effort and resources without fair financial and market returns,” said Amy Skoczlas Cole, executive vice president of Trust In Food. “Unless the carbon market value chain takes producers’ perspectives seriously, we fear a critical tool for addressing climate change and increasing farm resilience will fall seriously short of its potential.”

Three key findings from the report include:

1. Farmers are aware of carbon markets but not ready to engage. After several years, 97% of farmers surveyed are not ready to participate in carbon markets, though 93% are aware they exist.
2. Producers want credit for existing practices. Additionality has been a stumbling block for carbon ecosystems; 69% of producers say getting credit for preexisting practices is “very important” for evaluating their participation, second only to annual payment amount per acre (73%).
3. Data capture, management and validation is fragmented. 62% of farmers surveyed are not fully digitally integrated for the purpose of managing farm information, and more than 70% do not use any software-based sustainability or conservation tools. Even with digital infrastructure on farms and ranches, the methodology for validating results and the carbon-holding capacity of soils has not been standardized and might vary dramatically across geographies, climates and certifying bodies.

Going forward the carbon market ecosystem must create more transparency and better incentives that align with operations on farms and ranches to make adoption more desirable. Trusted advisors, retailers and extension services have a role to play in preparing producers to capitalize on carbon market opportunities. This preparation includes more consistent and broader data capture and management so producers can monitor and measure practice changes.

The carbon report is part of Trust In Food’s carbon insights platform that analyzes psychosocial, economic and logistical challenges producers face in accepting and adopting climate-smart management practices.

Anchored by its Human Dimensions of Change Toolkit, the carbon insights platform provides in-depth intelligence on:

• Producer sentiment about carbon and other climate-smart programs
• Differentiating factors farmers evaluate when choosing a program
• Co-affinities that align with positive or negative carbon attitudes
• Practice adoption triggers
• Producers’ perceived barriers to market participation

The full report featuring exclusive data and analysis: TrustInFood.com/carboninsights

 

[marsh]

https://www.agweb.com/news/policy/politics/e30-ethanol-blend-inches-closer-pumps-epas-latest-actions

E30 Ethanol Blend Inches Closer to Pumps with EPA's Latest Actions​

By JENNA HOFFMAN October 26, 2022

U.S. EPA gave the State of Nebraska and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) the green light on Thursday to continue phase two research in E30 blended ethanol.

Initially launched in 2019, the study found E30 is a “safe and reliable” option for all conventional vehicles—a measure previously opposed by the EPA, which claimed any blend above E15 should be reserved only for flex-fuel vehicles.
“Promoting higher ethanol blends should be a centerpiece of our national strategy to lower gas prices,” said Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts.

According to Ricketts, Nebraska’s study demonstrates E30 can be used in regular vehicles “without reducing performance or requiring extra maintenance,” countering the EPA’s previous E15 constraints.

Ethanol Comes Knocking​

The higher-blend E30 ethanol conversation started on The Hill in 2021 with the Next Generation Fuels Act, which aims to “leverage higher-octane fuels to improve engine efficiency and performance.”

This discussion will continue in Washington in coming weeks as EPA approaches its Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) deadline of Nov. 16, when the agency is required to formally propose biofuel blending targets for 2023.

Jon Doggett, NCGA president, told AgriTalk Host Chip Flory he is optimistic EPA will "come through" on ethanol. He says his team has received indications from the EPA that suggest “very strong” ethanol numbers in the future.

Ag talk audio 12:00 min

“EPA Administrator Michael Reagan not only talks the talk, he walks the walk on RFS,” says Doggett. “For the first time, we have 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol in the RFS, and I think we’re going to get at least that going into next year.”

Forward motion in the agency has caught Doggett’s attention. He believes RFS strength in ethanol will continue in November, and in years to follow.

 

[marsh]

Ag Alert

www.agalert.com

Commentary: Misguided pesticide policies may harm food supply

California produces 70% of the nation’s lettuce and leafy greens. If farmers can’t use common pest controls, yields may drop 5% to 10%, and lettuce prices may jump more than 8%.

By Amrith Gunasekara
CFBF (Calif.) October 26, 2022

Food prices are rising at a staggering rate. In the largest annual increase since 1979, the United States’ food price index jumped 11.4% in August over the same month in 2021.

Spiking food prices can be attributed to inflation, which has surged amid the pandemic and supply-chain crisis. Other major factors are severe grain shortages and market disruptions resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

California residents are paying higher prices due to global events that are beyond their control. But how will they react in the future if their food prices rise further due to misguided government policy decisions in Sacramento that impose increased regulations on agriculture in the state?

Additional price increases may be inevitable if the Golden State follows in the footsteps of the European Union, where a policy directive stands to phase out commonly used pesticides by 50% by 2040. A U.S Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service analysis estimated this strategy could have a negative economic impact of up to $1.1 trillion.

A recent economic analysis funded by the California Bountiful Foundation, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit research clearinghouse for the California Farm Bureau, examined the potential outcomes and magnitude of economic impacts if the EU standard were applied to just one state crop—lettuce.

The preliminary analysis, conducted by ERA Economics of Davis and supported by Californians for Smart Pesticide Policy, found that removing two primary forms of pest control from use in lettuce production would bring a price increase of up to 8.22%. Food buyers would feel the hit of state-imposed food cost increases, and farmers would also lose income.

California leads the nation in agricultural production, and pest-control tools are essential for producing food crops. Pyrethroids and neonicotinoids, commonly used in growing lettuce and other crops, ensure food products are affordable and free of diseases, and that yields are sufficient for our growing population.

For farmers, the increase in costs from phasing out these materials would be dramatic. Growing costs for lettuce would soar $230 to $290 per acre if farmers must use pest-control alternatives that are less effective. Crop yields would plummet 5% to 10%. And less-effective products, requiring more frequent use, could lead to worse environmental outcomes.

Farmers are unable to pass rising production costs onto consumers because they compete in a global marketplace with food commodities that fill our grocery stores. Farmers in other states face less stringent pest-control laws and regulations than California, which means they can produce food at a lower cost. As production shifts to other states and countries, this means fewer jobs and income for California communities.

Why would the state conceivably remove important tools from California farmers, particularly as the food crisis persists?

Environmental groups have long campaigned to ban pesticides used by California farmers. Pressures mount, even though many pest-control products for farmers are no different from the synthetic and biochemical garden products you and I may use at home.

On-farm use of these products are carefully managed. Farmers must be trained in their use or hire pest-control advisors—trained professionals—to administer the products on farms. There are a plethora of laws and regulations designed to ensure products that control insects, weeds and diseases that damage crops are also safe for the environment.

Today’s pest-control products are safe. They do not persist in nature, as with earlier-generation chemicals such as DDT. Pesticides are now developed using complex chemistries that allow them to work in specific ways to protect crops, the environment, and human health and safety. Otherwise, they cannot be registered for use by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

What is the point of removing a state-registered product from agricultural use? If California were to follow the European Union, it may perhaps do so in a misguided sense of environmentalism. But such an action would accomplish nothing to protect, fish, wildlife or our natural spaces, and it would mean increased economic burdens for consumers and farmers.

If the two common pest-control types for lettuce were removed from use, the result “will be more costly, less effective pest control alternatives that require additional management by growers,” ERA Economics reported.

Some politicians might declare an environmental policy victory, but it would be unsupported by any meaningful scientific data. Neither Californians nor the environment would see any benefits. But California agriculture and the nation’s food production would suffer.

(Amrith Gunasekara, Ph.D., is director of science and research for the California Bountiful Foundation, an affiliate of the California Farm Bureau. He may be reached at agunasekara@cfbf.com.)

 

[marsh]

Ag Alert

www.agalert.com

Tech event hypes robotics to boost yields

The first-ever FIRA USA California Agricultural Robotics and Technology Forum drew 1,000 registered guests and 800 daily attendees—all focused on one topic: using automation to enhance crop production.

Attendees at the FIRA USA California Agricultural Robotics and Technology Forum in Fresno turn out to view automated machinery that assists vegetable growers with spraying and laser weeding. The three-day event aimed at connecting growers with robotics entrepreneurs.

October 26, 2022
By Lisa McEwen CFBF (Calif)

The first-ever FIRA USA California Agricultural Robotics and Technology Forum drew 1,000 registered guests and 800 daily attendees—all focused on one topic: using automation to enhance crop production.

The three-day event, held last week in Fresno, included technology marketers, farmers and researchers in a gathering aimed at speeding the arrival of technology to California farms by connecting growers with robotics manufacturers, inventors and investors.

Sandra Belin and Larry Jacobs, growers of culinary herbs, gourds, squash, tomatoes and more at Jacobs Farm in Northern California, and del Cabo in Baja California, Mexico, attended FIRA USA to continue educating themselves on ways technology could improve their operations.

“Bringing technology to ag is long overdue,” Belin said. “All farmers are looking to labor-saving devices. The world of farming is becoming more tech-centric and less labor-centric.”

Spread throughout the Fresno Convention Center, attendees listened to panel discussions and breakout sessions showcasing new equipment. They chatted with technology exhibitors and examined 20-plus robots parked in the exhibit hall—some with dirt caked on their wheels.

In-field demonstrations at Fresno State University’s farm wrapped up the event, with manufacturers showcasing heavy-duty farm robotics spraying and laser weeding equipment before curious throngs.

Belin and Jacobs had previously purchased electric compact tractors from farm-ng, a Watsonville company that markets the Amiga tractors they purchased. The couple shared photos of how employees incorporated the devices into field and greenhouse tasks such as weeding and hauling tools during harvest.

“You don’t have to be an engineer to operate it, and it is user-friendly,” Jacobs said.

As farms in California grapple with labor shortages, drought and diminishing water supplies, a shift in farming practices by using more automated equipment could save time, money and regulatory headaches by assisting with labor-intensive tasks such as planting, weeding and harvesting.

Discussions at the event focused on easing pathways from an inventor’s idea to implementation in a farmer’s field.

“Developers need to understand the culture of agriculture,” said Taylor Farms President Mark Borman. “We typically start early, and farmers are ingenious at our ability to work around challenges. Meeting our workforce where they are at is really important. We have folks on our farms and in our operations that are ready to learn that technology and tying in how we are going to support this equipment.”

Among those hoping to convince farmers about how new technology can support them was Issac Mazor, founder and CEO of Nanovel, an Israeli firm established in 2018. The company has developed a fully automated machine for picking fresh fruit.

Mazor said Nanovel will launch its beta version in 2023 for the U.S. citrus market and said he plans to market the machine to small and medium-sized growers. He has networked with representatives for Western Growers, which operates the Center for Innovation and Technology in Salinas. The center mentors innovators and connects them with investors. Its goal is to automate 50% of the fresh produce harvest in 10 years.

“It came just in time for us,” Mazor said, noting that his connection with Western Growers has been key.

The Fresno event was the result of a partnership of GOFAR, the Global Organization for Agricultural Robotics, which for six years has hosted a similar event in Toulouse, France. Other partners were Western Growers and the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources.

For all the innovation hype at the event, Borman of Taylor Farms said agricultural technology firms must have the ability to scale up for the demands of the harvest season. Taylor Farms harvests 25 million pounds of fresh leafy greens each week.

“We need equipment up and running quickly and reliably,” he said. “You don’t have an extra car in the garage when your car breaks down, and in farming we need to think about that. You have to have a way to pivot when something doesn’t work.”

Stuart Woolf, president and CEO of Woolf Farming and Processing, which produces tomato paste and almond products, said he hopes innovators can help farmers better integrate multiple sources of data.

“The idea that you go out and have a yield monitor that provides all this data that you can’t use with any other information on the farm is just so frustrating,” he said. “All that we can do to have more common platforms that communicate and integrate well, that’s what it’s all about.”

Woolf said some entrepreneurs seek to help farmers with new technology that may not match their needs. “I always think we would all be better served if instead of figuring out what a solution is for the farmer, go talk to the farmer,” he said.

Yet Adam Jensen, a recent graduate of California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, said it is exciting to be at the forefront of changing farming practices. The wine and viticulture major recently got a job with Naïo Technologies. He now travels from Napa to Buellton showcasing the company’s automated vineyard robots.

“Every week, more and more people are interested in this technology,” he said. “When growers realize how much room there is for improvement, it’s inevitable that the future will be in ag technology. It is exciting to be young in this industry, to be at the front door of change.”

 

[marsh]

EXCLUSIVE: Chinese Donor, Fundraiser For NYC Mayor Eric Adams Worked Closely With Communist Party Influence Operation

A donor to New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ election campaign works closely with Communist Party influence operations, the Daily Caller News Foundation found.

dailycaller.com

EXCLUSIVE: Chinese Donor, Fundraiser For NYC Mayor Eric Adams Worked Closely With Communist Party Influence Operation

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
MICAELA BURROW AND PHILIP LENCZYCKI
CONTRIBUTOR
October 26, 2022

The president of the America Changle Association who runs a secret Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked police station, financially supported Mayor Eric Adams’ election efforts and also works directly with known Chinese government influence operations, the Daily Caller News Foundation determined.

America Changle’s leaders include an individual identified by the Chinese government as both a “propagandist” and “special liaison officer,” as well as individuals who take direct orders from a CCP propaganda and intelligence agency known as the United Front Work Department, the DCNF found.

“Under no circumstances would China tolerate a foreign law enforcement entity to operate inside China but outside normal channels, and neither should we do so here,” Steve Yates, Chair of the China Policy Initiative, told the DCNF.

A fundraiser and donor to New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ election campaign heads a non-profit that houses a Chinese overseas police station and works closely with Communist Party influence operations, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found.

Lu Jianshun supported fundraising efforts for Adams through his role as the president of America Changle Association, an organization based in Manhattan’s Chinatown that caters to overseas Chinese from the Changle district of Fuzhou, Fujian province in China, the DCNF found. Lu himself donated $4,000 to Adams’ mayoral campaign under the adopted name “James Lu” between 2019 and 2021, according to public campaign finance records.

Lu and America Changle have worked closely with the United Front Work Department (UFWD), the DCNF found based on a review of Chinese state media and government sources. The UFWD is a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agency tasked with running influence operations and monitoring overseas Chinese communities, according to a 2018 report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

The UFWD “seeks to co-opt ethnic Chinese individuals and communities living outside China” and plays “an increasingly important role in China’s broader foreign policy” under General Secretary Xi Jinping, the report states.

America Changle has maintained close contact with and taken instruction from UFWD officials during video conference calls in recent years, according to multiple Chinese-state-run media sources.

For example, both America Changle President Lu Jianshun and its former chairman Lu Jianwang received orders from the UFWD on how best to respond to the COVID-19 virus during one March 2020 video call, according to U.S.-based Chinese-language outlet icitynews. During the call, the deputy minister of the UFWD for Fuzhou instructed America Changle to guide the overseas Chinese to wear masks, wash their hands and increase communication with their China-based counterparts, a state media outlet for overseas Fujianese reported.

Zhang Zikuo, former chairman of America Changle, took part in the March 2020 video conference and replied to the UFWD deputy minister by saying their organization would “comply” with the Chinese government’s request and increase safety measures, according to the state-run outlet.

One year later, in March 2021, Lu Jianshun, Lu Jianwang and others held another video conference with CCP members and UFWD officials who acknowledged America Changle’s role in planting a UFWD “liaison office” in Manhattan, according to a report from the official news organization of China’s Fujian province.

During the video conference, Lu Jianwang thanked the UFWD for their help in establishing the satellite office within America Changle purportedly to connect overseas Chinese with the Fuzhou government, the report stated. Lu Jianwang was identified as a “special liaison officer for the Changle District Court,” apparently in reference to his role as the primary intermediary between the UFWD and the Chinese community that associates with America Changle.

The following month, Lu Jianshun and Lu Jianwang held another livestream with UFWD and Propaganda department officials in June 2021, this time celebrating the 100th anniversary of the CCP, Chinese media state reported.

Adams’ office and America Changle did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

‘People Can See Him As A Conduit’
Lu’s donations to Adams’ campaign were first reported by The New York Post, as was Adams’ attendance to America Changle’s gala in September.

The DCNF confirmed Lu’s identity by matching his Facebook profile with photos and articles from America Changle and other media outlets.

America Changle is just one of many New York City associations that claim to “promote the prosperity” of Chinese immigrants. However, New York City Chinese human rights activists have raised the alarm over the group’s president’s support of Adams, noting the strong ties between America Changle and CCP-backed influence operations.

“They have a lot of money,” Zhang Jing, a human rights advocate from New York City’s Chinatown, told the DCNF. “They can often hold banquets to support the candidates they like.”

Changle’s website includes several photographs of Adams with Lu Jianshun bearing a caption that reads: “support Eric Adams campaign.”

Lu Jianshun is also the co-chairman of the Alliance of Asian American Friends (AAAF), which is composed of dozens of “alliance units,” including America Changle. AAAF held at least five events supporting Adams’ 2021 campaign between May and October 2021, according to its website.

Former New York City Council member Peter Koo serves as AAAF’s honorary president, the organization’s website shows, and has reportedly organized campaign events for Adams attended by America Changle representatives, such as a December 2021 fundraiser for Adam’s inauguration, according to state-controlled media.

Lu Jianshun and other prominent Chinese residents of New York City — such as Mei Jianguo, head of the U.S. arm of the newspaper Sing Tao — also held a fundraiser for Adams at Royal Queen Restaurant in Flushing Chinatown in January 2020, according to Chinese state media. The Department of Justice forced Sing Tao U.S. to register as a foreign agent in 2021. Sing Tao’s parent company is owned by members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which is controlled by the CCP.

Just one day after America Changle convened a flag-waving party for communist China’s 73rd birthday, Adams attended the organization’s 24th anniversary celebration on Sept. 29, where he reportedly sang the group’s praises.

“This is such an important organization to empower our Chinese-American community,” Adams said at the celebration while standing beside Lu Jianshun on the stage, referring to America Changle. He then characterized the organization as the “foundation” of both New York City’s Chinese community and the “entire city.”

One expert in nonprofits told the DCNF that politicians should be wary of which groups they associate with on the campaign trail and while in office.

“Adams, as Mayor, needs to be very careful with his relationship with anything — whether it’s with a business or other politicians or with nonprofits — because people can see him as a conduit to a lot of things,” Doug White, a philanthropic adviser, told the DCNF.

‘Chinese Equivalent Of A Police Station On US Soil’
America Changle was registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit between 2016 and 2018, federal records reveal; however, the IRS added the organization to an “auto-revocation list” in May 2022 after it failed to file tax returns for three consecutive years. America Changle’s current tax exempt status remains unclear, as the IRS notice also states that even if an organization appears on the auto-revocation list it may have had its status reinstated.

America Changle also houses an overseas Chinese police bureau within its Manhattan offices, which is part of a global network of outposts the CCP uses to spy on and intimidate Chinese dissidents, according to a recent report by human rights group Safeguard Defenders.

These stations “both in their online and physical overseas form, also serve a more sinister goal as they contribute to ‘resolutely cracking down on all kinds of illegal and criminal activities involving overseas Chinese,’” reads the report.

The station housed within America Changle is an extension of the “110 Overseas” police unit from Fuzhou, in China’s Fujian province, which reportedly executes “foreign strike operations” against overseas Chinese dissidents through intimidation, arrest and forced repatriation, according to Safeguard Defenders.

America Changle opened its “110 Overseas” police station in February 2022, Chinese state-run media outlet reported. The report listed Lu and several other America Changle members as staff members of the police station.

“This Chinese equivalent of a police station on U.S. soil appears neither advisable nor legal,” Steve Yates, former deputy assistant for national security affairs to former Vice President Dick Cheney, told the DCNF. “Under no circumstances would China tolerate a foreign law enforcement entity to operate inside China but outside normal channels, and neither should we do so here.”

Laura Harth, campaign director for the human rights group Safeguard Defenders, told the DCNF that overseas police stations, such as the one found within America Changle, appear to be aligned with the UFWD’s influence operations.

It is “clear” that Beijing is using the UFWD “to build this policing service,” Harth said, referring to the vast secret police station network that includes the station housed within America Changle.

The DCNF reached out to the FBI, who declined to comment.

 

[marsh]

Event 201: organizers of WEF-Gates pre-Covid simulation warned of 'similar pandemic in the future'

A smoking gun?

dossier.substack.com

Event 201: organizers of WEF-Gates pre-Covid simulation warned of 'similar pandemic in the future'​

A smoking gun?​

Jordan Schachtel
3 hr ago

Just weeks prior to the onset of COVID Mania, some of the most maniacal, power hungry forces on the planet got together to war-game a fictional coronavirus outbreak passing from an animal reservoir to humans with "no possibility of a vaccine being available in the first year," warning of a “similar pandemic in the future.”

On October 18, 2019, that simulation, called Event 201, occurred in New York City through the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Organizers gathered influential “public health experts,” along with top government officials from around the world, and made sure to have plenty of legacy media press on hand. The simulation’s flashy video package came prepared by Interface Media Group, which has worked on projects for the likes of CNN, PBS, and HBO, with a series of segments from a fictional GNN network, complete with talking heads discussing the catastrophic pandemic.

View: https://youtu.be/AoLw-Q8X174
11:45 min

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1185277569760784384

View: https://twitter.com/bermaninstitute/status/1185277569760784384?s=20&t=xbMsGRTxRT-B0jJMJSkq5g

The 15 participants in the Event 201 simulation included an interesting bunch:

1. George Gao, the director of the Chinese CDC
2. Hasti Taghi, a vice president for NBC
3. Avril Haines, the former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency
4. Chris Elias, a director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
5. Timothy Grant Evans, a former World Health Organization and Rockefeller Foundation official
6. Lavan Thiru, the director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore
7. Adrian Thomas, VP at Johnson & Johnson
8. Brad Connett, the president of Henry Schein, Inc., a major distributor of health care products
9. Jane Halton, an executive with Australia’s second largest bank
10. Stephen Redd, a top CDC official
11. Sofia Borges, a top official at the UN Foundation
12. Eduardo Martinez, a senior executive at UPS
13. Matthew Harrington, the COO of Edelman, a marketing and PR firm
14. Martin Knuchel, a senior director at Lufthansa
15. Latoya D. Abbott, a senior employee for Marriott International

Of those 15 players, 13 worked in the upper echelons of private organizations or government agencies that would almost immediately witness an exponential monetary benefit or the tremendous absorption of political power.

In The Real Anthony Fauci, author RFK Jr demonstrates that several of these individuals may have already been aware of the rumors surrounding an outbreak in China, particularly the Chinese CDC Director.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1582381991282212865

View: https://twitter.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1582381991282212865?s=20&t=ndkmguvVW4hDTcfirP1nGA

Now, due to sustained public interest in the origins “wargaming simulation” that was Event 201, The Dossier has launched an investigative effort into the event. We will start by investigating the planning and the immediate aftermath of Event 201, as this will provide clues about the motives and intentions of organizers.

In researching the social media chatter that occurred on the day of Event 201, The Dossier uncovered a significant, unreported social media post from the organizing body that may be interpreted as a reference to the coming pandemic. In the second tweet within this two part thread, the Hopkins Center refers to “ways to prepare for a similar pandemic” to that of their coronavirus simulation “in the future.”

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1185223727950241792

View: https://twitter.com/JHSPH_CHS/status/1185223727950241792?s=20&t=xbMsGRTxRT-B0jJMJSkq5g

Of course, it goes without saying that the Gates Foundation and The World Economic Forum (WEF), the sponsors of Event 201, were two of the most prominent pandemic policymaking entities over the last three years.

Through its control and funding of critical “public health” networks throughout the United States, the Gates network rapidly monopolized the Covid-19 response in America.


The World Economic Forum, for its part, became enormously influential in crafting and advertising the “Great Reset” and “ Build Back Better” narratives that would justify massive governmental power grabs in the name of recovering from a pandemic. During the pandemic era, the WEF has functioned as a narrative and ideas disseminator for the global ruling class.
Information distributed by organizers in the run up to Event 201 shows that it cannot accurately be categorized as a simulation, because the conclusion was already determined prior to the event.

In the days leading up to the power brokers’ get together in New York City, organizers from the WEF and the Gates Foundation already made it clear that this was no free flowing exercise, but an event specifically devised to lobby decision makers into taking action.

On October 15, 2019, three days before Event 201, the WEF fired off a press release outlining its objectives.


"We are in a new era of epidemic risk, where essential public-private cooperation remains challenged, despite being necessary to mitigate risk and impact” said Arnaud Bernaert, Head of Shaping the Future of Health and Health Care at the World Economic Forum (not making up that title). “Now is the time to scale up cooperation between national governments, key international institutions and critical industries, to enhance global capacity for preparedness and response.”

When the WEF refers to “public-private cooperation,” what they mean is that governments must co-opt private power into a technocratic elite to advance more central authority. These tenets are made clear in the several books published by WEF President Klaus Schwab, such as “Covid-19 The Great Reset” and the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

Chris Elias, President of Global Development at the Gates Foundation, added:
"We live in an increasingly interconnected world, and we must help all UN member states align with the International Health Regulations and be prepared to prevent, detect, and respond to acute outbreaks.If we fail to do so, the world will be unprepared for the next pandemic."

Just days later, the Hopkins center released the Global Health Security Index, a project that was led by former Obama Admin Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, was funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Following the “simulation,” organizers published a list of seven comprehensive recommendations, which The Dossier has made available for download below.

200117 Publicprivatepandemiccalltoaction
209KB ∙ PDF File
Download

The notable “recommendations” included the WEF-Gates advocacy themes of centralizing authority, silencing dissent (which organizers refer to as misinformation and disinformation), and co-opting private and public power.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1185219390138134530

View: https://twitter.com/Iplaywithgerms/status/1185219390138134530?s=20&t=xbMsGRTxRT-B0jJMJSkq5g

The record clearly demonstrates that Event 201 was not by any means an open “pandemic planning exercise” or even a wargaming event, and there are now indications that parties to the event may have had prior knowledge about a coming global shakeup.

This is only the beginning of The Dossier’s investigation into Event 201. Was the WEF-Gates production merely an impeccably timed coincidence, or are these powerful parties to the Event 201 affair hiding the truth from the public?

 

[marsh]

Journalism in Crisis: The War on Dissent

Renowned Journalist and Author Whitney Webb discusses Information Warfare, Censorship, and Mercenary Journalism

rwmalonemd.substack.com

Journalism in Crisis: The War on Dissent

Renowned Journalist and Author Whitney Webb discusses Information Warfare, Censorship, and Mercenary Journalism

Robert W Malone MD, MS
4 hr ago

The transcript and voiceover is from Whitney Webb’s Speech to the First Annual Children’s Health Defense Conference, October, 2022

Introduction and Background
For years, the censorship of factual information that is inconvenient to certain powerful actors, including the US Federal Government and Big Pharma, has been steadily increasing as “information warfare” has become an ever present force in our lives.

In a world where what were once obvious truths are under attack, even the very definitions of “journalist” and “journalism” have themselves become controversial and contested. Too often in this “information war”, the first casualty is the truth itself. Facts are rarely treated as sacred by the world’s largest and most influential media outlets, but instead are treated as something to be twisted and manipulated for the benefit of their paying sponsors. In this environment, too many media personalities have become mercenaries for hire and, as a consequence, public trust in the media is cratering. Meanwhile, those who do aim to champion truth in their work are targeted, smeared and censored by tech companies and platforms aligned with “mercenary media”, unaccountable intelligence services, and out of control oligarchs.

The following essay focuses on the ongoing insidious effort to normalize the censorship of factual information, the historical context of this war on dissenting voices, and how “journalism” today has increasingly become about protecting the powerful rather than holding them to account. Potential solutions to this existential crisis in journalism are also discussed.

Journalism in Crisis: The War on Dissent
With each passing day, it seems that Journalism is becoming less of a profession and more of a war zone. Indeed the difference between journalism and “information warfare” is becoming increasingly difficult to pinpoint.

Whereas journalism continues to be defined as “writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation” – in practice, it has become a battlefield where the most powerful media outlets - that is, those closest to the centers of power – deliberately manipulate or omit facts to craft narratives that expressly benefit the powerful while also colluding to censor their more truthful competition. These media outlets act as mercenaries, with little or no regard for how their actions negatively impact our society and distort reality. Their allegiances lie not with the public, but with those with the deepest pockets.

In doing so, in many cases these media mercenaries actively work to suppress the facts and malign those in journalism who do strive to champion the truth above all else. Instead of holding the powerful to account, many so-called journalists today act more as accessories to the crimes committed by the powerful against the public.

Objective presentation of the facts, as far as the bulk of mainstream media is concerned, is dead and has been dead for some time. As a consequence, public trust in these media outlets has completely cratered. Yet, even the ostensible challenge to mainstream media, so-called independent or alternative media, is often troubled by similar issues, as the quest for clicks and fame can often supersede objective, factual reporting even outside the bounds of mainstream media. As a result, navigating the world of journalism has never been more difficult or more precarious than it is right now.

But if some get their way, navigating the media landscape in search of truth will soon become impossible. There are major efforts, years in the making, to censor dissenting opinions under the guise of censoring “misinformation.” As many readers are undoubtedly aware, what was last year’s “misinformation” with respect to COVID-19 injections has only recently undergone a dramatic change into “breaking news.” Yet, many of us who were right all along and were censored when factual information that is now recognized as true was erroneously labeled “misinformation,” have received no apologies or compensation from our lost income. In many cases, our old platforms have not been returned to us. The censorship hammer has not been wielded with incompetence, instead it has been and is being intentionally used to squeeze out those of us who would dare to speak the truth, no matter how inconvenient it may be at the time.

As the online censorship onslaught continues, it is becoming increasingly normalized. Growing restrictions, deplatforming and its other manifestations have become so pervasive that many have simply come to accept it as a “new normal.” This “new normal” for free speech is as insidious as it has been gradual, as we are being trained to accept unconstitutional limitations on what we can express on the websites that dominate online socialization.

The argument that is often deployed to dismiss concerns regarding online censorship is the claim that the dominant social media companies are private, not public, entities. However, in reality, the Big Tech firms that dominate our online lives, particularly Google and Facebook, were either created with some involvement of the U.S. national security state or have become major U.S. government and/or military contractors over the past two decades. When it comes to censoring and deplatforming individuals for claims that run counter to U.S. government narratives, it should be clear that Google-owned YouTube, and other tech platforms owned by contractors to the U.S. military and intelligence communities, have a major conflict of interest in their stifling of speech.

The line between “private” Silicon Valley and the public sector has become increasingly blurred, and it is now a matter of record that these companies have illegally passed information onto intelligence services such as the NSA, for use in what are blatantly unconstitutional surveillance programs aimed at American civilians. All indications point to the military-industrial complex having now expanded into the military-technology-industrial complex.

These days, one need only look at important government commissions — such as the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, which was headed by former Google/Alphabet CEO Eric Schmidt — to see how this de facto public-private partnership between Silicon Valley and the national security state functions, and its outsized role in setting important tech-related policies for both the private and public sectors. For example, that commission, largely comprised of representatives of the military, intelligence community and Big Tech, has helped set policy on “countering disinformation” online. More specifically, it has recommended weaponizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the express purpose of identifying online accounts to deplatform and speech to censor, framing this recommendation as essential to U.S. national security as it relates to “information warfare.”

There are already several companies competing to market an AI-powered censorship engine to the national security state as well as the private sector, for use against journalists and non-journalists alike. One of these companies is Primer AI, a “machine intelligence” company that “builds software machines that read and write in English, Russian, and Chinese to automatically unearth trends and patterns across large volumes of data.” The company publicly states that their work “supports the mission of the intelligence community and broader DOD by automating reading and research tasks to enhance the speed and quality of decision-making.” Their current roster of clients includes not just the U.S. military and the U.S. intelligence community, but major American companies like Walmart and private “philanthropic” organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Primer’s founder, Sean Gourley, who previously created AI programs for the military to track insurgents in post-invasion Iraq, asserted in an April 2020 blog post that “computational warfare and disinformation campaigns will become a more serious threat than physical war, and we will have to rethink the weapons we deploy to fight them.” In that same post, Gourley argued for the creation of a “Manhattan Project for truth” that would create a publicly available Wikipedia-style database built off of “knowledge bases [that] already exist inside many countries’ intelligence agencies for national security purposes.” Gourley wrote that “this effort would be ultimately about building and enhancing our collective intelligence and establishing a baseline for what’s true or not.” In other words, Gourley says we should let the CIA tell us what is true and what is false. He concludes his blog post by stating that “in 2020, we will begin to weaponize truth.” And, two years later, it seems that Gourley was right. That is what they have done.

Since that year, Primer has been under contract with the U.S. military to “develop the first-ever machine learning platform to automatically identify and assess suspected disinformation.” That the term “suspected disinformation” was used is no accident, as many instances of online censorship have involved merely assertions, as opposed to confirmations, that censored speech, including censored journalism, is part of a nation state-connected or “bad actor”-connected disinformation campaign. While those campaigns do exist, legitimate and constitutionally protected speech that deviates from the “official” or government-sanctioned narrative are frequently censored under these metrics, often with little to no ability to meaningfully appeal the censor’s decision. In other cases, posts “suspected” of being disinformation or that which are flagged as such (sometimes erroneously) by social media algorithms, are removed or hidden from public view without the poster’s knowledge.

In addition, “suspected disinformation” can be used to justify the censorship of speech that is inconvenient for particular governments, corporations and groups, as there is no need to have evidence or present a coherent case that said content is disinformation — one must only cast suspicion upon it in order to have it censored. Further complicating this issue is the fact that some claims initially labeled “disinformation” later become accepted fact or recognized as legitimate speech. This has happened on more than one occasion during the COVID-19 crisis, where journalists had their accounts deleted or their content censored merely for broaching issues like the lab-leak hypothesis as well as questions over mask and vaccine efficacy, among many other issues. A year or two later, much of this supposed “disinformation” has since become acknowledged as legitimate avenues of journalistic inquiry. The initial bout of blanket censorship on these topics was done at the behest of public and private actors alike due to their inconvenience to what had once been the prevailing narrative.

In what appears to be the apparent fulfillment of Primer AI’s pleas, the Biden administration has recently announced a push to “increase digital literacy” among the American public, while censoring also “harmful content” disseminated by so-called “domestic terrorists” as well as by “hostile foreign powers seeking to undermine American democracy.” The latter is a clear reference to the claim that critical reporting of U.S. government policy, particularly its military and intelligence activities abroad, is synonymous with “Russian disinformation,” a now-discredited claim that has been used to heavily censor independent media.

Regarding “increasing digital literacy,” the policy documents from the Biden administration make it clear that this refers to a new “digital literacy” education curriculum that is currently being developed by the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S.’ domestically-focused intelligence agency, for a domestic audience. This “digital literacy” initiative would have previously violated U.S. law, until the Obama administration worked with Congress to repeal the Smith-Mundt Act, which lifted the World War II-era ban on the U.S. government directing propaganda at domestic audiences.

The Biden administration’s war on domestic terror policy also makes it clear that the censorship, as described above, is part of a “broader priority” of the administration, which it defines as follows:

“[…] enhancing faith in government and addressing the extreme polarization, fueled by a crisis of disinformation and misinformation often channeled through social media platforms, which can tear Americans apart and lead some to violence.”

In other words, fostering trust in government while simultaneously censoring “polarizing” voices who distrust or criticize the government is a key policy goal behind the Biden administration’s domestic-terror strategy. In addition, this statement implies that Americans not agreeing with each other is problematic and frames that disagreement as a driver of violence, as opposed to a normal occurrence in a supposed democracy that has constitutional protections for freedom of speech. From this framing, it is implied that such violence can only be stopped if all Americans trust the government and agree with its narratives and “truths.” Framing deviations from these narratives as national security threats, as is done in this policy document, invites the labeling of non-conforming speech as “violence” or as “inciting violence” through the fomentation of disagreement. As a result, those who post non-conforming speech online may soon find themselves being labeled as “terrorists” by the state if this policy is not reversed.

So what does this mean for journalists? Must all journalists conform to government-approved talking points lest they be accused of “inciting violence” and “terrorism”? If a journalist reports truthful information that makes the public angry at certain government institutions, are they to be deemed a national security threat in such a framework? While such a scenario may seem fantastical to some, one need look no further than the case of Julian Assange, who is currently being treated as a terrorist for publishing factual information that was inconvenient to powerful factions that manage the American empire.

Information warfare, when waged by the powers that be in this country, is a war on the truth. It is a war to replace the truth with a narrative that supports their needs, not ours. It is a war to distort reality and to manipulate the public to support policies that are against their best interests. While they may frame such measures as necessary to “protect” democracy, the elimination and imminent criminalization of legitimate speech and legitimate journalism is the true threat to democracy, one that should deeply disturb all Americans. If the national security state controls and enforces the only permissible narratives and the only permitted version of the “truth,” whether for journalists or everyday Americans, they will then also control human perception, and — as a consequence — human behavior. One could argue that this is the ultimate goal of so much of what we are facing today – total control over human behavior.

Thankfully, for those that seek to “weaponize” the truth and stamp out dissent, the truth is not as easily manipulated and distorted as they may think. At a visceral level, people gravitate towards the truth. They may succeed in hiding the truth from many or even most of us for a time, but – once it comes out – it spreads like wildfire. Governments around the world, the biggest media outlets in the world and even groups like the World Economic Forum are desperate to “rebuild trust” with the public. Despite these efforts, polls indicate that the public trusts them less than ever before. They may deplatform the truth, they may censor the truth and they may imprison those who tell the truth or label them terrorists – but their lies and their distortions can never, ever replace it.