GOV/MIL Main "Great Reset" Thread

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Hillary Clinton: Pelosi Attack Part Of “Racism, Misogyny, Antisemitism” Embraced By Conservatives


“We’re seeing a whole political party and those who support it, those who enable it, those who run under its banner engaging in behavior that is so dangerous”

Published 14 hours ago on 2 November, 2022 Steve Watson

MSNBC’s perpetual race baiter Joy Reid hosted Hillary Clinton Tuesday, who immediately suggested that the mysterious attack on Paul Pelosi, which was seemingly carried out by a whacked out left wing hippy, is part of the violent racism enabled by conservatives… or something.

“I wonder if you can just tell me how the attack on Paul Pelosi struck you?” Reid asked Clinton, adding “And what did it tell you about the state of the right in this country and the hate toward a powerful woman?”

Talk about framing the question.

“There’s always been a streak of violence, of racism, misogyny, antisemitism, as you have said,” Clinton replied.

Video on website 10:00 min

“The horrific attack is not just an aberration, where one or two people or a small group engage in that kind of violent rhetoric and urge people to take action against political figures like her, like me, like others,” Clinton said, as if it was really Nancy Pelosi that was attacked.

Hillary continued, “We’re seeing a whole political party and those who support it, those who enable it, those who run under its banner engaging in behavior that is so dangerous and I find, frankly, disqualifying for people who are running for office.”

“This midterm election, we have seen a lot of ads by Republicans running for everything touting crime,” Clinton proclaimed, adding “Crime is the issue. But when an 82-year-old man is attacked by an intruder in his own home, they don’t seem to be too bothered by that, because that person is married to the speaker of the House, who’s of a different political party.”

“Like I said, the Republicans have been talking about nothing but crime, when a crime is committed against Paul Pelosi, they could care less,” she further stated.

“And so ask yourselves, please, why would you entrust power to people who are either themselves unable to see how terrible it is that someone would be attacked in their home or don’t really care because they think it will somehow get them votes that will get them elected?” Clinton further questioned.

“So the Republicans talk a good game, but they rarely do anything, other than try to take away your freedoms, undermine the quality of our life, make our political discourse violent, instead of bringing people together,” Clinton charged.

Pot, kettle, black.

As we highlighted earlier, GOP Senator Rand Paul noted that barely anyone within the Democratic Party has actually genuinely expressed sympathy for Paul Pelosi.

“All the left wing is doing, all the Democrats are doing, are trying to make this about politics,” Paul noted, adding that when he was violently attacked in 2017 he was mocked, and still is, by the left.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
(UK)

UK Gov't "War Gamed" Emergency Plans For Multi-Day Power Blackouts; Leaked Docs Reveal​

WEDNESDAY, NOV 02, 2022 - 11:45 PM

The Guardian has obtained documents marked "official sensitive," which show the government has "war-gamed" emergency plans for power blackouts lasting up to a week.

Documents are not for public consumption, warn a "reasonable worst-case scenario" power blackout would roil all segments of the economy. Transport, food, water supply, communications, and energy would grind to a halt.

In such a scenario, the government will provide citizens with food, water, and shelter if power blackouts last more than several days.

Earlier this week, UK's Met Office published a three-month outlook for winter. Despite warm weather today, temperatures are expected to be colder than average as the heating season begins shortly:

"The likelihood of a colder three-month period overall is slightly greater than normal," the forecasts said.

Preparing for the inevitable crisis has already begun. Whitehall officials' secret plan, dubbed "Programme Yarrow," has held a number of exercises with government departments and councils across the country in recent weeks to stress test collaboration efforts.

We first caught wind of increasing power blackout risks across the UK in early October when the British National Grid warned there might not be enough natural gas and electric imports from other parts of Europe later in the cold season.

"We're heading into winter in an unprecedented situation. Even during the cold war, the Soviet Union kept the gas flowing so it's very unpredictable," said one senior industry source.

The Guardian said government insiders have admitted to planning exercises and preparing for the inevitable as an energy crisis is unavoidable this winter.

"All governments do contingency planning for worst-case scenarios but the truth is that we are vulnerable as a country as a direct consequence of a decade of failed Conservative energy policy.

"Banning onshore wind, slashing investment in energy efficiency, stalling nuclear and closing gas storage have led to higher bills and reliance on gas imports, leaving us more exposed to the impact of Putin's use of energy as a geopolitical weapon," Ed Miliband, the shadow climate secretary, said.


Last month, The Guardian revealed secret scripts prepared for BBC news anchors to read on air if rolling blackouts strike the country. The purpose of the talking points is to calm the public during a "major loss of power" event.

Only analog FM radio stations will broadcast messages to the population during a national emergency because power grid failures would cripple communication networks.

One source made it clear that Brits aren't supposed to know about Programme Yarrow:

"The government doesn't want any publicity on Yarrow, as they don't want it to be seen as linked to Ukraine, energy supply and the cost of living. But we need to think about how we can help people in advance. The fact they're talking about it now means they have a real concern it could happen."

The good news so far is that weather has been on the warm side across the UK for October but is set to slide from here as the heating season begins.



How many cold snaps will it take for the UK to stumble into a situation where it might have to ration power?
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Russia To Present 'Evidence' UK Special Forces Behind Crimea Attacks

THURSDAY, NOV 03, 2022 - 01:15 AM

Moscow says it has firm evidence that Britain's military assisted with last weekend's large-scale drone attack on its Black Sea fleet off Crimea.

Russia said it plans to summon the British ambassador "in the near future" in order to present "evidence" the UK was behind the operation, which had threatened to collapse the UN-brokered Ukrainian grain export deal.

While Russia has on Wednesday announced it is re-entering the grain deal after receiving "guarantees" from Ukraine and Turkey, it is still pointing the finger at London for sending "specialists" to help Kiev forces launch Saturday's drone attack.

Kremlin officials have yet to provide proof, but stated the following on Wednesday:

"The U.K. ambassador will be summoned and will be given the appropriate materials," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, adding the meeting would take place "in the near future."​
"The basic materials will be handed over as evidence to the British side and will also be shown to the general public," she added.​

Zakharova then said the evidence will be published for the world to see, following a blistering Saturday statement which alleged the Ukrainian army launched the drone attack "under the leadership of British specialists in the city of Ochakiv" in southern Ukraine.

As for the major drone operation, which likely damaged multiple Russian Navy vessels, The Guardian described based on videos which emerged of some of the attacks:

Russia’s Black Sea flagship vessel, the Admiral Makarov, was damaged and possibly disabled during an audacious Ukrainian drone attack over the weekend on the Crimean port of Sevastopol, according to an examination of video footage.​
Open-source investigators said the frigate was one of three Russian ships to have been hit on Saturday. A swarm of drones – some flying in the air, others skimming rapidly along the water – struck Russia’s navy at 4.20 am. Video from one of the sea drones shows the unmanned vehicle weaving between enemy boats.​
Ukrainian officials said it was unclear if the Admiral Makarov was badly crippled, or had escaped with light damage. Unconfirmed reports said its hull was breached and radar systems smashed. Social media recorded loud explosions in the southern part of Sevastopol, in an area known as Riflemen’s Bay. A Russian navy school is located nearby.​

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1586356804673339392
2:10 min

It should be noted that Russia has also of late accused British special operatives of helping to plan the September sabotage attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic. The US has rejected these charges as "false claims on an epic scale."
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

The Next OPEC-Like Cartel Could Be In Battery Metals

THURSDAY, NOV 03, 2022 - 03:30 AM
Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,
  • Large nickel producer Indonesia sees merit in the formation of an OPEC-like cartel for battery metals.
  • Indonesia has not yet contacted other nickel-producing countries to discuss the idea of a cartel.
  • An Indonesia-led cartel for battery metals would likely face opposition from the EU, and the U.S.
The world’s largest nickel miner, Indonesia, is considering the idea of forming a cartel to manage the supply of nickel and some other key battery metals, similar to what OPEC does for oil. As demand for battery metals such as nickel, lithium, copper, and cobalt is expected to soar in the coming decades to meet the surge in battery demand for electric vehicles and energy storage, the idea that some resource-rich countries would take advantage of their mineral deposits and look to control part of the future market doesn’t sound outrageous.

“I do see the merit of creating Opec to manage the governance of oil trade to ensure predictability for potential investors and consumers,” Indonesia’s Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia told the Financial Times in an interview published this week.​
“Indonesia is studying the possibility to form a similar governance structure with regard to the minerals we have, including nickel, cobalt and manganese,” Lahadalia added.​

Indonesia has not yet contacted other nickel-producing countries to discuss the idea of a cartel, the investment ministry told FT, adding it was still working on a governance structure of a future alliance that it could propose to other producers.

Easier Said Than Done
Yet, replicating an OPEC-like cartel for the so-called energy transition metals is easier said than done. Unlike the oil resources of OPEC’s producers, the mining operations in Indonesia and other major nickel producers are controlled by various private companies or Chinese entities. Moreover, the biggest producers and holders of nickel deposits are a diverse group of countries with very different political and market conditions and unlikely to have common ground and interests in forming a cartel. Apart from Indonesia, producers of nickel include Russia, Canada, Australia, and the United States, although the U.S. doesn’t have a lot of resources or output compared to Indonesia, the Philippines, Russia, or Australia.

Indonesia and Australia hold the world’s largest nickel reserves, each with around 21 million tons, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Indonesia, however, is the top nickel producer, followed by the Philippines and Russia.

But Russia accounts for almost 20% of the global supply of Class 1 nickel, which is the grade needed for batteries, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Nickel is found primarily in two types of deposits – sulphide and laterite. Sulphide deposits – mainly located in Russia, Canada, and Australia – typically contain higher-grade nickel which is more easily processed into Class 1 battery-grade nickel. Indonesia, as well as the Philippines, have the laterite deposits of nickel, which is lower-grade and requires additional energy-intensive processing to become battery-grade nickel, the IEA said in a July 2022 report, Global Supply Chains of EV Batteries.

“Although Indonesia produces around 40% of total nickel, little of this is currently used in the EV battery supply chain. The largest Class 1 battery grade nickel producers are Russia, Canada and Australia,” the IEA said.​

Indonesia aims to develop its downstream nickel industry and banned exports of nickel ore in 2020. This move prompted an EU complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Indonesia’s decision to ban exports of raw materials used in the production of stainless steel.

Imagine what reaction an Indonesia-led cartel for battery metals would receive in the EU, the U.S., Canada, and Australia, for example.

The Indonesian ban has also prompted Chinese firms to invest in Indonesia’s nickel supply chain. Chinese companies have invested and committed some $30 billion in the Indonesian nickel supply chain, with Tsingshan’s investments in the Morowali and Weda Bay industrial parks being the most prominent examples, the IEA said in a report on the role of critical minerals in the energy transition.

Unlike OPEC producers, it’s not one state-owned entity in Indonesia that controls the production of nickel. Tsingshan of China and Brazil’s Vale are major producers of nickel in Indonesia.

Moreover, a unit of China’s battery giant CATL signed earlier this year a $6 billion agreement with Indonesian firms to cooperate on the Indonesia EV Battery Integration Project, which includes nickel mining and processing, EV battery materials, EV battery manufacturing, and battery recycling.

Environmental Concerns
Indonesia and its policies will be pivotal for the quality and quantity challenges in nickel supply, according to the IEA.

Most of the nickel production growth in the coming years is set to come from the regions with vast amounts of laterite resources, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, according to the IEA. These resources need more energy and emission-intensive processed to produce battery-grade nickel. High Pressure Acid Leach (HPAL) is gaining traction as a way to produce Class 1 products from laterite resources, and several such projects are being developed in Indonesia. But such projects have track records of large cost overruns and delays and require additional costs for acid production facilities.

There are also concerns about the environmental impact of HPAL as it often uses coal or oil-fired boilers for heat, thus emitting up to three times more greenhouse gas emissions than production from sulphide deposits, the IEA says.

Due to concerns over the environmental impact of the nickel industry in Indonesia, dozens of U.S. and Indonesian environmental organizations sent in July an open letter to Elon Musk and the shareholders of Tesla, urging them to “Terminate Tesla’s planned investment plan in Indonesia’s nickel industry due to potentially devastating impacts on the environment and the lives of Indonesian people.”

^^^^^
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Taking Apart an EV Battery Illustrates Why ‘Made in America’ Will Be Tough 4:17 min

Post #6,666
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Important to note is that production figures for the United States were not published by the source in order to "avoid disclosing company proprietary data". Reserves in the country are however recorded at 750,000 metric tons in 2021.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

White House Announces Days Before Midterms That Biden Admin Will Help Pay Certain People’s Power Bills

By Ben Zeisloft
Nov 2, 2022 DailyWire.com

WILMINGTON, DE - AUGUST 12: Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) arrive to deliver remarks at the Alexis Dupont High School on August 12, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. Harris is the first Black woman and first person of Indian descent to be a presumptive nominee on a presidential ticket by a major party in U.S. history.
Drew Angerer via Getty Images
The Biden administration announced on Wednesday, six days before the upcoming midterm elections, that the federal government would help pay power bills for qualifying low- and moderate-income households.

The administration will provide $4.5 billion through the Department of Health and Human Services to “help lower heating costs for American families this winter,” according to a press release from the White House. The funds will cover unpaid utility payments and “help families make cost-effective home energy repairs to lower their heating and cooling bills.”

Meanwhile, the administration emphasized $9 billion in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act that state and local governments can utilize to fund energy upgrades for 1.6 million homes, as well as various efforts from the Department of Energy to reduce power expenses.

According to the most recent winter fuels outlook from the Energy Information Administration, the average household primarily using natural gas for space heating will spend $931 on power from October to March, marking a $206 increase since last year. Energy expenses have been a primary factor behind inflation reaching four-decade highs.

Vice President Kamala Harris is slated to visit a union hall in Boston, Massachusetts, on Wednesday to discuss the new initiatives. “President Biden’s economic plan focuses on lowering energy costs for American families so they can keep their homes warm in the winter and cool in the summer, especially as communities across the country cope with extreme temperatures and volatile weather fueled by climate change,” the White House remarked.

The Biden administration has also announced the release of large portions of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the past several months, leading critics to argue that officials are merely attempting to reduce energy prices ahead of the midterm elections to improve the odds for their legislative allies. The national average price for gasoline surpassed $5.00 per gallon this summer, even though prices at the pump are currently $3.77 per gallon, according to data from AAA, marking a 58% increase since the commander-in-chief assumed office at the beginning of last year.

Midterm polling consistently shows voters have their eyes on the economy and cost of living more than any other issue. One survey from ABC News and The Washington Post found that 84% of voters identify the economy as their top concern, while the Republicans lead the Democrats by a 16-point margin concerning trust in handling the economy.

Another survey from Bankrate shows that 43% of respondents believe their finances are worse than two years ago, while only 18% say they are better and most of the individuals in the former category say Democrats are responsible. Among those who reported worse finances, 69% placed “at least a moderate amount of blame” on Biden, while 71% placed blame on Democrats in Congress. A smaller but still salient 54% blamed Republicans in Congress. Although 93% of Republicans with lower financial prospects said Biden is to blame, 30% of Democrats agreed.

Beyond moves to place downward pressure on energy prices, critics also assert that Biden’s move to cancel up to $10,000 in student loans per borrower comes amid worries that Republicans will take one or both chambers of Congress. In a lawsuit, the Pacific Legal Foundation contended that the debt cancellation is an “election year ploy.”
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

John Phipps: What Happened to the Work Ethic?​

Given today’s disconnection and selfishness, fretting over how people feel about work might be misplaced concern.
Given today’s disconnection and selfishness, fretting over how people feel about work might be misplaced concern. (Top Producer)

By JOHN PHIPPS November 3, 2022

The suspicion work ethic has been eroded in younger people has gained strength lately. Thanks to an insightful essay by Janette Barnard, one expression of this — “people don’t want to work anymore” — is exposed as just a perennial gripe.

There is only vague agreement of its meaning. To some it means “work hard and get ahead” or habits of diligence. But it is clearly a recent standard.

A QUICK HISTORY LESSON​

The work ethic required cultural and economic developments, such as the end of feudalism and slavery. If your work doesn’t belong to you, any ethic is hollow.

Another big trigger was the emergence of capitalism. Adding the moral aspect required Calvinism. Predestination theology suggested earned prosperity as evidence of spiritual rectitude.

Work ethic flourished under an economic system where labor was plentiful and learned by practice. Sheer effort could produce wealth and status (the origin of shop-floor-to-factory-owner morality tales). Less noticed was the work ethic lauded material rewards.

Compensation from hard work meant better food, houses, etc. In retrospect, we see the enormous benefits a work ethic generated for employers — motivated workers buying more stuff.

The happy feedback loop faded when workers realized occupational virtue was not just its own reward, it had be-come the only reward. New paths to prosperity created unexpected challenges such as cashing in on a viral video.

Wealth via celebrity or rule-bending makes the existing work ethic look quaintly clueless.

AT THE FARM LEVEL​

Agriculture is not exempt. The vanishing ladder from entry level to farm owner prompts suspicions there are too little ethics and too much work in our system. If an adolescent baled hay, that did not predict their future success so much as parentage did.

Meanwhile work changed from physical to knowledge tasks. Is somebody really working when they sit at a desk motionless studying a merger agreement? Is a farmer demonstrating work ethic while watching a video as the combine runs automatically?

Work ethic needs reconsideration in a world of maldistributed wealth, technology and lopsided power shares be-tween capital and labor. Ethic won’t be an expected virtue, especially for jobs that can’t attract workers.

Competing labor philosophies have arisen to satisfy worker discontent with tradition. Work-life balance and even employment satisfaction can redirect worker attitude. It turns out, work ethic might be more about the economics of labor than shared values.

Given today’s disconnection and selfishness, fretting over how people feel about work might be misplaced concern.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

EXCLUSIVE: Biden Admin ‘Perverted’ Trump DHS Arm To Surveil Americans, Former Officials Say

DIANA GLEBOVA
WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT
November 03, 2022

Efforts to track foreign mis- and disinformation under former President Donald Trump have since been “perverted” under President Joe Biden to increasingly monitor what Americans say on social media, former Trump administration officials told the Daily Caller.

Officials from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which was formed in 2018 under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), have exerted previously unknown levels of direct government influence over American speech on tech platforms, a report from the Intercept found.

The crackdown on “misinformation” has allegedly grown even after the dissolution of the Disinformation Governance Board. CISA, FBI, and other government officials have been holding monthly meetings with tech executives and even, in the case of Facebook, been given special access to flag posts online, the outlet reported, citing leaked documents.

Chad Wolf, former acting secretary of the DHS, told the Caller that the report “is very concerning” and that “the federal government has no business in monitoring or regulating the protected free speech of Americans.”

“It’s important to remember, it was Congress that established CISA with overwhelming bipartisan support. CISA’s mission is an important one but it now appears that they have expanded beyond their original mandate from countering foreign threats to looking at mis- and disinformation here in the U.S. That is a slippery slope and an overreach in my opinion,” Wolf said.

Although the creation of CISA in 2018 was “valid,” the body “should not have been allowed” to judge “the content of information,” former acting deputy chief of staff for the DHS under Trump, Lora Ries, told the Caller.

“CISA was created to secure the .gov domain and to communicate with the private sector regarding critical infrastructure. There are valid needs for those functions. The problems arose, however, when CISA staff left their lanes of authority,” Ries said. “What should not have been allowed is CISA entering into the role of judging the content of information, let alone directing others to remove such information based on disfavored content.”

CISA was involved in monitoring election information under the Trump administration, but was targeting foreign, not domestic threats, Ries continued. The effort to monitor elections at all, however, “was a slippery slope easily abused. It is similar to ‘fact-checking,'” she said.

“CISA is supposed to be a collaborative organization, not one to declare whether an election was secure. As such, CISA should point people to their state election officials regarding election information,” Ries added.

The specific social media posts the Biden administration hopes to monitor for “misinformation” include those that cover the withdrawal from Afghanistan, COVID-19, U.S. support for Ukraine and racial justice, the Intercept reported, citing a draft copy of DHS’s Quadrennial Homeland Security Review.

Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in 2021 that the White House was “flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation,” but when pressed Wednesday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre denied that the administration was submitting misinformation for Facebook to censor through a portal.

The Biden administration’s CISA spearheaded its focus on monitoring the content of domestic information online as soon as they entered office, Wolf told the Caller.

In January of 2021, CISA officials renamed the Countering Foreign Influence Task Force (CFITF) — one of the key bodies countering disinformation founded under Trump and established “within CISA’s predecessor agency,” — to the Mis-, Dis-, and Malinformation (MDM) team, taking “foreign” out of the title.

The most worrying part of the Intercept report, according to Ries, is that the DHS “has lost sight of the real threats our country faces. It is not domestic terrorism. DHS is not prioritizing protecting Americans from foreign terrorism.”

“The Biden Administration has opened our southern border, allowing aliens from over 150 nations into the U.S. An additional 1 million known gotaways have entered the U.S. and the administration admits to apprehending about 100 aliens on the terror watchlist,” she continued. “How many more terrorists entered among the 1 million gotaways these past 21 months? And what will they do to our cybersecurity and critical infrastructure?”

Kash Patel, former National Security Council official under Trump and senior fellow at Center for Renewing America, agrees that the original purpose of CISA was warranted, but said that the Biden administration has “perverted” its purpose so much that Congress “will need to reform” it.

“Given how the Biden administration has perverted the purpose of CISA to collude with Big Tech to establish a domestic censorship regime, the next Congress will need to reform the existing program, reassign authorities, and provide greater oversight, while holding accountable all government officials who used this government power improperly to target Americans with disinformation campaigns,” Patel told the Daily Caller.

Former DHS assistant secretary under Trump, Alexei Woltornist, also said that an investigation is needed, and that “the partnership of the government with the private sector in suppressing free expression is nothing short of authoritarian.”

“This behavior from CISA is not particular to the agency but rather typical of any governmental body. I would be shocked if other federal agencies did not have similar arrangements with big tech,” Woltornist told the Caller. “This is something that every cabinet agency inspector general and relevant congressional committees should investigate.”
 

marsh

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Biden Admin Program Granting Venezuelan Migrants US Entry Quickly Filling Up: REPORT​

Daily Caller News Foundation logo

JENNIE TAER INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER
November 02, 202211:35 AM ET

The Biden administration is on pace to quickly meet its cap for a program to grant Venezuelan migrants legal entry just a few weeks after implementation, according to Reuters.

The U.S. has granted entry to around 7,000 migrants, Reuters reported, citing a source familiar with the matter. The program, which began in early October, will allow a total of 24,000 Venezuelan migrants to enter legally.

“It is clear that this orderly and limited way to live and work in the United States is providing incentives to Venezuelans to not put their lives in the hands of smugglers,” the source familiar said, according to Reuters.

The approval process takes hours or days and requires migrants to have a U.S. sponsor, according to Reuters. “It’s incredible,” Maria Antonietta Diaz, who is a sponsor to migrants through the program, said, adding that it shows “huge progress” for the typically slow legal immigration process in the U.S.

The program also attempts to discourage Venezuelan migrants from illegally entering the country by handing the ones who cross between ports of entry at the border back to Mexican authorities.

“These actions make clear that there is a lawful and orderly way for Venezuelans to enter the United States, and lawful entry is the only way,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said when the program was announced.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encountered over 187,000 migrants from Venezuela at the southern border in fiscal year 2022, according to agency statistics.

Neither U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) nor the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

STOSSEL: Here Are Some Inconvenient Facts About Biden’s Magical Thinking On EVs​

OPINION

Daily Caller News Foundation logo

JOHNSTOSSEL
November 02, 20223:39 PM ET

Electric cars sales are up 66% this year. President Joe Biden promotes them, saying things like, “The great American road trip is going to be fully electrified” and, “There’s no turning back.”

To make sure we have no choice in the matter, some left-leaning states have moved to ban gas-powered cars altogether.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order banning them by 2035. Oregon, Massachusetts and New York copied California. Washington state’s politicians said they’d make it happen even faster, by 2030.

Thirty countries also say they’ll phase out gas-powered cars.
But this is just dumb. It will not happen. It’s magical thinking.

In my new video, I point out some “inconvenient” facts about electric cars, simple truths that politicians and green activists just don’t seem to understand.

“Electric cars are amazing,” says physicist Mark Mills of the Manhattan Institute. “But they won’t change the future in any significant way (as far as) oil use or carbon dioxide emissions.”

Inconvenient fact 1: Selling more electric cars won’t reduce oil use very much.
“The world has 15, 18 million electric vehicles now,” says Mills. “If we (somehow) get to 500 million, that would reduce world oil consumption by about 10%. That’s not nothing, but it doesn’t end the use of oil.”

Most of the world’s oil is used by things like “airplanes, buses, big trucks and the mining equipment that gets the copper to build the electric cars.”

Even if all vehicles somehow did switch to electricity, there’s another problem: Electricity isn’t very green.

I laugh talking to friends who are all excited about their electric car, assuming it doesn’t pollute. They go silent when I ask, “Where does your car’s electricity come from?”

They don’t know. They haven’t even thought about it.

Inconvenient fact 2: Although driving an electric car puts little additional carbon into the air, producing the electricity to charge its battery adds plenty. Most of America’s electricity is produced by burning natural gas and coal. Just 12% comes from wind or solar power.

Auto companies don’t advertise that. “Electric vehicles in general are better and more sustainable for the environment,” says Ford’s Linda Zhang in a BBC interview.

“She’s a Ford engineer,” I say to Mills. “She’s not ignorant.”

“She’s not stupid,” he replies. “But ignorance speaks to what you know. You have to mine, somewhere on earth, 500,000 pounds of minerals and rock to make one battery.”

American regulations make mining difficult, so most of it is done elsewhere, polluting those countries. Some mining is done by children. Some is done in places that use slave labor.

Even if those horrors didn’t exist, mining itself adds lots of carbon to the air.

“If you’re worried about carbon dioxide,” says Mills, “the electric vehicle has emitted 10 to 20 tons of carbon dioxide (from the mining, manufacturing and shipping) before it even gets to your driveway.”

“Volkswagen published an honest study (in which they) point out that the first 60,000 miles or so you’re driving an electric vehicle, that electric vehicle will have emitted more carbon dioxide than if you just drove a conventional vehicle.”

You would have to drive an electric car “100,000 miles” to reduce emissions by just “20 or 30%, which is not nothing, but it’s not zero.”
No, it’s not.

If you live in New Zealand, where there’s lots of hydro and geothermal power, electric cars pollute less. But in America, your “zero-emission vehicle” adds lots of greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere.

Politicians and electric car sellers don’t mention that. Most probably don’t even know.

In a future column, three more inconvenient facts about electric cars.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

‘We Have No Choice’ Other Than Cooperate With China As A Partner On Climate Change, State Department Says​

NICOLE SILVERIO MEDIA REPORTER
November 02, 202210:08 PM ET

State Department spokesman Ned Price said Wednesday that the U.S. has “no choice” than to cooperate with China as a partner on climate change.

Daily Caller healthcare reporter Dylan Housman pressed Price on whether the U.S. approach to collaborate with China, a large coal producer, on energy is effective given that President Xi Jinping only mentioned climate change once in his 72-page report to the Communist Party of China (CCP) congress.

“We have no choice but to find ways to cooperate with the PRC when it comes to climate,” he said. “We’ve demonstrated our ability to do so in the past and in fact it was about a year ago at the previous COP where Secretary Kerry and his counterpart announced a joint agreement that helped us make tremendous headway towards our ultimate climate goals.”

“The decision by the PRC over the summer to suspend cooperation on climate for that reason was deeply regrettable, not only because what it represents to the bilateral relationship, one of those areas of shared mutual interest, but it was even more regrettable because of the collective toll that it would take on the international community on the globe,” he continued.

Video on website 3:08 min
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

‘Fraud On American Investors’: Republicans Plan Crackdown On Woke Investing Following The Midterms​

Daily Caller News Foundation logo

JACK MCEVOY ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT REPORTER
November 02, 20221:52 PM ET

Republican lawmakers will probe the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and large private investors for their role in pushing an environmental agenda throughout the financial sector after the midterm elections.

Republican Rep. Andy Barr of Kentucky, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, said that investigating the Biden administration and Wall Street’s use of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) principles will be a major focus of his committee if Republicans gain a majority in the House on Nov. 8, according to The Washington Post. The lawmakers argue that large financial institutions have withheld investment from businesses that they don’t consider to be eco-friendly based on their ESG criteria.

“My view is that ESG investing is a cancer within our capital markets,” Barr told the Post. “It is a fraud on American investors.”

Barr and other Republicans hope to force SEC Chairman Gary Gensler to answer questions on the agency’s proposed climate disclosure rule, which would require all publicly traded companies to disclose their carbon emissions and climate change risks, the Post reported. The rule could allow climate-focused investors to more easily discern the “climate risks” of certain businesses and pressure them to become more eco-friendly.

Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska introduced a bill in May to combat major investors’ influence and will continue discussing such actions with industry executives, his spokesman told the Post.

“We’ve become the loud noise in their right ear after all the screaming in their left ear,” Republican Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said about GOP efforts to push back against Wall Street firms’ climate-focused investment strategies, according to the Post.

Republican Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer of Missouri and ranking member on the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions told the Post that he wants to force BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street executives to testify in front of the financial services committee as the three massive money managers have used their financial influence to push companies to adopt their climate agenda and other political movements.

BlackRock, which manages nearly $8 trillion in assets, has been scrutinized by Republican attorneys general and state treasurers over its alleged failure to place the interests of its investors above the firm’s stance on climate change.

The Republicans are expected to take back the House in the midterm elections and will hold a majority in the House Financial Services Committee as well as other committees that can be used to probe the SEC, banks and asset managers.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

11/03/22

Groundbreaking: Study Details How Media, Big Tech Censored Doctors and Scientists Who Challenged COVID Narrative​

A groundbreaking new scientific paper published Tuesday exposes the suppression and censorship of doctors and medical experts who opposed and challenged the official COVID-19 narrative.

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

A groundbreaking new scientific paper published Tuesday exposes the suppression and censorship of doctors and medical experts who opposed and challenged the official COVID-19 narrative.

Published in the sociological journal Minerva, “Censorship and Suppression of Covid-19 Heterodoxy: Tactics and Counter-Tactics,” details the experiences of medical professionals who spoke out against public health directives, and how they responded to efforts to suppress them.

The paper was co-authored by a team of Israeli and Australian scholars, including Yaffa Shir-Raz of the University of Haifa in Israel, Ety Elisha of The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College in Israel, Brian Martin of the University of Wollongong in Australia, Natti Ronel of Bar Ilan University in Israel, and Josh Guetzkow of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel.

As noted by Dr. Robert Malone, himself an outspoken critic of COVID-19 “orthodoxy,” the publication of this article is particularly significant as Minerva is released by “mainstream academic publisher” Springer, a “Q1 journal in its subfield” of sociology with a “decent” research impact factor in the social sciences — meaning that it enjoys a strong reputation within its academic field.

Malone said the article also is notable because one of its authors, Yaffa Shir-Raz, “broke the story with video from the internal meeting at the Israeli ministry of health” on “how they hid many of the key findings regarding the Pfizer mRNA vaccine adverse effects.”

Media, tech companies played ‘central role’ in stifling COVID policies debate

The authors summarized their paper by stating that “the emergence of COVID-19 … led to numerous controversies over COVID-related knowledge and policy” and a “perceived threat from doctors and scientists who challenge the official position of governmental and intergovernmental health authorities.”

Describing this “official position” as an “orthodoxy,” the authors said the supporters of such policies “have moved to censor those who promote dissenting views.”

“Our findings point to the central role played by media organizations, and especially by information technology companies, in attempting to stifle debate over COVID-19 policy and measures,” wrote the authors.

This was accomplished by “widespread use” of censorship and of “tactics of suppression that damaged the reputations and careers of dissenting doctors and scientists, regardless of their academic or medical status and regardless of their stature prior to expressing a contrary position.”

As a result, wrote the authors, “In place of open and fair discussion, censorship and suppression of scientific dissent has deleterious and far-reaching implications for medicine, science, and public health.”

In a post on Substack, Josh Guetzkow, one of the paper’s authors, described how the study was conducted.

According to Guetzkow, the study was “based on in-depth interviews with scientists and doctors around the world who have faced censorship and suppression due to their views on COVID-19.”

Guetzkow said many of these doctors and scientists would be familiar to his audience, although their anonymity was maintained in the published paper.
He added that while “the current stark reality of censorship and suppression is also undoubtedly familiar to most people reading this, it will be news to many outside our circles.”

As a result, wrote Guetzkow, “We felt there would be value in having it documented and discussed in the peer-reviewed academic literature.”

The paper’s key finding is that “study participants reported being subject to a wide variety of censorship and suppression tactics used against them by both the medical establishment and the media, due to their critical and unorthodox positions on COVID-19.”

The “tactics of censorship and suppression” described by the study’s participants included “exclusion, derogatory labeling, hostile comments and threatening statements by the media, both mainstream and social; dismissal by the respondents’ employers; official inquiries; revocation of medical licenses; lawsuits; and retraction of scientific papers after publication.”

For example, participants reported that “mainstream media, which until then had seen them as desirable interviewees, stopped interviewing them and [stopped] accepting opinion pieces from them.”

Shortly after that, they were subjected to denigration by the media, including being disparaged as “anti-vaxxers,” “COVID deniers,” “dis/misinformation spreaders” and/or “conspiracy theorists.”

In addition, “seemingly independent ‘third-party sources,’” such as “fact-checkers” and other doctors, were used by the media to publicly undermine them — and others associated with them.

Online censorship followed for many of the doctors in question, who “reported being censored on social media networks (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Google, LinkedIn), including removal of “some of their posts, tweets, videos or even accounts.” This would be “accompanied by a notice claiming they had violated the ‘community rules.’”

Some respondents even reported being “subjected to defamation by their own institution, with the apparent intention to harm their reputation and careers.”

Others “received a clear message from the institution where they worked that they were not allowed to identify themselves with the institution when giving an interview or a testimony or expressing their views — in some cases as a condition of renewing their contract.”

Still others were “dismissed from their institution, or were notified that their contract would not be renewed,” or in other cases, “were summarily dismissed or disqualified from prestigious positions, such as serving on leading health or scientific committees, or editing medical journals, without due process or transparency.”

This often was done in cooperation “with the media,” making sure to “spread the information about those measures through them.”

Official inquiries were another tactic of suppression faced by dissenting doctors, “such as investigating or threatening to withdraw their medical license,” filing lawsuits with significant financial claims against them, or being subjected to police searches of their private clinics.

Other doctors and researchers said their research was “retracted by the journal [which had originally published it] after publication,” while many others had their submitted papers “rejected from journals (often multiple times) without peer review” or with the “review and publication process taking many months longer than typical.”

The paper’s authors said the tactics of censorship reported by the respondents “are consistent with those identified in Jansen and Martin’s … framework on the dynamics of censorship.”

The key components of this framework include covering up information, devaluing information, reinterpreting information, censoring information through official channels and intimidating those expressing such views.

‘Shocked and surprised’ — but ‘not deterred’ — they worked on building new communities

The article also detailed how the doctors and medical professionals who participated in the study fought back and challenged efforts to stifle their views.

According to the study’s authors:

“The respondents noted that their initial reaction to the attacks and censorship was shock and surprise, since for the first time in their lives they felt excluded from the scientific/medical community, attacked by the media and sometimes by their employers, and/or disparaged as ‘conspiracy theorists.’

“Yet, despite the censorship, the personal attacks and defamation, the dismissals, the damage to reputations and the economic price, all respondents nevertheless stated that none of it deterred them, and they decided to fight back, using various counter-tactics.”

Indeed, according to the study, “respondents stated that the censorship and suppression they experienced made them want to fight back and make their voices heard more, on the grounds of freedom of speech and their concern for public health,” and “made them even more determined and eager to expose the information that was being censored.”

Such counter-reactions included disclosing the act of censorship and the information that was censored, “use of alternative channels in order to spread their positions and views,” the “establishment of support networks with colleagues,” and the “development of alternative medical and health information systems … a kind of parallel world to the mainstream establishment.”

Alternative channels listed by the respondents included social media platforms, even if some felt “forced to open ‘secret’ Telegram or anonymous Twitter accounts.”

The study observed that “one participant noted it is absurd that scientists should keep secret Telegram accounts so that the government does not revoke their licenses or damage their reputations.”

In turn, social networks “of fellow scientists, physicians, lawyers and politicians with similar views and politicians” were “used not only to exchange information, but also to receive support and empathy from ‘outsiders’ like them, to make new friends and create a new community.”

Some of these new communities evolved into “new alternative platforms and organizations dedicated to developing and providing health information and medical treatments — including new journals and non-profits, instead of the existing ones, which they claim have failed and disappointed.”

This action, the study noted, “grant[ed] them a sense of hope and a feeling that they are building ‘a new world.’”

Study ‘got a lot right’ — Malone

Commenting on his Substack about the study, Malone said that while he did not personally participate in the study, it nevertheless “summarized much of what I have personally experienced.”

Malone said the study was imperfect and missed some important instances of COVID-19 related censorship, including “the ubiquitous Wikipedia re-writing of personal history,” the censorship of certain books by Amazon, deletions by YouTube of U.S. Senate testimony, and “the professional infiltration and disruption campaigns designed to destroy the American trucker protest movement and the medical freedom movements.”

However, the study “got a lot right,” Malone said, and “has documented that these attacks against medical care providers and medical scientists have happened in an amazingly coordinated fashion all over the world.”

Guetzkow contrasted his team’s paper with another recent paper published in “the flagship journal of sociology, The American Sociology Review,” as an example of so-called “cutting-edge sociology.” The title of that paper was “Online Conspiracy Groups: Micro-Bloggers, Bots, and Coronavirus Conspiracy Talk on Twitter.”
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Exclusive: The Dossier uncovers WEF-Gates Event 201 launch announcement from Davos 2019​

"The exercise will be called Event 201 in honor of the... potential pandemic."

Jordan Schachtel
7 hr ago

The Dossier has obtained the audio from the first announcement for Event 201, the Gates Foundation and World Economic Forum sponsored war-game simulation that took place in October 2019, in which a fictional coronavirus passed from an animal reservoir to humans, where organizers warned of a “similar pandemic in the future.”

The announcement was once available on the internet but pulled offline for reasons unknown. The Dossier has unearthed the audio clip that confirms the plan for Event 201 was hatched at the WEF’s Davos 2019. The theme of Davos that year was “Globalization 4.0: Shaping a Global Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

The remarkable similarities and the timing between Event 201 and the actual coronavirus pandemic has led to questions about whether the parties to the simulation had prior knowledge of what would happen in the coming weeks and months ahead. Moreover, the stakeholders who sponsored and participated in Event 201 would unanimously benefit enormously from the pandemic and wield monopolistic power in pandemic policymaking.

As the Dossier recently reported, we discovered that the first public announcement for Event 201 was made on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s 2019 annual meeting in Davos. Thanks to the work of our valuable online sleuths, we’ve obtained the recorded audio from the panel, which was not available online.

Before we get to the clip, here’s some background:
On January 23, 2019, Tom Inglesby, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, announced the plan for Event 201, in partnership with the Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum. His organization would later host the event in New York City just weeks before the pandemic broke out. Inglesby, for his part, would later become a senior adviser in the Biden White House. He tweeted out the announcement after he delivered his remarks. As the Dossier has reported, the first person to retweet the announcement was Ron Klain, who would later become the Biden White House chief of staff

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Inglesby made the Event 201 announcement during a panel on “Acting Against A Risk That Business Cannot Ignore,” which took place in the SDG (short for U.N. Sustainable Development Goals) tent at Davos 2019. The panel was sponsored by UPS and Johnson & Johnson. It featured top executives at J&J and Merck, the executive director of the Bill Gates-controlled Global Fund, and the president of the UPS Foundation.
1667517799306.png
The Dossier has transcribed some of the audio from Inglesby’s announcement “highlighting an upcoming event,” which is available in full below. Here are some of the interesting quotes:

Now imagine that in this coming year, with 200 epidemic events already straining resources around the world, we have an event two hundred and one. Event 201. But this event is the severe pandemic that we’ve all been preparing for and working to avoid and mitigate.”

“So how would the WHO and national governments respond if this occurred in 2019? What would be the impact on global business?”

“And could global businesses help national governments and international NGOs, UN organizations, to dramatically diminish the impact of the pandemic.”

“We are excited to announce that our Center is working with WEF (World Economic Forum) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to hold a major pandemic exercise in October of 2019 which will draw together global business and the WHO and national government to consider these issues and shine a light on them and see if we can identify paths forward.”

The exercise will be called Event 201 in honor of the, uh, potential pandemic. It will involve global business leaders, officials from national governments and international organizations.”

Bill Gates has emphasized over and over again in his public announcements how important it is to have security aligned with national government and public health in a pandemic event like this.

It has even led to the development of new vaccines and the stockpiling of vaccines, and major legislation has resulted.”

“To get a scope of the kinds of challenges and intensity of the exercise we are planning for October of 2019, we have a very short movie trailer that came … to get you in the mood of what this exercise is going to be like.”

*trailer clip plays*
Quotes from trailer:
  • “We are continuing our coverage of a new and deadly infectious disease.”
  • “The creation and intentional release of the clade-x virus.
  • “Federal quarantine on this scale is unprecedented”
  • “The question everywhere: when will there be a vaccine?”
  • “They know that we don’t have a vaccine yet. They want vaccines to be prioritized.”
  • “More than 40 countries are reporting outbreaks and many more are suspected of having cases.”
  • “What the world will look like when it’s done is still very uncertain.”
*Back to Inglesby*

“We know that exercises can unsettle people, can open eyes, and generate new action.”

The Dossier has provided the audio obtained from the full panel. The Inglesby announcement begins at 45:45 in the audio clip below. (see website)
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
Sonny Borrelli: Test Sample Of 100,000 Arizona Ballots Already Has 20% Security Failure Rate 8:49 min

Sonny Borrelli: Test Sample Of 100,000 Arizona Ballots Already Has 20% Security Failure Rate​

Bannons War Room Published November 3, 2022

(No summary given. We knew something was wrong and we kept digging and digging. The AZ AG basically folded the tent and bailed on them. Rehash of 2020 election. Now 104,000 ballot envelopes - already at 20% failure test on signatures. Still have another 1.5 million to go.
 
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marsh

On TB every waking moment
War Room: Sebastian Gorka 5:53 min

War Room: Sebastian Gorka​

RedpillUSAPatriots Published November 3, 2022

(Notes:MSNBC: If you have one party not accepting results, then you don't have a democracy. Weeks and months of lawsuits on elections that will not be settled. Gorka feels that it will be such a blow out, that counter moves will be futile.

Threat to democracy means threats to Democrat power. Fascistic. Biden's speech in a beautiful neoclassic building that is now over-run by homeless is a testament to what the Democrats have destroyed. )
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Darren Beattie: Kari Lake Will Serve As The Populist Leader Following The Trump Era
Bannons War Room Published November 3, 2022

(Finding another vehicle for Trumpism/nationalist populism or "Trumpism after Trump" that is more palatable to middle road Conservatives.

His reference article: A Star Is Born: Kari Lake Shows the Real Path to "Trumpism After Trump" - Revolver News
(read article on website)

EXCLUSIVE​

A Star Is Born: Kari Lake Shows the Real Path to “Trumpism After Trump”​

October 24, 2022 (1w ago)
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
Big Tech Was Found Influencing The Brazilian Election Similar To The 2020 US Presidential Election 2:21 min

Big Tech Was Found Influencing The Brazilian Election Similar To The 2020 US Presidential Election​

Bannons War Room Published November 3, 2022

(No summary given. Did not watch.)

^^^^
Tyrmand: Peaceful Brazilian Protests Are Voicing The Concerns Of Millions Of Brazilian Natives 11:08 min

Tyrmand: Peaceful Brazilian Protests Are Voicing The Concerns Of Millions Of Brazilian Natives​

Bannons War Room Published November 3, 2022

(No summary given. Did not watch.)

^^^
Biden Regime's CIA Director Issued Warning In Brazil, Meddling In Other Country's Elections - Tucker 3:38 min

Biden Regime's CIA Director Issued Warning In Brazil, Meddling In Other Country's Elections - Tucker​

Red Voice Media Published November 3, 2022

"You have no obligation to accept the results of an unfair election. In fact, if you believe in democracy, you shouldn't. But no one in Brazil is allowed to complain about it because big tech companies which had been effectively arms of the Biden administration for two years are censoring anyone who questions the election." - Tucker Carlson

"We're not speculating about this..." - Tucker Carlson
 
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marsh

On TB every waking moment
“Until Proven Otherwise” —Two of the Top Cardiologists in the World 3:58 min

“Until Proven Otherwise” —Two of the Top Cardiologists in the World​

Vaccine Safety Research Foundation Published November 3, 2022

"Until Proven Otherwise”

Two World Renowned Cardiologists Borge independently reach the same medical conclusions. American Peter McCullough, MD, MPH, and British Aseem Malhotra, MD state that their medical opinion is that the sudden deaths, especially in young people, are caused by the Covid-19 mRNA vaccines, until proven otherwise.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C5NKHlK11E
8:57 min

Their PLAN For YOU!​

OhCevGwV25_EkHsl-mrc7eHLxUpYbG-HZBcMvIS82hiO6Pt_6gFePr_Jo13ZcJWKe6BEjHwBuQ=s88-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj

The Economic Ninja
Nov 3, 2022

(Notes: Powell's raising of rates. Hit with you inflation, then hit you with deflation to destroy your finances and wealth. They want you to be a serf. The final rate or terminal rate is going up.

Crap is going to get real. Ninja predicts mortgage interest rates will climb to 20% The economy is collapsing.)
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2gaMKwnOok
8:12 min

They Literally Just Gave Up!​

OhCevGwV25_EkHsl-mrc7eHLxUpYbG-HZBcMvIS82hiO6Pt_6gFePr_Jo13ZcJWKe6BEjHwBuQ=s88-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj

The Economic Ninja
Nov 3, 2022

Wall Street Gives Up On Corporate Profit Outlooks​

TUESDAY, NOV 01, 2022 - 03:05 PM

By Jessica Menton, Bloomberg Earnings Watch reporter

Wall Street is finally caving on its forecasts for corporate earnings for the next couple of years.

For some investors, it’s still short of a capitulation in sentiment that would signal battered equities are getting close to a bottom.

Projections for 2023 earnings have fallen six straight weeks, by 3% to $233 a share for the S&P 500 Index, according to Bloomberg Intelligence data.

For 2024, the consensus has tumbled even more steeply: It’s dropped 19 consecutive weeks, by about 6% since mid-June to $253 a share.



Investors say it’s constructive that many analysts are steadily revising their view lower, after sticking to a rosy outlook while stocks sank into a bear market in the first half of the year. However, money managers like Dan Eye at Fort Pitt Capital Group say the gloom needs to deepen further before the market fully prices in the risk that Federal Reserve policy tightening will weaken the economy.

S&P 500 earnings forecasts for 2023 should be closer to $220 a share, almost 6% lower than the current consensus, he says.

“Earnings estimates getting slashed for 2023 is part of the bottoming process for the equity market,” said Eye, the firm’s chief investment officer.

“Progress has been made, but there’s still more work to do before stocks can bottom. It’s too optimistic to see earnings projections that high next year.”


The strong dollar, which erodes the value of overseas revenue, and slowing economic growth have been the key drivers for the decline in earnings forecasts, said Wendy Soong, a senior associate analyst at BI. That backdrop adds to the strain on multinational companies that are already grappling with higher inflation costs, she said.

Tuesday brought signs of surprising strength in the US labor market that will likely keep pressure on the Fed to prolong its campaign to tame inflation. The central bank is widely expected to lift its benchmark overnight rate by 75 basis points for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, and tighten further in December.

To JPMorgan Chase strategist Marko Kolanovic, the reset in earnings expectations may lead investors to seek an inflection point in the market, should they conclude that the Fed’s policy is working as planned.

That’s the debate that will grip the market in the coming months as investors sift through Fed officials’ comments and the latest inflation readings, while assessing the overarching risk: whether rate hikes push the US economy into a recession.

“Analysts earnings forecasts are starting to capitulate,” said Soong.
“From a valuation perspective, it’s better for stocks for sure, but there are still geopolitical and interest-rate risks for equities. Lower earnings projections won’t predict the stock market’s direction from here.”


Elsewhere in corporate earnings:


 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__ThIuqnrCI
14:18 min

Are Biden's LIE-FILLED speeches a JOKE or a disturbing sign?​

AMLnZu_JigBhSNHU1jYzFG0VQvXSee-mCSe60pw87sA6OA=s88-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj

Glenn Beck
Nov 3, 2022

Glenn is convinced President Biden thinks he's on Fantasy Island ... either that, or he has no idea what he's talking about. In speeches on Tuesday, Biden told lie after lie and made gaffe after gaffe — lies about the economy, the deficit, insulin, and even his own son. And Glenn has one question: THIS is the guy who's running the country? But it's not just Biden. Glenn reviews a new report from Revolver News about some strange things going on at the FBI ...
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Victor Davis Hanson: The Left Were The Mad Scientists – We Were Their Lab Rats​

THURSDAY, NOV 03, 2022 - 02:00 PM
Authored by Victor Davis Hanson,

As the midterms approach, one way of looking at America’s current disaster is that we, the American people, were lab rats. And since 2021, the Left were the mad scientists, eager to try out their crackpot leftist experiments on us.




The result is that the housing market is tottering on the verge of collapse.
As interest rates soar, our $31 trillion national debt crowds out everything else in the budget.

Inflation roars at a rate of 8-9 percent per annum, higher than at any time in 40 years.

Yet the prices of the stuff of life – food, fuel, shelter, energy – are far steeper still than the official rate.

No one is safe from thugs anymore – whether a commuter on a New York subway or the Pelosis in Pacific Heights.

The country reportedly has a 25-day supply of diesel fuel – the energy source that runs the nation. Meanwhile, we keep draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve of oil, a commodity we have in abundance but refuse to produce fully.

We never fixed the supply-chain crisis of last year, and so still face shortages of key consumer goods.

The labor participation rate is at a multi-decade low – given fat government COVID subsidies, the Siren-song appeal of staying home after the lockdowns, fear of COVID, and millions of workers with long COVID.

The post-Kabul Pentagon is quiet about the depletion of its critical stocks of weaponry.

We have sent billions of dollars’ worth in howitzer shells, javelin missiles, and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to Ukraine without replenishing our own arsenals. The Army’s recruitment rate is off 50% this year.

Our broken Navy is ossifying as China expands its fleet in expectation of absorbing Taiwan.

When we look to the president for an accounting for these madcap experiments, we get nothing. In the last few weeks, President Joe Biden has lied that gas was $5 a gallon when he took office when it was half that.

He falsely swears that he passed his student-loan amnesty plan by one or two votes when he simply signed away a half-trillion dollars in debt by an executive order and bypassed Congress.



Vice President Kamala Harris is our border czar, but she avoids the nonexistent southern border like the plague.

As the country depletes its petroleum reserves, she gushes about “solutions” like transforming the nation’s school bus fleet to battery power.

On the rare occasion she is allowed abroad, Harris has no idea what North Korea’s official name is, only that it is supposedly one of America’s staunchest allies.

We are now headed for a decisive midterm election. Strangely the hard-left architects of the last two years neither offer a defense of their failing agendas, nor agree to change them.

No Democratic congressional candidates brag about the 3 million people who illegally crossed the border.

None boast that they helped cancel key pipelines, reduced federal leasing of gas and oil, and shut down the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. None take credit for hammering investments in fossil fuels.

None preen over the no-bail and defund-the-police policies of left-wing, big-city prosecutors and mayors who have spiked crime.

None insist that an annual 8-9% inflation rate is a desirable spreading of the wealth.

And yet odder still, no Democratic candidate, state or national – and most certainly not Biden – offers to alter these toxic policies.

If they won’t defend what they have done, they apparently will not undo what they have wrought either.

No Democratic gubernatorial candidate wants one foot built of a new border wall. No House candidate demands that the Keystone pipeline be finished. No senatorial candidate calls for fiscal discipline to lower inflation.
Instead, they stay mute.

Biden mutters lies about MAGA extremists under every bed while daily offering yet another made-up tidbit of his fantasy autobiography.

State and national candidates either avoid debates with their Republican opponents or delay them in hopes they will become irrelevant since millions of mail-in ballots are already cast.

Rarely have voters turned over their country to radicals, socialists, and nihilists.

We did in 2020.


And once the Left took the presidency, the House, and Senate, they tried a deadly experiment on us the American people, their veritable lab rats.

It failed – and has now nearly destroyed us along with the country.

Yet in November the Left apparently demands more time for more experimentation on more of us. But to do what exactly?

Pass more no bail laws and promote more defunding of the police? Make the jails and prisons emptier?

More destruction of what’s left of the southern border?

More biological men overpowering women in sports?

More printing of money?

More cutting back on federal gas and oil leases and canceling pipelines?

Apparently, the only thing that will stop their mad experimentation is that they have run out of us – their once willing lab rats.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

20-Pound Turkeys Will Be In Shorty Supply Ahead Of Thanksgiving, Warns US Gov't​

THURSDAY, NOV 03, 2022 - 05:00 PM

Axios quoted US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, who warned in a call with reporters that avian influenza or bird flu continues to wreak havoc on the poultry industry and could result in a massive shortage of big birds at supermarkets ahead of Thanksgiving.

Vilsack said finding 20-pound turkeys at supermarkets in some regions across the country could be very challenging.

"Some of the turkeys that are being raised right now for Thanksgiving may not have the full amount of time to get to 20 pounds," he said, while addressing the Biden administration's concerns on elevated food inflation.

Vilsack said supermarkets should be well stocked with turkeys but finding a traditional-size one (15-20 pounds) in the next two weeks will be difficult: "It's going to be there, maybe smaller, but it'll be there."

The primary reason behind tightening supplies of big birds is the surge in avian influenza at commercial farms this year has led to the culling of more than eight million turkeys. In total, including chickens and turkeys, and other birds, 47.7 million birds have been killed across the country this year.

Tighter supplies mean consumers can expect to pay $1.47 per pound this holiday season compared with $1.15 last year. On Thursday morning, Walmart released a statement that it would roll back the prices of turkeys to help consumers this holiday season amid the worst inflation in decades.

On the retailer's website, turkey prices have been halved. But not all consumers shop at Walmart (or maybe they soon will) and will pay the highest cost ever for Thanksgiving items.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Chinese EV Battery Giant CATL Is Making A Global Expansion Push​

THURSDAY, NOV 03, 2022 - 03:40 PM

EV battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) is growing its global expansion yet again.

The world's largest EV battery producer, which had announced a $233 million factory in Germany back in 2018, has made several moves this year to increase its global footprint. Over the summer, it announced it would be building a $7.2 billion factory in Hungary. Now, plans for a factory in Mexico are also being finalized, according to Caixin.

The report also says that the manufacturer could be looking to expand with plants in the U.S. and Indonesia.

CATL was barely founded a decade ago, in 2011, but caught the tremendous wave of the EV industry in China (and its related subsidies). As the report notes, the company caught the government subsidy tailwind in 2015 and never looked back:

In 2015, CATL was included on a government list of EV-battery makers which carmakers had to source from to be eligible for subsidies. This narrowing of the field of competition helped the company hoover up the business from domestic and international carmakers riding the wave of growth. For example, CATL was chosen to be Volkswagen’s sole battery supplier in the country, CEO Matthias Muller told Caixin in early 2018.

CATL was able to seize this opportunity in part by achieving technological breakthroughs which made its products more competitive than its rivals. The company pioneered the use of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. Though these batteries are safer, they have lower energy density, meaning that EVs powered by such batteries have lower driving range compared to those using nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) batteries. But CATL managed to improve their density by redesigning the battery packs with fewer parts.


CATL's lead among the Chinese EV market is starting to slip, dropping to 47% market share in the first 8 months of this year from 50% in 2020, the report noted. China Aviation Lithium Battery Co. Ltd. (CALB) and BYD are two major competitors in China.

A source told Caixin that the company's outlook on the industry is “you either forge ahead or drift downstream.” The company will face substantial competitive forces in places like South Korea and Japan, and will have to navigate geopolitical crosswinds when attempting to enter markets like Germany and the U.S. The company is looking to upgrade its product lineup in Germany, the report says.

Washington's Inflation Reduction Act "includes provisions that stipulate EV-makers must source batteries domestically to enjoy subsidies" and in Europe, "stringent environmental rules could also present challenges".

But CATL has already started to make inroads with EV companies outside of China. For example, Tesla announced last October that it would use CATL's batteries in its cars delivered to global consumers, not just for cars in China.

Ford announced in July that it would "import LFP batteries from CATL for its North American electric pickup trucks and SUVs", Caixin wrote.

Liu Yanlong, general secretary at China Industrial Association of Power Sources, concluded: “By setting up production facilities, battery companies can better serve clients at their proximity by reducing costs of transportation and other logistics.”
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

"If You Believe..."

THURSDAY, NOV 03, 2022 - 04:00 PM
Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon
If you believe there’s nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool
REM – Man on the Moon

The REM song Man on the Moon, released in 1992, is a haunting melancholy tune, with Andy Kaufmann and his life and death as the focal point. For me, the lyrics always bring me back to the simpler time of my youth, when our antenna TV could get about eight channels, we had one rotary phone, one old used station wagon, lived in a row home, and a family of five could be raised on a truck driver’s income, with a stay-at-home mom.

It’s the references to the Game of Life, Risk, Monopoly, Twister, checkers, and chess, which invoke what we did for fun when we weren’t out riding bikes, playing stick-ball, roller hockey, or touch football in the streets. Were bad things going on in the world? Sure. The Vietnam War, Watergate, gasoline shortages and rationing, stagflation, and a myriad of other damaging challenges confronted the country, just as they always have throughout history.

One of the supposed historic moments in human history was the moon landing in July 1969, when I was six years old. I remember sitting on the floor in front of the TV and thinking how cool it was and how cool that I was allowed up at 11:00 pm to watch it. Another 600 million people were also watching. At the time, no one questioned what they were watching live on their TVs. It was the penultimate human achievement, with the goal set by JFK during Camelot before he was murdered by his own government, proving our technological superiority to the evil Soviets. To fail in this mission would have been too embarrassing to the leaders of our empire, only two decades into its infancy. I believed the official narrative up until a few years ago.

I don’t know whether Stanley Kubrick staged the moon landing on a movie set, or some other scenario, but my skepticism is based on something rather mundane. TV technology in 1969 was poor. Picture quality from stations a few miles across town were bad. The moon is 239,000 miles from earth. How could they have landed on the moon and broadcast live video that was as clear as if you were watching a TV show, when surveillance camera video in 2022, 53 years later can’t even reveal who placed those pipe bombs around Washington DC on January 5th, 2020.

The government, their media mouthpieces, and most certainly the plethora of alphabet agencies wielding the real power (CIA, FBI, DHS, etc.) in D.C. created the term “conspiracy theorists” as a way to cover up their diabolical Deep State plots to rule the world from behind the curtain. The CIA coined the term in the wake of the JFK assassination as a method to discredit critical thinking Americans who questioned the validity of the Warren Report and the government cover-up of JFK’s murder by rogue elements of the U.S. government.

This was not the beginning of manipulation of the public mind by men we have never heard of. As expounded by the master of propaganda, Edward Bernays, the manipulation was already taking place during the 1920s. With the advent of mass media technology, the ability of these malevolent Svengalis to sway the masses towards believing whatever narrative they spin has expanded exponentially.

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.” – Edward Bernays – Propaganda – 1928

Many of REM’s songs have a word salad feel to them, but bassist Mike Mills described how singer and lyricist Michael Stipe “came up this beautiful lyric that encompasses doubt, belief, transition, conspiracy and truth”. The title of the song and the lyric “if you believe” are ambiguous and can be interpreted by believers and non-believers. Those referred to as conspiracy theorists, the favorite term of the Deep State acolytes and their legacy media propaganda outlets, feel vindicated by the lyrics, while those who believe everything fed to them by their overlords believe the lyrics are making fun of conspiracy theorists.

I was twenty-nine years old in 1992, newly married, one year before the birth of our first child, working on getting my MBA at night, trying to move up the corporate ladder, and still ignorant of how the world was run by unseen men functioning as an invisible government.

I’ve always had a skeptical nature and knew in my teens that JFK was not killed by a lone gunman in the Book Depository building, but the hustle and bustle of life kept me from examining so called “conspiracy theories” on a deeper level. Through the 90s I was busy raising a family, working long hours, paying a mortgage, auto loans, tuition bills, and sports fees for my three boys. There was no time to breathe, let alone examine the truth behind how the world functioned.

9/11 changed all that. Something didn’t add up. Somehow the 341- page Patriot Act, creating a new agency and numerous new unlawful governmental powers, was supposedly written, and voted on within four weeks of 9/11. Only three Republicans voted against the bill – including Ron Paul, who I had never heard of at the time. The unwarranted invasion of Iraq in 2003 based on lies and propaganda, led by Cheney and Rumsfeld, was the straw that broke the camel’s back.



I began to read anti-establishment blogs and investigated the stories being peddled by the government, media, and Wall Street. I started reading articles and books by the likes of Ron Paul and other opponents of neocons, the Fed, the military industrial complex, the Wall Street cabal, propaganda spewing MSM, and the Deep State. I turned myself from a naïve member of the ignorant masses into an anti-government libertarian anarchist, who hasn’t believed a word uttered by any politician, MSM talking head, celebrity, or Wall Street beholden toady in the last sixteen years.

By early 2008 I was writing articles and sending Op-Eds to my local newspapers. During the summer of 2008 I was writing articles on Seeking Alpha and Financial Sense predicting a banking crisis, financial system meltdown and global recession. Shortly thereafter, Seeking Alpha and Financial Sense began censoring my articles and my “conspiracy theorist” credentials were minted.

I have believed less and less of what they have been selling as the years have progressed, opening my mind to the likelihood those who control the levers of society do not have my best interests at heart and are solely driven by a carnivorous desire for wealth, power, and control over the masses. I now approach life with an eyes wide open skepticism of everything and everyone.

I’m not a pessimist, but a realist who only trusts data I can replicate, facts I can substantiate, and people who make cogent fact-based arguments without a bias influenced by money.

The world is a scary place and the men constituting the “invisible government”, pulling the strings, and using their limitless wealth to buy off politicians, the media, the entertainment industry, academia, the medical industry, and so called “experts”, are satanically driven by their seemingly insatiable thirst for ruling the world. They believe their ends always justify their means. These sociopathic bastards don’t care how many people they kill or how many lives they financially ruin in their relentless pursuit of mammon.

They proclaim themselves to be gods, based on the power they can wield through their ill-gotten wealth. Their arrogance and hubris know no bounds.

We are currently living in an Age of Mass Deceit not seen before in human history. The advent of advanced technology and instant mass media messaging has provided these evil fiends with the means to spin their web of lies and essentially brain wash and /or terrify the ignorant masses into doing whatever they are told. The last few years have proven these psychological propaganda techniques, applied through the use of mass media, bought off politicians and “experts”, and a compliant sheep-like populace dumbed down by decades of government school indoctrination, has essentially destroyed western civilization, with the denouement of global war and depopulation of the planet still playing out.

As it turns out, “conspiracy theorists” like me and a slew of other critical thinking individuals, have turned out to be right on just about everything we have been saying for the last fourteen or so years. The Deep State acts as if disinformation, as defined by those engineering the false narratives, is a threat to the nation and has colluded with the MSM, Facebook, Twitter, and Google to suppress any alternative viewpoints, censor those who can disprove their narratives, and de-platform anyone who dares question their authority and approved storyline. DHS and the social media tyrants coordinated to throw a presidential election, which is a traitorous act and would be prosecuted in a law-abiding system.

During the Covid scamdemic, they achieved the goal set by CIA head William Casey in 1981. Everything the American public believed since March 2020 was false. Some people seem to be wakening from their mass psychosis formation stupor, but it may be too late. The damage is done, and the tens of millions of psychologically broken individuals are still malleable material for the Deep State.



We are nothing more than disposable pieces on a game board to those calling the shots and running the show. The game of Risk has taken on a new meaning from what I knew in my youth. There is now a new narrative being spun, where all the tyrants who demanded subservience to all government dictates, lockdowns, masking, social distancing, and being coerced into becoming guinea pigs for an untested, experimental, Big Pharma enriching gene altering therapy disguised and sold as a vaccine under threat of losing your livelihood, want dispensation and forgiveness for their crimes.

You weren’t allowed to say goodbye to your loved ones or attend their funerals, but the chosen ones dined at extravagant restaurants and allowed liquor stores and Wal-Mart to stay open. Your small business was destroyed, while Amazon made billions.

These murderous hypocrites killed thousands of seniors by knowingly putting infected patients into old age homes, killed thousands more by putting treatable patients on ventilators and Fauci’s remdesivir, killed thousands more by not allowing safe and effective treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to be prescribed by doctors, and have killed and injured thousands more by forcing a dangerous Big Pharma toxic concoction on tens of millions through threats, mandates and a never ending stream of lies. All for a flu with a miniscule fatality rate for those under 85 years old and not morbidly obese. This was the biggest scam in human history, perpetrated by Gates, Fauci, Schwab and their willing co-conspirator minions in the media, medical industry, and government.



These “experts” seeking forgiveness because they were just caught up in the “hysteria” of the moment weren’t wrong. They were lying from the outset and need to pay dearly for their crimes against humanity. Nuremberg 2.0 is the only thing that will satisfy myself and all the other dissenters who risked their livelihoods by refusing to go along. We were scorned, ridiculed, ostracized, censored, fired, de-platformed, wished dead by the authoritarian minded sheep who demanded compliance, and treated like outcasts by family members who believed the narrative hook, line and sinker.

I don’t believe. I think. And I don’t forget or forgive these feckless tin pot dictators. They have shown their colors and now that the tide seems to be turning, we must channel our inner Conan the Barbarian. We need to crush our enemies, see them driven before us, and hear the lamentation of their women.

They pushed their agenda too far and too fast out of desperation, as the financial underpinnings of their fake world order began to strain and crumble.

This desperation exposed their blatant lies to a vast array of critical thinkers across the world who have not been deterred in exposing the falsehoods on social media, blogs, and free speech websites. When the truth was censored and suppressed on Youtube, alternatives like Rumble, Bitchute, and Odysee sprung to life. When Facebook and Twitter banned truth tellers, new platforms like Gab and Truth Social were created.



Writers and doctors silenced by social media platforms, like Glenn Greenwald, Alex Berenson, Robert Malone, and many others gravitated to the free speech forum of Substack where they are free to speak the truth and earn money through voluntary subscriptions. If Elon Musk follows through on his promises, Twitter will once again become a free speech forum rather than the social media censorship arm of the Democratic Party and the Deep State.

I am under no illusions that the Republicans regaining the House and Senate next week will change the direction of the country. It would just be a speed bump temporarily slowing down our descent into the abyss. The Uniparty in DC, where both sides agree 80% of the time on frivolous spending, never ending wars, debasement of our currency, and limiting the rights of citizens, will continue to be funded and controlled by Soros, Gates, and other shady billionaires operating in smoky rooms where your opinions are not sought.

The authoritarians will not yield without a fight. This sign in the upscale Capital section of D.C. on Halloween tells you everything you need to know about these brain damaged loons. They remain your enemy.



If you still believe JFK was assassinated by a lone gunman; the official story of what really happened on 9/11; that Epstein killed himself and numerous celebrities, politicians, and financiers aren’t pedophiles; the Federal Reserve isn’t controlled by Wall Street; Klaus Schwab and his WEF acolytes are not trying to Reset the world where you will eat bugs, own nothing, and be happy; Bill Gates is not creating viruses and investing in vaccine makers, while buying up farmland, as part of his dream to decrease the “surplus” population; Soros is not funding the election of communists whose sole purpose is to destroy the cities and states they are running; scientific experts like Fauci are not swayed by the vast amounts of money they are paid by Big Pharma to fake their research and ignore the deaths from these products; Covid was not the weaponization of the annual flu with a billion dollar marketing campaign used to implement government control of the population, which will be expanded during the next engineered crisis; January 6th was an armed insurrection; Putin is literally Hitler and the U.S. did not blow up the Nordstream pipelines while waging a proxy war against Russia; a drug addict nudist from Berkley with a pride flag and BLM flag hanging outside his dilapidated bus is a MAGA underwear terrorist and not a male prostitute picked up by Paul Pelosi; and the Democrats are not cheating again in these 2022 mid-term elections, you are the real conspiracy theorists.



The believers choose to willfully ignore the facts either because they are deliberately obtuse as a mechanism to combat their cognitive dissonance, or they are compensated to support and perpetuate the false narratives of their ruling overlords. I understand my opinions and writings are nothing but a drop in the ocean as this tsunami rush towards our shores. But I will continue to fight for what I believe and will not bend the knee to the malicious forces who hate me and everything I stand for. I urge everyone to heed the wisdom of two of the most brilliant minds of the 20th Century and do your utmost to keep the truth alive.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-GaFn7Zke0
30:55 min

Saudi Arabia Just Sealed The Deal!​

OhCevGwV25_EkHsl-mrc7eHLxUpYbG-HZBcMvIS82hiO6Pt_6gFePr_Jo13ZcJWKe6BEjHwBuQ=s88-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj

The Economic Ninja
Streamed 1 day ago

(Notes: Collapse of the dollar. 51 years ago SA and US deal - US put certain family in place, bring in infrastructure to pump and promise to protect in exchange for sales of oil exclusively in dollars = petro-dollar. Gadhafi tried to sell oil in gold and was killed. Saddam tried to sell oil in Euros and was killed.

One year ago SA walked away from US dollar and sold in other currencies such as Yuan. Other countries noticed no consequences and started dealing directly with oil producers in other currencies. Trading outside of the dollar for commodities.

Russia faced with sanctions and cut off from SWIFT went with oil for rubles or gold and the CIPs (Cross-Border Interbank Payment System) with China. India ignored the sanctions, bought rubles -as did others, and bought directly from Russia. SA said they were going to jack up the price for the US by turning down the spigot, but told China and Europe that they would sell for less. )

^^^^^

Saudi Arabia Reiterates Commitment To China, Regardless Of U.S. Concerns​

By Simon Watkins - Nov 01, 2022, 7:00 PM CDT
  • Saudi Arabia last week reiterated its commitment to China as its “most reliable partner and supplier of crude oil,”.
  • MbS seemingly now sees the U.S. as a partner just for its security considerations.
  • Saudi Arabia's strategic pivot effectively marks the end of the 1945 core agreement between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia that defined their relationship up until extremely recently.
Apparently confirming the view of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) that the U.S. is now regarded as just another one of its partners in a new global order that would see Beijing and its allies share the leadership position with Washington, Saudi Arabia last week reiterated its commitment to China as its “most reliable partner and supplier of crude oil,” along with broader assurances of its ongoing support in several other areas. That MbS seemingly now sees the U.S. as a partner just for its security considerations, with no meaningful quid pro quo on Saudi Arabia’s part, whilst regarding China as its key partner economically and Russia as its key partner in energy matters, should not surprise the U.S. Back in March last year it was made clear enough at the annual China Development Forum hosted in Beijing, when Aramco chief executive officer, Amin Nasser said: “Ensuring the continuing security of China’s energy needs remains our highest priority - not just for the next five years but for the next 50 and beyond.” And yet, the U.S. is surprised by the apparent finalisation of the transition of Saudi Arabia away from Washington and towards China, which effectively marks the end of the 1945 core agreement between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia that defined their relationship up until extremely recently. This transition has been seen most recently in the refusal of MbS to take a telephone call from President Joe Biden in which he was to ask for his help in bringing down economy-crimping high energy prices and then in the huge cut in collective OPEC oil production that has only added to energy-driven inflationary fears for global economies.

Given the peremptory way in which the core 1945 agreement was ended by MbS, Washington is angry too, as was evidenced in the highly pointed comments from several senior U.S. officials at the time of the OPEC cut, including from Biden himself, who said that: “There’s going to be some consequences for what they’ve done, with Russia [supporting oil prices by leading OPEC’s 2 million barrel per day (bpd) collective output cut]…I’m not going to get into what I’d consider and what I have in mind. But there will be – there will be consequences.” Just before Biden’s comments, John Kirby, the national security council spokesperson, echoed official doubts on the future of the U.S.-Saudi security relationship, as he said that Biden believed that the U.S. ought to “review the bilateral relationship with Saudi Arabia and take a look to see if that relationship is where it needs to be and that it is serving our national security interests,…in light of the recent decision by OPEC, and Saudi Arabia’s leadership [of it].”

Apparently careless of these ramifications, Saudi Arabia last week stated that, in addition to continuing in its role as China’s partner of choice in the oil market, the two countries would continue “close communication and strengthen co-operation to address emerging risks and challenges,” according to a joint communique from Saudi Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and Beijing's National Energy Administrator, Zhang Jianhua. In the context of crude oil, according to Chinese Customs data, Saudi Arabia delivered 1.76 million bpd in shipments to China over the January to August period, marking an increase in its market share to 17.7 percent from 16.9 percent a year earlier.

Additionally, last week saw the two countries pledge to continue discussions on developing joint integrated refining and petrochemical complexes and to cooperate on the use of nuclear energy. Although flagged by Saudi Arabia and China as being ‘the peaceful use of nuclear energy’, the news just before Christmas 2021 that U.S. intelligence agencies had found that Saudi Arabia is now manufacturing its own ballistic missiles with the help of China – and given China’s long-running and extensive ‘assistance’ to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, as analysed in full in my latest book on the global oil markets - ongoing U.S. fears about what Beijing’s endgame might be in building out the nuclear capabilities of key states in the Middle East will not have been alleviated.

This latest round of talks and agreements comes very shortly after the signing of a multi-pronged memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Saudi Arabian Oil Company – formerly the Saudi Arabian American Oil Company – ‘Aramco’, and the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), which can be regarded as a critical step in China’s ongoing strategy to secure Saudi Arabia as a client state. As the president of Sinopec, Yu Baocai, himself put it: “The signing of the MoU introduces a new chapter of our partnership in the Kingdom…The two companies will join hands in renewing the vitality and scoring new progress of the Belt and Road Initiative [BRI] and [Saudi Arabia’s] Vision 2030.”

Crucially for China’s long-term plans in Saudi Arabia, it also covers opportunities for the construction of a huge manufacturing hub in King Salman Energy Park that will involve the ongoing, on-the-ground presence on Saudi Arabian soil of significant numbers of Chinese personnel: not just those directly related to the oil, gas, petrochemicals, and other hydrocarbons activities, but also a small army of security personnel to ensure the safety of China’s investments. At that point in early 2021, Aramco had a 25 percent stake in the 280,000 bpd Fujian refinery in south China through a joint venture with Sinopec (and the U.S.’s ExxonMobil) and had also earlier agreed (in 2018) to buy a 9 percent stake in China’s 800,000 bpd ZPC refinery from Rongsheng.

Several other joint projects between China and Saudi Arabia that had been agreed in principle were delayed due to a combination of the ongoing effects of Covid-19, Aramco’s crushing dividend repayment schedule, and concern from both countries – especially China – on how Washington might react to this clear threat to the U.S.’s own long-running interests in, and geopolitical relationship with, Saudi Arabia.

Just prior to this, June saw Saudi Aramco’s senior vice president downstream, Mohammed Y. Al Qahtani, announce the creation of a ‘one-stop shop’ provided by his company in China’s Shandong. “The ongoing energy crisis, for example, is a direct result of fragile international transition plans which have arbitrarily ignored energy security and affordability for all,” he said. “The world needs clear-eyed thinking on such issues. That’s why we highly admire China’s 14th Five Year Plan for prioritising energy security and stability, acknowledging its crucial role in economic development,” he added. The megaproject in Shandong, which is home to around 26 percent of China’s refining capacity and is a key destination for Saudi Aramco’s crude oil exports, will broadly involve the flagship Saudi oil and gas giant creating “stronger ties with the world’s largest oil exporter [that] would enhance China’s energy security, especially as we work on increasing our production capacity to 13 million barrels per day,” according to Al Qahtani. Aside from the fact that Saudi Arabia still cannot produce anywhere near 13 million barrels per day of crude oil, closer cooperation between Aramco and China will mean Saudi Arabia investing heavily in the build-out of a large, integrated downstream business across the country in tandem with its Chinese partners
Given the transition of Saudi Arabia away from the U.S. and towards China – and the senior Saudis do look at the issue in these terms, whatever they say publicly – there is also every reason to expect Riyadh to continue to back China’s efforts to undermine the power of the U.S. dollar in the global energy markets as well. Not only is Saudi Arabia now a prime mover in advancing the China-GCC Free Trade Agreement (FTA) – a key aim of which is to forge a “deeper strategic cooperation in a region where U.S. dominance is showing signs of retreat” – but also the Kingdom is now a prime advocate for switching away from the hegemony of U.S. dollars in the pricing of global oil and gas.

Just after China made a crucial face-saving offer to MbS to privately buy the entire 5 percent stake in Saudi Aramco that he originally wanted to float but could not entice Western investors to buy, the then-Saudi Vice Minister of Economy and Planning, Mohammed al-Tuwaijri, told a Saudi-China conference in Jeddah that: “We will be very willing to consider funding in renminbi and other Chinese products.” He added: “China is by far one of the top markets’ to diversify the funding…[and] we will also access other technical markets in terms of unique funding opportunities, private placements, panda bonds and others.” Moreover, recent reports state that long-running talks between Saudi Arabia and China for Saudi to price and receive payments for some of its oil sales in Chinese renminbi rather than in U.S. dollars have intensified in the past few months.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUN4NMpkOCA
13:35 min

Why a DIESEL SHORTAGE would lead to DISASTER​

AMLnZu_JigBhSNHU1jYzFG0VQvXSee-mCSe60pw87sA6OA=s88-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj

Glenn Beck
Nov 3, 2022

President Biden and the Democrats are doing everything they can to insist that you shouldn't worry about "petty" things like gas and food prices. But Glenn has another idea: It's not petty to look at the price of fuel right now, at your bank account, and at the looming diesel fuel shortage. Glenn breaks down how a diesel shortage would be devastating for America and why the Biden administration would be at fault. If that's not what you voted for, he warns, make the madness stop at the ballot box on Election Day ...
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Destroying Western Values To Defend Western Values​

THURSDAY, NOV 03, 2022 - 06:00 PM
Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,

So it turns out the US intelligence cartel has been working intimately with online platforms to regulate the “cognitive infrastructure” of the population.

This is according to a new investigative report by The Intercept, based on documents obtained through leaks and an ongoing lawsuit, on the “retooling” of the Department of Homeland Security from an agency focused on counterterrorism to one increasingly focused on fighting “misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation” online.

While the DHS’s hotly controversial “Disinformation Governance Board” was shut down in response to public outcry, the Intercept report reveals what authors Lee Fang and Ken Klippenstein describe as “an expansive effort by the agency to influence tech platforms” in order to “curb speech it considers dangerous”:

According to a draft copy of DHS’s Quadrennial Homeland Security Review, DHS’s capstone report outlining the department’s strategy and priorities in the coming years, the department plans to target “inaccurate information” on a wide range of topics, including “the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, racial justice, U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the nature of U.S. support to Ukraine.”​

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The report reveals pervasive efforts on the part of the DHS and its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), along with the FBI, to push massive online platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to censor content in order to suppress “threats” as broad as fomenting distrust in the US government and US financial institutions.

“There is also a formalized process for government officials to directly flag content on Facebook or Instagram and request that it be throttled or suppressed through a special Facebook portal that requires a government or law enforcement email to use,” The Intercept reports.​
“Emails between DHS officials, Twitter, and the Center for Internet Security outline the process for such takedown requests during the period leading up to November 2020,” says The Intercept. “Meeting notes show that the tech platforms would be called upon to ‘process reports and provide timely responses, to include the removal of reported misinformation from the platform where possible.’”​

While these government agencies contend that they are not technically forcing these tech platforms to remove content, The Intercept argues that its investigation shows “CISA’s goal is to make platforms more responsive to their suggestions,” while critics argue that “suggestions” from immensely powerful institutions will never be taken as mere suggestions.

“When the government suggests things, it’s not too hard to pull off the velvet glove, and you get the mail fist,” Michigan State University’s Adam Candeub tells The Intercept. “And I would consider such actions, especially when it’s bureaucratized, as essentially state action and government collusion with the platforms.”

1667530927805.png

The current CISA chief is seen justifying this aggressive government thought policing by creepily referring to the means people use to gather information and form thoughts about the world as “our cognitive infrastructure”:

Jen Easterly, Biden’s appointed director of CISA, swiftly made it clear that she would continue to shift resources in the agency to combat the spread of dangerous forms of information on social media. “One could argue we’re in the business of critical infrastructure, and the most critical infrastructure is our cognitive infrastructure, so building that resilience to misinformation and disinformation, I think, is incredibly important,” said Easterly, speaking at a conference in November 2021.​

Another CISA official is seen suggesting the agency launder its manipulations through third party nonprofits “to avoid the appearance of government propaganda”:

To accomplish these broad goals, the report said, CISA should invest in external research to evaluate the “efficacy of interventions,” specifically with research looking at how alleged disinformation can be countered and how quickly messages spread. Geoff Hale, the director of the Election Security Initiative at CISA, recommended the use of third-party information-sharing nonprofits as a “clearing house for trust information to avoid the appearance of government propaganda.”​

But as a former ACLU president tells The Intercept, if this were happening in any government the US doesn’t like there’d be no qualms about calling it what it is:

“If a foreign authoritarian government sent these messages,” noted Nadine Strossen, the former president of the American Civil Liberties Union, “there is no doubt we would call it censorship.”​

Indeed, this report is just another example of the way western powers are behaving more and more like the autocracies they claim to despise, all in the name of preserving the values the west purports to uphold. As The Intercept reminds us, this business of the US government assigning itself the responsibility of regulating America’s “cognitive infrastructure” originated with the “allegation that Russian agents had seeded disinformation on Facebook that tipped the 2016 election toward Donald Trump.” To this day that agenda continues to expand into things like plots to censor speech about the war in Ukraine.

1667531038614.png

Other examples of this trend coming out at the same time include Alan MacLeod’s new report with Mintpress News that hundreds of former agents from the notorious Israeli spying organization Unit 8200 are now working in positions of influence at major tech companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon (just the latest in MacLeod’s ongoing documentation of the way intelligence insiders have been increasingly populating the ranks of Silicon Valley platforms), and the revelation that The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal and Aaron Maté were barred from participating in a Web Summit conference due to pressure from the Ukrainian government.

We’re destroying western values to defend western values. To win its much-touted struggle of “democracies vs autocracies”, western civilization is becoming more and more autocratic. Censoring more. Trolling more. Propagandizing more. Jailing journalists. Becoming less and less transparent. Manipulating information and people’s understanding of truth.

We’re told we need to defeat Russia in Ukraine in order to preserve western values of freedom and democracy, and in order to facilitate that aim we’re getting less and less free speech. Less and less free thought. Less and less free press. Less and less democracy.

I keep thinking of the (fictional) story where during World War II Winston Churchill is advised to cut funding for the arts to boost military funding, and he responds, “Then what are we fighting for?” If we need to sacrifice everything we claim to value in order to fight for those values, what are we fighting for?

Dissent is becoming less and less tolerated. Public discourse is being more and more aggressively disrupted by the powerful. We’re being shaped into the exact sort of homogeneous, power-serving, tyrannized, propagandized population that our leaders criticize other nations for having.

1667531101490.png

If the powerful are becoming more tyrannical in order to fight tyranny, what’s probably actually happening is that they are just tyrants making up excuses to do the thing they’ve always wanted to do.

As westerners in “liberal democracies” we are told that our society holds free speech, free thought and accountability for the powerful as sacrosanct.

Our leaders are showing us that this is a lie.

The problem with “western values” is that the west doesn’t value them.

In reality, those who best exemplify “western values” as advertised are the ones who are being most aggressively silenced and marginalized by western powers. The real journalists. The dissidents. The skeptics. The free thinkers. The peace activists. Those who refuse to bow down to their rulers.

Our ongoing descent into tyranny in the name of opposing tyrants calls forth a very simple question: if defeating autocracy requires becoming an autocracy, what’s the point of defeating autocracy?
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

China Seeks to Influence 2022 Midterm Elections: Cybersecurity Chief

By Andrew Thornebrooke November 1, 2022 Updated: November 3, 2022

State actors that include China’s communist regime are seeking to influence next week’s U.S. midterm elections, according to the nation’s cybersecurity chief.

China, Iran, and Russia may all seek to influence or otherwise interfere with U.S. democratic processes, according to Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Jen Easterly.

“We are concerned about Russia and Iran and China trying to influence our elections,” Easterly said during a Nov. 1 talk at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.

“It’s a significant concern when you think about these adversaries who are trying to sow discord, that are trying to break us apart as Americans and are trying to undermine integrity in our elections.”

Easterly’s comments follow closely behind several revelations in recent months regarding how hostile foreign powers are attempting to undermine stability in the United States.

Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said in September that it had disrupted several Chinese and Russian influence operations. Those operations took place on Facebook, Instagram, and Meta competitor Twitter, and appeared largely aimed at increasing political polarization among Americans by spreading false and inflammatory posts about controversial topics including race, abortion, fascism, and gun control.

Likewise, a report published in October by intelligence firm Recorded Future found that China-based actors were attempting to influence the Nov. 8 midterm elections by undermining confidence in lawmakers who were critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and in the U.S. system of government itself.

Yet another report by nonprofit Global Witness and the Cybersecurity for Democracy (C4D) team at New York University asserted that social media giant TikTok failed to prevent 90 percent of political ads with misleading or blatantly false election information, even as the company claims it doesn’t allow any political advertising.

Easterly said the need to maintain strong cyber defenses against such operations is critical, and that the United States would need to be prepared for activity designed to cause instability.

“It’s not the time to put our shields down,” she said. “We need to be prepared for potential disruptive [and] destructive activity.”

“That’s what foreign adversaries want. They want to have disruption. They want to sow discord. They love the partisan rancor. They love the tearing apart of America.”

Easterly, who served 20 years as a U.S. Army officer, said that there were no credible or specific threats to election infrastructure now, but the types of influence operations seen recently could contribute to the growing number of other threats being made against Americans attempting to conduct the elections.

From physical intimidation to threats to misinformation, Easterly said the threat environment facing everyday Americans who work at the polls is more complex than ever.

To that end, Easterly said that securing elections is a nonpartisan activity, and Americans need to work together to protect the American way of life by increasing election literacy and ensuring safe and resilient conditions for poll workers.

“The federal government doesn’t run elections,” Easterly said. “It’s the state and local officials that run those elections that are on the front lines of protecting democracy.

“Election officials are not faceless backroom bureaucrats. They’re people who are dedicated public servants who live in our towns and our cities and our communities. They’re the people who we see at the bowling alley, the PTA meeting, the restaurant, and church.

“They deserve our support … They deserve to be safe.”
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

"Pivotal Moment" - JPMorgan Completes First DeFi Trade On Public Blockchain

THURSDAY, NOV 03, 2022 - 04:20 PM

Despite Jamie Dimon's infamous condescension of crypto, banking giant JPMorgan just executed its first-ever cross-border transaction using decentralized finance (DeFi) on a public blockchain.

Bloomberg reports that JPMorgan issued tokenized S$100,000 ($71,000) and then traded it for tokenized yen with Tokyo-based banking firm SBI Digital Asset Holdings.

Singapore’s largest bank - DBS Bank, and business leadership platform Oliver Wyman Forum also took part in the pilot program.

“Today was the first step to show that we can actually trade on these public networks,” said Tyrone Lobban, head of Blockchain Launch and Onyx Digital Assets at JPMorgan, in an interview.​
“The future is really working toward scaling this pivotal moment.”​

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“We clearly see what’s happening in the public domain and we can see how the innovation is creating not only new ways of doing financial transactions, but new types of products as well,” Lobban said, noting that the bank will explore using other blockchain networks over time, he added.

MAS Chief Fintech Officer Sopnendu Mohanty said the successful test was a “a big step towards enabling more efficient and integrated global financial networks”, and the latest pilot has helped develop the country’s digital asset strategy, adding that:

“The live pilots led by industry participants demonstrate that with the appropriate guardrails in place, digital assets and decentralized finance have the potential to transform capital markets.”​

While the transaction wasn’t a crypto trade, it used the infrastructure developed by crypto firms: the Polygon blockchain, which makes transactions on the Ethereum blockchain cheaper, and a modified version of Aave, a major DeFi lending project.

MATIC, a utility and staking token within the Polygon blockchain ecosystem, rose over 18% to $0.985 after the announcements, accompanied by an uptick in daily trading volume.

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Additionally, Goldman Sachs is set to unveil a data service created with global index provider MSCI and crypto data firm Coin Metrics that seeks to classify hundreds of digital coins and tokens so institutional investors can make sense of the new asset class.

“The digital asset ecosystem has really expanded over the last couple of years,” said Anne Marie Darling, head of client strategy for Goldman’s Marquee platform, in an interview with CNBC.​
“We’re trying to create a framework for the digital asset ecosystem that our clients can understand, because they increasingly need to think about performance tracking and risk management in digital assets.”​

It seems the bulge bracket banks are starting to realize there may be 'another way'. Are they readying themselves for a pivoting Fed's money flood sending crypto prices soaring as institutional investors seek any haven from the central planners' inflation?
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

MSNBC Meltdown: "Our Children Will Be Arrested & Conceivably Killed" If The GOP Wins Midterm Elections​

THURSDAY, NOV 03, 2022 - 11:45 AM
Authored by Jonathan Turley via jonathanturley.org,

Last night, President Joe Biden returned to his earlier claim that his political opponents are fascists seeking to establish authoritarianism in the United States. While the hellish red background is gone from his controversial Philadelphia address, the message remains: a vote for the GOP is a vote for tyranny. Despite polls showing citizens view the President as inciting political unrest and potential violence with such attacks, the theme was quickly picked up and magnified in the media. Presidential historian Michael Beschloss actually suggested on MSNBC that we could be just days away from an authoritarian hellscape if the GOP prevails in midterm elections — raising the specter of our children being taken away and killed.

If you thought that the election was being decided on the top polling issues of the economy, crime, and classic kitchen table issues, think again.

On MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes,” Beschloss went all in on the “democracy-or-death pitch” before the midterms:

“Six nights from now, we could all be discussing violence all over this country. There’s signs that may happen, may God forbid, that losers will be declared winners by fraudulent election officers, or secretary of state candidates, or governors, or state legislatures…

We could be six days away from losing our rule of law, and losing a situation where we have elections that we all can rely on. You know, those are the foundation stones of a democracy…

Joe Biden is saying the same thing tonight, and a historian 50 years from now – if historians are allowed to write in this country and if they are still free publishing houses and a free press – which I’m not certain of – but if that is true, a historian will say what was at stake tonight and this week was the fact whether we will be a democracy in the future, whether our children will be arrested and conceivably killed.”

So much for gas prices. The choice is now voting Democratic or lining up your children in front of a firing squad. (Strangely, it will only be our children and not adults targeted by the roaming GOP goon squads). However, it will all be “off-the-books.” After all, Beschloss warned Hayes, “we both write history, you and I” and he is not certain that “historians [will be] allowed to write in this country” if Republicans gain a majority in Congress.

In other words, there may be no history books, no living children, and no democracy, but feel free to vote your pocketbook, America.

At the same time, Democrats and the J6 Committee are pursuing those who engaged in similar inflammatory rhetoric leading up to the January 6th riot. The airways are also now filled with warnings from leaders such as Hillary Clinton that the midterm elections are about to be “stolen.” Likewise, many are campaigning to ban books by figures like Justice Barrett in the name of protecting free speech.

It is all perfectly Orwellian, but it is not particularly effective. With the over-the-top rhetoric and open bias in the media, the public is tuning out many in the press (which is at record lows in trust). This is becoming a type of primal scream session among friends, cathartic but confined.

President Biden was widely criticized for his Philadelphia speech, but he and others are now doubling down on this type of reckless rhetoric. The likely effect will be to incite further violence and to give license to the most unhinged in our society.
 
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