Monthly Archives: August 2023

Economics/Statistics

Huawei Breaks the 5G Blockade, Russia’s First Homemade SuperJet

Leave a comment

via Moon of Alabama

Just a few month back I argued that the new economic protectionism the U.S. is pushing for will fire back:

Last week Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen gave a speech on the U.S.-China economic relationship. I called it a declaration of war.

Yesterday National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan held a speech on ‘Renewing American Economic Leadership’ which touched on some of the same themes as Yellen’s speech.

Sullivan argues that the U.S. must change course from opening markets and liberalization to targeted protectionism and subsidies for specific sectors. The main argument for it is ‘national security’ but the real aim seems to be the suppression of competition from others.
…
Sullivan’s whole speech is an argument against free markets and for protectionism and sector subsidies. It does away with the economic framework the U.S. had build after the end of the second world war. This is supposed to be replaced it with bilateral and block wise agreements that are to the advantage of the U.S., to the disadvantage of its agreement ‘partners’ and which exclude China and other ‘hostile’ economies.

The so called ‘decoupling’ or ‘de-risking’ from China is actually an attempt to isolate it. It creates a dynamic that will lead to import replacements in China.

This will lower exports to China from the U.S. and its allies. The whole scheme will thereby eventually work to China’s advantage.

Three years ago the U.S. prohibited domestic and foreign companies to stop the provision of 5G chips to Huawei. Thus a milestone of import replacement was revealed yesterday when Huawei announced a brand new 5G phone with Chinese made chips:

Huawei Mate 60 Pro has been silently launched in China. The successor to last year’s Huawei Mate 50 Pro, brings several major upgrades including satellite calling support and an LTPO AMOLED display. The handset sports a 6.82-inch AMOLED display with an adaptive refresh rate that ranges between 1Hz and 120Hz and a 300Hz touch sampling rate.

The U.S. pushed to stop supplies of 5G chips to Huawei. That led to a campaign to develop Chinese replacements. Huawei has also developed a graphic processor that is as fast as Nvidia’s A100 GPU which is used for high performance computing and AI development. The new 5G chip the phone is using has been confirmed as being genuine.

The $300 billion import of chips to China has shrunken as the country is fast in developing domestic replacements.

On the same day Russia increased its autonomy with the first flight of the new SJ-100 SuperJet which is based on the replacement of systems that previously came from foreign suppliers but are now produced domestically:

United Aircraft Corporation CEO Yury Slyusar also highlighted the broader implications of the project, declaring it a “testament to Russia’s technological self-sufficiency.” Slyusar added, “Our primary aim now is to obtain full Russian certification for the plane and initiate regular shipments to airlines.”

The launch of the plane and of Huawei’s new phone came on the same day U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo ended her visit to China. It was certainly meant as a point.

Today’s Global Times Editorial is rubbing it in:

Chinese companies will inevitably break through the blockade and move forward. This is the result of China’s overall development and close integration with global interests. In this era of globalization, the idea of kicking Chinese companies out of the industrial chain will only encounter increasing resistance because it goes against the law of development. The resurgence of Huawei smartphones after three years of forced silence is enough to prove that the US’ extreme suppression has failed. This also serves as a microcosm of the US-China tech war, reflecting the entire process and foreshadowing the final outcome. Recently, some American media outlets have been enthusiastic about hyping up things like Huawei is building a “secret” chip factory. Ultimately, these are all due to a failure to see or a refusal to believe in the general trend, and they hold on to outdated thinking that Chinese companies’ technology is all “stolen.” Essentially, it is Washington’s technological arrogance, and the US will definitely pay the price for this arrogance.

As China is training more engineers and researchers than the U.S. and Europe combined, it will eventually take the technological lead in many fields. Other countries will have to either become more specialized or close their markets to imports from China.

The later will in the longer run cause a less competitive environment that will come with higher costs and can only be sustained for a relatively short time.

Fabricated Narratives

Over 1,600 Scientists Sign ‘No Climate Emergency’ Declaration

Leave a comment

by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times

International scientists have jointly signed a declaration dismissing the existence of a climate crisis and insisting that carbon dioxide is beneficial to Earth, contrary to the popular alarmist narrative.

Children take part in a climate change protest in Montreal on Sept. 26, 2020. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

“There is no climate emergency,” the Global Climate Intelligence Group (CLINTEL) said in its World Climate Declaration (pdf), made public in August. “Climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific. Scientists should openly address uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassionately count the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of their policy measures.”

A total of 1,609 scientists and professionals from around the world have signed the declaration, including 321 from the United States.

The coalition pointed out that Earth’s climate has varied as long as it has existed, with the planet experiencing several cold and warm phases. The Little Ice Age only ended as recently as 1850, they said.

“Therefore, it is no surprise that we now are experiencing a period of warming,” the declaration said.

Warming is happening “far slower” than predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“Climate models have many shortcomings and are not remotely plausible as policy tools,” the coalition said, adding that these models “exaggerate the effect of greenhouse gases” and “ignore the fact that enriching the atmosphere with CO2 is beneficial.” For instance, even though climate alarmists characterize CO2 as environmentally-damaging, the coalition pointed out that the gas is “not a pollutant.”

Carbon dioxide is “essential” to all life on earth and is “favorable” for nature. Extra CO2 results in the growth of global plant biomass while also boosting the yields of crops worldwide.

CLINTEL also dismissed the narrative of global warming being linked to increased natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, and droughts, stressing that there is “no statistical evidence” to support these claims.

“There is no climate emergency. Therefore, there is no cause for panic and alarm. We strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy proposed for 2050. Go for adaptation instead of mitigation; adaptation works whatever the causes are,” it said.

“To believe the outcome of a climate model is to believe what the model makers have put in. This is precisely the problem of today’s climate discussion to which climate models are central. Climate science has degenerated into a discussion based on beliefs, not on sound self-critical science. Should not we free ourselves from the naive belief in immature climate models?”

Climate Models and Sunlight Reflection

Among the CLINTEL signatories are two Nobel laureates—physicists John Francis Clauser from the United States and Ivan Giaever, a Norwegian-American.

Mr. Clauser has made a significant addition to climate models to dismiss the narrative of global warming: the visible light reflected by cumulus clouds which, on average, cover half of the earth.

Young demonstrators hold placards as they attend a climate change protest opposite the Houses of Parliament in central London on Feb. 15, 2019. (Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)

Current climate models vastly underestimate this aspect of cumulus cloud reflection, which plays a key role in regulating the earth’s temperature. Mr. Clauser previously told President Joe Biden that he disagreed with his climate policies.

In May, Mr. Clauser was elected to the board of directors at the CO2 Coalition, a group focusing on the beneficial contributions of carbon dioxide in the environment.

“The popular narrative about climate change reflects a dangerous corruption of science that threatens the world’s economy and the well-being of billions of people,” Mr. Clauser said in a May 5 statement.

“Misguided climate science has metastasized into massive shock-journalistic pseudoscience. In turn, the pseudoscience has become a scapegoat for a wide variety of other unrelated ills.”

“It has been promoted and extended by similarly misguided business marketing agents, politicians, journalists, government agencies, and environmentalists. In my opinion, there is no real climate crisis.”

False Doomsday Predictions, a Presidential Issue

CLINTEL’s declaration against the climate change narrative counters propaganda spread by climate alarmists who have long predicted doomsday scenarios triggered by global warming—none of which have ever come true.

In 1970, some climate scientists predicted that the earth would move into a new ice age by the 21st century. Pollution expert James Lodge predicted that “air pollution may obliterate the sun and cause a new ice age in the first third of the new century,” according to The Boston Globe.

Participants hold placards as they take part in a demonstration demanding the government take immediate action against climate change in Sydney, Australia, on Jan. 10, 2020. (Mohammed Farooq/AFP via Getty Images)

In May 1982, Mostafa Tolba, then-executive director of the United Nations environmental program, said that if the world did not change course, it would face an “environmental catastrophe which will witness devastation as complete, as irreversible, as any nuclear holocaust” by 2000.

In June 2008, James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Sciences, said that within five to 10 years, the Arctic would have no ice left in the summer.

As climate alarmists continue to spread propaganda about global warming, the topic has become an issue in the 2024 presidential race, with multiple candidates openly dismissing it.

In a July 13 post on X, Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that climate change “is being used to control us through fear.”

“Freedom and free markets are a much better way to stop pollution. Polluters make themselves rich by making the public pay for the damage they do,” he said.

During the first 2024 GOP presidential debate, candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called climate change a “hoax.”

“The reality is, the anti-carbon agenda is the wet blanket on our economy. And so the reality is, more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate change,” he said.

High Temperatures, Biden’s Appliance Crackdown

Climate activists have insisted that global warming is responsible for the soaring temperatures across the United States, even claiming that temperatures are hitting record highs.

In a recent interview with The Epoch Times, John Christy, a climatologist and professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, dismissed the narrative of record high temperatures.

“Regionally, the West has seen its largest number of hot summer records in the past 100 years, but the Ohio Valley and Upper Midwest are experiencing their fewest,” he said.

“For the conterminous U.S. as a whole, the last 10 years have produced only an average number of records. The 1930s are still champs.”

Climate change policies have been used to justify sweeping lifestyle changes across the United States by the Energy Department, like restricting home appliances, and sometimes, even outright banning them.

In June, the Energy Department proposed rules that would require ceiling fans to become more energy efficient, a development that could lead to manufacturers having to shell out $86.6 million per year in “increased equipment costs.”

In February, the DOE proposed energy efficiency rules targeting gas stoves that would affect half of all new models of such stoves sold in the United States while making most of the existing ones noncompliant.

In July, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission proposed a policy that would remove nearly all existing portable gas generators from the market.

The Biden administration has already implemented a ban on incandescent light bulbs, which came into effect on Aug. 1.

Cultural/Ideological Divide

On the Russian Soul

1 Comment

“Even if Russia expands its possessions at the expense of neighboring colonies, unlike other colonial powers, it gives more to its new acquisitions than it takes from them. This is not because it is driven by some kind of philanthropy or anything like that. The initial aspirations of all empires are not much different, but wherever the Russian man appears, everything miraculously takes a completely different direction.

Developed in the Eastern Slavs since pre-Christian times moral norms do not allow the Russian man to rape someone else’s conscience. More often out of the ineradicable feeling of compassion rooted in him he is ready to give his last shirt than to take it away from someone. Therefore, no matter how victorious Russian weapons are, in purely mercantile terms, Russia always remains a loser.

Those defeated by it or taken under its protection usually win in the end, keeping intact their way of life and spiritual institutions, despite their apparent insufficiency for progress, as one can easily be convinced after getting to know them more or less thoroughly, increasing their material wealth and significantly advancing on the path of civilization.

Estland (the northern part of Estonia – note) and the Caucasus are illustrative examples of this, for example, they have been despised and raped by their neighbors for centuries, but have taken an honorable place among the nations and achieved incomparable prosperity under the patronage of Russia, while the situation of the Russian people, i.e. the native population of Russia, has not improved at all as a result of the acquisition of Estland and the Caucasus. The latter seems to us a paradox, but this is the reality, the root causes of which lie, undoubtedly, in the peculiarities of Russian morality”.

Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, speaking at a crowded rally against Britain’s entry into the Crimean War famous Scottish scientist-geologist, who named the periods of the early Paleozoic era: Silurian, Devonian and Permian (after the names of the places where he conducted his research). Year 1853.

On the Road to Serfdom ?

Maui Fire Survivors – Must See, Dramatic Video Footage

Leave a comment

by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News

A lot of reports and video footage is now coming out from survivors of the Maui fire earlier this month.

Many survivors are claiming that the police prevented people from escaping, with some claiming that they only survived because they did NOT obey police orders, while others did, and died.

This was a very emotional video for me to put together. I am not going to offer any commentary, but let the video speak for itself.

WARNING: Graphic images of people dying and a lot of profanity throughout.

This on our Bitchute channel, and will also be on our Telegram channel. It is only 17 minutes long.

Note by the Author: I apologize that there are a few seconds of black screen that I did not catch in the final edit.

Cultural/Ideological Divide

Cardinal Virtues vs Democracy

Leave a comment

The problem is NOT any one system of government—but the lack of Virtue (arete – excellence, moral virtue in ancient Greek).  The Ancients understood this.

The Greeks had the concepts of Manliness, Righteousness, Sophrosyne (ancient Greek concept of an ideal of excellence of character and soundness of mind, which when combined in one well-balanced individual leads to other qualities, such as temperance, moderation, prudence, purity, decorum, and self-control – Wikipedia), Phronesis (wisdom in determining ends and the means of attaining them, practical understanding, sound judgment, from Greek phrónēsis, meaning “practical wisdom, prudence in government and public affairs” in Plato, Aristotle, and other heavy hitters – Wikipedia). 

Lycurgus commanded Virtue for the Spartan Republic.

Remember, Virtus Romana ! — And the mythical Mucius Scaevola, from school?

The writer of II Peter 1:5 “Supplement the Faith with Virtue”. — No church, Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant, has ever complied with that verse. 

Virtue is the antidote to the effects of the original sin. Virtue is character training and morality. It is what makes a person good. People have to be trained to be good. There is no training in The Good in America! 

That is the problem, not the systems of government.  Besides that, a democracy is inherently based on the lowest common denominator and is flawed from the get-go. 

Peasants could obviously complain when they didn’t like something, and they could protest, (sometimes at the cost of their lives) and they could send representatives to speak to the Lord or the King about their grievances. But for the most part, peasants had little interest in the workings of Government.
It was a scam to bring all of these peasants into the public process of government. That’s what “democracy” is. And once you’ve brought them in, you can’t expect them to understand the higher social order and concepts of philosophy, personal morality and virtue because they are not educated, and primarily think about sex, food, and entertainment. 

Now it is even worse, as we have the champions of capitalism (see Bill Gates, Rockefeller, Soros or Musk) who claim their leadership authority emanating from the sum of their bank accounts. No established record of virtue in the service of their society. Greed and Vanity are their only coordinates.
The End is Here

Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Prison – Catherine Austin Fitts

Leave a comment

Military Affairs

War Stories about Betrayal, Insubordination and Punishment

Leave a comment

For those following the Ukraine events since 2014 and the disappearance of such bold Russian nationalist commanders as Motorola, Givi, Zakharchenko, and even the exclusion of Pavel Gubarev, founder of the Donbass Militia, in favor of the appointed bureaucrat Pushilin — it is an epic story of betrayal, insubordination and punishment. Igor Strelkov, the unofficial leader of the nationalist group, is in jail while Gen. Sergei Surovikin, head of the aerospace forces and commander of the Russian forces in Ukraine, is dismissed without information about his whereabouts. And now Prigozhin. 

First, we hear Kadyrov (below) implying that Prigozhin’s  tragic fate was caused by his acting in a rebellious way in a complex situation. The military top brass, Shoigu and Gerasimov, as corrupt and incompetent as they were/are, were political appointees selected as part of the fine act of balancing any centrifugal forces in the multiethnic Russia. Prigozhin wanted to take them to the woodshed and give them a good thrashing. But that was not possible, politically, as they were part of the  circle of Putin’s political allies.

The next video below confirms the context in which Prigozhin openly defied the Kremlin big wigs, which went way beyond any mere “mischief” and implied an outright attack on the authority and the decisions of the Russian government. That was certainly not acceptable.


Ramzan Kadyrov’s message about Yevgeny Prigozhin

We were friends for a long time.

With Yevgeny Viktorovich, we often had to solve the most difficult issues. He was distinguished from others by responsiveness, unique sociability and perseverance. He came to Grozny at my very first invitation, although he was older than me. You could discuss any topic and problem with him. He was always ready to help and really helped from the bottom of his heart. We also assisted him in some issues on Libya and Africa. We had a lot in common. On one of his visits, he presented me with a Wagner gold medal “For Special Merits.” You can see this moment in the photo.

Yevgeny Viktorovich was very active for his age, he was an important person on a national scale. But recently he either did not see or did not want to see the full picture of what is happening in the country. I asked him to leave personal ambitions for the sake of matters of paramount national importance. Everything else could be decided later. But he was like that, Prigozhin, with his iron character and desire to achieve his goal right here and now.

Undoubtedly, he made a great contribution to the SMO. And this merit cannot be taken away from him. His death is a great loss for the entire state.

I offer my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Yevgeny Viktorovich.

The second piece is Scott Ritter talking to Judge Napolitano.

Energy Wars

Not A Great Day For Liberal Woke “Marxists”

Leave a comment
by Capitalist Exploits

This was the remark from Lucas when we at HQ were viewing the following.

And this beauty…

Then this…

While on the topic of imbeciles, morons, and clowns, there’s also this:

The mine is so important for Warsaw that it has in effect been paying the EU to keep it open. Poland defied the court’s 2021 interim order for it to stop mining and refused to pay the resulting daily fine of €500,000. In response, the European Commission began deducting the fine from EU funds earmarked for Poland — withholding €68mn in total — while Poland separately paid €45mn to the Czech Republic in compensation for environmental damage and to get Prague to drop its lawsuit.
Brussels has also excluded the region around Turów from EU subsidies for places that transition away from fossil fuel production.

It’s almost as if they need coal.
Speaking of which, Turkiye, a country I’ve been telling you is NOT going to go along with the woke ESG shullbit, just tossed the climate alarmists aside like a rag doll.

Jeez! Doesn’t he realise the existential threat to humanity here? Clearly an unhinged extremist. Probably misogynistic, too. Definitely actually, after he arrested all the pink-haired folks who were trying to parade their bits in front of children in Istanbul during pride month.
From the article:

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday dismissed environmental protests over the felling of trees to expand a coal mine in southwest Turkey, saying the campaign was led by “marginals”.

Marginals? So he’s not going to let a few radicals dictate to the majority? Must be undemocratic.

This power plant, which produces almost two-thirds of the electricity consumed in the southern Aegean, contributes around one billion dollars annually to our country’s economy,” Erdogan said in a televised address after the weekly cabinet meeting.

He said the power plant needed to continue production with new coal basins as the existing reserves were close to depletion.

Coal power plants have become once again a major source of energy in European countries after the crisis that broke out with the Russia-Ukraine war,” he said.
“Although some are constantly and persistently trying to re-play the same scenarios with different skins, nobody is deceived by this game anymore,” Erdogan said.

He can’t possibly be referring to the Soros-sponsored “NGOs” that have actively been working throughout Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Nah, that’s crazy talk.
Actually, on the entire climate change fraud, I found this:

Now, to be clear… before we get any hate mail telling us what a bad man little Erdy is, realise this. They are ALL power hungry psychos. They are simply psychos with differing agendas, and it is our job to arbitrage those agendas for our own prosperity and freedom where possible.
 

Uncategorized

Are We Facing the Day of Reckoning?

1 Comment

Is the Biden administration already preparing the public for the loss of Ukraine? Is the Biden administration changing the focus to the new wave of hysteria about the Covid Hoax as a cover up for the loss of Ukraine? It seems pretty much so. Is the loss of Ukraine a precursor to the dismantling of NATO, or at least its partial dismantling?

This is not about Covid but about the start of the collapse of the US hegemony. It is the introduction of a form of Martial Law and a new regime of authoritarian governance by the defeated elites. Where are we going from here? Nuclear war or regime change in the US?

Strange events are coming. We haven’t seen much, as of yet.

First, YouTube to Censor Content Contradicting WHO Guidelines YouTube has introduced a new “medical misinformation policy” that will censor any medical or health-related content that doesn’t align with claims made by the World Health Organization (WHO). YouTube earlier had a “COVID-19 Misinformation Policy” webpage that stated that the platform doesn’t allow any content that “poses a serious risk of egregious harm” and spreads “medical misinformation” contradicting what the WHO or local health authorities (LHA) say about the COVID-19 pandemic. The webpage now redirects to a “medical misinformation policy” page that expands the censorship rule to “specific health conditions and substances” rather than COVID-19 alone. Content that contradicts guidance on treatments, including promoting “specific harmful substances or practices” not approved by authorities or the WHO as safe and effective, also won’t be allowed on the platform. Claims that vaccines cause chronic side effects “outside of rare side effects” recognized by health authorities would be deemed as “vaccine misinformation” by YouTube.

Second, Biden Admin Preparing to Bring Back Full Covid Restrictions, Rollout to Begin Mid-September – Report. Whistleblowers from the TSA and Border Patrol have raised the alarm to Infowars that the Biden administration is setting the stage for full Covid lockdowns that will begin with incremental restrictions like masking TSA employees in mid-September.

The first source, a high-level TSA official confirmed and known to Infowars, reached out to Infowars and cited a Tuesday meeting in which TSA managers were told new memorandums & policies were being completed that would reimplement masking, starting with TSA & airport employees as early as mid-September.

The TSA official also said next week they will receive new guidelines on how the policy will escalate: by mid-October, mask-wearing will be required by pilots, flight staff, passengers, and airport patrons.

After hearing from the TSA manager, Infowars reached out to our trusted Border Patrol source who is also a manager. This source confirmed the same directives were being given to Border Patrol.

They were told it was not a matter of “if” but “when” official Covid numbers will go back up and they expect by mid-October a return to forced-masking policies that the Biden administration previously only reluctantly ended after massive pressure.

Both whistleblowers were told this rollout will be in tandem with the new Covid “variant” hysteria that the MSM has been reporting on this week.

Saving Ukrainians from Themselves

The Defeat of the West in the Ukrainian Direction Seems Inevitable

1 Comment

Dmitry Medvedev writes:

“The defeat of the West in the Ukrainian direction seems inevitable.

Let their leaders, who have forgotten about their own citizens, continue to shout at each other that they will support Ukraine with weapons and money for as long as necessary. They will train soldiers for the military, rebuild the economy, and maintain sanctions against Russia. However, these efforts won’t help.

For them, it’s a distant war with unfamiliar people dying. While they might not empathize much, the West won’t go beyond their interests. No matter how loudly they protest at summits or the UN, someone else’s war eventually becomes boring and costly.

For us, it’s a tragedy involving our people, an existential conflict for self-preservation. We’re faced with a choice: them or us.

Time will pass. Western leadership will change, elites will tire, and negotiations might be sought. Any counteroffensive will weaken. They’ll mourn their dead and heal their wounds. Yet, we can’t halt until the inherently hostile Ukrainian state is dismantled, destroyed utterly. It must never rise again, even from ashes. This process might take years or decades, but we’re compelled: it’s either dismantle their regime or risk Western aggression against Russia.

Hence, the only solution is to completely control the hostile state’s machinery and secure loyalty for the future. Russia’s control over the former Bandera state is necessary, and is a goal we will achieve.”