Archive for 2020
April 15, 2020
YES. A READER EMAILS: “Isn’t it time for the Ethanol standard to get re-evaluated, when worldwide famine is a real possibility?”
We should be maximizing food production for domestic consumption and export. (Bumped). There’s no need for ethanol as fuel when we’re awash in unsold oil.
CHINA: Coronavirus runs roughshod over debt-laden belt and road projects.
BRI countries such as Montenegro, already deeply indebted to Beijing, face mounting difficulties related to the pandemic as commodity prices plunge, trade falters and exchange rates shift.
“A debt crisis with Chinese characteristics?” warned Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy in a report last year citing growing default risks.
Adding to the challenge of managing mounting global indebtedness is Beijing’s characteristic lack of transparency.
“The Chinese government considers the details of its overseas lending programme a state secret. No one really knows the numbers,” said Brad Parks, executive director of AidData, part of the College of William & Mary in Virginia, and co-author of a study on Chinese lending practices released last month by the Centre for Global Development (CGD).
Experts estimate that developing countries’ “hidden debts” to China totalled US$380 billion well before the crisis, more than their obligations to the Paris Club, a group of 19 wealthy creditor nations, combined; the World Bank; or the International Monetary Fund.
“If you owe the bank $100 that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.”
China has a problem.
IT’S BAD ENOUGH WE MUST DEPEND ON CHINA FOR OUR ANTI-BIOTICS BUT WHAT IF: They also cut off our access to critically needed “Rare Earth Elements” (REEs) without which much of America’s weaponry and operational military systems cannot function. Michael Ravnitzky writes:
“From the 1960s to the 1980s, the United States led the global production of REEs. Eventually, China’s labor cost advantages, less demanding environmental rules, and sites with commercially exploitable concentrations of REEs caused world production to shift almost completely to China.
“This was exacerbated by a ‘laissez-faire’ approach to long-term rare earth procurement strategies. China now produces 100 percent of the ‘heavy’ REEs and nearly all of the ‘light’ REEs. Development of known reserves in other countries has been hampered by logistical and investment hurdles, as well as the environmental and technical challenges of mining, extracting, and refining REEs.
“The only remaining American REE mining operation now sends its ore to China for processing (Emphasis added). In recent years, Chinese firms have purchased key U.S. magnet manufacturers, appropriated their technologies, established production in China, and discontinued the U.S. operations.
“China has also reduced the sale of its REEs to other nations, not only because of concerns about resource depletion, but also because of its national policy of shifting from the sale of commodities to the sale of higher-value finished goods.”
The U.S. Army recently recognized Ravnitzky with a much-deserved award for this piece. It’s a little tough sledding to read because of the unfamiliarity of some of its materials for the general reader, but if you care about the survival of the U.S., this is essential reading.
SO BASICALLY THE FBI WAS A RUSSIAN ASSET, DAMAGING THE US POLITICAL SYSTEM AT PUTIN’S INSTIGATION: It looks like Putin conned the FBI into the ‘Russiagate’ probe.
I’ve known John a long time, and this is an important read.
I’M GUESSING IT’S A MIXTURE OF BRIBERY AND BLACKMAIL: After China’s deadly coronavirus lies, why is Europe trusting Beijing on 5G? The EU leadership seems highly susceptible to both.
ZINN WAS NOT A SCHOLAR, BUT A PROPAGANDIST: A Radical Pseudo-historian Meets His Match.
And a very successful one, since he told a story the academy wanted told, whether it was true or not.
MEH, IT’S NOT EVEN OFFENSIVE. ‘Chinese Virus’ may be offensive, but it’s still protected speech. It’s a virus from China. Those wanting to cover that up are Chinese tools or useful idiots.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Is a Coronavirus Shutdown Exit Plan Beginning to Emerge? “If we’re lucky, he’ll keep California and New York closed for a couple of years.”
He’s joking. I think.
MORE ON FREDO’S MELTDOWN: ‘I hate bullies’: Bicyclist verbally attacked by Chris Cuomo fires back.
THE #METOO FRAUD: Hannah Cox: Stop pretending you care about violence against women more than politics.
Well, think of it as a step toward true equality. After all, people have never cared about violence against men more than politics.
BECAUSE THE PRESS IS GROOMING GAVIN NEWSOM FOR THE PRESIDENCY, BUT DOESN’T WANT TO GIVE ABBOTT ANY HELP SINCE HE’S A REPUBLICAN:
BULLIES: Radical trans rights activists threaten journalist for writing Animal Crossing article.
Erina Rose, a young gaming journalist at the Australian startup Sausage Roll, wrote on how the mega-hit Animal Crossing had been censored for the western market to cater to LGBT groups. Her piece, published March 24, outlined how the game had changed “gender” with “style” in the title screen to avoid upsetting social justice warriors who didn’t want to identify as either male or female in the game.
Rose used evidence from three international versions of the game, which demonstrated the only edition where “sex” is censored is in the English one.
In a screenshot from Rose’s article, she demonstrates that in the Japanese version, “boy” or “girl” is still an option to be selected. But in the English version of the same game, the gendered terms have been replaced with “style.”
She also claims a source who worked at Nintendo on the Animal Crossing development team admitted to her the game had been changed to not upset LGBT groups.
Following the publication of the article, Rose began receiving horrific threats and abuse to her Twitter account and email.
Luxury beliefs like this one — and the bullying attitudes they engender — need to be pushed out on an ice floe to enjoy the retirement they deserve.
THAT’S ONLY ONE OF MANY THINGS SHE HAS TO RECOVER FROM: Frazzled Michigan Gov. Whitmer tries to recover from attack on DeVos family.
HOW MANY TIMES HAVE WE HEARD THIS STORY?: Outrageous racist threats and attacks that rattled the University of La Verne last year turn out to have been faked. (See also my Dissenting Statement to the Commission on Civil Rights’ overwrought report on hate crimes, which catalogues a number of such stories.)
