News Roundup, 8/15/23
I’m having another somewhat hectic day, so I’ll do a news roundup to save some time. Why not start with EVs?
Virtue signalling kills!
Child miners living hell on earth so you can drive an electric car. So this is better than fossil fuels? Having children dig for cobalt so we can drive electric cars. 40,000 children work like slaves in this cobalt mine in Congo. https://dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4764208/amp/Child-miners-aged-four-living-hell-Earth.html…
And then this actually very informative article. I mean, we all probably have the question in the back of our minds, Why are all these EVs exploding? without being able to quantify the phenomenon. Is it just an impression created by news coverage, or …
Who do people in Germany and France think started WW3? We have an answer:
Thread (1/3) The Anti-Corruption Foundation, which criticizes Putin and is reputed to be the best independent pollster in Russia, just did a poll in Germany & France. It asked: who's responsible for starting the Ukraine war? The results are remarkable. Here's Germany's result:
(2/3) Here are the polling numbers from France. So it appears that, in both Germany and France, more people believe that the U.S. is responsible for starting the Ukraine war than believe that Vladimir Putin is responsible for starting the Ukraine war.
(3/3) On Twitter, Leonid Volkov of the Anti-Corruption Foundation claims that these numbers show how effective Putin's propaganda is in Germany & France. This is a laughable explanation of the numbers because the populations of Germany and France are exposed to U.S. government propaganda to a far greater degree than they are exposed to Russian government propaganda. One can only imagine what these numbers would look like if the populations of Germany and France were not being bombarded with U.S. government propaganda about the origins of the Ukraine war.
Speaking of WW3, the rumor out today—at The Duran but also elsewhere—is that NATO (i.e., the US Neocons) are trying to offer Putin a deal: You can keep Donbass; in return, Crimea reverts to Ukraine and Ukraine gets to join NATO. It’s a complete non-starter for Putin, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a serious offer on the part of the Neocons—they’re deluded enough to believe in their own ability to gaslight Putin. MKB has an article on what this is all about. The Neocons want to declare victory in Ukraine and shift to making war on China, by linking AUKUS to NATO—NATO-Pacific, so to speak:
AUKUS, QUAD transforming alliance-like
US President Joe Biden, Australian PM Anthony Albanese, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida and Indian PM Narendra Modi held a QUAD meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, 20 May 2023
This week augurs an acceleration of strategic realignments among regional powers amidst the growing signs of a new cold war globally with particular focus on the United States’ containment strategy against China playing out in the Indo-Pacific region. Two back-to-back events on Friday can be deemed major moves in this direction.
First, the US President Joe Biden is hosting a trilateral summit at Camp David on Friday with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, which is expected to result in the signing of a defence, security and technology cooperation agreement between the three countries relating to the Indo-Pacific.
Second, the annual Malabar exercises participated by the navvies of the US, India, Japan and Australia begins on Friday, hosted by Canberra for the first time and surrounded by much hype that a QUAD collective maritime defence alliance is emerging in the Indo-Pacific.
The trilateral agreement to be signed tomorrow at the Camp David summit reportedly includes ballistic missile defence systems [Patriot?] and the development of other defence technologies.
Legal news from the US. Anyone interested in the business of the “ostentatiously anti-Trump” Chutkan presiding over the kangaroo court in DC needs to read this quite interesting article, which offers a blast from the past—even better than you might expect from the run of the mill title:
Obama Judge Tanya Chutkan Joins the Trump Show Trial
Forget banana-republic comparisons, it’s full-on Stalinist now
I particularly like the “Stalinist” comment, as it aligns with my comment re Turley yesterday—this isn’t about criminalizing electoral disputes. It’s full on about criminalizing a human being.
But here’s some good news from, of all places, the super liberal and fully packed DC Circuit. It’s a pretty thorough article with a link to the decision:
DC 'selectively enforced' defacement laws against BLM, pro-life group, federal appeals court rules
The case centers around 2 anti-abortion protesters who were arrested in 2020 for writing the words 'Black Pre-Born Lives Matter' in washable chalk outside an abortion facility
But, back to baseline normal in DC federal courts, featuring Klaus Schwab in drag:
Judge accused Elon Musk of withholding Twitter data to ‘cozy up’ to Trump
The New York Post ^ | 08/16/2023 | Josh ChristensonA federal judge accused Twitter boss Elon Musk earlier this year of impeding prosecutors’ access to Donald Trump’s account data in an effort to “cozy up” to the former president, unsealed court records show.
Washington, DC, US District Judge Beryl Howell laid into the billionaire and lawyers for the social media company, now known as X, during a Feb. 7 hearing after the requests made by special counsel Jack Smith as part of his investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot were denied.
“Is it because the CEO wants to cozy up with the former president, and that’s why you are here?” Howell pressed Twitter lawyer George Varghese.
“No, Your Honor. It’s whether or not they are facially valid,” the attorney replied.
At another point in the hearing, the judge also suggested Twitter was acting in Trump’s interest to make up for having kicked the 45th president off the platform following the riot. ***
“Is this to make Donald Trump feel like he is a particularly welcomed, new, renewed user of Twitter here?” Howell asked.
“Twitter has no interest other than litigating its constitutional rights, Your Honor,” Varghese said.
*** Howell held Twitter’s attorneys in contempt of court and fined the company $350,000 for ignoring the deadline to respond to Smith’s search warrant for the data — including private messages, draft tweets and location info.***
Twitter lawyers raised concerns that turning over Trump’s direct messages could violate executive privilege and waved off arguments from prosecutors that the search was needed because the former president represented a flight risk.***
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Man attacked on Magnificent Mile dies, but Chicago police let the suspect walk away and didn’t file a report for four days: sources
https://cwbchicago.com/2023/08/chicago-magnificent-mile-attack-suspect-released-delayed-report-investigation.html
Somehow - call me crazy - I don't think Putin is going to bite. Any part of Ukraine left out of Russian control will simply become the forward operation base for the next neocon wheeze. It's going to amusing hearing what the neocons have to offer in 3 months time.