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Politics
Russia To Seize $440 Million From JPMorgan
– Russia To Seize $440 Million From JPMorgan:
Seizing assets? Two can play at that game…
Just days after Washington voted to authorize the REPO Act – paving the way for the Biden administration confiscate billions in Russian sovereign assets which sit in US banks – it appears Moscow has a plan of its own (let’s call it the REVERSE REPO Act) as a Russian court has ordered the seizure of $440 million from JPMorgan.
The seizure order follows from Kremlin-run lender VTB launching legal action against the largest US bank to recoup money stuck under Washington’s sanctions regime.
I Kant Even: German Chancellor Triggered After Putin Quotes Legendary Philosopher
– I Kant Even: German Chancellor Triggered After Putin Quotes Legendary Philosopher:
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is quite upset, after Vladimir Putin quoted German philosopher Immanuel Kant – who the Russian president called “one of the greatest thinkers of both his time and ours,” and said that the philosopher’s call “to live by one’s own wits” is relevant today.
“A country must live by its own wits… This does not mean that we do not care about the interests of others… but we will never allow Russia’s interests to be neglected. In some countries, among our neighbors, this thesis has been forgotten. Many live by someone else’s wits. This will not bring them any good,” Putin told a group of college students in Kaliningrad – where Kant was born in 1724 (previously known as Königsberg, which belonged to the Kingdom of Prussia before becoming part of the Russian empire).
According to Scholz, “Putin doesn’t have the slightest right to quote Kant, yet Putin’s regime remains committed to poaching Kant and his work at almost any cost,” he told an audience at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, Die Zeit reports.
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UK Government-Funded Trans-Lobbyist Group Calls Puberty Blockers “Wonderful”
– UK Government-Funded Trans-Lobbyist Group Calls Puberty Blockers “Wonderful”:
A government funded LGBT activist group that is active in more than half of Scotland’s schools has called puberty blocking drugs, which effectively sterilise children, “wonderful.”
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Russia Vetoes US-Authored UN Resolution Banning Nuclear Weapons In Space
– Russia Vetoes US-Authored UN Resolution Banning Nuclear Weapons In Space:
Russia has just vetoed a very rare and interesting resolution set before the United Nations Security Council focused on banning nuclear weapons in space:
The treaty bars signatories, including the U.S. and Russia, from placing “in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction” or anywhere else in outer space.
On Wednesday Russia registered the lone veto which shot down the draft resolution aimed ultimately at preventing a future nuclear arms race in outer space.
China was the only abstention while the US was among the 13 UNSC members that voted in favor. It had been drafted and brought forward by the US and Japan.
In February the US government alleged that Russia was preparing to deploy a ‘space weapon’ which might be nuclear, which subsequently set off a frenzy of media speculation.
Reuters had reported at the time, “The space-based weapon U.S. intelligence believes Russia may be developing is more likely a nuclear-powered device to blind, jam or fry the electronics inside satellites than an explosive nuclear warhead to shoot them down, analysts said.”
Read moreRussia Vetoes US-Authored UN Resolution Banning Nuclear Weapons In Space
Biden’s $60BN Can’t Fix Ukraine’s Manpower & Recruitment Crisis
– Biden’s $60BN Can’t Fix Ukraine’s Manpower & Recruitment Crisis:
With Biden’s $60 billion in funding for Ukraine now fully authorized and implemented, the question is now what? The US President on Wednesday announced just after signing the bill that the Pentagon will start sending equipment to Ukraine “in the next few hours” straight from the US stockpile.
The Kremlin in response is vowing to push back the front lines deeper into Ukraine, and says that newly infused American weapons will burn. Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov has said in fresh remarks that “The American aid won’t save Zelensky. New weapons will be destroyed, and the special military operation goals will be achieved.”
The diplomat continued, “the military shipments of the US and its satellites have been burned, are being burned and will be burned by the Russian Armed Forces.”
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ATF Rule-Change Creates A Trap For The Unwary
– ATF Rule-Change Creates A Trap For The Unwary:
On Friday, the 31st anniversary of the massacre of Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, the ATF issued new regulations that make it more difficult to comply with federal laws regulating gun dealing and background checks.
Since the 1930s, federal law has required gun dealers to be registered as Federal Firearms Licensees (FFL). The requirements hinged on the meaning of “engaged in the business of” gun dealing. This language has always been ambiguous, and there has never been (even after the announcement of the new rules) a true “bright line” that distinguishes when one graduates from selling a few guns from one’s personal collection into full-fledged gun dealing.
The law previously required the primary purpose of sales to be “livelihood and profit.” The new rules reduce the requirements to seeking profit alone, tracking the a congressional amendment to existing law in 2022. The changes are more extensive than the legislative guidance, though, by stating that selling guns in the original packaging or shortly after purchase create a rebuttable presumption of being “engaged in the business.”
The potential risk is substantial, as violations are felonies. Flipping a gun for a price higher than one paid, even if one originally intended to keep it, now may turn one into a dealer, making any such sale unlawful if it does not involve all the licensing and paperwork that govern FFLs.
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US To Convert Pacific Oil Rigs Into Military Bases
– US To Convert Pacific Oil Rigs Into Military Bases:
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
The US Navy will convert surplus oil rigs in the western Pacific into mobile military bases as part of the US military buildup aimed at China, The Defense Postreported on Tuesday.
The naval engineering firm Gibbs & Cox developed the concept, known as the Mobile Defense/Depot Platform (MODEP), and presented it earlier this month at the Sea Air Space Expo. The idea is to convert oil rigs into mobile missile defense and resupply bases.
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China Is Leading The Global Nuclear-Power Build-Out
– China Is Leading The Global Nuclear-Power Build-Out:
Many countries in the West, with the notable exception of Germany, have also recognized that nuclear power generation would help them achieve net-zero emission goals.
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Germany is getting destroyed by TPTB.
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Biden Takes Swipe At “MAGA Republicans” While Signing ‘Vital’ Ukraine, Israel Aid Bill
– Biden Takes Swipe At “MAGA Republicans” While Signing ‘Vital’ Ukraine, Israel Aid Bill:
During Wednesday’s signing ceremony authorizing the House and Senate-approved 95$ billion emergency foreign aid package, President Biden in his remarks took a swipe at “MAGA Republicans” for causing the holdup.
“It’s a good day for America, it’s a good day for Europe, and it’s a good day for world peace,” Biden said, confirming he signed the legislation. “It’s going to make America safer, it’s going to make the world safer, and it continues America’s leadership in the world and everyone knows it.”
“To my desk, it was a difficult path. It should have been easier, and it should have gotten there sooner. But in the end, we did what America always does; we rose to the moment, came together and we got it done,” Biden said before going on the offensive with the words: “For months, while MAGA Republicans were blocking aid, Ukraine’s been running out of artillery shells and ammunition. Meanwhile, Putin’s friends are keeping him well supplied.” This latter phrase was an apparent reference Iran, North Korea and China.
Biden in a prior phone call pledged to Zelensky that the aid would be coming “quickly” and in follow-up Wednesday the US president told the press that “vital” aid and military equipment would start being transferred to Ukraine “in the next few hours” from the U.S. stockpile.
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Cities’ “Doom Loops” Are Even Worse Than You Imagined
– Cities’ “Doom Loops” Are Even Worse Than You Imagined:
This is why those who understand these dynamics are getting out, even though the city was their home.
A correspondent who prefers to remain anonymous sent me this account of the “doom loop” that is playing out in many American cities. The correspondent makes the case that the Doom Loop is not limited to specific cities, but is a universal dynamic in all US cities due to the core causes of the Doom Loop: financialization and the multi-decade decay of cities’ core industrial-economic purpose / mission.
I have edited the text slightly, with the correspondent’s approval.
The context of the Doom Loop is the process and politics of this decay are the second-order results of central bank easy money (free fiat). That led to financialization becoming the city’s core function and the subsequent loss of the city’s previous mission. The people living in cities just haven’t gotten the message yet.
Read moreCities’ “Doom Loops” Are Even Worse Than You Imagined
Wave Goodbye To Another Set Of Freedoms With The New Digital ID
– Wave Goodbye To Another Set Of Freedoms With The New Digital ID:
Authored by Graham Young via The Epoch Times,
“Papers please” used to be the ostinato of totalitarian systems, at least in the movies.
With the passing of the government’s Digital ID bills, Australians will have to become used to the digital equivalent – so what does that say about present-day Australia?
A few things have surprised me over the last few years, not the least the way the famous Aussie spirit of insubordination has been subsumed into a goody-two-shoes compliance with whatever capricious orders the authorities made.
I can’t imagine our forebears accepting lockdowns and forced vaccinations, and I certainly couldn’t see them accepting an identity card linking not just government accounts but private sector ones as well.
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