Robbing Americans who can ill afford this rampant legal plunder to prop a brutal dictatorship. This is nothing short of war against our own country.
Billions for this evil clown (who closed the churches, imprisoned the priests, shut down the free press) and a big middle finger to Americans. America should be punishing this behavior not heaping billions, accolades and endless, sycophantic puff pieces in the government press.
By: Mike Brest, Washington Examiner, April 19, 2023:
The Biden administration has agreed to provide Ukraine with another $325 million of military equipment, officials announced on Wednesday.
This security package, which came via the presidential drawdown authority (meaning the weapons will come from existing U.S. stockpiles), provides Ukraine with more ammunition for U.S.-provided weapons, such as HIMARS, artillery rounds, anti-arms systems, small arms, logistics support vehicles, and maintenance support.
“We will continue to stand with our Ukrainian partners in response to Russia’s continued war of aggression,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. “This new security assistance will enable Ukraine to continue to bravely defend itself in the face of Russia’s brutal, unprovoked and unjustified war. Russia could end its war today. Until Russia does, the United States and our allies and partners will stand united with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
The administration’s announcement did not specify the quantity of munitions, but this package resembles other recent deliveries. This is the 36th package to come from the Defense Department’s stocks that will go to Ukraine since the war began in February 2022, and it brings the total U.S. military aid to nearly $36 billion.
This aid package comes days ahead of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s meeting with defense leaders from across the globe. On Friday, he and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will convene with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which meets monthly, this time at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, to discuss Ukraine’s latest needs in the war.
Ukraine is expected to launch its offensive in the coming weeks to recapture occupied territory, though the Pentagon has not painted overly optimistic expectations. Some classified documents regarding the status of the war were among the hundreds allegedly released by Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira.
One document, labeled “top secret,” which was from early February, warned that large “force generation and sustainment shortfalls” make it more likely that their offensive will result in only “modest territorial gains,” according to the Washington Post. There’s also a document dated Feb. 23 that provided an insight into the fighting in Ukraine’s Donbas region, which predicted a “grinding campaign of attrition” by Russia that “is likely heading toward a stalemate, thwarting Moscow’s goal to capture the entire region in 2023.”
Another leaked document indicated Ukraine has, at times, had alarmingly low levels of Western-supplied weaponry, specifically air defense and ammunition.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Geller Reporthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Geller Report2023-04-21 08:11:192023-04-21 08:18:44PERPETUAL WAR: Biden Announces New Ukraine Military Aid Package of Another $325 Million
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra violated the Hatch Act after he advocated for the election of a Democrat, a new investigation found.
Special Counsel Henry J. Kerner said in a letter to President Joe Biden that Becerra spoke “in his official capacity” at an awards gala in September of 2022, breaking the law.
“As explained in the accompanying report, OSC concluded that Secretary Becerra violated the Hatch Act by expressing support for Senator Alex Padilla’s reelection while speaking in his official capacity at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Annual Awards Gala on September 15, 2022,” Kerner wrote.
“In delivering his speech, Secretary Becerra impermissibly mixed his personal electoral preference with official remarks,” the letter continued. “While federal employees are permitted to express support for candidates when speaking in their personal capacity, the Hatch Act restricts employees from doing so when speaking as a government official.”
“With a presidential election approaching next year, this report offers an opportunity to deter violations by reminding federal employees at all levels of the Hatch Act’s restrictions.”
“While I did not realize at the time that my off-the-cuff remarks concerning my personal voting intentions were in violation of the Hatch Act, I now understand why they were not permitted.”
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Daily Callerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Caller2023-04-18 15:20:352023-04-18 15:21:25Biden’s HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra Violated The Hatch Act, Office of Special Counsel Says
Apparently these people have never heard of the teachings of the racist, Marxist BLM, CRT, DEI which promote hate and violence towards our country and that target white, black, Asian and Hispanic conservatives and other people considered to be “oppressors” as well as the TRUTH.
Let’s hope these officers are still capable of critical thinking rather than being brainwashed!
The U.S. Army at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth is teaching officers in intermediate level education (ILE) that white people can’t experience racism, defining racism as “a complex system of believes and behaviors that result in the oppression of people of color and benefit the dominant group.”
The definition of racism is taught in an elective course called “Race and Gender in U.S. Military History,” which is available for up to 32 students each year. The course is taught by Angela Riotto, an assistant professor at the college, according to TRMLX, who first reported on the course.
The course description states that “an effective military only functions under the principles of equality and inclusion.”
“Manpower policy regarding inclusion and equality has only changed when forced to by the necessities of war or from outside social and political influence,” it continues. “This course will examine the history of service of minority groups and women in the U.S. Military, major amendments to manpower policy, and historic problems with presenting a less than unified force.”
Lt. Col. Josh Camara told American Military News in an email that the course is “discussion-based” and said it “provides a historical overview of minority groups and women in the U.S. Military.”
“Definitions for terms like ‘racism’, ‘sex’, and ‘gender’ provided in this class are used as baseline definitions to facilitate discussion on this topic. Students are intellectually challenged, and not taught to accept any one point of view, but to critically examine and discuss sometimes controversial concepts in the coursework,” Camara said.
The course also defines gender as “a set of socially constructed characteristics, such as norms and behaviors, typically associated with being masculine, feminine, androgynous, or other.”
“The Command and General Staff College is at the forefront of building Army leaders ready to fight and win our nation’s wars,” Camara told American Military News in an email. “Students receive top-of-the-line instruction from some of the very best minds in the country. Training is regularly updated to provide engaging, and relevant courses that prepare Army leaders to succeed in a wide range of challenging environments.”
In order to become qualified for a promotion to Lieutenant Colonel, Army Majors must attend ILE, according to the FY 23 ILE Enrollment Guide.
“The Command and General Staff Officer Course (CGSOC) is the Army’s graduate-level curriculum and instruction for field grade officers and is commonly referred to as Intermediate Level Education (ILE),” the guide states. “It is the next required professional military education course to be completed after Captains Career Course. ILE Educates and trains leaders to conduct Decisive Action in a JIIM environment and advances the art and science of the profession of arms to support the operational requirements of the Army.”
Camara told American Military News that definitions for the course come from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and provided a link to the department’s “Key DEI Terms.” “DEI” is an acronym for “diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Other DEI definitions listed on the HHS website include:
Antiracism “is the policy or practice of actively and consciously opposing racism and promoting racial equity.”
Social justice “is a vision of a society that distributes equal resources to all individuals.”
Undocumented “is a foreign-born person living in a country without legal citizenship status.”
Cisgender “refers to a people whose assigned sex at birth aligns with their gender identity.”
Gender identity “is one’s internal sense of being a man, a woman, neither of these, both, or another gender(s). Gender is a social—not biological—construct.”
Heteronormativity “is the assumption that heterosexuality is natural, ideal, or superior to other sexual preferences.”
Misgendering “is referring to or using language to describe a transgender person that doesn’t align with their affirmed gender—for example, calling a transgender woman ‘he’ or ‘him.’”
Non-binary “refers to a person whose gender is neither only male nor only female.”
Sex assigned at birth “is the biological category (female, male, or intersex) given at birth based on biological characteristics (i.e., physical anatomy and hormones).”
Environmental racism “is the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on people of color.”
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Royal A. Brown IIIhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngRoyal A. Brown III2023-04-18 10:43:242023-04-18 10:53:59U.S. Army Teaching Officers at Fort Leavenworth that White People Can’t Experience Racism
Regardless of its shortcomings, Desmond deserves much credit for telling harsh truths about the lives of the least fortunate members of society.
Poverty, by America
By Matthew Desmond. Crown. 2023. 304 pages
Published to much acclaim in March, Matthew Desmond’s Poverty, by America focuses on one of the most distinctive aspects of American life: abnormally severe poverty existing alongside abundant wealth.
This sociologist has previously written about aspects of poverty such as the housing crisis which is afflicting poorer Americans.
Poverty, by America is broader in its focus, and consciously echoes Michael Harrington’s ground-breaking 1962 work, The Other America, which captured public attention and inspired much of the action later undertaken as part of President Johnson’s “War on Poverty.”
Though income inequality exists all across the developed world, the human stories he reports emphasise a harsher edge to American poverty.
More than 3.6 million eviction notices are provided to occupants each year in the US, with “eviction movers” being a well-known feature of life.
Absent the stricter employment legislation in place in Western Europe, job security is increasingly hard to find in an environment where permanent unionised positions have been replaced by temporary contracts, and Desmond adds that half of all new positions are eliminated within a year.
America’s social safety net is also more porous and harder to access, meaning that billions of dollars are spent annually on litigation by people seeking to claim benefits. In 2019, almost 400,000 payments were made to parties representing people who had applied for disability.
This book is not called “Poverty in America,” however, as Desmond’s central thesis is that the actions taken by wealthier Americans inflict major harm on the poor.
The payment of low wages allows corporations to increase dividends to shareholders (a category which includes most Americans, who either own stock or have retirement funds), and efforts to change this situation such as Walmart’s decision to raise wages in 2015 can come at a cost in terms of lost market value.
More affluent people can also profit from the range of possibilities offered by the rise of companies like Uber and Amazon, while avoiding ever having to experience the work conditions and wages of those in temporary or precarious employment.
“Fast and cheap – that’s how we prefer to consume in America,” Desmond writes. “But somebody has to pay for it, and that is the rag-and-bone American worker. Poverty wages allow rock-bottom prices. Relentless supervision and control facilitate fast service. The working class and working poor – and, now, even the working homeless – bear the costs of our appetites and amusements.”
Though firmly of the Left, Desmond resists the temptation to lay the blame for this problem at the door of any one political party, instead suggesting that the economic choices of those in the more advantaged classes lie at the heart of the injustices he sees across American society.
Calling for higher taxes and highlighting the degree to which existing tax breaks and benefits are skewed towards those who need help the least, he assails the tendency of some to close their eyes to poverty while shutting themselves off from it within economically segregated communities.
While he describes the significant racial disparities in income, Desmond retains his focus on the core divide between the haves and the have nots, while urging that there be a greater focus on economic inequality, for instance, by calling on businesses that hang Black Lives Matter signs and trans flags to also publicise their starting wages.
Most people are implicated in all of this, and therefore an all-encompassing societal solution is necessary.
“Don’t we benefit when we see our savings go up and up, even when those returns require a kind of human sacrifice? Consumers benefit from worker exploitation, too,” he writes. “We can now, with a few clicks, summon rides and groceries and Chinese takeout and a handyman, all at cut rates. We have become masters in this new servant economy, where an anonymised and underpaid workforce does the bidding of the affluent.”.
Desmond puts forward a range of proposals which he believes could end poverty in America, beginning with income and corporation tax rises aimed at bringing America’s tax revenue in line with Western democracies.
This revenue, he suggests, could then be used to rebalance the social safety net, with an emphasis on universal income support programmes which avoid distinctions between those who qualify for assistance and those who narrowly fall outside the current limits.
Elsewhere, he backs more government spending on public housing, more restrictions on predatory lending practices and reforms to labour laws which would make it easier for collective bargaining to take place across entire economic sectors.
While it is impossible to question the sincerity of his concern for the poor, some of Desmond’s analysis appears shallow.
Surveying the evidence as to whether minimum wage increases create unemployment, he pronounces that any employment effect is “inconsequential.”
If that is true – that raising the price of labour does not lessen demand for labour – one wonders why he does not support far more dramatic minimum wage hikes.
Regarding the decline of labour unions, the author reiterates the conventional left-wing explanation about hostile government action by highlighting President Reagan’s decision to fire striking air traffic controllers in 1981.
The work of Robert Putnam and others has made clear that the weakening of unions forms part of a broader pattern of enhanced atomisation and community decline, where individuals are less likely to join unions, churches or other social institutions.
One interesting parallel between the work of Desmond and that of his crusading forerunner Michael Harrington is the religious background to their activism.
In Harrington’s case, his original inspiration was made clear in his own words, when he wrote that it was “through Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement that I first came into contact with the terrible reality of involuntary poverty and the magnificent ideal of voluntary poverty.”
By the time he published The Other America, the religious faith of this former editor of the Catholic Worker had been replaced by a growing commitment to socialism, but the lasting imprint of Catholicism remained obvious.
Decades later, Christian social activism would play a crucial role in Matthew Desmond’s life, when his family moved to a downtrodden community in Arizona in which his father had been appointed as a pastor.
A more comprehensive analysis of contemporary American poverty would have involved more serious reflection about the degree to which secularisation – and the accompanying tragedy of family breakdown – has hampered efforts to eradicate poverty in an increasingly prosperous country.
Writing in the early 1960s, Harrington observed that among the poorest in society, “marriage was somewhat irregular,” while adding that it “was not uncommon to meet two or three sets of half brothers and half sisters living under the same roof.”
Even as a lapsed Catholic, Harrington perceptively noted another change already setting in when he described how the social function of churches was increasingly “a phenomenon of the middle class” rather than something which impacted heavily on those at the bottom rung of society.
Decades of social science research by Charles Murray, Putnam and others have made clear how significant this change has been.
Yet Desmond is clearly sceptical, focusing attention on economic rather than social factors and dismissively that the “bourgeois model of the two-parent family is made possible by the same stuff that made the bourgeoisie: money.”
His social liberalism is even more pronounced elsewhere, when he bemoans the existence of pro-life laws in many American states while arguing that “when reproductive choice is constricted, women and their children are often cast into poverty.”
Later on, and without any sense of irony, he laments the fact that poverty means there are “many ‘lost Einsteins’ who would have made enormous contributions had they been allowed to reach their full potential.”
Poverty, by America is nonetheless a thought-provoking book which addresses economic trends and public policy issues far beyond America’s borders.
Regardless of its shortcomings, Desmond deserves much credit for telling harsh truths about the lives of the least fortunate members of society, and more importantly, for asking the awkward questions about the complicity of the comfortable.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00MercatorNet - Navigating Modern Complexitieshttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngMercatorNet - Navigating Modern Complexities2023-04-17 05:57:422023-04-17 06:21:18A fresh look at the scandal of poverty in America, the world’s richest country
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded $177 million to environmental groups, including some who publicly supported the Biden administration’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, the agency announced Thursday.
The funding will be spread across 17 groups, which will each receive a minimum of $10 million to serve as Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers (EJ TCTACs), to help “underserved and overburdened communities” access government funding to support environmental justice initiatives, the EPA reported in a press release. Groups named by the EPA include the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), WE ACT for Environmental Justice and the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCFEJ), which each supported the president’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act.
“These EJ TCTACs are in direct response to feedback from communities and environmental justice leaders who have long called for technical assistance and capacity building support!” the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights said in a tweetthread Thursday. “The EJ TCTAC program is partnered with [the Department of Energy] and is part of the Federal Interagency Thriving Communities Network to deliver on the Biden Administration’s Justice40 Initiative to ensure that 40% of the benefits of certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities.”
The funding represents a significant boost to groups like the NWF and DSCFEJ, two environmental groups tapped by the EPA. In 2021, the NWF generated roughly $118 million in revenue, while the DSCFEJ generated just $3.54 million in 2020, according to publicly available documentation.
— EPA Office of EJ and External Civil Rights (@EPAEnvJustice) April 13, 2023
“We know that so many communities across the nation have the solutions to the environmental challenges they face,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan in the press release. “Unfortunately, many have lacked access or faced barriers when it comes to the crucial federal resources needed to deliver these solutions. Today we’re taking another step to break down these barriers.”
Including Thursday’s announcement, the EPA has announced a combined $827 million in funding for environmental justice initiatives in 2023, according to the agency’s press release.
RTI, NWF, DSCFEJ and WE ACT did not immediately respond to a Daily Caller News Foundation request for comment.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Daily Callerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Caller2023-04-15 08:40:022023-04-18 07:15:16The Biden Admin Hands Out Millions To Green Groups That Supported His Climate Bill
Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. has made it his mission to go all electric when it comes to vehicles. To do this he is mandating new car-pollution standards in a way that’s meant to dramatically speed the adoption of all electric vehicles (EVs).
A, The proposed tailpipe pollution limits don’t require a specific number of electric vehicles to be sold every year, but instead they mandate limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Depending on how automakers comply, the EPA projects that at least 60% of new passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. would be electric by 2030 and up to 67% by 2032.
For slightly larger, medium-duty trucks, the EPA projects 46% of new vehicle sales will be EVs in 2032.
[ … ]
Q. What is the auto industry saying about the proposed rules?
A. John Bozzella, CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing most automakers, called the EPA proposal “aggressive by any measure” and wrote in a statement that it exceeds the Biden administration’s 50% electric vehicle sales target for 2030 announced less than two years ago.
Most electric vehicle drivers charge their vehicles at home. But as Americans buy EVs – to the tune of 7 percent of all new vehicle registrations in January – more and more people are finding that the public charging system is unreliable, inconvenient and simply confusing.
“I’ve seen people wait because there are only four chargers and two of them are out of service,” said Bill Ferro, the founder of EVSession, a software firm that tracks charger reliability. “Everything that I’ve seen shows that it’s driving away current and potential EV owners.”
So our U.S. military has 81 different models of military land vehicles, that number in the thousands of vehicles that must now meet Biden’s new EPA rules.
The U.S. military is investing around $2.4 billion towards integrating hybrid (HEV) and plug-in electric (PEV) vehicles into its fleet in order to become net-zero in energy consumption by 2050. The Army plans to electrify light-duty non-tactical vehicles by 2027 and all non-tactical vehicles by 2035, along with energy efficiency improvements and microgrid systems at all Army installations. Training and leadership development will incorporate climate change topics no later than 2028.
So, our military will gradually become HEV or PEV and our troops will be schooled on climate change.
When I was in the military we always refueled all of our vehicles whenever we stopped in a new tactical location.
Please, Joe, explain to me how will we re-charge and refuel all of these HEVs and PEVs in the field during combat?
Is the U.S. military going to tow around generators in the combat zone? Will they only be deployed into those countries that have sufficient charging stations that our PEV military land vehicles can plug into?
Get the idea?
Biden is weakening our military and putting our soldiers and national security at great risk just to reduce America’s carbon footprint. Why?
BTY, most of the batteries currently used in EVs and in the new PEVs will most probably be made in China.
It doesn’t get any worse than this.
War fighting and winning on the battlefield is being replaced with the Biden Green New Deal political agenda.
Biden wants to “save the planet” while he puts American soldiers, sailors and Marines at ever greater risk.
Our enemies are watching and laughing at the U.S.
Biden’s green policies are a clear and present danger to America and its citizens.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2023-04-14 07:40:442023-05-12 05:18:32Hey Joe, How many U.S. Soldiers Lives will be Needlessly Lost after you Convert to a All Electric Military Fleet of Land Vehicles (EVMLVs)?
According to the globalists, climate change is the No. 1 threat to humanity, necessitating radical quality of life sacrifices and the total relinquishing of privacy and freedom
Climate change is also being used to explain away food shortages, justify the need to move people from the countrysides and suburbs into smart cities, and promote the replacement of beef with insects. The COVID-19 pandemic was even blamed on it
Globalists want health (which includes both medicine and food, under the new “food is medicine” agenda), climate action and energy control to be addressed not as three separate issues but as one
One of the globalists’ fraudulent solutions to the purported climate crisis is Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) investing. A company’s ESG score is supposed to tell investors how socially conscious the company is, but recent scandals have revealed ESG is a scam
Carbon trade refers to the buying and selling of credits that allow a company to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide. By buying credits from nonpolluters, industry can continue to pollute. Basically, like ESG investing, the carbon trade is a globalist scam intended to lower the living standards of the poor and usher humanity into carbon slavery
According to the globalists, climate change is the No. 1 threat to humanity, necessitating radical quality of life sacrifices and the total relinquishing of privacy and freedom. Germany’s health minister Karl Lauterbach, for example, in December 2020 proclaimed that addressing climate change will require restrictions on personal freedom, similar to those implemented to “flatten the curve” of COVID.1
Similarly, British economics professor Mariana Mazzucato in September 2020 warned that “In the near future, the world may need to resort to lockdowns again — this time to tackle a climate emergency.”2 The World Economic Forum (WEF), the United Nations and the World Health Organization have also published articles stating their intent to “fight climate change” by shutting down society.3
Climate change is also being used to explain away food shortages, justify the need to move people from the countrysides and suburbs into smart cities, and promote the replacement of beef with insects. The COVID-19 pandemic was even blamed on it.
Health, Climate and Energy To Be Addressed as One Issue
Just about anything is now being justified on the basis that it helps address climate change. Indeed, dietary controls, energy control, carbon restrictions and climate change are increasingly tied together, whether it makes sense or not, and the reason for this can be found in a September 2022 WEF article4 co-written by the director of WHO’s Environment and Health Department. As noted in this article, titled “How to Fight the Next Threat to Our World: Air Pollution”:
“[W]orld leaders must put health at the core of climate action and social equity. The fight for clean air can accelerate the reduction of climate-warming emissions, the shift to cheaper and more reliable energy sources and justice for the marginalized and most vulnerable communities … We can confront these crises more effectively and fairly if we address them as one …”
In other words, health (which includes both medicine and food, as government has now launched a “food is medicine” agenda), climate action and energy control are to be addressed not as three separate issues but as one. The potential implications of this are enormous.
If the WHO ends up having sole power over global health, combining health, climate and energy issues into one will automatically give the WHO the de facto power to seize control over society in general.
They could issue climate lockdowns, for example, on the basis that lockdowns reduce pollution, hence improving public health. That the WHO will jump at the opportunity to implement climate lockdowns in particular can be seen in the WHO “Manifesto for a Healthy Recovery From COVID-19,” which states:5
“The ‘lockdown’ measures that have been necessary to control the spread of COVID-19 have slowed economic activity, and disrupted lives — but have also given some glimpses of a possible brighter future. In some places, pollution levels have dropped to such an extent that people have breathed clean air, or have seen blue skies and clear waters, or have been able to walk and cycle safely with their children — for the first times in their lives …
Opinion polls from around the world show that people want to protect the environment, and preserve the positives that have emerged from the crisis, as we recover …
Decisions made in the coming months can either “lock in” economic development patterns that will do permanent and escalating damage to the ecological systems that sustain all human health and livelihoods, or, if wisely taken, can promote a healthier, fairer, and greener world.”
This manifesto also lays out many other aspects of The Great Reset agenda, including smart cities, travel restrictions, new food systems, a complete transition to green energy and more. But again, the thing that will really facilitate all of these changes is to have a centralized powerbase, and that is the WHO.
We’re now told we have to sacrifice our standard of living because we have a responsibility to save the planet. However, ‘green solutions’ are a gigantic scam designed to disempower and control everyone but the ones at the very top of the power pyramid, while accomplishing little in terms of producing a cleaner environment, let alone having a distinct effect on climate. The WHO could also mandate individual carbon footprint tracking,6 as carbon emissions are claimed to be a primary contributor to climate change. A likely argument would be “We have to rein in our personal carbon footprint because pollution is deadly, and if you don’t, you’re responsible for the death of others.”
Sacrificing selfhood and the rights of individuals to “serve the greater good” is a hallmark call of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, and they used this “care for others” argument during COVID to pressure people into compliance with everything from lockdowns and social distancing to wearing a mask and getting the jab.
The same narrative is also being used to prop up the “climate emergency.” We’re now told we have to sacrifice our standard of living because we have a responsibility both for others and for the earth itself.
However, while pollution is a reality that needs to be addressed, the solution the totalitarian cabal is offering is a gigantic scam designed to disempower and control everyone but the ones at the very top of the power pyramid, while accomplishing little in terms of producing a cleaner environment, let alone having a distinct effect on climate.
The ESG Scam
One of the globalists’ fraudulent solutions to the purported climate crisis is Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) investing, first popularized in 2004.7 In more recent years, ESG funds have gained steam and now make up about 10% of all invested assets.8
A company’s ESG score is supposed to tell investors how socially conscious the company is, based on its behavior within the environmental, social and corporate sphere. For example, does the company have safeguards in place to protect the environment or policies to address climate change?
How “equitable” is its relationship with employees, suppliers, customers and the local community? And how does it stack up in terms of company leadership, executive pay, audits, internal controls and shareholder rights?
Has the company taken steps to eliminate conflicts of interest that encourage self-dealing by executives? Does it conduct independent audits and is there a traceable line of fiduciary duty? And so on.
ESG investing is supposed to encourage companies to act responsibly, but it’s actually having the opposite effect. Somehow or other, companies are greasing the right hands and getting great ESG ratings, only to later turn out to have the worst governance possible and/or a track record of environmental destruction.9
One of the latest in a long line of scandals is that of FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange that went belly up overnight while its CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried absconded with up to $2 billion of client funds.
John Ray, the appointed CEO of FTX’s bankruptcy stated: “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.”
FTX’s ESG score really ought to have been nonexistent. Cryptocurrencies are extremely energy-intensive and wasteful (the “E” in the score), customer satisfaction (part of the “S” in the score) within the crypto space had been tanking for over a year, courtesy of the repeated evaporation of wealth.
As for the “G,” FTX had no board of directors, an “irregular ownership structure,” was rife with conflicts of interest and self-dealing, and had no financial controls whatsoever. Bankman-Fried didn’t even keep an accurate list of accounts. Yet at the time of FTX’s demise, it had a higher governance score than Exxon Mobil. As reported by Forbes:10
“Of the many dimensions of the FTX fiasco, the most shocking is the comprehensive failure of corporate governance, now becoming clear as the bankruptcy process unfolds. Sloppy and likely illegal management practices at FTX have raised doubts that extend beyond the company to call into question the whole crypto premise. They also cast doubt on the integrity of the ESG rating business …
ESG — broadly, let us call it ‘virtuous investing’ — is now a big business in the investment world. ESG ratings … purport to score capitalists (i.e., private-sector profit-driven corporations) against a melange of ‘goodness’ indicia of all sorts. Does the company’s business model help or hurt the Amazon forest?
Does the firm have enough ADA-rated bathrooms? Does it offer paternity-leave to its employees (regardless of gender)? Does it have board members who check all the right diversity boxes? …
ESG has captivated many, on both the ‘buy-side’ of the market … and on the ‘sell-side’ … But ESG is still a fluid concept, and much has been made recently of the inconsistencies and discrepancies in the ratings. For many, the core of ESG is G … Governance is the tip-of-the-spear when it comes to creating sustainable business models. It all starts from the top, which guides every other aspect all the way down …
According to a recent academic study of six prominent ESG rating agencies … ‘ESG ratings from different providers disagree substantially…’ Most of the divergence/confusion arises from differences in measurement methodology and execution. But there is also evidence of bias: ‘we detect that the rater’s overall view of a firm influences the measurement of specific categories’ …
The panoramic failure of FTX this month highlights a flawed governance framework, which today’s simplistic virtue metrics fail to reflect accurately — hence the absurd rankings cited for FTX vs Exxon and others.”
FTX isn’t alone in falling short of expectations though. According to a September 2021 report by climate change think tank InfluenceMap, more than half of the 723 funds marketed using ESG claims failed to meet the Paris Accord rules on carbon emissions and clean energy, and more than 70% of funds with broad ESG goals failed to meet global climate targets.11
Similarly, a May 2021 report12 by the Economist concluded some of the largest ESG funds in the world are “stuffed full of polluters and sin stocks.” A 2019 report by the Wall Street Journal13 also noted, “Eight of the 10 biggest U.S. sustainable funds are invested in oil-and-gas companies, which are regularly slammed by environmental activists.”
In short, the ESG investing scheme is yet another globalist scam that allows them to promote their own agenda outside of the democratic process.
Wind turbines, solar panels and electric-everything is touted as the answer to the purported climate crisis, yet most of these “green” solutions are far more environmentally destructive than oil and gas.14
Many also end up requiring more fuel rather than less. Importantly, there aren’t even enough minerals in the world to allow even a single country to go 100% electric. As just one example, to replace the 31.5 million vehicles in the U.K. with electric cars will require twice the global supply of cobalt!15 The math just doesn’t work.
So, are the globalists stupid? No. They’re fully aware they can’t replace all gas-powered cars with EVs, be it by 2030 or 2050. See, they know you won’t even be allowed to travel very far by the time the EV goals and mandates go into effect, so you won’t need a car in the first place.
Forcing states and countries to transition to EVs merely speeds up the end goal of preventing you from owning a car and driving anywhere. It also justifies the creation of “15-minute cities.”
As Vandana Shiva, Ph.D., cofounder of the Indian NGO Navdanya, has warned, we are being ushered into carbon slavery. As explained in Navdanya’s report, “Earth Democracy: Connecting Rights of Mother Earth to Human Rights and Well-Being of All”:16
“If ‘feeding the world’ through chemicals and dwarf varieties bred for chemicals was the false narrative created to impose the Green Revolution, the new false narrative is ‘sustainability’ and ‘saving the planet.’
In the new ‘net zero’ world, farmers will not be respected and rewarded as custodians of the land and caregivers … the providers of our food and health. They will not be paid a fair and just price for growing healthy food through ecological processes, which protect and regenerate the farming systems as a whole.
They will be paid for linear extraction of fragments of the ecological functions of the system, which can be tied to the new ‘net zero’ false climate solution based on a fake calculus, fake science allowing continued emissions while taking control over the land of indigenous people and small farmers.
‘Net Zero’ is a new strategy to get rid of small farmers … through the burden of fake carbon accounting. Carbon offsets and the new accounting trick of ‘net zero’ does not mean zero emissions. It means the rich polluters will continue to pollute and also grab the land and resources of those who have not polluted — indigenous people and small farmers — for carbon offsets.”
Bill Gates has alluded to this double-standard in responding to those who criticize him for the hypocrisy of being a serious polluter himself, with a 66,000 square-foot mansion, a private jet, 242,000 acres of farmland and investments in fossil fuel-dependent industries such as airlines, heavy machinery and cars.17
This pollution is acceptable, Gates said, because, “I am offsetting my carbon emissions by buying clean aviation fuel, and funding carbon capture and funding low-cost housing projects to use electricity instead of natural gas.”18
Focusing solely on carbon reductionism also misses the point that lands, forests and ecosystems are more than just the carbon stored in them, and putting carbon conditions on small farmers will only make environmental injustices worse. As noted by Navdanya’s report, “Conditionalities put on the nonpolluters by the polluters who want to continue to pollute is unjust and ecologically, morally and ethically bankrupt.”
The Carbon Trade Scam
Carbon trade refers to the buying and selling of credits that allow a company to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide, and by buying credits from nonpolluters, industry can continue to pollute. Basically, like ESG investing, it’s nothing but a globalist scam that lowers the living standards of the poor while having no negative impact on the wealthy.
Indeed, you can be assured that the carbon restrictions that will be placed on humanity will not apply to the globalists. They can simply buy enough carbon credits to maintain their lifestyle, while the lower-, middle- and even upper classes of “regular” folk will be forced to make major sacrifices to theirs. Ultimately, carbon slavery will apply not just to farmers but to all of us, as our personal carbon footprint will be part of our social credit score.
The first credit card with a carbon-emission spending limit was introduced in April 2019. As explained by the World Economic Forum,19 “Everything we put in our shopping basket comes at an environmental cost … Swedish fintech company Doconomy has launched a new credit card that monitors the carbon footprint of its customers — and cuts off their spending when they hit their carbon max.” Isn’t that nice? They’re helping you do your part to save the planet!
Or are they? “Helpful” tools like this will ultimately become tools for control. Eventually, your carbon footprint will dictate what you can eat and wear, where you can live and how far you can travel, and you won’t even need a special credit card. Meanwhile, there will be plenty of loopholes for the rich.
ESG, the carbon trade and personal carbon footprint tracking will all become barriers of entry — a way to keep the peons out of the rich boys’ club. Needless to say, rigged schemes like ESG and the carbon trade also make it difficult for startup companies to compete, which will facilitate consolidation of companies and industries into mega-monopolies.
Last but not least, the focus on carbon emissions has made the world turn a blind eye to other far more harmful kinds of pollution, such as dioxin — thought to be the most toxic molecule on Earth — which in March 2023 was allowed to contaminate huge areas of Ohio without government lifting a finger to address it.20
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00MERCOLA Take Control of Your Healthhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngMERCOLA Take Control of Your Health2023-04-07 06:35:112023-04-07 06:37:50VIDEO: This Is Why ‘Green Solutions’ Are a Gigantic Scam
Donald Trump’s campaign responded to President Joe Biden blaming the former president’s administration for the Afghanistan withdrawal.
The Biden administration released a review of the August 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan on Thursday, blaming the former administration for leaving “difficult realities” behind for Biden and “severely” constraining him.
The document criticized Trump for calling for talks with the Taliban, ordering the drawdown of U.S. troops, negotiating a withdrawal deadline for May 1 of 2021, and not giving Biden plans on how to conduct the final withdrawal during the presidential transition.
Trump’s team responded to Biden’s criticisms by saying the Biden administration is “trying to gaslight the American people.”
“Biden and his administration are trying to gaslight the American people for their disastrous withdrawal in Afghanistan that directly led to American deaths and emboldened the terrorists,” Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung told the Daily Caller.
“Biden’s complete erosion of American deterrence can be directly assigned blame for Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, Kim’s decision to restart missile launches, and Xi’s pending decision to invade Taiwan and Chinese spy balloons surveilling American. And those are only the nation-state threats we’re aware of. The world has become a more dangerous place under Joe Biden,” Cheung added.
The U.S. completely withdrew from Afghanistan in August of 2021, ending the 20-year war. Thirteen Americans died during the withdrawal.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
The Biden regime is the enemy of the people. And they make sure the American people know as little as possible, instead it’s Trump! Trump! Trump, keeping them dumb fat, and unhappy.
The Biden Administration is being routed by China. They’re policies are enabling China to overtake the United States and achieve global hegemony. Little media coverage for Biden’s dangerous ineptitude vis a vis China. Trump will need to make the rise of China the main issue of 2024.
If numbers mean anything, China will soon rule the seven seas and five oceans. By 2028, at current projections, the People’s Liberation Army Navy will have approximately 150 more vessels than the United States.
Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, in Senate testimony on March 28, said China’s navy will have “upward of 440 or so” vessels within five years. The U.S. by then, at current projections, will have about 291.
China already has a larger naval force than the U.S. In 2021, the Congressional Research Service put the number of Chinese ships and submarines at 348, and America’s at 296.
EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. All rights reserved.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Geller Reporthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Geller Report2023-04-06 06:32:192023-04-08 14:38:59Preparing for War With China, U.S. Shrinks Its Navy
The “sustainability” concept was introduced to the investing world in 2006 with the UN publication “Principles for Responsible Investing” (PRI), which advocated investments that incorporated environmental, social, and governance (ESG) concepts.[1] Once again, the three Es of sustainability, but government has replaced the E of economy, making the governmental role explicit. This agenda is now explicitly tied to Agenda 2030 and as of 2019 included 2,450 PRI signatory companies with assets totaling $80 trillion under management.[2]
Citing the UN-mandated SDGs, Acuity Knowledge Partners, an investment advisory group, calls “sustainable finance” a “new frontier” toward investment banking that is “environmentally and socially sustainable.”[3]
Numerous organizations now pursue the UN’s notion of sustainability. This includes large and influential organizations explicitly involved in promoting Agenda 2030, such as the WEF, BlackRock, and thousands of smaller ones. BlackRock partners with Climate Action 100, which includes numerous corporations, other investment funds, and nonprofits controlling $60 trillion in assets.[4]
At the November 2022 G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia, member countries including the U.S. signed the Bali Declaration, which acknowledges support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals:
We met in Bali on 15–16 November 2022, at a time of unparalleled multidimensional crises. We have experienced the devastation brought by the Covid-19 pandemic, and other challenges including climate change, which has caused economic downturn, increased poverty, slowed global recovery, and hindered the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. [emphasis added][5]
Like many of the leftist agendas, once it caught on, it grew and metastasized. Sustainability now includes dozens of “social equity” concepts, social credit scores, and the WEF’s “reinventing” capitalism—calling it “stakeholder capitalism.” It is also behind the movement to abolish all carbon fuels and gasoline-powered autos.
First articulated in a 1973 Davos Manifesto, stakeholder capitalism directs corporate profits to underwrite the Left’s wish list of woke agendas.[6] It not only violates corporate responsibilities to shareholders, but also subtly undermines private property rights by providing benefits to many “stakeholders” that have no ownership in the relevant stocks. KPMG has stated:
KPMG ESG solutions are both holistic and practical. We’ll guide your teams to drive sustainable innovation across your business and help you gain a competitive edge. With deep expertise across critical issues—including decarbonization, reporting, sustainable finance and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion)—we’ll help you create the right blueprint for integrating ESG. A blueprint that simplifies your strategy, guides its full implementation and lets you take the lead on ESG . . . because how you grow matters.[7]
KPMG has an entire department devoted to directing its clients into an ESG model. Its “ESG Maturity Assessment” makes clear that results of that assessment will become public knowledge—an implicit form of social credit scoring that will pressure any company foolish enough to complete the assessment to comply with WEF dictates. Cheryl Crumley of the Washington Timeswrites:
Under a WEF-imagined stakeholder system, banks wouldn’t lend to businesses that don’t comply with, say, climate change policies or, say, vaccination mandates. Investors wouldn’t invest if the WEF didn’t approve. Insurers wouldn’t insure—governments wouldn’t permit—developers wouldn’t develop—builders wouldn’t build—and so forth and so on. The government, through partners and friends in business, would be the behind-the-scenes’ strings puller. And better believe this: The only businesses that would fit into this new government-run system would be the leftists.[8]
Following the 2023 Davos meeting, WEF announced that 137 companies had developed Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics, a way to measure and report nonfinancial disclosures that showed their progress in meeting ESG goals:
Global challenges amplified by the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic have made ESG issues even more pressing for policymakers, boards and executives.
To promote alignment among existing metrics and disclosure frameworks, the World Economic Forum, with partners including Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC, has identified a set of universal metrics and disclosures—the Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics.[9]
In 2020, the WEF reported that “120 of the world’s largest companies” had created the Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics.[10] So by 2023, it had actually added only 17 companies, and only 55 of the 137 had been reporting for the past two years.[11] Maybe the enthusiasm for stakeholder capitalism is overrated? BlackRock, the most aggressive promoter of sustainable development, is apparently having second thoughts about its support for stakeholder capitalism at the expense of its investors.[12] Meanwhile CEO Larry Fink is facing pressures to resign.[13]
Digital identification, or “digital ID,” can be authenticated unambiguously through a digital channel, unlocking access to banking, government benefits, education, and many other critical services. The risks and potential for misuse of digital ID are real and deserve careful attention. When well-designed, digital ID not only enables civic and social empowerment, but also makes possible real and inclusive economic gains—a less well understood aspect of the technology.[14]
McKinsey acknowledges that digital IDs could be abused and that a successful digital ID program must be guided by the rule of law. But whose law? China and many other nations recognize no law and use social credit scores to control and persecute their people. To imagine that the UN would respect individual rights would require ignoring practically everything the UN does. The United States appears to be following suit as more and more government corruption and incompetence is discovered at every level. Imposing digital ID on everyone in the world would put everyone under the control of increasingly despotic governments.
The idea of using digital IDs as vaccine passports was also discussed at the G20 meeting. The declaration included a section promoting “digital solutions and non-digital solutions, including proof of vaccinations . . . as part of the efforts to strengthen prevention and response to future pandemics, that should capitalize and build on the success of the existing standards and digital COVID-19 certificates.”[15]
According to Charity Support, for 2023 the top nine nonprofits promoting sustainability concepts are:
But as we have seen, that is just the tip of the iceberg. The entire society has become infected with this misplaced agenda. MIT even offers a professional certificate program for “sustainability.” Many colleges now offer a bachelor’s degree in sustainability.[16]
EDITORS NOTE: This Capital Research Center column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Capital Research Centerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngCapital Research Center2023-04-04 09:25:582023-04-04 09:28:15Sustainable Development: ESG and Social Credit Scores
We received an email titled “CALL TO ACTION – STOP COMMUNIST CHINA FROM BUILDING A BATTERY COMPANY IN MICHIGAN WITH $715 MILLION TAX DOLLARS – EXPANING TO OTHER STATES.”
Paul, one of our Michigan readers, is highly concerned about the Democrat Governor of Michigan spending Michigan taxpayer’s dollars to fund Gotion High-Tech, Inc. a Communist Chinese battery manufacturing company.
What has happened to Detroit, America’s car capitol? What happened to Made in America by American companies?
The people of Michigan are have none of this deal and are holding a protest on Wednesday, April 5th, 2023.
In his email Paul writes,
We fought in Vietnam to stop the spread of Communism. Now, the Governor of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer is using 715 million dollars of our taxes to fund a Communist China Battery Company to build a large plant in Michigan using Communist China employees. There have been 94 million people killed as countries were taken over by Communism Control. China alone killed 65 million in the People’s Republic of China, do we really want this for America?
The Globalists are using the Global Warming Hoax to take down America. China is still building Coal Powered Power Plants and taking over the world’s resources to build batteries that will be forced on Americans whether you want it or not, by our corrupt politicians. China has bought and paid for a majority of our Democrat and Republican politicians.
We need to stop China from taking over America. If you can, please contact the individuals at the end of the letter below, all the contact information is at the bottom of this email. We need to let these politicians know how we feel about this very dangerous move they are making for America.
Paul provided these articles about Gotion High-Tech, Inc.
Bill Johnson says, “This will be the most important protest that I’ve taken part in, in Michigan, during my lifetime.” That’s a big statement, but he is right! If the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is allowed an entrance into Michigan, it will put a smothering blanket over all issues. The implications are vast. It will affect our land, our physical health, and, with getting a foothold here, dire implications regarding our First Amendment and religious rights sure to be just around the corner. Once this is done, it can’t be undone; we cannot fathom the damage that would be done to our land, community, and way of living. If you live in Michigan but not near Big Rapids do not be fooled into thinking that this is someone else’s problem. If will affect all of us, directly and/or indirectly.
Some of you are likely wondering: “What protest?” “What are you talking about?” First, let me explain the protest, why it’s important that you show up, and then other actions that we must take to do all we can do to protect The Great Lakes State and her citizens – our family, friends, neighbors, and freedoms! (This is a lengthy email but it’s full of information we need to know. I urge you to read through to the end and share it with your friends – it’s that urgent!)
The Protest:
If you are not aware of the CCP Gotion plant that is proposed to open in Green Township (Big Rapids area), I urge you to inform yourself. We wrote a short article on it last week here.
On April 5 there was supposed to be a forum open to the public in which the proposed CCP Gotion plant would be discussed. However, township officials have now declared their meeting will be virtual – with no opportunity for the public to speak out! Already an attack on our First Amendment rights to be heard by our governing officials.
In response, those concerned and opposed to the CCP Gotion plant are asked to come to Big Rapids on Wednesday, April 5 at 6:30 p.m. and line the streets through town to peacefully stand in opposition. (More information next week on where to park and meet.) It is the goal to have hundreds, if not more, in attendance. Media, including Fox News, will reportedly be covering the protest. We urge you to attend. If you’re able to bring a sign, please do so. Remember, there are several issues at stake here: Ecological, Physical health, Freedoms, Spiritual, and the list goes on.
Why we must show up:
As stated, there is MUCH at stake. We’ve recently received an email with a great amount of important information regarding this deal. I’ll share it here:
Title: The Right Place has picked the wrong county for a $2.2B Gotion battery plant
If this is an issue that concerns you, the information below will help you communicate key concerns to your legislators. If it’s not an issue that concerns you…I ask you to please at least consider the points below.
This information has been assembled after ~20 hours of primary research, which has included directly speaking with many of the decision makers involved. For context, I (Marjorie Steele, a Green Township resident), have written for state and national publications as a journalist, have written federal grants, and have even spent several years working in leadership positions in urban real estate development. Tl;dr – this information is thoroughly sourced and accurate, as of today’s date (3.15.23).
Talking points: failure to perform basic due diligence and good faith disclosure
1) No information regarding environmental impact has been made public.
Big Rapids Township Treasurer Bill Stanek says The Right Place hired a third party to perform one, but that he hadn’t read it, and the township didn’t have a copy. None of the local officials I’ve spoken with seemed to have any knowledge of the survey’s contents. No environmental impact survey is provided on The Right Place’s Gotion project page, nor is one referenced.
The Right Place, on its website, in “CIP Considerations for Project Elephant” states, in regards to environmental contamination, simply “All development changes the natures of the land. Through planning, monitoring, and enforcement of regulations, hopefully environmental contamination can be kept to a minimum.”
“Hopes” for low environmental contamination are an insultingly inadequate assessment for the future of an entire town’s land and water systems.
2) The plant will most likely use toxic chemicals (N-Methylpyrrolidone, aka NMP)
Known lithium battery cathode/anode manufacturing processes (like that which Gotion Inc proposes to build in Big Rapids) use a type of chemical which are known to be hazardous to human and environmental health (specifically: N-Methylpyrrolidone, aka NMP). What’s more: EPA and other government regulations are behind on regulating NMP and similar chemicals such as PFAs / perfluorochemicals.
In light of this information, The Right Place’s assurance that the plant will enforce existing regulations make it an outright certainty that the plant will take no proactive measures whatsoever to mitigate NMP contamination, were they to fall outside of currently lax guidelines.
3) No third party economic assessment has been performed
The only economic impact projections which have been provided for the project (2,350 jobs, avg $61K salary) were sourced from “Project Elephant,” which is Gotion.
A project of this size (over $2.2B in total) in a community of this size (~30,000) deserves the proper due diligence of an independent economic impact assessment.
4) Over $14M in infrastructure costs are TBD
City planners have stated The Right Place plans to fund what would be to Big Rapids massive road/water/sewer changes through unnamed grants, and the Right Place’s project pro forma lists funding for infrastructure as “TBD”. Our local road commission is woefully underfunded already; we should have assurance that the community won’t have to foot the bill for these infrastructure costs.
5) Unknown if there is undisclosed conflict of interest between RP CEO Randy Thelen and Gotion VP Chuck Thelen
The CEO of the Right Place, Randy Thelen, is (according to local township leaders) spearheading the Gotion plant project for The Right Place. The lead VP on the project from Gotion, aka “Project Elephant,” is Chuck Thelen. The two men share a family name, and are both from Michigan.
The Right Place has not disclosed whether or not Randy and Chuck share a family relation. The community deserves the disclosure of this information, one way or the other.
6) Direct and indirect ownership by Chinese government
The Right Place discloses on their website that the Gotion plant in Big Rapids would have 0.13% direct ownership by the Guangdong Government, and that another ~22% would be owned by Chinese entities. This means the plant would have both direct ownership by Chinese companies, and would also give the Chinese government access to the plant.
What else we can do:
My co-worker, Chris Johnson, recently wrote these words in our free monthly newsletter: “The Gotion plant is not a done deal yet. There is still lots of planning to be done, permits to go through, and the incentives package still has to go through the legislature. But there is significant pressure on the state government to make this deal happen. Pray that it doesn’t, for the long term good of the nation and the people of Michigan.”
Let’s pray and then contact the following members of the Green Township Board (and others) and respectfully, yet urgently, express your concerns, asking them to put a stop to this. Cutting it off at the local level is the best way. They have a stake in their community; their children and friends live there. The lack of research and information alone should be alarming. Email or call these individuals urging them to consider the whole picture and our future. Take one or two of the talking points under “Why we must show up,” put them in your own words, and send it to as many people on the list below that you are able to.
State of Michigan, ‘American subsidiary’ regularly refer to Chinese Communist Party-linked corporation
Kyle Olson — April 1, 2023 — The Midwesterner Originals
China-based Gotion High-Tech is doing its best to appear as an “American subsidiary” as it attempts to open a massive battery plant near Big Rapids with $715 million in taxpayer money.
Bridge reported about a recent legislative hearing:
“I’m having a hard time finding answers here about Gotion,” (Republican state Sen. John) Damoose said.
In reply to Damoose’s question, Chuck Thelen, Gotion Inc.’s vice president of North America Manufacturing who joined the meeting via video conference, sought to distinguish Gotion Inc. from Gotion High-Tech, the parent company.
Gotion Inc., he said, is incorporated in the U.S. as a wholly owned subsidiary of Gotion High-Tech, which holds about 3.5 percent of China’s EV battery market share and is publicly traded in both Switzerland and China. Volkswagen is a majority shareholder, though the German automaker does not have a majority voting right on the Board of Directors; those were retained by the founding shareholders.
However, earlier in his presentation, Thelen did not distinguish between the Gotion division planning to build in Big Rapids and Gotion High-Tech as he spoke about the parent company’s expansion around the globe.
In the early announcements about state subsidies for the Chinese company, Gotion High-Tech was referenced, not Gotion, Inc.
An October 5, 2022 press release by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) simply referred to “Gotion,” but then said, “Founded in 1998 and based in Hefei, China, Gotion High-tech Co. engages in the research and development, production, and sale of power lithium batteries in China and internationally.”
In October 2022, Bloomberg reported:
Chinese battery maker Gotion High-Tech Co. was awarded $175 million in grants and a zoning designation estimated to be valued at $540 million, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
And Reuters wrote it this way:
Chinese battery company Gotion High Tech and Michigan-based startup Our Next Energy (ONE) will open separate, new electric-vehicle battery plants worth a combined $4 billion in Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced on Wednesday.
Reuters added, “Gotion, a publicly traded company in China also known as Guoxuan High Tech Company, is partly owned by German automaker Volkswagen AG.”
And then there is a presentation given to the Senate Appropriations Committee March 22, as the company is lobbying for the money to officially be allocated.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2023-04-04 07:15:052023-04-04 07:25:08Michigan: April 5th Protest of Dem. Gov. Whitmer’s use of $715 Million to Fund a Communist Chinese Battery Company
Recalling the famous line of Everett Dirksen — about how a billion here and a billion there starts to add up to real money — we are talking about serious losses.
By: Alex Pollack, NY Sun, March 31, 202316:00:27 pm
The Federal Reserve’s new report of its balance sheet shows that in the approximately six months ended March 29 it has racked up a remarkable $44 billion of cumulative operating losses. That exceeds its capital of $42 billion, so the capital of the Federal Reserve System has gone negative to the tune of $2 billion — just in time for April Fools’ Day.
This event would certainly have surprised generations of Fed chairmen, governors, and, we’d have thought, newspapermen. The Fed’s capital will keep getting more negative in April and for some long time to come, at least if interest rates stay at anything like their current level. The Fed in the first quarter of 2023 reported losses running at the rate of $8.7 billion a month.
On an annual basis that would be a loss of over $100 billion. Recalling the famous line of Everett Dirksen — about how a billion here and a billion there starts to add up to real money — we are talking about serious losses. These are cash, operating losses. The mark to market of the assets in Fed’s balance sheet also caused an unrealized loss of $1.1 trillion as of September 30.
To see the negative capital from the Fed’s weekly “H.4.1” report, one does have to do a bit of the simple arithmetic of the first paragraph. The Fed’s balance sheet claims its capital is $42 billion, but in violation of the most obvious accounting principle (from which it conveniently excepts itself), the Fed does not subtract its operating losses from its capital as negative retained earnings.
Instead, it accumulates the losses as an opaque negative liability, which balance is found in Section 6 of the report under the title “Earnings remittances due to the U.S. Treasury.” These are simply negative retained earnings: to get the right answer, you just subtract them from the stated capital.
Although the Fed itself and its defenders say that its negative capital and its losses don’t matter to a central bank, they do mean the Fed has become a fiscal drag on the American Treasury, a current cost to the taxpayers instead of a contributor of profits to it, as, just for the record, it was for more than a century.
The situation is certainly unbecoming for what is supposedly the world’s greatest central bank. Did the Fed intend to lose this much money and drive its capital negative? I think that the answer is no. Yet the Fed seems never to have explained to Congress how big a big money-loser and fiscal drag it would become.
The unprecedented $44 billion in operating losses so far, and their unavoidable continuation, are a feature of the post-1971 age of Nixonian fiat money, where the dollar is undefined in statute and unlinked from gold or silver specie.
This has allowed the Fed to have, in effect, made itself into the financial equivalent of giant 1980s savings and loan. Of the Fed’s $8.7 trillion in assets, there is a risk position of about $5 trillion of long-term fixed rate investments funded by floating rate deposits and borrowings.
Of these investments, $2.6 trillion are mortgage securities made out of 30-year fixed rate mortgages. The result is an extreme interest rate risk, which turned into big losses when interest rates rose. This interest rate risk is similar to that of Silicon Valley Bank.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Geller Reporthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Geller Report2023-04-03 06:21:472023-04-03 06:22:40Fed In The Red: Federal Reserve System Capital Has Gone Negative
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this week refused again to call the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border a “crisis,” but Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had no such reluctance when he testified before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday:
“So, there is a crisis at that border,” Milley said.
He was responding to a question about whether President Joe Biden has ever asked Milley for a briefing about national security threats at the southern border:
“I have been in several meetings and briefings, principals’ committees, and other forums specifically about the southern border…A couple of them were with the vice president and some discussions with the president,” Milley said.
“Now, if I could, look, at the southern border situation is a very serious situation, and you know it as well as I do.
“And that there’s some — I think it’s in the range — the reports I get is about 5,000 a day. You’re talking about 35,000 people a week. That’s an Army Corps that comes across that border.
“And then, with the fentanyl issue that you’re talking about, look, I don’t know what the exact numbers are. But, the ranges that have been reported to me is something between 70 and 100,000. That’s an enormous amount of casualties and people dying, young kids dying in our communities.
“So, there is a crisis at that border. Now, the question is what do you do about it? And we have to work much closer, I think anyway with Mexico. There’s certain things that have to be done along the border with the CPB and others. Now, that’s out of our lane. That’s DHS, et cetera.”
Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) said he was told by General Glen VanHerck, head of the U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, that President Biden could ask the military to do more about border security, but Milley said he’d have to check with VanHerck about that:
“I personally think the primary, the lead, should be on the border itself, clearly law enforcement as opposed to the military,” Milley said.
“Now, mechanically could you line up divisions of troops? Of course you could. But, is that the right thing to do? Is that the right way to do it? And I would certainly advise against that.
We’ll execute whatever decisions are made. But, lining up –”
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The U.S. military under President Joe Biden has hosted numerous drag queen events for children on military bases, advertising the story hours alongside promises of “bouncy houses,” face painting, and “goodie-bags.” After public backlash, one base’s spokesman called gender-bending events “essential” to military morale and readiness.
Now, a conservative Republican congressman plans to hold the Biden administration’s feet to the fire after its top military advisor said drag queen events for children “shouldn’t be happening.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) raised the issue of the “deeply unserious things” the administration has foisted on America’s fighting forces with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a congressional hearing on Wednesday.
“How much taxpayer money should go to fund Drag Queen Story Hours on military bases?” Gaetz asked Lloyd.
“Drag Queen Story Hours is [sic] not something that the Department [of Defense] funds” or “supports,” asserted Austin.
“Wait a second, that’s actually not what the record seems to suggest,” corrected Congressman Gaetz, pointing to four drag-themed events on U.S. military institutions.
Germany’s Ramstein Air Force Base planned to celebrate Pride Month by hosting a “Drag Queen Story Time” for soldiers’ children inside the base library last June 2. The event was canceled after Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) called the decision “completely insane” in a letter to U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. Since “decisions over children and their bodies should be left to moms and dads serving our nation, not mediated through publicly funded propaganda,” wrote Rubio;
Although that event was canceled, Gaetz highlighted another example of cross-dressing men reading to minors at Malmstrom Air Force Base in deep-red Montana. “To celebrate pride, the Mister Sisters will be hosting a Drag Story Time and a Drag Show, June 30,” 2021, the base announced on Facebook. “The reading will be held at the Base Library at 2 P.M. and the first 25 children will be gifted goodie-bags”;
The Army and Air Force’s Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia announced two on-base drag performances last July 30. The base-wide “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Summer Festival” advertised the dance stylings of “Harpy Daniels — the Navy Drag Queen” alongside “bouncy houses and face painting for the children”; and
The Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas — once described as offering the “most demanding advanced air combat training in the world” — hosted “Drag-u-Nellis,” a privately sponsored drag show for officers, at an on-base facility on June 17, 2021. Nellis AFB Spokesman Col. Bryon McGarry described LGBTQ-themed spectacles as “essential to the morale, cohesion, and readiness of the military,” adding he remains “committed to providing and championing an environment that is characterized by equal opportunity, diversity and inclusion.”
Confronted with the evidence, Austin replied, “I stand by what I just said.” Gaetz quickly parried that Austin’s sworn testimony is “belied by the evidence” and “doesn’t comport with the facts.”
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley asked for copies of the articles Gaetz had entered into the Congressional Record, saying, “I’d like to take a look at those, because I don’t agree with” drag events for children. “It shouldn’t be happening.”
“Thank you for that admission,” Gaetz replied.
“To their credit, they said if I brought them examples of where this was happening on installations, that they would use their power to stop it,” Gaetz told “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” shortly after the hearing. “In a world of divided government where Joe Biden’s the president, I guess that counts as a win for the day.” But he advised conservatives to “remain diligent that in the name of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion,’ we don’t create a more divisive and less welcoming fighting force.”
Some of the men who put on cross-dressing events defend their propriety and accuse Republicans of pouncing on the issue. “There’s nothing sexualized about a drag queen reading a book to a group of children,” insisted Daniels Hays, a federal employee who gives cross-dressing performances under the name Muffy Blake Stevens. “Politicians of any stripe [are] using drag queens as their wedge issue to try and ignite their base and say, somehow, we’re coming for” their children. In reality, “none of us are on a crusade to change anyone,” he contended.
But the official Drag Story Hour (DSH) website declares, “DSH captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models.”
“Elementary school is the perfect time” to introduce children to extreme gender theory, before children “develop a stable understanding of their gender identity,” one LGBTQ activist told teachers and administrators of schools located on U.S. military bases.
Gaetz’s revelations come on intensifying concern over the Biden administration teaching children transgenderism, “global citizenship,” and equity-tinged critical race theory in the global complex of military-run schools. “The new military education aims to detach military brats from their families and their country, all the better to make them global citizens. It seeks to disrupt stable sexual identities,” wrote Ryan P. Williams and Scott Yenor of the Claremont Institute. The U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), teaches more than 66,000 students in 160 schools spread over seven states and 11 foreign countries.
Biden’s dogged promotion of gender nihilism also coincides with one of the worst years of military recruitment on record, a failure Gaetz and others chalk up to the Democratic Party’s determination to replace toughness with liberal social engineering. “The American South [and] the American Southeast make an oversize contribution” to the ranks of enlisted soldiers. “When values are presented that are antithetical to the values that a lot of people grow up with, then I think that can really have an impact on readiness.”
While transvestite events have taken place on military bases for years, official government approbation is a relatively new occurrence.
Navy drag queen “Harpy Daniels,” whose real name is Joshua Kelley, discussed performing drag shows for his fellow sailors in a 2018 interview, in which he also admitted he joined the service to get enough money to keep performing in women’s make-up. “With drag being my number one passion, it quickly became costly,” Kelley said. “The Navy became a great option to get myself situated” financially. Kelley also became an officer in the Gay, Lesbian and Supporting Sailors association chapter aboard a carrier named for Ronald Reagan.
Gaetz asked “Washington Watch” listeners to share examples of wokeness in the military with him via his website, “so we can bring it forward, highlight it, and then defund it” and “get rid of the authorities that even allow this nonsense — whether it’s dividing people on gender or on race or on belief.”
“One of the remarkable things about our military is that they are in a community of common fate,” Congressman Gaetz told Perkins. “Included in that is a common sense of mission and patriotism and love of country,” which the commander-in-chief should not undermine by promoting radical theories on transgenderism, race, or COVID-19 vaccination status.
“It is absolutely important that our military focus on its mission, and that is fighting and winning wars, not promoting drag queen story hours and the rest of this woke agenda,” said Perkins.
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
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Ajay Banga, the former CEO of Mastercard that President Joe Biden has nominated to head the World Bank, told Axios Wednesday that both the bank and the private sector needed to spend “trillions” to combat both climate change and poverty.
Banga has been aggressively campaigning for the job, meeting with officials from 37 different governments in the past three weeks, Axios reported. The World Bank faces competing pressure from wealthy and developing countries over whether to focus on combating climate change or poverty mitigation, but Banga said he does not view the two goals as inherently opposed to one another.
“I think it’s a fallacious argument that says, either-or,” Banga said to Axios. “I have every intention of focusing the bank and its people on the idea that this is an intertwined challenge.”
The efforts to combat both climate change and poverty would cost “trillions of dollars a year” each, and the private sector would need to be a “constructive part of the solution,” Banga told Axios.
A group of developing nations including Russia, China and Iran signed a letter in February calling for the World Bank to “avoid measures” that might jeopardize its triple-A credit rating, the Financial Times reported. Banga said that the “only way” the World Bank can effectively combat climate change is if it maintains its triple-A rating, according to Axios.
Biden’s decision to nominate Banga, a former Wall Street executive with little background in climate issues, drew significant pushback from some environmentalists, who had been calling for a nominee that would aggressively tackle climate issues.
Banga was nominated after Trump appointee David Malpass — who is married to Daily Caller News Foundation president Adele Malpass — announced he would step down early from his role as the bank’s head on June 30.
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http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Daily Callerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Caller2023-04-01 08:26:132023-04-01 08:45:55Biden’s World Bank Pick Calls For ‘Trillions’ In Climate Spending
