How Big Tech and Silicon Valley are Transforming the Military-Industrial Complex
April 23rd, 2024Via: Brown University:
Over the past decade, the center of America’s military-industrial complex has been slowly shifting from the Capital Beltway to Silicon Valley. Although much of the Pentagon’s $886 billion budget is spent on conventional weapon systems, and goes to well-established defense giants such as Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Boeing, and BAE Systems, a new political economy is emerging, driven by the imperatives of big tech companies, venture capital, and private equity firms. As Defense Department officials have sought to adopt AI-enabled systems and secure cloud computing services, they have awarded large multi-billion dollar contracts to Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Oracle. At the same time, the Pentagon has increased funding for smaller defense tech startups seeking to “disrupt” existing markets and “move fast and break things.” This report examines how the priorities of the tech industry, the peculiarities of venture capital (VC) funding structures, and Silicon Valley’s startup model are likely to lead to costly, high-tech products that are ineffective, unpredictable, and unsafe when deployed in real world conditions.
FBI Records Indicate Fauci Agency Funded Gain-Of-Function Wuhan Lab Research ‘Would Leave No Signatures Of Purposeful Human Manipulation’
April 22nd, 2024Via: Judicial Watch:
Judicial Watch announced today it received 5 pages of records from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that show an April 2020 email exchange with several officials in the bureau’s Newark Field Office referring to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) grant to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China as including “gain-of-function research” which “would leave no signature of purposeful human manipulation.”
Judicial Watch obtained the records in response to a May 17, 2023, FOIA request for: emails and text messages of the Newark Field Office, including to Special Agent David A. Miller, containing the terms “gain of function,” “GoF,” “R01A|110964,” and/or “EcoHealth.” Judicial Watch sent the FOIA request to follow up on uncovering the FBI Newark Field Office’s investigation of the Fauci agency’s gain-of-function grants after the Covid-19 pandemic began.
U.S. House Passes $95bn in Aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan
April 22nd, 2024Meanwhile…
Via: Al Jazeera:
The United States House of Representatives has passed a $95bn legislative package providing security assistance to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
The long-awaited bill, which passed on Saturday, saw broad bipartisan support and could be signed into law as early as next week after it passes through the Senate and lands on President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.
Two Generations Of Unvaccinated People
April 20th, 2024Via: Children’s Health Defense:
2 Generations Of Unvaccinated People https://t.co/xSonS4IOKi
— Children’s Health Defense (@ChildrensHD) April 19, 2024
Related: Do Vaccines Make Us Healthier?
US Fentanyl Crisis Is A ‘CCP-Run Operation’, Says Peter Schweizer
April 20th, 2024Via: Epoch Times:
In a recent interview with EpochTV’s American Thought Leaders (ATL), investigative writer Peter Schweizer cited Mr. Wan’s case as an example of the CCP’s take on the United States’ fentanyl crisis.
“The notion that ‘oh, China’s trying very hard, but they can’t fix this’ is an absolute joke in my mind,” he said.
In addition, the author of a new book titled “Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans” told ATL that the U.S. fentanyl crisis is a “CCP-run operation.”
“The drug cartels are certainly involved, but they’re the junior partner,” Mr. Schweizer said, adding that the CCP is present at “every link of the chain.”
The Chinese production of fentanyl precursors is widely known. However, Mr. Schweizer’s research also shows that China provides pill-pressing machines at cost for fentanyl-laced fake pill production, distributes the synthetic opioid in the United States, facilitates the Mexican drug cartels’ financial transactions, and provides secure communication systems to cartels so they can bypass detection by U.S. law enforcement.
Currently, fentanyl overdose is the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 45. The deadly drug was responsible for about 75,000 deaths, or 200 per day, in 2022. Compared with 3,105 deaths in 2013, the death toll increased 23-fold.
Inside China’s Death Vans
April 20th, 2024I posted about this story over twenty years ago: Chinese Try Mobile Death Vans:
China is equipping its courts with mobile execution vans as it shifts away from the communist system’s traditional bullet in the head, towards a more “civilised” use of lethal injection.
Via: laowhy86:
Research Credit: DF
Pentagon Speeding Up Work On First New Nuclear Warhead In 40 Years
April 19th, 2024I feel safer already.
Via: Washington Times:
The United States is building the first new nuclear warhead in 40 years but will do so without nuclear testing, Energy Department officials told Congress on Wednesday.
The W93 warhead will be used on submarine-launched ballistic missiles and is being built with $19.8 billion requested by the National Nuclear Security Agency, or NNSA, for weapons in fiscal 2025, according to Senate testimony by Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby.
The W93 has been in an early phase of feasibility and design at Los Alamos National Laboratory since May 2022 and is “on track” for production beginning in the mid-2030s, the two officials said in prepared testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Nuclear forces modernization is the Pentagon’s top priority, and the Navy’s nuclear-missile submarines are considered the linchpin of U.S. strategic nuclear forces, which also include ICBMs and bombers.
NNSA stated on its website that the W93 “will allow the U.S. to keep pace with future adversary threats.”
National Security Implications of Baltimore Bridge Catastrophe
April 19th, 2024In short, coal.
Via: Real Clear Defense:
Domestically, the impacts of these hiccups in the energy supply chain are already being felt. CSX’s Curtis Bay Piers in particular – heavily impacted by the bridge collapse – supplies coal to power the Maryland electric grid and provides metallurgical coal critical for the steel industry. The inability to ship energy supplies from this terminal has created a ripple effect in both sectors. A warning from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), meanwhile, that the bridge collapse and subsequent impact to the port will slow the growth of U.S. coal exports to our allies has also weakened that supply chain of growing importance.
International demand for American coal has been on the rise in the past few years due to Europe’s tightening energy supply, low natural gas reservoirs, and conflict in the region as many countries like Ukraine turned elsewhere to get their energy commodities. As the second-largest exporting hub for coal in the United States, accounting for nearly one-third (28 percent) of total exports in 2023, the Port of Baltimore has helped meet that demand.
While most of the coal exported from the Port of Baltimore was historically destined for locations outside of Europe, it has increasingly been finding its way to countries on the continent dealing with rising Russian aggression, providing them an alternative to forced reliance on Russian energy supplies. But with the port’s unspecified closure and reopening timelines, American allies around the world may be forced to turn back to Vladimir Putin and his cronies. This will give Russia undue power, in Europe in particular, which has historically relied heavily on Russian imports of coal, oil, and natural gas.
Trump Media Stock Spikes After CEO Pens “Naked” Short Letter
April 19th, 2024Remember this from last month?
And now…
Via: ZeroHedge:
Shares of Trump Media spiked on Friday after the company alerted the Nasdaq to ‘potential market manipulation’ from ‘naked’ short selling of its stock.
The warning came as the company, which trades under the symbol $DJT, offered shareholders detailed instructions on how to prevent someone from loaning out their shares to short sellers.
In a Friday morning letter to Nasdaq CEO Adrena Friedman, CEO Devin Nunes noted that as of Wednesday, “DJT appears on Nasdaq’s ‘Reg SHO threshold list,’ which is indicative of unlawful trading activity.”
…
In his letter, Nunes pointed to circumstantial evidence – including DJT being the most expensive stock to short in the US, which he said would give brokers “significant financial incentive to lend non-existent shares,” CNBC reports. The letter also links to a CNBC article which delves into the high premiums brokers were charging short sellers for loans of DJT to sell.
“I write to bring your attention to potential market manipulation of the stock of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp,” wrote Nunes. “As you know, ‘naked’ short selling — selling shares of a stock without first borrowing the shares of stock deemed difficult to locate — is generally illegal pursuant to Securities and Exchange Commission (‘SEC’) Regulation SHO,” the letter continues.
“Data made available to us indicate that just four market participants have been responsible for over 60% of the extraordinary volume of DJT shares traded: Citadel Securities, VIRTU Americas, G1 Execution Services, and Jane Street Capital,” Nunes said, adding: “In light of the foregoing, and Nasdaq’s obligation and commitment to protect the interests of retail investors, please advise what steps you can take to foster transparency and compliance by ensuring market makers are adhering to Reg SHO, requiring brokers to disclose their ’Net Short” positions, and preventing the lending of shares that do not exist.”
Infected Blood Scandal: Children Were Used as ‘Guinea Pigs’ in Clinical Trials
April 19th, 2024In a few decades, will BBC will post a similar article about what was done to millions of British children during Covid?
Via: BBC:
The true scale of the number of medical trials using infected blood products on children in the 1970s and 80s has been revealed by documents seen by BBC News.
They reveal a secret world of unsafe clinical testing involving children in the UK, as doctors placed research goals ahead of patients’ needs.
They continued for more than 15 years, involved hundreds of people, and infected most with hepatitis C and HIV.
One surviving patient told the BBC he was treated like a “guinea pig”.
