New Zealand: Meridian, Contact Accused of $60m Power Market Abuse
December 16th, 2019Imagine my shock.
Via: New Zealand Herald:
Contact Energy and Meridian Energy have been accused of extracting more than $60 million from consumers by over-charging for their electricity while spilling water from their South Island dams.
Haast Energy Trading has complained to the Electricity Authority that the two firms have breached the good conduct provisions of the industry’s code by manipulating their offers to hold prices higher than they would be, given the volume of water being spilled in recent weeks.
Recently Retired USAF General Makes Eyebrow Raising Claims About Advanced Space Technology
December 16th, 2019Update: Is Starlink Going to Drop The American Culture Bomb on China?
If you’re like me, you’ve been wondering: What is Starlink’s actual purpose?
I didn’t entirely believe the prosaic narrative about better rural broadband Internet and a funding source for Elon Musk’s Mars aspirations, etc. Well, it might be about those things at some level, but the massive scale of the project and the rapid approval by the U.S. Government made me think that there had to be some sort of national security element in play.
Back in October, we learned that SpaceX has been working with the U.S. Air Force on a program called Global Lightning:
Shotwell said many of the Starlink features are being tested by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory under a program called Global Lightning. SpaceX in December 2018 received a $28 million contract to test over the next three years different ways in which the military might use Starlink broadband services. So far, SpaceX has demonstrated data throughput of 610 megabits per second in flight to the cockpit of a U.S. military C-12 twin-engine turboprop aircraft.
Maybe we’re getting warm, but there has to be more to it.
Flash forward to a recent talk given by Retired Air Force General Steven Kwast at Hillsdale College called, “The Urgent Need for a U.S. Space Force.”
Kwast made a statement that made me think that Starlink could be used to launch The American Culture Bomb at China:
“We could bring secure, trusted data to every human being on planet Earth, underpinned by American values and the American Constitution.”
Wow!
Listen to the General Kwast talk, read The American Culture Bomb and U.S. Has Secret Tools to Force Internet on Dictators and tell me that Starlink is just about rural broadband.
Contemporary American culture is the most powerful in history, and the most destructive of competitor cultures. While some other cultures, such as those of East Asia, appear strong enough to survive the onslaught by adaptive behaviors, most are not. The genius, the secret weapon, of American culture is the essence that the elites despise: ours is the first genuine people’s culture. It stresses comfort and convenience–ease–and it generates pleasure for the masses.
Is China strong enough to survive the American Culture Bomb?
I don’t know, but if the Chinese government is worried about the Black Hand now, what happens when, “Secure, trusted data… underpinned by American values and the American Constitution,” is pouring from the sky at gigabit speeds?
Via: The Drive:
Kwast claims China is already building a “Navy in space” complete with the space-based equivalents of “battleships and destroyers” which are “able to maneuver and kill and communicate with dominance, and we [the United States] are not.”
…
“The technology is on the engineering benches today. But most Americans and most members of Congress have not had time to really look deeply at what is going on here. But I’ve had the benefit of 33 years of studying and becoming friends with these scientists. This technology can be built today with technology that is not developmental to deliver any human being from any place on planet Earth to any other place in less than an hour.”
Deepest Point On Land Found In Antarctica
December 15th, 2019Via: BBC:
The deepest point on continental Earth has been identified in East Antarctica, under Denman Glacier.
This ice-filled canyon reaches 3.5km (11,500ft) below sea level. Only in the ocean are the valleys deeper still.
Army’s Secret Flights Over Washington DC Now an ‘Enduring’ Mission
December 13th, 2019Flying ten UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, mostly at night???
Via: Bloomberg:
The U.S. Army has made permanent a classified aviation mission over Washington and disclosed that it’s aimed at responding to a terrorist attack or natural disaster. The mysterious operation — which generated complaints from local residents for excess noise at night — was mentioned in a Pentagon request to Congress in July asking for approval to shift fiscal 2019 funds to different purposes.
How the 1% Scrubs Its Image Online
December 13th, 2019Via: Wall Street Journal:
Jacob Gottlieb was considering raising money for a hedge fund. One problem: His last one had collapsed in a scandal.
…
So last year Mr. Gottlieb hired Status Labs, an Austin, Texas-based company specializing in so-called reputation management. Its tactic: a favorable news blitz to eclipse the negative stories.
Afterward, articles about him began to appear on websites that are designed to look like independent news outlets but are not. Most contained flattering information about Mr. Gottlieb, praising his investment acumen and philanthropy, and came up high in recent Google searches. Google featured some of the articles on Google News.
His online makeover shows the steps some executives and public figures are taking to influence what comes up on the world’s top search engine. It also illustrates that despite Google’s promises to police misinformation, sites can still masquerade as news outlets and avoid Google’s detection.
Queensland School Runs Out of Water as Commercial Bottlers Harvest Local Supplies
December 13th, 2019Via: Guardian:
The Tamborine Mountain state school has run out of water, even as water miners in the Gold Coast hinterland are sending millions of litres to commercial bottling operations.
Trucks sent by the Queensland government carrying emergency supplies to the school, including Mount Tamborine bottled water, have been passing trucks heading in the opposite direction taking local water to bottling plants for beverage giants such as Coca-Cola.
The World’s First 3D-Printed Neighborhood Now Has Its First Houses
December 13th, 2019Via: FastCompany:
A giant 3D printer is currently squeezing out new homes in rural Mexico. Each one takes 24 hours and lets local families upgrade from a shack to a two-bedroom house. Could this be part of the global housing solution?
Fed Will Flood Market With Gargantuan $500 Billion In Liquidity To Avoid Year-End Repo Crisis
December 13th, 2019Via: ZeroHedge:
In other words, instead of QE4 the Fed will flood the repo market with a firehose of liquidity.
Britain: Worst Labour Result Since 1935
December 13th, 2019I wasn’t expecting the Brexit win in 2016, and I didn’t expect this. However, maybe Brexit is like fusion power: Something that’s perpetually going to happen in the future.
Look at the Brexit timeline. It reminds me of a bunch of corporate consultants who are trying to keep a crisis going for as long as possible.
Via: Daily Mail:
Boris Johnson hailed the political ‘earthquake’ that has given him a ‘mandate to get Brexit done’ today as he marched his new blue-collar Tory army towards a staggering election landslide.
Huckabee: Trump Is Eligible to Serve Third Term [???]
December 13th, 2019Via: Independent:
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee says he has been “named to head up” what would be an unconstitutional 2024 re-election campaign for Donald Trump.
Mr Huckabee, father of former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, made the explosive claim in a pair of tweets on Thursday afternoon in which he also said the US president was “eligible” for a third term due to congressional investigations into him.
“Greatly honored to be asked to chair @realDonaldTrump re-election campaign for @POTUS in 2024. Gives me lots of time to plan!” Mr Huckabee said without providing evidence.
He added: “I’ll be on @seanhannity 2nite @FoxNews at 9pm ET and will explain how @realDonaldTrump will be eligible for a 3rd term due to the illegal attempts by Comey, Dems, and media, et al attempting to oust him as @POTUS so that’s why I was named to head up the 2024 re-election.”
It was unclear if Mr Huckabee was serious, but there is no indication there exists any official 2024 re-election campaign for Mr Trump, who faces a battle just to win a second term in November 2020.
The US constitution expressly forbids presidents from serving more than two terms in the White House.
