Authored by William Spruance via The Brownstone Institute,

Wednesday, Congress held a hearing on Twitter’s censorship of The New York Post and its coverage of Hunter Biden’s laptop. While House Republicans focused on issues like shadowbanning and government collusion with Big Tech, Rep. Jamie Raskin and other Democrats advocated for increased censorship from Silicon Valley companies.  

Raskin argued that the committee would be better served focusing on “the real threats of massive Russian disinformation and white nationalist violent incitement on social media.” 

Like the Biden Administration’s usurpation of the First Amendment, Raskin’s cohort’s goal is censorship and the accompanying augmentation of state power, not challenging the veracity of opponents’ arguments or claims.

In “Shouting Covid in a Crowded Theater,” I discuss how officials in the Biden Administration use wartime rhetorical strategies to slander dissidents. In doing so, they conflate dissent with threats to public safety to censor critics. 

When discussing public health, the regime consistently uses labels of “misinformation” and “disinformation.” But the more we learn about government operations, the more it appears that these labels are references to inconvenience, not falsity. 

This strategy extends beyond the country’s COVID response. 

Wednesday morning, Seymour Hersh published “How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline.” 

The Nord Stream 1 and 2 Pipelines exploded in September 2022. The Nord Stream 1 has delivered natural gas from Russia to Europe for over a decade, and Russia was developing the Nord Stream 2 at the time. Outlets like The New York Times called the explosions “a mystery.” 

The sabotage presented a major energy crisis for the United States’ European allies. Europe imports nearly 40% of its gas from Russia, and the Nord Stream 1 was responsible for delivering approximately one third of that supply. 

Now, Hersh reports that “the United States executed a covert sea operation” with Navy divers to sabotage Russia’s pipelines with explosives. 

For a less obsequious press corps, this should have been an easy story to crack. 

In the weeks leading up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, President Biden announced his intention to act against the pipelines in the event of war. 

“If Russia invades… there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2,” he told reporters. “We will bring an end to it.” 

“How will you do that exactly?” a reporter asked. 

“I promise you we will be able to do it,” President Biden said with a slight smile. 

Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland was equally as explicit. 

“I want to be very clear to you today,” she told reporters in January 2022.

“If Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.” 

In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed “Anglo-Saxons” in the West for “terror attacks” on the pipelines. “Those who profit from it have done it,” Putin told the press.

President Biden chastised Putin’s accusation for “pumping out disinformation and lies.” 

“Just don’t listen to what Putin’s saying,” Biden added.

“What he’s saying we know is not true.”

White House National Security spokeswoman Adrienne Watson backed up Biden’s claim, referring to Putin’s accusation as “Russia’s disinformation.” 

Russia’s U.N. ambassador also implied that the United States had been involved in the sabotage. Richard Mills, U.S. deputy ambassador to the U.N., responded by calling the claims “conspiracy theories and disinformation.”

Despite the Commander and Chief’s explicit announcement that he would take action against the Nord Stream pipeline, a credulous press corps has dutifully parotted government talking points that accusations of western involvement in the sabotage are “baseless” “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “conspiracy theories.” 

This all follows a similar pattern to the informational warfare of the Covid era: an inconvenient narrative arises, the government and lemmings in the media slander it as false and dangerous, and, months later, the dispute in question turns out to be true (or at least highly plausible). 

Arguments over natural immunity, vaccine efficacy, masks, the lab leak hypothesis, school shutdowns, lockdowns, and the scientific basis of social distancing are just a few examples that followed this cycle of reporting. 

This was the same pattern as The New York Post’s coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop. Now, at hearings to investigate corruption that implicated Big Tech, intelligence officials, and the federal government, Raskin and his cohorts return to their familiar censorship ploys. 

For censors, augmentation of power, not truth, remains the chief objective. To achieve this goal, they conflate dissent with domestic terrorism.

For example, the Department of Homeland Security’s “National Terrorism Advisory Service” listed misinformation and disinformation as terrorism threats in February 2022. The memo identified these threats as efforts to “undermine public trust in government.” 

Regarding both Covid and Ukraine, the most powerful forces in the country have repeatedly lied and misled the American public. They censor critics to protect their delicate narratives of fiction, and they attack others for the public’s waning trust in government. 

Hersh’s article pierces through the hegemonic narrative; hopefully, exposing their lies and warmongering will disrupt their ploys for censorship and power. 

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

Japan’s government on Feb. 10 adopted a policy seeking to maximize the use of nuclear power in a bid to stabilize the country’s energy supply amid soaring energy costs fueled by the prolonged war in Ukraine.

The new policy marks a major turnaround from Japan’s previous policy of reducing its reliance on nuclear energy and shutting down most of its nuclear reactors in the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

Under the new policy, the government will set up a final disposal site for the proper disposal of radioactive waste generated during nuclear energy production. It also calls for the development of advanced reactors.

In addition, it will allow extending the lifespans of nuclear reactors beyond the current maximum of 60 years and replacing aging nuclear reactors with new ones to ensure a stable power supply.

The government also aims to issue green transformation bonds to raise 20 trillion yen ($15.789 billion) to procure funds for decarbonization projects, Kyodo News reported.

The plan includes a target of raising about 150 trillion won ($118.35 billion) in public and private investments over the next 10 years for such projects.

Japan had only allowed 10 of the 33 operable nuclear reactors to restart after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. But rising energy prices, along with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and power outages during the summer and winter pushed the government to revive some nuclear plants.

The stark policy turnaround comes after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in August last year that Japan would look at developing next-generation reactors and ordered the industry ministry to set up a policy plan to widen the use of nuclear energy.

“In order to overcome our imminent crisis of a power supply crunch, we must take our utmost steps to mobilize all possible policies in the coming years and prepare for any emergency,” Kishida said.

On June 27, 2022, the government issued a warning about the tight power supply as Japan endured an extreme heat wave. It also issued an energy warning in March 2022 due to cold weather and power plant outages caused by an earthquake near Fukushima Prefecture.

South Korea’s Nuclear Energy Plan

Governments across Europe and Asia are also extending the life of their aging nuclear fleets, restarting reactors, and dusting off plans to resume projects shelved after the Fukushima disaster.

South Korea’s nuclear power reactor under construction at the time—Shin-Kori 3 and 4 called APR-1400—in Gori near the southern port of Busan, on Feb. 5, 2013. (Jun Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images)

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has reversed the previous administration’s plan to phase out nuclear energy and pledged to boost investment in the industry and revive its status as a key exporter of safe reactors.

“If the people who were pushing the nuclear phaseout had actually seen the industrial ecosystem for themselves, I doubt they could have made that decision,” he was quoted as saying by local outlet Hankyoreh.

The government said on July 5, 2022, that it will restart construction on two nuclear reactors at the Shin-Hanul nuclear plant, which had been stalled since 2017 under the previous administration, and continue to operate nuclear energy facilities that are already running.

Restarting construction reactors and exporting nuclear power are part of the South Korean Energy Ministry’s plan to achieve the nation’s policy goals of ensuring energy security and attaining “carbon-neutral goals” amid global energy supply chain pressures.

Yoon’s administration also plans to increase the contribution of nuclear power in the country’s energy mix to 30 percent or more by 2030.

Nuclear power currently makes up roughly 27 percent of the country’s energy mix. According to the World Nuclear Association, South Korea currently has 25 nuclear reactors in operation. It also constructed four nuclear reactors in Barakah, the United Arab Emirates.

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Biden slush fund money is now looking for a home. A battle is on over who gets to waste it…

Biden’s $27 Billion Clean Energy Catalyzer Slush Fund

Competition is stiff over who gets first access to Biden’s $27 Billion Clean Energy Catalyzer slush fund.

The US government is getting ready to unleash $27 billion to fund projects in disadvantaged communities that cut greenhouse gas emissions and boost clean energy. The cash infusion from last year’s sweeping climate and tax law is meant to drive the deployment of solar panels, heat pumps and electric vehicles in underserved places around the nation.

But even before the government formally seeks funding applications, hundreds of potential recipients are jockeying for the money. The competition pits credit unions and community development institutions against a national not-for-profit organization that says it should collect much of the haul and be a clearinghouse for the taxpayer dollars, making it the first-ever US-government-minted green bank. 

At stake is the fate of an unprecedented effort by the US government to fight climate pollution and environmental injustice at the same time. 

States and tribes are set to get $7 billion. The remaining $20 billion is available for “eligible” nonprofits to provide financial assistance to national, regional, state and local projects, with at least 40% of the funding put to work in low-income and disadvantaged communities.

The law offers little guidance on who those eligible recipients might be. 

The Coalition for Green Capital, a nonprofit that supports regional green banks, argues it should be the main repository for the $20 billion, making it a nationwide clearinghouse for the funding. 

The money “will not reach low-income and disadvantaged communities unless funding is provided to financial institutions with specialized expertise in serving them,” said the Rural Community Assistance Corporation, which supports organizations serving low-income people living in the rural West.

Environmental Justice Now

This “green bank” meme is so much BS I hardly know where to begin. 

At least half of this money is sure to go to obviously absurd boondoggles. Most of the rest will be wasted in ordinary graft. 

We don’t know who the recipients are yet, but fancy names are sure to help. 

I have come up with perhaps the perfect name for a company competing for slush money: Green Solutions Trust Fund 

In practice, it will not be green. It certainly will not solve anything. And if there is any trust, it will be seriously misplaced

*  *  *

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Authored by Eva Fu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A group of Republicans led by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) is set to introduce a bill aimed at bringing manufacturing back to the United States and restoring economic independence from China.

Despite rising political tensions between the world’s top two economic powers, U.S. trade with China has steadily grown, setting a new record last year.

At $690.6 billion, according to official U.S. data released on Feb. 9, the level of bilateral goods trade between the countries was a demonstration of how commercially intertwined the countries are, though unfair trade practices from Beijing have for years been an eyesore for the United States.

The Texas lawmaker said he wants to change that by proposing what he dubbed the “BEAT CHINA Act.” By modifying the tax code, the lawmaker aims to give tax advantages to manufacturers moving to the United States from abroad, cutting down U.S. overdependence on China, the global manufacturing hub that in 2021 made up nearly a third of the world’s manufacturing output in 2021.

“The Chinese Communist Party is the single greatest foreign threat to U.S. national security,” Roy told The Epoch Times ahead of the legislation’s release. “As long as we depend on China and the rest of the world to keep our shelves stocked, our economic prosperity, our political liberty, and our national security are all in grave danger.”

In 2020, the supply chain disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic put the world’s economic dependence on China under the spotlight. China’s dominance in the global production of medical supplies amplified shortages in the United States and around the world, prompting many experts to call it a “national security risk.” Since then, the severe lockdowns in China under the regime’s now-abandoned zero-tolerance virus policy frequently brought production to a standstill, intensifying supply chain woes for companies that source some of their components from China, such as Microsoft and Apple.

Read more here…

Utah’s Great Salt Lake is facing unprecedented danger. Without a significant increase in water flow over the next several years, the lake might turn into dust. That’s where things could get dangerous for the 2.5 million residents around the lake. 

Recall we’ve already informed readers that declining water levels in the Great Salt Lake have created new challenges as dust laden with toxic metals threaten the region. It’s just now the worsening megadrought in the western half of the US has brought forward what some folks refer to as an impending ‘environmental nuclear bomb.’ 

In recent months, the lake level dropped to a historic low, exposing 800 square miles of lakebed that contain natural and artificial toxins, such as arsenic, mercury, and selenium.

As the drought situation deteriorates, the lakebed turns to dust and is whipped up into the air, which is ingested by the millions of residents surrounding it. Scientists told CNN the lake could evaporate within five years and trigger a “Great Toxic Dustbowl.” 

“This is an ecological disaster that will become a human health disaster,” warned Bonnie Baxter, director of the Great Salt Lake Institute at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah. 

“We know about dust storms, we know about particulate pollution, we know about heavy metals and how they’re bad for humans,” Baxter told CNN. “We see a crisis that is imminent.”

Here are the latest images showing the Great Salt Lake water levels in 1987 on the left and 2022 on the right. 

Most alarming, if water inflows aren’t increased naturally or artificially, then the air surrounding Salt Lake City will eventually turn poisonous. That development could severely impact the local economy. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. 

By Gautham Krishnan of Container News

The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) issued after Chinese New Year 2023 saw the index fall into the triple digits, closing at US$995 for the week ending 10 February 2023.

This was a level last annexed in January 2020, the opening days of the pandemic phase. However, that wasn’t a first. These levels were seen in 2012, 2015 and 2017, indicating that the spot rates at least have now hit pre-pandemic levels.

The manufacturing struggle in China is still imminent as the latest figures for February suggest that the factory gates prices for Jan 2023 in China are still lower, hinting that the green shoots that were seen in early Jan 2023 owing to the relaxation of the Chinese Zero-Covid policy may have been a possible one-off.

Anyone who’s experimented with ChatGPT can get a sense of the potential of generative AI – even in the technology’s earliest stages.

As Visual Capitalist’s Nick Routley details below, the hype around AI was rising throughout 2022, and has reached a fever pitch today.

We’ve seen hype cycles swell around specific technologies before. Blockchain, Metaverse, NFTs, the list goes on. It remains to be seen what tangible value is created after the heat dies down, but in the meantime, some of the world’s biggest companies are taking it very seriously.

Google—which internally reoriented itself around AI years ago—is at the forefront of this movement, so the recent letter published by Google CEO Sundar Pichai is consequential.

After all, billions of people use Google Search to learn about the world, and Alphabet is one of the world’s most valuable, powerful tech companies. But before we “read between the lines” of the letter, it’s worth revisiting the larger context that this letter addresses.

OpenAI Has Entered The Chat

Artificial intelligence has been chalking up a number of wins in recent months, but it was DALL-E Mini and ChatGPT that really allowed generative AI to burst into the public consciousness. In fact, ChatGPT became so popular in a short amount of time, that Google declared an internal “code red” to address the issue. Leaders at Google were well aware of the disruptive power of conversational AI because they were already testing their own models internally.

Microsoft recognized the potential as well, and invested $10 billion in OpenAI, which runs ChatGPT as well as a number of other publicly-accessible AI tools. Microsoft’s intention was to bring the magic of ChatGPT over to their Bing search engine—and perhaps steal market share away from Google.

This sets the stage for what we’re seeing today. Essentially every big tech firm is singing AI’s praises, and Microsoft and Google appear to be entering into an AI race.

The AI Race is Heating Up

If there were any questions about how seriously Google was taking Microsoft’s new partnership with OpenAI, recent messaging should remove all doubt. The letter above, by Sundar Pichai speaks volumes while never straying far from official talking points. First, here is the high-level messaging in Pichai’s letter:

• Google has already been in the AI game for years now

• Bard is going to make Google search more ChatGPT-like

• Google is only late to the party because they’ve been careful

On this last point: a message from the CEO, which reaffirms the company’s commitment to AI would normally coincide with a product launch, not one that will be released to the public “in the coming weeks”. This messaging highlights a key barrier that Google is facing. Fearing the “reputational damage” that could come from rolling products out prematurely, the company has been forced to move slower than the market now expects.

Google has already endured a painful misstep after reporters discovered an incorrect answer in a promotional video touting the conversational AI service, Bard. This simple mistake cost Alphabet $100 billion in market value—demonstrating how high the stakes are now that Big Tech’s AI progress is under the microscope.

The timing of this letter is also very telling. The letter was published the day before Bing rolled out new AI-enabled features to the public.

Let the jockeying for position begin.

Nobody Wants to be Left Behind

Google and Microsoft may be the biggest players battling it out in the AI space, but there are indicators all over that AI represents a massive technological shift that will impact a number of industries. From Fiverr’s “Open Letter to AI” to Baidu’s recent AI chatbot announcement, it seems that every day brings fresh news that fuels AI hype.

One thing’s for sure: AI will be integrated into digital tools in more noticeable ways. And for better or worse, we’ll all be participating the experiment.

With 99 million viewers in 2022, “more Americans tune in to the Super Bowl than any other television broadcast.” Its large viewership, combined with expanding legislation, has led to ballooning wagers.

As Visual Capitalist’s Jenna Ross shows in this graphic sponsored by Roundhill Investments, we show how these bets have grown over the last 10 years.

Annual Legal Bets on the Big Game

From 2013 through 2018, sports betting was only legal in Nevada and year-over-year growth was low. However, when the federal sports betting ban was lifted in May 2018, more states started allowing bets.

By 2022, 33 states plus Washington, DC were legally able to bet on the game. Wagers climbed quickly as a result.

Data only for states that report bets on football’s big game, see graphic for full list of states included in 2022.

Impressively, legal bets surpassed the $1 billion mark in 2022. Growth was primarily driven by New York State legalizing online sports betting, with the state contributing nearly $500 million to the total.

Since the New York State Gaming Commission does not report event-specific totals, we have estimated this amount based on sports bets made the week leading up to and including the date of the big game.

Investment Exposure to an Emerging Industry

Due to legalization, bets on football’s big game have grown 10 times larger over the last decade. A further shift away from bookies and toward legal operators appears to be likely. In September 2022, 89% of Americans said it was important to bet with a legal operator this NFL season, up from 76% in February 2022.

For legal operators, this could translate into revenue opportunities. Companies that take legal bets reported more than $62 million in revenue from the big game alone in 2022, a 37% jump from the prior year.

Looking for exposure to the growing sports betting industry? Explore Roundhill’s sports betting ETF, $BETZ.

One day after the US shot down a ‘cylindrical, silverish gray’ object in the northeast arctic region of Alaska, another unidentified airborne object was shot down by the US military over northern Canada on Saturday – making it the third time in just over a week that jets were deployed to neutralize foreign craft.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command said earlier on Saturday that it had identified the high-altitude object, after which Canadian and US craft were scrambled, and a US F-22 filter jet took it down over the Yukon, according to a tweet by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Bloomberg reports.

I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. @NORADCommand shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object.

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 11, 2023

Canadian forces will recover and analyze the wreckage, Trudeau also said on Saturday, adding that he spoke with US President Joe Biden.

The latest incident comes after the recent incursion of a Chinese balloon over US and Canadian territory that shone a spotlight on Beijing’s alleged surveillance programs and sparked a diplomatic standoff between the world superpowers. The US also downed another unidentified object in Alaska Friday near the Canadian border. 

…

It’s unclear what the latest object is and where it originated. But the US has accused China of a years-long surveillance program in which it deployed spy balloons across the globe, a claim rejected by Beijing. 

On Friday, US officials shot down a craft that was ‘roughly the size of a car,’ and smaller than the Chinese spy balloon which was shot down last Saturday. It was similarly taken out by a US F-22.