Full Orwell in the UK

It looks more and more like the UK will be going full Orwell...

Interesting to see how long the people will accept such a government!

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

Anyone traveling to Britain from a country on the government’s ‘red list’ must quarantine in a hotel (which they will have to pay for), and have THREE COVID tests, under draconian new laws being implemented by the government.

The unprecedented and sweeping new rules were announced by Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who said that he makes ‘no apologies’ for such severe measures.

From Monday anyone entering the country will have to pass three PCR tests in order to be allowed any freedom inside the country after they have completed a ten day quarantine at a government selected hotel, at a cost of almost two thousand pounds.

Security guards will be stationed throughout the hotels, with police on standby if those inside try to leave before their release date.

Hancock said that anyone caught breaking their quarantine could be fined ten thousand pounds, while anyone caught lying about coming from a COVID ‘hotspot’ could be jailed for up to a decade.

Even those not coming from one of the 33 ‘red list’ countries, and arriving from elsewhere, will have to test negative before being allowed to travel, then quarantine at their home address for ten days and allow authorities to ‘check that they are obeying the rules’.

COVID tests, which cost more than £100 each, will be required on day two and day eight of isolation, and must be booked through a new government portal in advance of travel, according to the new law.

If the tests are positive, a further ten day quarantine will be mandated.

Failure to comply with the testing will incur fines of £1,000 the first time, and £2,000 the second time. 

Hancock noted “This includes a £1,000 penalty for any international arrival who fails to take a mandatory test, a £2,000 penalty for any international arrival who fails to take the second mandatory test, as well as automatically extending their quarantine period to 14 days, and a £5,000 fixed penalty notice – rising to £10,000 – for arrivals who fail to quarantine in a designated hotel.”

Anyone hoping to escape the crackdown via booking travel through a budget or less thorough carrier will likely be disappointed as Hancock announced that “Passenger carriers will have a duty in law to make sure that passengers have signed up for these new arrangements before they travel, and will be fined if they don’t.”

However, an aviation source told reporters yesterday

“We’re completely in the dark. We don’t know yet whether the Government will want us to deny boarding,” to people who haven’t presented test results or booked into a quarantine hotel.

Airports in the UK have also expressed concern about how the rules will be enforced, with a Heathrow spokesman noting “ministers need to work with industry to establish how this policy will actually be implemented at the border.”

Border staff have also said they have not been told anything, with one immigration officer noting “This is all likely to be honesty-based though. Short of us physically getting off the arrivals desks and phoning the hotels to check that those individuals have booked into them, we have no way of confirming.”

Hancock gave no indication of how long the new laws would remain in place, however members of the UK government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) have suggested that lockdowns could last for “several years”.

Conservative MPs who oppose the current nation-wide restrictions slammed Hancock in the House of Commons, warning that the country faces a ‘forever lockdown’.

MP Mark Harper asked “When is this policy going to end, if ever? Because if the virus continues to mutate, surely the risk is going to be there forever and so when can it be removed?”

SAGE has also suggested that in addition to the forced quarantines, those entering Britain, including citizens could be tracked using the GPS on mobile phones.

WHO Concludes That Coronavirus "Came From Animal," Not Wuhan Lab

 As reported by Zero Hedge this morning, WHO visited the Wuhan P4 lab, confirmed that no windows was open, had a couple of meetings with local scientists and, well, bats, you guessed it. They are not quite sure yet, but it's not the lab, that, they are sure! Why did they even bother? 

Oh yes, now that this is clear, you definitively cannot link the lab with Covid on Facebook. We are waiting for Google and Twitter to adjust their algorithm...

Not 1984 yet, but we are getting closer by the day!

WHO Concludes That Coronavirus "Came From Animal," Not Wuhan Lab

Just two days after WaPo said it was "plausible" and "must be investigated", and less than week after finally getting access to Wuhan's high security virus lab (for the first time in over a year), WHO investigators have reported preliminary findings that the COVID virus came from animals, confirming China's heavily promoted narrative and dismissing the likelihood of any leak from the lab in close proximity (a lab that is coincidentally designed to examine the world's most dangerous pathogens and is led by virologist Shi Zhengli, known as China's "Batwoman," for her extensive work on bat-borne coronaviruses).

In what we estimate is the fastest investigation and findings report of any global organization ever, AP reports that WHO food safety and animal diseases expert Peter Ben Embarek made the assessment in a summation Tuesday of a WHO team’s investigation into the possible origins of the coronavirus in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the first cases were discovered in December 2019.

“Our initial findings suggest that the introduction through an intermediary host species is the most likely pathway and one that will require more studies and more specific, targeted research,”

Embarek added somewhat defensively:

“Did we change dramatically the picture we had beforehand? I don’t think so,”

“Did we improve our understanding? Did we add details to that picture? Absolutely.”

As a reminder, China has strongly denied the possibility of a leak from the lab and has promoted unproven theories that the virus may have originated elsewhere before being brought to Wuhan, including possibly on imported frozen food packaging.

The visit by the WHO team took months to negotiate after China only agreed to it amid massive international pressure at the World Health Assembly meeting last May, and Beijing has continued to deny calls for a strictly independent investigation.

Chinese authorities have kept a tight hold on information about the possible causes of the pandemic that has now sickened more than 105 million people and killed more than 2.2 million worldwide .

Perhaps most stunningly, Facebook has already updated its "False Claims About COVID-19" policies:

Today, following consultations with leading health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), we are expanding the list of false claims we will remove to include additional debunked claims about the coronavirus and vaccines. This includes claims such as: 

• COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured

So, people of the earth, do not (publicly) question these findings from WHO. It was a bat (or another species) that started the global pandemic that shut the world's economy.

Up until now, the Biden administration has been quiet about criticizing China about the origins of the virus but has stated a "robust and clear" investigation is needed. 

Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, told MSNBC that China is "falling far short of the mark" in granting access to the international community. "That lack of transparency, that lack of being forthcoming, is a profound problem, and it's one that continues," he said.

According to AP News, the WHO team visited the lab and spoke with officials for three hours... sounds like a full and thorough investigation to us.

The (New Normal) War On Domestic Terror

 Viewed from relatively peaceful Japan, the degradation of the US and European mood is almost palpable. The dissonance between the message around Covid and reality is growing but as always, the US is showing the way, although I am not so sure other countries will follow eagerly this time...

 

Authored (mostly satirically) by CJ Hopkins via The Consent Factory,

If you enjoyed the Global War on Terror, you’re going to love the new War on Domestic Terror! It’s just like the original Global War on Terror, except that this time the “Terrorists” are all “Domestic Violent Extremists” (“DVEs”), “Homegrown Violent Extremists” (“HVEs”), “Violent Conspiracy-Theorist Extremists” (“VCTEs”), “Violent Reality Denialist Extremists” (VRDEs”), “Insurrectionary Micro-Aggressionist Extremists” (“IMAEs”), “People Who Make Liberals Feel Uncomfortable” (“PWMLFUs”), and anyone else the Department of Homeland Security wants to label an “extremist” and slap a ridiculous acronym on.

According to a “National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin” issued by the DHS on January 27, these DCEs, HVEs, VCTEs, VRDEs, IMAEs, and PWMLFUs are “ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority” and other “perceived grievances fueled by false narratives.” They are believed to be “motivated by a range of issues, including anger over Covid-19 restrictions, the 2020 election results, police use of force,” and other dangerous “false narratives” (e.g., the existence of the “deep state,” “herd immunity,” “biological sex,” “God,” and so on).

“Inspired by foreign terrorist groups” and “emboldened by the breach of the US Capitol Building,” this diabolical network of “domestic terrorists” is “plotting attacks against government facilities,” “threatening violence against critical infrastructure” and actively “citing misinformation and conspiracy theories about Covid-19.” For all we know, they might be huddled in the “Wolf’s Lair” at Mar-a-Lago right now, plotting a devastating terrorist attack with those WMDs we never found in Iraq, or generating population-adjusted death-rate charts going back 20 years, or posting pictures of “extremist frogs” on the Internet.

The Department of Homeland Security is “concerned,” as are its counterparts throughout the global capitalist empire. The (New Normal) War on Domestic Terror isn’t just a war on American “domestic terror.” The “domestic terror” threat is international. France has just passed a “Global Security Law” banning citizens from filming the police beating the living snot out of people (among other “anti-terrorist” provisions). In Germany, the government is preparing to install an anti-terror moat around the Reichstag. In the Netherlands, the police are cracking down on the VCTEs, VRDEs, and other “angry citizens who hate the system,” who have been protesting over nightly curfews. Suddenly, everywhere you look (or at least if you are looking in the corporate media), “global extremism networks are growing.” It’s time for Globocap to take the gloves off again, root the “terrorists” out of their hidey holes, and roll out a new official narrative.

Actually, there’s not much new about it. When you strip away all the silly new acronyms, the (New Normal) War on Domestic Terror is basically just a combination of the “War on Terror” narrative and the “New Normal” narrative, i.e., a militarization of the so-called “New Normal” and a pathologization of the “War on Terror.” Why would GloboCap want to do that, you ask?

I think you know, but I’ll go ahead and tell you.

See, the problem with the original “Global War on Terror” was that it wasn’t actually all that global. It was basically just a war on Islamic “terrorism” (i.e., resistance to global capitalism and its post-ideological ideology), which was fine as long as GloboCap was just destabilizing and restructuring the Greater Middle East. It was put on hold in 2016, so that GloboCap could focus on defeating “populism” (i.e., resistance to global capitalism and its post-ideological ideology), make an example of Donald Trump, and demonize everyone who voted for him (or just refused to take part in their free and fair elections), which they have just finished doing, in spectacular fashion. So, now it’s back to “War on Terror” business, except with a whole new cast of “terrorists,” or, technically, an expanded cast of “terrorists.” (I rattled off a list in my previous column.)

In short, GloboCap has simply expanded, recontextualized, and pathologized the “War on Terror” (i.e., the war on resistance to global capitalism and its post-ideological ideology). This was always inevitable, of course. A globally-hegemonic system (e.g., global capitalism) has no external enemies, as there is no territory “outside” the system. Its only enemies are within the system, and thus, by definition, are insurgents, also known as “terrorists” and “extremists.” These terms are utterly meaningless, obviously. They are purely strategic, deployed against anyone who deviates from GloboCap’s official ideology … which, in case you were wondering, is called “normality” (or, in our case, currently, “New Normality”).

In earlier times, these “terrorists” and “extremists” were known as “heretics,” “apostates,” and “blasphemers.” Today, they are also known as “deniers,” e.g., “science deniers,” “Covid deniers,” and recently, more disturbingly, “reality deniers.” This is an essential part of the pathologization of the “War on Terror” narrative. The new breed of “terrorists” do not just hate us for our freedom … they hate us because they hate “reality.” They are no longer our political or ideological opponents … they are suffering from a psychiatric disorder. They no longer need to be argued with or listened to … they need to be “treated,” “reeducated,” and “deprogrammed,” until they accept “Reality.” If you think I’m exaggerating the totalitarian nature of the “New Normal/War on Terror” narrative, read this op-ed in The New York Times exploring the concept of a “Reality Czar” to deal with our “Reality Crisis.”

And this is just the beginning, of course. The consensus (at least in GloboCap circles) is, the (New Normal) War on Domestic Terror will probably continue for the next 10 to 20 years, which should provide the global capitalist ruling classes with more than enough time to carry out the “Great Reset,” destroy what’s left of human society, and condition the public to get used to living like cringing, neo-feudal peasants who have to ask permission to leave their houses. We’re still in the initial “shock and awe” phase (which they will have to scale back a bit eventually), but just look at how much they’ve already accomplished.

The economic damage is literally incalculable … millions have been plunged into desperate poverty, countless independent businesses crushed, whole industries crippled, developing countries rendered economically dependent (i.e., compliant) for the foreseeable future, as billionaires amassed over $1 trillion in wealth and supranational corporate behemoths consolidated their dominance across the planet.

And that’s just the economic damage. The attack on society has been even more dramatic. GloboCap, in the space of a year, has transformed the majority of the global masses into an enormous, paranoid totalitarian cult that is no longer capable of even rudimentary reasoning. (I’m not going to go on about it here … at this point, you either recognize it or you’re in it.) They’re actually lining up in parking lots, the double-masked members of this Covidian cult, to be injected with an experimental “vaccine” that they believe will save the human species from a virus that causes mild to moderate symptoms in roughly 95% of those “infected,” and that over 99% of the “infected” survive.

So, it is no big surprise that these same mindless cultists are gung-ho for the (New Normal) War on Domestic Terror, and the upcoming globally-televised show trial of Donald Trump for “inciting insurrection,” and the ongoing corporate censorship of the Internet, and can’t wait to be issued their “Freedom Passports,” which will allow them to take part in “New Normal” life — double-masked and socially-distanced, naturally — while having their every movement and transaction, and every word they write on Facebook, or in an email, or say to someone on their smartphones, or in the vicinity of their 5G toasters, recorded by GloboCap’s Intelligence Services and their corporate partners, subsidiaries, and assigns. These people have nothing at all to worry about, as they would never dream of disobeying orders, and could not produce an original thought, much less one displeasing to GloboCap, if you held a fake apocalyptic plague to their heads.

As for the rest of us “extremists,” “domestic terrorists,” “heretics,” and “reality deniers,” (i.e., anyone criticizing global capitalism, or challenging its official narratives, and its increasingly totalitarian ideology, regardless of our specific DHS acronyms), I wish I had something hopeful to tell you, but, the truth is, things aren’t looking so good. I guess I’ll see you in a quarantine camp, or in the psych ward, or an offshore detention facility … or, I don’t know, maybe I’ll see you in the streets.

IMF Wants To Use "Digital Footprint Of Customers' Online Activities" To Assess Creditworthiness

 As we explained 2 years ago, at this stage a Chinese style social credit score is almost unavoidable and short of a miracle will be implemented in the Western hemisphere sooner than later...

 

Authored by Robert Wheeler via The Organic Prepper blog,

For years, researchers have warned of a system in which the government controls every aspect of its citizens’ lives. Every citizen would have to rely entirely on the government to survive in this system. This system has been openly discussed for many years by the “ruling class.” Aka: those who have been allotted social credit (or not) and power based upon their views and opinions. 

The system has already begun in China and is now spreading globally

In a recent post, “What is Really New In Fintech,” on the IMF blog (International Monetary Fund), authors Arnoud Boot, Peter Hoffmann, Luc Laeven, and Lev Ratnovski suggest “rapid technological change” in the financial industry. Many social media and other online platforms are now creating and accepting payments. This revolutionary change in the banking world could change the face of finance forever. 

As a result of this rapid change, the authors bring up the following questions:

• What are the transformative aspects of recent financial innovation that can uproot finance as we know it?

• Which new policy challenges will the transformation of finance bring?

To answer these questions, the authors wrote: 

Recent IMF and ECB staff research distinguishes two areas of financial innovation. One is information: new tools to collect and analyse data on customers, for example for determining creditworthiness. Another is communication: new approaches to customer relationships and the distribution of financial products. We argue that each dimension contains some transformative components.

The authors mention the importance and functionality of “determining creditworthiness.” The method they want to use to do so can be found in the section labeled “New Types Of Information,” where they write (emphasis ours):

The most transformative information innovation is the increase in use of new types of data coming from the digital footprint of customers’ various online activities—mainly for creditworthiness analysis.

Credit scoring using so-called hard information (income, employment time, assets, and debts) is nothing new. Typically, the more data is available, the more accurate is the assessment. But this method has two problems. First, hard information tends to be “procyclical”: it boosts credit expansion in good times but exacerbates contraction during downturns.

The second and most complex problem is that certain kinds of people, like new entrepreneurs, innovators, and many informal workers, might not have enough hard data available. Even a well-paid expatriate moving to the United States can be caught in the conundrum of not getting a credit card for lack of credit record, and not having a credit record for lack of credit cards.

Fintech resolves the dilemma by tapping various nonfinancial data: the type of browser and hardware used to access the internet, the history of online searches, and purchases. Recent research documents that, once powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, these alternative data sources are often superior than traditional credit assessment methods, and can advance financial inclusion, by, for example, enabling more credit to informal workers and households, and firms in rural areas.

The type of browser used could potentially indicate a different ranking for browsers that heavily track users, like Chrome, vs. browsers that emphasize privacy, like Brave.

So what does this all mean for our financial future?

It means the IMF authors suggest the global banking network begin using a history of online searches and purchases to determine “creditworthiness.” In other words, do you read CNN and purchase sports memorabilia? You’re approved! Do you read The Organic Prepper and buy “conspiracy” or “prepping” material? We’re sorry, you can not be approved at this time based on your credit score.

In Brandon Turbeville’s 2019 article Social Media, Universal Basic Income, and Cashless Society: How China’s Social Credit System Is Coming To America he wrote: 

“Unbeknownst to most people, there appears to be a real attempt to create a system in which all citizens are rationed their “wages” digitally each month in place of a paycheck or ability to gain or lose money. This system would see any form of dissent resulting in the cut off of those credits and the ability to work, eat, or even exist in society. It would not only be the end of dissent but of any semblance of real individuality.”

Turbeville outlines a plan to create a Universal Basic Income (UBI). The scheme, tied to a social credit system, will essentially cut off the financial lifeline to anyone who does not entirely tow the establishment line. I encourage you to take a look at the article and see for yourself how this scheme is coming together. For more information, here’s an article that compares UBI to modern feudalism.

With Biden’s new administration that is openly more “global” in its outlook, the IMF has already stated that it will seek to reset its relationship with the United States and that Biden’s “commitment to multilateral institutions and his pledge to re-enter the Paris climate agreement should help the IMF advance its own targets.”

And you thought it was challenging to gain approval before…

The pairing of online history with credit scores is bad enough. Doing so has prevented many otherwise creditworthy citizens from accessing what they need to start businesses, buy homes, rent apartments, or buy cars. Some states have suggested laws that use your search history and social media when being assessed for your worthiness to purchase a firearm, and the Bank of America has made it incredibly clear just this past week that your purchases and financial records are by no means private.

However, pairing both of those with the Universal Basic Income is even worse. We are fast approaching a time where even the slightest difference of opinion from the norm (i.e., the ruling class) can result in a complete freeze out of the “offender” from the entire society.

The risk of war in the Pacific is growing.

 While we stand mesmerized with the big data world we have created, we tend to forget how fragile this paradigm remains, dependent as it is on advanced chip technology which is also at the core of the China-US economic rivalry. 

 History tells us that it is extremely unlikely that the current transfer of power from West to East will proceed smoothly and that the current crisis period will likely be followed by open war, the outcome of which being the landscape of the 21 century. 

 In 2020, the trend of changes has switched from arithmetic to geometric. In 2021 it could well switch again from exponential to explosive. (which is also a "growth" rate by the way!)

Article from "Moon of Alabama" (link below) on 8 Feb 2021. [A highly recommended site with original and deep strategic analytic reports.] 

U.S., Taiwan Manipulate Chip Supplies To Press For War With China

The current government of Taiwan is trying to break the U.S. and Europe's One-China policy to become an independent country under U.S. and NATO protection.

The Peoples Republic of China, the mainland, insist, historically correct, that Republic of China, Taiwan, is a part of mainland China.

Since 1972, when Nixon went to China, the U.S. has supported that position:

In the case of the United States, the One-China Policy was first stated in the Shanghai Communiqué of 1972: "the United States acknowledges that Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States does not challenge that position."

The ruling Taiwanese nationalist Democratic Progressive Party under President Tsai Ing-wen's leadership now has a plan to break that policy. Despite regime change in Washington DC it has support from U.S. anti-China hawks:

[Taiwan's Representative to the US] Hsiao’s invitation to Biden’s inauguration, taken together with Blinken’s language at the confirmation hearing, indicates that the Biden administration is willing to adopt a large chunk of the Trump administration’s Taiwan policy.

While in office, Pompeo pushed back against China and acted as a guarantor to Taiwan — Beijing viewed him as an outright enemy.

Through well planned economic development policies Taiwan has achieved a near monopoly in the production of computer chips. There were until recently three companies which could mass produce computer chips with the most tiniest structures. Then the U.S. company Intel screwed up its development of a production process for 7 nanometer chips. It is now at least two years behind the competition. Its newest chips are no longer the most powerful in the market. The CEO and the technical leadership have since been fired but it still will take years, if ever, to regain the leadership. A second big production facility is owned by the South Korean Samsung conglomerate. It is mainly used to produce the chips for Samsung's own products.

The third and by far biggest producer of chips is the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC). TSMC does not produce consumer products. It manufactured, until recently, for everyone in the global industry. It is the go-to producer for high-end chips other companies need. It has now become a weapon in the hand of the Taiwanese government.

Under pressure from Trump, who put sanctions on Chinese companies including Huawei, TSMC reduced its sales to China. It also had to commit to open a production facility in the U.S. Trump's use of the chip production capacities as economic and political weapon has given the government of Taiwan new ideas:

Taiwan’s role in the world economy largely existed below the radar, until it came to recent prominence as the auto industry suffered shortfalls in chips used for everything from parking sensors to reducing emissions. With carmakers including Germany’s Volkswagen AG, Ford Motor Co. of the U.S. and Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. forced to halt production and idle plants, Taiwan’s importance has suddenly become too big to ignore.

U.S., European and Japanese automakers are lobbying their governments for help, with Taiwan and TSMC being asked to step in.

The ongoing pandemic first led to a slump in consumption. Car manufactures lowered their sales target numbers and their orders for new chips. But soon chip demand increased for products needed to work from home. When the car demand came back TSMC told the car manufactures that there was not enough capacity to produce chips for them. Whether that explanation for the current shortages is really true is questionable:

The auto industry’s pleas illustrate how TSMC’s chip-making skills have handed Taiwan political and economic leverage in a world where technology is being enlisted in the great power rivalry between the U.S. and China -- a standoff unlikely to ease under the administration of Joe Biden.

Taiwan’s grip on the semiconductor business -- despite being under constant threat of invasion by Beijing -- also represents a choke point in the global supply chain that’s giving new urgency to plans from Tokyo to Washington and Beijing to increase self-reliance.

It takes some ten years to build a new chip fabrication facility. The investment necessary for an up-to-date 'fab' has steadily increased and is now more than $10 billion. While the U.S., Japan and Europe have recognized the danger of a chip production monopoly it will take quite some time before they can become less dependent on TSMC.

This gives the Taiwanese government a window of several years to use TSMC for strategic purposes:

“Taiwan is the center of gravity of Chinese security policy,” said Mathieu Duchatel, director of the Asia program at the Institut Montaigne in Paris. Yet while Taiwan’s status in the global chip supply chain is a “huge strategic value,” it’s also a powerful reason for Beijing to stay away, said Duchatel, who’s just published a policy paper on China’s push for semiconductors.

Assuming Taiwanese forces were to be overwhelmed during an invasion, “there is no reason why they would leave these facilities intact,” he said. And preserving the world’s most advanced fabs “is in the interests of everyone.”

For all the moves to reel back domestic chip fabrication, it’s optimistic to think the supply chain for such a complex product as semiconductors could change in short order, Peter Wennink, ASML chief executive officer, told Bloomberg TV. “If you want to reallocate semiconductor build capacity, manufacturing capacity, you have to think in years,” he said.

China has threatened to invade Taiwan should it declare independence. But as long as it depends on Taiwanese chips it can only do that while also damaging its own industries. Still there is little doubt that China would be willing to take that risk:

The Chinese government said Wednesday that actions like its warplanes flying near Taiwan last weekend are a warning against both foreign interference in Taiwan and any independence moves by the island.

Asked about the flights, Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said China's military drills are to show the nation's resolution to protect its national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"They are a stern warning against external interference and provocation from separatist forces advocating for Taiwan independence,” she said at a regular briefing, giving the Chinese government's first official comment on the recent flights.

Taiwan thus still needs protection. But as long as the U.S. and others still adhere to the One-China policy it is unlikely to get sufficient support. The plan then is to use Taiwan's chip industry to press others into guaranteeing it military support:

Wang Che-jen (汪哲仁), an assistant research fellow at the government-funded the Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR), said in a recently published paper that the current shortage of automotive chips has highlighted Taiwan's strategic place in the global semiconductor industry. The shortage shows that the supply chain for such products has become a matter of diplomatic, security and strategic concern, Wang said in the paper, titled "Automotive chip shortage: A look at Taiwan's strategic place in the semiconductor supply chain."
...
The American and Japanese governments, for example, have invited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, to build facilities in their countries, he noted.

Wang, however, warned against such a move, saying that while it may help to shorten the global supply chains, it may also weaken Taiwan's strategic advantage in the semiconductor industry.

"For Taiwan to maintain its 'silicon shield,' it needs to persuade the European countries and the U.S. that keeping TSMC in Taiwan is the best option," he wrote.

The concept of a "silicon shield" describes Taiwan's strategic position in the technology supply chain as a shield against any attack by China.

The blackmailing through chip supplies is not just an academic concept. The Taiwanese government is now openly using chip supplies to press other governments into economic and political concessions:

Taiwan's high-tech chip foundries are some of the world's biggest and most advanced, and so European car manufacturers have been reaching out to Taipei for help.

"Our government and chip manufacturers are mulling how to assist them," Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua told reporters on Thursday.
...
Wang said she spoke to industry representatives on Wednesday, including Germany's de facto ambassador to Taipei.

She said she hoped Europe would help Taiwan obtain vaccines for the coronavirus.
...
"We need other countries to help Taiwan acquire vaccines, especially for medical workers as a top priority," Wang said.

"I told the German representative yesterday that we can help them acquire automotive chips to solve the problems facing the auto industry and we hope they can do what they can to help Taiwan acquire vaccines," she added.

Vaccine blackmail is one thing.

Nick Siemensma @nicksiem - 6:05 UTC · Feb 6, 2021

Taipei openly offering a quid pro quo to Germany. Is vaccine a fair price? Taipei turned up its nose at Fosun-manufactured supply of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, so perhaps Germany can offer something more. And was no similar exchange of favours available to the USA?

The exchange with the U.S. is about much bigger things than vaccines. To press for political support that involves a potential war with China is on a different scale. Still the ball seems to start rolling:

The Daily Mao @TheDailyMao - 8:58 UTC · Feb 4, 2021

8/ Up until 2020, US tech-economic strategy was mainly to profit off the Chinese market. But after the COVID shock, that's shifted: the US now wants to bleed out the Chinese economy and specifically cripple Chinese tech companies with semiconductors

9/ In terms of bleeding out the Chinese economy, autos are where it starts. My TSMC source tells me they have been asked by the TW/US govts to prioritize chips for auto plants outside China and for US/JP carmakers, to punish the EU for the #CAI

10/ Yesterday, he mentioned that his TW govt counterpart was literally 'trying to stifle a smile' when he told her some of TSMC's Chinese customers in auto would have to shut down because they weren't getting enough chip supplies.

11/ But this isn't just some sort of 'happy accident' that a 'free market' will fix. TSMC does not have carte blanche to expand capacity as much as it wants. The market is not allowed to function in this instance... thanks to the TW regime.

12/ He has disclosed to me that the DPP has been using enviro regulations and other methods of pressure to keep TSMC from expanding its facilities 'too fast' - the TW regime seems to want an artificial shortage of chips to give them greater leverage in international negotiations

13/ And again, this is done in collaboration with the US government - to make sure 'every planned production line that comes online is instantly filled with US orders only.'

This is what was agreed upon between Tsai, Krach, and Morris Chang...

14/ ...and maintaining these artificial shortages to hurt companies producing in China are what Tsai means when she talks about restructuring the global supply chain away from China.

15/ As you may already have guessed, the EU is not happy about this arrangement. Besides the surface issue of their automakers being caught in an undeclared trade war, the EU also feels deeply betrayed by Taiwan's regime over this issue.
...

Please see the linked thread for more details and supporting sources. 

This Taiwanese and U.S. brinkmanship make a war with China more likely and put it nearer than I had previously thought. This summer the situation could already become critical:

The Daily Mao @TheDailyMao - 18:05 UTC · Feb 5, 2021

BREAKING: The DPP of Taiwan has privately indicated to the US it might back an independence referendum in August of this year

In an interesting coincidence this summer will also see some European forces deployed to the South China sea:

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald on November 2, German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer declared that her country  will dispatch a frigate to patrol the Indo-Pacific from next year.
...
Her remarks comes two months after Germany became the second European Union member to release guidelines for the Indo-Pacific. France’s foreign ministry released a strategy document in 2018 for the Indo-Pacific, following a major policy speech by President Emmanuel Macron in Australia earlier that year. A subsequent French security strategy for the region was released by the country’s defense ministry in 2019.

The Brits, now a mere U.S. proxy force, also join in:

Japanese and British foreign and defence ministers on Wednesday began a meeting via videoconference to affirm stronger security cooperation amid China's growing assertiveness in the East and South China seas.
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The ministers were also expected to agree to work closely on Britain's plan to dispatch an aircraft carrier strike group, centred on the Queen Elizabeth, to the western Pacific for joint naval exercises with the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, the officials said.

Japan welcomes the dispatch of the Queen Elizabeth, Britain's largest warship commissioned in 2017, as it shows the country's strengthened commitment to the Indo-Pacific region, they said.

From the U.S. perspective a conflict with China as soon as possible is preferable to one in later years after China had time to build its capabilities.

It may therefore well be that the U.S. is pushing Taiwan into an summer independence referendum while both use the chip supply issue to press 'allies' into supporting them in a potential war.

A strange game indeed!

This is a political article. There are many points I disagree with but others are relevant and weave the different pieces of the Covid, economic and political tapestry together. It also shows the mood in the US currently and where America thread, the rest of the world will follow soon enough.

Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” - John F. Kennedy

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” - Buckminster Fuller

The takeover of the country by an amalgamation of bad characters representing fascist corporatism, collectivism, billionaire oligarchs, social media tyrants, pandemic peddlers, and Deep State snake oil surveillance state salesmen has marked a turning point for the country. Battle lines are being drawn, a propaganda war is already being waged, enemies are preparing for conflict, rage is rising, and the country is headed towards some level of dissolution.

Events since the inception of the release of the China virus from the Wuhan bio-weapon lab, have been accelerating towards an epic struggle between those constituting the true power in the country and those they consider deplorable and undeserving of respect or a voice in how the country is governed. The shadowy figures behind the curtain of Bernays’ invisible government have revealed themselves and no longer fear the plebs they rule over, as their sociopathic hubris has convinced themselves they are invincible.

They have been emboldened by the success they have achieved in engineering a takeover of the government through weaponizing a flu to coerce politicians into shutting down the nation; utilizing propaganda to induce the majority of Americans to cower in fear from a virus that is highly non-lethal (99.7% survival rate) to anyone under 80; destroying hundreds of thousands of small businesses while enriching mega-corporations; successfully rigging a presidential election through mail-in ballot fraud and vote machine machinations; provoking a fake race crisis using BLM and ANTIFA useful idiots; profiting to the tune of trillions from the Fed money printing operation; suppressing free speech and medical truths about the virus through social media censorship; setting up Trump supporters as dangerous insurrectionists with the Capital farce, subsequent white supremacist storyline, and militarization of Washington DC to complete the false narrative; and now having their empty vessel pretend president signing executive orders to pull the country hard left; with Supreme Court packing, DC and Puerto Rico statehood on the docket; and Domestic Terrorism legislation to make all Trump supporters enemies of the state.

The overlords think throwing $600 at the plebs every six months, while allowing them a pittance of unemployment crumbs, will keep them sedated as long as they have their iGadgets to keep them distracted. The unholy triumvirate of Big Tech, Big Pharma and Big Gov are generating tens of billions by peddling a DNA altering experimental rushed vaccine, that isn’t really a vaccine and doesn’t really keep you from getting Covid or spreading it further. We also don’t know the long-term consequences of this “medicine”. And it seems the triumvirate is doing their best to cover up the adverse reactions being reported, miscarriages and numerous deaths of nursing home patients shortly after getting the jab.

The blizzard of lies about the effectiveness of face diapers and lockdowns from “medical experts”, “journalists”, corporate media propagandists, and government apparatchiks has been relentless. These fabricators bloviate about following the science while ignoring the facts proving masks and lockdowns DO NOT WORK and ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine DO WORK. The level of deceit and deception being applied by those in power is drastically increasing the anger and rage in the country towards authority.

The country is already at war, even though many don’t know it, and the Deep State/Oligarchs are clearly winning. This begs the question, how can you defeat an enemy who controls the presidency, congress, mainstream media, social media, major cities, major states, the military, FBI, CIA, DOJ, and the courts? The truth is they think they’ve already won the war and will dictate the terms we will be forced to live by.

But hubris, arrogance and pride are always the Achilles heel of sociopaths, believing they know what is best for humanity while inflicting their lunatic solutions upon their subjects. The feeling among millions of Americans is they have either been abandoned, stabbed in the back, or robbed. They aren’t exactly sure who to blame, who to trust, or who to fight, but they are trying to figure out the best course of action, given the current circumstances.

I was reminded of the 1983 movie – WarGames – while we were still in the midst of the real Cold War with Russia, when nuclear annihilation was actually a possibility. Considering those running the show have been pimping the fake Russiagate charade for the last four years and continue to provoke Putin, the message of the movie has never been more applicable. We are surely in a strange game, where all outcomes are likely to be horrible for all the players. In the movie, the United States nuclear launch control is given to a NORAD supercomputer known as WOPR (War Operation Plan Response).

It is programmed to continuously run war simulations, learn over time, and concoct the best plan of attack if nuclear retaliation is needed. A young computer hacker unwittingly hacks into WOPR and causes the computer to think the Soviet Union has launched missiles at the United States. The humans attempt to regain control over WOPR, but it has learned how to bypass the manual controls put into place to avoid an accidental nuclear war. The computer obtains the launch codes and starts a countdown to a massive missile launch that would start World War III and result in the end of humanity.

The creator of the code and the hacker realize they have to teach WOPR why launching the missiles would be futile. They direct the computer to play tic-tac-toe against itself. This results in a long string of draws, forcing the computer to learn the concept of futility and no-win scenarios. WOPR obtains the launch codes, but before launching, it cycles through all the nuclear war scenarios it has devised, finding they all result in draws as well.

Having discovered the concept of mutual assured destruction (“WINNER: NONE”), the computer tells them it has concluded nuclear war is “A STRANGE GAME” in which “the only winning move is not to play.” It’s amazing how a movie was able to capture the enormous power and extraordinary danger of computer algorithms decades before the country had been hijacked by Big Tech companies using the power of their computer platforms and manipulating algorithms to hijack elections, censor opinions contrary to the approved Deep State narrative, and creating conflict through fake news and engineered storylines.

I, along with millions of the new resistance, consider Basement Biden an illegitimate president, installed as a Chinese controlled Manchurian candidate to complete the final shredding of the Constitution and surrender to globalist oligarchs. In Biden’s case, he’s more like a Senile-churian candidate who will sign anything his handlers place in front of him and pathetically attempt to say whatever they put on his teleprompter, before he has to take a nap. The first couple weeks of the new Susan Rice/Barack Obama administration has been as bad as expected, with dozens of executive orders reversing all Trump’s executive orders and implementing everything the far left was demanding, as their useful ANTIFA and BLM idiots continue to burn cities and riot for no particular reason.

It is undeniably clear the Biden administration, entirely controlled by the Big Tech/Big Pharma/Deep State co-conspirators, are going to ram through a far-left agenda with breathtaking speed, as they have no qualms about shredding the Constitution or remorselessly crushing their enemies under a barrage of pre-written bills and relentless propaganda about the danger of a white supremacist overthrow of the government flogged by their legacy media and social media arms.

Many dejected Trump supporters, along with the millions who didn’t care for Biden or Trump, are now angry the Biden handlers, led by Susan Rice, are actually implementing everything they said they would. Trump’s Executive Orders were not law and are being disposed of by the flick of a pen. Allowing presidents this monarchical power is absurd, and reflects a nation is disarray and in a downward spiral. There is absolutely no one in Washington DC looking out for the long-term best interests of the citizens. It’s solely about power, control, and enrichment of themselves and the oligarchs who put them in power.

Not one decision is being made looking out further than the next election, as these corrupt captured faux representatives divvy up the spoils, as the country spirals further into debt, while the Fed printed 40% of all the money ever printed in U.S. history during 2020 – with 2021 on its way to new records. The insanity of the monetary and fiscal decisions being made by Powell, Yellen, Biden and a congress filled with narcissistic myopic mathematically retarded troglodytes is enough to make a sane, rational, critical thinking American scream in agony at the devastation, strife and economic wasteland we are leaving for future generations.

I find myself increasingly ignoring the daily blather of posing politicians, fake news pundits, “medical experts”, self-styled financial gurus, twitterati, and government drones. Why should I get outraged on a daily basis by the actions of a presidential administration I consider illegitimate and central bankers doing the bidding of the oligarchy, as always? At this point I feel like blurting out Crooked Hillary’s famous angry outburst during the Benghazi hearing – “What difference at this point does it make?”.

I know there are many still believing, if the GOP can just win back the house and/or senate in 2022, they can get the country back on course. Others are waiting for the victorious return of Trump in 2024 like MacArthur’s “I shall return” moment in the Philippines. Some still believe the Qanon pablum and are trusting the plan. They are badly mistaken, as the country is too far gone, and must crash and burn before it can possibly be rebuilt.

I have thrown in the towel on believing we can vote our way out of this mess, as Washington DC is ruled by the Uni-Party, beholden to globalist billionaire oligarchs, the upstart Silicon Valley billionaire censorship tyrants, and the Deep State snakes surveilling all our communications and controlling the narrative through propaganda and suppression of our First Amendment rights. This engineered pandemic panic has been a test run to see how far they could go in using fear to make millions cower and applaud their rights being stripped in the name of safety and security.

The wolves are salivating, as we have proven ourselves to be a nation of masked obedient sheep, begging to be led to slaughter. While the Fed prints prosperity for the .1% by driving the stock market to astronomical heights, the average American is seeing their daily living expenses jump by 5% to 10% (as the BLS reports 1.4% inflation), and their jobs disappear (as the BLS reports 6.3% unemployment when 111 million out of 261 million working age Americans are not working).

The building anger in the country is palpable. The question is how do you fight an enemy with overwhelming superiority in financial resources, police and military forces, corporate media outlets, social media platforms, the financial system, intel agencies, and all branches of the government? This question is what made me recall the WarGames final scene. The only winning move is not to play. Direct confrontation is destined for failure.

The only way to defeat this enemy is through guile, cunning, patience, and persistence. The same method of resistance will not work for all people. Everyone’s individual circumstances will dictate how they resist. There doesn’t need to be a central commander or massed forces. Differing versions of guerrilla warfare will suffice. The enemy is a bureaucratic behemoth, slow and unwieldy, led by arrogant mediocrities, unable to strategize their way out of a wet paper bag. They know only how to use force and threats to achieve their despicable ends.

In Part 2 of this article, I will examine the concepts of Irish Democracy and Going Galt, providing a framework for defeating the enemy and regaining a say in how this country can be revived.