Wikipedia’s entry on the 2002 attempted coup is just as flawed as Grokipedia’s.
Grokipedia: 2002 Venezuelan coup attempt
Read More »Tag: Chamber of Commerce
On Tariffs, It’s Good to Be “Tim Apple”
Tariffs are advertised in the name of helping American workers, but what do you know? They turn out to favor the powerful and politically connected. That’s the main message of President Trump’s decision to exempt smartphones and assorted electronic goods from his most onerous tariffs.
Related:
At the time Apple and Cook were applying a charm offensive to persuade then-President Trump to remove tariffs on certain components that came from China. Cook asked Trump if he could meet him in person to make Apple’s case, a gesture the former president found “impressive,” he told Bloomberg. Trump was particularly pleased at the time that Cook reached out, especially considering his acrimonious relationship with other tech CEOs.
[2019] Apple dodges iPhone tariff after Trump confirms trade deal agreement with China
Although the trade deal affects billions of dollars worth of goods, it’s a particular victory for Apple CEO Tim Cook, who has personally worked to keep communication open with the Trump administration. Cook’s charm offensive culminated last month when he gave Trump a tour of a Mac Pro assembly plant in Texas. That computer is assembled in the United States, and Apple was granted tariff waivers for several of its components.
The Atlantic publishes hit job against PM Modi: Here’s how the propaganda piece cherry-picks facts to attack Indian PM while romanticising Khalistan terrorists
The hit job titled “How a Strongman Made Himself Look Weak” claims that PM Modi responds to criticism within India by ‘co-opting’ the media and ‘repressing’ the religious minorities [read Muslims]. And, on foreign soil, the Modi government responds to criticism with anger and laughably, even ‘political assassinations’.
Related:
Daniel Block (Asia Foundation—CIA, Henry Luce Scholar— partners with the Asia Foundation, The Caravan)
Read More »Trump 2.0: Prepare for the further dumbing down of America
No, it’s not Communism! It’s the privatization of education. “School choice” takes away from government spending for public schools!
Trump Chooses Longtime Ally Linda McMahon to Run Education Dept.
Read More »President-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday tapped Linda McMahon, a former professional wrestling executive who ran the Small Business Administration for much of his first term, to lead the Education Department, an agency he has routinely singled out for elimination in his upcoming term.
…
In part because of her recent policy role and her experience as the small business administrator, Ms. McMahon had been discussed as a possible pick to lead the Commerce Department until the role was officially offered to Howard Lutnick, a Wall Street executive and a chairman of the Trump transition team, earlier in the day.
Ms. McMahon will be in charge of overseeing what is widely expected to be a thorough and determined dismantling of the department’s core functions, as Mr. Trump and many of those in his orbit have questioned the agency’s purpose and disparaged its work as overregulating schools on political and ideological terms.
Other than a brief appointment in 2009 to the Connecticut State Board of Education, where she served for just over a year, Ms. McMahon has no experience in overseeing education policy. She would assume the role at a time when school districts across the country are facing budget shortfalls, many students are not making up ground lost during the pandemic in reading and math, and many colleges and universities are shrinking and closing amid a larger loss of faith in the value of higher education.
While Mr. Trump has repeatedly called for an outright dissolution of the agency, any effort to shutter it would require congressional action and support from some Republican lawmakers whose districts depend on federal aid for public education.
But the America First Policy Institute has set out a more immediate list of changes it says could be achieved through vastly changing the department’s priorities. Those include stopping schools from “promoting inaccurate and unpatriotic concepts” about American history surrounding institutionalized racism, and expanding “school choice” programs that direct more public funds to parents to spend on home-schooling, online classes or at private and religious schools.
New US-Ukraine partnership proposal from influential senators is a recipe for World War III
New US-Ukraine partnership proposal from influential senators is a recipe for bipartisan success
Related:
Washington wants Ukraine’s resources – US Senator
“According to open-source data, the total value of Ukraine’s former mineral resource base is estimated at almost $14.8 trillion, but $7.3 trillion of this is now in the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics. That means almost half of the former Ukraine’s national wealth is in Donbass!” Medvedev explained in a lengthy Telegram post.
“To get access to the coveted minerals, the Western parasites shamelessly demand that their wards wage war to the last Ukrainian. They are already directly voicing such intent without hesitation,” Russia’s former leader added.
The future of critical raw materials: How Ukraine plays a strategic role in global supply chains
Ukraine is a key potential supplier of rare earth metals, including titanium, lithium, beryllium, manganese, gallium, uranium, zirconium, graphite, apatite, fluorite, and nickel. Despite the war, Ukraine holds the largest titanium reserves in Europe (7% of the world’s reserves). It is one of the few countries that mine titanium ores, crucial for the aerospace, medical, automotive and marine industries.
Before February 2022, Ukraine was a key titanium supplier for the military sector. It also has one of Europe’s largest confirmed lithium reserves (estimated at 500,000 tons), vital for batteries, ceramics, and glass. Ukraine is the world’s 5th largest gallium producer, essential for semiconductors and LEDs, and has been a major producer of neon gas, supplying 90% of the highly purified, semiconductor-grade neon for the US chip industry.
The future of critical raw materials: How Ukraine plays a strategic role in global supply chains
The future of critical raw materials: How Ukraine plays a strategic role in global supply chains
Ukraine is a key potential supplier of rare earth metals, including titanium, lithium, beryllium, manganese, gallium, uranium, zirconium, graphite, apatite, fluorite, and nickel. Despite the war, Ukraine holds the largest titanium reserves in Europe (7% of the world’s reserves). It is one of the few countries that mine titanium ores, crucial for the aerospace, medical, automotive and marine industries.
Before February 2022, Ukraine was a key titanium supplier for the military sector. It also has one of Europe’s largest confirmed lithium reserves (estimated at 500,000 tons), vital for batteries, ceramics, and glass. Ukraine is the world’s 5th largest gallium producer, essential for semiconductors and LEDs, and has been a major producer of neon gas, supplying 90% of the highly purified, semiconductor-grade neon for the US chip industry.
Related:
The InfoOp Continues in the Pacific Islands
Full video: Why Should We Care About the Pacific Islands?
John Hennessey-Niland currently works with ASPI on ‘soft power’ in the Pacific Islands.
Maintaining U.S. Credibility in the Pacific Islands (PDF)
Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI):
ASPI funding (Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, United Kingdom, United States, Netherlands, New Zealand, Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Thales Australia, American Chamber of Commerce, Center for Strategic and International Studies, German Marshall Fund, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)
Australian think tank ASPI found linked to prison labor, human trafficking
Read More »U.S. Funds Ukraine Groups Censoring Critics, Smearing Pro-Peace Voices + More
American taxpayers are footing the bill for Ukrainian NGOs focused on smearing proponents of a diplomatic solution as “Russian disinformation” agents.
U.S. Funds Ukraine Groups Censoring Critics, Smearing Pro-Peace Voices
Related:
U.S. Helps Pro-Ukraine Media Run a Fog Machine of War + Supporting Front Orgs
Pro-Russian “disinformation” network
Ukraine’s ‘Press Freedom’ Score Increases Despite Martial Law, Banned Media
Read More »[2012] The Demise of Higher Education in the United States
The United States has experienced two major growth spurts in higher education. In 1862, the Morrill Act changed the face of higher education will by granting each state 30,000 acres of public land for each senator and representative. Sale of the land was intended to create an endowment fund for the support of colleges in each of the states. Prior to the creation of the land-grant colleges, higher education was predominantly intended for wealthy students and those intending to serve as clergy. The land-grant colleges expanded higher education to different regions and a different class of students. This expansion, however, was still incomplete.
Previously:
U.S. Helps Pro-Ukraine Media Run a Fog Machine of War + Supporting Front Orgs
U.S. Helps Pro-Ukraine Media Run a Fog Machine of War
As Congress debates major new funding to support the Ukrainian war effort, U.S. taxpayer dollars are already flowing to outlets such as the New Voice of Ukraine, VoxUkraine, Detector Media, the Institute of Mass Information, the Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine and many others. Some of this money has come from the $44.1 billion in civilian-needs foreign aid committed to Ukraine. While the funding is officially billed as an ambitious program to develop high-quality independent news programs; counter malign Russian influence; and modernize Ukraine’s archaic media laws, the new sites in many cases have promoted aggressive messages that stray from traditional journalistic practices to promote the Ukrainian government’s official positions and delegitimize its critics.
Related (front organizations):
Read More »
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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