Observations on the pundits in the PH media

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Full video
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Retired Supreme Court associate justice Antonio Carpio says the Philippine government should accept Vietnam and Malaysia’s invitation to take China to an arbitral court on their territorial disputes.

Source

US-funded Rappler:

[OPINION] Ayungin and why PH should respond as one team, one nation (archived):

This crisis should be turned into an opportunity.

We have postponed the replacement of the BRP Sierra Madre for years, for fear of escalating tension at Ayungin Shoal. Now is the time to either construct a concrete facility or deploy a self-propelled oil platform inside the shoal as a permanent station for our troops; which should be far superior in terms of habitability, self-defense, and supportability. If completed, some of the Navy’s missile boats can be redeployed to secure the shoal, instead of languishing in Mindanao and conducting anti-smuggling operations.” – Retired Rear Admiral Rommel Jude Ong.

One thing that I’ve noticed about these pundits being quoted in the PH media, is that all of them have ties to the Stratbase Group, which includes the Stratbase ADR Institute and BowerGroupAsia.  Both the Stratbase ADR Institute and BowerGroupAsia have connections to Ray Powell and the U.S. government. 

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All aboard the gravy train: an independent audit of US funding for Ukraine

In the absence of official scrutiny of Washington’s spending spree on Ukraine, The Grayzone conducted an independent audit of US funding for the country. We discovered a series of wasteful, highly unusual expenditures the Biden administration has yet to explain.

All aboard the gravy train: an independent audit of US funding for Ukraine

Video via Jason Hunt (Threats to international peace and security – Security Council, 9364th meeting)

“They’re going to call you socialists anyways”: Progressives slam 109 Dems for backing GOP stunt

“They’re going to call you socialists anyways”: Progressives slam 109 Dems for backing GOP stunt

Here’s what this is really about: More and more members on the other side of the aisle are calling for cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and many have referred to these programs as “socialism” throughout their existence. The other night in the Rules Committee they showed their cards. Republicans refused an amendment to declare that Social Security and Medicare is not socialism. This resolution is little about intelligent discourse and everything to do about laying the groundwork to cut Social Security and Medicare.

‘Socialism’ for me, but not for thee?!

Avoiding a climate lockdown 🧐💭

As the world faces three major threats, namely the COVID-19 induced public health and economic crises as well as the ongoing climate emergency, the business world is in a position to make real positive change.

Avoiding a climate lockdown (original)

H/T: Kim Iversen—The Next Agenda

Related:

A green economic renewal after the COVID-19 crisis (PDF)

WEF: Paris Is Planning To Become A ’15-minute City’

15-minute city:

A 15-minute city is a residential urban concept in which most daily necessities can be accomplished by either walking or cycling from residents’ homes. The concept (see also the New Urbanism of the 1980s) is present, among many, in D’Acci’s Isobenefit Urbanism since 2013 (“The Isobenefit Urbanism approach aims to create cities in which each dweller can do her/his usual main daily activities by walking or at maximum biking”) was popularized by Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo and inspired by French-Colombian scientist Carlos Moreno who in 2016 coined the term. 15-minute cities are built from a series of 5-minute neighborhoods, also known as complete communities or walkable neighborhoods. The concept has been described as a “return to a local way of life”.

Mitch McConnell says the labor shortage will be solved when people run out of stimulus money because Americans are ‘flush for the moment’

Mitch McConnell says the labor shortage will be solved when people run out of stimulus money because Americans are ‘flush for the moment’

Related:

McConnell’s Wife’s Family Business Appears on Trump Admin’s List of Companies That Received Most PPP Money

So says the man who’s wife received a PPP loan! 🙄

Fed Chair Powell Misleads House Hearing on Wall Street’s Bailout Programs

Fed Chair Powell Misleads House Hearing on Wall Street’s Bailout Programs

It’s factually incorrect for the Fed Chairman to say that it can only make emergency loans with the approval of the Treasury. Months before there was any case of COVID-19 anywhere in the world the Fed was making hundreds of billions of dollars a week in emergency repo loans to Wall Street trading houses. The emergency loans started on September 17, 2019 – four months before the first reported case of COVID-19 in the United States. By January 27, 2020 the Fed’s ongoing cumulative loans to bail out Wall Street’s hubris tallied up to an astounding $6.6 trillion. (See Fed Repos Have Plowed $6.6 Trillion to Wall Street in Four Months; That’s 34% of Its Feeding Tube During Epic Financial Crash.)

Fed Chair Powell Opens a Big Can of Worms at His Press Conference

Fed Chair Powell Opens a Big Can of Worms at His Press Conference

What the Fed did back then, which it knows it can still do at the drop of a dime today, is to demand an adequate amount of securities as collateral from the Wall Street firms that request its emergency loans. There is zero need or rational reason to make the U.S. taxpayer backstop potential losses on Wall Street – particularly when today’s Wall Street funding problems began months before COVID-19 reared its head in the United States.