“The first is the right to free speech and for people to peacefully assemble and make their voices heard. The second is the rule of law. Both must be upheld. We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent.”
Earlier today, I finished listening to Capital, Vol. 1. I’m definitely going to have to read the book, as I did fall asleep during a couple of chapters. Bad me, I know. It’s been hard for me to listen to audiobooks, anymore, because I’ve been falling asleep to a YouTube playlist for the past few years.
Anyway, I’m tired, and I am going to take a cat nap. Good night!
Earlier, I stupidly tweeted out an article about the Jones Act and shipbuilding and Colin Grabow, from the Cato Institute, liked it (he was quoted in the article). I looked him up and decided to listen to this video on the shipbuilding competition between China and the US, where he and a lawyer for United Steelworkers were on the panel. China is eating their lunch, and it’s the ruling elites’ own fault, yet they scapegoat China for it. The double standards over China’s “unfair economic practices” AKA the subsidizing of their shipbuilding industry irritates me (liars irritate me even more). States give subsidies, grants, and tax breaks to corporations, all the time. Fincantieri Marinette Marine is just one example, but Wisconsin had done the same for Foxconn. Foxconn received tax breaks and $3B in subsidies, which was “the largest ever subsidy provided by a state to a foreign company”, despite not living up to their promises.
Colin Grabow wants to end the Jones Act. I’ve made at least three video clips regarding the Jones Act, two with Sal Mercogliano from What’s Going On With Shipping and one from the government-funded CSIS (I’ve posted them, below).Spoiler alert: Sal says that the problem isn’t the Jones Act.Meanwhile, both CSIS and the Cato Institute (part of the Atlas Network) blame the Jones Act. Deregulation is a wet dream of big corporations (which fund both the Cato Institute and CSIS).
America last. America last. That’s all this is. America last, every single day. – Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene
The man who is most responsible for the $95 billion giveaway to Ukraine and Israel, is the same guy who pretends to oppose America’s “wasteful” foreign wars. Donald Trump. It was Trump who consulted with Speaker Mike Johnson about the contents of the Ukraine aid package, just as it was Trump who concocted the idea of issuing loans instead of dispersing the standard welfare handout. It was also Trump who said:
We no longer hear much about the Uyghur issue, which Arab and international media outlets often promoted as a narrative to tarnish the reputation of the Chinese government and pressure it. This issue has always been framed through the lens of “generality” implying that “China is persecuting Muslims within its borders,” which is certainly not true, since the Uyghurs are not the only Muslim ethnic group in China; there are ten Muslim ethnicities in China.
Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher, who led the charge on a bill that could effectively ban TikTok within the country — on the basis that China can “surveil its users” — plans to take up a post with the American surveillance company and defense contractor Palantir, Forbes reported.
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Gallagher, who currently chairs the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, was the lead sponsor on the bill that would force TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the popular social media platform within six months or face a potential ban from app stores and web-hosting services.
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After the vote, Palantir executive Jacob Helberg, who also serves on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, called on his social media followers to fund opponents to lawmakers who voted no on the bill to ban TikTok. Gallagher worked with Helberg in recent months as part of an effort to build bipartisan, bicoastal support of the bill. Helberg took a job at Palantir as a senior policy advisor to CEO Alex Karp back in August.
The United States–China Economic and Security Review Commission (informally, the U.S.–China Commission, USCC) is an independent agency of the United States government. It was established on October 30, 2000, through the Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act.
Now, here’s the kicker: Part 2 Section 1b of the “Tik Tok Banning” Bill actually declares anyone assisting a user to access the App will be guilty of an offence and that clearly means VPN, so technically, it’s the USA that’s making them illegal, not China – what a turn up!!!
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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