SKYE’S LINKS 02/09/23
Groupthink Means that No One is Thinking
China’s Power Flex in the American Sky
Spy vs. Spy
China is using balloons, toy drones, tourists with cameras, and other forms of low-cost leverage to alert the American populace that a severe conflict is brewing and to gather intelligence. They chose to overfly Montana and Wyoming. The psychological warfare part of the recent spy balloon mission might have been drafted after watching a few of the top-rated Netflix series Yellowstone. A scene in an early episode has an Asian tourist pointing to the Yellowstone Ranch and saying ominously, “No one should own this much land.”
The military part of the mission likely included ground surveillance radar over the Minuteman missile fields capable of discerning millimeters of elevation differences that would disclose communication tunnels and signal wires buried between command and launch silos decades ago.
The missiles might not launch when needed if the cables are cut with conventional explosives, making this kind of spycraft very valuable.
Missile batteries have their cables installed inside substantial, thick-walled pressurized pipes so that any loss in pressure signals tampering. At least, this was the theory from the 1960s, which means a sizable trench was dug for each signal pipe.
The United States Navy has shifted from training exercises to rehearsals in the Asian Pacific Theater and is adding military bases in Japan and the Philippines. Guam and Hawaii are seeing a similar increased military footprint.
Some interesting thoughts on balloons:
Sky Lanterns, Fu-Go Wind Ships, Drones, Balloon Bombs, & The Markets
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Pfizer Strikes Back
James O’Keefe of Project Veritas might have made a strategic blunder by accepting outside investors and a Board of Directors. One board member, who most recently served with Goldman Sachs, has built a conspiracy to oust O’Keeffe over the Pfizer videos. As of a few hours before posting this document, O’Keefe has been placed on paid leave.
It looks like the counterattack from Pfizer will be coming from those in the financial sector. There is a lesson here about accepting investment from sources that don’t share an organization’s values.
More from the Project Veritas Pfizer video:
‘The Scandal Would Be Enormous’: Pfizer Director Worried About Vax-Induced Menstrual Irregularities
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When We All Think Alike
Or Not
The education industry, especially universities, believes their primary purpose is teaching students to think inductively. They no longer teach rules or virtues and have replaced them with narratives that the graduate can use throughout life. It has long been recognized that logical induction is prone to error from spurious data and cognitive bias. However, induction errors have never been greater than with the Covid vaxx.
To be sure, Scott Adams, a bright guy, has been struggling to understand why he got it wrong and took the jabs. He further worked to realize that those with Master’s degrees were wrong in the most significant numbers, while the non-college crowd and the advanced Ph.D. in the sciences crowd were correct most often.
It turns out that those in the construction industry and skilled trades overwhelmingly rely on logical deduction, just as the best scientists are trained to use. The jabs failed to meet the standards of confidence that productive people require even to change their truck tire brand.
The jabs were rejected because they represented a product without a track record, a rushed process, insane, over-the-top promotion, and a dubious need. Because of the brilliance of America’s working men and women, we emerge from Covid with a labor force primarily in good shape.
Before your son or daughter marches off to re-education camp or freshman orientation, could you give them the talk? Explain that the universities push a singular logical and ethical paradigm prone to significant error. Explain why the average student tests lower on the SAT at college graduation than at high school graduation. The shift to inductive reasoning at the exclusion of deductive methods is at fault.
Here is a master course in critical thinking describing how a non-scientist came to the logical conclusion not to be vaccinated:
How The “Unvaccinated” Got It Right
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Censorship. It’s Worse than You Thought
Some of the truth is emerging that the FBI was re-chartered secretly by the Obama administration to become the most extensive, most invasive spying and propaganda force in the history of the world. While the NSA collects data in the background, primarily for national defense, the FBI built the capability and placed agents throughout social media. Their intent is massive narrative control and thought crime arrests. Many wondered why the Feds created the gigantic Utah Data Center and its backup sites that dwarf Google’s server capacity.
The FBI developed the means to censor thought and to promote narratives actively. For instance, if the sitting president is found to have been transferring national security documents to China through a university dead-drop, then change the narrative by declaring a ban on natural gas stoves the same day.
Or if the citizens become agitated over the forced sexual grooming of children in public schools, declare them domestic terrorists and destroy their lives. Heck, a million Americans can be muzzled before that three-martini lunch.
We once thought of our FBI as virtuous men and women working long hours and sweating the details to catch baddies. The organization is no longer hiring honorable people. Thank you, CRT. You broke the FBI.
Jonathan Turley on the Federalie’s gigantic censorship machine:
Congress Is Set To Expose What May Be The Largest Censorship System In U.S. History
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They Broke Minds
We have lost faith in the nation due to the Covid catastrophe, especially in Washington. The article is not about the virus but how our government lost its stinking mind during the ordeal.
Citizens gladly surrendered their rights and undertook actions that they knew were wrong. Trillions of dollars were stolen from the treasury; children were harmed irreparably.
We are left with a rapid descent into tribalism, where the blue states are now little more than a collection of competing identity groups. Red state confidence is so low that non of the military recruitment goals are being met and are worsening.
Is this how Rome fell? Did the empire break into factions after their institutions were found to have their thumbs on the scales?
Never forget how they ended the Before Times:
The Political Became Very Personal
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The Press Cannot Think
The Press lied, gaslighted, and went to extraordinary lengths to support the Russia, Russia, Russia narrative. As an institution, they have destroyed their credibility and perhaps the future of their industry.
We have in this link yet another example of the problems emergent from teaching a singular logical and ethical paradigm in universities. Are individual journalists the enemy? Well, maybe some, but most are only trained in pattern-seeking. When the pattern is primed by dropping reference material on Google, the result is national groupthink. It is no wonder the number of university students dropped by 600,000 between 2021 and 2022. The education might no longer be worth the $300K needed to purchase it.
Russia, Russia, Russia – an essential member of the MSM finally gets it:
Columbia Journalism Review Russiagate Post-Mortem Is A Good Start
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This link describes the fall of journalism from within the industry. With the revelation that Bob Woodward of Watergate fame was a paid CIA operative during the entire Watergate coup and Deepthroat was an FBI administrator, one would think the current state of the J-schools would be self-reflective.
But it is not. This link is a fascinating look into the mind of a journalist.
The Columbia Journalism Review article:
The Press versus the president, part one
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And it just gets worse:
Despite the above glimmer of awakening, the MSM has agreed to accelerate their credibility demise:
“Objectivity Has Got To Go”: News Leaders Call For End Of Objective Journalism
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Initial Signs of a Turn
The left is beginning to realize that they have descended into tribalism. They have eviscerated morality and diminished abstract thinking capability. They have reduced themselves to screaming due to their pathetically low vocabulary and have become cruel and filled with bloodlust.
The Forth Turning is turning our way, BUT, as conservatives lose faith in institutions, we are making it easier for the Barbarians to take those institutions and weaponize them.
The Fourth Turning is turning our way:
Excellent news from Florida:
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Planning the Restoration
The incredible disillusionment in government and the permanent bureaucratic class will likely propel populism to another level. The RINOs want Romney or Jeb! to take a shot. The case for Trump is that the system still needs a wrecking ball. The case for DeSantis is that we need effective government.
Now for the great news! This is very important; the purpose of the 2025 Project is to reign in the Administrative State:
Exclusive: Conservatives to ‘Use the Levers of Government,’ Dismantle ‘Permanent D.C.’ in 2025
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Do you suppose anything in the world screams DARPA PROJECT more than ChatGPT?
The sudden emergence of the platform occurred just as Elon Musk began disclosing the Fed’s narrative control within social media.
Sam Altman appears to be in charge of Chat GPT, but like James O’Keefe at Project Veritas, he answers to a board. An entrepreneur can never sleep comfortably knowing that Board members are often the business equivalent of Benedict Arnold. Let’s hope that he vetted his Board members very well.
Further info on ChatGPT; ignore the headline – the founder says that he loves capitalism, and I suspect that the woke bias is a result of the lack of availability of non-woke programmers. If he loves capitalism and thinks that it is the least bad of any extant system, this could be the start of a real revolution toward freedom:
ChatGPT Boss Sam Altman Hopes AI Can ‘Break Capitalism’
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Economics
ESG is stealth socialism that places corporations under the yoke of government, especially globalist-minded governments. At the core, it is Trotskyism. Just like the other forms of socialism, this too shall pass. But everything in its wake will be destroyed.
ESG’s stormtroopers are trained at the WEF and unleashed and underwritten by consulting houses such as McKinsey. Have a peek at their website: Here
For investors, ESG 101:
The Long-Term Negative Effects Of ESG Will Be Catastrophic
British Petroleum pivots on its ESG CO2 emission promises:
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/bp-pivots-climate-promises
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Powell does not think disinflationary forces will moderate inflation. Although unemployment is near-low, wages are not increasing because productivity is not improving. Wage stagnation suggests that the postwar assumption that jobs are the limit to growth is no longer valid, and another factor, such as ESG headwinds, exists. Traditional inflation control tools might not work as well in the future. The Fed will stay the course.
For investors, here are some excellent reasons why the Fed is unlikely to pivot in 2023:
Breitbart Business Digest: Why Powell Won’t Gamble on Disinflation Yet
Corporations no longer hire employees based on merit or even assume that new hires will become long-term productive employees. The railroads called it featherbedding, the practice of forced, unproductive labor practices.
Productivity has not been as low as today since before Reagan initiated workplace drug testing. Malinvestments into projects with no hope of a profit and the forced hiring practices of ESG are producing a catastrophic drag.
Just because ESG pressures demand companies to hire intersectionally oppressed people does not mean that the supply of female African American chemists or electricians has suddenly expanded. The pool of top talent in any group is inelastic. Inelasticity in supply is a fatal flaw.
More for investors, non-farm productivity (production per manhour) dropped more in 2022 than at any time during the last nearly half-century. Inflation-driven malinvestments, regulations, and declining education standards are destroying productivity, and high productivity is the basis for a high standard of living:
U.S. Labor Productivity Saw Worst Plunge Since 1974
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Constrained by Coal
Global severe shortages of both coking and thermal coal are emerging. The Russian supply is off the market, while China is still a net importer, even with its reduced economy. Wind and solar are a joke, and natural gas is tight.
The lack of gas means that coal-fired power stations will remain online longer than enviros demand, and some idle facilities are returning to service.
The demand for coking coal will outstrip the supply forcing global iron and steel production curtailments. Thermal coal is already tight, causing a global cement shortage that will likely worsen.
In the USA, coal-fired power plants are forced to blend different coals to optimize cost with sulfur emissions. The constrained production factors are low-sulfur bituminous coal and anthracite coal. The USA has nearly exhausted the anthracite coal mines needed to make metallurgical coke.
Coal is still king: