Joe Will Force the U.S. into The Great Reset, Beware

We will be forced to change our behavior and every day common things around us that we rely on will fade away. Biden will put the United States back into the Paris Accord….but read on…

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For decades, progressives have attempted to use climate change to justify liberal policy changes. But their latest attempt – a new proposal called the “Great Reset” – is the most ambitious and radical plan the world has seen in more than a generation.

At a virtual meeting earlier in June hosted by the World Economic Forum, some of the planet’s most powerful business leaders, government officials and activists announced a proposal to “reset” the global economy. Instead of traditional capitalism, the high-profile group said the world should adopt more socialistic policies, such as wealth taxes, additional regulations and massive Green New Deal-like government programs.

“Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed,” wrote Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, in an article published on WEF’s website. “In short, we need a ‘Great Reset’ of capitalism.”

Schwab also said that “all aspects of our societies and economies” must be “revamped,” “from education to social contracts and working conditions.”

Joining Schwab at the WEF event was Prince Charles, one of the primary proponents of the Great Reset; Gina Gopinath, the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund; António Guterres, the secretary-general of the United Nations; and CEOs and presidents of major international corporations, such as Microsoft and BP.

Activists from groups such as Greenpeace International and a variety of academics also attended the event or have expressed their support for the Great Reset.

Although many details about the Great Reset won’t be rolled out until the World Economic Forum meets in Davos in January 2021, the general principles of the plan are clear: The world needs massive new government programs and far-reaching policies comparable to those offered by American socialists such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in their Green New Deal plan.

Or, put another way, we need a form of socialism — a word the World Economic Forum has deliberately avoided using, all while calling for countless socialist and progressive plans.

“We need to design policies to align with investment in people and the environment,” said the general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, Sharan Burrow. “But above all, the longer-term perspective is about rebalancing economies.”

One of the main themes of the June meeting was that the coronavirus pandemic has created an important “opportunity” for many of the World Economic Forum’s members to enact their radical transformation of capitalism, which they acknowledged would likely not have been made possible without the pandemic.

“We have a golden opportunity to seize something good from this crisis — its unprecedented shockwaves may well make people more receptive to big visions of change,” said Prince Charles at the meeting, adding later, “It is an opportunity we have never had before and may never have again.”

You might be wondering how these leaders plan to convince the world to completely alter its economy over the long run, since the COVID-19 pandemic most assuredly won’t remain a crisis forever. The answer is that they’ve already identified another “crisis” that will require expansive government intervention: Climate change.

“The threat of climate change has been more gradual [than COVID-19]—but its devastating reality for many people and their livelihoods around the world, and its ever greater potential to disrupt, surpasses even that of Covid-19,” Prince Charles said.

Of course, these government officials, activists and influencers can’t impose a systemic change of this size on their own. Which is why they have already started to activate vast networks of left-wing activists from around the world, who will throughout 2021 demand changes in line with the Great Reset.

According to the World Economic Forum, its 2021 Davos summit will include thousands of members of the Global Shapers Community, youth activists located in 400 cities across the planet.

The Global Shapers program was involved in the widespread “climate strikes” of 2019, and more than 1,300 have already been trained by the Climate Reality Project, the highly influential, well-funded climate activist organization run by former Vice President Al Gore, who serves on the World Economic Forum’s Board of Trustees.

For those of us who support free markets, the Great Reset is nothing short of terrifying. Our current crony capitalist system has many flaws, to be sure, but granting more power to the government agents who created that crony system and eroding property rights is not the best way forward. America is the world’s most powerful, prosperous nation precisely because of the very market principles the Great Reset supporters loathe, not in spite of them.

Making matters worse, the left has already proven throughout the COVID-19 pandemic that it can radically transform political realities in the midst of a crisis, so it’s not hard to see how the Great Reset could eventually come to fruition.

When Institutions Fail, Consequences are Deadly

We know this to be the case in the United States as a result of sanctuary city policy. Politicians have sovereign immunity, meaning they are not accountable for their policy or legislative action when there are victims including death.

Intelligence agencies in the United States cooperate with each other with intelligence and detentions except when they don’t in hundreds of cities across America. U.S. intelligence agencies also collaborate with foreign services on warnings and cases of criminals and the associated backgrounds including judicial decisions.

While the United States was in the whirlwind of the election, very little was reporting was done on the terror attacks in Europe. Terror and militants are still out there, the war is not over. But for some additional details, read on.

AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS SIGNALED on Thursday the beginning of a major overhaul of the country’s intelligence community, in response to this week’s terrorist attack in Vienna, which killed four people. Another 20 people were wounded by a lone gunman, who used an automatic weapon to spread panic in the Austrian capital before he was shot dead by Austrian police.

The gunman was named as Kujtim Fejzulai, 20, an Isis sympathiser who was able to stay on in Austria after attempts to strip him of citizenship were blocked

Armed with an assault rifle, a pistol and a machete, he injured 22 people on Monday night before being shot dead by police. He was named as Kujtim Fejzulai, 20, who had previously been jailed for attempting to join Islamic State in Syria.
Before his early release in December he had taken part in a deradicalisation course but “deceived” his handlers about his true intentions, Karl Nehammer, the interior minister, said.

The gunman was later identified as Kujtim Fejzulai, an Austrian citizen of Albanian extraction, who was born in North Macedonia and held citizenship there too. The shooter was known to Austrian authorities, as he had been previously convicted of trying to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State. He had been imprisoned as an Islamic radical, but had been released after allegedly duping Austrian judges, who believed he had reformed.

In the days following the attack, it emerged that Slovakian authorities had notified Austrian security agencies in July that Fejzulai had tried to purchase ammunition in Slovakia. On Wednesday, Austria’s Director General for Public Security, Franz Ruf, said that Austrian intelligence authorities “sent questions back to Bratislava”, but then there had been a “breakdown” in the system. Austrian Minister of the Interior Karl Nehammer added that “something apparently went wrong with the communication in the next steps”.

Nehammer and others, including Austrian Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler, called for the establishment of an independent commission to examine the Fejzulai case and “clarify whether the process went optimally and in line with the law”. The Austrian Chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, said on Thursday that the country did not have “all the legal means necessary to monitor and sanction extremists”, adding that he would initiate the creation of a panel that would supervise a “realignment” of the intelligence agencies. He was referring to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism, known by the initials BVT. He did not provide details.

 

Devin Archer, Hunter and Another Company: Mbloom

Primer: Devon Archer, whose conviction was reinstated a ruling, had partnered with Hunter Biden in Rosemont Seneca, a Washington-based investment firm. Starting in 2014, the pair served together on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company accused of corruption, at the same time that his father oversaw U.S. policy towards Ukraine. Hunter Biden has called his decision to take the board seat “a mistake,” while Joe Biden has defended the decision, saying, “my son did nothing wrong.”

KAHULUI, HI–(Marketwired – Jan 21, 2014)mbloom LLC, a Maui-based technology fund for Hawaii startups, today announced the close of a $10 million early-stage venture capital fund.

The investment, mbloom Fund 1, is a public-private partnership with Hawaii State Development Corporation (HSDC) and Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners, an East Coast hedge fund.

“We are excited to use mbloom Fund 1 to create economic growth for Hawaii,” says mbloom co-founder Arben Kryeziu. “Innovation happens in Hawaii, but many companies leave the island for growth opportunities on the mainland. We want to keep Hawaii startups here, giving them opportunities to develop, connect, and make a mark just like the startups in Silicon Valley.”

Tech fund for Hawaii startups mbloom LLC closes $10M early ...

Hat tip source:

A businessman with alleged ties to Russian organized crime and Syria’s ruling regime paid nearly US$3 million into a failed investment fund backed by a longtime business partner of the son of the U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden, leaked bank records show.

Hares Youssef, who holds both Ukrainian and Syrian citizenship, invested $2.98 million in late 2015 into mbloom, a now-defunct tech startup fund that was jointly financed by Hawaii’s Strategic State Development Corporation and Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners (RSTP). RSTP was run by Devon Archer, then a close business partner of Hunter Biden.

Mbloom was shuttered after Archer was arrested in an unrelated fraud case.

While the younger Biden had previously been involved with RSTP, there is no evidence that he played a role in the mbloom deal. An archived version of RSTP’s website from 2014 listed Biden as a Washington, D.C.-based managing director of the company, but his name had been removed from the site by September 2015, when Youssef made his investment.
“Mr. Biden severed his relationship with Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners prior to this transaction,” said George Mesires, a spokesman for Hunter Biden.

Financial records examined by reporters show that money from mbloom was paid into another of Archer’s accounts, which was at the time making regular payments to Biden. Mesires did not respond to questions about whether any of these payments were connected to mbloom.

The details of Youssef’s investment are contained in the FinCEN Files, a series of suspicious activity reports (SARs), secret alerts issued by bank compliance officers when there are suspicions that a transaction may be linked to crime or money laundering. The existence of a SAR is not itself evidence of wrongdoing.
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About This Investigation

The FinCEN Files is a 16-month-long investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, BuzzFeed News and more than 400 international journalists in 88 countries, including those from OCCRP and its network of member centers.

The investigation is based on more than 2,100 secret bank reports filed to the U.S. Treasury Department’s intelligence unit, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, other documents, and dozens of interviews.

The documents show that City National Bank in Los Angeles flagged as suspicious two payments sent in September and November 2015 to mbloom, which was based on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

The bank flagged the transaction based on reports tying Youssef to international arms trafficking and to Semion Mogilevich, a Russian organized crime boss dubbed “The Brainy Don.” Given these alleged links, the bank was “unable to validate whether the source of the wires derived are from Mr. YOUSSEF’s legitimate businesses or from his alleged ties to Russian and Ukrainian criminal elements,” the SAR said.

The SAR also cited allegations that Youssef had ties to Maher al-Assad, a senior Syrian general who is the brother of the country’s president.
Graham Barrow, a U.K.-based anti-money laundering expert, told OCCRP that the link between Youssef and mbloom was sure to raise a red flag for compliance officers at the bank.

“The transaction looks every bit as bad as you might presume,” he said. “The bank would be very concerned as to the source of these funds and a lack of detailed narrative as to the business purpose only compounds those concerns.”

Youssef told OCCRP via WhatsApp that the allegations he was linked to organized crime and arms smuggling were “bull shit”.

The investment fund, mbloom, was embroiled in controversy shortly after its founding in 2014 by Kane – also known as Arben Kane Kryreziu – and his business partner, Nick Bicanic. The fund was seeded with $5 million each from Archer’s RSTP and the Hawaiian Strategic Development Corporation, a state government-backed fund intended to create entrepreneurial growth and high wage jobs.

Almost immediately, mbloom attracted controversy after reportedly investing in two startups run by Bicanic and Kane. The fund was shut down in mid-2016 after Archer was arrested for defrauding the Oglala Sioux tribe of tens of millions of dollars. The Hawaii Strategic Development Corporation then withdrew.

In interviews, both Youssef and mbloom’s former manager, Kane, said the investment was the initiative of Archer, who served with Biden at the time on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings. Archer has since been convicted of fraud in the U.S. in the Oglala Sioux case.
Both men characterized Archer as the driving force behind the deal, and said that the younger Biden was not involved.

“Youssef was introduced through Devon Archer as an investor,” Kane told OCCRP, adding that he trusted Archer because he came from a “prestige network” that included his other business partner, Christopher Heinz, the stepson of the then-US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Youssef said he met both Archer and Kane, but never met Biden.

Youssef was indicted in Spain in 2017 for allegedly laundering money for Dmytro Firtash, a Kremlin-linked Ukrainian oligarch currently fighting extradition to the U.S. to face corruption charges. By a strange twist of fate, Firtash last year joined efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to generate unfounded, politically damaging allegations of corruption against the Bidens.

Archer’s lawyer, Matthew Schwartz, did not respond to questions sent by email.
Return to Sender

Youssef told OCCRP he traveled to New York in 2015 to meet Archer and Kane, and that the investment was intended to help create a gold-backed virtual currency named Golden Hearts.

Kane gave a different account, saying the money was intended to finance a planned attempt to take mbloom public.
the-fincen-files/Arben-Kane.jpg
Credit: arbenkane.com
Arben Kane

Whatever the reason for the investment, things quickly turned sour. In its SAR, City National Bank said it had contacted mbloom about its concerns over Youssef’s alleged ties to organized crime. The investment fund told the bank it would return Youssef’s money.

In January 2016, mbloom refunded Youssef $277,000 according to the SAR.

Youssef said he would like to get his remaining millions back, adding, “I wish one day [but] I don’t think it will happen.”

In fact, the SAR shows that most of this money was transferred to another firm related to mbloom called Mbloom BDC Advisor LLC, from which it was disbursed “mostly for legal services, taxes, insurance premiums, etc.”

Just days after Youssef made his investment, Mbloom BDC Advisor LLC transferred $275,000 to the account of Rosemont Seneca Bohai LLC, another company owned by Archer, according to bank documents posted online by New York Times reporter Kenneth Vogel. It is unclear if this money originated with Youssef.

Set up by Archer in Delaware in 2014, Rosemont Seneca Bohai was an “apparent shell entity” that also received nearly $3.5 million in payments from Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company where Archer and Biden sat on the board, according to a U.S. Senate report.

Among other destinations, Rosemont Seneca Bohai sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in regular transfers to Biden in 2014 and 2015.

Biden’s spokesman, Mesires, didn’t comment on those transfers other than to say, “Mr. Biden has had no ownership interest in Rosemont Seneca Bohai at any time.”

Consequences of Oil and Gas Bans

VP Biden and the whole democrat caucus perhaps need a short class on petroleum before they declare their war on oil and coal.

Enjoy Your Fossil-Fueled 4th of July! - American Experiment

A Federal Leasing and Development Ban Threatens America’s Energy Security and Economic Growth, Undermines Environmental Progress

API: Energy produced on federal lands and waters plays a critical role in America’s energy revolution, accounting for 12% of U.S. natural gas production and nearly a quarter of U.S. oil production.

According to a new OnLocation analysis, The Consequences of a Leasing and Development Ban on Federal Lands and Waters (Sept. 2020), U.S. energy leadership could be at stake if a federal leasing and development ban is enacted.*

Highlights from the analysis include:

Energy Security Impacts

  • U.S. oil imports from foreign sources could increase by 2 million barrels a day by 2030
  • Annual U.S. natural gas exports could decrease by 800 billion cubic feet by 2030
  • U.S. offshore natural gas and oil production could decrease by 68% and 44% respectively

Economic Impacts

  • U.S. GDP could decline by a cumulative $700 billion by 2030
  • Nearly 1 million jobs could be lost by 2022
  • U.S. households could spend a cumulative $19 billion more on energy by 2030
  • Over $9 billion in government revenue could be at risk

Environmental Impacts

  • National U.S. CO2 emissions could increase by an average of 58 million metric tons and keep rising to represent a 5.5% increase in the power sector by 2030
  • Current transition from coal to natural gas could be delayed, keeping half the coal capacity that would otherwise be retired by 2030
  • Total U.S. coal use could increase by 15% by 2030

Petroleum is an important substance across society, politics, technology including in economy. Besides, apart from fuel there are a lot of petroleum by products that show up in our modern life. Let’s look at some uses of petroleum below.

 

  • Agriculture
  • Detergents, Dyes, and Others
  • Plastics, Paints and More
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Rubber

1. Agriculture

When we talk about agriculture we are talking about fertilizers. Here, petroleum is used in the production of ammonia which serves a source of nitrogen. The Haber process is used in this case. Pesticides are also made from oil. All in all, petroleum based products are used extensively in agriculture as it helps in running farm machinery and fertilize plants.

2. Detergents, Dyes, and Others

Distillates of petroleum that include toluene, benzene, xylene, amongst others are used to obtain raw materials that are further used in products like synthetic detergents, dyes, and fabrics. Benzene and toluene which gives polyurethanes is often used in oils or surfactants, and it is also used to varnish wood.

3. Plastics, Paints and More

Plastics are mostly made of petrochemicals. Petroleum-based plastic like nylon or Styrofoam and other are made from this element. Usually, the plastics come from olefins, which include ethylene and propylene. Petrochemicals are also used to produce oil based paints or paint additives. Petrochemical ethylene is found in photographic film.

4. Pharmaceuticals and Cosmetics

Petroleum by-products like mineral oil and petroleum are used in many creams and other pharmaceuticals. Tar is also produced from petroleum. Cosmetics that contain oils, perfumes are petroleum derivatives.

5. Rubber

Petrochemicals are also used in manufacturing synthetic rubber which is further used to make rubber soles on shoes, car tire and others rubber products. Rubber is primarily a product of butadiene.

Popular Products Made from Petroleum

Some products made from or contain petroleum are; wax, ink, vitamin capsule, denture adhesive, toilet seats, upholstery, CDs, putty, guitar strings, crayons, pillows, artificial turf, hair colouring, deodorant, lipstick, heart valves, anaesthetics cortisone, aspirin.

China to Sanction U.S. Defense Contractors over Taiwan

The One China Policy supported by previous administrations has been earnestly challenged by the Trump administration and rightly so. China has forcefully held dominion over Taiwan, an independent nation and since the Trump administration has approved arm sales to Taiwan, the tensions have increased substantially.

Context:

Jamestown: Events throughout 2020 have seen a measured but steady increase in tensions surrounding Taiwan. The government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) continues to deny any legitimacy to the democratically-elected government of the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. The PRC also continues to make menacing insistence upon unification on Beijing’s terms, in language that has grown more strident throughout the tenure of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping (China Brief, February 15, 2019; China Brief, November 1, 2019).

Against this background, the PRC has reacted with both harsh rhetoric and saber rattling to enhanced U.S.-Taiwan diplomatic contacts in August and September, as well as a reported further round of impending U.S.-Taiwan arms sales (see discussion further below). One PRC English-language outlet opined in late September that “The U.S. has been releasing all kinds of supportive signals to Taiwan this year, with the level and frequency of their so-called interactions flagrantly enhanced… While [some in Taiwan] jump at such signals, they’d better think long and hard whether the signals are sweet poisons from the U.S. for Taiwan” (PLA Daily, September 25).

U.S. Diplomatic Visits to Taiwan

Recent years have seen a noteworthy increase in official and semi-official U.S.-Taiwan diplomatic exchanges. In March 2018 the Taiwan Travel Act (TTA) was signed into U.S. law, providing a statement of support for increased travel by high-level Taiwan officials to the United States. This was followed by unofficial “transit stop” visits in the United States by ROC President Tsai Ying-Wen (蔡英文) in 2018 and 2019, and a May 2019 meeting between U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton and his ROC counterpart David Lee (李大維) (China Brief, July 31, 2019). In early February this year ROC Vice President-elect Lai Ching-te (賴清德) traveled to the United States, where he met with senior U.S. political figures and attended the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. (Taiwan News, February 4). Although Lai had not yet assumed office at the time, and therefore visited in an unofficial role, the trip produced harsh condemnations in PRC state press (Xinhua, February 6). All of these visits by Taiwan officials have drawn similarly negative reactions from the PRC Foreign Ministry and state media, as with the “stern representations” presented over President Tsai’s stop in Hawaii in March 2019 (Xinhua, March 21, 2019).

These visits were reciprocated in summer and autumn this year by two visits made by U.S. officials to Taiwan. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar conducted a visit to Taiwan from August 9-12, described by his department as “the highest-level visit by a U.S. Cabinet official since 1979,” and “part of America’s policy of sending high-level U.S. officials to Taiwan to reaffirm the U.S.-Taiwan friendship” (HHS, August 4). Secretary Azar’s activities included a meeting with President Tsai; a visit to Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center; and a speech at National Taiwan University (HHS, August 10; August 11; August 12). This trip was followed in mid-September by a visit from U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Keith Krach, who traveled to Taiwan to attend a memorial service for former ROC President Lee Teng-hui (U.S. State Department, September 16).

***  Pentagon Approves $500 Million Taiwan F-16 Support Program ...

Bloomberg:

China will impose unspecified sanctions on the defense unit of Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp., and Raytheon Technologies Corp. after the U.S. approved $1.8 billion in arms sales to Taiwan last week.

The sanctions will be imposed “in order to uphold national interests,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters Monday in Beijing. “Boeing Defense” would be among those sanctioned, he said.

The State Department last week approved $1.8 billion in new weapons for Taiwan and submitted the package to Congress for a final review. The submission comes two months after the U.S. and Taiwan completed the sale of 66 new model F-16 Block 70 aircraft from Lockheed, and as tensions between the two superpowers continue to escalate ahead of the American election.

Boeing Defense is one of the broader company’s three business units, according to its website. Shares in Boeing, down almost 50% this year, dropped as much as 2.2% in U.S. pre-market trading.

A spokesperson for Boeing emphasized the firm’s relationship with China in the aviation space. Boeing has “worked together successfully with the aviation community in China for almost 50 years to support Chinese efforts to ensure a safe, efficient and profitable aviation system to keep pace with the country’s rapid economic growth.”

“It’s been a partnership with long-term benefits and one that Boeing remains committed to,” the spokesperson said in the emailed statement.

One China Principle

Representatives from Raytheon weren’t immediately available for comment outside of normal U.S. business hours.

Zhao condemned Lockheed’s F-16 Block 70 sale at the time, saying it violates the One China principle, interferes in China’s internal affairs and will have a “major impact” on U.S.-China relations. Taiwan’s presidential office thanked the U.S for the sale. In July, China — which considers Taiwan part of its territory and resists any recognition of its de facto independence — had announced sanctions on Lockheed Martin for a previous arms sale to the island.

U.S. arms manufacturers face strict limitations on what kind of business they can do with countries deemed by Washington to be strategic rivals, such as China. Lockheed generated 9.7% of its revenue in the Asia-Pacific region last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, though that’s not broken down by individual countries.

China has previously threatened to sanction U.S. companies, including General Dynamics Corp. and Honeywell International Inc., on numerous occasions over arms sales to Taiwan. It also warned it could blacklist FedEx Corp., while Ford Motor Co.’s main joint venture partner in China was fined 162.8 million yuan ($24.3 million) last year, days after the U.S. put a ban on doing business with Huawei Technologies Co.

While China has often invoked the threat of putting U.S. companies on a blacklist — or list of “unreliable entities” — in response to various actions by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration over the past year, it has yet to name any, at least publicly.

Delicate Time

For Boeing, China’s action comes at a delicate time. The company, reeling from the hit to air travel from the coronavirus pandemic, is trying to get its besieged 737 Max plane back into the air after two fatal crashes saw it grounded around the world. China was the first place to ground the plane, and also has the world’s biggest 737 Max fleet.

Europe’s top aviation regulator said earlier this month the plane will be safe enough to fly again before the end of this year, while U.S. Federal Aviation Administration chief Steve Dickson flew the Max in September and said the controls were “very comfortable.” More detail here.