RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.city-journal.org/ukraine-war-and-the-new-shale-revolution

Elon Musk is back in the news. In a tweet heard ’round the world, he stated a simple truth related to the Ukraine war: “Hate to say it, but we need to increase oil & gas output immediately.” The analogous truth—hate to say it—is that the Biden administration is right: banning and sanctioning Russian oil and gas exports is the wrong answer, even if it becomes politically necessary at some point.

Acknowledging these truths won’t change the tragic course of events unfolding in Ukraine. But naivete about energy realities is what robbed the U.S. and its allies of important “soft power” options and helped finance Russia’s aggression. In the near term, our choices are limited, but continuing down the same energy path is a formula for yet more problems in the future.

The fact is, exhortations aside, the world cannot easily, overnight, walk away from Russian energy. Europe gets 25 percent and 40 percent, respectively, of all its oil and gas from Russia. For Germany, the shares are 35 percent and 70 percent, as well as 50 percent of its coal needs.

https://americanmind.org/salvo/the-chips-are-down/

Russia’s nuclear arsenal is the principal reason given by the United States and NATO for refusing to engage Russia directly in Ukraine. Nuclear war also will be a risk if China invades Taiwan.

There are, of course, differences in an analysis of the U.S. response to a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan. For one, without NATO, the U.S. would largely face China on its own. Also, China has a stronger claim on Taiwan than Russia does on Ukraine. On the other hand, much more importantly to the United States, Taiwan is the world’s principal fabricator of semiconductor chips. Semiconductors are the new oil. Whoever controls semiconductors can control the world.

According to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), although the U.S. is the world’s leader in headquarters for companies generating semiconductor demand (33 percent) and for end users (25 percent), the U.S. manufactures just 19 percent of all chips, while mainland China supplies 35 percent and Taiwan 15 percent. If China invades Taiwan, 50 percent of the world’s chip production will be controlled by China.

Taiwan may manufacture only 15 percent of all chips, but it manufactures 92 percent of the world’s advanced chips. All advanced chips not made in Taiwan are manufactured in South Korea; none are produced in the United States or Europe. If China were to invade Taiwan, the U.S. and the world could lose access to almost all leading-edge chips, almost two-thirds of more-mature microprocessors, and half of all dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips.

https://mailchi.mp/e0a2af1f130f/35b-from-us-taxpayers-funded-world-health-organization-58871?e=0c8ccf8e98

Where has Dr. Anthony Fauci gone?!

Noone seems to have heard from Fauci since the mid-January U.S. Senate hearing when he was grilled on his finances. Senator Marshall’s questions were premised on our OpenTheBooks findings on Fauci’s financials.

The senate hearing – where Fauci called Marshall a “moran” – was Fauci’s last prominent public event.

So, we’ve been hard at work to break down everything you need to know about Dr. Anthony Fauci and his finances. And now it’s all in one place…

We’re excited to share our newest 20-page Oversight Report – just published this week – INVESTIGATING FAUCI’S FINANCES – free to download right now.

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2022-3-11-a-couple-of-really-smart-guys-set-out-to-prosecute-donald-trump

From time to time on this blog I have had occasion to note the extent to which many of the seemingly “smartest” people in our society time and again fall hook, line and sinker for the most preposterous mass hysterias. When it really counts, the people who have risen to the very top ranks of our social hierarchies prove to have no critical thinking capabilities whatsoever. For some entertaining reading about various self-made billionaires, former cabinet secretaries, and the like, making utter fools of themselves, you might try my posts from February 9, 2017 (“Watch Out For Rule By The ‘Smart’ — Part III”), or June 25, 2014 (“Watch Out For Rule By The ‘Smart’”). Both of those posts dealt with the topic of attempts to alter world temperatures through government taxation and spending.

A recent example of the phenomenon of the smart dopes now comes forth from the District Attorney’s office of New York County — that is, the people here in Manhattan charged with the enforcement of the New York State criminal laws. In this instance the subject of the hysteria was the idea that Donald Trump, President of the United States, needed to be charged with some sort of violations of the New York criminal law arising out of his business dealings.

Although prosecutors don’t publicly announce when they start investigations, it is clear from various court filings along the way (e.g., Trump’s lawyers opposing enforcement of subpoenas) that the DA’s criminal investigation of Trump was well underway as early as 2019, that is, in the middle of Trump’s term as President. The Manhattan DA at the time was Cyrus Vance, Jr. If you are old enough, you will recognize from Vance’s name that he is the son of the Cyrus Vance who was Secretary of State when Jimmy Carter was President, and also at various times Secretary of Defense, Secretary of the Army, and other such government positions, in between stints as big-time partner of big-time law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.