MCViewPoint

Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Yellen’s Visit To China Has Failed

Posted by M. C. on July 11, 2023

She was Fed chairperson. Starting to get the picture?

Yellen’s Visit to China Has Failed

https://www.moonofalabama.org/

Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen visited China. There she tried to press the worlds biggest economy on several issues.

None of these points are in China’s interest. In the U.S. Chinese companies are treated badly. U.S. financed climate investments in foreign countries, which are small, usually come with additional extraordinary demands that benefit the donating country rather than the receiving one. China does this differently. Fentanyl is not a global problem rather a specific U.S. one the causes of which are general social problems China and other have avoided to have.

The last demand Yellen made was even more crazy. She called for a full turn of China towards neoliberal policies:

“I pressed them on our concerns about China’s unfair economic practices,” [Yellen] said, citing barriers to access for foreign firms and problems involving intellectual property. She added that a more market-oriented system in China “would not only be in the interests of the U.S. and other countries. It would be better for the Chinese economy, as well.”

Would China be where it is today if it had privatized its banking system and state owned companies? Would China be richer if it had let U.S. vulture funds buy up and bankrupt Chinese companies? Would it have managed to lift 800 million of its citizens from poverty if it had followed the economic advice of the U.S., the IMF or World Bank?

The answer to these questions is of course an emphatic “No”.

Why Yellen thinks she can impress China with advice for a ‘more market-oriented system’, even as the U.S. blocks Chinese investments, sanctions Chinese companies and limits sales of certain products to China, is beyond me.

Yellen’s visit failed to achieve anything. She had some talks with Chinese officials but achieved nothing. She lectured and made demands that no one in China will be willing to fulfill.

The Chinese side for one seems unimpressed by her performance:

Yellen mentioned multiple times the US is seeking a healthy competition with China rather than a “winner-take-all” approach. While this may sound good, the key lies in how we define “healthy competition.” Is it a US-style one in which the geopolitical appetite of the US is satisfied while China unconditionally cooperates? Or is it based on mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation? The root cause of the challenges in the China-US relationship lies in Washington’s flawed perception of China. Unless the issue of the ‘first button’ is addressed, no matter how wonderful the ideas and wishes may be, they will remain nothing more than castles in the air.

Unless the U.S. accepts China as equal the relations between the countries will not turn around. The U.S. can grow with China only when it accepts that China is different from itself and has its own path towards further development.

As neither is the today’s dominant viewpoint a further deterioration of the relations, largely to the disadvantage of the U.S., is the most likely prospect.

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Federal Court Makes this July 4th a True Independence Day

Posted by M. C. on July 11, 2023

The government officials even “reminded” them that the companies were in danger of having increased regulations imposed on them by the White House and Congress. This shows the folly of those who think that increasing government involvement with big tech will somehow reduce big tech censorship. 

http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2023/july/10/federal-court-makes-this-july-4th-a-true-independence-day/

written by ron paul

While Americans were enjoying hot dogs and fireworks this Fourth of July, federal Judge Terry A. Doughty commemorated Independence Day by striking a blow for the separation of big tech and state. Specifically, he issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting a number of government officials and agencies from communicating with social media companies to request they censor certain posts.

Judge Doughty wrote that, “If the allegations made by Plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history.” This may seem like hyperbole until one considers that the list of those affected by this injunction includes White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the State and Health and Human Services Departments, as well as the Justice Department and the FBI.

Among the plaintiffs are Harvard Professor Martin Kulldorff and Stanford Professor Jay Bhattacharya. Professors Kulldorff and Bhattacharya were among the health experts who big tech censored at the behest of government because they dared question the government’s message regarding covid. People questioning government supported claims of the benefits of lockdowns, the efficacy and safety of covid vaccines, the use of masks to protect against infection, and vaccine immunity being superior to natural immunity was silenced.

Eventually the establishment was forced to admit that many of the arguments of those like Kulldorff and Bhattacharya were correct. 

See the rest here

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“Domestic Abuse Is A Severe Crime”: British Parents Could Be Prosecuted for Refusing to Pay for Transgender Treatments

Posted by M. C. on July 10, 2023

abusive conduct now includes “withholding money for transitioning [and] refusing to use their preferred name or pronoun.” 

The US is lagging, but we will catch up.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/domestic-abuse-severe-crime-british-parents-could-be-prosecuted-refusing-pay-transgender

Tyler Durden's Photo

BY TYLER DURDEN

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

As the debate rages in the United States over parental notification and authority in cases involving transgender children, the United Kingdom is embroiled in a controversy over a law that would not only limit parental authority in such cases but affirmatively require parents to pay for such transitioning.

Under the interpretation put forward by police, parents who refuse to use the alternative pronouns for their children or refuse to pay for their transitioning could be criminally prosecuted.

According to the UK’s Code for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), abusive conduct now includes “withholding money for transitioning [and] refusing to use their preferred name or pronoun.” 

So a parent with familial or religious objections to the transitioning of a child would be required under the law to fund operations or treatments.

According to the guidance material, this is not even “an exhausted list,” but some of the first “examples” of potentially criminal conduct that comes to mind.

The guideline would suggest that parents with deep-seated religious convictions against transgender status would either have to fund an operation that they consider immoral or face arrest for failing to do so.

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The Gold Standard Is Back: BRICS To Intro Gold-Backed Reserve Currency

Posted by M. C. on July 10, 2023

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/gold-standard-back-brics-intro-gold-backed-reserve-currency

Tyler Durden's Photo

BY TYLER DURDEN

Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

Remember back when the Russia/Ukraine war had just started, and I predicted that Russia and China would launch their own gold backed currency?

At the time, this idea sounded completely foreign, and I was ridiculed for bringing it up. Today, it just become reality. 41+ countries look like they could be returning to a gold standard. 

The images plastered all over RT this weekend had headlines like “New Money, New World” and “Gold Standard Will Be Of Great Benefit To Strengthening New Singly Currency”.

“The official announcement is expected to be made during the BRICS summit in August in South Africa,” Kitco reported over the weekend.

“At first glance, a new transaction unit, backed by gold, sounds like good money – and it could be, first and foremost, a major challenge to the US dollar’s hegemony,” Thorsten Polleit, chief economist at Degussa, said.

He continued:

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Globalism – An Ancient Recycled Idea That Always Fails

Posted by M. C. on July 10, 2023

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Biden Blasted For Revealing Sensitive U.S. Military Info During Interview

Posted by M. C. on July 10, 2023

Here is hoping we will get stocked up before going to war with China and Russia.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-blasted-for-revealing-sensitive-u-s-military-info-during-interview

By  Daily Wire News

WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 7: U.S. President Joe Biden arrives onstage for an event about lowering health care costs in the East Room of the White House on July 7, 2023 in Washington, DC. President Biden announced a series of new actions under his "Bidenomics" agenda to lower healthcare costs and crack down on junk fees for consumers.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

President Joe Biden faced backlash on Sunday after he revealed sensitive U.S. military information during an interview that critics said could make America’s adversaries more aggressive.

Biden told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that the reason that he is giving cluster munitions to Ukraine is because the U.S. is running out of 155mm artillery shells.

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CNN Host: We Should Yield to Government Censorship Demands

Posted by M. C. on July 10, 2023

Now, however, major media figures are shrugging off free speech concerns and supporting censorship as what former CNN media host CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter called a “harm reduction model.” While once fiercely opposed to censorship and government-supported blacklists, many in the media are echoing Mattingly’s view that the natural default should be to obey the government and its directions on permitted speech. After all, this is all for our own protection. Censorship just “makes sense.”

CNN Host: We Should Yield to Government Censorship Demands

As a long-standing free speech advocate, the last few years have been alarming and, frankly, depressing. The censorship efforts of the government are, unfortunately, not new.  However, what is new is the support of the media and the Democratic Party in such censorship. That was on display on various channels after the recent opinion finding that the Biden Administration had violated the First Amendment in “the most massive attack against free speech in United States history.” However, the New York Times immediately warned that the outbreak of free speech could “curtail efforts to combat disinformation.” Yet, no one expressed more simply and chillingly than CNN Chief White House Correspondent Phil Mattingly who stated that it “makes sense” for tech companies to go along with government censorship demands.

Mattingly admitted that social media platforms “more often than not” gave in to the censorship demands by the Biden administration. However, he insisted that it “makes sense,” and is “probably what we should do on public health grounds.”

“[T]he Biden administration would regularly reach out to Twitter and Facebook and other companies in kind of the early stages of their COVID response and say, this person is spreading lies about vaccines, this account is spreading misinformation that is inhibiting — not just our efforts, the administration’s efforts to address COVID — but also public health, do something about it. And often, I think more often than not, the companies would respond and say, okay. And there are emails that came out during the course of this case that that was something that I think — when it was explained to me at the time, I thought, alright, that makes sense, that’s probably what we should do on public health grounds.”

What is striking is not just the blind acceptance that the government should be protecting us from harmful thoughts. It is also the failure to recognize that the government was wrong on many of these points while experts were being banned and blacklisted.

Many people were routinely censored on Twitter and other platforms for daring to challenge the official position on masks.

The Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC) initially rejected the use of a mask mandate. However, the issue became a political weapon as politicians and the press claimed that questioning masks was anti-science and even unhinged. In April 2020, the CDC reversed its position and called for the masking of the entire population, including children as young as 2 years old.  The mask mandate and other pandemic measures like the closing of schools are now cited as fueling emotional and developmental problems in children.

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This should brighten up your day

Posted by M. C. on July 9, 2023

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You Don’t Have To Choose Between Happiness And Being Informed

Posted by M. C. on July 9, 2023

To help you see what I am pointing to, imagine if you were experiencing nothing. Imagine if you were just a disembodied expanse of consciousness, with nothing to see, hear, feel, touch, taste or smell. No thoughts to think, no feelings to feel.

Then imagine after an eternity spent in that state, you suddenly got to experience this world. All the sights, sounds, feelings, beauty. All the thoughts, words, creativity, connections, relationships. Imagine how mind-blowing that would be. How delightful. How appreciated.

https://substack.com/inbox/post/120929825

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE

I write about some dark, dark things in this space, and it’s common to receive expressions of despair in response to the subjects I focus on.

This is perfectly understandable. Not only is our world hurtling toward nuclear armageddon and environmental collapse while surging authoritarianism threatens our ability to even talk about these things with each other, but most people are completely oblivious to it all. Even relatively politically engaged people tend to believe society’s biggest problems are things like sexism or drag shows, and they generally support one of the two mainstream political factions who are both driving us toward destruction.

And this is of course because we live in a mind-controlled dystopia where everything is fake and stupid. Western civilization is dominated by a power structure that has invested more heavily in “soft power” (mass-scale psychological manipulation) than any other power structure in history. It pervades our media, our internet services, our art — literally all of mainstream culture. 

The politicians lie, the news media lie, the movies lie, the internet lies, the advertisements lie, the shows between the advertisements lie. They lie about our world, they lie about our government, they lie about what’s important, how we should think, what we should value, and how we should measure our level of success and worthiness as human beings. That’s what you get when you live in a civilization that’s made of lies, under an empire that’s held together by lies.

So of course people who see this express despair. When you first punch through the lies and start to gain an understanding of what’s really going on, it can be really unpleasant at first. It feels like what it probably felt like to be a lucid thinker back in much less enlightened times when civilization was dominated by religion and superstition. Lonely. Depressing. As Terence McKenna said, “The cost of sanity in this society is a certain level of alienation.”

But it gets better. Or at least it does if you allow it to. 

It’s not that society starts feeling less fraudulent (it doesn’t), and it’s not that you get used to how fake and dishonest it all is (you don’t). Things like political conversations, movies, celebrity awards shows, even the kinds of jokes comedians tell are still experienced as coming from a backward dream world whose circumstances are completely different from waking reality, and the smell of propaganda brainwashing still pervades it all. But it does get better.

What gets better is that once you’ve unplugged your mind from the matrix of imperial mind control, you stop looking for happiness, connection and satisfaction in the places the matrix trained you to look for it. 

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Biden Administration Is ‘Irreparably Harmed’ by Free Speech Injunction

Posted by M. C. on July 8, 2023

According to the White House, it needs to squash the First Amendment rights of its opposition.

It is as though, before the internet, the government had demanded that Bell Telephone Co. disconnect Ralph Nader’s phone line, pressured the New York Times to block publication of the Pentagon Papers, or leveraged Warner Bros. to pull All the President’s Men from theaters.

https://spectator.org/biden-administration-is-irreparably-harmed-by-free-speech-injunction/

by LLOYD BILLINGSLEY

“The Government faces irreparable harm with each day the injunction remains in effect,” contends a July 6 motion from the Biden administration in response to federal Judge Terry Doughty’s preliminary injunction in Missouri v. Biden. Government lawyers argued that it may “prevent the Government from engaging in a vast range of lawful and responsible conduct,” and therefore, a stay of the injunction “is in the public interest.”

It isn’t. In reality, the people have suffered harm from government conduct against their basic rights and freedoms. 

Issued on July 4, Doughty’s preliminary injunction stated that “‘Protected free speech’ means speech that is protected by the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution in accordance with jurisprudence of the United States Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal and District Courts.” (RELATED: Flahertyism: Orwellian Censorship by Biden Proxy Rob Flaherty)

Doughty named Department of Health and Human Services boss Xavier Becerra, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the FBI, DOJ, the State Department, and many others, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). 

These agencies, including specific employees, “are hereby enjoined and restrained” from “meeting with social-media companies for the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech posted on social-media platforms.”

The agencies and employees, acting in their official capacity, are also enjoined from “specifically flagging content or posts on social media platforms and/or forwarding such to social-media companies urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner for removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.” 

It is as though, before the internet, the government had demanded that Bell Telephone Co. disconnect Ralph Nader’s phone line, pressured the New York Times to block publication of the Pentagon Papers, or leveraged Warner Bros. to pull All the President’s Men from theaters. In recent years, the government has been ramping up this brand of censorship. 

The plaintiffs include epidemiologists Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Dr. Martin Kulldorff, authors of the Great Barrington Declaration (GBD), which opposed draconian COVID lockdowns. Instead of debating these medical scientists, Dr. Anthony Fauci of NIAID and National Institutes of Health boss Francis Collins teamed up for “a quick and devastating published takedown” of the declaration. Shortly after its publication in October 2020, the declaration was “censored on social media by Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others.” 

According to Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, “When Fauci speaks, big tech censors and that’s what this lawsuit’s all about.” However, public health matters were not the government’s only target. (READ MORE: Five Quick Things: The Biden Bribes Scandal Gets Deeper and Wider)

In 2018, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified to the Senate that Facebook had collaborated with Robert Mueller’s investigation of Donald Trump, but the CEO provided no details. Zuckerberg did reveal that Facebook had removed a page from the site at the government’s demand. Zuckerberg did not indicate the content of the page, which government agency or official had demanded its removal, and when the removal had taken place.

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