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  1. I am sure you have seen the announcement about the ‘Indo-Pacific Economic Framework’ (IPEF) initiative launched by Biden on his trip to Asia this week.

    To summarize the reports: with much pomp and fanfare, Biden has initiated a vague and ostensibly weak economic agreement with skeptical Asian partners. This IPEF is not like the Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement that Trump scuttled, as it grants no US market access to Asian economies, but is instead a ‘trade deal for the middle class.’ Somehow it at once a powerful statement to Asia, and a concession to American voters.

    Something doesn’t sound right here. Could this be an international expansion of FASAB 56? If FASAB 56 gave the govt a green light to conduct domestic finances without the oversight of voters, is this a way foreign policy can similarly be circumvented from voter oversight?

    Do you see any evidence of financial flows from USA to developing countries to get their allegiance on key issues? Could the flow of money from USA markets into other regions be a way to slow down inflation in USA, i.e. export inflation elsewhere? In the same way that insiders were able to buy up assets cheaply during (and due to) the covid lockdowns, can the USA be going on a strategic insider shopping spree abroad? (as US interest rate hikes put the squeeze on developing countries’ finances, we can expect some buying opportunities) Can SPACs be used to buy assets abroad?

    It will be interesting to get your insight on this, and to watch the news for any announcements that give some clarity to this agreement.

    The article below summarizes the main points, which are vague and full of buzz words:

    https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3179107/why-bidens-indo-pacific-economic-plan-wont-stop-chinas-rise

    It consists of four pillars. The first is so-called fairer, binding rules of a high standard in fields such as digital trade, labour and the environment. The second, resilience and security of supply chains in key industries such as chips, high-capacity batteries, medical products and critical minerals. Third, high standards of infrastructure, decarbonisation and green technology. And fourth, taxation and anti-corruption commitments.
    ……
    Unlike the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the IPEF does not facilitate market access by removing tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade. Given the prevalence in the US of an anti-global mindset and populism, it is politically unacceptable for Democrats and Republicans to give Asian countries more market access.

    ——–

  2. Here’s a great one my brother shared:

    “Florence [his wife] gave blood with the Red Cross last Sunday. They have a tracker which tells you what your blood was used for. Hers had very high COVID antibodies (she is unvaxxed, but had Delta last September, Omicron in December) and they are using her plasma for convalescent antibodies.
    She can’t get into concerts by woke artists or go to weddings of jackass friend’s kids, but they are happy to have her blood to help save people, probably vaxxed people at that.”

  4. Dear Friends, Sorry to Announce a Genocide
    It’s Really True: They Know they are Killing the Babies

    Dr Naomi Wolf
    15 hr ago

    -snip-

    Adverse events tallied up in the internal Pfizer documents are completely different from those reported on the CDC website or announced by corrupted physicians and medical organizations and hospitals. These include vast columns of joint pain, muscle pain (myalgia), masses of neurological effects include MS, Guillain Barre and Bell’s Palsy, encephaly, every iteration possible of blood clotting, thrombocytopenia at scale, strokes, hemorrhages, and many kinds of ruptures of membranes throughout the human body. The side effects about which Pfizer and the FDA knew but you did not, include blistering problems, rashes, shingles, and herpetic conditions (indeed, a range of blistering conditions oddly foreshadowing the symptoms of monkeypox).

    -snip-

    https://naomiwolf.substack.com/p/dear-friends-sorry-to-announce-a?s=r

  7. With regard to Ukraine, Uvalde and their Shriek-o-metrics,
    Unfortunately,social media is like a twisted highway with multiple interchanges to uncertain destinations. Poor drivers on this road believe that simply by clicking on their virtue signals, they can go anywhere they like. There are still rules of the road, and those signals can only be used in the context of proper intention and care. As for government, you may find it odd that I urge liberal decisions and by that I mean that which accommodate the liberty of the most people. I do not mean the guaranteed acceptability of licentiousness or moral turpitude.

    For those who prefer a more thoroughgoing treatment of this matter, may I suggest William Ian Miller’s The Anatomy of Disgust. In it, the author makes the very cogent case that it is society, not government which tunes the fine details of behavior. Laws which prohibit behavior do not allow society to perform its function of drawing the fine line between what is allowed and what is not allowed, and which will vary with the times. The author is an attorney, of liberal bent, if I may speak for him.

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