Old Narratives Fade To Dark

Occasionally what happens in the world of political narratives is an old narrative gives up the ghost. That is what happened this week with at least two of them.

But narratives are popular and valued today in the press and media. They take on a life larger than their own. A collective of narratives can be valued even more. But those in prominent places don’t like them to go away easily. No, it takes a lot to boot a narrative, once firmly established, to the curb. Think of all the effort spent in creating them to begin with.

1) Suddenly Joe Biden abruptly shifts to call for a second intelligence look at the origin of COVID and, more  importantly, unpopular theories which recently “gained credibility”.(WaPo) That’s because major media has begun talking about a once taboo possibility of a lab leak in Wuhan China.

So Joey decides to redouble intelligence efforts on examining the cause scenarios. Order a 90-day review to report back the findings. Then decide.

2) The second is the old narrative of “Biden the moderate.” Anyone who still believes that one must have been sprinkled with magic dust. But it was the standard go to description. Joe has never been a moderate. So you have to ask which one is not true, Joe being a progressive(radical) or his near 50 years of Senate record? Actually, the latter record was the lie that he is some moderate deal-maker. That was all created en route to get where he is.

You think if he started off like Bernie he could have gotten here? He had to lie to get people to believe he was something he wasn’t in the first place. Create a fictional profile in order to run for president. It is much easier to believe that than believe he went full-blown progressive now, under pressure.

Now the fictional narrative of Biden crumbles to reveal he is and always was a radical progressive. He didn’t need nudging from Bernie or anyone. Could we think he would do all this stuff trying to create a great progressive “legacy” if he was not a progressive? But old narratives do not like to go away easily, and only if they must. This storybook about Joe simply outlived its usefulness. And anyone who thought or believed otherwise was not paying attention to Biden. (but then who would?)

There we have two vaulted narratives that fell flat on their faces recently And it is why media’s credibility is in the toilet. I only wish people would stop accepting these phony narratives before they become so big, then are weoponized. They might not be so dangerous then.

But for people who believed Joe was some roll-up-your-sleeves moderate, get help. Its over, Joey’s cover is blown to bits. There must have been lots of people who believed that in the election. And he never got the 80 million votes they say he did either. Maybe that narrative will finally crumble in the future, too? But they do hate to give up a good narrative, don’t they?

As to the evolving COVID cause cave-hanger:

Now even this bait and switch “second look-see” is only another narrative in the making. Custom made for twitching ears. A 90-day timetable would give China time to figure out and arrange gratuity to Biden Inc. He might as well send a telegraph request for money. “Dear, Beijing, thinking of you a lot lately.”

So create a narrative that we are seriously looking at the Wuhan lab cause. Have people think he is doing a great service, by committing yet another disservice to the country. Way to go, Joe. This doesn’t mean they admit the  truth about the lab leak cause, just that the original narrative is rendered dysfunctional.

The moral of that story is if you thought Joe sold out America before, then get ready for phase two. It is shaping up to be a doozey.  

But the old narratives never go away completely they just lose cred and fade.

Right Ring | Bullright | © 2021

Cancel Culture In Motion

A story appeared in the NY Post of a Democrat district leader who resigned her elected position after making comments on the source of the virus in “anti-China” posts online.

So she resigned but it was not enough.

NY Post —
Brooklyn district leader resigns after backlash to anti-China comments

By Carl Campanile | January 29, 2021

Lori Maslow, an elected district leader and ex-vice chair of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, resigned from office Thursday after several mayoral candidates threatened to boycott a Sunday forum the county party was sponsoring over her anti-Asian comments.

Maslow wrote “I can’t even look at Chinese food” during an anti-China social media rant on Twitter last month, while posting a link to a news article about Chinese tariffs on US goods.

“We’re sick of buying from China. They did this to us. They lied to us. And yes, Trump played outside role as well. I, for one, will never, ever buy anything made in China again. Join me,” Maslow said.

She then added “I can’t even look at Chinese food,” to the end of the tweet, which was deleted, but not before a reader snapped a screen grab.

Following thundering criticism, Maslow apologized and had already resigned her post as a party vice chairwoman. But it wasn’t enough for critics.

Opposition to her comments became a more serious problem after several mayoral candidates — including Andrew Yang, whose parents emigrated from Taiwan, city Comptroller Scott Stringer and Maya Wiley, among others — said they wouldn’t participate in the Brooklyn Democratic Party’s Sunday mayoral forum moderated by NY1 political anchor Errol Louis. even though Brooklyn Democratic Party chairwoman Rodneyse Bichotte condemned Maslow’s remarks.

Maslow, in a heartfelt and bitter statement of resignation Thursday, indicated she didn’t want to be a liability for the Brooklyn Democratic Party leadership.

“I ask that my statements not be attributed to the Brooklyn Democratic Leadership — I was the writer, not the party leadership. My constituents elected me, and I am responsible to them,” said Maslow, a veteran public school teacher and Marine Park resident who represents the 41st Assembly District.

But Maslow complained she was railroaded by left-wing extremists in the party engaging in cancel culture, and feared for her safety.

“Since this faction began the online harassment and vilification, I have received threatening messages. My family is very concerned for my safety,” she said.

“Extremism in this country is not limited to right wing militias. Threats are nothing to ignore. That is why I will be stepping down effective immediately,” Maslow said.

The Kings County Democratic County Committee has been beset by factionalism and litigation over its operations amid the coronavirus pandemic.#

I mean she did resign but they kept coming. Notice what she said at the end. “Extremism in this country is not limited to right wing militias.” Give her credit for the gesture.

I don’t think China could have done a better job. And Demo candidates engaging in it.

China Inside

Here is a video worth watching. Worth taking the time to absorb it.

“It [China] is the most consequential, existential threat… not just to America .. to democracy the world has ever seen.”

China’s Silent Takeover While America’s Elite Slept

•Nov 29, 2019

Long but informative.

Is it just me or do we have a lot of commie traitors?

China, You’re No Good

Here are the lyrics to my new song. I hope you like it.

China, you’re no good
you’re no good
you’re no good
you’re no good
China, you’re no good.

Hong Kong is gone
But won’t be forgotten

What is the single word that can end Joe Biden’s campaign,
and cancel his political career? China.

But how can we save ourselves from China, though,
If we cannot save ourselves from our own?

China is just no damn good.

Right Ring | Bullright | © 2020

Personifying COVID-19

If there were ever a virus that could lend itself to personification, then it would be COVID-19. Normally a virus is a virus, a disease a disease, as the plague was the plague. But in this one there seemed to be differences. I only say seemed; it might be debatable.

Maybe that is because we know more about it now and because of the public awareness of the virus itself, whatever the reason. Like hurricanes and storms can be personalized in a similar way because people feel personally threatened or affected by them. This time it is even more than that. And it seemed to grow more personal.

(pic credit: CDC.gov)

It became a personal thing to many people by also affecting them in a personal way. Their job, occupation, family, businesses were all collateral damages. Even religious practices and schools were not immune. Their way of life was in its path. The economy was threatened.

It supposedly attacked, because all the information has shifted since it first appeared, a certain profile of people. Those were older compromised people with co-morbidities. Almost as if it had an appetite. And it consumed victims like it had artificial intelligence. (I’m just saying)

Particularly bad was the extreme infectiousness. It was found especially contagious from people who were asymptomatic. So it could be spread to anyone, but certain people were more profoundly affected. Some were killed. Some bodies could not handle it. It seemed to screw with the immune system in ways we couldn’t quite understand. We is the public.

Symptoms were another irregularity. At the beginning we thought the symptoms were basic and then, as time went on, we heard of other symptoms not known originally. Then we heard of things like leg cramps and sense of smell disappearing. Now we hear about strokes and blood clots in younger people. Like many things, original reports are often wrong or erroneous. This was no different. We weren’t prepared for misinformation either, but we should have been. We’re savvy people in America.

The death rate was considered high at first, maybe even approaching 2%. Of course, no matter what the death rate was, no one would want to be one in that percentile. Still, the risk was considered slight by any measure. In fact that seemed to be one of the few positives – even if you did contract it, your chances were fairly good for a benign outcome. You just had to weather the so-called storm. Many assumptions at the beginning turned out to be wrong. We should have been prepared for that too. First news is often wronng.

It also came from a communist country who would have every reason to try to deceive people about it. They were no friends in the cause. They actually were part of the cause. And they worked to interfere with our response to it. We might have expected that too.

One could make the case, if one wanted to, that it seemed as if Coronavirus had a mind of its own. Once it escaped homeland China it lived large. Sure, the Communist Chinese knew this was happening but they enabled it. They turned it loose. But then this virus seemed to have an agenda of its own to affect the entire world, as fast as it could. It showed up in places over the globe. And of course top destinations would be on it’s itinerary.

It did not affect all people the same, which frustrated us in our isolation. Some escaped death by the skin of their teeth. Others, as well as some medical professionals, were not so lucky. I also heard of young, middle-aged people taken down with none of the co-morbidities. There is no sense of equities.

I’m not so sure we should not be personalizing COVID-19. It does not have to imply it is a biologically created weapon. But it could still operate as one. It did not even need the extra help it got from China to do its damage. Not to mention the aid and assist it got from some elected politicos too busy with their axes to grind against a sitting president to recognize the danger of the slithering serpent.

No, I’m not done exploring this idea, or whatever it means. Though I do have to stop at least for now. I am convinced it is not a bad way to look at it. We recently learned the virus does not like UV or sunlight. But it does like subways. I’ll leave it there.

Right Ring | Bullright | © 2020

World’s Worst Regime

China is now the undisputed worst regime in the world. Coronavirus only peeled away any arguments to the contrary. The world has been infected and changed by China.

On a personal note, I woke up this morning dreaming how bad things have gotten, seemingly turning everything upside down. Except it is not really a dream. What a difference 2 months have made. We also topped 50k dead in the same time.

If you want to do a simple experiment, try going to a funeral home website in one of the affected areas of the virus. You can look down a list of obituaries, which normally are filled with details about a person’s life, only to see death was related to COVID-19 – no services. It leaves a surreal knot in your throat.

How much has changed in America in a few short months? Well, the list is long from the economy to all the personal matters. Too long to list here. How big those changes are: from funerals to sporting events, schools, to shopping and having family gatherings.

Then last week the FBI Director, Chris Wray announced the major problem across the country is Coronavirus hate speech. Or people hating on the Chinese because of Covid-19. So that is a top priority for FBI to investigate? Of all the urgent priorities to take up, but he had to issue warning and guidance to all their FBI offices to be on the lookout for it.

We can compound that with the problem of getting out Coronavirus economic aid to people and small businesses. Look at the same old typical responses in Congress. Mass exodus, they went to ground but they still clung to those leftist ideological dreams over lives.

But let’s not lose sight of the forest for the trees. All this, hard as it is to remember, ties directly back to the original China cause of Coronavirus in the first place.

Then we have the whole political perspective problem. Congressman James Clyburn said that Coronavirus was a huge political opportunity. Corona Cuomo said we have to re-imagine our entire economy in reopening it. Re-imagine? Nancy Pelosi held out for weeks for her political agenda of the Left. The users and abusers surround us while we fight off a pandemic. Their rationalizations are absurd, yet we must fight the pandemic disease too. Note to Cuomo, there was nothing wrong with the economy pre-COVID-19.

AOC announced that when the economy does reopen, workers should all boycott it by refusing to go back to work in some sick act of political solidarity. How’s that help?

But in the end, we must remember and never forget the actual cause of this Panditrosity was entirely set off by China. The rest and even the political atrocity are all still symptoms of that whole. Do not lose sight of the origin of this pandemic, regardless of what Dir. Wray says. It was not caused by hate or the economy either. It was the other way around.

Andrew Cuomo said in a daily briefing that the new boutique industry in the US is now mask art. With that he smiles. Have we become a mask-wearing people?

So we have succumbed to wearing masks as a last resort to protect ourselves and others. For years we have seen this strange phenomena in Asian countries of wearing masks in public. We always assumed we don’t wear masks here in public. Well, now for ourselves and because of government guidelines, we are wearing masks. What a change.

Let’s hope the mask fad is temporary. But mask art?

Still that barely touches the surface on all the strange new things brought on by this. I will leave you with one extra thought. We may never know what would have been, we can only guess, but the year 2020 was shaping up to be something else entirely. COVID intervened. Whatever that was would have been better than a pandemic. We will never know. And there would have been 50 thousand more people alive to witness it. Thanks China!

Right Ring | Bullright

Chinese Political Theater

Bad enough what China dropped on the rest of the world, but it continues in subterfuge about what happened. Press aren’t much better either reporting Beijing talking points.

China stood by while they exported the pandemic to the rest of the world. They complained about any resistance to their spreading it. And sure, it was seeded in America sooner than people are saying. The same with Italy.

It was as if it was their mission to spread it as far and wide, as quickly as they possibly could. Then they chose the cover up COVID-19 method.

What they unleashed on the world was as bad as anything else they’ve done for the past 25 years. This is malicious, evil behavior.

But from now until it is over, there will be a whole lot to grieve over. And that grieving will morph into putting blame where it belongs – not on fictional, political talking points. China has given us another big reason to detest what they do. None of it will ever be forgotten.

China, you brought this all on yourself. The Chinese COVID coverup.

Right Ring | Bullright

Corona Calling, hold please

There is a story here, I promise you. We all know it, but for now that story will have to remain untold. It is as stealthy and fluid as the Coronavirus.

Instead of that story, we have buzzwords bouncing off the airwaves. That is never a great scenario. And the endless list of buzzwords are things like:

• Coronavirus or COVID-19
• China
• Liquidity
• Equity
• Fake news
• Isolation
• Masks N95
• Quarantine
• Stock buybacks
• Shortage
• Testing
• Vaccine
• Ventilators
• Zoom

Try the number: 56.8 million people are employed in small businesses. 9.6 million people are self-employed . Who’s looking out for them?

Right now the Senate rushes to try to assemble a huge aid package, whether you want to call it stimulus or whatever. It fails at both the start and finish lines to carry the votes.

Nancy Pelosi’s reply to the bill was I will write a package myself. Well, the Speaker and leader of the great impeachment now wants to write their own economic proposal. Does anyone see anything wrong with that?

All politics but excuse me; this was not about politics. None of it was or is.
Buzzwords or politics as usual are no solution to the China Coronavirus.

Save us from the Pelosivirus. Meanwhile, the MSM has a pandemic of its own.

Right Ring | Bullright

The Race Is On

Democrats have a competition problem. When they can’t compete with their opponents, they resort to the their tried and true methods of shutting down their opponent however they can. Speech, lashing out at supporters, breaking kneecaps are all on the table.

On the other side to Democrat candidates, Bernie is over there running a public auction for the federal coffers. He’s agreed to give them whatever they want to ascend him and his ideology into office. After all, that is what it is about to Democrats.

Other candidates know they can’t compete with that. There is no limit to what Bernie can promise them. So what can other Democrats do? Nothing.

Besides that, Bernie has the Party split every way imaginable: young and old, rich and poor, class and profession, parents and children. And he has catered to his preference in each of those sides. It is class warfare multiplied by 10 x 100.

If you haven’t had the thrill of being called a “boomer” yet, just wait. They are at war with anything or anyone they see as standing in their way. Politics is personal to them.

And he has it figured out; so he is willing to promise the masses (anyone but the 1-5%) anything they want. Then he simply tells them the rich will pay for it all. Bernie doesn’t even know the total cost of all his giveaways, but he knows the rich will pay for it.

Take that to the socialist bank.

He can’t know because when you promise free college and free healthcare to illegals, they’ll come and keep coming in droves. It is ever-growing making it impossible to count real cost. So no one can know the cost in 2 years let alone in 5 years. Whatever we’re offering?

Other Democrats are just flailing in the wind compared to the Bern auction. Bernie is always paying the highest price for voters. Actually we are.

But Bernie also knew one other thing Dems should all know. The Democrats always flock toward the real leftist. It is hard to outrun someone from the right in the Democrat Party. They must think you are really a candidate of the Left to get behind you. They want proof on things like baby slaughtering, manna from Gov’t, open borders or pro-crime.

Sorry Pete Buttigieg, your resume is a bit blank. I mean we are pretty sure you are a staunch Marxist-progressive but we’d like to see more evidence not platitudes.

And the last thing these progressive Leftists want is to be told “no” or that can’t happen. That is punching one’s expiration date because one can never go far enough left for them. Further is what this is all about.

One practical example. Everyone seems outraged over Bernie’s Castro remarks but his China one is even worse. Bernie claimed China’s communist system has raised more people out of poverty than anything else in the world. He insinuated that is a good thing.

Well, if you must give up your personal political freedom for better economic circumstances that is a good trade off? Just as long as you support the power who bestows the economic blessings on you. But that rationalization sounds just like the Democrat Party. Forfeit your individual political freedom and vote to them, and they will take care of you. Plantation politics. So vote for your class, status, race, etc. not your individual preference. And as long as they all vote to support the Mao progressives, what’s the problem?

Right Ring | Bullright || ©2020

Susan Rice Steps In It

Let me rephrase that: Susan Rice has become a victim of Obama Leftology

(I should define Leftology as the radical politics rampant today, most exemplified by Obama’s anti-American rhetoric.)

A few weeks ago, former National Security Advisor and Ambassador under Obama, Susan Rice, had a rival exchange on Twitter with a Chinese diplomat. It proved revealing.

It showed how the Chinese argue and critique America with the same rhetoric they see in leftsrtream press and media in the US. We have long been saying Leftists only provide fodder to America’s critics and enemies.

He (Diplomat-apologist-defender of China, Lijian Zhao) tried to unload that rhetorical hubris at Susan Rice. She seemed baffled by it, but I don’t know why she would be?

That is how leftists themselves argue. Racist accusations – should we say pleasantries – were exchanged between them. Then Rice dropped the line that ‘he should be sent back’ or recalled to China. What Rice didn’t know is he was not based in DC but in Pakistan.

That doesn’t really matter for the purposes of argument. Rice was stirred. She was trying to talk about humanitarian woes of Musllim Uighurs held in northern China. He rattled off a list of conditions in US, including DC. His tweets have since been deleted.

My guess is she didn’t realize that all this division, escalated under Obama, and constant liberal media, just fed his nasty response on our country. They are only taking the press’s critique and hurling it back at America. She should have been better prepared for that.

Rice shifted, after calling him a racist, to address the Chinese Ambassador: “I expect better of you and your team. Please do the right thing and send him home.”

You are a racist disgrace. And shockingly ignorant too. In normal times, you would be PNGed for this.

Ambassador Cui, I expect better of you and your team. Please do the right thing and send him home. https://t.co/KIKanBjQ2L

— Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) July 15, 2019

But it did demonstrate Rice’s abilities and reactionary Leftist rhetoric.
She is out hawking a new book. And as Forbes said regarding social media:

Tangent: Although Twitter, like other Western social media platforms, is banned in China, diplomats use the platform abroad and have amassed some large followings as a result. Zhao, for example, gained over 190,000 followers over the three years he’s had a Twitter account.

See: https://thehill.com/policy/international/453098-susan-rice-chinese-diplomat-a-racist-disgrace
And: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2019/07/15/ex-national-security-adviser-rice-calls-chinese-diplomat-racist-for-tirade/#4397ecc45dbe

Besides Rice and race, China is a much larger concern for discussion. Certainly much broader and more important than the Uighurs issue. But that’s all Leftinista’s care about.

It spans Hong Kong, the China Sea and Taiwan, as well as all the economic disparities. Though Rice touches none of that, probably as a matter of choice. Obama’s administration didn’t touch the major issues with China in eight years. Why would she start now?

After all, Obama gave us the national policy of Omission (among others). He ignored the biggest and most dangerous threats to America, while placating his apologist base of anti-American zealots — both political and religious.

Instead, he lent his voice to give aid and comfort to enemies of America. That it now comes full circle in Susan Rice’s tweets is ironic. Rice and Obama demonstrated incompetence in government for eight years, now she illustrates it on Twitter just in case we forgot!

Right Ring | Bullright

China and the Left

I see a similarity of China and the Left here, aside from the communism ties. It is not a stretch, the political strategies align. You might say birds of the feather.

It is always about the goal with the left, as it is with China. The means are only the vehicle, to be discarded when the goal is achieved. And anything that achieves it is acceptable.

Regarding the trade deficit with China, and recent tariff announcements, Trump said that there may be some pain but in the end we will have a stronger country. That is the first time I heard a leader reference the long game of what we want. (okay maybe not first) A lot of people probably shuttered to hear that.

I bet that got the Chinese’s attention because he is referencing the long game. Something we don’t always stress. It shakes their predictability about us. In other words, that we would be willing to weather some pain to get to the benefit in the end.

See the strategy to Chinese is really as simple as the lefts’ is. Both are focused on the destination not on the means. Whatever the means matters little. The destination is king. That is the same with the Chinese. And If they really believe in their dominant end, and we know they do, then that tells the real story.

To Chinese they want to control or run the world. See if that is their goal then nothing else is important. Do you get it? If that is where they see themselves, at that point there is nothing anyone can do to them about anything — there’s nothing to negotiate. That may seem a fantasy to us, but if they believe it then it gives their strategy away. Once they are in the driver’s seat the game is over.

We, however look at this as a long term game that will continue. It won’t once they reach their destination. They will be the tyrants they want to be and it will be tough to anyone who disagrees. That is what they have in mind. Nothing like our goals or strategy. We want a working relationship, for the long term. They are just thinking as the short term until they get to their destination.They think none of this stuff will matter then.

It is the same type mindset the Left has. They look only at achieving their desired ends. Once that is done, nothing else such as rules apply. It is a king of the hill perspective. They plan on keeping the hill once they get it. That is the way their plans work. Do you see the similarity? Power is rule, and rule is permanent not temporary. At that point, all resources go to preserving and keeping that permanent rule. Sure, it is a scorched earth plan but so what? That is how they play. We are looking at it as a balancing act but they don’t want anything balanced. They want control and once you have it, you run the show. If we do not look at the end game, goals, of those like China, Russia, N Korea, or Iran, then we underestimate the game. The days of just ignoring it are dwindling.

This is why we, meaning media and talking heads, are concerned about a trade war. It’s a perpetual real war to China, and they plan on winning. So the state of a trade war does not matter to China at all. This is also why intellectual property is a major issue to us and not to them. Their end doesn’t see a problem with private intellectual property.

It is sort of the same thing as CNN or MSM worrying about so-called Russia collusion. while the rest of the country is concerned about trade. The two are not on the same wave lengths, like two different orbits. Which one matters?

Right Ring | Bullright

A message from CFact

China’s rise

China’s development is astounding.

India, Brazil and other nations hope to copy it.

There are many tragic flaws when international global warming agreements are penned. Among the worst is the willingness of the leaders of the West to turn a blind eye to how useless their economy-wrecking global warming policies are when considered in a global context.

While President Obama is waging war on coal and oil, China is building coal plants as fast as it possibly can. Chinese coal use is poised to surpass the entire rest of the world’s use of coal combined.

China and the other so-called “BRIC” nations are more than happy to step up as the developed world steps down, and will happily produce the goods that our escalating energy costs and regulatory burden make too expensive to produce at home.

President Obama’s recent global warming deal with China is totally one-sided. The U.S. committed to capping emissions (and damaging the economy) now, while China has until 2030 to maybe, if they feel like it, consider capping emissions then. 2030 is when China projects its emissions will peak in any event.

This deal was naive.

Meanwhile, global warming regulations will drive up prices for Americans, while any miniscule effect on emissions is dwarfed by China’s increase.

Consider this astonishing fact that Bill Gates blogged about and the Washington Post picked up:

China used more cement in the last three years, than the U.S. did in the entire 20th century!

That’s how fast China is expanding.
Sure, five percent of human greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to cement (if emissions are your thing), but what that tremendous growth really tells us is that global warming policies that depress the economy may advance the agendas of the developed world’s warming-Left, but will have no real impact on global emissions.

If you think Obama’s deal with China was bad, just wait to see what he’s prepared to sign at the big UN climate conference in Paris this December.

The need to educate the public has never been greater.

For nature and people too,

Craig Rucker
Executive Director

P.S.   China’s rapid, massive industrialization is exactly the kind of crucial fact that global warming pressure groups do not want discussed in the context of climate.  Sign the petition to stop climate censorship.  Share it with as many people as possible.  There is too much at stake to allow the warming-Left to muzzle speech and hide the facts.

How China used more cement
in 3 years than the U.S. did
in the entire 20th Century

Source: USGS, Cement Statistics USGS, mineral industry of China

Read the facts at the Washington Post

and from Bill Gates

I admit what got my attention was the amount of cement China used. Tell-tale signs of a country under construction. But take a look at that picture, it is astounding.

Let that mental image sink in with the concrete facts. Just incredible, isn’t it?

Spies Like US

U.S. Charges Chinese Army Personnel With Cyberspying

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT | MAY 19, 2014 | NYT

WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice said on Monday it had charged five individuals in China’s People’s Liberation Army in connection with stealing trade secrets from some of the largest American companies, including Westinghouse, United States Steel and Alcoa.

The move marked a rare instance of the United States charging foreign government employees with economic espionage, and it increased the tensions between American and Chinese officials who have accused each other in public and in private of using military assets to initiate hacks and cyberattacks.

At a news conference in Washington, the Justice Department said it was searching for five people: Wang Dong, Sun Kailiang, Wen Xinyu, Huang Zhenyu, and Gu Chunhui. It is unlikely that any of them will ever be brought to trial in the United States.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said the men “have targeted the U.S. private sector for commercial advantage.”

“We allege that members of unit 61398 conspired to hack into computers of six U.S. victims to steal information that would provide an economic advantage to the victims’ competitors, including Chinese state-owned enterprises,” Mr. Holder said.

The Justice Department said that the men were indicted on May 1 by a federal grand jury in Pennsylvania and charged with conspiring to commit computer fraud and accessing a computer without authorization for the purpose of commercial advantage. [../]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/20/us/us-to-charge-chinese-workers-with-cyberspying.html?smid=tw-bna&_r=0

 

So Holder announces crackdown, after secrets are already stolen. This just reveals how much damage is done. Are these efforts just for show? Is his timing just politics?

Filthy “Pool” for O-regime, what do you expect?

The column did not need a subtitle, but the author supplied one anyway.
Dirty “pool”(report) in China? Big surprise.

Dirty Pool

Column: The rise of secretarial journalism

BY: Matthew Continetti | Free Beacon
December 6, 2013 5:00 am

It was a sunny day in Beijing on Thursday—refreshingly sunny, to be more precise—when Vice President Joe Biden met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. I know this because I have read the pool report of the occasion, a pithy and practically content-free piece of journalism that is nevertheless one of the more entertaining things to enter my inbox in recent days. The pool report confirms the lingering suspicion—if it hasn’t been confirmed a million times already—that the line between journalism and Democratic Party cheerleading has more than faded. It has become invisible.

Pool reports are summaries of official events distributed to reporters, who then use the information to write articles or produce news packages. The building blocks of journalism, involving basic details such as names, places, and local color, pool reports are typically written by members of the periodical press. But the Internet has thrown open the question of what the periodical press is. And in the case of Vice President Biden’s visit with the Chinese collective oligarchy at the Zhongnanhai Leadership Compound, the pool report was composed and issued by someone who is not a member of the periodical press, someone who is not really “a journalist,” as the term is broadly understood, at all. His name is Steve Clemons.

Clemons is a Washington hand and bon vivant who has spent a long career working for a Democratic senator, working for think tanks, and working in the interstices of online journalism, event programming, and D.C. social climbing. For some time he has been parked at the New American Foundation—a center-left think tank that recently hosted an event for an anti-Israel screed written by the son of a top Clinton confidante—and at the Atlantic Monthly, where he is “Washington editor at large.” Politico has described him as a “foreign policy ‘super-agent,’” and the foreign policy for which he flacks lines up remarkably closely with the “realist” policy of the Obama administration: eager to negotiate with traditional adversaries, convinced that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the cause of Middle East turmoil, and determined to prevent neoconservatives and the dastardly Israel Lobby from committing America to foreign entanglements. Clemons was a key player in the campaign to install as America’s secretary of defense the embarrassingly stupid Chuck Hagel. He is not, let us be clear, a “disinterested observer.” I look forward to Sean Hannity’s pool reports from President Ted Cruz’s state visit to France.

Clemons’s prose is clichéd. “Good morning from refreshingly sunny Beijing where the skies are robin egg blue,” began his first report. Biden did not just greet his Chinese counterpart, Clemons said. Biden “warmly greeted” him. After an exchange of pleasantries, “your pool was then escorted out to brisk air, sunny skies, and a momentary look at the gardens and other pavilions of the exclusive Zhongnanhao Compound.” I hope your pool made the moment count, since he got closer to the center of Chinese authoritarian decision-making than most Chinese ever will. Dan Balz can rest easy: Clemons is not coming for his job anytime soon. Biden Deputy Chief of Staff Shailagh Murray, on the other hand, who used to be a “journalist” herself—well, Shailagh, you better watch out.

“An awkward thing happened in which your pool inadvertently became part of the story,” Clemons reported. The awkward thing was this: The vice president, in conversation with Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao, began gesturing at Clemons and saying, “He is a very important man. Seriously he is important.”

“Your pool demurred as best he could”—I’m sure he did—but Biden continued, telling Li that he should bypass the diplomatic niceties and talk directly with Clemons. “He is the one you really want to speak to. Seriously.” Later Biden bought Clemons a Magnum ice cream bar. But do not assume that the gift of delicious ice cream from a powerful admirer would affect our correspondent’s reportage. “Your pool decided to find out how much the Magnum bar cost and return that amount of yuan to Vice President Biden.” And the First Amendment endured.

Remarkably, no one in the traveling press corps seems to have thought it weird, much less wrong, to assign pool reports to a Beltway player so in sync with the administration’s foreign policy, so beloved by the vice president. “Thanks again to @SCClemons of @The Atlantic for a colorful pool report from the Biden trip,” tweeted CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller. “Colorful” is one word for it. “Useless” and “self-indulgent” are others. The vice president himself, by continually referring to “your pool,” seems to have understood better than the traveling press the conflict of interest presented by Clemons. Or perhaps the press, in giving Clemons the pool assignment, sought to show to the world, in a passive-aggressive way, just how phony and strained the coverage of this White House is. Whatever their reasons, neither Clemons nor anyone else in the press corps traveling with Biden seems to have asked what the vice president’s son Hunter, a former lobbyist with manifold business interests, was up to while accompanying dad on his East Asian tour. Or would asking that question hurt one’s future job prospects?

Adversarial journalism has been replaced by secretarial journalism. Obamacare’s glitches have not slowed the trend. While Robert Pear of the New York Times has been skeptical and critical of the Obamacare rollout, his colleagues on the paper’s political team are eager to return to boosting the program’s namesake. “Democrats’ Latest Campaign for Health Care Law Begins,” read the front-page headline on Thursday’s paper. “Seizing on the good news of an improving health care website and rising enrollments,” write Jonathan Weisman and Michael D. Shear, President Obama and his allies on Wednesday “highlighted parts of the law that are popular with the public and reminded Americans, and the law’s opponents, of what would be lost if the Affordable Care Act were repealed.” […/]

Continue reading more> http://freebeacon.com/dirty-pool/

Leave it to Biden to perfectly demonstrate the purpose of a free press, especially in China. (Not) Well, go Joe, show ’em just how it’s done! What better place to roll out your expertise in pool reporting control? The other non-surprise is how all this seems to go over rather well with the press “corpse” in general — alas, the errant word fits here.

All this irony is lost on Biden and, naturally, on Clemons. Both he and Biden continually refer to “your pool”, like some British Lord. “Lord of Pressland” maybe?

Compare the salutation to “your honor” — “your pool”. Or maybe he could be dubded “your Pookie“, since Obama is fond of the name — like a composite reporter?

RightRing | Bullright

Dividends piling up for Obama’s green agenda

Abound Solar Finances Under Investigation

DOE-loan recipient filed for bankruptcy in June

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
October 8, 2012 3:22 pm

The finances of a solar company that received $68 million in federal stimulus money are now under investigation in Colorado, reports ABC Denver:

http://freebeacon.com/abound-solar-finances-under-investigation/

———————————————————————————————–
 

I’ll just add some of my comments.
After all the rage about solar companies, where Obama succumbed to one of his worst losses — or “bets”– the industry is on the move once again. But not in an upward “can’t fail” way.

Months back, large solar companies in Europe were forced to lay off workers or just went under. The market flooded with cheaper goods from China was to blame, as it also cornered the market on raw materials. Sales for Solar companies outside China plummeted. China appeared to be capitalizing on all the losses elsewhere.

Then, stories came about huge layoffs in Germany as companies went belly up. The business and future it held for employees even in Germany sank for an industry which seemed to hold such promise for its economy.

This is a warning about the dangers of government manipulated industries. China is the prime example. The solar industry once heralded as the new wave enjoyed growth and expansion everywhere, especially in China. The same government that subsidized it is picking winners and losers. Sound familiar? The state-controlled banks are the government’s cops on the beat. Of course, the banks decide who will survive by who gets loans and who doesn’t. And banks are not granting loans only for expansion, another blow to the sector.

Now the government decided it is time for industry consolidation after it endorsed expansion for years. So they must force consolidation. Banks already limited expansion and now encourage mergers and acquisitions within the sector, large companies buying smaller operations.

There are growing cries for tarrifs on China. Let’s see what that brings; or if they materialize with the same hyper-addiction the industry enjoyed? US has stepped up tariffs and the EU is on the verge of adopting tougher measures. Other countries are considering that formula. So a monopolized market is finally getting squeezeed as others seek relief to China’s “dumping” around the world. And that reaction appears to be creating a problem for China.

More reference: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-06/china-price-war-draining-jobs-in-germany-s-solar-valley-energy.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-05/chinese-solar-panel-exporters-face-threat-of-eu-tariffs.html