SoylentNews

Congress pressures Biden to defend Taiwan

China’s military provocations toward Taiwan and President Joe Biden’s mixed messages are igniting a debate on Capitol Hill over whether to adopt a more aggressive official posture — including the possibility of preemptively authorizing Biden to use military force if Beijing invades the island nation.

The conversations, coupled with the White House’s efforts to walk back some of Biden’s apparent slips of the tongue, are fueling bipartisan efforts to ditch “strategic ambiguity,” the policy that has governed the U.S. posture toward the conflict for more than four decades. The strategic ambiguity doctrine, enshrined in the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, stipulates that the U.S. remains purposely noncommittal about whether it would defend Taiwan from an attack or invasion by China.

But a push to proactively send Biden a war authorization could subvert ongoing efforts by Congress and the Biden administration to restrict presidential war powers. And undermining the status quo on Taiwan, both parties worry, could be seen by Beijing as a provocation, rather than a deterrent.

How War With China Begins

President Xi Jinping declared in July that those who get in the way of China’s ascent will have their “heads bashed bloody against a Great Wall of steel.” The People’s Liberation Army Navy is churning out ships at a rate not seen since World War II, as Beijing issues threats against Taiwan and other neighbors. Top Pentagon officials have warned that China could start a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait or other geopolitical hot spots sometime this decade.

Analysts and officials in Washington are fretting over worsening tensions between the United States and China and the risks to the world of two superpowers once again clashing rather than cooperating. President Joe Biden has said that America “is not seeking a new cold war.” But that is the wrong way to look at U.S.-China relations. A cold war with Beijing is already under way. The right question, instead, is whether America can deter China from initiating a hot one.

The Intel 12th Gen Core i9-12900K Review: Hybrid Performance Brings Hybrid Complexity (page 2)

It's fused off, it's disabled, it's re-enabled.

Well, Fustie keeps beating that tiresome old drum about Dems and Repubs being opposite sides of the same coin. We do get tired of hearing that, but Schumer (or his agents) sent me an email that supports Fusty's position.

Moments ago, Senate Republicans shut down a motion to proceed to debate on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

All but one of them didn't consider voting rights -- the most sacred right in our democracy -- even worth debating. This is the fourth time they've blocked debate on voting rights this year and it's unacceptable.

Senate Democrats and I will never stop fighting to to protect voting rights. And right now, I need your support more than ever. Can you chip in right now to help me and Democrats in the Senate keep up the fight for voting rights?

If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation to Chuck Schumer will go through immediately.

John Lewis risked his life to secure the right to vote. And the bill named in his honor that Republicans just blocked would've restored critical protections from the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

But Republicans refuse to even come to the table and debate how we can protect voting rights. Instead, Republican-controlled state legislatures are making it harder to vote -- in ways that are despicable, overtly racist, and shameful to anyone who believes in democracy.

We need to stand up to every single attack not just with outrage, but with action. We must be committed to keeping up this critical fight. Our democracy is at stake.

We will always defend our right to vote -- no matter how long it takes. Republicans and their voter suppression efforts won't win.

Chip in to support the Democratic majority and me as we fight to put strong voter protection laws on the books and end the rising tide of voter suppression.

This isn't over -- you'll hear more from me soon.

Chuck Schumer

The hypocritical bastard leads the party that controls both houses, but he can't even get a debate going? Yes, of course he's lying through his teeth. But, progressives eat that shit up. Not only do they eat it up, they rush to respond to every call for more monies. Have I ever mentioned that every email from progressives whines for money? "Moar monies will buy whatever you want in Washington!" So, not just a hypocritical bastard, but a whoring hypocritical bastard.

Gotta keep that sense of public outrage inflamed, as well. When Dems lose the White House and the Senate, they'll need to instigate another summer of love, filled with 'mostly peaceful' protests that burn cities to the ground.

Phison Talks Next-Gen PCIe Gen 5, Gen 6 & Gen 7 SSDs – Active Cooling Solutions, L4 Cache, New Interfaces, Up To 14W Gen 5 & 28W Gen 6 TDPs

SSDs with fans when?

Feds to Pay Charleston Church Shooting Families $88M Settlement After Botched Background Check

Families of nine victims killed in a racist attack at a Black South Carolina church have reached a settlement with the Justice Department over a faulty background check that allowed Dylann Roof to purchase the gun he used in the 2015 massacre.

The Justice Department will pay $88 million, which includes $63 million for the families of the nine people killed and $25 million for five survivors who were inside the church at the time of the shooting, it was announced Thursday.

Bakari Sellers, an attorney who helped broker the agreement, told The Associated Press the “88” figure was purposeful. It’s a number typically associated with white supremacy and the number of bullets Roof said he had taken with him to the attack.

https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/feds-to-pay-charleston-church-shooting-families-88m-settlement-after-botched-background-check/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-to-pay-88m-to-families-victims-of-sc-church-massacre/ar-AAQ3RXF
https://www.foxcarolina.com/news/families-of-victims-in-sc-church-killings-settle-with-feds-over-background-check-that-allowed/article_4cc557cc-3808-11ec-a711-d72e2664d353.html?block_id=994023
https://tdn.com/news/national/govt-and-politics/families-of-9-killed-in-sc-church-settle-with-feds-over-gun/article_16e9662b-3746-53cf-ac20-e0ced91f281d.html
and many other sites

I thought, that's nice and all - some victims get some money for their losses, and the 88 is tossed in to slap white supremacists in the face. Good too, that flaws in the system are singled out, and maybe they get fixed.

Next thought was, what are the flaws in the system?
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/charleston-shooting-suspect-dylann-roof-drug-suboxone/

Hmmm - suboxone. Not your typical pot head with a stash of grass.

Suboxone is a hybrid composed of three parts of the opiate buprenorphine, which is considered milder and therefore safer than other opiates, and one part naloxone, an overdose antidote which makes users sick if they try to shoot it up with a syringe.

I don't know enough about it to form an opinion, but, yeah, opiates. Dylann probably shouldn't be walking around with dangerous weapons.

But, the screwup - what was that exactly?

Months before the June 17, 2015 church shooting, Roof was arrested on Feb. 28 by Columbia, South Carolina police on the drug possession charge. But a series of clerical errors and missteps allowed Roof to buy the handgun he later used in the massacre.

The errors included wrongly listing the sheriff’s office as the arresting agency in the drug case, according to court documents. An examiner with the National Instant Criminal Background Check System found some information on the arrest but needed more to deny the sale, so she sent a fax to a sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office responded it didn’t have the report, directing her to the Columbia police.

Under the system’s operating procedures, the examiner was directed to a federal listing of law enforcement agencies, but Columbia police did not appear on the list. After trying the separate West Columbia Police Department and being told it was the wrong agency, the examiner did nothing more.

After a three-day waiting period, Roof went back to a West Columbia store to pick up the handgun.

So, the system only works when everybody does his part. Put an incompetent fool into the system somewhere, anywhere, and the system breaks.

And, once again, we see that a mass shooter was, or probably was, influenced by the use of drugs. Usually, the drug involved is some psychoactive used by the psychiatric profession, but here, an opiate.

Progressives want to see "more" background checks. Wrong approach - doing more of what's not working won't make anything better. The system needs to be fixed, instead. I say that anyone prescribed psychoactive drugs should be put into a database somewhere, that the background check computers use to make their decisions. Drug arrests need to be better documented, obviously.

Many, perhaps most, of the mass shooters never would have "legally" purchased a weapon, if it were known that they were drug users.

Fix the system. Don't grow the system, fix it!

EDIT: Seems that drugs, weapons, and racism runs in the Roof family.
https://www.heraldsun.com/news/state/south-carolina/article209681659.html

Morgan Roof, younger sister of Dylann Roof, was recently arrested for simple drug and weapon possession inside school grounds. Prior to the arrest, she made a racially-driven social media post that alarmed the student body at A.C. Flora High. BY LYNNETTE CANTOS

Oh - just pepper spray and a knife. Need more details, but "knife" may or may not mean anything at all. Some schools go spastic over the little file sharpener blade on nail clippers, FFS.

Kenosha, Wisconsin, the Rittenhouse trial, political activist prosecutors want to frame the trial in liberal terms. The judge isn't playing that game.

Men shot by Kyle Rittenhouse during Kenosha protests can be called "rioters," "looters" and "arsonists" at trial, judge rules

A Wisconsin judge laid out the final ground rules this week on what evidence will be allowed when Kyle Rittenhouse goes on trial next week for shooting three people during a protest against police brutality, ruling he'll permit testimony from the defense's use-of-force expert and on how police welcomed Rittenhouse and others carrying guns during the demonstration.

The hearing was likely the last before Rittenhouse goes on trial Nov. 1 for the shootings during chaotic demonstrations in Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020, two days after a white police officer in that city shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, in the back while responding to a domestic disturbance.

Rittenhouse, 18, of Antioch, Illinois, was among a number of people who responded to calls on social media to take up arms and come to Kenosha to respond to the protests. Rittenhouse, who is white, is charged with homicide and other crimes in the fatal shootings of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and the wounding of Gaige Grosskreutz, all also white.

Rittenhouse's attorneys want use-of-force expert John Black to testify that Rittenhouse acted in self-defense. Prosecutors have asked Judge Bruce Schroeder to block Black's testimony, arguing that jurors don't need an expert to understand what happened that night.

Schroeder told the attorneys that Black wouldn't be allowed to testify about what Rittenhouse was thinking when he pulled the trigger or whether he definitively acted in self-defense.

Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger said if Schroeder allowed Black to testify only about the timeline of events that night he wouldn't call his own expert to the stand. Defense attorney Mark Richards agreed to the deal.

Schroeder denied Binger's request to bar the defense from referring to Rosenbaum, Huber and Grosskreutz as "rioters", "looters" or "arsonists." The judge said those terms would be allowed if the defense can produce evidence showing that's what they were.

Binger asked Schroeder to bar a video that shows police telling Rittenhouse and other armed militia members on the streets that they appreciated their presence and tossing Rittenhouse a bottle of water. The prosecutor said the video would transform the trial into a referendum on police procedure that night when it isn't relevant.

"This is a case about what the defendant did that night," Binger said. "I'm concerned this will be turned into a trial about what law enforcement did or didn't do that night."

Defense attorney Corey Chirafisi argued the video shows that police felt Rittenhouse wasn't acting recklessly. Binger countered that the shootings happened after Rittenhouse interacted with the police, but Schroeder decided to allow the video.

"If the jury is being told, if the defendant is walking down the sidewalk and doing what he claims he was hired to do and police say good thing you're here, is that something influencing the defendant and emboldening him in his behavior? That would be an argument for relevance," the judge said.

Many conservatives have flocked to support Rittenhouse, calling him a patriot and making him a symbol for gun rights and raising $2 million for his bail. Others, including some liberals and activists, portray him as a domestic terrorist and say he made a volatile situation worse.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kyle-rittenhouse-trial-ground-rules-evidence/

Rioters. Looters. Arsonists. No mention of histories of domestic violence and sexual misconduct, or sex offender registry status. Just rioters, looters, and arsonists.

From an email from Rittenhouse's legal team -

BREAKING: We just had another big win in court as the judge slapped down the prosecution's blatant attempts to downplay the heinous acts committed by the men who brutally attacked Kyle last summer.

Here's one key exchange verbatim:
Prosecutor: "If there were any evidence in this case that Mr. Rosenbaum physically attacked anyone else that night, chased anyone else that night...we can talk about that. But I don't hear any evidence to that effect. All we're talking about is arson..."

Judge: "I can't believe some of the things you're saying. All we're talking about is arson? C'mon!"
These political activists masquerading as prosecutors are really trying to make the case that looting and burning down a city is no big deal. My God.

Here is the fact they will never sweep under the rug...

Kyle was in Kenosha to offer first aid and help save lives, and the men he defended himself against were there to loot, destroy and create mayhem. And that's exactly what they did.

The judge's decision was right, and with just days to go before our November 1 trial, momentum is on our side.

Help us us keep fighting with an urgent donation. We haven't hit our $300,000 goal and we're running out of time. Please donate now >>

Thank you for your commitment. You're the only reason we're still standing, and with your continued support we are going to win this case.

– Team Kyle

Rioters. Looters. Arsonists. I'll bet that arson crap will go over big with jurors. Some of them probably live in, or near, Kenosha. Maybe they depend on the shops that were destroyed. Maybe they go into town every day, and see the destruction wrought by these rioters, looters and arsonists. Not victims, but violent sons of bitches intent on destroying a town, and beating, maiming, or even killing innocent bystanders.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12500090/kenosha-riots-worker-beaten-looter-jacob-blake/

Sick moment Kenosha looters attack elderly store worker protecting business amid riots over Jacob Blake shooting

Read that article, then tell me again who the victims were. Rioters are most certainly not victims.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.568492/gov.uscourts.nysd.568492.1.0.pdf

PDF of court case in New York. Everytown For Gun Safety seems to be upset that 3D printers are printing their silly logo onto 3D printed guns.

9. The Defendants have created and distributed downloadable files for use in 3-D
printers to extrude gun parts and accessories. These files include the identical Everytown Marks
in the file names and/or on the resulting extruded gun parts and accessories emblazoned with the
Everytown Marks. The downloadable “printing kits” are accessible to consumers in New York
and bear unauthorized identical copies of Everytown’s registered trademarks. Each Defendant
has targeted New York consumers by uploading these files to a full interactive online website
that is viewable by and accessible to New York consumers.
10. Defendants have offered and/or distributed the Infringing Products (as defined
herein) through the websites odysee.com and defcad.com to consumers within the United States,
including to consumers within New York.

The image can be seen here https://cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Screen-Shot-2021-10-25-at-7.07.05-AM.png

You would think that Everytown would appreciate all that free advertising!

Can Nuclear Fusion Put the Brakes on Climate Change?

“To be honest, I was feeling pretty despondent,” Dennis Whyte, the fifty-seven-year-old director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, at M.I.T., said. “And I was seeing that despondency in the faces of my students, too.” It was 2013, and M.I.T.’s experimental fusion device had lost its Department of Energy funding, for no clearly stated reason. The field of nuclear fusion, as a whole, was still moving forward, but agonizingly slowly. ITER, an enormous fusion device being built in southern France, in an international collaboration, was progressing—the schedule is for iter to demonstrate net fusion energy in 2035, and the majority of plasma physicists have high confidence that it will work—but Whyte knew that it wasn’t going to deliver affordable energy to the public in his lifetime, and maybe not in his students’ lifetimes, either. “ITER is scientifically interesting. But it’s not economically interesting,” Whyte said. “I almost retired.”

Nuclear fusion researchers open another bottle.

I hadn't heard that term until I opened an email.

Temporary inflation surcharge as of November 1, 2021

October 2021

Due to the dynamic price developments in the procurement market, we are forced to impose a temporary inflation surcharge of 3.4 % on all currently valid prices (list prices and special prices) as well as on all quoted prices on orders placed after October 31, 2021. Excluded from this are services such as training and commissioning.

A corresponding note will be included on all quotations beginning in October. The surcharge on the total net value will be shown separately on the invoice starting November 1, 2021.
We hope for a normalization of the price situation soon and thank you for your understanding.

Best regards,


Troy Waldherr
Vice President of Sales and Operations
TOX® PRESSOTECHNIK LLC

Well then - vendors are going to start charging us for inflation? After a head scratch, I hit the duck and found little - but that little is interesting.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/harley-davidson-fights-inflation-with-a-2-surcharge-but-thats-not-quite-enough-11626890539

Harley-Davidson fights inflation with a 2% surcharge, but that’s not quite enough
Published: July 21, 2021 at 2:02 p.m. ET
By Tomi Kilgore

Motorcycle maker sees raw materials and freight inflation lasting throughout the year

https://hbr.org/2021/07/how-b2b-firms-can-price-with-confidence-as-inflation-rises

How B2B Firms Can Price with Confidence as Inflation Rises
by Nathan Hamilton, David Burns, Kent Harrison, and Thomas Luedi

A long-forgotten problem, higher inflation, has eroded the finances of many companies. Right now, many are struggling with high costs for raw materials, labor, energy, and other inputs, along with supply bottlenecks. At the same time, demand is surging as economies reopen for business in the wake of falling Covid-19 cases.

Some businesses have started to raise prices in response, with producer prices in the OECD countries up 9% in the 12 months through April 2021. Consumer prices were up 3.3% over the same period (with the U.S. consumer price index well above that at 5.0% through May). Kimberly-Clark recently raised list prices on consumer products in North America, with percentage increases in the mid-to-high single digits. Consumers will now pay more for Pirelli and Yokohama tires and Energizer batteries. Hercules Industries boosted prices by an average of 15% on heating and cooling equipment, mainly due to rising costs for steel. Various chemical companies are charging more for polyethylene, one of the most widely used plastics.

https://www.today.com/food/what-covid-19-surcharge-why-some-restaurants-are-adding-extra-t181450

What is a COVID-19 surcharge? Why some restaurants are adding them to your bill
Some eateries are charging new fees to help make up for the rising cost of food and operating costs.

By Chrissy Callahan and Vicky Nguyen
Next time you order takeout or sit down at your favorite restaurant for a meal, you might notice you're paying a bit more than normal.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to take a toll on businesses large and small across the country, many restaurant owners have added something called a COVID-19 surcharge to their customers' bills to help offset the cost of cleaning supplies, personal protective equipment for staff, disposable menus and more.

Whether it comes in the form of a 5% fee or an extra dollar tacked onto your bill, COVID-19 surcharges are becoming increasingly common and NBC News investigative and consumer correspondent Vicky Nguyen explored the rising trend on TODAY on Monday.

I guess it's official then? Inflation is going to eat us for lunch? Is that worse than being eaten by a grue?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJPX_k5gfRc

[AC:] It is simple. Everyone gets a clean environment (free from lead, etc.) with safe clean drinking water.

The standards for what counts as safe have already been established. Here are water regulations for the US. Similar standards exist for other known toxins. Our issue is that you only get a safe clean environment if you can afford it. And, even then, the multi-million dollar houses in West LA turned out to be sitting on toxic waste that seeped over from the 'other' side of town / the toxic dumping predated turning formerly industrial areas into residential areas.

In other words, we want X so make a right to have X. Doesn't sound like the poster even cares how to do it or whether it'll even work because of course, it'll just work out of the box like all our other rights do. [Edit: cooler prose]

While I discussed that a bunch there, here's a summary of why I think just creating a right to something won't work.

In turgid's journal, we have an even sillier example:

[AC:] We have scarcity because right wingers like you desperately want the scarcity to exist. Your only objective is to exploit the working class as much as possible. To use the OP's analogy, you right wingers are the Ferengi.

Just like the Ferengi, you're not interested in scientific and technological progress that would raise the quality of life, reduce scarcity, and improve environmental conditions. Instead, you defend rent-seeking parasites who actively oppose scientific and technological advancements. A fine example is the fossil fuel industry, which should become obsolete as new technology develops and matures. Instead of allowing scientific progress to proceed, the fossil fuel industry engages in misinformation to protect a dying business model and oppose newer and better technologies.

We need less right wing rent-seeking parasites. We need to move past the lie that people are poor because they haven't worked hard enough, when the wealthiest members of our society tend to either inherit their wealth or build it through the exploitation of others. Left to your own devices, right wing psychopaths like you will cut corners with things like safety in factories, all the while demanding workers put in more labor for less pay. You right wingers are sick individuals, happy to let others languish in scarcity and work in dangerous conditions, all so you can line your pockets with more money.

There's a reason that Starfleet officers are warned about the Ferengi when they're at the Academy.

If only we could do something about the rightwingers, then we'd have post-scarcity right now.

What's missed in that verbiage is that you don't live in a society capable of either delivering a nebulous right to "access" to something nor supporting a post-scarcity economy. The cart is before the horse.

It's not rich people or failwingers holding you back. It's reality. That's why you didn't get your lollipop.

I think it's time to dispute such magic thinking. Our world didn't come easily. Just since civilization started, there have been hundreds of generations toiling - making our world what it is. But now, it's supposed to be simple. Just deliver the lollipops.

Well, just like those hundreds of other generations, you'll have to work for it. Maybe someday we'll never have to work to make our world a better place, but that hasn't happened yet.