Japan elevates Taiwan security ties

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TOKYO, Sept 12 (Reuters) – Japan has appointed a serving government official to act as its de facto defence attache in Taiwan, four sources said, elevating security ties in a move likely to anger China, which claims the strategic, democratic island as its own.

Japan does not have any formal diplomatic representation in Taiwan, and instead handles bilateral relations through the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association in Taipei, which is chiefly staffed by reassigned foreign and trade ministry officials. The defence attache role, however, has until now been held by a retired Japan Self Defence Force officer to avoid antagonising China.

He has been joined by an official dispatched by the defence ministry to enhance information gathering and communicate with Taiwan’s military, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.

It is also “symbolic” of Japan’s support for Taiwan, said one of the people who know about the appointment. “Taiwan had been asking for an active duty defence official to fill the post,” he added.

Highlighting Tokyo’s nervousness about Beijing’s reaction, the move was halted last year after a Japanese media report about the plan, the sources said.

Japan’s defence ministry said that it would only pursue “non-governmental” ties to Taiwan, a Japanese colony from 1895-1945, that were within the bounds of a 1972 joint statement that recognised Beijing as the sole legitimate government of China.

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CIA whistleblower claims agency ‘BRIBED’ their own analysts to say COVID did NOT come from Wuhan: Bombshell Republican report exposes alleged virus origins cover-up

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A CIA whistleblower has told Congress the agency bribed its own analysts to say Covid-19 did not originate in a Wuhan lab.

According to a veteran ‘senior-level’ serving agency officer, the CIA assigned seven officers to a Covid Discovery Team.

At the end of their investigation six of the seven believed the intelligence pointed to a low-confidence assessment that Covid-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, China. 

The seventh member, the most senior on the team, believed it evolved naturally. The other six were then given a ‘significant monetary incentive to change their position,’ according to the whistleblower. 

The CIA ultimately refused to make an assessment even with low confidence.

‘Both hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or face challenges with conflicting reporting,’ according to the agency. 

The CIA denied engaging in bribery and said it would investigate the allegations.

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Government-always-excuse. ABN

Help make local meat affordable again!

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This is an unusual, perhaps once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to support a US bill to reverse the decades-long “go big or go home” approach to centralizing meat production

I  generally don’t write about anything political, but this is a highly unusual issue that gets to the heart of our food system and transcends the political polarization we find all around us.

Since the 1960s, the USDA’s “go big or go home” mentality has led to the enduring centralization of our food supply.

We now have our first big chance to reverse this by allowing local farmers to use local butchers without going through exceedingly expensive USDA-stamped intermediaries.

The ask is that if you live in the US you put in a phone call to your legislators to support it. Typically they receive only ten phone calls on a bill so a call carries a lot of weight.

Here is a guest post from my friend John Moody.

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For around six decades, farmers and homesteaders across the US have faced a growing problem – the lack of accessible and affordable butchering options.   Starting in the late 60s, changes to federal regulations lead to the loss of tens of thousands of abbatoirs and butcher shops across the country. 

By the late 1990s, five or so companies controlled roughly 80%  of beef, turkey, chicken, and pork consumed in the United States.  

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Federal Reserve: desire for cash-like anonymity for digital assets based on ignorance

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The Federal Reserve published a paper that explores various privacy strategies in digital asset ecosystems. A key point is that cash like anonymity is very unlikely in digital systems. Confidentiality from certain parties is the best to hope for.

It asserts the desire for cash-like anonymity is based on a misunderstanding of how digital systems work. Even with encryption, activity logs and audit trails leak small pieces of information. Of course, current versions of most public blockchains reveal an enormous amount of data which is easy to link to an identity by tracing wallets back to exchange onramps.

Although it may be true that anonymity is almost impossible to achieve in the digital realm, people desire it. While comparing digital systems to cash at a practical level, the paper doesn’t acknowledge the broad recognition that digital money will accelerate the crowding out of cash.

…It’s not surprising that the Federal Reserve is publishing a paper on privacy. There are two key reasons whey CBDCs might fail. One is the populist pushback that’s privacy related. Sometimes that’s based on conspiracy theories. But as the Financial Times reinforced this week, there is substance to concerns. Even if a current government has good intentions, a future one might not. The second reason that CBDCs might fail is if the public doesn’t see any usability benefits over the existing private solutions already in use.

In a recent paper, the RBC asserts that a U.S. digital dollar has the potential to politicize the role of the Chair of the Federal Reserve.

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The Slow and Steady Demise of South Africa

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The end of Apartheid in South Africa brought a surge of hope for a brighter future. But the ANC, the party that liberated the Black majority from oppression, has transformed the country into a swamp of corruption, mismanagement and despair.

The failures of the ruling elite has plunged South Africa into a dire political and economic crisis. Six out of 10 young South Africans are jobless and more than half of the country’s 60 million residents live in poverty, according to the World Bank. Furthermore, South Africa’s murder rate is one of the highest in the world, with around 25,000 victims per year. Since Apartheid, more than half a million people have met a violent death.

For the fiscal year 2021-2022, the auditor-general found that 219 of the country’s 257 municipalities did not have clean audits. In countless cities and municipalities, the infrastructure, administration, education system, health system, sewage and garbage collection are all subpar or completely dysfunctional. In many places, not even the trains are running, while some regions are forced to go for days without running water.

An independent investigative commission recently disclosed the degree to which public officeholders have systematically plundered state-owned companies and institutions and driven them into bankruptcy – from the flagship airline SAA and the public broadcaster SABC to the national postal service. Thus far, not a single high-ranking politician has been convicted in the final appeal. And despite repeated pledges to take action, President Cyril Ramaphosa hasn’t dared to do anything, likely out of concern that the kleptocrats in his own party would push him out of office.

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Massive errors in FBI’s Active Shooting Reports from 2014-2022 regarding cases where civilians stop attacks

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Instead of 4.6%, the correct number is at least 35.7%. In 2022, it is at least 41.3%. Excluding gun-free zones, it averaged over 63.5%.

Two factors explain this discrepancy – one, misclassified shootings; and two, overlooked incidents. Regarding the former, the CPRC determined that the FBI reports had misclassified five shootings: In two incidents, the Bureau notes in its detailed write-up that citizens possessing valid firearms permits confronted the shooters and caused them to flee the scene. However, the FBI did not list these cases as being stopped by armed citizens because police later apprehended the attackers. In two other incidents, the FBI misidentified armed civilians as armed security personnel. Finally, the FBI failed to mention citizen engagement in one incident.

For example, the Bureau’s report about the Dec. 29, 2019 attack on the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas, that left two men dead does not list this as an incident of “civic engagement.” Instead, the FBI lists this attack as being stopped by a security guard. A parishioner, who had volunteered to provide security during worship, fatally shot the perpetrator. That man, Jack Wilson, told Dr. John Lott that he was not a security professional. He said that 19 to 20 members of the congregation were armed that day, and they didn’t even keep track of who was carrying a concealed weapon.

As for the second factor — overlooked cases — the FBI, more significantly, missed 35 incidents identified by CPRC where what would likely have been a mass public shooting was thwarted by armed civilians. There were another 103 active shooting incidents that they missed.

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