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Re40-NOTES.pdf
(The below text version of the notes is for search purposes and convenience. See the PDF version for proper formatting such as bold, italics, etc., and graphics where applicable. Copyright: 2022 Retraice, Inc.)
Re40: News -- China, Civil War, Environments
Retraice^1
Republicans don't trust the FBI, neither of them trust the Chinese, but Brazil wants products, not a rainforest.
Air date: Friday, 4th Nov. 2022, 11:00 PM Eastern/US.
China, the U.S. and Apple
H4. China: `The U.S. is no longer the only superpower; war is likely.'
China and the US remain locked in mutually assured co-operation John Thornhill, ft.com, Nov. 3rd, 2022.
"The two nations are compelled by their consumers to collaborate as well as compete."
More (bipartisan) U.S. trade restrictions on China will make tensions worse, says Thornhill. They already affect semiconductors, supercomputing and artificial intelligence. But the two countries are so interdependent, though China has a "stranglehold" on rare earth metals and the US is "critically dependent" on Taiwan for advanced microchips.
Apple, though, is too big to be bossed around by either country. If the economic rationale for peace gives way to nationalistic calls for war, Apple will be affected early.
Republicans, whistleblowers and the FBI
H5. Civil War: `The U.S. seems vulnerable to a civil war this decade.'
House Republicans release 1,000-page report alleging politicization in the FBI, DOJ, Chris Pandolfo, foxnews.com, Nov. 4th, 2022.
"Whistleblowers say FBI is `rotted at its core' in Republican report on alleged misconduct."
Gist of the Republican Judiciary Committee Staff Report:^2 The FBI (the "politicized bureaucracy", not the front-line people) is inflating domestic terror numbers, abusing power to investigate school-board cases (a mom who said "we are coming for you" and a dad who the FBI thought "has a lot of guns"), spying on U.S. citizens, purging the FBI of "woke" people, and generally doing "political meddling".
Fox again: "One whistleblower alleged he was `told that child sexual abuse material investigations were no longer an FBI priority and should be referred to local law enforcement agencies.' "
The rainforest and its alternative uses
H6. Environments: `Humans can change environments faster than they can adapt.'
Lula faces struggle to reverse Brazil's environmental destruction, Michael Stott and Michael Pooler, ft.com, Nov. 3rd, 2022.
"Former minister says climate change will be a top priority after increase in deforestation under Bolsonaro." But Marina Silva, in Lula's election coalition, is a good sign, as is the fact that Lula says he'll attend COP27 in Egypt this year, (Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, the UN climate conference).
Why the deforestation? "[I]llegal loggers, miners and land grabbers" ..."Every day an area of rainforest as big as 2,000 football pitches is razed." [graphic: it was worst in the mid-90s and mid-2000s, source: Brazil's National Institute for Space Research]
Why the re-election of politicians who don't care about the rainforest? "`Brazilian society is divided between progress and backwardness, between democracy and authoritarianism, between racism and respect for diversity, between machismo and respect for women,' Silva said of the election result."
The connections
Republicans don't trust the FBI: In general, you can't have a `United States' where one half of the country doesn't trust the FBI, though in the '60s it was the other side, the Left, that didn't trust them.^3
Neither of them trust the Chinese:
Both parties, though, have shifted from (self-interested) openness and optimism about China to leeriness and pessimism.
But Brazil wants products, not a rainforest:
Why are they deforesting? To capture the value of natural resources, i.e. to make money to buy and have things. Who takes the resources and makes things out of them? China is the world's factory (or has been for 20 years, while competitors have been catching up).
_
References
(none)
Footnotes
^1 https://www.retraice.com/retraice
^2 FBI Whistleblowers: What Their Disclosures Indicate About the Politicization of the FBI and Justice Department, Republican Staff Report, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, Nov. 4th, 2022, pp 2-3.
^3 Chomsky called the FBI "the political police of the national government". Domestic Terrorism: Notes on the State System of Oppression, Noam Chomsky, chomsky.info. Also published in New Political Science, Volume 21, Number 3 (September, 1999), pp. 303-324 (citation per chomsky.info).
View all episodes
By Retraice, Inc.(The below text version of the notes is for search purposes and convenience. See the PDF version for proper formatting such as bold, italics, etc., and graphics where applicable. Copyright: 2022 Retraice, Inc.)
Re40: News -- China, Civil War, Environments
Retraice^1
Republicans don't trust the FBI, neither of them trust the Chinese, but Brazil wants products, not a rainforest.
Air date: Friday, 4th Nov. 2022, 11:00 PM Eastern/US.
China, the U.S. and Apple
H4. China: `The U.S. is no longer the only superpower; war is likely.'
China and the US remain locked in mutually assured co-operation John Thornhill, ft.com, Nov. 3rd, 2022.
"The two nations are compelled by their consumers to collaborate as well as compete."
More (bipartisan) U.S. trade restrictions on China will make tensions worse, says Thornhill. They already affect semiconductors, supercomputing and artificial intelligence. But the two countries are so interdependent, though China has a "stranglehold" on rare earth metals and the US is "critically dependent" on Taiwan for advanced microchips.
Apple, though, is too big to be bossed around by either country. If the economic rationale for peace gives way to nationalistic calls for war, Apple will be affected early.
Republicans, whistleblowers and the FBI
H5. Civil War: `The U.S. seems vulnerable to a civil war this decade.'
House Republicans release 1,000-page report alleging politicization in the FBI, DOJ, Chris Pandolfo, foxnews.com, Nov. 4th, 2022.
"Whistleblowers say FBI is `rotted at its core' in Republican report on alleged misconduct."
Gist of the Republican Judiciary Committee Staff Report:^2 The FBI (the "politicized bureaucracy", not the front-line people) is inflating domestic terror numbers, abusing power to investigate school-board cases (a mom who said "we are coming for you" and a dad who the FBI thought "has a lot of guns"), spying on U.S. citizens, purging the FBI of "woke" people, and generally doing "political meddling".
Fox again: "One whistleblower alleged he was `told that child sexual abuse material investigations were no longer an FBI priority and should be referred to local law enforcement agencies.' "
The rainforest and its alternative uses
H6. Environments: `Humans can change environments faster than they can adapt.'
Lula faces struggle to reverse Brazil's environmental destruction, Michael Stott and Michael Pooler, ft.com, Nov. 3rd, 2022.
"Former minister says climate change will be a top priority after increase in deforestation under Bolsonaro." But Marina Silva, in Lula's election coalition, is a good sign, as is the fact that Lula says he'll attend COP27 in Egypt this year, (Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, the UN climate conference).
Why the deforestation? "[I]llegal loggers, miners and land grabbers" ..."Every day an area of rainforest as big as 2,000 football pitches is razed." [graphic: it was worst in the mid-90s and mid-2000s, source: Brazil's National Institute for Space Research]
Why the re-election of politicians who don't care about the rainforest? "`Brazilian society is divided between progress and backwardness, between democracy and authoritarianism, between racism and respect for diversity, between machismo and respect for women,' Silva said of the election result."
The connections
Republicans don't trust the FBI: In general, you can't have a `United States' where one half of the country doesn't trust the FBI, though in the '60s it was the other side, the Left, that didn't trust them.^3
Neither of them trust the Chinese:
Both parties, though, have shifted from (self-interested) openness and optimism about China to leeriness and pessimism.
But Brazil wants products, not a rainforest:
Why are they deforesting? To capture the value of natural resources, i.e. to make money to buy and have things. Who takes the resources and makes things out of them? China is the world's factory (or has been for 20 years, while competitors have been catching up).
_
References
(none)
Footnotes
^1 https://www.retraice.com/retraice
^2 FBI Whistleblowers: What Their Disclosures Indicate About the Politicization of the FBI and Justice Department, Republican Staff Report, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, Nov. 4th, 2022, pp 2-3.
^3 Chomsky called the FBI "the political police of the national government". Domestic Terrorism: Notes on the State System of Oppression, Noam Chomsky, chomsky.info. Also published in New Political Science, Volume 21, Number 3 (September, 1999), pp. 303-324 (citation per chomsky.info).