Alberta’s New Premier Under Attack For Refusing To Associate With WEF
By Tyler Durden | Zero Hedge | October 31, 2022
Recently noted as an opponent of vaccine and mask mandates, new Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is breaking previously established ties with the World Economic Forum, which has been deeply involved in a “health consulting agreement” revolving around the province’s covid response.
“I find it distasteful when billionaires brag about how much control they have over political leaders,” Smith said at a news conference Monday after her new cabinet was sworn in. “That is offensive … the people who should be directing government are the people who vote for them.”
The United Conservative Party premier said she is in lockstep with federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who has stated he and his caucus will be having nothing to do with the World Economic Forum. Earlier this month, on her first day as premier, Smith stated that people not vaccinated against covid are the most discriminated group she has seen in her lifetime.
In response, the Canadian mainstream media is pursuing a thorough hatchet campaign against Smith, consistently referring to all opposition to the WEF as being based in “conspiracy theory.” As they say, if you want to know who is really in power, all you have to do is find out who you are not allowed to criticize.
After two years of authoritarian lockdowns and attempts to enforce vaccine passports in Canada, Alberta was one of the only regions in the country that asserted political opposition to executive dictates. This helped to support the anti-passport protests by truckers and other Canadians, and led to Justin Trudeau using provisions for terrorism to confiscate donations to the movement. Alberta’s covid averages in terms of infections and deaths are no worse than provinces with strict mandates, proving once again that the mandates achieved nothing in terms of safety, but everything in terms of control.
The Canadian Press and other media outlets claim that criticism of the WEF is built on “online conspiracy accusations, unproven and debunked, that the forum is fronting a global cabal of string-pullers exploiting the pandemic to dismantle capitalism and introduce damaging socialist systems and social control measures, such as forcing people to take vaccines with tracking chips.”
Every “conspiracy” noted in that statement is true – none of them have been “debunked” except perhaps the “tracking chip” claim, which is unnecessary because the WEF was already encouraging governments to use cell phone tracking apps to monitor the vaccine status and movements of their respective populations. Many of these apps were approved by the CDC in the US, and in countries like China they are mandatory.
The World Economic Forum, acting as a kind of globalist think-tank for future policy initiatives, was instrumental in promoting many of the failed restrictions used by various national governments during the pandemic.
WEF head Klaus Schwab specifically mentions in his writings that the institution saw covid as a perfect “opportunity” to implement what he calls the “Great Reset” which includes the concept of the “Shared Economy,” a global socialist technocracy meant to replace free markets and end capitalism as we know it. As the WEF states, you will “own nothing, have no privacy” and you will like it.
This is not conspiracy theory. This is openly admitted conspiracy fact. It is undeniable.
The use of the “conspiracy theory” label is generally a tactic designed to circumvent fair debate based on facts and evidence. If the Canadian Press was forced to defend their position based on the information at hand, they would lose. So, they instead try to inoculate their readers to opposing arguments by calling them “conspiracy theory” in the hope that those readers will never research the information further.
The Canadian media then cites quotations that specifically argue that not working with the WEF would put the Alberta public at a disadvantage because it would cut them off from information that the WEF provides.
It’s important to mention that there is no evidence that the WEF has provided any life saving health information to date concerning the covid pandemic. In fact, there is no evidence that the WEF is useful to the Canadian public in any way. The mainstream media’s bizarre and antagonistic reaction to Smith’s shunning of a foreign organization of elitists that has no loyalty to the Canadian citizenry suggests that they may be operating from a foundation of bias.
Danielle Smith’s bravery in cutting off WEF influence from Alberta is being met with a dishonest media response, but in the long run, she is making the best decision possible. Taking advice from a potential parasite is not good leadership.
Senator Klobuchar uses Paul Pelosi attack to call for internet regulation
By Cindy Harper | Reclaim The Net | October 31, 2022
Senator Amy Klobuchar said she doesn’t Trust Elon Musk to run Twitter. She also slammed social media companies for profiting from amplifying “misinformation” and made some statements about internet regulations that completely ignore the First Amendment.
On NBC News “Meet the Press” on Sunday morning, Klobuchar was asked by host Chuck Todd if she trusts Musk.
She responded, “No, I do not.”
“Elon Musk has said now that he’s going to start a content moderation board. That was one good sign, but I continue to be concerned about that. I just don’t think people should be making money off of passing on this stuff that’s a bunch of lies,” Klobuchar said. “You couldn’t do that on your network, Chuck.”
Todd responded that his network has “real rules,” and news organizations are required to verify the information they publish.
“That is not a requirement of these companies. And we have to change the requirements on these companies. They are making money off of us. They are making money off of this violence,” Klobuchar said. “I think that it’s one thing if someone is posting stuff on the internet, it is another when they’re making money amplifying it.”
Referring to the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, at his home, Klobuchar said social media companies should be held responsible for condoning political violence. Some reports allege that the man who broke into Pelosi’s home and attacked him with a hammer was looking for the House Speaker.
Other reports have linked the suspect with “QAnon conspiracy theories” and accused him of bigotry and antisemitism. In other reports he has been described as “hippie collective” and “left-leaning, nudist drug abuser.”
“When you look at what this guy was looking at, he was looking at just horrendous things you don’t even want to talk about on your show. He was posting antisemitic tropes, he was showing memes that showed violence and all of this election-denying, pro-Trump, MAGA crowd rhetoric. That’s what we’re dealing with here,” Klobuchar said.
She also listed her priorities following the assault of Pelosi, including prosecuting “this perpetrator who committed a violent, violent crime” and increasing security for elected officials.
“Number three is to make sure we’re not electing more election deniers who are following Donald Trump down this road. And then number four, yes, once we get some people in who care about our democracy, we have to do something about this amplification of this election-denying hate speech that we see on the internet,” Klobuchar said.
Klobuchar added that she would “reduce” the immunity Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act affords social media companies, so that they can be prosecuted for “making money off of amplifying election falsehoods and hate speech.” Klobuchar neglected to mention that companies would still be protected by The First Amendment.
Where’s Walensky? – A Rebound update
The Naked Emperor’s Newsletter | October 31, 2022
CDC Director, Rochelle Walensky first tested positive for Covid on 21 October. This was weeks after getting her fifth jab. This is the same Rochelle who assured us that the vaccinated don’t carry the virus and don’t get sick. My Post – A picture is worth a thousand words highlighted her journey to Covid infection.
Well the vaccinated clearly do carry the virus.
And they clearly do get sick. Although Walensky only had mild symptoms she took a course of the antiviral pill Paxlovid. Paxlovid, on rare occasions, causes a COVID rebound, i.e. you start testing positive again. This is so rare, Jill Biden rebounded, Joe Biden rebounded and Anthony Fauci rebounded. They just all must be really unlucky.
People were getting worried about Walesnky. She had gone quiet for longer than expected. 10 days had passed and she had only been seen on the odd video. Where had she gone?
You’ve guessed it, after taking Paxlovid, Walensky has also rebounded. After testing negative, mild symptoms returned on Sunday and she is isolating at home again.
Paxlovid seems to return symptoms quicker than the Speed of Science.
The question is, why are they all so keen to tell us that their safe and effective vaccines and drugs are no longer effective? They could easily disappear for a few weeks and nobody would be any the wiser that they had rebounded or even contracted mild Covid in the first place. There is clearly a nudging agenda going on.
Netanyahu says to ‘neutralise’ Lebanon maritime deal
MEMO | October 31, 2022
Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Monday he will “neutralise” a recent maritime border deal with Lebanon if he is elected prime minister.
“I will behave as I did with the Oslo Accords,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Army Radio.
He said that the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians “were not cancelled, they were neutralised.”
The former premier, however, did not detail his specific intentions for the border agreement with Lebanon during his Monday’s interview.
Last week, Israel and Lebanon signed a US-mediated deal to demarcate maritime border between the two countries. The deal covers an area in the Mediterranean Sea, which contains part of the Karish gas field and Qana, a prospective gas field.
Netanyahu had termed the maritime deal as “illegal”, saying he would not be bound by it. He argued that Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, and Defense Minister, Benny Gantz, “didn’t want to extract the gas in the first place, but now they want to surrender it to Hezbollah.”
Israeli voters will go to polling stations on Tuesday in the country’s 5th legislative election in less than four years.
Opinion polls suggest that Netanyahu, the leader of the right-wing Likud Party, could come within a single seat of an outright majority in the Knesset (Israel’s parliament).
UK-Aided Ukrainian Attempt at Sabotaging Grain Deal to Backfire, Expert Says
Samizdat – 31.10.2022
MOSCOW – Ukraine attacked Russian naval ships that escorted vital grain exports in an attempt to escalate the hunger crisis for the world and blame it on Russia, but the move will likely backfire to make Africa and the Middle East wary of the West and more trustful of Moscow, French political commentator Charles Gave told Sputnik.
Russia quit the UN- and Turkey-brokered grain shipping deal on Saturday after its Black Sea naval ships and civil vessels were attacked in a drone strike that it said was coordinated by the UK. Russia, a leading global grain producer, promised to supply up to 500,000 tonnes of grain to the poorest countries free of charge in the coming months to offset shortfalls from Ukrainian exports.
“The only reason for this drone attack, which is a provocation that really threatens to stop altogether the delivery of grain from Ukraine, is the will to sabotage the grain agreement and present Russia as the arch-villain in the conflict,” Gave said.
He believes, however, that the opposite will likely happen.
“In the end the boomerang effect will probably be that African and Middle East countries will be made much more aware that they can count on Russian grain and that the West, by disrupting the export of grain through the Black Sea, is to blame for this new negative development,” he said.
The attack caused wheat and corn to trade higher on the global stock markets on Monday after the July grain deal saw cereal and vegetable oil prices drop to pre-conflict levels.
Gave, the founder of TVLibertes news channel, said Russia only stood to benefit from the Ukrainian drone strike because it would inflate its grain revenues, while its offer of free grain to those in need would strengthen its image as a reliable partner among the developing countries.
He also called Ukraine’s behavior irresponsible because it risked a deal that had been painstakingly negotiated by Turkey to stage a “public relations exercise and a provocation to create the buzz.”
“I see Russia gaining more and more capacity to influence ‘the rest of the world’ and turn developing countries away from the West,” Gave said. “The consequences are very bad for the countries of destination of the grain export. The West should stop involving itself more and more as a co-belligerent in the conflict and actively support negotiations,” he cautioned.
Russia closes Black Sea ‘grain corridor’
Samizdat – October 31, 2022
The Russian military closed the so-called “grain corridor” used to ship Ukrainian agriculture products through the Black Sea on Monday. The move was provoked by the actions of Ukraine, which used the route to launch attacks on Russia, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
“Any navigation through the security corridor designated under the Black Sea [grain shipment] initiative would be halted until the situation around the Ukrainian … terrorist attack on the military and civilian vessels in Sevastopol is cleared,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry also said that Kiev should specifically commit not to use the corridor for military purposes. At the same time, it maintained that Russia does not withdraw from the deal but only suspends it for an indefinite period of time.
Earlier on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia was ready to compensate for the missing Ukrainian grain exports to the poorer nations from its own stocks. He also warned that the grain deal has become “much more risky, dangerous” now since Russia cannot guarantee maritime security in the waters of the designated grain corridor.
Russia is “still in contact” with other parties, including the UN and Türkiye, Peskov said, adding, however, that Moscow was not ready to be talked into resuming its participation in the deal.
A dozen ships carrying Ukrainian grain were cleared to leave Turkish ports earlier on Monday. The Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul agreed on a plan to inspect a further 40 ships, despite Moscow’s decision to suspend the deal. It is unclear whether it will follow on its plan now.
Russia tells UN it will inspect Black Sea ships
Samizdat – October 31, 2022
Ukraine “grossly violated” the Istanbul agreement on grain exports via the Black Sea and forced Moscow to suspend it indefinitely, Russia’s envoy to the UN Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council on Monday. The Russian navy will inspect all cargo ships bound for Ukraine, even those unilaterally cleared by the Turkish-based coordination center, he added.
“This subversive action of Kiev grossly violates the Istanbul agreements and, in fact, puts an end to their humanitarian dimension. It is now obvious to everyone that the Black Sea humanitarian corridor is being used by the Ukrainian side for military sabotage purposes,” Nebenzia said, referring to Saturday’s drone attack on Sevastopol.
Russia “cannot guarantee the safety of civilian ships participating in the Black Sea initiative,” Nebenzia added, as “We do not know what other terrorist attacks Kiev is preparing with the support of its Western sponsors.”
On Sunday, after Moscow announced the suspension of the arrangement, the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) in Istanbul said it had greenlit 16 ships to navigate the corridor on Monday and “informed” Russia about the decision. According to maritime traffic data, at least two ships left the Black Sea port of Odessa in the morning, reporting Istanbul as their destination.
“Decisions and measures taken without our participation are not binding on us,” Nebenzia told the UN. Moscow “cannot allow ships to pass without our inspection and will be forced to take independent measures” to inspect ships authorized by the JCC without Russian approval.
Meanwhile, the UN coordinator for the Black Sea grain initiative, Amir Abdulla, insisted that “the food must flow.”
The UN and Türkiye mediated a deal in July under which Ukrainian grain could be exported via the Black Sea, while Western obstacles to the export of Russian grain and fertilizer would be removed. The US and its allies insist they had never sanctioned grain exports – but their sanctions on Russian ships and insurance made them impossible in practice.
Moscow has criticized the West for not living up to its part of the deal and pointed out that the bulk of Ukrainian exports went to the EU and not the African nations most affected by food insecurity.
US sanctions Chinese chip industry
Free West Media | October 31, 2022
With new US sanctions against China, which came into force on October 12, the Biden administration delivered a serious blow against the Asian giant. Any cooperation with Chinese chip and memory manufacturers and in particular the export of semiconductors to China is now prohibited.
Foreign companies that do not comply with these US requirements also run the risk of becoming victims of American sanctions. What is particularly disastrous is that the new sanctions require all US citizens working in China to immediately stop working for Chinese partner companies or company subsidiaries – otherwise there is even a risk of their US citizenship being revoked.
Chinese media such as the South China Morning Post reported that, as a result, US engineers have already left China “en masse”.
The US measures could have serious consequences for Chinese industry and the Chinese military. According to the German business daily Handelsblatt, the new trade restrictions could lead to massive supply bottlenecks and “throw the Chinese chip industry back by years”.
The Sino-American analyst Jordan Schneider goes even further and speaks in a detailed tweet of an “industry-wide decapitation” of the Chinese chip industry. The US plans meant “annihilation” for China’s chip manufacturers.
The US government justified its latest sanctions as a “national emergency” in relation to telecommunications and information technology.
Some time ago, US President Biden commissioned the establishment of a completely American semiconductor industry. On October 7, he said: “The supply chain will start here and end here.”
But in a Politico opinion piece, another analyst lamented that it could be up to “2 years before officers actually move in [to the US State Department’s new ‘China House’]”. The urge to compete with China while struggling to build a 60-person office in less than a year, does not bode well for American ambitions to compete.
From China’s perspective, it will be difficult to isolate the country. It is therefore doubtful whether the US can enforce unilateral executive orders to prevent non-US chip companies from conducting normal cooperation and trade with China.
For non-US companies refusing to join a chip boycott, it means escaping unilateral US bans which will eventually undercut US companies’ competitiveness by depriving them of the huge Chinese market.
“US restrictions will only accelerate the development of China’s chip sector, because the Chinese market won’t wait for the US to come to its senses. If the Chinese chip sector catches up quickly and no longer relies on imports, it will not be a $2,5 billion loss for a single US company, but hundreds of billions of dollars of loss for the chip industry,” the Global Times opined.
The export ban in May 2019 of Chinese tech firm Huawei, saw top American chipmakers reporting a median revenue decline of up to 9 percent in some cases.
The Biden administration’s latest tech controls threaten to accelerate such losses, creating chaos in the global semiconductor sector, especially if China decides to retaliate. US companies could lose 18 percent of their global market share and 37 percent of their revenues if the US completely bans semiconductor companies from selling to Chinese customers.
The German government meanwhile plans to approve a Chinese takeover of the chip production of Dortmund-based company Elmos, business daily Handelsblatt reported, citing government sources.
The economy ministry is examining the sale of Elmos‘ chip factory to competitor Silex, a Swedish company that is a subsidiary of Chinese group Sai Microelectronics, with approval expected in the coming weeks. The ministry had no immediate comment when contacted by Reuters.
Ukraine power executive says supplies have run out
Samizdat | October 31, 2022
Ukraine’s largest private power utility, DTEK Holding, said on Monday that it had run out of equipment to repair damage inflicted by Russian attacks. The latest round of missile strikes plunged Kiev and several other cities into darkness.
“Unfortunately, we have already used up the stock of equipment we had in warehouses after the first two waves of enemy attacks that have been taking place since October 10,” DTEK executive director Dmitry Sakharuk told Ukrainian media.
Sakharuk added that DTEK has been able to buy some replacement parts at a cost of “hundreds of millions of dollars,” and is now “working on how to purchase it or get it from our partners.”
Ukraine’s power grid uses Soviet-standard equipment that is incompatible with parts from the West and difficult to obtain outside of Russia. DTEK, owned by oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, accounts for a third of the country’s electricity market via coal-powered plants.
Another wave of missiles struck Kiev, Kharkov, Cherkasy and Vinnitsa on Monday. Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said some 350,000 apartments were without power, while water supply was disrupted in about 80% of the city. The metro system in Kharkov was offline.
Ukrainian power grid operator Ukrenergy has introduced rolling blackouts in many regions, begging the population to reduce power consumption in order to avoid a “total collapse.”
Russia began targeting Ukraine’s power grid on October 10. President Vladimir Putin explained the change of tactics by saying Kiev has carried out “sabotage” attacks against Russian infrastructure, including nuclear power plants. The October 8 suicide attack that damaged the Crimean Bridge was the final straw, the Russian president said.
Moscow sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian president Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”
In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.
US carrier strike group heading for Europe
Samizdat – October 31, 2022
A US carrier strike group, led by new supercarrier USS Gerald Ford, is expected to anchor near Portsmouth in southern England in mid-November, the UK Defense Journal reported on Sunday.
The exact date of the flotilla’s arrival, which includes seven other warships, has not been announced publicly, the outlet noted. Releasing such data now “might not be the best idea from a security point of view,” it added.
Some of the American vessels will dock at the Royal Navy’s Portsmouth naval base, while the USS Gerald Ford will have to anchor outside, at the roadstead in the Spithead area, due to its size, according to the outlet.
The 333-meter carrier reportedly hosts some 90 planes and helicopters, including the fifth-generation F-35C fighter-bombers.
The USS Gerald Ford, commissioned by the US Navy in 2017, is the first ship of the similarly named Ford class, and is the largest aircraft carrier in the world.
It began its maiden ‘service-retained’ deployment on October 4, departing from Norfolk, Virginia. The vessel visited its first international port on Friday, arriving in Halifax, Canada.
According to the US Navy, the USS Gerald Ford has been conducting multinational maritime exercises in the Atlantic Ocean with such NATO allies as Canada, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany.
After leaving Halifax, the supercarrier is set to continue “conducting training and operations alongside NATO Allies and partners to enhance integration for future operations and demonstrate the US Navy’s commitment to a peaceful, stable and conflict-free Atlantic region,” it added.
The commander of the carrier strike group, Rear Admiral Greg Huffman, described the deployment as “an opportunity to further advance the operational capabilities of the Ford and demonstrate the advantages that Ford and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8 bring to the future of naval aviation, to the region and to our allies and partners.”
If reports of the US flotilla heading to British shores are confirmed, it will become the second American carrier strike group in European waters.
The USS George Bush and its supporting vessels are currently in the Adriatic Sea after taking part in NATO’s Neptune Strike defense and deterrence exercise in the Mediterranean between October 14 and 28.
When asked by Sky News if the USS George Bush strike group was prepared to fight Russia if such an order were given by Washington, its commander Rear Admiral Dennis Velez said: “this ship, this strike group, our allies: we are ready for anything. We demonstrate that every day.”
‘Inflation came from nowhere’ – Lagarde
Samizdat | October 31, 2022
The European Central Bank (ECB) has doubled its key interest rate to the highest level in more than a decade in an attempt to combat soaring inflation, ECB President Christine Lagarde has explained.
In October, the inflation rate in the Eurozone reached 10.7%, according to official preliminary data, released on Monday.
In an interview with Irish state broadcaster RTE on Friday, Lagarde said: “We do it because we are fighting inflation” that had “pretty much come about from nowhere.” She pointed to a speedier-than-expected economic rebound from the pandemic as a cause alongside “the energy crisis caused by Mr. Putin who has decided in an unjustifiable way to invade another country.”
The ECB chief added: “That’s what he [Putin] is trying to do, cause chaos and destroy as much of Europe as he can. This energy crisis is causing massive inflation which we have to defeat.”
She went on to say that “Anybody who is behaving in that way has to be driven by evil forces,” and that the “sick” Russian president is a “terrifying person.”
Discussing her previous meetings with the Russian leader, Lagarde described him as an “unbelievably super-briefed person” with “flashing, freezing eyes.”
After expressing her view, Lagarde however stressed that she’s “just a central banker,” and “shouldn’t be saying all these things.”
On Thursday, the ECB announced another interest rate hike, taking Eurozone rates to the highest level since 2009. According to Lagarde, they are aimed at bringing inflation back to “reasonable levels so the cost of living isn’t as high as it is for people.” In October, inflation across the euro area hit 10.7%, according to preliminary data from Eurostat.
The EU has blamed Russia for the spiraling energy crisis across the continent. However, many economists point to the bloc’s fiscal policy responses as a major reason behind the crisis. Moscow has also criticized the “illogical and often absurd” moves by Western nations, saying that the sanctions imposed by the US, EU, and other countries on Russia have backfired and resulted in a sweeping energy crisis as well as record inflation across the West.