It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, February 15, 2022
‘Divine’ white deer spotted in snowfields in Hokkaido
By MASATOSHI NARAYAMA/ Staff Writer
February 15, 2022
Two white “ezoshika” deer are spotted in the Sarobetsu plain in northern Hokkaido on Feb. 13. (Masatoshi Narayama)
Two indigenous white “ezoshika” deer, considered a “messenger of God,” were seen separately grazing in snow-covered fields in the Sarobetsu plain in northern Hokkaido on Feb. 13.
The two were spotted in the late afternoon on the eastern side of the scenic Ororon Line, a road running along the coast of the Sea of Japan. They appeared to be does.
One was seen in a snowfield in Toyotomi town, grazing on what was initially a round hay bale. The hay was strewn about after being eaten almost daily by animals.
This ezoshika is apparently a “regular” visitor to the location since it was also spotted there in January. The other ezoshika was seen accompanying a slightly larger doe in a snowfield in Horonobe town.
Deer are normally covered with dark brown fur this time of winter, but the white deer had vivid white spots on their bodies, making them look even more divine.
A white deer has been spotted around the area from time to time. The latest sightings confirmed that there are at least two white deer.
The northernmost main island has been hit by heavy snow this winter, apparently prompting herds of the indigenous Hokkaido deer to search for food in coastal areas that have experienced lighter snowfall.
Small quakes reported near North Korea nuclear site amid talk of resumed testing
REUTERS
February 15, 2022
South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence in Paju, near the border with North Korea, in South Korea, on Jan. 5. (AP Photo)
SEOUL--A series of small, natural earthquakes has struck near North Korea’s shuttered nuclear test site, South Korea has said, highlighting the area’s geological instability as Pyongyang hints it could resume testing for the first time since 2017.
At least four earthquakes have hit the region in the past five days, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) in Seoul.
The latest was a 2.5 magnitude quake on Tuesday morning, which was centered about 36 kilometers from the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site. A pair of 2.3 magnitude earthquakes were reported in the area on Monday and another at 3.1 magnitude on Friday.
Punggye-ri in northeast North Korea is the country’s only known facility for conducting nuclear tests. The last known weapons test was conducted in Sept. 2017, when North Korea detonated its sixth and largest nuclear bomb, which it claimed was a thermonuclear weapon.
In the weeks after that explosion, experts pointed to a series of tremors and landslides near the nuclear test base as a sign the large blast had destabilized the region, which had never previously registered natural earthquakes.
After one such quake in 2020, South Korean government experts said the nuclear explosions appeared to have permanently changed the geology of the area, while some experts raised fears that radioactive pollution could be released if North Korea ever used the site again.
Seismic activity induced by nuclear tests is not unusual and has been documented at other major nuclear test sites such as the Nevada Test Site in the United States and the former Soviet Union’s Semipalatinsk site in Kazakhstan, said Frank Pabian, a retired analyst with the United States’ Los Alamos National Laboratory.
“Such seismicity should not prevent the Punggye-ri nuclear test from being used again in the future,” he said. “The only difference being that any future testing would be limited to only previously unused tunnels.”
The entrances to those tunnels were blown up in front of a small group of foreign media invited to view the demolition when North Korea closed the site in 2018, declaring its nuclear force complete. North Korea rejected calls for international experts to inspect the closure.
Leader Kim Jong Un has said he no longer is bound by the self-imposed moratorium on testing, and the country hinted in January that it is considering resuming tests of nuclear weapons or long-range ballistic missiles because of a lack of progress in talks with the United States and its allies.
Since the closure, monitoring groups have said that satellite imagery so far shows no major signs of activity at Punggye-ri beyond routine security patrols and maintenance.
Trump, Pence speak at global forum held in South Korea
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 15, 2022
President Donald Trump walks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Sentosa Island, in Singapore, on June 12, 2018. (AP file Photo)
SEOUL--Former U.S. President Donald Trump has criticized the Biden administration over its handling of North Korea, at an event in South Korea that included as a guest speaker former Vice-President Mike Pence.
Several former leaders and top officials participated virtually or in-person at the weekend event in Seoul jointly sponsored by the Cambodian government and the Universal Peace Federation, an organization linked to the South Korea-based Unification Church, a religious group known for its mass weddings and global business and media interests.
Pence, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon were among those who attended the event and spoke in person.
Trump appeared in a recorded video message that was screened on Sunday at the forum.
He said that a recent “return to escalation” that has seen North Korean leader Kim Jong Un launch missile tests would “never have happened if I were president.”
He also urged North Korea not to undertake any actions that could “endanger” what he described as the “unique opportunity that we worked so hard to create together over the past four years.”
The North resumed tests of shorter-range weapons threatening U.S. ally South Korea while Trump was in office in 2019. The year before, Kim had unilaterally suspended the testing of nuclear explosives and intercontinental-range ballistic missiles.
Trump met Kim three times during his presidency. Their diplomacy never recovered from the collapse of their second meeting in February 2019, when the Americans rejected North Korean demands for a major release of U.S.-led sanctions in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.
North Korea kicked off 2020 with ramped-up testing activity, conducting seven rounds of missile launches in January alone.
Experts say the North could increase weapons demonstrations after its ally China finishes hosting the Winter Olympics in Beijing, as it attempts to move the needle with the Biden administration, which has offered open-ended talks but shown no willingness to budge on sanctions.
During his speech at the weekend gathering, Pence said deepening relations between China and Russia are posing increasing threats to their democratic neighbors, according to the forum organizers. He also called for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the statement read.
While in Seoul, Pence met with South Korean conservative presidential candidate, Yoon Suk Yeol, as well as foreign policy advisers to the rival ruling party of Lee Jae-myung. The U.S. politician exchanged views on North Korea, according to campaign officials with from both camps.
3M expects to sell fewer Covid-19 masks this year
NEW YORK, Feb 15, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - After seeing sales of medical masks soar during the Covid-19 pandemic, US manufacturer 3M warned Monday that demand is expected to slow sharply this year.
The warning echoes that of other companies like vaccine-maker Pfizer and the CVS drugstore chain that have said pandemic-related sales are likely to soften.
After Covid-19 broke out in 2020, 3M, a conglomerate that makes a wide range of products from Post-it notes to air filters, quickly ramped up output of face masks, which became ubiquitous.
But in its quarterly earnings report Monday, 3M forecast a "decline in Covid-related respirator demand" which it said will weigh on overall sales growth and also dampen earnings.
Honeywell in early February said it sold fewer masks in the fourth quarter compared to the same period in 2020, and sees the slowdown continuing this year, hitting the company's overall sales.
Pfizer, whose vaccine developed with German company BioNTech was the first approved in the United States to counter the deadly virus, warned last week that sales of the jabs would slow in 2022.
But the US pharmaceutical group expects to see sales of its Covid-19 treatment pill to jump to at least $22 billion.
Meanwhile, CVS, which conducted 32 million Covid tests and administered more than 59 million vaccines in 2021, said last week it is expecting vaccinations to drop by 70 to 80 percent and testing to fall by as much as 50 percent.
CVS Chief financial officer Shawn Guertin told analysts the chain should see a "modest" uptick in sales of over-the-counter test kits.
Top Afghan Diplomat Accuses US of Breaking Doha Promises
KABUL (Sputnik) - The acting Afghan foreign minister has accused the United States in an interview with Sputnik of not following through on the commitments it made during Doha talks.
"No, the United States has not taken action in some aspects [of the 2020 Doha agreement]," Amir Khan Muttaqi told Sputnik in an interview.
The Taliban* had to free its men from prisons after the US-installed government fell, in what Muttaqi argued was a breach of a US promise to facilitate their gradual release.
The Taliban official said that Washington did not deliver on its promise to have Taliban members removed from international blacklists and help the interim government rebuild the war-torn country.
"It was promised that the US would cooperate in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and encourage other countries to do the same. Instead of cooperating, they imposed sanctions," Muttaqi said.
But he stressed that the caretaker Afghan government stayed true to its commitment to prevent terrorists from using Afghan soil to threaten the security of the US and its allies.
"So far, this soil has not been used against them. We promised them that we would maintain economic and diplomatic relations with the US. We stand by that promise," he added.
*The Taliban is an organisation under UN sanctions for terrorist activities.
Texas abortions plummeted after the 6-week ban and caused a backlog in care
Taiyler Simone Mitchell Protesters, demonstrators and activists gather in front of the U.S. Supreme Court as the justices hear arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, a case about a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, on December 01, 2021. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Since then, there has been a backlog of patients running to get the procedure done. The ban, which makes it illegal to get abortions after the six-week mark, inspired several others. The number of Texas patients getting abortions plummeted drastically after the ban on the procedure after the six-week pregnancy mark was implemented in the state, according to The Washington Post.
One month after the September 1 implementation of Senate Bill 8 — the most restrictive abortion ban in the country — the number of abortions in Texas decreased by 50%, according to the Texas Policy Evaluation Project.
Senate Bill 8 allows for private citizens to sue abortion providers after learning of someone getting an abortion past the six-week mark and collect $10,000 in damages if they win. Experts told Insider's Kelsey Vlamis that laws like this could encourage legal vigilantism and chaos. SB8 has inspiredseveral similar bills similar across the country.
The restrictive law is also causing a backlog of patients trying to get the procedure. Patients rushing to make an appointment for abortion has created been more of a time crunch for them to receive care — and clinics are scrambling to get patients in for the procedure in a timely manner.
Assuming a patient has a regular 28-day menstrual cycle, they could then have just two weeks after a missed period to schedule an appointment and go through the necessary steps before getting the abortion — including setting up the appointment, seeing the doctor, and a legally required 24-hour waiting period after consultation.
"If there is a two-week waiting period, you would have had to schedule your abortion before you missed your period," Joe Nelson, a doctor, told The Post. "How can we possibly expect patients to do that?"
Much of the democratic world would like the United States to remain the pre-eminent global power. But with the US apparently committed to strategic overreach, that outcome risks becoming unlikely.
The problem with America’s global leadership begins at home. Hyper-partisan politics and profound polarisation are eroding American democracy and impeding the pursuit of long-term objectives. In foreign policy, the partisan divide can be seen in perceptions of potential challengers to the US: according to a March 2021 poll, Republicans are most concerned about China, while Democrats worry about Russia above all.
This may explain why US President Joe Biden is treating a ‘rogue’ Russia as a peer competitor, when he should be focused on the challenge from America’s actual peer, China. In comparison to Russia, China’s population is about 10 times bigger, its economy is almost 10 times larger, and its military expenditure is around four times greater. Not only is China more powerful than Russia, it genuinely seeks to supplant the US as the pre-eminent global power. By contrast, with its military build-up on Ukraine’s borders, Russia is seeking to mitigate a perceived security threat in its neighbourhood.
Hastening the decline of US global leadership is hardly the preserve of Democrats. A bipartisan parade of US leaders has failed to recognise that the post-Cold War unipolar world order, characterised by unchallenged US economic and military predominance, is long gone. The US squandered its ‘unipolar moment’, especially by waging an expensive and amorphous global war on terror, including several military interventions, and through its treatment of Russia.
After its Cold War victory, the US essentially took an extended victory lap, pursuing strategic manoeuvres that flaunted its dominance. Notably, it sought to expand NATO to Russia’s backyard, but made little effort to bring Russia into the Western fold, as it had done with Germany and Japan after World War II. The souring of relations with the Kremlin contributed to Russia’s eventual remilitarisation.
So, while the US remains the world’s foremost military power, it has been stretched thin by the decisions and commitments it has made, in Europe and elsewhere, since 1991. This goes a long way towards explaining why the US has ruled out deploying its own troops to defend Ukraine today. What the US is offering Ukraine—weapons and ammunition—cannot protect the country from Russia, which has an overwhelming military advantage over its neighbour.
But US leaders made another fatal mistake since the Cold War: they aided China’s rise, helping to create the greatest rival their country has ever faced. Unfortunately, they have yet to learn from this. Instead, the US continues to dedicate insufficient attention and resources to an excessively wide array of global issues, from Russian revanchism and Chinese aggression to lesser threats in the Middle East and Africa, and on the Korean peninsula. And it continues inadvertently to bolster China’s global influence, not least through its overuse of sanctions.
For example, by barring friends and allies from importing Iranian oil, two successive US administrations enabled China not only to secure oil at a hefty discount, but also to become a top investor in—and security partner of—the Islamic republic. US sanctions have similarly pushed resource-rich Myanmar into China’s arms. As Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, whose country has faced a US arms embargo over its ties to China, asked last year, ‘If I don’t rely on China, who will I rely on?’
Russia has been asking itself the same question. Though Russia and China kept each other at arm’s length for decades, US-led sanctions introduced after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea drove President Vladimir Putin to pursue a closer strategic partnership with China. The bilateral relationship is likely to deepen, regardless of what happens in Ukraine. But the raft of harsh new sanctions the US has promised to implement in the event of a Russian invasion will accelerate this shift significantly, with China as the big winner.
The heavy financial penalties the US has planned—including the ‘nuclear option’ of disconnecting Russian banks from the international SWIFT payments system—would turn China into Russia’s banker, enabling it to reap vast profits and expand the international use of its currency. If Biden fulfilled his pledge to block the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which is set to deliver Russian supplies directly to Germany via the Baltic Sea, China would gain greater access to Russian energy.
In fact, by securing a commitment from Putin this month to a nearly tenfold increase in Russian natural gas exports, China is building a safety net that could—in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan—withstand Western energy sanctions and even a blockade. China could also benefit militarily by demanding greater access to Russian military technology in exchange for its support.
For the US, a strengthened Russia–China axis is the worst possible outcome of the Ukraine crisis. The best outcome would be a compromise with Russia to ensure that it does not invade and possibly annex Ukraine. By enabling the US to avoid further entanglement in Europe, this would permit a more realistic balancing of key objectives—especially checking Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific—with available resources and capabilities.
The future of the US-led international order will be decided in Asia, and China is currently doing everything in its power to ensure that order’s demise. Already, China is powerful enough that it can host the Winter Olympics even as it carries out a genocide against Muslims in the Xinjiang region, with limited pushback. If the Biden administration does not recognise the true scale of the threat China poses, and adopt an appropriately targeted strategy soon, whatever window of opportunity for preserving US pre-eminence remains may well close.
Tucker Carlson ripped Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a dictator on Monday, and derided American politicians he said are attempting to garner sympathy for he and his country.
Zelensky stated early on Monday that his country would face a direct attack from Russia by Wednesday.
Those close to him clarified he was merely joking, as more than 100,000 Russian troops are amassed along Ukraine’s borders.
U.S. officials have offered no indication they are kidding, as it has been stated numerous times since last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin could attack at any moment.
While Zelensky is portrayed in the media as a sympathetic figure whose country faces potential encroachment from and occupation by Moscow, Carlson said on his Fox News show that Zelensky is actually a tyrant.
The host accused Ukraine’s government of jailing its political opponents and engaging in rampant censorship.
After attacking Democrats and “some low-IQ” Republicans, Carlson scoffed at the notion that Ukraine is even a democracy.
“Why Ukraine?” Carlson asked. “Because the president’s son was paid $1 million a year by Ukraine and they have a massive lobbying effort in Washington.”
Carlson slammed people such as Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) for portraying Ukraine versus Russia as a binary choice between good versus evil.
According to Carlson, both countries are autocratic, and any issue between them are for them to sort out.
“What exactly is Ukraine like, what’s its government like?” Carlson said. “Turns out, it’s run by a dictator who’s friends with everyone in Washington.”
Carlson said the country’s main opposition figure “is now under arrest and the opposition media, the TV stations, have been shut down by the government.”
“That’s how a dictatorship operates,” he said, before he noted, “It should make you very nervous that Joe Biden, Susan Rice and the National Security Advisor kid, they’re all telling us with a straight face… it’s a democracy.”
Carlson further commented that “no country that jails its opposition leader is a democracy.”
He also argued that it appears as though the Biden administration is running Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.
Author Richard Hanania joined the show, where he offered what he said are numerous examples of Ukraine’s government behaving undemocratically.
Hanania invoked the case of former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, who is currently facing treason charges, and is a vocal opponent to Zelensky.
Carlson’s guest inferred the charges against Poroshenko’s are trumped up. He noted,
And so it’s not a question of whether Russia or Ukraine is perfect. It’s a question of whether Ukraine matters to the united States. Whether Ukraine is such a morally upstanding country that it’s worth the U.S. poisoning its relations with another super power, the only country in the world thats a pure competitor as far as number of nuclear weapons, bringing in a tornado and going to war for Ukraine.
Hanania added that what happens in Ukraine is “none of our business.”
Carlson concluded, “I think it’s the kind of democracy they’d like to see here. Maybe that’s the point.”
Watch above, via Fox News.
Honduran police surround house of ex-president after U.S. seeks extradition
FILE PHOTO: U.S. declassifies blacklisting of former Honduras leader Hernandez
Mon, February 14, 2022 By Gustavo Palencia and Marvin Valladares
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) -Scores of Honduran police officers on Monday surrounded the house of former president Juan Orlando Hernandez after the United States asked the government to arrest and extradite Washington's key erstwhile ally in the region.
Speculation has been swirling for months that the United States was planning to extradite Hernandez when he left office amid accusations that he colluded with drug traffickers. Leftist leader Xiomara Castro replaced him as president last month.
Washington's request for extradition represents a major about-face by the U.S. government, which saw Hernandez as a vital ally in the volatile Central America region during his eight years in power.
The United States had already placed Hernandez on a blacklist, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken this month said there were credible reports Hernandez "has engaged in significant corruption by committing or facilitating acts of corruption and narco-trafficking".
Hernandez could not be immediately reached for comment but he has always denied any links to drug traffickers.
A Reuters witness outside Hernandez's house said about 100 police officers were waiting outside.
Hernandez's lawyer, Hermes RamÃrez, told Canal 5 television that the former president was holed up inside his home and that the arrest warrant for Hernandez is illegal because he has immunity as a member of the regional Central American parliament.
"They are trying to trample on the rights of President Hernandez," Ramirez said.
Hernandez formally joined the Guatemala-based regional body, called Parlacen, just a few hours after Castro's inauguration as president.
Parlacen affords members immunity from prosecution in Central America, though that immunity can be removed or suspended if a member's home country requests it.
Luis Javier Santos, Honduras' best known anti-corruption prosecutor, said on Twitter that "there is no impediment to his extradition".
The Honduran Foreign Ministry earlier in the day said the U.S. Embassy had requested the arrest of a Honduran politician who is the subject of an extradition request to the United States, without naming him.
A senior Honduran official, speaking anonymously because they were not allowed to speak to media on the subject, told Reuters the United States "requested the provisional arrest of former president Juan Orlando Hernández for extradition purposes".
Melvin Duarte, a spokesman for the Honduran judiciary, said the Supreme Court is due to meet at 9.30am on Tuesday to name a judge to oversee Hernandez' extradition case.
Throughout his time in power Hernandez, cultivated close ties to Washington and most notably won the support of former U.S. President Donald Trump, using Honduran security forces to help the Republican leader cut down on U.S.-bound land migration routes from Central America and further afield.
But allegations of links with drug traffickers dogged his time in power, which was also marred by corruption scandals.
Last year, a U.S. judge sentenced Hernandez's brother to life in prison plus 30 years for drug trafficking.
(Reporting by Gustavo Palencia and Marvin Valladares.Writing by Drazen JorgicEditing by Clarence Fernandez, Kim Coghill and Gerry Doyle)
AOC says there is a 'very real risk' that the nation will not 'have a democracy' a decade from now
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said that she thinks there is a possibility that the U.S. will no longer "have a democracy" in a decade.
"The infrastructure plan, if it does what it’s intended to do, politicians will take credit for it ten years from now, if we even have a democracy ten years from now," the Democratic lawmaker said during an interview earlier this month, according to the New Yorker.
"I think there’s a very real risk that we will not. What we risk is having a government that perhaps postures as a democracy, and may try to pretend that it is, but isn’t," she said.
The outlet noted that the interview, which occurred on Feb. 1, had "been edited for length and clarity."
Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive lawmaker who is currently serving her second term in Congress, indicated that the country has a problem with an increase in "white-nationalist, reactionary politics."
"You have white-nationalist, reactionary politics starting to grow into a critical mass. What we have is the continued sophisticated takeover of our democratic systems in order to turn them into undemocratic systems, all in order to overturn results that a party in power may not like," she said, according to the New Yorker.
The legislator said that there is a danger of the nation reverting to the racism of the Jim Crow era.
"I think we will return to Jim Crow. I think that’s what we risk," she said.
"And the question that we’re really facing is: Was the last fifty to sixty years after the Civil Rights Act just a mere flirtation that the United States had with a multiracial democracy that we will then decide was inconvenient for those in power? And we will revert to what we had before, which, by the way, wasn’t just Jim Crow but also the extraordinary economic oppression as well?" Ocasio-Cortez said, according to the outlet.
A Republican county clerk in Colorado who was stripped of her responsibility of overseeing county elections is joining a growing movement of people throughout the country who spread false claims about fraud in the 2020 presidential election and want to oversee the next one.
Tina Peters, the Mesa County clerk, who is facing accusations that she breached the security of voting machines, announced on Monday that she would run to be the top elections official in Colorado.
At least three Republican challengers are already running to unseat the current Colorado secretary of state, Jena Griswold, a Democrat.
Colorado is a purple state that President Biden won with 55 percent of the vote in 2020. The state’s primary is on June 28, and Colorado is one of 27 states whose top elections official will be on the ballot this year.
Given what the national context is likely to be in November, not great!
