Reflectii

Americans performed three very different policies on the People’s Republic: From a total negation (and the Mao-time mutual annihilation assurances), to Nixon’s sudden cohabitation. Finally, a Copernican-turn: the US spotted no real ideological differences between them and the post-Deng China. This signalled a ‘new opening’: West imagined China’s coastal areas as its own industrial suburbia. Soon after, both countries easily agreed on interdependence (in this marriage of convenience): Americans pleased their corporate (machine and tech) sector and unrestrained its greed, while Chinese in return offered a cheap labour, no environmental considerations and submissiveness in imitation. Both spiced it by nearly religious approach to trade.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded 10 teams more than $18 million total in first-round contracts for a program aimed at making night vision glasses less bulky and more powerful.

The U.S. agency announced the Enhanced Night Vision in Eyeglass Form program last year, calling on industry and academia to submit proposals in two technical tracks. The first focuses on developing prototypes to reduce the size of the eyepieces and intensifiers on current night vision glasses. The second explores new methods for converting infrared light reflected into visible images.

Persistent Divisions Will Preclude His Dreams of Global Power

On May 11, 1962, U.S. President John F. Kennedy hosted an extraordinary gathering of American cultural talent to welcome France’s minister of culture, André Malraux. The dinner—which included luminaries such as the novelist Saul Bellow, the painter Mark Rothko, the playwright Arthur Miller, and the violinist Isaac Stern—was a celebration of the long-standing historical ties between the United States and France. Only hours before this glamorous fete, however, Kennedy, Malraux, and the French ambassador to the United States had a sharp exchange over French President Charles de Gaulle’s increasingly strident critiques of U.S. policy and accompanying demands for strategic autonomy.

The American Trap – My Battle to Expose America’s Secret Economic War Against the Rest of the World. Frédéric Pierucci (with Mathieu Aron). HOdder & Stoughton, London, 2020.

It becomes more clear with more and more readings that the “American trap” is the U.S. dollar, and that for some it is no secret. Frédéric Pierucci’s well written personal story tells how he became a pawn in the greater game of economic control of the world’s finances and the world’s politicians and corporations. This story reminded me of John Perkins’ Confessions of an Economic Hitman in that it is not an academic research paper nor a journalistic exposé, but the story of one person’s journey into the darker side of geopolitical manipulations.

Why Washington Must Reckon With the Devastating Inflation Its Policies Cause

Around the world, governments are grappling with inflation as supply chain disruptions and the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic contribute to higher prices for all types of goods. Western politicians have spent the last few months trying to assuage the fears of their constituents, who are unaccustomed to fast-rising prices. Just before Thanksgiving, U.S. President Joe Biden promised “coordinated action … to deal with the lack of supply, which in turn helps ease prices.” French President Emmanuel Macron promised a cash handout to French citizens to ease the pain. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told Britons to get tough as there is “no alternative” to inflation.

Throughout 2021, Americans were absorbed in arguments over mask mandates, school closings, and the meaning of the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Meanwhile, geopolitical hot spots were erupting across Eurasia, forming a veritable ring of fire around that vast land mass.

Let’s circle that continent to visit just a few of those flashpoints, each one suffused with significance for the future of U.S. global power.

For anti-government and anti-authority extremists, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a godsend. In many ways, it seems almost tailor-made for anti-government propaganda, exerting an almost magnetic pull on conspiracy theorists and other far-right extremists. The Omicron variant sweeping the globe has made vaccine mandates a global talking point, which has led a paranoid and growing fringe of extremists to threaten violence against healthcare workers, scientists and government officials in countries around the world.

As tributes pour in to remember what happened during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, as well as the lives lost following it, some experts are shifting their focus forward. An unclassified report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) indicates Americans should be aware of the possibility of lone wolf terror attacks. The report says that is more likely that an organized event similar to what happened Jan. 6, 2021.

As Bitcoin prices rise, so will the incentive to mine it, creating a feedback loop that spells trouble for the climate.

For advocates of cryptocurrency, the promise of an economic future that is managed by a blockchain (a decentralized database that is shared among the nodes of a computer network, as opposed to being held in a single location, such as a central bank) is compelling. For anyone paying attention, the rapid expansion of cryptocurrency has been stunning. In 2019, the global cryptocurrency market was approximately $793 million. It’s now expected to reach nearly $5.2 billion by 2026, according to a report by the market research organization Facts and Factors. In just one year—between July 2020 and June 2021—the global adoption of cryptocurrency surged by more than 880 percent.