Svetski Rat K(orona)

Trump’s New Favorite COVID Doctor Believes in Alien DNA, Demon Sperm, and Hydroxychloroquine

Tensions are running high in covid-stricken United States of America, whose president, among other eccentricities, now seeks the medical advice of the tribal doctor, eschewing the expert opinions of foreign-educated physicians that no longer enjoy the respect of the conservative political elite, mostly belonging to the powerful and historically dominant Caucasian tribe.

"Witch doctor", as local liberal media dubbed her, is claiming that "aliens" are the culprit behind the current pandemic.

Michel Wise, the member of the urban professional class, is dismayed by the news.

- My family is no longer safe in this country. Charlatan doctors are really the last straw - says Michel, who fears that ethnic and racial problems will devour this country that was, back in the day, the beacon of stabilitiy in the region, and considers this disturbing piece of news as the final evidence that the president, who came to power without winning the popular vote thanks to the outdated electoral system, is losing his grip on reality.

International team of medical doctors is at the last stages of setting up the huge relief program for the USA. Latest news from the poverty-ridden country are not encouraging: even the most basic medicines - insulin, for one - are getting scarce and prone to speculative price-rigging, leaving many Americans without the means to purchase their daily doses.

Michel Wise, the member of the urban professional class from the city of Cincinnati in the central province of Ohio some 500km east of the nation's capital Washington, is dismayed by the news

US must prepare for an ever more powerful China, think tank says

 -  Rand Corporation considers how successful the ruling Communist Party is likely to be in achieving the goals it has set for the next 30 years
 - ‘Preparing for a triumphant or ascending China seems most prudent for the United States,’ it says


The United States should prepare for an “ascendant” Communist-led China, according to a report released by Rand Corporation, a US government-funded think tank. The compilers of “China’s Grand Strategy: Trends, Trajectories and Long-Term Competition” examined how successful the Chinese Communist Party was likely to be in achieving the goals it has set for the country by 2050.

In doing so it considered four possible futures in which China is either “triumphant”, meaning it has achieved all of its goals, “ascendant”, having achieved some but not all of its goals, “stagnant”, meaning it has failed in its ambitions, and “imploding”, meaning the regime itself is under threat.

The report, which was compiled for the US military and published last week, concluded that “ascendant” and “stagnant” were the most likely outcomes.

And while the researchers failed to go so far as to say China’s leaders would be completely triumphant and achieve all of their goals, the US should be ready in case they did.

“Preparing for a triumphant or ascending China seems most prudent for the United States because these scenarios align with current PRC [People’s Republic of China] national development trends and represent the most challenging future scenarios for the US military,” it said.

Diplomatic relations between the US and China are at one of their lowest points in decades, with the two sides clashing on a host of issues, from trade and technology to human rights and Hong Kong.

The researchers eliminated the possibility of the two nations enjoying a “close partnership” in the future, saying that while it had always been unlikely, it had now “faded from even remote possibility”.

The sort of relationship the two countries had in 2018 could only be achieved in the future in the event of a “stagnant” China, the study said.

In the event of an ascendant China, economic, diplomatic and military ties between the two countries would be hard to predict in the medium to long term, it said.

“As such, there will be a fine line between parallel partners and colliding competitors in this most likely future – a line that could be crossed for any number of reasons as the relationship evolves,” it said.

The study recommended an increase in military funding in the Indo-Pacific region and better joint-force combat capabilities.

“Because China probably will be able to contest all domains of conflict across the broad swathe of the region by the mid-2030s, the US Army, as part of the joint force, will need to be able to respond immediately to crises or contingencies at various points of contention,” it said.

That would mean the US military would have to “optimise key units and capabilities for available airlift and sealift to get soldiers to the fight quickly or to a hotspot before the fight breaks out”.

“The Pacific theatre likely will remain for the foreseeable future primarily focused on contested maritime and air domains, however, the US Army must prioritise capabilities development in keeping with larger joint force objectives.

“Much of the army’s focus will necessarily be on the need for land-based competitive advantage in Europe, but the long-term prominence of the China challenge will require increased investment in a range of capabilities for the Indo-Pacific as well,” the report said.

Despite facing a “more severe economic downturn than expected”, the report said Beijing would continue to prioritise the development of its military for the next 10 to 15 years.

“China intends to achieve military advantage from key technologies such as quantum computing and communications, artificial intelligence and biotechnology,” it said.

“Success in these and related areas will, to a great extent, determine the nature of US-PRC, and global, military competition over the next 30 years.”

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3095375/us-must-prepare-ever-more-powerful-china-think-tank-says

https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2798.html

“As far as TikTok is concerned we’re banning them from the United States,” said @POTUS.

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) August 1, 2020

EXCLUSIVE: President Donald Trump has agreed to give China’s ByteDance 45 days to negotiate a sale of popular short-video app TikTok to Microsoft - sources https://t.co/WcLKRosH2y via @GregRoumeliotis @DEER_ECHO_ $MSFT pic.twitter.com/lN2Ln8jsTX

— Reuters Business (@ReutersBiz) August 3, 2020

Beyond TikTok, US eyes Chinese apps and cloud for crackdown

Experts say the plan goes against long-standing policies that the internet should be global, open and interoperable.

By  Laurens Cerulus  
8/6/20, 11:27 AM CET

The United States on Wednesday announced it wants to remove more Chinese smartphone applications from U.S. app stores and stop Chinese cloud providers from serving U.S. companies.
The announcement is part of a renewed effort to drive out Chinese technology from its market and products.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo presented plans showing the U.S. wants to expand the campaign it has led against telecom giant Huawei and social media app TikTok, aimed at pushing back on China's involvement in the global technology industry.

"We want to see untrusted Chinese apps removed from U.S. app stores," Pompeo told reporters, adding "apps like TikTok, WeChat and others are significant threats to the personal data of American citizens, not to mention tools for [the Chinese Communist Party] content censorship."

He said the U.S. wants to prevent smartphone maker Huawei from pre-installing popular U.S. apps too.

Further, the U.S. government wants to stop U.S. citizens' data and companies' intellectual property from running on "cloud-based systems run by companies such as Alibaba, Baidu, China Mobile, China Telecom and Tencent," Pompeo said.

It's unclear on what legal basis the U.S. can stop Chinese providers from offering their services in the U.S. and other countries, and what measures Washington can take to do so.

But the plans show a clear rupture with long-standing policies that the internet should be global, open and interoperable, experts pointed out.


“This is the U.S. essentially saying they're going to bifurcate the internet," said Paul Triolo, head of geo-technology at the political intelligence firm Eurasia Group.

“It’s forcing companies to take sides, to choose a ‘blue’ supply chain or a ‘red’ supply chain,” he said, calling it "a huge shot across the bow of the global internet."

The challenge of U.S. diplomats will be to get like-minded countries on board with its new plans.
For Europe, in particular, the initiative goes against its long-standing position that governments should “safeguard access and openness, to respect and protect fundamental rights online and to maintain the reliability and interoperability of the internet,” outlined in the EU’s 2013 Cybersecurity Strategy and other positions.

The U.S. and European governments have had similar positions at the United Nations in the past, criticizing Beijing lawmakers for their censorship of the internet and heavy-handed government control over the software used inside China.

Pompeo is scheduled to visit the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Austria and Poland next week.