Baltic Dry Index. 3976 +143 Brent Crude 66.85
Spot Gold 1786
Coronavirus Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,100
Coronavirus Cases 20/08/21 World 210,854,907
Deaths 4,414,603
“Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency.
----Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”
The Economic Consequences of the Peace.
Up first as usual, the news from the central bankster funded stock casinos.
Ignore the growing chaos in global shipping.
Ignore the growing policy in the USA of free fiat money for all.
Ignore the rising number of “breakthrough” Covid-19 infections beating the vaccines, it’s normal and was expected, say the “experts.”
Ignore Afghanistan and the rout of the USA and NATO.
Buy more, says Wall Street and the feckless central banks. What could possibly go wrong?
Chinese stocks fall around 1%; China holds steady on benchmark lending rate
SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific mostly fell in Friday trade as China left its benchmark lending rate unchanged.
Mainland Chinese stocks fell as the Shanghai composite declined about 1% and the Shenzhen component slipped 1.013%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed dropped 1.18%.
China’s one-year loan prime rate (LPR) and five-year LPR were both left unchanged at 3.85% and 4.65%, respectively, on Friday. That was in line with expectations of majority of traders and analysts in a snap poll, according to Reuters.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan fell 0.74% in morning trade while the Topix index shed 0.5%.
Japanese automaker shares continued to see losses on
Friday, with Toyota
Motor falling 2.14% while
Nissan Motor
dropped 5.69% and Honda Motor declined 3.63%.
That came following Toyota’s Thursday announcement that it will slash global production for September by 40% from its previous plan, Reuters reported. Shares of Toyota plunged more than 4% on Thursday after the Nikkei first reported on the firm’s plan.
Elsewhere, South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.84% while the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia climbed 0.2%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.73% lower.
Overnight stateside, the S&P 500 gained about 0.13% to 4,405.80 while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.11% to 14,541.79. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged, slipping 66.57 points to 34,894.12.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/20/asia-markets-chinas-benchmark-lending-rate-oil-and-currencies.html
Alibaba shares sink to record low as China regulations on tech continues
Thursday 19 August 2021 9:36 am
Alibaba Group shares sank by 5.4 per cent to a record low in Hong Kong on Thursday, following the latest round of regulations on Chinese tech giants by Beijing.
The shares fell after China reportedly said it was looking at separate and new regulatory proposals including heightening oversight of the live streaming industry and ensuring the rights of drivers who work for online companies.
Shares in China’s biggest advertising platform, Tencent Holdings, also slipped by 3.35 per cent after Tencent executives announced that the government could make substantial changes to how companies use data for advertising in a post-earnings conference call, according to reports.
The news follows the loss of around $1tn of market value from Chinese shares listed globally last month as a result of China’s crackdowns on the technology sector, which rapidly extended beyond antitrust and e-commerce into private tutoring and online content.
https://www.cityam.com/alibaba-shares-sink-to-record-low-as-china-regulations-on-tech-continues/
Next continental Europe faces the prospect of a cold winter even if a warmer than normal winter prevails. Looks like Nord Stream Two is needed after all.
Don’t Count on LNG to Save Europe From a Winter Gas Crunch
Anna Shiryaevskaya August 19, 2021, 3:53 AM EDT
Europe’s vast network of liquefied natural gas terminals can’t save it from a winter supply crunch.
LNG supplies entering European grids in July fell to the lowest for that month in three years and the outlook for this month is even grimmer. Just one cargo is scheduled to arrive in the U.K. in August and traders who have the fuel stored in Spain are set to export six cargoes to capture higher prices in Asia.
Gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 links Germany to Russia, but splits Europe
16 Jul 2021, 13:30
----Nord Stream 2 is an underwater twin pipeline that would transport natural gas from Russia directly to Germany. At a length of 1,230 kilometres, it is to follow the route of the existing Nord Stream twin pipeline underneath the Baltic Sea. The original Nord Stream pipeline, with an annual capacity of 55 billion cubic metres (bcm), was finished in late 2012. The pipeline system’s total capacity is set to double to 110 bcm following Nord Stream 2’s completion. The pipeline crosses into the exclusive economic zones of five countries: Russia, Germany, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden.
Nord Stream 2 is being built by Nord Stream 2 AG, a consortium incorporated in Switzerland. Its chairman of the board of directors is Gerhard Schröder, German chancellor from 1998 to 2005 and the subject of fierce criticism for his ties to Russia.
Moscow-based, state-owned Gazprom is the project’s sole shareholder and has committed to providing up to 50 percent of the project’s financing, with the remaining funds coming from German companies Wintershall and Uniper, Royal Dutch Shell, French ENGIE, and Austrian oil and gas company OMV. According to Nord Stream 2 AG, the overall costs of the project will total around 9.5 billion euros.
The gas that the pipeline is to carry lies in northern Russia’s Yamal Peninsula, which holds nearly 5 trillion cubic metres of gas reserves, according to the Nord Stream 2 consortium. Once extracted, the gas is to be transported to coastal Russia. There, it is to pass through a compressor station – a facility that raises the pressure of the fuel – and then be fed into the pipeline. After entering into the Gulf of Finland, the pipeline is to re-emerge on land in north-eastern Germany, near Greifswald.
Russia, Germany, Finland, Denmark and Sweden have granted all the permits necessary for construction of the planned pipeline within their jurisdictions. Construction of Nord Stream 2 in Germany began in 2016 with the production of the steel pipes and continued with the digging of a trench on the seabed in May 2018. In July 2018, the first steel pipes were installed at Germany’s landfall in Lubmin.
More
Finally, Afghanistan, the harsh reality. And with California, the world’s leading supplier of almonds grubbing out masses of almond trees due to drought, don’t count on Afghan almonds being available for very much longer.
The Latest: Food agency warns of hunger in Afghan conflict
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — UNITED NATIONS — The head of the U.N. food agency in Afghanistan says a humanitarian crisis is unfolding with 14 million people facing severe hunger following the Taliban takeover of the country.
Mary Ellen McGroarty, the World Food Program’s country director, said in a video briefing to U.N. correspondents from Kabul on Wednesday that the conflict in Afghanistan, the nation’s second severe drought in three years, and the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic have pushed an already dire situation into a “catastrophe.”
McGroarty said over 40% of crops have been lost and livestock devastated by the drought, hundreds of thousands of people were displaced as the Taliban advanced, and winter is fast approaching. “Really the race is on to get food where it’s most needed,” she said.
WFP reached 4 million people in May and plans to scale up to reach 9 million “over the next couple of months, but there are many, many challenges,” she said.
McGroarty called for a halt to the conflict and urged donors to provide the $200 million needed to get food into the country so it can get to communities before winter sets in and roads are blocked.
HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations says it’s sending about a third of its 300 international staff in Afghanistan to Kazakhstan to work remotely on a temporary basis in light of “the volatile situation in the country.”
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced on Wednesday that about 100 U.N. personnel were traveling from Kabul to Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, to work in a temporary satellite office.
He said the majority of the U.N.’s humanitarian staff “remain in Afghanistan, providing vital assistance to millions most in need.”
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the U.N. Security Council on Monday following the Taliban takeover of the country that the U.N. is committed to staying in Afghanistan and helping millions of people, but he also said the 193-member world organization will adapt to the security situation.
“This is a temporary measure intended to enable the U.N. to keep delivering assistance to the people of Afghanistan with the minimum of disruption while at the same time reducing risk to U.N. personnel,” Dujarric said. “Personnel will return to Afghanistan as conditions permit.”
In addition to the international staff, the U.N. and its agencies have about 3,000 Afghan employees.
More
https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-the-latest-866995f930eb9bf8ceb9e3344bef3cf8
US struggles to speed Kabul airlift despite Taliban, chaos
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is struggling to pick up the pace of American and Afghan evacuations at Kabul airport, constrained by obstacles ranging from armed Taliban checkpoints to paperwork problems. With an Aug. 31 deadline looming, tens of thousands remained to be airlifted from the chaotic country.
Taliban fighters and their checkpoints ringed the airport — major barriers for Afghans who fear that their past work with Westerners makes them prime targets for retribution. Hundreds of Afghans who lacked any papers or clearance for evacuation also congregated outside the airport, adding to the chaos that has prevented even some Afghans who do have papers and promises of flights from getting through.
It didn’t help that many of the Taliban fighters could not read the documents.
In a hopeful sign, State Department spokesman Ned Price said in Washington that 6,000 people were cleared for evacuation Thursday and were expected to board military flights in coming hours. That would mark a major increase from recent days. About 2,000 passengers were flown out on each of the past two days, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
Kirby said the military has aircraft available to evacuate 5,000 to 9,000 people per day, but until Thursday far fewer designated evacuees had been able to reach, and then enter, the airport.
Kirby told reporters the limiting factor has been available evacuees, not aircraft. He said efforts were underway to speed processing, including adding State Department consular officers to verify paperwork of Americans and Afghans who managed to get to the airport. Additional entry gates had been opened, he said.
And yet, at the current rate it would be difficult for the U.S. to evacuate all of the Americans and Afghans who are qualified for and seeking evacuation by Aug. 31.
More
Internal State Department Cable Warned of Kabul Collapse
July memo shows that administration officials were cautioned about Taliban’s quick advance
Updated Aug. 19, 2021 6:44 pm ET
WASHINGTON—An internal State Department memo last month warned top agency officials of the potential collapse of Kabul soon after the U.S.’s Aug. 31 troop withdrawal deadline in Afghanistan, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the document.
The classified cable represents the clearest evidence yet that the administration had been warned by its own officials on the ground that the Taliban’s advance was imminent and Afghanistan’s military may be unable to stop it.
The cable, sent via the State Department’s confidential dissent channel, warned of rapid territorial gains by the Taliban and the subsequent collapse of Afghan security forces, and offered recommendations on ways to mitigate the crisis and speed up an evacuation, the two people said.
The cable, dated July 13, also called for the State Department to use tougher language in describing the atrocities being committed by the Taliban, one of the people said.
More
Planes, guns, night-vision goggles: The Taliban's new U.S.-made war chest
August 19, 20215:59 PM BST
WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - About a month ago, Afghanistan's ministry of defense posted on social media photographs of seven brand new helicopters arriving in Kabul delivered by the United States.
More
The next problem for Afghanistan, bankruptcy.
Any reserves the Afghan Central Bank had would have been held in New York at the Fed and will have been confiscated. The IMF has already cancelled its issue of 200 million Special Drawing Rights that was due to happen on Monday. Any local foreign exchange reserves at the ACB were likely looted as the elite fled.
My guess is that pretty soon the Afghan economy will start to collapse along with the currency. Imports, especially of oil will become scarce, if they happen at all. With winter approaching, disaster looms, but I doubt that the UN will be able to provide much relief.
Global Inflation Watch.
Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Today, why work when on Magic Money Tree fiat money,
there’s plenty of free money for all. Don’t worry, it’s only fiat money and
there’s plenty more where that comes from. Lenin was right.
Education Department will cancel student debt for more than 320,000 borrowers
The U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday it will cancel $5.8 billion in student debt for more than 320,000 borrowers.
The debt forgiveness, which will go to borrowers with a total and permanent disability, will be automatically granted using data already available to the Social Security Administration. People should start seeing the relief in September.
The Education Department said it also plans to stop asking these borrowers to continue sharing earnings data after they receive the relief.
“We’ve heard loud and clear from borrowers with disabilities and advocates about the need for this change, and we are excited to follow through on it,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, in a statement.
“This change reduces red tape with the aim of making processes as simple as possible for borrowers who need support.”
The Education Department under the Biden administration has also canceled student debt for thousands of students who attended for-profit schools.
Still, President Joe Biden remains under pressure from Democrats, advocates and borrowers to go further and cancel $50,000 per borrower in student debt for all.
Biden has asked the Education Department and the U.S. Department of Justice to review his legal authority to forgive student debt through executive action. The findings of those reports are not yet public.
“You don’t need Congress,” Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said. “All you need is the flick of a pen.”
States can use pandemic funds to extend unemployment benefits
Aug. 19, 2021 / 5:14 PM
Aug. 19 (UPI) -- States can use funds from pandemic relief legislation to pay benefits to unemployed people past a Sept. 6 expiration date, heads of the departments of Labor and Treasury said Thursday.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh sent a letter to the heads of the Senate finance, and house ways and means committees saying that while benefits initially established by the March 2020 CARES Act are set to expire it may make sense for some states to use federal funding to continue support for the unemployed.
As unemployed people are set to lose an additional $300 per week provided in response to the pandemic Yellen and Walsh said states can use leftover portions of the $350 billion allocated to state and local governments through the American Rescue Plan to supplement unemployment benefits.
"In states where a more gradual wind down of income support for unemployed workers makes sense based on local economic conditions, American Rescue Plan funds can be activated to cover the cost of providing assistance to unemployed workers beyond September 6th," they wrote.
A Labor Department official told CNBC that states will not be required to meet specific economic conditions to offer the extra assistance.
Yellen and Walsh also announced the Department of Labor will provide an additional $47 million in new grants to support re-employment services.
More
Rail fares look set for sharp increase as used car prices soar, new inflation data suggests
The CPI rate of inflation fell to 2% in July, but that seems to reflect a comparison with last year when the reopening of the economy after the first lockdown lifted prices - and masks a hit in the pocket facing commuters.
Wednesday 18 August 2021 14:18, UK
Rail fares look set for a sharp increase and second hand car prices are climbing at their steepest rate since 2010, new inflation data suggests.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also showed petrol prices were at their highest level for nearly eight years, pointing to pressure on commuters' pockets despite a fall in the headline inflation figure.
Consumer prices index (CPI) inflation dropped to a lower than expected 2% last month, down from 2.5% in June, partly thanks to bigger than usual summer fashion store discounts.
But the data was also closely watched for July's retail prices index (RPI) measure, which is normally used to calculate the following year's rail fare increases, and came in at 3.8%.
That was the highest level for July since 2011 and would seem to indicate another big hike in prices for season tickets and other regulated train fares in 2022.
This year's increase, which took effect in March rather than January, was 2.6%, representing the previous July's RPI of 1.6% plus one percentage point.
A similar approach this year would see 2022 fares rise by 4.8%.
----Motorists are also being hit in the pocket, with petrol prices - at an average of 132.6p per litre last month - at their highest level since September 2013.
Meanwhile, second hand car prices have been surging, partly thanks to the increased demand caused by a shortage of semiconductor chips, which is squeezing the supply of new vehicles.
Used car price inflation more than doubled from 5.6% in June to 14.4% in July, the steepest rate recorded since 2010.
It follows a similar and even more pronounced trend that has also been seen in the US.
More
Below, why a “green energy” economy may not be possible anyway, and if it is, it won’t be quick and it will be very inflationary, setting off a new long-term commodity Supercycle. Probably the largest seen so far.
The “New Energy Economy”: An Exercise in Magical Thinking
https://media4.manhattan-institute.org/sites/default/files/R-0319-MM.pdf
Mines, Minerals, and "Green" Energy: A Reality Check
https://www.manhattan-institute.org/mines-minerals-and-green-energy-reality-check
by Tyler Durden Monday, Aug 02, 2021 - 08:40 PM
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Innovative COVID treatment puts a cork on virus's entry point to cell
The new drug blocks the coronavirus's entry point to the cell without damaging the entry point's enzymatic function.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF AUGUST 18, 2021 15:44
An innovative treatment for COVID-19 uses a molecular "super cork" to jam the entry point used by the SARS-CoV-2 virus to enter the cell, bypassing issues that could arise with other treatments which target a spike protein on the virus, Weizmann Institute of Science announced on Wednesday.
The treatment, described in a study published in Nature Microbiology, was developed by Weizmann researchers in collaboration with the Pasteur Institute in France and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US.
Most treatments and vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 target the spike protein on the virus's outer envelope, but this protein could mutate in future variants, negatively effecting the efficacy of such treatments. The Weizmann researchers decided to take a different approach, targeting the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors through which the virus enters the cell. This approach is not susceptible to new variants.
ACE2, attached to the membrane of cells on the surface of the lungs and other tissues, is an enzyme which is important for regulating blood pressure, meaning that researchers couldn't just block the receptor and disrupt ACE2's function. In order to get around this issue, the team, led by Prof. Gideon Schreiber of Weizmann’s Biomolecular Sciences Department, began developing a small protein molecule that could bind to ACE2 better than the coronavirus, without affecting the enzyme's function.
The researchers first identified the virus's binding domain, where the spike protein physically binds to ACE2. Dr. Jiří Zahradník, a postdoctoral fellow in Schreiber's group, then performed several rounds of "evolution-in-a-test-tube" on a genetically engineered strain of baker's yeast, which is easily manipulated. This allowed Zahradník to rapidly scan millions of different mutations that accumulated in the course of the artificial evolution.
More
Wisconsin’s COVID-19 breakthrough cases more than double
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The number of fully vaccinated people in Wisconsin who were hospitalized with COVID-19 more than doubled from February to July, but the more contagious delta variant was still an exponentially greater threat to the unvaccinated, state Department of Health Services data released Thursday shows.
The unvaccinated were three-times as likely to test positive for COVID-19 as the unvaccinated in July, the health department data showed. The unvaccinated were hospitalized at a rate 3.7-times higher than the vaccinated and the risk of dying was 10-times higher for the unvaccinated.
“The COVID-19 vaccines are still doing their job by stopping the spread of many new infections, and by preventing severe illness, hospitalization, and death,” said department Secretary Karen Timberlake in a statement. However, because no vaccine is perfect, some breakthrough cases are expected, the health department said.
More
https://apnews.com/article/health-wisconsin-coronavirus-pandemic-57a09e71c2fa6e0be7f494e1df676506
U.S. plans booster for Pfizer, Moderna COVID-19 shots starting in September
Aug. 18, 2021 / 12:42 PM
Aug. 18 (UPI) -- U.S. health officials said Wednesday they will make a COVID-19 booster shot available beginning next month due to rising cases associated with the Delta variant and data that show an extra shot can bring greater protection.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal health agencies said their plan is to make the booster available to vaccinated people eight months after their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.
"Our top priority remains staying ahead of the virus and protecting the American people from COVID-19 with safe, effective and long-lasting vaccines," the agencies said in a joint statement that was also signed by Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser.
The booster shots, subject to the CDC and Food and Drug Administration signing off on their safety and effectiveness, are expected to be offered beginning Sept. 20.
"The available data makes very clear that protection against [COVID-19] infection begins to decrease over time," the agencies added. "And in association with the dominance of the Delta variant, we are starting to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease."
More
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/08/18/covid-vaccine-booster-delta-variant/9811629301469/
Why A Push For Boosters Could Make The Pandemic Even Worse
Michaeleen Doucleff August 18, 20213:45 PM ET
In September, the U.S. will start offering a third COVID-19 shot to all adults vaccinated with Pfizer and Moderna, even though these vaccines still offer high protection against hospitalization and death from the delta variant.
Officials at the World Health Organization said Wednesday that it strongly opposes booster shots for all adults in rich countries because the boosters will not help slow down the pandemic. By diverting doses away from unvaccinated people, booster shots will help drive the emergence of more dangerous mutants, the WHO doctors said.
"I'm afraid that this [booster recommendation] will only lead to more variants. ... And perhaps we're heading into an even more dire situation," WHO chief scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said.
The problem with a call for boosters, she said, is that the virus is primarily circulating in unvaccinated people — not in the fully vaccinated.
In defending the U.S. booster decision, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general, said on Wednesday: "I do not accept the idea that we have to choose between America and the world. We clearly see our responsibility to both, and we believe we have to work on both fronts as we have been."
Federal officials said they have sent more than 100 million doses overseas and plan to donate 500 million doses.
The WHO estimates 11 billion doses are needed to bring the pandemic under control. Billions of people have not received even one dose of the vaccine, said Dr. Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to the WHO director-general. In most low-income countries, less than 5% of the population is immunized. The unvaccinated include many health care workers and people at high risk of death and severe disease. In many middle-income countries, including most of Latin America, only about a third of the population has received shots.
To stop the evolution of new variants, the world needs to focus on immunizing these populations before handing out extra protection to low-risk individuals in rich countries, Aylward said. "The problem is not enough people have been vaccinated. So our first priority is relatively simple: Get as many of the unvaccinated with two doses before you move beyond that."
More
Next, some vaccine links kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada. The links come from a most informative update from Stanford Hospital in California.
World Health Organization - Landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines. https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines
NY Times Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
Stanford Website. https://racetoacure.stanford.edu/clinical-trials/132
Regulatory Focus COVID-19 vaccine tracker. https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker
Some other useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus resource centre
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Rt Covid-19
Centers for Disease Control Coronavirus
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
The Spectator Covid-19 data tracker (UK)
https://data.spectator.co.uk/city/national
Technology Update.
With events happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section. Updates as they get reported.
Solar cells combining perovskite, silicon capture more of the sun's energy
Aug. 17, 2021 / 1:50 PM
Aug. 17 (UPI) -- The best solar cells currently capture just more than a quarter of the sun's energy. Much of sun's power potential remains untapped.
For decades, scientists have been trying to expand the efficiency limit of both perovskite and silicon solar cells.
Scientists at Oxford PV, a perovskite research firm in Britain, found they could beat the current efficiency barrier by combining the two technologies.
Perovskite is a calcium titanium oxide mineral with valuable optoelectronic properties.
The new solar cell -- detailed Tuesday in the journal Applied Physics Letters -- marries metal halide perovskites with traditional silicon photovoltaic cells.
"We identified perovskites as the perfect partner for a tandem system with silicon," study author Laura Miranda Pérez, head of materials research at Oxford PV, said in a press release.
Because the manufacturing technologies for perovskites are already developed, the material was ideal "plug-and-play" add-on. To build the new cell, scientists deposited a layer of metal halide perovskites directly onto a simple silicon cell.
"We're proving the potential of perovskite-on-silicon tandem technology through the continuous achievement of world-record efficiencies, with our current record at 29.52 percent," Miranda Pérez said.
After seven years of trials and tweaks, researchers at Oxford PV are ready to begin mass commercial production of their new perovskite-silicon solar cell technology.
"We want to help people understand the huge potential of perovskite-on-silicon tandem technology to boost the efficiency of solar installations and to help the world reach the goal of providing sustainable energy for all," Miranda Pérez said.
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2021/08/17/perovskite-silicon-solar-cells/4141629210805/
Another weekend and a weekend hopefully, unlikely to match last weekend’s disaster weekend that ruined President Biden’s vacation at Camp David.
Who could possibly foresee that 75,000 “goat herders” driving beat up battered Toyota pickups with machine guns attached on the back, could defeat a 300,000 US trained modern army backed by an airforce, and do it all in just 11 days, albeit most of it happening just Friday to Sunday.
Have a great weekend everyone.
“If there is a significant deterioration in security … I don’t think it’s going to be something that happens from a Friday to a Monday.”
Anthony Blinken, US Secretary of State. July 21, 2021.
Pretty good, only 1 day off.
No comments:
Post a Comment