“In an effort to ramp up antitrust enforcement, the Federal Trade Commission appear willing to bring back a 1930s-era law, the Robinson-Patman Act, from its dormancy. The law largely prohibits vendors from offering products of similar “grade and quality” to different buyers at different prices. Most notably, this prohibition prevents vendors from offering discounts to large buyers that are willing to buy high quantities of a product. The law went unenforced for decades, as courts and policymakers saw its detrimental effects for consumers and the economy at large. By bringing it back, the FTC will make the American supply chain less resilient and more vulnerable to shocks, such as the ones experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“OBSERVATION - Looks more to be govt interference than anything else. 1930’s era economy is not the same as today’s. And so far, the govts track record is to totally mess everything up that they stick their nose into.”
This could be one more way for Biden to sabotage the economy in the likely event Trump wins... Anything that messes up the supply chain AND causes prices to increase by “not discounting to large vendors” is insane. And it’ll leave an ugly mark on the economy.
Globalism / Great Reset –
Upcoming meetings of importance
- WHO pandemic ‘treaty’ May 2024
Reports indicate Slovakia, a member of the European Union, will reject the World Health Organization’s pandemic treaty.
“Peter Kotlár, the Slovak Government Plenipotentiary for the COVID-19 pandemic, informed that Slovakia would not support the current version of the new pandemic treaty or the draft amendment to the International Health Regulations,” Radio Slovakia International reports.
The Health Ministry noted that it would not support any documents weakening Slovakia’s position as a sovereign state. Kotlár also had a meeting with WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who stated that he respected the decision of the Slovak Republic, but also encouraged the search for possible ways to reach an agreement.
https://100percentfedup.com/another-european-country-reject-who-pandemic-treaty/
OBSERVATION - Another bump in the WHO’s quest for world domination. What was once seen as a slam dunk, Britain and now Slovakia may represent a breach of the so called ‘consensus’ now that the rubber is about to meet the road the end of this month.
CW2 / Domestic violence - Heightened THREAT
Minor pro-hamas protests overnight, nothing major is reportedly planned for today.
Terrorism - Heightened THREAT as of May 6, 2024
Israeli operation in Rafah increases the potential for sympathetic, lone wolf attacks here and globally.
POLITICAL FRONT –
July 15 RNC convention in Milwaukee, WI
August 19 DNC convention in Chicago, IL
***
RCPolitics and FiveThirtyEight are now showing Biden losing to Trump by the largest margin in every single battle ground state as of 5/8/24
Joe Biden’s approval has also dropped to the lowest yet for his time in office, beating his previous of 37.9 in July 2022, and the lowest in history for any US President in office on this day of their term
OBSERVATION - These are composite of multiple polls and as with all polls caution is urged in their results. However, because these are a composite, they do indicated seriously negative trends for biden. Especially in the face that trump was able to gather 80,000-100,000 supporters in dark blue NJ yesterday for the largest political gathering in the states history.
China –
Xi has re arranged the strategic levels of the military again. Partially to gain greater control over purity of support to his regime as well as to better quantify logistical growth and support to the different branches.
Russia -
WAR WATCH - into the third year of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine - Feb 24th, 2022
*****
Logistics –
Since invading Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has lost nearly 700 fixed wing aircraft and helicopters. About half the losses have been the more expensive fixed wing fighter-bombers and specialized surveillance and electronic warfare aircraft. So far that is about ten percent of the official number of Russian military aircraft, counting all the ones nominally available including those out of service in storage. The worst aspect of this is that Russia is only able to replace five percent of these losses because the companies that build aircraft are too few to produce what is needed and were believed unable to increase production because of international economic sanctions.
Meanwhile the air force continues to lose aircraft and helicopters. Since early 2022, the Russians have lost about nearly 400 fighters, fighter-bombers, and attack aircraft. Most of the fighter losses were the modern Su-30/34/35 aircraft. The attack aircraft losses consisted of Su-24s and Su-25s. A similar number of helicopters have been lost.
https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htatrit/articles/202405120439.aspx
Ukraine –
WEATHER FORECAST – Temperatures highs continue in the 60-70 range with some local highs into the 80s. Scattered periods of rain..
24 HOUR ROUND UP –
Russian Ministry of Defense claims control over Hatysche, Krasne, Morokhovets and Oliiynykove villages of Kharkiv region of Ukraine. Russian Group north attacked with 5 battalions with some OSINT observers suggesting that they lost at least 20% on the first day.
Russians have destroyed the Staryi Saltiv Dam in the Kharkiv region.
Ukrainian Defense forces countering Russian offensive attempts at the North-west and north of Liptsy, Kharkiv region - spokesperson.
Heavy fighting at Chaziv Yar and Ocheretyne, with limited gains by Russia. Increased Russian attacks on other sectors of the eastern front as well.
Ukrainian Army just shot down a Russian Su-25 close air support jet over Eastern Ukraine
On the night of May 11, GUR drones attacked the “Lukoil” oil refinery, - source of UP in GUR. Drones have also attacked refinery in Volgograd, causing a fire
Outlook —
The Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region has pushed several kilometers into Ukraine. Much of the territory lost was sparsely defended with the main defensive lines 10-15 km from the border. In spite of the relatively low initial Ukraine resistance, Russian forces are said to have sustained significant losses and their supply trains seriously impacted. Ukraine is starting to counter attack to halt the advance. As stated before, the likely goal of the Russian effort is to freeze Ukrainian assets in place and prevent them from redeployment to the main push at Chaziv Yar and Ocheretyne.
Increasing presence of Ukrainian MANPADS is taking bigger bites out of Russian CAS, taking out another Su-25. This will eventually force Russia to rely upon lobbing bombs into target zones and less responsively support to ground troops.
Ukraine continues to hammer Russian oil refineries and associated facilities. Russia has been slow to respond with its deep warfare, possibly indicating growing shortages of missiles.
Russia expected to maintain the initiative in eastern Ukraine, however, it appears that operations are significantly slowing in part due to the initial arrival of US designated munitions.
ISRAEL –
Key overnight developments -
- Hamas released another propaganda video - this time showing hostage, Nadav Popplewell.
- IDF expanding operations in Rafah.
- IDF conducting raids in central and northern Gaza.
——— GENERAL ——————————-
Lest we forget - there are still hostages being held in Gaza.
***
On Friday, the Biden administration announced that the U.S. will continue transferring military arms to Israel for its ongoing conflict with Hamas in Gaza. This decision follows a U.S. report which affirmed that Israel’s assurances of compliance with international law were “credible and reliable.”
***
Hamas have released another propaganda video - this time showing hostage, Nadav Popplewell. It is the first sign of life from 51-year-old Nadav, who was abducted from Kibbutz Nirim on October 7. The video shows Nadav with a black eye reading a short script before the video cuts to a large question mark about his fate.
***
The Biden administration has offered Israel both intelligence and supplies, if Israel will agree to end its ground invasion of Rafah, the Washington Post reported. The intelligence would help Israel locate both Hamas’ leaders and hidden tunnels, four people familiar with the offer told the Post.
***
Contrary to prior speculation, October 7th terrorist mastermind, Yahya Sinwar is not hiding in Rafah, but according to intelligence reports, is most likely in tunnels under Khan Younis, an area the IDF left about a month ago, Israeli officials told The New York Times.
Although the IDF has succeeded in eliminating Hamas’s number 3 leader, Marwan Issa, along with a several senior commanders, Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, chief of Hamas’s military wing, still remain at large.
https://worldisraelnews.com/sinwar-is-not-in-rafah-israeli-officials-report/
——— GAZA FRONT ———————————-
Following attempts by Hamas to reassemble its terrorist infrastructure and operatives in Jabaliya, the IDF has called on the civilian population of Jabaliya and the surrounding areas to temporarily evacuate to shelters in western Gaza City. IDF launching raid missions to destroy assembled Hamas forces.
Israel Defense Forces on Saturday called on additional neighborhoods of the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip to evacuate ahead of an expected widening in its ongoing military operations over the past few days.
——— LEBANON / HEZBOLLAH——————————-
The Israeli Army reports that during the past week, they bombed more than 120 Hezbollah targets and killed more than 10 militants in Lebanon.
———INTERNATIONAL ——————————-
UN General Assembly adopted a resolution, recommending Security Council reconsider the matter of Palestine’s membership favorably; changing modalities for its participation in meetings
RESULT:
IN FAVOR: 143
AGAINST: 9
ABSTAIN: 25
——— FORECAST ————————-
Israel restated that it will conduct its Rafah operation with or without US help. Leaflets calling for more evacuations were distributed overnight, indicating an escalation of the operation.
In other parts of Gaza, IDF is preparing to reenter areas to clean out Hamas elements that are attempting to reform in those areas. This tactic has so far been effective in continuing the depletion of Hamas fighters while minimizing the IDF forces in Gaza. Essentially, IDF luring them into traps and then taking them out in a larger scale than hunting down smaller individual/squad sized elements.
The US continues to do what it can to thwart the Israeli operation in Rafah, this time promising super secret information on the locations of key Hamas leaders. As a former intel officer, I just shake my head at this claim. Israel has highly trained and experienced intel folks right there - on the ground - and likely has far greater knowledge of who’s where than the biden regime. US assets would be largely limited to national level systems for IMINT and COMINT, lacking sorely in HUMINT. All three are not near what Israel has at hand for the operation.
Operations against Hezbollah continue as in the past. I currently do not see Hezbollah ramping up any major actions to support Hamas at this juncture.
I expect Israel to continue to expand its operations in Rafah and other parts of Gaza.
Misc of Note –
Everyone is still talking about Friday nights Severe Geomagnetic Storm. Initially Space weather put out a G4 alert, only to raise it to a G5.
The last G5 storm to hit Earth this strong was in October 2003, which sparked power outages across Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa. Since then, the economy’s digitalization has dramatically increased, which means there’s an increasing risk of grid failures and disruptions in communication networks.
This time around, some effects were noted on some power grids, but no serious affects otherwise. Satellites so far seem to have weathered the storm, particularly the massive network of Space X systems.
There is a strong possibility of another G4/5 storm again tonight as multiple CMEs are expected to hit at about the same time - anchored by a X5.8 blast yesterday.
My viewing here in the Redoubt was spectacular. If it goes G5 tonight, well worth trying to view. Check spaceweather.com for updates.