All by design, explicitly.
Posted on 04/24/2020 6:14:52 AM PDT by Hamiltonian
COVID-19: It’s all we talk about, on the cable news, and in our 6-foot socially-distanced prison walks around our silent neighborhoods. And in nearly every conversation comes the intellectual shrug, “who could have seen this coming?” A single phrase that neatly absolves governments and experts alike of any responsibility of predicting the pandemic and, if not being able to stop it, at least cushioning its blow........
But is it unfair to engage in so much 20-20 hindsight? After all, who could see COVID coming?
Well, we did. We — as in nodes within the U.S. Government tasked with tracking critical infrastructure on a global scale, literally maintaining a list of critical materials and capabilities, wherever they may be around the globe......
While the document’s State Department senders designated the cable “SECRET/NOFORN” (no foreign nationals) and marked it for de-classification in 2019. Wikileaks made it public a decade ahead of schedule, revealing an intriguing list of “Critical Infrastructure/Key Resources” outside of the U.S. “whose loss could critically impact the public health, economic security, and/or national and homeland security of the United States.”
What’s on the no-longer-Secret U.S. Government list?
Under the heading for China: “Polypropylene Filter Material for N-95 Masks”
…Precisely the ones the federal government and states are scrambling to source right now. That’s right: The U.S. Government knew in 2009 that N-95 masks were critical, came from China… And did nothing about it.
But there’s more – and it goes to the broader supply-chain dependence on China that has only deepened in the past decade. The classified list includes a series of Chinese mines deemed critical:
“Fluorspar Mine
Germanium Mine
Graphite Mine
Rare Earth Minerals/Elements
Tin Mine and Plant
Tungsten – Mine and Plant”
(Excerpt) Read more at theeconomicstandard.com ...
"Six Chinese mines, understood in 2009 to be critical to U.S. national security, producing essential materials needed for technology applications ranging from aluminum and steel production, uranium processing, EV batteries and flat-panel displays to aerospace and missile guidance systems, infrared imaging, fiber optics, lasers, advanced airframes, body armor and armor plate. In short, just about every major U.S. advanced manufacturing sector as well as 21stCentury weapons platforms.....
The U.S. remains 100% dependent for fluorspar, graphite and rare earths. China remains the world’s top supplier. And while the dependency has eased a bit for germanium, tin and tungsten, the U.S. remains more than 50% import dependent for each, while China’s role as global provider stands unchanged.
And this, despite the fact that the U.S. hosts known resources for all six, but simply fails to make mining, refining and recovering them a policy priority....
In any case, the warning could hardly be more clear. The U.S. has a choice: It can take immediate steps to reduce its dangerous dependency on a Chinese supply chain for critical technology metals. Or we can hope COVID 2.0 will not disrupt supply in a second global shut-down – or that Beijing won’t one day decide to curtail access to these critical materials in time of crisis."
“Fauci: ‘No doubt’ Trump will face surprise infectious disease outbreak
January 11, 2017
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“But is it unfair to engage in so much 20-20 hindsight? After all, who could see COVID coming?”
Anyone who didn’t think there would be another virus out of Wuhan is an idiot that deserves the virus themselves for the sake of cleaning up the gene pool. No lab, genetic engineering or anything besides classic bureaucratic ass-covering (plus people eating bats, dogs, etc) needed.
If a person doesn’t wish to be second-guessed and held responsible for everything that they ‘should’ have seen coming then they should stay the hell out of any sort of leadership position. If you want the glory, the money, and/or the fame then you are also going to get the blame when things go wrong.
President, CEO, Prime minister, you can’t claim credit for a good economy without taking the blame when things go south, you can’t claim the victories without also being held to account for the defeats.
He authorized providing the Wuhan lab millions to develop a killer virus. Big surprise.
Germany and Japan learned what it meant to be dependent upon others for raw materials the hard way in WWII.
Nothing will happen to fix the problem until we euthanize all the treehuggers, so that we can mine our resources without interference.
Absolutely.
We should have mines and refining facilities ready to go for all of the materials we need.
However, perhaps not that bad of an idea to deplete the Chinese and other sources first?
We used to maintain a supply of critical materials but over time and listening to the BS of we all can get along, we ceased maintaining those stockpiles long ago. That was during a time when we had national leaders who actually thought of the US and defense first, not as an after thought. Yes there was an expense in doing that but it became more important to fund social BS items than to take care of the primary reason we actually have a federal government: defense.
Fabulous nuggets in here - names lab that has sent out WuFlu tests preset for positive+ results...
All by design, explicitly.
Unless Congress castrates the EPA, you will not see any mines opening in the United States. Which gets to another point; follow the money for these environmental groups. They have armies of lobbyists and lawyers whose only goal is to end US industrial capacity. Those lobbyist/lawyers are very well paid. Grandma sends them a $10 check because she saw the photo of a sad polar bear on their ad in Good Housekeeping. You think that's enough money to pay all those people? Next question; who benefits from the destruction of US industrial capacity?
Follow the environmental money. I guarantee it goes back to the PRC.
Director Peter Navarro has been warning about this, since Day 1 of this China Flu.
He promotes bringing back our manufacturing and reducing/eliminating our dependency on the ChiComs (my word, not his).
Meanwhile, the Dems go out of their evil way to PROMOTE and PROTECT the ChiComs.
You’re right on your assessment. But you are not complete as you don’t ponder why?
Everything in the world is a commodity. Everything is for sale. And if enough of it is sold, people are happy.
There are two types of demand of that infamous supply and demand thing: that which we have naturally like air, or that which is created and marketed, like diamonds. But even though people have to breath, people crave diamonds. (And I use these two as it can mean most anything in a category of worth...food, shelter, water vs, fancy homes, cars, dollars...)
Every human needs air. It is obviously the way we stay alive. But many people crave diamonds so much in many cases more than air, that they throw all common sense into the toilet. And shortages mean greater worth. Can’t get past that money thing, can we? Money is on the list, of want to have.
The N-95 mask is not the answer to the virus. It isn’t even that much of a protection. It’s marketed. The only true walking around protection is a self contain breathing apparatus (SCBA) like is used in hazmet suits. But you’ve got to take that off to eat and drink at some point and when the suit runs dry of air. So is it the answer? Not really when the virus has been tracked to stay alive on things for 9 days and a single cough or sneeze can reach 23 feet. That’s almost 4 times that six foot demand.
So is there a true way to escape the flu. Not really. This is why so many thousands of people die from it annually. But the shortage sure made headlines, didn’t it? And a few people a lot of money. Still can’t get past the money thing. Reeks of diamonds, doesn’t it?
rwood
See “military-industrial complex” for reference: stuff is cheaper from China and a lot of the weapons-centric contractors have lobbied for being able to source this stuff overseas. I spent about 10 years in the USAF ISR community and was repeatedly shocked at how deliberately obtuse that community was about the dangers of doing business with Commmunist China. And here we are...
On April 22nd 2020, MP Minerals was awarded a DOD contract that will rapidly expand production of rare earth minerals in the U.S.
President Trump,through the DOD and EPA, has made production of this class of materials a national security priority.
The Mountain Pass Mine was once the world leader in rare earth production. After many years as an EPA Superfund site, it has been reclaimed, new technology employed and in production.
This contract just announced is only Phase 1 in the drive to make the US self-reliant for the vital minerals.
Not sure if that's a good way to build a "domestic" supply chain.
Tip of the iceberg...
Monday morning quarterbacks typically go undefeated, yet never wear the rings. When this is all over, we should have a way to pick the all stars.
Criteria (for all star selection): must have absolutely, incontrovertible BS that Trump shoulda, coulda, hadtohave seen all this coming and stopped it in its tracks.
No doubt there will Pulitzers awarded to best Monday morning reporter who will hang Trump’s hide to the wall for having been willfully blind and irresponsible to his duty to protect the nation. The reporter, no doubt, will be able to “prove”, according to Monday morning quarterback criteria, that Trump is a buffoon, and a dangerous idiot, and that the nation is doomed if Trump is reelected.
Good piece that we should all think about and our nation should correct.
Here is another one for the list -
Electrical power grid components and appliances such as large transformers....
These are all made in China. The biggest transformers in our grid take months to obtain and we have very few spares on hand.
While many frame this argument in terms of an EMP attack on our nation and its infrastructure, the same effect or even worse can occur from a solar storm.
In other words, there is a slight chance that our electrical distribution network could be knocked out. We do not have the spares on hand to quickly repair the grid and we would be solely dependent on China in the first few months of such a disaster. If we could not repair the switching yards for the large transmission lines the rest of the system is useless.
Imagine a world with no electricity for months.... everything would stop, food would spoil, no internet, no phone, etc.
This is another area we need to address with domestic manufacturing and preparation (i.e. - lots of spares on hand). Just talk to any electrical engineer with a major utility and they will tell you this is a real problem.
We can, and we have to, devise, design and engineer products that do not have rare earth dependencies, and perform as well as those that do. That is nearly all that places like Los Alamos ought to be doing.
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