Category: zerohedge

A newly penned letter to the FT, signed by professors from Oxford, Harvard and American University alongside a group of environmentalists, is urging that Germany postpone its exit from nuclear energy for benefit of the environment.

Noting that many Germans aren’t happy with the job politicians are doing addressing climate change, the letter notes that Germany’s “emissions are rising sharply again, at a time when they need to be falling fast”.

Emissions in 2021 “are forecast to stand at only 37 per cent below the 1990 baseline level, still 3 per cent short of the 2020 target of a 40 per cent reduction (which has in effect been missed),” the letter says. 

The country’s next goal of a 65% cut by 2030 is in “serious jeopardy”, it argues. 

The letter then notes that Germany “is not taking full advantage of all possibilities” and that it is shutting down nuclear reactors two decades ahead of when it needs to. These nuclear reactors produce “8 gigawatts of low-carbon power generation, presently meeting 10 per cent of national daytime demand”. 

The letter urges the postponement of shutting down these reactors, as other types of renewables come online in the interim. The letter forcefully concludes:

There is still time to set matters straight. Germany could yet alter course and adjust its order of priority to exit coal before nuclear. All it would take is the stroke of a pen to reinstate the former life extensions, agreed in 2010, to the plants to between 2030 and 2036.

Is any politician brave enough to implement this concrete change that would unequivocally make a positive impact upon emissions, at what is a critical moment in the climate crisis? This emergency action — a postponement of the nuclear exit, not a cancellation — would rightfully earn the respect of the younger generation.

Recall, just days ago we wrote about Poland’s second largest energy consumer considering a move to small modular reactors to help generate energy. 

Noting that finding cheaper and greener sources of energy was in Poland’s “national interest”, KGHM’s CEO Marcin Chludzinski said the company would be building four small modular reactors for alternative energy. Each reactor would have a capacity of 77MW. 

Days prior to that, we added to our ongoing case for uranium by posting about how crypto miners were starting to forge partnerships with nuclear power plants to combat the “bitcoin is not good for the environment” argument. 

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

Despite a massive PR push to encourage vaccination, only seven of the twenty Premier League football clubs have more than 50% of the players in their squads fully jabbed.

The figure was revealed in a Sportsmail report about a Premier League plan to “reward” teams who have a high vaccination rate, with football authorities seemingly concerned about low uptake.

“According to the data we have, only seven clubs’ squads are more than 50% fully vaccinated, so we have a way to go,” said a briefing note sent by the Premier League.

At least two Premier League clubs have no more than six players vaccinated in their entire squads, which often comprise more than 25 players.

The Premier League wants to reward “squads/players who are most Covid-compliant and who have opted to be vaccinated,” although what that reward would entail isn’t clarified.

The Premier League fears that vaccine passports for international travel will become commonplace, placing at risk players’ participation in foreign soccer tournaments.

As NBA star Jonathan Isaac eloquently explains in the clip below, there is absolutely no reason for a healthy young athlete to take a COVID-19 jab, given that the side-effects of the vaccine (no matter how rare) pose more of a threat than the virus itself to physically fit men in their 20’s and 30’s.

Orlando Magic’s Jonathan Isaac says he isn’t getting the covid vaccine because he has natural immunity and data shows he isn’t at risk at all from covid. Well said: pic.twitter.com/AJmvlNRyff

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) September 28, 2021

Sports stars are obsessed with health and fitness and obviously do more research than most people about what they are putting into their bodies.

No surprise then that many of them continue to reject the vaccine despite the overwhelming pressure imposed by the media and sports authorities on them to take it.

*  *  *

Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. I need you to sign up for my free newsletter here. Support my sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Get early access, exclusive content and behinds the scenes stuff by following me on Locals.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) exists for the sole purpose of facilitating a political and military alliance between almost 30 countries. All are obligated to one another in times of war, but, as Visual Capitalist’s Avery Koop notes, some countries have much stronger militaries and defense systems than others.

Using data from NATO, this map reveals what each NATO member country spends on its own national defense.

Note: Numbers are 2021 projections.

Biggest NATO Defense Spenders

The U.S. spends more on defense than any other NATO country.

According to the 2021 estimates, U.S. defense spending will be close to $811 billion this year. On the other hand, the defense spending of all other NATO countries combined is projected to be $363 billion, meaning the U.S. will outspend all other countries by a whopping $448 billion.

 

NATO is based on building up forces and equipment for the goal of joint security and defense. And, despite the pandemic, many members did increase their spending in 2020.

 

However, not all countries contribute equally. The agreed-upon target for European NATO members, for example, is to spend 2% of GDP on defense by 2024, but many countries are not on track to meet this goal.

Who Pays for NATO Itself?

One of the key pillars of NATO is collective defense: a commitment to the idea that an act of violence against one or more of its member states is an act of aggression towards all.

Collective defense, cooperative security, and crisis management are at the heart of NATO’s purpose and operations.

Apart from defense spending, running a transcontinental political alliance costs around $3 billion annually. So which countries foot the bill for these expenses?

 

Members have pre-arranged mechanisms to divide NATO alliance expenses evenly.

 

Getting into specifics, the members are paying for:

• Civilian staff wages and overhead costs of running NATO headquarters.

• Running strategic commands, joint operations, early warning and radar systems, training, etc.

• Defense communications systems, harbors, airfields, and fuel supplies.

The Future of NATO

While outright nation-on-nation conflict is becoming more rare, threats to the collective security of NATO allies have not disappeared.

While countries may have differing opinions over the exact amount each should contribute, rising expenditures are a sign that NATO is still a priority for the near future.

The United Kingdom is short 100,000 qualified truck drivers after tens of thousands of them returned to the European Union during Brexit, and 40,000 heavy goods vehicle (HGV) driver tests were suspended because of the virus pandemic in 2020. The lack of drivers has roiled supply chains, resulting in higher logistical costs that could make the price of food and anything else hauled by trucks more expensive ahead of the holiday season. 

The “Winter of Discontent” is starting to become a reality for millions across the world’s fifth-largest economy as a deficit of truckers triggered widespread fuel shortages this week. There’s also been a shortage of natural gas from Russia that has pushed UK wholesale natgas prices to record highs has transformed the country’s power industry into a chaotic mess. Soaring prices and shortages are reminiscent of the late 1970s and may worsen in the months ahead.

The government announced Sunday temporary visas for 5,000 foreign truck drivers to alleviate extremely stressed supply chains, but that may be a hard task to fulfill considering the deficit is so wide. Truckers who spoke with Reuters said their wages are going up because they’re in high demand, and in return, the cost of everything will rise as well. 

“Wages will have to go up, so prices for everything we deliver, everything you buy on the shelves, will have to go up too,” Craig Holness,51, British trucker with 27 years of experience, told Reuters. 

Hauler and recruitment companies are struggling to fill the deficit. One online job posting offered 75,000 pounds ($102,500) per annum salary for HGV Class 1 drivers. 

“With HGV drivers, we’re now paying them 40% more than we were four months ago,” said Jordan Francis, the commercial director of recruitment agency ProDrive. 

Holness doesn’t believe the trucker shortage will abate anytime soon because the deficit is so large. He said no young person wants to do this job because the conditions are poor. 

“Who wants to be a lorry driver – you’d be better tapping away on a keyboard wouldn’t you? Kids these days don’t want to know,” said Holness. “I want to get out.”

Miguel Brunel,41, a truck driver from Bethune in northern France, said, “this is chaos,” while referring to the deficit of drivers in the UK.

The British Retail Consortium, the retail industry’s lobby group, told the government last week that new HGV drivers need to be found in the next ten days to avoid significant disruption in the run-up to Christmas. 

“HGV drivers are the glue that hold our supply chains together,” the retail group said. “Without them, we are unable to move goods from farms to warehouses to shops.”

From turkeys, toys, and trees this upcoming holiday season, millions of Brits could be in for a price shock or at least some kind of disappointment as supplies could be exhausted. 

This could be problematic for Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey who said this week that he’s laser-focused on the inflationary effects from supply shortages including labor. 

The United Kingdom is short 100,000 qualified truck drivers after tens of thousands of them returned to the European Union during Brexit, and 40,000 heavy goods vehicle (HGV) driver tests were suspended because of the virus pandemic in 2020. The lack of drivers has roiled supply chains, resulting in higher logistical costs that could make the price of food and anything else hauled by trucks more expensive ahead of the holiday season. 

The “Winter of Discontent” is starting to become a reality for millions across the world’s fifth-largest economy as a deficit of truckers triggered widespread fuel shortages this week. There’s also been a shortage of natural gas from Russia that has pushed UK wholesale natgas prices to record highs has transformed the country’s power industry into a chaotic mess. Soaring prices and shortages are reminiscent of the late 1970s and may worsen in the months ahead.

The government announced Sunday temporary visas for 5,000 foreign truck drivers to alleviate extremely stressed supply chains, but that may be a hard task to fulfill considering the deficit is so wide. Truckers who spoke with Reuters said their wages are going up because they’re in high demand, and in return, the cost of everything will rise as well. 

“Wages will have to go up, so prices for everything we deliver, everything you buy on the shelves, will have to go up too,” Craig Holness,51, British trucker with 27 years of experience, told Reuters. 

Hauler and recruitment companies are struggling to fill the deficit. One online job posting offered 75,000 pounds ($102,500) per annum salary for HGV Class 1 drivers. 

“With HGV drivers, we’re now paying them 40% more than we were four months ago,” said Jordan Francis, the commercial director of recruitment agency ProDrive. 

Holness doesn’t believe the trucker shortage will abate anytime soon because the deficit is so large. He said no young person wants to do this job because the conditions are poor. 

“Who wants to be a lorry driver – you’d be better tapping away on a keyboard wouldn’t you? Kids these days don’t want to know,” said Holness. “I want to get out.”

Miguel Brunel,41, a truck driver from Bethune in northern France, said, “this is chaos,” while referring to the deficit of drivers in the UK.

The British Retail Consortium, the retail industry’s lobby group, told the government last week that new HGV drivers need to be found in the next ten days to avoid significant disruption in the run-up to Christmas. 

“HGV drivers are the glue that hold our supply chains together,” the retail group said. “Without them, we are unable to move goods from farms to warehouses to shops.”

From turkeys, toys, and trees this upcoming holiday season, millions of Brits could be in for a price shock or at least some kind of disappointment as supplies could be exhausted. 

This could be problematic for Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey who said this week that he’s laser-focused on the inflationary effects from supply shortages including labor. 

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

The Vatican is set to punish employees who refuse to comply with COVID-19 certification by not paying them.

Yes, really.

Vatican staffers who are unable to prove they’d been jabbed or who refuse to pay for expensive negative COVID tests will be considered “unjustly absent” and paid no salary.

The new rules will go into force from October 1st onwards.

As we highlighted last week, the Italian government has also passed a decree applying to both the private and public sector ordering companies to withhold pay from workers who refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

Those found working without the pass face fines of up to €1,500 euros after it was extended as a condition of entry for museums, stadiums, pubs, restaurants, and schools.

The unvaccinated were also banned from using long distance public transport, meaning that holidays, travel for work and visiting relatives has become impossible for many.

A sliver of good news is that Italians continue to hit the streets to protest the measures, with one video showing police officers removing their helmets in solidarity with the demonstrators.

REPORT: Italian Police Officers remove their helmets in solidarity with the anti-tyranny pro-freedom demonstrators. pic.twitter.com/ZbUKVGpkfO

— New Granada (@NewGranada1979) September 27, 2021

Despite many Christians asserting a religious exemption to the vaccination, the Vatican itself is offering no such workaround.

Pope Francis has been a vehement supporter of the mass vaccination program, asserting that humanity “has a history of friendship with vaccines.”

“The Vatican has said that it considers it acceptable for Catholics to use vaccines, even those that use stem cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research,” reports the Mail.

Wow, so Christian!

As we highlight in the video below, by promoting vaccines and by proxy vaccine passports, the Pope is literally helping to grease the skids for what many fear could eventually turn into a ‘Mark of the Beast’ system that will demand total compliance in order to buy or sell.

And that’s far from his only anti-Christian position.

*  *  *

Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. I need you to sign up for my free newsletter here. Support my sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Get early access, exclusive content and behinds the scenes stuff by following me on Locals.

Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Saker blog,

Perth in Australia will be a forward base for nuclear-powered and nuclear weapon-carrying American subs.

Pax Americana was always a minor character in a zombie apocalypse flick.

Pax Americana is actually The Eternal Return of the Living Dead. “Pax” was never in order; War Inc. rules. The end of WWII led directly to the Cold War. The unipolar moment was an arc from the First Gulf War to the bombing of Yugoslavia. 9/11 launched the Global War on Terror (GWOT), renamed Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) by Team Obama. We are now entering Cold War 2.0 against China.

What former CIA analyst Ray McGovern memorably describes as the MICIMATT (military-industrial-congressional-intelligence-media-academia-think tank complex) never did “Pax”. They do War, in unison, like The Knights Who Say “Ni!” – minus the comic flair.

Take this Knight for the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the heart of the establishment matrix. CFR specializes in Kissingerian Divide and Rule. Now that applies, in spades, to the Russia-China strategic partnership.

Knights overwhelmingly state the obvious: “Chinese power must be contained”. They sell the current, serial imperial debacle as “grand strategic moves”, in a quirky, lost in translation mixed salad of Gramsci and Lampedusa: a “new order” (engineered by the Empire) is being born via “everything must change so everything may remain the same” – privileging the Empire.

Other Knights even propose the ludicrous notion that the current POTUS, an actual zombie remote-controlled by a teleprompter, is capable of conceiving a “foreign policy for the middle class” , as if the MICIMATT would ever approve a scheme to “advance prosperity in the free world as a whole”. The “free world” has just been stunned by the “prosperity” offered to Afghanistan during 20 “bombing to democracy” years.

And then there are British Knights, who at least should have known their Monty Python by heart, carping about illiberalism and the “regimes created by Xi and Putin” , which will “crumble” and be succeeded by “anarchy and new despotisms.” Same old Anglo haughtiness mixed with piercing ignorance. Oh, those Asiatic “tyrannies” threatening the White Man’s civilizational drive.

We all live in an Aussie submarine

Now it’s all about AUKUS – actually U SUK A. Until recently, only the P5 – the five permanent UNSC members – possessed nuclear-powered submarines. India joined the club, and later rather than sooner, Australia.

Every major player knows the next American war will not be about remote Pacific islands. Taiwan, though, is a completely different ball game. U SUK A is mostly about Taiwan.

U SUK A was finalized at the G7 summit in Carbis Bay last June. That was an Anglo Boys Club affair, discussed exclusively by the Biden-BoJo-Morrison troika – and duly excluding Japan, even as Tokyo all but drew a samurai sword yelling its intent of supporting Taiwan.

The problem is there have been no leaks of the fine print contained in U SUK A. Only spin. Yet it’s already clear that U SUK A goes way beyond building Aussie nuclear subs. Canberra will also have access to Tomahawks, Hornets and even become part of American hypersonic missile research.

But then, in a slip, Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton gave away the game: U SUK A will allow the upgrading of “the infrastructure in Perth, that will be necessary for the operation of these submarines. I expect we will see…lease arrangements or greater joint operations between our navies in the future.”

Translation: Perth will be a forward base for nuclear-powered and nuclear weapon-carrying American subs.

Why U SUK A now? Let’s go back to WWII – and the same old cartoonish geopolitics of benign Anglo maritime island powers pitted against the “evil” Eurasian heartland.

WWII was the solution to simultaneously prevent Germany from dominating the Atlantic and Japan from dominating the Asia-Pacific (by the way, that’s the correct terminology: “Indo-Pacific” is Empire-speak).

Germany-Japan was all about an alliance that would be predominant across the Eurasian heartland. Now, the Empire of Chaos is being slowly but surely expelled from the Eurasian heartland – this time by the Russia-China strategic partnership.

Those with technical knowledge across the Beltway – not, not the Knights – are aware the US is not a match for hypersonic Russia. Yet the Americans believe they can make life unbearable for Beijing. The US establishment will allow China to control the Western Pacific over their dead bodies. Enter the instrumentalization of Australia.

A big question is what will be the new role of the Five Eyes. With U SUK A, the Anglo Club has already stepped beyond mere intel sharing and spying on communications. This is a military pact between Three Eyes.

Depending on the composition of its new government, Germany could become a Sixth Eye – yet in a subordinate role. With U SUK A, NATO as a whole, fresh from its spectacular Afghan debacle, becomes little else than a semi-relevant vassal. This is all about maritime power.

U SUK A in effect is a Quad Plus, with India and Japan, the Fifth Columnist Asians, only allowed to play the role of, once again, mere vassals.

War before 2040

Not surprisingly, the first, concise technical and strategic assessment of U SUK A is Russian, written by Alexander Timokhin and published in Vzglyad, closely linked to GRU intelligence. Here, provided by John Helmer, is an essential English translation.

The key points:

• the extra subs will create a serious, additional threat; “the problem of combating enemy submarine forces will become quite acute for China.”

• Geographically, “Australia can completely block the connection between China and the Indian Ocean.”

• Australia will meet the deadlines only if it lays “more submarines a year than the Americans.”

• It is “possible to quickly make Australia a country with a submarine fleet.” These “gigantic investments and sharp political turns are not carried out just like that. The hegemony of the Anglo-Saxons in the world is seriously shaken.”

And that brings us to the inevitable conclusion: “It is worth recognizing that the world is on the verge of war.”

Even before the Vzglyad strategic assessment, I had submitted the ravings of yet another Beltway Knight – widely praised as a sage – to an old school, dissident Deep State intel analyst. His assessment was merciless.

He wrote me, “the geopolitical logic is that the China-Russia alliance was determined to be against US interests, much as the Mao-Stalin alliance. SEATO and NATO are being replicated. The treaty between England, Australia and the US is part of the Pacific rebalancing, or a new SEATO. NATO is part of the offset against Russia-China in Europe.”

On what might lie ahead, he noted that “the coup against the US, Australia, England and NATO would be a French-Russian alliance to break up NATO and isolate Germany. Russia has unsuccessfully approached Germany, and now may approach France. The loss of France would effectively end NATO.”

He sees U SUK A all dressed up with nowhere to go: “As it stands now, China is in command of the Pacific and Australia and Britain mean nothing. Russia can overrun NATO in two weeks, our adversaries’ hypersonic missiles can destroy all NATO airfields within five to ten minutes and the battle for Europe would be over.”

He’s adamant that “the US cannot project power into the Pacific. Chinese submarine missiles would finish off the US fleet in short order. The Australian submarine issue is really irrelevant; if the CIA had an organization that was worth anything they would know that our adversaries already can spot and destroy our nuclear submarines without the slightest difficulty. The entire US Navy is obsolete and defenseless against Russian missiles.”

And it gets worse – at least for the cheerleading Knights: “The F-35 is obsolete. The Air Force is largely worthless, as Russian and Chinese missiles can finish off their airfields or aircraft carriers in short order. The woke US Army is more worthless than the French Army with their Maginot Line. The Joint Chiefs of Staff are paid less than 200k a year, and are second or third rate talent. The US is a sinking ship.”

Assuming that’s really the case, the – nuclear – war against China in the Western Pacific, projected in the Beltway to happen in the second half of the 2030s, would be over even before it started. Taiwan may even be part of China by then – an offshoot of Beijing always proposing economic exchanges to all, while Washington always “proposes” war.

One thing though will never change: The Knights Who Say “Ni!” singin’ the praise of Pax Americana to the utter indifference of the unruly plebs.

Out of 18 countries surveyed in two separate surveys by Pew Research and the Levada Center, the residents of only two hold more favorable views of China than of the United States.

In some of the remaining countries, the race is closer than expected as our chart indicates.

You will find more infographics at Statista

However, as Statista’s Florian Zandt notes, the good standing of the People’s Republic in Russia and Singapore can easily be explained.

China is Russia’s premier trading partner both regarding imports and exports with a trade volume of 104 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 next to Germany with 42 billion U.S. dollars and the Netherlands with 29 billion U.S. dollars.

Singapore’s population, on the other hand, is made up of roughly three-quarters ethnic Chinese, and official diplomatic relations between the two states have been thriving since the early 1990s. Still, 51 percent of respondents in the sovereign island state held a favorable view of the United States. This could be seen as a nod towards its role as a mediator in the APAC region that managed to bring together former U.S. president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2019.

On the other end of the spectrum, Japanese residents hold the People’s Republic in contempt, possibly due to the rift widened by the Second Sino-Japanese War starting with the Marco Polo bridge incident in July 1937 or Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in September 1931 depending on the perspective. Only 10 percent of respondents saw China in a favorable light, while 71 percent held the United States in high esteem.

Even though China has reclaimed its role as the U.S.’ leading trade partner in 2020 after President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods hampered imports from the People’s Republic, relations between the two superpowers are still fraught.

In the latest clash for geopolitical dominance, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian called the establishment of the naval Aukus defence pact between Australia, the UK and the U.S. a reinstatement of a “Cold War […] mentality” and an accelerator of the global arms race.

Op-Ed via The Machine Gun Nest (TMGN).

I don’t have Twitter. If I did have Twitter, I’d only be following Bitcoin and meme stocks. I feel sorry for those constantly exposed to the political opinions of 14-year-old children amplified by their usefulness to “the narrative.”

The Argentinian Philosopher Carlos Bernardo González Pecotche surmised that the world is in turmoil because people don’t know where their thoughts originate. The opinions of others enter their heads, and those people feel like the thoughts are their own. Not realizing that they’ve been programmed. 

David Hogg is one of those people on Twitter who I’m glad is slowly fading into irrelevancy. He’s a professional anti-gun activist (with armed bodyguards, of course.) He’s one of the founding members of the March for Our Lives organization, a non-profit almost entirely propped up by donations from the top 1% of the country and billionaires like Michael Bloomberg.

Recently, Hogg has been on a tweetstorm, and it’s caught headlines in the firearms media world. Here’s what he had to say:

Ask yourselves in the history books we will write about you how do you want to be remembered?

Weak and corrupt people that worked to protect people like the 19 year old that killed my classmates and teachers OR as people that protect our kids and teachers right to not be shot?

— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) September 24, 2021

You can practically see the mental pat on the back that he’s giving himself while writing the tweet. But immaturity isn’t necessarily the point here. Although Hogg himself is insufferable, this is also how he makes his living. Saying ridiculous things on the internet as bait for others to react keeps him from fading into irrelevancy.

I want to take a second to address David Hogg and respond to this tweet. I’m assuming that he thinks that he’s speaking for young people in general, or maybe young liberals. Either way, I believe that he’s first wrong (read: “The Trend Has Flipped: Millennials Are Actually Buying Guns”) to assume he’s in the majority and second, naive to think that people don’t have differing political views from himself—especially young people.

I’m 28 years old. I grew up with Liberal baby-boomer parents and am a product of the early 2000s. I had school shooter drills in high school, bomb threats, and more. I am staunchly pro-gun. Many more people my age are as well. Interestingly, younger people are increasingly opposed to gun control, with the percentage of people under 30 that support stricter gun laws dropping from 65% to 45% since 2018.

Gun owners are incredibly diverse. Young and old, people of all cultures, races, and political opinions own firearms. I’m not sure if there’s anything that supersedes cultural and political divides, like the right to own a gun.

And if the recent surge in gun buying (read: here & here) has shown us anything, when the chips are down, and it’s time to take self-defense seriously- people who were once opposed to guns buy guns. We experienced a ton of that firsthand here at TMGN. Nationwide more than 9 million people became first-time gun owners in 2020 and 2021, which continues to rise.

Now, you probably already know this but March for Our Lives is not a grassroots organization. Major million-dollar donations almost entirely fund it. Only 0.5% of their entire revenue is from donations totaling less than $5,000. Some real journalists looked at the group’s 990 tax form showing that out of the $18.6M that March for Our Lives collected in donations during 2018, $17.8M came from about 74 people donating between $5000.00 and $3,504,717.00.

So, David Hogg would like us to believe that there’s some army of young progressive anti-gun voters out there looking to wipe away these evil old boomers (who are some of the most prominent supporters of gun control, ironically). Yet, his entire organization is mainly supported by 78 wealthy donors. (If you dive into the data, 36 donors made donations between $100,000 and $3.5M, so maybe it’s just 36 people who support Hogg). 

Here’s the thing, since the Heller decision in 2008, gun rights have been rapidly expanding. The landscape isn’t what it was in the 1990s. AR15s are no longer weird, quirky firearms that a few hobbyists own; they’re recognized as modern-day muskets. The right to carry a concealed firearm has been significantly expanded since the 1980s, and every day more and more young people get into the sport of shooting and exercise their 2nd Amendment right. David Hogg should come to try firearms for himself; he might just change his mind.

The recent gun-buying craze sparked by the pandemic and social unrest has begun to truly express younger Americans and minorities and women’s Second Amendment rights like never before. These new gun owners are also across all political spectrums and suggest Hogg’s movement is fading into the darkness. 

* * * 

One thing that David Hogg and liberal media don’t want you to see is the massive surge in Second Amendment sanctuaries at the state, county, and local levels. 

More than 61% of American Counties are Now Second Amendment Sanctuaries https://t.co/vm5gkNmBqg

— Sanctuary Counties (@SanctuaryCounty) June 21, 2021

Raytheon Missiles & Defense and Northrop Grumman completed the first test flight of an air-breathing hypersonic weapon last week for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Air Force (USAF), according to a press release from Raytheon. 

The prototype weapon system is called the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept, or HAWC, which performed an air launch from an aircraft wing. There was no mention of the type of aircraft used in the test, but it’s likely a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. 

“This brings us one step closer to transitioning HAWC to a program of record that offers the next-generation capability to the U.S. military,” said Andrew Knoedler, HAWC program manager in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office. 

“The missile, built by Raytheon Technologies, was released from an aircraft seconds before its Northrop Grumman scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) engine kicked on,” DARPA said. 

“The DoD (Department of Defense) has identified hypersonic weapons and counter-hypersonic capabilities as the highest technical priorities for our nation’s security,” said Wes Kremer, president of Raytheon’s Missiles & Defense business unit. 

The test comes after the USAF’s AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, or ARRW, failed an air-launch test on July 28 and days after USAF Secretary Frank Kendall told reporters he wasn’t satisfied with the service’s hypersonic program. 

The successful launch of the HAWC is good news for the U.S. who has fallen behind Russia and China in fielding hypersonic weapons. 

So whenever the next big conflict breaks out, hypersonic weapons and fifth-generation fighter jets will be key at rendering enemy defense systems useless.