Seeking Truth in a World of Propaganda. Links do not necessarily indicate agreement with stories or perspectives.
“Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.” - Plato
Friday, September 28, 2018
Thursday, September 27, 2018
Bombshell WSJ Story Confirms "Systematic And Methodical" Chinese Theft Of US Trade Secrets
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A deep dive into how China "systematically pries technology from U.S. Companies" by the Wall Street Journal gives essential context to President Trump's rising trade war with Beijing at a moment that both Chinese and American mainstream media relentlessly bash the president for his unprecedentedly tough stance on China.
And yet such a bombshell story exhaustively documenting multiple major instances of China caught in brazen acts of theft of American technology and trade secrets has barely made a splash in the rest of major media, and likely won't hit the network news shows with so much as a whimper: after all it may confirm that Trump is right, and admitting this will certainly not gain ratings.
Foremost among Trump's demands after he announced tariffs on about half of all US imports from China while threatening to impose tariffs on the second half, is that China cease requiring American companies turn over trade secrets in order to do business there. Trump has consistently blasted China's "unfair trade practices" which includes stealing US intellectual property.
In fact the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, an independent US body including representatives from the public and private sectors, has recently estimated that $600bn worth of US intellectual property is stolen every year, led by China, and the bipartisan body has called for a "decisive response".
But the WSJ story gives flesh to prior allegations and statistics, including shocking instances of raids on American offices in Chinese cities, revealing that Beijing authorities have erected an entire system geared toward prying the most innovative technologies and secrets from American companies while passing it off merely as the fair and routine cost of tapping into a new market of over a billion people.
The report begins by recounting a raid on DuPont's Shanghai offices, which interestingly the Chinese have since tried to pass off as but normal procedure and their prerogative:
DuPont Co. suspected its onetime partner in China was getting hold of its prized chemical technology, and spent more than a year fighting in arbitration trying to make it stop.
Then, 20 investigators from China’s antitrust authority showed up.
For four days this past December, they fanned out through DuPont’s Shanghai offices, demanding passwords to the company’s world-wide research network, say people briefed on the raid. Investigators printed documents, seized computers and intimidated employees, accompanying some to the bathroom.
The WSJ describes this as one of the multiple tactics that "reveal how systemic and methodical Beijing’s extraction of technology has become" event while Chinese officials consider the complaints against such coercion "unfair".
Reports the WSJ further, "China’s tactics, these interviews and documents show, include pressuring U.S. partners in joint ventures to relinquish technology, using local courts to invalidate American firms’ patents and licensing arrangements, dispatching antitrust and other investigators, and filling regulatory panels with experts who may pass trade secrets to Chinese competitors."
With DuPont, its former Chinese partner, Zhangjiagang Glory Chemical Industry Co., continues to sell chemicals used to make fibers that it allegedly ripped off from the American conglomerate. Yet China stacked the deck against it in local courts over years of the company seeking remediation over the technology theft, and its antitrust board has further warned DuPont to drop its lawsuits.
This is one of many examples of a whole system of "coerced technology transfer" which the White House says inflicts $50 billion yearly in damages to US companies, and more broadly disincentivizing American innovation and crippling US economic growth.
Via the WSJ
But China pitches what it sees as up-front and voluntary technology sharing as the cost of lucrative expansion into its markets, though White House officials hold this up as clear evidence of China's economic aggression.
A formal Chinese government statement to the WSJ in response to allegations of systematic technology theft reads as follows: “American companies in China have received huge returns through technology transfer and licensing, and are the biggest beneficiaries of technical cooperation.”
Chinese officials have further long claimed that "U.S. companies enter partnerships voluntarily," according to the WSJ.
Via the WSJ
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, meanwhile, described "The combination of naiveté and hubris on the part of U.S. companies seeking to enter the Chinese market, coupled with a sophisticated Chinese effort to extract technology has been a lethal combination."
But another Beijing policy maker cited in the report claimed, “China’s offer to the world has been straightforward,” and that "Foreign companies are allowed to access China’s markets but they would need to contribute something in return: their technology."
Other examples of such "straightforward" practices outlined by the WSJ report are as follows:
- About one in five members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai say they have been pressured to transfer technology, according to a survey conducted in the spring. Of those companies, 44% in aerospace and 41% in chemicals report “notable pressure.” China considers both industries strategically important.
- China mandates that foreign companies wanting to open or expand in 35 sectors do it through joint ventures, though it announced a plan in April to phase out rules requiring foreign auto makers to share factory ownership and profits with Chinese companies by 2022.
- When China set out to build its first large commercial passenger jet in 2008, state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China made clear it would buy components only from joint ventures whose foreign partners would share technology. General Electric Co. agreed.
- Chinese leaders see innovative technologies as forces to propel its industries up the value chain into more sophisticated sectors and the country into rich-nation ranks. To ensure foreigners bring their best, phalanxes of regulatory panels scrutinize foreign investments to make sure they meet government goals.
The report cites Texas-based chemical producer Huntsman Corp as being recently targeted by such "regulatory panels" which ultimately was able to procure "enough information to duplicate the product" under the guise of "approving" chemicals prior to production in China, which required the US company to submit its own chemical formulas and production process for review.
And likely there are many dozens more of such technology thefts within a "trade partnership" system designed from start to finish to ensure American secrets flow into Beijing's hands.
Amidst the ratcheting trade war, chances are growing that over the next year we will hear of more sensational raids on American company offices in Chinese cities - perhaps even Apple which the local propaganda press recently threatened with "anger and nationalist sentiment" - and heightened threats against them from anti-trust and regulatory committees.
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DHS Complains Airlines Getting In The Way Of "100% Biometric Scans By 2021"
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An alarming new report issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says that the government could soon push mechanisms ensuring that its TSA airport security personnel never selectively hasten the screening process in order for passengers to catch their flight on time, but that gathering biometric data through controls like facial recognition technology will soon be a requirement for all boarding procedures.
The new report on the Biometric Entry-Exit Program authored the DHS Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General gives a glowing review of controversial new biometric surveillance, already in a test roll out at dozens of major airports nationwide, but notes some hurdles remain to broader implementation, especially the "hurdle" of airlines insisting that passengers be allowed to make their flights on time.
Over a year ago DHS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that they would integrate government databases with a private tech company to speed up biometric processing which involves the capturing of facial scans to match them with files already in the system. This initially rolled out only at a couple of select airports. But since that time the program has exploded to include a dozen or more international airports.
It's essentially what China has already implemented on a large, Orwellian scale, and involves plans for possible mandatory face scans for all travelers to foreign destinations. The new Biometric Entry-Exit Program report is among the first major reviews of the experimental program's performance and effectiveness.
And naturally the DHS bureaucrats' absolute last concern is actual airport and airline timely travel and efficiency. The Intercept reports among the chief problems: "the report notes with palpable frustration, was that airlines insist on letting their passengers depart on time, rather than subjecting them to a Homeland Security surveillance prototype plagued by technical issues and slowdowns."
The key section of the DHS report is as follows :
Demanding flight departure schedules posed other operational problems that significantly hampered biometric matching of passengers during the pilot in 2017. Typically, when incoming flights arrived behind schedule, the time allotted for boarding departing flights was reduced. In these cases, CBP allowed airlines to bypass biometric processing in order to save time. As such, passengers could proceed with presenting their boarding passes to gate agents without being photographed and biometrically matched by CBP first. We observed this scenario at the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport when an airline suspended the biometric matching process early to avoid a flight delay. This resulted in approximately 120 passengers boarding the flight without biometric confirmation.
Later in the report deep concern is voiced over airlines' consistently pushing for flights to depart in a timely manner. These pressures result in local TSA screening agents “Repeatedly permitting airlines to revert to standard flight-boarding procedures without biometric processing may become a habit that is difficult to break.”
The DHS complains about this despite that elsewhere in the report they admit, “airline officials we interviewed indicated the processing time was generally acceptable and did not contribute to departure delays.”
Citing the goal of being able to scan and capture biometric data on "100% of all departing passengers" by 2021, the report laments that current difficulties in the screening process could make this impossible, especially in light of the pesky airlines pushing for consistently timely departure.
The report concludes that current logistical problems “pose significant risks to CBP scaling up the biometric program to process 100 percent of all departing passengers by 2021.”
In a worrisome section of the document, officials make the suggestion that “enforcement mechanisms or back-up procedures to prevent airlines from bypassing biometric processing prior to flight boarding.”
Meanwhile privacy advocates and civil libertarians have long decried the government overstep and abuse inherent in such biometric scanning.
One privacy researcher, Harrison Rudolph, who runs the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown University Law School, was cited by NPR during the early phase of the program as saying: "DHS hasn't issued a single rule under this program to protect Americans' privacy," and added, "So what DHS decides to do with this information tomorrow, I'm not sure. And without rules there may be few protections for Americans' privacy."
With such issues left completely unsettled, and with the government claiming it would never, never abuse such a technology... the consistent refrain in reports over the last year has been its fast coming to an airport near you.
And clearly DHS and TSA could care less whether or not you actually catch your flight.
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"The Notorious Pill Mill:" Just One Doctor Wrote 335,000 Painkiller Prescriptions
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For ten years, two pharmacies just four blocks apart in Williamson, West Virginia, dispensed some 20.8 million prescription painkillers in a town of only 3,191 residents. Those shocking figures were released earlier this year by the congressional committee investigating the opioid crisis that has devastated the Rust Belt.
From December 2002 to January 2010, more than 335,000 prescriptions for painkillers were issued by Dr. Katherine Hoover at a small clinic in the struggling West Virginia town, a rate of about 130 per day.
In a recent interview via NBC News, Hoover argued that she did nothing wrong. "I prescribed narcotics to people in pain. I did everything I could to help people have a better life, which I told the FBI," Hoover said. "Every prescription I wrote was justified for the person who had gotten it."
Hoover, 68, wrote more opioid prescriptions than any other doctor in the state from 2002 to 2010, government investigators said in court documents.
As of 2016, West Virginia became one of the deadliest states for fatal opioid overdoses.
Court records show Hoover arrived in Williamson in 2002 and started working at the Mountain Medical Care Center, a private clinic which took anyone who could pay in cash.
Williamson is a small blue-collar city of some 3,000 residents just across the Tug Fork River from Kentucky. When the coal industry collapsed, it left behind many miners - many of whom were already reliant on painkillers.
Federal investigators told NBC News that Hoover and the other Mountain Medical Care employees exploited the system and reaped massive amounts of money in return. The clinic was a for-profit pill mill, charging $450 in cash for first-time clients, and investigators said doctors often did not even see the patients to whom they were giving prescriptions.
Clients who wanted a second prescription would pay $150 to a receptionist, who would hand out a new script after asking several questions, investigators claim. One investigator said, he was told by a nurse at the clinic to get an X-ray because "if the feds walk in right now, she wanted them to be able to pick up any chart that they want and find that the clinic is searching for what’s wrong with the patient."
With a script in hand, clients would then walk down the street to either one of the two Williamson pharmacies; over the decade, some 20.8 million painkillers were dispensed.
"They called it ‘Pilliamson,’ instead of Williamson," Mingo County Prosecuting Attorney Michael Sparks told The Charleston Gazette in 2011. "It was an open secret, you might say."
Federal court documents showed Hoover was West Virginia’s top prescriber of controlled substances. She was described by the clinic’s owner as its "bread and butter."
It all came to an end in 2010, however, when the government raided her clinic due to its excessive opioid prescribing. She immediately fled to the Bahamas but was not charged nor convicted for the excess prescriptions. This is different from some doctors and clinics that have been prosecuted during the opioid epidemic.
"Legal experts told NBC News that it would not have been difficult to extradite Hoover when she went to the Bahamas. But she was never prosecuted. One theory offered by legal experts and NBC News is the case against her may be difficult to prove — since she insists she did nothing wrong and took steps, like requiring patients take X-rays, to provide cover for her prescriptions. Another is that she may have been a government witness. We might never know the truth," said NBC News.
West Virginia leads all other states in drug overdose deaths. The state had an age-adjusted drug overdose death rate of 52 per 100,000 people in 2016. Second-worst Ohio was at 39.1, nearly 25 % below West Virginia’s extraordinary rate of deaths.
In the early 2000s, the opioid crisis was in its earlier stages, first fueled by doctors like Hoover, but also well-intentioned doctors who thought opioids were the only solution to treat pain. The Charleston Gazette-Mail in West Virginia uncovered a shocking statistic: From 2007 to 2012, pharmaceutical companies dumped 780 million painkillers into the state — which has a total population of about 1.8 million.
As for Hoover's prosecution, Valarie Blake, an associate professor at West Virginia University’s law school, told NBC News that state and federal prosecutors would face a difficult time convincing a jury that Hoover had committed a crime.
"It’s very difficult to prove these cases," said Blake.
Pain management is very subjective, and corrupt doctors use X-rays or other documents to support their claims, Blake added.
During a recent congressional hearing of five Big Pharma executives over the deadly opioid epidemic, a Georgia lawmaker brought up Hoover’s name.
"Do you know whatever came about with Dr. Hoover?" Rep. Buddy Carter, a Republican, asked. "She fled to the Bahamas. She bought an island."
Overprescribing triggered the opioid epidemic. Hoover like many other doctors have escaped charges. They exploited the system by playing by the book.
Yet while the government is finally cracking down on opioid abuse, the one question left is: why did the government allow pharmaceutical companies and for-profit pill mills to pump millions of highly addictive opioids into the Rust Belt in the first place?
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Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Life Expectancy Decreases Yet Again But There Could Be One Big Reason Why
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Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,
Life expectancy in the United States has decreased yet again, but it isn’t due to a lack of healthcare as leftists would have everyone believe. There are far more important factors at play when it comes to how long a person will live, and personal responsibility is taking the front seat.
No one should have to be told that obesity is a risk factor for an early death. Yet it seems to be almost offensive to say so. The problem in the United States with life expectancy is responsibility, not a lack of government handouts in the form of inadequate medical care. In fact, the government’s relationship with Big Pharma is taking a good chunk of the blame as well.
Opioids and the constant pressure doctors feel to prescribe them thanks to protections from the US government are another cause of a decrease in life expectancy, according to WebMD. Opioids are highly addictive and overdose is now a leading cause of death in the United States.
“We’ve been talking about the fact that our children will live less long than we will, and that’s clearly coming to pass,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.
But what many refuse to acknowledge is that first, the government is elbow deep in the opioid epidemic, and second obesity (a preventable disease) is considered “ok” or “not that bad” when in reality, an obese person can expect to live ten years less than a person of a healthy weight.
As obesity rates have exploded in the United States in recent years, so has life expectancy decreased.
‘‘Excess weight shortens human lifespan. In countries like Britain and America, weighing a third more than the optimum shortens lifespan by about 3 years. For most people, a third more than the optimum means carrying 20 to 30 kilograms [50 to 60 pounds, or 4 stone] of excess weight. If you are becoming overweight or obese, avoiding further weight gain could well add years to your life,” said Epidemiologist Dr. Gary Whitlock of Oxford University.
When personal responsibility for one’s own life is put first, people tend to live longer. People should take care of themselves and make the decision on which foods to consume and which drugs they should take. But this responsibility for one’s own life seems to be constantly pushed off onto others.
And this isn’t solely a problem in the United States. Great Britain is facing a decline in life expectancy as well, and the nation has “universal healthcare.” This all but proves is that government intervention cannot save people, people must save themselves through action and responsibility.
Throughout the 20th Century, the UK experienced steady improvements in life expectancy at birth, resulting in a larger and older population.
This has been attributed to healthier lifestyles among the population as it ages, such as reduced smoking rates, and improvements in treating infectious illnesses and conditions such as heart disease.
But in recent years, the progress has slowed. And in the latest data it has ground to a halt. –BBC
Leftists would have us believe that universal healthcare will solve this problem, yet the UK is still experiencing a stagnant life expectancy along with the US.
Perhaps instead of placing one’s life in the hands of a government (ruling class master), one should take responsibility for what they eat and consume. Perhaps more questions should be asked before accepting a prescription for a highly addictive opioid. Perhaps more personal responsibility and less blame would help everyone live a longer an happier life.
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