SAM466 USAF G5 wn from JBA
SPICE98 USAF E-4B Nightwatch from Robins AFB, GA to Lincoln Muni Airport
morning
>>101817 pb
SAM389 USAF C-32A and SPAR82 USAF G5 departed Kiev after a ground stop
Now we know who on dis AC but not on the Nightwatch per usual S.O.P. for overseas travel wif any Secretary of Defense.....so dat is pretty interdasting that Austin is NOT on the E-4B
US Pentagon chief in Kiev says Russia 'obstacle' to peace
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday called on Moscow to stop prolonging the war in eastern Ukraine, his second stop in Black Sea countries he said were threatened by Russian expansionism. "We again call on Russia to end its occupation of Crimea and to stop perpetuating the war in eastern Ukraine, to end its destabilising activities in the Black Sea and along Ukraine's borders," he said in a meeting with Ukraine Defence Minister Andriy Taran. "Russia started this war and Russia is the obstacle to a peaceful resolution," he added.
Austin was in Kiev for discussions on advancing the two countries' defence cooperation, building on the Strategic Defence Framework announced in Washington at the beginning of September. His meetings with Taran and President Volodymyr Zelensky for the second time in less than two months were important for building cooperation among Black Sea countries, he said, including Georgia and Romania, to confront increased Russian activity in the Black Sea. Responding to European concerns that the United States is now focusing most of its security attention on China and the Indo-Pacific region, Austin stressed: "This region remains critical to us." "I like the minister," he added to journalists. "That's why I came back to see him so soon."
Taran said Ukraine remained confident in the United States despite the US abandonment of Afghanistan after a 20-year war against the Taliban. "We have no doubt in support from our strategic partner," he said. "The United States understands the importance of Ukraine's struggle for its independence, for deterring Russian aggression." But Taran's restatement of Ukraine's desire to graduate from a strategic partner in NATO to full member was not answered by the Pentagon defence chief. Washington continues to fall in line with Germany and France, who see admitting Ukraine to the Atlantic alliance as a high risk given Moscow's adamant opposition to it. Austin visited Georgia on Monday, and is due in Romania Wednesday, with the same message of solidarity and offers of continuing defence support in the face of challenges from Russia.
https://news.yahoo.com/us-pentagon-chief-kiev-says-132050446.html
The Nightwatch that Austin has used for overseas travel-as TITAN25-is tail #74-0787..that is SPICE98 and just landed at Lincoln Muni.
As already mentioned it is S.O.P. for any Sec. of Defense to travel overseas on the E-4B.
So add this to the list of Not AF1 Joe, Not AF2 kneepads (on her overseas trips).
Still habs tail 75-0125 sitting on the ground at Edwards AFB, CA from it's arrival on Oct 1st
SAM389 USAF C-32A on ground at Bucharest wif SPAR82 USAF G5 inbound-both from Kiev departure
US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, on a visit to Romania, on Wednesday
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will be present in Romania on Wednesday, on which occasion he will talk about Romania's role within NATO and the Black Sea region, acting Defense Minister Nicolae Ciuca said on Monday. Gral Ciuca recalled the roadmap for the next ten years signed by the Governments of Romania and the United States in 2020, adding that "All these topics that we will have on the agenda of the meeting will illustrate the role that our country plays inside the Alliance and in the region, and will also identify the real and verifiable elements". He stressed that the visit is also a confirmation of the need "to continue the solid involvement regarding the NATO concept in the line of defense reinforcement and deterrence on the Eastern Flank".
https://www.actmedia.eu/daily/us-secretary-of-defence-lloyd-austin-on-a-visit-to-romania-on-wednesday/94605
Democrats will scale back a proposal to require banks to report balances to the I.R.S.
The Biden administration, bowing to an aggressive lobbying campaign by the banking industry and pushback from Republicans, has agreed to support a far more limited plan for the Internal Revenue Service to try and crack down on tax cheats. Senate Democrats are expected to roll out a new proposal on Tuesday that would narrow the scope of information that banks must provide to the Internal Revenue Service about customer accounts. Under the new plan, banks would only be required to provide data on accounts with total annual deposits or withdrawals worth more than $10,000, rather than the $600 threshold that was initially proposed. The reporting requirement would not apply to payroll deposits for wage and salary earners or to beneficiaries of federal programs such as Social Security.
The narrowing of the plan comes after a steady lobbying campaign by banks and Republicans, who argued that the Biden administration’s desire to bolster the I.R.S. to shrink the $7 trillion so-called “tax gap” amounts to an invasion of privacy and government overreach. Critics of the proposal have incorrectly suggested that the I.R.S. would be tracking information about individual transactions. The administration has said the I.R.S. would not monitor specific customer transactions but would instead use the bank account information to spot discrepancies between what individuals report on their tax returns and what their bank accounts show. The Biden administration insists that audit rates for those making less than $400,000 would not go up and that the program is focused on collecting unpaid taxes from the rich.
The Treasury Department said that the Biden administration would back the narrower proposal because the I.R.S. already has information about American workers and retirees. While it would give the agency visibility into far fewer bank accounts, a fact sheet that will be released by Treasury on Tuesday and was obtained by The New York Times said that “only those accruing other forms of income in opaque ways are a part of the reporting regime.” “We are pleased so many members of Congress are committed to ensuring the top 1 percent pay the taxes they owe, just like teachers, firefighters, and other wage workers,” Alexandra LaManna, a Treasury spokeswoman, said. “We look forward to continuing to work with them to enact this critical proposal.” Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, will unveil the new plan on Tuesday afternoon. “The main reason Republicans have latched on to this issue as the one to lie about every day is because they know their tax agenda is a political loser,” Mr. Wyden will say, according to prepared remarks. “The American people overwhelmingly want to ensure mega-corporations and billionaires pay their fair share, so Republicans have largely given up on their tired-trickle down arguments.” Banks already submit tax forms to the I.R.S. about the interest that customer accounts accrue. But the new proposal would require they share information about account balances so that the I.R.S. can see if there are large discrepancies between the income people and businesses report and what they have in the bank. The I.R.S. could investigate the gaps to see if those taxpayers are evading their obligations.
The Treasury Department has estimated that its original proposal to require banks to report account balances, along with plans to beef up the enforcement staff at the I.R.S., could raise $700 billion over a decade. In a letter to House Democrats last month, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen urged lawmakers not to water down the information-reporting proposal. Originally, that part of the plan was projected to raise $460 billion over a decade. The Treasury Department estimated that the narrower plan that Congress had been considering could raise between $200 billion and $250 billion over that time. The Treasury Department believes that those are conservative estimates and that the “deterrent effects” of the policies could still generate $700 billion of additional tax collection in next decade. Despite the slimmer scope of the proposal, Republicans are not about to give up their line of attack.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to declare, “Democrats need to keep their grubby little hands out of people’s bank accounts. The I.R.S. does not need to monitor how you spend your money. It’s none of their damn business.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/19/us/politics/irs-bank-account-reporting-requirement.html
Facebook Chooses Coinbase As "Custody Partner" For Digital Wallet Ahead Of Stablecoin Launch
With crypto markets in the green and equities still riding high on their latest comeback rally, Coinbase has just dropped a bombshell update about Facebook's great attempt to seize control of the global monetary supply (or at least a slice of it) thanks to its nearly 3 billion monthly users who would have immediate access to whatever monetization options they are provided.
Facebook revealed Tuesday that it has chosen Coinbase as its "custody partner" for its Novi "pilot program," which will focus on creating new digital wallets for enabling users to send and receive money abroad instantly and securely, with no fees. Crypto markets have always struggled with this last bit, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinks it'd be a better idea if we just let Facebook handle all remittance payments from global migrant workers, a morass of capital slowly trudging its way from the developed world to the developing.
It's just a pilot program (for now, at least). But the fact that the company is making this announcement suggests that something even bigger is coming: Facebook is about to move ahead with the first stage in imposing Zuck's grandiose vision for a stablecoin fiat replacement - Diem - which could be one of the biggest steps since Zuck first announced it half a decade ago (and which as we explained previously, could become the de facto FedCoin in due time).
But Zuck isn't just unleashing his grand vision on the world in the hopes that we will use it: he is doing his best to impose it on the world, and the first step is to manufacture demand. So it has chosen the not just the perfect partner companies but the perfect partner country: Guatemala.
Here's what Coinbase says:
Facebook has chosen Coinbase as its custody partner for its pilot of Novi, a new digital wallet that enables people to send and receive money abroad instantly, securely, and with no fees. For the pilot, Coinbase is supporting Novi via Coinbase Custody, which keeps user funds secure with our proprietary, fully segregated cold storage capability for managing private keys. Novi users who can participate in the pilot can acquire Pax Dollar (USDP) through their Novi account, which Novi will hold on deposit with Coinbase Custody. Novi users will then be able to transfer USDP between each other instantaneously. Novi users’ funds will be held within Coinbase Custody Trust Company, a qualified custodian and a New York limited purpose trust company. Coinbase Custody Trust Company is regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services and is a fiduciary under New York state banking law. Novi users also benefit from Coinbase Custody’s leading insurance program, which includes a $320 million commercial crime policy. Coinbase Custody is a leading crypto-native platform and custodian that securely manages $180 billion (as of 6/30/21) of crypto assets on its platform. Over the past nine years, Coinbase has developed deep expertise in secure and scalable crypto infrastructure, which we initially built to power our own first party applications.
It's pretty clear that Facebook is 100% committed to this project and David Marcus says the pilot program between the US and Guatemala -which Facebook is handling in partnership with Coinbase and Paxos - will be available, for no fee, very soon.
But what is perhaps most important in today's announcement, and what investors appear to have ignored, is that according to Facebook's David Marcus, the company hopes the pilot program will "show a use-case for a stablecoin". This, as a reminder, is the holy grail that Facebook has been going after all along, first with Libra and now, with Diem.
Remarkably, the news sparked a selloff in shares of Silvergate Bank, as some algos appear to be very confused assuming that Facebook has dumped Silvergate as its Diem launch partner. As a reminder, the tiny, $3 billion market cap Silvergate will be the exclusive issuer of Facebook's Diem once the world's largest social network launches it. And no, Facebook has not dumped it in favor of Coinbase, on the contrary: it is merely using Coinbase as a platform to set the stage for Diem, whose launch will send Silvergate shares soaring. As such today's bizarre dump is truly a perplexing move... and shows just how little understanding of the fast-moving development in the crypto sector marginal investors actually have.
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/facebook-chooses-coinbase-custody-partner-pilot-launch-international-stablecoin
SOMA12 US Navy E-6B Mercury over SoCal heading east from Travis AFB, CA depart
Southwest drops plan to put unvaccinated staff on unpaid leave starting in December
Southwest Airlines has scrapped a plan to put unvaccinated employees who have applied for but haven’t received a religious or medical exemption on unpaid leave starting by a federal deadline in December.
Southwest Airlines and American Airlines are among the carriers that are federal contractors and subject to a Biden administration requirement that their employees are vaccinated against Covid-19 by Dec. 8 unless they are exempt for medical or religious reasons. Rules for federal contractors are stricter than those expected for large companies, which will allow for regular Covid testing as an alterative to a vaccination.
Executives at both carriers in recent days have tried to reassure employees about job security under the mandate, urging them to apply for exemptions if they can’t get vaccinated for medical or for a sincerely held religious belief. The airlines are expected to face more questions about the mandate when they report quarterly results Thursday morning. Pilots labor unions have sought to block the mandates or sought alternatives like regular testing.
Southwest’s senior vice president of operations and hospitality, Steve Goldberg, and Julie Weber, vice president and chief people officer, wrote to staff on Friday that if employees’ requests for an exemption haven’t been approved by Dec. 8, they could continue to work while following mask and distancing guidelines until the request has been reviewed.
The company is giving employees until Nov. 24 to finish their vaccinations or apply for an exemption. It will continue paying them while the company reviews their requests, and said it will allow those who are rejected to continue working “as we coordinate with them on meeting the requirements (vaccine or valid accommodation).”
“This is a change from what was previously communicated. Initially, we communicated that these Employees would be put on unpaid leave and that is no longer the case,” they wrote in the note, which was reviewed by CNBC.
Southwest confirmed the policy change, which comes just weeks before the deadline.
United Airlines implemented its own vaccine mandate in August, a month before the government rules were announced. United had told staff that they would be put on unpaid leave if they received exemptions. More than 96% of its staff is vaccinated. Some employees sued the company over the unpaid leave and a federal judge in Fort Worth, Texas, has temporarily blocked the airline from going forward with its plan.
American’s CEO, Doug Parker, met with labor union leaders on Thursday to discuss vaccine exemptions.
American Airlines management “indicated that, unlike the approach taken by United, they were exploring accommodations that would allow employees to continue to work,” the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, the union that represents American’s mainline cabin crews, said in a note to members Monday. “They failed to offer any specifics as to what such accommodations might look like at that time.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/19/southwest-vaccine-mandate-unpaid-leave-exemptions.html
yep...
Not taking a definitive stand dhere...
not surprising.
((they))) tried to take the heat off dis wif Powells death and dat din't werk out so well.
just like shrub the left has embraced someone that they would have never even spit on years ago.
Delta