The Central Banks New Mandate: Social Justice, Race, Gender Issues, Climate Change And Inequality

One upon a time, when central bank "independence" first materialized - even though as we have noted in the past central banks are anything but independent (see "Who Owns The World's Central Banks")…

… their mandate was to control inflation and generally this was their absolute priority.

However, as DB's Jim Reid writes today, recent years have seen central banks increasingly enter the debate on numerous other topics including fiscal policy, social justice, race, gender issues, climate change and inequality.

Enter Reid's "chart of the day", which shows a snapshot of this in terms of mentions of inequality over time in speeches from developed market central bank officials.

As Reid says, while "these are all admirable and crucial topics to discuss and could help make the world a better place" it does however show "how central bank power and influence has changed and also how they seem to be giving governments cover to spend on these issues."

He also adds that this is one of the reasons an increasingly vocal minority of the DB Research staff thinks inflation is more likely going forward (see DB's thoughts on why Inflation Is About To Explode "Leaving Global Economies Sitting On A Time Bomb"). As Reid concludes, governments want to spend more to deal with the issues above and central banks seem increasingly comfortable to support them in that aim. As a result, co-ordinated monetary and fiscal policy is more likely going forward. It's also time to ask just who elected these "independent" central bankers, and demand independence from their ideological bias.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/central-banks-new-mandate-social-justice-race-gender-issues-climate-change-and-inequality

Louisiana Democrat Governor Vetoes Bills Protecting Individual Freedoms – Now the Legislature Must Meet Again – Individual Rights at Stake

Louisiana implemented an election bill but Democrat Governor Edwards vetoed other bills that can be overcome by a special session of the Louisiana legislature in July.

We received this letter from a reader today concerning events in Louisiana:

Because of its bold public scrutiny of the major issues facing Louisiana, The Gateway Pundit was highly instrumental in the successful final passage of several critical items of legislation that greatly benefit the citizens of Louisiana.

One bill that we wrote about was the election bill.

Yesterday a new bill was signed by the governor moving Louisiana to a paper-based system. All Americans want are free and fair elections:

Governor Edwards signs legislation that will begin the process of shifting Louisiana from an electronic voting system to a paper-based system. Under a paper system, voters will receive a paper ballot that they can look at to make sure their vote was tabulated correctly, and that can be later audited by hand should the need arise.

Slidell Senator Sharon Hewitt said her bill will further strengthen the integrity of our elections.

“What is great about a paper-based system is that it is auditable, it is secure, and it is significantly cheaper than our 30-year-old outdated machines,” said Hewitt. “With an electronic system you push a button to cast a vote and that is it, so there is no way at the end to audit the result.”

The state is currently in search of new voting machines but Hewitt said this bill directs the Secretary of State to wait until we know exactly what we’re looking for to move ahead.

But unfortunately, the Democrat governor in Louisiana vetoed some good bills. Per our reader, these were:

Because of TGP’s efforts, the successful legislation includes bills that prohibit massive and unconstitutional intrusion into individual liberty (House Bills 349 and 498 prohibiting government discrimination against citizens who do not undergo the Covid vaccine); prohibit the imposition of civil liability on private employers who refuse to require their employees to get the Covid vaccine (House Bill 103); and protect the integrity of female sports by prohibiting biological males from participating in female sports (Senate Bill 156).

Our reader added that these bills had veto-proof margins and the legislature now needs to meet again to overcome the governor’s vetoes:

Fortunately, the referenced bills passed by veto-proof margins in both the Louisiana House and Senate, and there is now a massive push among Louisiana voters throughout the state for a special veto session to override the Governor’s reprehensible veto of these bills. The only issue is whether the conservative leadership in the State House and Senate have the courage and the will to aggressively pursue a veto session, and coordinate the votes to override the Governor’s veto pen. All eyes are on Republican Speaker of the House Clay Schexnayder, and Republican Senate President Page Cortez. These men have the power and the ability to ensure not only that an active veto session is held beginning on July 20, but that both Houses actually vote to override these vetoes.

The good people of Louisiana must stand up again and ask their Republican leaders to meet in July and quickly vote to overcome the Democrat governor’s vetoes of bills that protect individual rights.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/07/louisiana-democrat-governor-vetoes-bills-protecting-individual-freedoms-now-legislature-must-meet-individual-rights-stake/

Britney Spears’ longtime manager resigns, her lawyer expected to follow

Los Angeles: Britney Spears’ longtime manager has resigned, saying the pop star plans to retire and no longer needs his services, and her court-appointed lawyer is reported to also be planning to step down.

Larry Rudolph, who has managed the singer’s career for 25 years, said in a letter released to media outlets late on Monday that he had become aware that Spears had been “voicing her intention to officially retire”.

“As her manager, I believe it is in Britney’s best interest for me to resign from her team as my professional services are no longer needed,” Rudolph said in the letter, which was sent to Spears’ father Jamie and her co-conservator Jodi Montgomery.

Rudolph said that he and Spears hadn’t communicated in more than two-and-a-half years, since she told him she wanted to take an indefinite work hiatus.

Spears, 39, has not performed in public since her last world tour ended in October 2018.

Rudolph, who managed Spears from 1998 to 2004 and again beginning in 2008, stressed in 2019 the need to put her physical and emotional well-being before her career, adding he had no intention of talking her into working if she couldn’t handle it.

“I don’t want her to work again ’til she’s ready, physically, mentally and passionately,” he said. “If that time never comes again, it will never come again. I have no desire or ability to make her work again. I am only here for her when she wants to work. And, if she ever does want to work again, I’m here to tell her if it’s a good idea or a bad idea.”

He added: “I have one role in Britney’s life. I’m her manager. She calls me if and when she wants to work. Other than that I’m not involved in anything else. Not the conservatorship, not her medical treatment, not her kids. Nothing else.”

In explosive testimony last month, she told a Los Angeles judge that a 13-year court-approved conservatorship that has controlled her personal and business affairs was abusive, and said she wanted to take back control of her own life. She has yet to file the formal documents needed to start that process.

Celebrity media website TMZ.com said on Tuesday that lawyer Samuel Ingham, who was appointed to represent the singer’s interests in the legal arrangement, was planning to file papers asking to be dismissed from his role.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/britney-spears-longtime-manager-resigns-her-lawyer-expected-to-follow-20210707-p587h5.html

Welcome to billionaire summer camp! Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Disney's Bob Iger and Patriots owner Robert Kraft arrive at exclusive five-day retreat in rural Idaho

The annual invite-only conference in Sun Valley, Idaho is thrown by investment bank Allen & Company

It brings together leaders in the worlds of film, technology, design and sports

Already big names such as Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, ViacomCBS's Shari Redstone, Alice + Olivia's Stacey Bendet and Disney's Bob Iger have appeared

The event was cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic

Attendees this year will have to be vaccinated, and provide proof of a negative Covid-19 test

At the conference, movers and shakers discuss, establish and may even unofficially close on deals

This year rival chief executives including Discovery's David Zaslav, Amazon's Jeff Bezos along with his successor Andy Jassy and Bill Gates are said to be guests

The conference is invite-only with no press allowed to attend

Big names in the film, technology, design and sports industries made their appearances at Sun Valley in rural Idaho Tuesday for the start of the annual 'billionaire summer camp' for tech and media moguls.

The gathering, thrown by investment bank Allen & Company brings together A-listers from various industries each year, although the event was cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

This year, the five-day conference running from July 6 to 10, held at the edge of Idaho's Sawtooth National Forest in a tiny town of just 1,500, is set to feature strict checks to ensure it does not become a super spreader event.

Some of this year's sessions will be held outside in an attempt to minimize risk.

Among the major figures that have appeared so far include businessman and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Netflix Co-CEOs Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos, CBS News' Gayle King, CNN's Anderson Cooper, Nike CEO John Donahoe, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, Shari Redstone, chairwoman of ViacomCBS and Stacey Bendet, CEO of fashion company Alice + Olivia.

More

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9762519/Media-tech-moguls-appear-day-one-exclusive-Sun-Valley-billionaire-summer-camp.html

Project Veritas' O’Keefe Defeats Twitter Attempt to Transfer Case to Friendly Court

Ex-teacher who said she had constitutional right to sex with students gets prison

A former Alabama high school teacher who once claimed it was her constitutional right to have sex with two of her students has been sentenced to 10 years in state prison.

Carrie Cabri Witt, 47, will get to serve most of her sentence on probation, after spending 18 months behind bars and another 18 months in a community corrections program, local outlet WAAY reported.

Her sentencing on Thursday seemed to put an end to a controversial case that stretched back five years.

Witt was a history, psychology and social studies teacher at Decatur High School in March 2016 when she was arrested for having sex with two male students, ages 17 and 18.

She was charged under a 2010 state law with two counts of a school employee engaging in a sex act or deviant sexual intercourse with a student under the age of 19.

But Witt insisted that she was being prosecuted for a consensual relationship only because she worked at a school — as the age of consent in Alabama is 16.

Her attorneys argued that the state’s teacher-student sex law violated their client’s 14th Amendment rights to privacy and equal protection.

A now-retired Morgan County Circuit Court judge in 2017 agreed that the law was unconstitutional and dismissed Witt’s case.

However, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals later reversed the ruling and sent the case back to the lower court, reinstating the charges against Witt.

She pleaded guilty in March to one count of a school employee engaging in a sex act with a student under the age of 19. Prosecutors dismissed the second count.

Witt’s trial had been set to begin shortly before she entered into the “blind plea” with prosecutors. The deal came without an agreement on a sentence from the district attorney’s office. She had faced up to 20 years in prison.

Witt, who also coached girls’ golf and junior varsity cheer, stayed on the Decatur City Schools payroll for more than two years on paid leave before she quit in 2018, AL.com reported.

As part of her sentences, she will be required to register as a sex offender.

https://nypost.com/2021/07/06/ex-teacher-who-said-she-had-right-to-sex-with-students-gets-prison/

RNC Denies Reports Of Russian Government-Linked Hacking

The Republican National Committee (RNC) is denying a report that a Russian government-linked group hacked its servers last week.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that the group APT 29, also known as Cozy Bear, hacked the RNC’s servers. In response, Republican Party communications director Danielle Alvarez tweeted that the story was “not true.”

“Over the weekend, we were informed that Synnex, a third party provider, had been breached,” RNC Chief of Staff Richard Walters told CBS News. “We immediately blocked all access from Synnex accounts to our cloud environment. Our team worked with Microsoft to conduct a review of our systems and after a thorough investigation, no RNC data was accessed. We will continue to work with Microsoft as well as federal law enforcement officials on this matter.”

Cozy Bear has been previously accused of the 2016 Democratic National Committee hack and the 2020 SolarWinds hack. The Synnex hack is believed to have occurred at the same time that REvil, an Eastern European ransomware gang, locked the software company Kaseya out of its servers. REvil is asking for $70 million in Bitcoin to unlock Kaseya’s server, the largest ransom demand in history.

Cybersecurity has become a pressing issue for the Biden administration. REvil, which some intelligence officials believe is backed by the Russian government, also hacked JBS, the world’s largest meat-packing company, in early June.

https://dailycaller.com/2021/07/06/rnc-denies-reports-of-russian-government-hacking/

Publicity blitz: China to supply Africa millions of Sinovac doses after questions raised over efficacy

China is set to supply Africa millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses as the continent battles it's third wave, but questions are raised as to how effective the jabs really are.

China is embarking on a COVID-19 vaccine publicity blitz in Africa, spruiking new deals which will supply millions of doses to people trapped in the continent's third wave of outbreaks.

The vaccine deals were framed by the communist superpower as only being possible due to "empty promises from European nations".

According to Beijing-based consultancy firm Bridge Consulting, China has sold and donated more than 405 million doses of the vaccine to the international community.

"China has signed a deal with Morocco to start using the established facilities of a Moroccan pharmaceutical firm to make 5 million doses a month of Sinopharm vaccines, according to a notice released by Sinopharm on Tuesday," China's the state-owned Global Times reported on Wednesday.

"The health minister of Morocco said at the signing ceremony on Monday that the project will boost the domestic supply of vaccines in Morocco and send supplies to the African continent and even the world.

"This is China's second vaccine production line in Africa after one in Egypt."

There are concerns over the effectiveness of China's Sinopharm vaccine which was recently granted emergency authorisation by the World Health Organisation.

Bahrain, battling another devastating wave of the virus, decided to offer booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, despite being fully vaccinated.

Waleed Khalifa al Manea, Bahrain's Undersecretary of Health urged vulnerable individuals - those obese, over 50 or have chronic illnesses - to get a shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine - despite being fully inoculated with the Sinopharm jab.

China currently has two vaccines authorised for emergency use by the World Health Organisations - Sinopharm and Sinovac, both of which use inactivated viruses to prompt an immune response in the patient.

The second Chinese manufactured vaccine, Sinovac, is also facing concerns.

A leaked health ministry document obtained by Reuters has prompted calls for Thailand medical staff to be given a boost of the Pfizer vaccine, after receiving both doses of the 'emergency' Sinovac jab.

A comment from an unnamed official recommended authorities to not give a booster shot, because such a move would be "admitting that the Sinovac vaccine is not effective".

But there are calls from prominent Thai health experts to give health workers the mRNA vaccine, which instead teaches the body's cells to make a piece of the coronavirus spike protein, triggering an immune response.

Thai health officials are urging the government to consider alternative vaccines, including the Pfizer, to better protect the population.

https://www.skynews.com.au/world-news/china/publicity-blitz-china-to-supply-africa-millions-of-sinovac-doses-after-questions-raised-over-efficacy/news-story/66737456ddcbecd9407850e8f9388c06

https://www.skynews.com.au/world-news/china/publicity-blitz-china-to-supply-africa-millions-of-sinovac-doses-after-questions-raised-over-efficacy/news-story/66737456ddcbecd9407850e8f9388c06

GETTR Gets Hacked, 90,000 User Locations Exposed, Accounts CANNOT Be Deleted

The hack was due to "bad API" implementation on the site

GETTR, the new social media launched by Trump advisor Jason Miller, has been hacked, with over 90,000 user locations and details exposed. Users also cannot delete their accounts.

A post on a forum on Tuesday showed that GETTR, which was only officially launched on July 4th, was hacked by “threat actors” who were able to scrape the user data of over 90,000 people. The data, which was accessed via exploiting “bad API” implemented on GETTR, did not include password hashes and data that could be used to log into accounts, but did include emails, usernames, and most worryingly, the location data of the users.

Alon Gal, who discovered the forum post, told Vice that it should be considered a data breach, despite the absence of login information. “When threat actors are able to extract sensitive information due to neglectful API implementations, the consequence is equivalent to a data breach and should be handled accordingly by the firm and to be examined by regulators,” he said.

This is not the first time that GETTR has been hacked, with a hacker who claimed to live in Baghdad, Iraq, taking over many verified profiles on the site on launch day itself, changing their usernames to “@JubaBaghdad was here :), ^^free palestine^^.” The hacker told Business Insider that the hack was “just for fun,” and noted that it was quite “easy,” adding that GETTR should not have gone online “before making sure everything, or at least almost everything, is secure.”

After the news broke that GETTR was hacked, some may have wanted to remove their account from the site for security reasons. However, investigation into the site conducted by National File revealed that there was no direct way to delete a user account from GETTR. Unlike all other major social media platforms, there is no clear way to remove an account baked into the site – instead, the only option currently available is to request via a privacy email to delete all user data stored on their network. This then deletes the account as a side-effect, and also requires human intervention to do so.

National File was the first outlet to link GETTR with Miles Guo, a fugitive Chinese billionaire accused of corruption charges by the CCP who now claims to be a whistleblower against the communist regime, noting that many reviews for the site mentioned either himself or his organization, the New Federal State of China. Mainstream media later confirmed that Guo was involved in funding the site, with Politico claiming that the app had existed for a year as a Chinese-language social media network linked to his G-TV network.

https://nationalfile.com/gettr-gets-hacked-90000-user-locations-exposed-accounts-cannot-be-deleted/

Professors Claim CCP is Planting Spies at Their Colleges.

Three lecturers at New Zealand universities on Chinese history and politics believe that Chinese Communist Party (CCP) spies have been infiltrating their classes and collecting information.

Dr. Stephen Noakes, of Auckland University, said that non-enrollees showed up to his lectures and “appeared to be gathering intelligence.” On one occasion, an individual whom Noakes had never seen before was in the lecture theater, taking pictures.

“It made me incredibly uncomfortable and I followed it up afterwards. I’ve not seen that person again,” Noakes stated.

Catherine Churchman, a professor at Victoria University in Wellington teaching ancient Chinese history, said that, in 2017, a man came to her class and “upbraided her about her lecture content.” When asked why he was in the class, the man claimed to be a “visiting scholar.” Churchman told him he was not supposed to be there and he needed to leave. Later, she saw the same man descending from a bus near the Chinese embassy located in Wellington.

“‘Maybe this was just completely coincidental. Maybe he lived there, I don’t know,” she said.

“But the fact that he was quite determined to try and engage me to find out things; that he came into my class without asking permission and tried to correct me with the … ‘official position’ on Chinese history and their relationship with non-Chinese people – I found that rather suspicious.'”

Anne-Marie Brady, lecturer at Canterbury University, said she frequently had people come to her classes who were not supposed to be there, who were not enrolled students. She told the individuals they could not be there if they had not enrolled in the class and paid the fees. While some of these people came to observe, others were disruptive. One woman in 2019 grew both “disruptive” and “somewhat intimidating” and had to be forced out.

Noakes, who is a senior lecturer in international relations and politics, formerly held posts at Chinese and Taiwanese universities. He attributes the rise of disruptive individuals in classes dealing with Chinese politics to a “state-led” or CCP-driven “new breed of Chinese nationalism.”

“‘What we now often find is students enrolled in our courses from mainland China are far more nationalistic than was the case when I started teaching at universities 12 to 15 years ago,’ he said…

“There is a renewed focus in China on national pride. It’s an explicit pillar of Xi Jinping’s leadership and that emphasis, that focus, trickles down from the state and party leadership to those who come up through Chinese education systems and then they arrive on our doorstep one day.'”

Noakes said that a common example of such an attitude is Chinese students declaring in class that the media coverage of the June 1989 civilian massacre by Chinese state troops in Tiananmen Square was a mere “fabrication by the West to make China look bad.” Noakes said he usually hears this a few times during each semester.

These stories are featured in Red Line, a new podcast series from RNZ and Bird of Paradise Productions, which was released on June 27. RNZ contacted the Chinese embassy but received no response.

https://thenationalpulse.com/breaking/professors-claim-ccp-is-planting-spies-at-their-colleges/