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Biden Climate Pact Hobbles US Manufacturing And Agriculture But Gives China, India, Russia A Pass

  • Some of the world’s top emitters of methane haven’t signed a global effort to curb how much of the greenhouse gas is emitted by 2030.
  • Forcefully cutting methane emissions so drastically could significantly harm U.S. agriculture and manufacturing, according to industry groups.
  • “We appreciate the efforts to address methane emissions, but the unintended consequences of (a methane tax) could prove harmful to families across the country with little environmental benefit,” the American Gas Association wrote in a recent letter to top lawmakers.

Some of the world’s top emitters of methane haven’t signed a global effort to curb how much of the greenhouse gas is emitted by 2030.

The three countries – China, Russia and India – that produce the most methaneemissions in the world haven’t signed onto the pact, which has been spearheaded by the U.S. and European Union ahead of a major United Nations climate conference. The nations that have signed the agreement represent nearly 30% of global methane emissions, the State Department said Monday.

The U.S. and EU unveiled the Global Methane Pledge on Sept. 18, which they said would be key in the global fight against climate change. The U.K., Italy, Mexico and Argentina were among the seven other countries that immediately signed the agreement last month.

“Methane reductions are the single most effective strategy to reduce global warming in the near term and keep a 1.5 C future within reach,” U.S. Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry tweeted after the September announcement. “Join the (pledge) and cut methane 30% by 2030.”

On Monday, Kerry and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced after a meeting that 24 additional nations had joined the pledge. However, China, Russia and India, which produce more than 33% of the world’s methane emissions, remained off the list of signatories.

Australia, Brazil and Iran also didn’t join the pledge despite also being among the world’s top ten methane emitters.

The nations signing onto the U.S.-EU pledge agreed to cut methane emissions 30% by 2030 compared to 2020 levels. Methane makes up 16% of all global greenhouse gas emissions and is produced by fossil fuels and livestock.

Meanwhile, forcefully cutting methane emissions so drastically could significantly harm U.S. agriculture and manufacturing, according to industry groups. The White House has yet to lay out the policies it would pursue to cut methane by 30%.

A methane tax, for example, would be devastating to U.S. agriculture, the American Farm Bureau said. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) has implored the Biden administration to propose measures, not mandates, that would be voluntary for businesses to implement.

“Getting the U.S. methane strategy right is critical for climate action and will set the bar for the rest of the world,” National Association of Manufacturers Vice President of Energy and Resources Policy Rachel Jones said in May.

“The balancing act is important here because manufacturers rely on natural gas,” Jones adds. “The richness of this resource has redefined America’s competitive advantages within the global economy, especially within the manufacturing sector. We can’t afford to lose that if we fail to get regulations right.”

Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package includes fees for energy companies that produce methane emissions, Real Clear Energy reported. In response, the American Gas Association wrote a letter to top lawmakers urging them to reverse course and arguing that the fees would be passed on to consumers.

“We appreciate the efforts to address methane emissions, but the unintended consequences of this tax could prove harmful to families across the country with little environmental benefit,” the letter, which 12 other industry groups also signed, stated.

The U.S.-EU coalition intends to make the pledge official during the upcoming United Nations climate conference that is set to take place in early November.

DHS Still Searching in Probe of Border Patrol ‘Whips’ Allegation

Despite a vow to quickly conduct an investigation into the allegations of Border Patrol agents using their horse reins to whip Haitian migrants, the Biden administration is reportedly still searching for answers.

The Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was supposed to conclude the investigation quickly after the mid-September allegations surfaced — even though they were quickly debunked by the photographer who took the photos of the alleged acts — but the probe has remained ongoing for weeks now.

“The investigation is ongoing,” a DHS spokesman wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner. “The department is committed to a thorough, independent, and objective process. We are also committed to transparency and will release the results of the investigation once it is complete.”

Mayorkas told Congress on Sept. 22 the results of the investigation would come in “a matter of days, not weeks.”

President Joe Biden had seen the allegations of mounted Border Patrol whipping migrants with reins, and vowed, “I promise you, those people will pay.”

The president of the Border Patrol Union, Brandon Judd, told the Examiner via text message he had not be informed of any conclusion to the probe, but he added to Fox News there is a DHS desire to find some wrongdoing to avoid making Biden administration leaders up to and including the president look bad for the fake allegations.

“They’ve already had the president, the vice president, [White House press secretary] Jen Psaki herself, and the secretary of Homeland Security have already passed judgment on what took place down there without an investigation taking place,” Judd told Fox News.

“So now the investigators are just going to go down there, and they’re going to have to find fault based upon what all of these extremely powerful people have already said.”

Allegations came from still photos of the mounted patrol holding the reins of their horses as Haitian migrants were seeking to illegally cross the U.S. border from Mexico, but were turned away.

“Some of the Haitian men started running, trying to go around the horses, and that’s kind of when the whole thing happened,” the photographer who took the photos, Paul Ratje, told KTSM, the New York Post reported.

“I didn’t ever see them whip anybody, with the thing. He was swinging it. But I didn’t see him actually take — whip someone with it. That’s something that can be misconstrued when you’re looking at the picture.”

Mayorkas vowed to conduct the investigation with “integrity.”

“This investigation will be based on the facts that the investigators learn, and the results of the investigation will be driven by those facts, and nothing less than,” Mayorkas told White House reporters.

“Let me just be very clear, and repeat what I’ve said, I am not concerned with respect to the integrity of the investigation, we know how to conduct an investigation with integrity.”

US airlines cancel thousands of flights as pilots protest forced COVID shots

Southwest Airlines cancelled nearly 2,000 flights over the weekend, amid reports of protests by pilots against new COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

 It began with a trickle –– and then a flood –– of tweets on Sunday about Southwest Airline pilots calling in sick to protest their company’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, and then a cascade of reports that pilots from other airlines, as well as critical employees in other segments of the transportation industry, are preparing to follow suit.  

After Southwest pilots filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction against their company’s mandate, Southwest cancelled nearly 2,000 flights over the weekend, citing “bad weather.” While the airline and pilots’ union are dismissive of the reports of a pilot walkout, reports on Twitter and elsewhere have continued to emerge.  

“The revolt begins at Southwest Airlines,” announced Alex Berenson via his Substack, Unreported Truths.  “Pilots at Southwest appear to be sicking out in a rebellion against vaccine mandates that has crippled the airline since Friday.” 

“Why Southwest and not United?” asked Berenson.   

“Maybe because LUV is based in Dallas and has a 50-year-history of standing up to government overreach. On Friday the pilots’ union asked for a temporary halt to the mandate,” he explained. “The flight cancellations began almost immediately and are continuing today.” 

A Southwest pilot who wrote to Berenson explained why the pilots’ union is not publicly supportive of the ‘sick out’ reports:  

[T]he union cannot organize or even acknowledge the sickout, because doing so would make it an illegal job action. 

. . . 

But at the moment the pilots don’t even have to talk to each other about what they’re doing. The anger internally – not just among pilots but other Southwest workers – is enormous.   

. . .  

Telling pilots in particular to comply or face termination has backfired. 

“This pilot says he loves Southwest and finds the crisis painful but feels that if this is the only way Americans can stand up to these mandates, then let the chips fall,” concluded Berenson.  

“Way more to this Southwest thing,” tweeted Jack Posobiec, senior editor at Human Events. “Other airline crews are joining in.”  

Posobiec said in another tweet that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s office has been “getting lit up” since Saturday night by transportation industry lobbyists and “even a few CEO’s.” “They want him to talk to [Biden] about mandates, per [White House] official,” Posobiec said. 

Twitter user Joshua posted a note from his pilot father about the cancellation of Southwest Airline flights: 

Want to know why?  They told their pilots and flight attendants they had until November to get jabbed.  So now they have to use all their banked vacation and personal time, or lose it.  And off duty crew are not picking up trips to cover.  Jacksonville ATC [Air Traffic Controllers] walked out too Milwaukee ATC is expected to follow today.   

There is no weather. Southwest just doesn’t want to tell you the real reason why. 

. . . 

80% of our pilots are ex-military.  We see the tyranny that’s happening.  They’re coming for essential workers first (nurses, doctors, firefighters, police, military, teachers and transportation workers) and they’re coming for the rest of America next.  We’re not doing it for us, we’re doing it for America.  We swore to defend the constitution against all enemies.

A U.S airline pilot posted a video on Friday explaining the untenable position in which  airline COVID-19 vaccine mandates are placing pilots and other employees: 

I’ve been an airline pilot for 18 years and now I’m facing an ultimatum.  Not a choice, but an ultimatum.  

 I’m being told that in order to continue my career as an airline pilot I must be vaccinated, which really means I have to choose between putting food on the table for my family and my freedom of choice.  Whether you believe vaccination is the right thing to do or not, the situation goes far beyond health.  

We the American people have fought for freedom for 257 years.  We go around the world spreading ideas of freedom and democracy.  We help other countries and people fight for their freedoms, while ours are being stripped away.  

You may think that being forced to wear a mask or get a vaccination is insignificant, but when you begin to compile mandate after mandate and loss of freedom after freedom it becomes very significant.   

As each thing is taken away, we face what is known as the shifting baseline syndrome.  This syndrome changes our idea of a new and acceptable ‘normal.’  Soon we will not remember what it was like to have the freedoms we once did.  Our children and our grandchildren will experience less freedom and they won’t have the privilege or the pleasure to enjoy the same choices our parents had or that we have.  

If we give into these mandates and we do not stand up for our freedom of choice, we dishonor every armed service person over the last 257 years ––a disservice to the people who fought and bled for the very freedoms we enjoy. 

Whether you believe in vaccination or not, I’m standing up for your freedom of choice.  

You may support the vaccine mandates because they fall in line with your current beliefs, but if we let this happen now, there will be a day when you’re told what to do will not fall in line with your beliefs.   

If we do not stand together and fight back in one voice, soon we can be told where to live, what job we will do, what religion to believe, and how many children we can have.  

Do you really want someone telling your children or your grandchildren what, when, and how they will live every minute of their lives?   

It’s time we take a stance.  It’s time we fight for our freedom of choice while we still can.   

“Join us!” he urges at the end of the now-viral video, viewed over 999,000 times at the time and quickly climbing.   

Candace Owens took to Twitter and urged her followers to retweet the pilot’s video message, saying, “STAND WITH THE PILOTS.  THIS is the America I know.” 

Other conservatives have taken to social media to support airline pilots refusing to work because of the “vaccine” mandates.   

“Joe Biden’s illegal vaccine mandate at work!” exclaimed Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas). “Suddenly, we’re short on pilots & air traffic controllers.”  

“Southwest Airlines employees, keep pushing back!” tweeted Errol Webber, a California congressional candidate.   

“Air Traffic Controllers, keep pushing back! Hold the line! Make the airline industry crack,” he added.  

“Southwest employees are true patriots. Rebellion against tyranny is such a beautiful thing,” declared Breitbart News journalist Alana Mastrangelo.  

“I stand with the flight attendants, ground crew and pilots who value their bodily autonomy!  CANCEL MY FLIGHTS — CONTINUE THE FIGHT!” tweeted Andy Swan, whose message has been retweeted thousands of times. 

“Southwest Airlines is just the start.  KEEP PUSHING BACK,” urged Jillian Anderson, formerly of Fox News.   

Some Southwest Airlines passengers, displaced by the many cancelled flights, said they didn’t mind the inconvenience if due to protests against the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. 

“I’m stuck in a city where I know no one, rental cars are sold out, hotels are full, and I may not be able to fly home due to the airline workers’ strike against govt mandates,” asserted traveler Ann Bauer. 

“I’m ELATED. I will take an uber, find a Red Roof Inn and crawl home if I have to. Keep the faith.”  

“If  Southwest Air employees end up saving America, it’ll be the only airline I ever fly,” said Emma Woodhouse.  

“Amazing. Southwest Airlines is blaming the weather for 1,000+ cancelled flights and not employees calling out sick over the vaccine mandate. Weird how the weather didn’t hit other airlines,” noted Robby Starbuck, a candidate for Congress in Tennessee.   

“Sounds as accurate as Fauci’s science!” said Starbuck.  “This is only the start. Disobedience has begun!”

Chinese county’s plan to solve ‘marriage crisis’ by pressuring women into marrying single rural men backfires

(South China Morning Post)

  • Women across China are outraged by a county government’s plan to pressure young women into staying in rural areas and marrying men who can’t find wives
  • China has one of the world’s most unbalanced gender ratios in the world, with far more men than women as a result of the one-child policy

A Chinese county government’s proposed campaign to encourage local women to stay and marry local bachelors to solve their “marriage crisis” has been widely ridiculed after details of the plan appeared online.

The proposal by Xiangyin county government in central China’s Hunan province was referred to as “operation bed warming” in an article published on a website run by the local communist party. The proposal said the challenges facing rural men seeking marriage are: “a problem that’s turning from a personal issue into a societal issue”.

The four-point plan included increasing propaganda discouraging local women from moving away from rural areas, simplifying legal paperwork for people to stay, increasing matchmaking services and improving local employment opportunities and pay.

“Rural women must be educated to love their hometowns, build their hometowns, be encouraged to stay and change their hometowns, to bring down the unbalanced ratio between men and women here,” the proposal said.

There was immediate and widespread criticism of the proposal, with many calling it an insulting suggestion that infringed on women’s freedom.

“We did not get educated so that we could go back to our hometowns and serve our in-laws,” one woman wrote on Weibo.

“I suspect the rural women who still live in the villages would all leave after they hear this proposal,” another person said.

Some who expressed support for the proposal also received online criticism. Last week, Red Net, a website run by the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, published an article arguing the proposal was necessary.

“It’s no small issue for rural men to have wives, it’s absolutely necessary for rural areas to have ‘operation bed warming’ and for older rural men to feel more happy,” it said.

“In rural areas, it’s becoming common that men cannot get wives … it’s making the parents and themselves miserable.”

The county government has since clarified to Red Star News that they did not mean they will force women to stay and that it was only intended as an encouragement to stay.

In 2020, only 8.13 million couples tied the knot in China, a 12 per cent drop from the previous year, and the seventh consecutive year of declining marriage rates, data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed.

It is partially caused by China’s unbalanced gender ratio due to years of gender discrimination and selective birth as a result of China’s notorious one-child policy. Rural areas are particularly affected as many women move to large cities in search of better employment opportunities.

China’s sex ratio at birth is one of the most unbalanced in the world, with 114 males to every 100 females born, there are currently 30 million more men than women, based on data from Statista, an international data provider. The average sex ratio at birth globally is about 105 boys for every 100 girls, according to the World Health Organization.

It’s not the first time such a proposal has been made. Earlier this year, a proposal by a senior think tank official for unmarried urban women to migrate to rural areas, where there are millions of unmarried men looking for brides, caused a public furore.

Former Director Of National Intelligence Issues Warning Over Biden Buying Chinese Drones For Feds

“It’s harmful to our national security.”

Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe warned Sunday that the Biden administration is putting national security at risk by buying Chinese drone technology for federal law enforcement use.

In an appearance on Fox News Ratcliffe urged that Chinese companies supplying the technology are likely relaying back information on U.S. critical infrastructure to the Chinese Communist Party.

“Like so much that Biden administration has done on national security lately, this makes very little sense,” Ratcliffe warned.

He added, “It’s harmful to our national security. And also, Chinese drone technology is not as good as U.S. drone technology.”

“It’s hard to make sense out of what’s doing this, other than it is consistent with the Biden administration taking a softer approach, trying to promote a false narrative that somehow China is a competitor and not an adversary,” Ratcliffe further emphasised.

Watch:

Ratcliffe’s warning comes a month after Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley allegedly engaged in a ‘top-secret’ mission to undermine President Trump’s ability to order military strikes, and promised to tip off the CCP if the U.S. was planning military action according to a new book by Bob Woodword and the Washington Post‘s Robert Costa.

Biden has been long-rumored to be under the thumb of the Chinese government, and the Afghanistan debacle also made the case for that theory even stronger.

Trump Records Birthday Video For Ashli Babbitt, Calls For DOJ To Reopen Investigation

Former President Donald Trump once again advocated for deceased Jan. 6 rioter Ashli Babbitt on Sunday, calling for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to reopen its investigation into her death in a video recorded for what would have been her 36th birthday.

KEY FACTS

A video made by the ex-president played at a weekend rally in Freeport, Texas, held by family and supporters of Babbitt, according to News2Share reporter Ford Fischer, who live-streamed the event. 

Trump offered his “unwavering support” of Babbitt, a California-based Air Force veteran and conspiracy theorist

Without mentioning the actions that led to her death, Trump proclaimed there “was no reason Ashli should have lost her life that day.” 

He also called on the Department of Justice to reopen its investigation into Babbitt’s death, which the federal agency closed in April after finding “insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution” of the officer who shot Babbitt. 

CRUCIAL QUOTE 

“That horrible day of January 6, Ashli arrived at the U.S. Capitol. She was shot and tragically killed,” Trump said. “Today would have been her birthday. Happy birthday, Ashli.” 

who was shot by a member of the U.S. Capitol Police while storming Congress, praising her as a “truly incredible person.” 

KEY BACKGROUND 

Babbitt was shot in the shoulder while climbing through a broken door into the Speaker’s Lobby as a crowd of rioters tried to gain access to the House of Representatives chamber. The Department of Justice announced in April that it would not bring charges against the officer who fatally shot Babbitt, Lt. Michael Byrd, determining the shooting was necessary “in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber.” The U.S. Capitol Police similarly cleared Byrd of wrongdoing following an internal investigation. The department concluded Byrd “potentially saved members and staff from serious injury and possible death.” Nonetheless, Trump—along with other influential Republicans—have homed in on Babbitt’s death in the riot’s aftermath, painting her as a martyr and her killing as part of a nefarious plot.

Why Is the COVID Case Count So High?

The CDC used to define a “case” as a patient whose characteristic signs, symptoms, and physical examination matched a disease. Labs were only done if clinically needed. Since the “pandemic,” however, the move to boost case numbers is everywhere.

Instantly, a “positive” RT-PCR test in an asymptomatic person after a drive-through tonsillectomy became a “case.” The CARES Act gives thousands extra to hospitals for every “positive,” with a big bonus if the patient’s shadow is seen in an ICU. It’s a classic “one hand washes the other scenario” between outside labs and hospitals. “If you give me more positive results, I get more money, so I’ll send more tests to you.”

My hospital’s Medical Staff President flatly denied any CARES Act benefits at our 2020 Medical Staff Extravaganza, but the incentives can’t be denied. My hospital still sends “coders” out to demand that staff order COVID tests to get more payments. Put bluntly, there’s no way to know what any test means medically if the patient isn’t sick. But “positives” definitely mean money!

MIQE standards list eighty-five parameters that must be met in RT-PCR testing. Does every lab meet them all every time? Around the worldcelebrities who test “positive” one day and “negative” the next strongly suggest that a lot of mistakes are being made. This is unsurprising since as early as 2017, the technique was well known for “lack of reproducibility.”

The inventor of the test stated that RT-PCR was never intended to be a diagnostic test and using it as one was scientifically illegitimate. “[It’s] like trying to say whether somebody has bad breath by looking at his fingerprint.”

Proper testing requires checking three genetic elements, widely separated in the genome. For CDC counts and CARES Act payments, only two segments get tested, automatically increasing the number of positive tests – by a lot. The lab starts the RT-PCR by doubling genetic material multiple times to make it easier to identify. In research, if it’s not positive by thirty-five “amplification cycles,”, it’s not positive. FDA guidance indicates that anything found up to 40 cycles is considered “positive.” At forty cycles a glass of water may test positive. Stopping at thirty-five would show that COVID-19 wasn’t any worse than flu, if it was that bad.

Some people test “positive” but aren’t infected because “Detection of viral RNA may not indicate the presence of infectious virus or that 2019-nCoV is the causative agent for clinical symptoms.” These “false positives’ range from 17% to 70%. Depending on when you test after exposure, up to 100% of negative tests are “false negatives.” A test with a range of +70% to -100% is meaningless. ThermoFisher emphasizes reproducibility, but RT-qPCR is the paradigm for lack of reproducibility and that’s why the CDC has decertified it.

There is no pandemic. There never was. Since only 6% of “COVID deaths” were from only the bug, there have only been about 40,000 total, roughly equal to seasonal flu. In the early days, we didn’t know how to treat it and rationally feared that the new Black Death had arrived. But by May of last year, we already knew that HCQ was probably effective in early cases. Early treatment would cause a (non)crisis to go to waste, and that could not be allowed. So very effective treatments and excellent prophylactic measures were suppressed.

Ineffective masks, social distancing, vaccine passports, lockdowns, and the like were mandated. They became part of an “Orange Man Bad” publicity campaign. Anthony Fauci gave President Trump awful advice following that game plan. Trump’s flair for publicity boomeranged in news conferences where he trumpeted his successes, but all anyone really heard was panic porn.

Certainly, the prospect of centralizing power is intoxicating to the elect. But is that it? Are hospitals the only recipients of largess?

For about twenty years, Fauci’s NIAID used taxpayer money to do “invisible” research on deadly viruses. It received unlawful patents related to a certain virus that might become worth a king’s ransom. Such filthy lucre could become very attractive.

Before you start throwing rotten tomatoes and soiled work boots, please watch David Martin Ph.D. and Reiner Fuellmich tell why they believe Anthony Fauci and his cohorts were neck-deep in the COVID gain-of-function and patent process for at least the last twenty-two years. Among the key patents are some that, if they are for a naturally occurring virus, are illegal according to the Supreme Court. If they’re for an engineered virus, they’re contrary to the Biological Weapons Convention, which became effective in 1975. Martin and Fuellmich allege that the parties to this corrupt process include Anthony Fauci, Ralph Baric, Peter Daszak, Dr. Shi Zhengli (the Wuhan Bat Lady), and—drum roll, please—none other than Bill Gates. Dr. Martin has made available a long list of documents he contends support this claim.

These alleged conspirators have spent a considerable amount of time and effort to set themselves up to profit from a vaccine industry that would likely be given huge subsidies and immunities to respond to a “coronavirus pandemic.” Yes, that’s what they literally war-gamed along the way. Martin and Fuellmich present strong evidence of collusion between the virus creators and vaccine manufacturers. Is it any surprise that an mRNA COVID-19 “vaccine” was ready for early testing within four months of the announcement of the virus?

We cannot leave this subject without asking if the vaccines actually stop infection.

No vaccine can prevent infection. That’s because you must be infected before your T-cells and antibodies (humoral immunity) can crank up.

In COVID-19, the problem is more complicated. Even if you’re vaccinated, COVID aerosols still enter your lungs, where the virus attaches to pneumocytes in your air sacs (alveoli). It multiplies inside those cells, and they shed a lot of virus back into the alveoli, where you can now share it with the next person as effectively as someone who’s sick. Voila! Asymptomatic transmission!

You’ll also be a “case” at your next drive-through impalement. But you aren’t sick and don’t get sick. You don’t have a clinical “case” of COVID, but you’ll be one for the next Panic Porn Live at 6:30! Your vaccination status won’t matter. “At the country-level, there appears to be no discernable relationship between percentage of population fully vaccinated and new COVID-19 cases in the last 7 days.”

If you are immune, some of that virus will still find its way across the alveolar basement membrane into your bloodstream. That’s where your humoral immunity will mop it up and keep you from getting sick. But you are a “case!” And your house cat may be as well. Big cats in the National Zoo have been treated for the Wuhan Flu. Fido can get it, too.

There is nothing we can do to slow down COVID-19. It rapidly spread through society because it was “in the wild.” Vaccinated and unvaccinated can spread the virus equally. Even if every person gets vaccinated, we still won’t have perfect protection because the virus mutates, leaving older vaccine-induced immunity less effective. That’s why two of the most vaccinated regions in the world, Israel and Gibraltar, are having huge spikes in the bug.

The CDC definition of a “COVID case” is a political construct designed to funnel taxpayer money to favored individuals and institutions. It has nothing to do with the course of the disease. Only 6% of “COVID deaths” were exclusively from COVID. The other 94% would likely have died of their other diseases without the virus. Many of those who died would still be alive if the Feds weren’t suppressing HCQ and Ivermectin early treatment protocols…which our “betters” in Congress are themselves reported to be using.

Blackouts in China deprive North Korean factory workers of hot water and light

This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.

Rolling blackouts in northeastern China have deprived North Korean factory workers of hot water and lighting in their cramped dormitories, making their living and working conditions even more unbearable, sources in China told RFA.

Though power outages are commonplace in North Korea they have been much less frequent until recently in China, where Pyongyang sends laborers to earn desperately needed foreign cash for the government.

“Power has been cut off to some of the large factories in Hunchun since the 24th of September,” a Chinese citizen of Korean descent, from Jilin province in China’s heavily industrialized northeast, told RFA’ s Korean Service Sept. 29th.

“The Chinese authorities explain that it’s because crowded large factories increase the risk of COVID-19 infection,” said the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

The source said that the government’s explanation was a ruse.

“We all know that there are power shortages because there’s been… fuel shortages, and the power shortages are particularly serious in the three northeastern provinces of Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang,” the source said.

The shortages are a result of a reduction in coal imports and decreased production, as Beijing tries to balance its growing energy demand with a desire to curb pollution by transitioning to alternative energy sources.

According to a recent estimate by Goldman Sachs, as much as 44 percent of China’s industrial activity has been hit by power shortages, leading analysts to cut their 2021 GDP growth forecast for China to 7.8 percent from an earlier estimate of 8.2 percent.

For the North Korean clothing manufacturers in Hunchun, who toil away in harsh working conditions as their government takes up to 90 percent of their salaries, the power outage was initially seen as some much-needed time off, according to the source.

“They didn’t understand the situation well, so they were saying, ‘Finally we can rest!’ but the company brought in generators and restarted the factory, so they had to work in even worse conditions than before,” the source said.

Though the generators supply electricity to the production line, the company did not power up the workers’ dormitory, leaving them without light, heat, and warm water.

“They have to bathe in cold water and stumble in the dark because they have no electricity in the dormitory… They appealed to the factory officials for basic standard living conditions, but nothing has changed so far,” said the source.

“Even their Chinese coworkers are feeling sorry for them, saying, ‘What have they done to deserve such conditions?” the source said.

Another Chinese citizen of Korean descent from Dandong, just across the border from North Korea, confirmed that power had been cut off to large factories in the city since the previous week.

“The authorities say that it is because of coronavirus quarantine measures, but factory officials already know that it is because of the power shortages happening all across China,” said the second source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

“More than 200 North Korean workers at a livestock processing plant here in Dandong… are working the same hours as before because the factory hooked up its own generator,” the second source said.

Like the garment workers in Hunchun, the meat packers in Dandong have to return to an unlit dormitory after work and bathe in cold water, the second source confirmed.

“How terrible it is that they work all day processing livestock into meat, and they can’t even wash properly after work, the second source said.”

“The North Koreans I met at the plant talked about how they work 16-hour days, and they are covered in blood and animal waste, but the only thing waiting for them is a tiny dormitory with only cold water for comfort.”

According to a recent RFA report, there are about 30,000 North Korean workers in the Dandong area employed in the region’s factories.

Though international nuclear sanctions prohibit North Korea from sending workers overseas and preclude countries from issuing work visas to North Koreans, Pyongyang has been known to dispatch workers to China and Russia on short-term student or visitor visas to get around sanctions.