DC Effort to Make Coronavirus Tests Free Fails Spectactularly, Here’s How

Parker Davis September 28, 2021

Congress passed a law to cover the cost of coronavirus testing for Americans by saddling insurance companies with the responsibility of paying for the tests themselves. The cost of the test would be determined by the cash value of whatever the onlie cost of the tests were by the provider they were contracting to administer the tests. The result has been a 25 percent increase in the cost of coronavirus tests from last year to this year, 2021.

The next shoe to drop will be the rise in insurance premiums as insurance companies pass on the cost of government’s promise to the very people the government was allegedly serving. To be fair, there will be a significant segment of society that will get access to this, as of right now, essential service for whom free access could be argued to be necessary, but we need not profoundly affect an essential market so signfiicantly with these simplistic solutions to short term problems to meet the needs of those who truly need it.

I won’t offer a solution in this moment, but there are many that don’t involve solutions that turn out to be no solution for the vast majority of people the government promised would get free testing, only to pay for it in the long run after all. That’s not actually a solution at all, is it? I can easily compete with ‘not a solution,’ and I bet many of our readers can as well.

Covid Rapid Test Prices: How a Law Allows Labs to Charge Any Price

From www.nytimes.com
2021-09-26 09:00:14

Excerpt:

At the drugstore, a rapid Covid test usually costs less than $20.

Across the country, over a dozen testing sites owned by the start-up company GS Labs regularly bill $380.

There’s a reason they can. When Congress tried to ensure that Americans wouldn’t have to pay for coronavirus testing, it required insurers to pay certain laboratories whatever “cash price” they listed online for the tests, with no limit on what that might be.

GS Labs’s high prices and growing presence — it has performed a half-million rapid tests since the pandemic’s start, and still runs thousands daily — show how the government’s longstanding reluctance to play a role in health prices has hampered its attempt to protect consumers. As a result, Americans could ultimately pay some of the cost of expensive coronavirus tests in the form of higher insurance premiums.

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Neural Networks Are Making You Who You Are, Here’s How to Fight it

Freedomist Editor September 28, 2021

The world around you is driven more and more by the spooky decisicions made by artificial neural networks executing various machine learning methods, including neural networks, networks of semi-independent ai programs solving particular problems and submitting data to a higher structure where the final decisions are made.

Neural networks, deep learning machines attempting to collectively mimic a human mind, or, rather, in scale, human minds, in the billions, at this point, are making more and more decisions that are becoming the very words an emotional expressions of human beings on network news networks and superhero movies.

Neural networks are honing their craft in parsing out bad data as efficienctly as possible, the words, ideas, people, that are not othodox according to the code embedded into the horde of machines playing at being human at being God.

This is the sci-fi reality we now find ourselves immirsed in, this is why I chose to feature a market report that projects continued major growth in the sale of neural networks to more and more nations, departments of nations, parties of nations, corporations, departments of corporations, helping to perfect the consumption of the desired diet and assuring no impurities pollute the pure meal promised by these same machines through the mouths of humans.

Neural networks are not a problem in and of themselves. The exclusivitty of these tools to those who are already in significant power advantage is more troubling. The creation of methods and machines that are controlled by strict Intellectual Property laws serves to the advantage of those already advantages, but this need not be the case.

Even as I write, there are tech nerds in garages and greenhouses and basments and bedrooms doing their own work to develop their own open source neural network machines, which offer people from the city to the most remote region access to the best minds in the world for council in how to meet a need. Neural networks that are not given authority to filter, but merely council, networks not focused on stopping thought but any number of potential non-coercive uses of such powerful, cognitive-enhancing tool enabling a person with an IQ of 100 to be able to deal favorably with a person of an IQ of 140, with the help of their ai buddy, in whatever manifestation this network of thought is to take in the near future to come.

That future, my friends, can be choked in the monopolies of the now who have the resources to develop these tools before grass roots independents can build their own (and that time is soon upon us) and free their knowledge in the open source world so that others can build their own local centers of intellectual super power.

This is the hope of the Freedomist, that open-source, small scale solutions to technological need and want can at least compete with what the corporate monopolies are offering and are soon to offer as well. Keep tech free, don’t bound Prometheus on the rock to have his liver torn out again.

From WGU.edu

What is a neural network?

In the simplest terms, an artificial neural network (ANN) is an example of machine learning that takes information, and helps the computer generate an output based on their knowledge and examples. Machines utilize neural networks and algorithms to help them adapt and learn without having to be reprogrammed. Neural networks are mimics of the human brain, where each neuron or node is responsible for solving a small part of the problem. They pass on what they know and have learned to the other neurons in the network, until the interconnected nodes are able to solve the problem and give an output. Trial and error are a huge part of neural networks and are key in helping the nodes learn. Neural networks are different from computational statistical models because they can learn from new information—computational machine learning is also designed to make accurate predictions, while statistical models are designed to learn about the relationship between variables.

In simple terms, neural networks are fairly easy to understand because they function like the human brain. There is an information input, the information flows between interconnected neurons or nodes inside the network through deep hidden layers and uses algorithms to learn about them, and then the solution is put in an output neuron layer, giving the final prediction or determination.

10 States Now Challenge Social Media’s “Right” to Censor Speech

Paul Collier September 27, 2021

Republican States now numbering 10 in total are seeking redress from the courts to check the power of social media platforms to censor Americans for political reasons. This move is just one of many moves that have been made ever since Twitter censored Donald J Trump while he was President and banned him while he was still President as well. That was the canary in the coal mine for the political class, in general, around the world. But how have we gotten to this point and what is next to come?

Before Twitter decided to censor the tweets of an American President, nation-states around the world were beginning to question the soundness of allowing a public discourse digital platform to dominate your nation-state that is managed by individuals willing to use that platform to enforce their particular political, moral, and ethical beliefs, meaning citizens in nation-states around the world were having their thoughts regulated more by billionaires in silicon valley and Beijing than by their own state governments.

For the most part, though, Twitter began to cooperate with states, having in part initially built its reputation on being a source for revolutions with the #iranelection revolution of 2009. By 2016, Twitter was no longer the source for information sharing for any group at fundamental odds with the state authority of their land. Here in America, the authority is more from the corporation than the state, though its power is ultimarely derived from the state willing to protect its assets after it violates the bills of rights of its customers.

Twitter reflected the values of the ruling authorities.

But that changed when Twitter began to interfere in an election, choosing not only to target people who fell outside the orthodoxy of the state, but of a particular political party. Twitter became the moral authoritarian of the DNC, willing to even target an American President for censorship in an effort to protect the DNC from a political election loss. At the moment that the first tweet by an American President was censored, all the other wanna-be rulers of the world began to see Twitter not only as a cultural adversary, but now, a state political one. Twitter was, and still is, positioning itself to be the kingmaker throughout the world.

For all the small nation-states, especially, this moment must have seemed even more chilling. After all, if Twitter could censor the American President without consequence, what would protect them from being the victim of Twitter’s international political opinions. Twitter is de facto colonizing the world, through force, to become their Silicon Valley and Beijing (there’s plenty of overlap between these two, though some notable differences) cultures if they want to stay in power at all.

The effect is that many small nation-statees especially havee begun to move to rid itself of the need of Twitter by building state-sponsored digitial public discourse platforms of their own.

That was the international effect of Twitter’s possibly treasonous actions (using their market power to subvert an American election by censoring the government itself), but domesticallly, many governments at the local to state level also received this message as a chilling grab for political power by the billionaires of silicon vallley, who were attempting, and still are, to make themselves the kingmakers of political power in America, at all levels, after all, if they could censor the American President, they can censor anyone.

With that in mind, the states are making moves to use the levers of political power to check the power grab attempt by Twitter, to criminalize the censorship of Americans for political beliefs and for claiming to be stopping the spreading of ‘misinformation,’ a task no free people would ever wish to see centralizedd and definable by the very few, the billionaires of silicon valley, over the vast many.

What will follow will be more lawsuits by states, more legislation by states, aimed at curtailing social media powwer. The final decision will be made by the Supreme Court and that, perhaps, is 3 or 4 years away from culmination.

Worldwide, the relevence of all the current major social media platforms will only decrease as more and more nation-focused alternatives emerge, and the internet, in general, will begin to seprate itself from itself as nation-states ruled by their respective political classes move to control the vehicle of power that is digital public discourse.

Attorney General Paxton Joins 10-State Coalition to Regulate Big Tech Censorship

From texasborderbusiness.com
2021-09-21 15:21:20

Excerpt:

Attorney General Paxton led a 10-state coalition that filed an amicus brief in the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals in support of Florida’s law that regulates censorship on Big Tech platforms by requiring them to apply their content-moderation practices in a consistent manner and to provide disclosures to affected users. The brief explains why relevant provisions of Florida’s law are fully compatible with the First Amendment, which guarantees Americans’ right to freedom of speech, expression, and political beliefs.

“The regulation of big tech censorship will inevitably suppress the ideas and beliefs of millions of Americans,” said Attorney General Ken Paxton.

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US Air Force Secretary Warns China Could Gain Nuke Advantage over U.S.

Paul Collier September 27, 2021

While America consumes itself from within on the assumption that evil was inventeed by America and America was invented by white males (or something to that effect), her opponents are continuing to work on ways to reduce America’s power abroad and at home. China is the most powerful of these opponents, and is the one that US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendell was focusing on when speaking to reporters about China’s continued accelerated expansion of their nuclear aresenall.

Kendall said, “If they continue down the path that they seem to be on—to substantially increase their ICBM force—they will have a de facto first-strike capability.

For the people in the back that might not understand, he’s saying China might soon have a nuclear advantage over America that could allow it to strike before we we could respond. For the people leading the suicidal charge from within America, the DNC and its ‘allies,’ that means our lives are all at risk of significant reduction of the quality of life if China ever gets to a position of power dominance over the United States. If you think we white Americans invented evil, as many of you do, especially in the DNC coalition of American self-haters, wait til you get a load of the super boss that could replace America, China.

If you’re really against fascism, DNC coalition, then stop destroying America from within at the benefit of the biggest fascistic threat in the world today, China. So long as you continue to destroy American power while ignoring Chinese power, no American should consider you an American at all, or, even, a safe neighbor to live next to, for if the Chinese ever did land on our shores (something they hardly need do given how many Americans work for them already), your neighbor would consider you more of a threat to them than any Chinese soldier that would ever find themselves stationed here.

Whatever America is, whatever sins we have committed, what the state of Xi represents, has representeed, in the 20th and 21st centuries is considerably more human dignity and diversity denying than anything America has ever committed on any scale throughout any part of her history, and the DNC wants you to believe that no one has ever been evil before white men invented America or will be after we rid the world of this white supremecist demon. If you believe them, you’re not fighting fascists, you’re enabling them.

Air Force Secretary Warns of China’s Burgeoning Nuclear Arsenal, Reveals B-21 Detail

From www.defenseone.com
2021-09-21 01:20:00

Excerpt:

China could be heading for a first-strike nuclear capability, the U.S. Air Force secretary said Monday, urging the United States to accelerate its own weapons development to keep pace with Beijing.

“If they continue down the path that they seem to be on—to substantially increase their ICBM force—they will have a de facto first-strike capability,” Frank Kendall told reporters at the Air Force Association’s annual conference outside Washington, D.C.

But independent nuclear-policy experts noted that even China’s decades-old ICBMs could be “a first-strike weapon,” and challenged Air Force officials to produce evidence that Beijing actually intends to change its “no first use” policy.

In his second major speech since becoming Air Force secretary two months ago, Kendall called out various Chinese weapons developments as reason for concern.

“You’re gonna get tired of hearing me talk about China and the pacing threat that we face,” he said at a press conference a few…

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Iceland State Schools to Teach Kids Science is the Only Truth

Paul Collier September 27, 2021

Iceland has essentiallly just outlawed religion in its country, without expressly making it illegal to be a holder of some form of deistic assumptions regarding the nature of creation, of being. By a vote of 60-3, Iceland’s legislative body has just passed a law that makes it mandatory for kids’ schools to teach them that science and religion are not compatible, and to be religious is to be fundamentally unsicentific, not rational, and thus not fit for human society, though that last part is the assumption people will most likely form from such an indoctrination of a child’s mind by the state using coercion as the means of pressing their beliefs on others.

So Iceland will become, over the next 2 decades, a laboratory of state atheism for the world to behold. We will watch a nation descend into madness itself as it strips the land and the people of their fundamentally spiritual natures and creates a science fascism that will be far more consuming of free thought and humanity in general than ever the worst of the theologically based tyrannies ever could, or even ever dared.

Watch as the birth rates plummet and the crime rates rise. Watch as the progressive dream for America reflects its ugly nature in the to-be brutalized lives of the Icelanders over the next 20 years, if this brutal experiment even lasts that long.

Iceland is now a nation of keen interest to we here at the Freedomist as we witness the theories of the fascist atheist become real in the lives of human beings now coerced to submit to the cycle of violence that such systems inevitably produce. But who knows, perhaps Iceland will surprise us and show that fascistic atheism can create happiness and prosperity for all, whether they want it or not.

Iceland To Teach Science And Religion Are Incompatible

From www.patheos.com
2021-09-21 14:21:43

Excerpt:

Reykjavik, Iceland – The government of this small North Atlantic country is instructing all kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers to teach that science and religion are inherently incompatible. Students will be instructed that even though a person has religious beliefs and engage in scientific work, that very same person is either doing science and/or religion incorrectly.

The Icelandic legislature recently passed The Science Protection Act (TSPA). The bill passed with a 60-3 vote, and Prime Minister Andrew Karnard signed it into law shortly thereafter.

“This is a great day for our country,” Prime Minister Kanard said. “We will protect future generations from the insidious nature of non-reality-based beliefs.”

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Another Attempt to Cancel Chic-Fil-A Over Marriage Stance

Paul Collier September 22, 2021

Is it enough to treat your neighbor as an assumed equal regardless of what you might assume or believe about who and what they are and what they believe?

Should we create a list of beliefs that should be affirmed, not merely tolerated, if you wish to remain in the open, allegedly public square?

Alleged “advocates” of LGBTQ rights are claiming that the position that marriage should only be recognied by the state as being between a man and a woman should be enough in and of itself to get you removed from the public square where value is exchanged between diverse groups of people with diverse sets of beliefs and values.

These groups are calling on Chic-Fil-A to once again be banned from entering a public market space because the family does not support the legalization of gay marriage.

The debate at the core of this issue has little to do with the debate about what the state should or should not do regarding defining and legislating the institute of marriage and more to do with what values should we expect to be universal in our public space for we who live in this land to expect to be able to exchange value in that shared space?

Where is the line between our acceptable diversity and unacceptable unorthodoxy? What are the standards that enable diverse peoples to exchange value with one another in shared public spaces?

Who are you to dictate to the rest us what these lines are, and what these unity standards might be?

To continue to attempt to use monpolistic market pressures to economically destroy your political, religious, moral, ethical opposition who are not in violation of any law that does itself not violate our Bill of Rights, is to invite the destruction of rule of law itself in our land, wherein lies our existing unity that makes our diversity possible.

At the heart of that unity is the lack of a demand by others that ANYONE accept you for who you are, what you believe, or anything else for that matter. But, in public spaces, we respect our unity, our Bill of Rights, and, regardless of whether we worship your God or not, we treat you fairly, transparently, as if your life mattered as much as our own.

The very principle that enables diverse peoples to coexist in public shared spaces, of respecting the rights of others to be wrong, but treating them as if they we your own nonetheless, is destroyed by this constant weaponization of mobs to affect economic assassination of whoever rejects the values you assume all humans should share if they’re humans at all.

LGBTQ Advocates Demand Kansas City Cut Chick-Fil-A From Proposed List Of Airport Restaurants | KCUR 89.3

From www.kcur.org
2021-09-21 17:15:00

Excerpt:

A plan unveiled last week to include Chick-fil-A alongside a mix of local and national restaurants inside the new Kansas City International (KCI) airport terminal is causing concern among LGBTQ advocates, who say it betrays the terminal’s inclusive ideals.

On Thursday, Kansas City officials named Vantage Airport Group of Vancouver, Canada, as the recommended concessions operator for KCI’s $1.5 billion new terminal. Vantage’s preliminary plan made public at a City Council business session included Chick-fil-A.

Previously, the new terminal had been lauded by local advocates for its steps toward greater inclusivity, including gender-inclusive restrooms.

But now those advocates say those steps feel hollow. The LGBTQ Commission of Kansas City, Missouri, released a letter to the city Monday calling on elected officials to remove Chick-fil-A from consideration.

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Taliban Deny Women Power in New Cabinet

Paul Collier September 22, 2021

The Talibsan have failed to heed the call by the West and America to respect the rights of women in numerous ways, many of which have been documented right here. Once again, the Taliban have telegraphed their lack of comittment to seek to create a level playing field for people regardles of their gender, or even non-gender, for that matter.

The Cabinet has been announced, and, to the dismay of many and surprise of none, the Taliban chose not to select a woman in their Cabinet, or, really, anyone not part of their particular Islamic denomination who also happens to be male. The Taliban have eschewed the values of diversity and equality.

Taliban Name All-Male Cabinet : NPR

From www.npr.org
2021-09-21 13:47:14
The Associated Press
Excerpt:

The Taliban expanded their interim Cabinet by naming more ministers and deputies on Tuesday, but failed to appoint any women, doubling down on a hard-line course despite the international outcry that followed their initial presentation of an all-male government lineup earlier this month.

The international community has said that it will judge the Taliban by their actions, and that recognition of a Taliban-led government would be linked to the treatment of women and minorities.

In their previous rule of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, the Taliban, who adhere to a harsh interpretation of Islam, had barred girls and women from schools, work and public life.

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Digital Communication Revolution Through New Optical Amplifier

Paul Collier September 22, 2021

The backbone of internet communication is built on the power of optical communication. From Wikipedia:

Optical communication, also known as optical telecommunication, is communication at a distance using light to carry information. It can be performed visually or by using electronic devices.

Scientists at the Photonics Laboratory at Chalmers University, Sweden, have developed a new type of optical amplifier that could dramatically increase the capacity, while decreasing the energy demand and noise distortion, of the best that optical commication currently has to offer.

Additionallly, this breakthrough could reduce the size of these amplifiers to millimeters in size.

A new optical amplifier could revolutionize optical communication

From www.techexplorist.com
2021-09-21 12:38:50
Amit Malewar
Excerpt:

….Along with offering high performance, this new amplifier is compact enough to integrate into a chip just millimeters in size. Most importantly, it does not generate excess noise.

Ping Zhao, Postdoc at the Photonics Laboratory at Chalmers, said, “We have developed the world’s first optical amplifier that significantly enhances the range, sensitivity, and performance of optical communication, that does not generate any excess noise – and is also compact enough to be of practical use.”

“The light amplification in the project is based on a principle known as the Kerr effect, which so far is the only known approach that amplifies light without causing significant excess noise. The principle has been demonstrated before, but never in such a compact format– previous versions were too bulky to be useful.”

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Anonymous Claims to Have Doxxed the Dark Alt Right Web

Paul Collier September 20, 2021

Anonymous is claiming to have conducted an operation it called “Epik Fail,” deriving its eponym from the name of a DNS server called EPIK that happens to be the home of a lot of alleged ‘alt-right’ sites, a phrase that has now almost become synonymous with white nationalism.

Some major sites on this server include Parlor, Gab, and 8chan.

The social media monopolies have successfully filtered opinions to such a degree that anytime any potential competitor creates a platform that alleges to be a ‘free speech platform,’ the first people there will be the ones from the fringe of opinion in current year society. Most of that fringe is inocuous in the sense that it doesn’t produce coerce justification against humans for merely being outside those ‘fringe’ standards.

But also contained within that fringe are the worst of the worst as far as opinions that produce non-consensual assumptions regarding those who don’t fit into the very rigid acceptable range of what it means to be human in the first place. White Supremacists most certainly fit into this worst of the worst kind of category for almost all humans across the political, philosophical, and theological spheres. Race Supremacism in general is one of the worst, most dangerous patterns of assumptions that leads to this subhumanization.

So whenever there exists a platform that is committed to creating a free speech platform in competition with a highly monitored platform, it is easy, was easy, and will always be easy, to label these platforms by whatever group is the worst of the worst to show up on that platform. It’s a brilliant tactic from a strategic perspective, but one which could not be pulled off if you did not own the means of cultural production as this particular factional coalition does, the DNC and those who are at various degrees allies and enablers of the party’s interests.

When you create such a narrow space for ‘acceptable’ opinion, there is no doubt that any platofrm, whether it was created by an actual ‘allt righter’ or a crypto-anarcho-communist, will not end up immediately, more fundamentally, populated by the worst of the worst fhe planet has to offer. The question is, can the platform transition from being a haven for the worst thoughts of humanity to a viable free speech platform populated by a wide-ranging group of opinions, hardly any of which fall into this particular category, or even many other forms of opinioning that more usually lead others to subhumanize their neighbors for their being or thought alone.

Platforms have little chance to get to that transition when the faction with the means of cultural production uses its near-monopolistic powers to pitch to the rank and file of the land a notion that these sites are havens for Nazis and Bigots. As mentioned earlier, due to the circumstance of the times, the monpolostic social media platforms having filtered out a lot of unacceptable opinions from public access, there will be some truth to what these organs of the DNC coalition claim, which will produce, and most likely is producing, a filter for preventing rank and file people for exploring these platforms as alternatives to the monpolistic ones.

The Valley Cabal, as I like to call it, the coalition of Silicon Valley Social Media giants work as an undocumented team to assure near-similar standards regarding filtering of thought on their platforms to assure that together they can effectively preemptively delegitimize any potential competitor willing to expose their weakness, the filter in the first place. The minute you open your doors to the public, actual Nazis and actual Bigots will show up.

What’s a platform to do but to be branded an alt right site before it ever got the chance to prove itself? And the filter remains protected from potential competition, and the big socs of Silocon Valley, the Valley Cabal, also remain protected from competition, meaning the rest of Corporate America will continue to rely on the Valley Cabal, if you will (yes, I’m being a bit tongue in cheek), for ad impressions to sell their products.

And now, these safe havens for the worst of us have now had, allegedly, their private data exposed, and tens of thousands of humans might find themselves on the DNC Coalition’s Dark Web hit lists. The number of actual Nazis and bigots on that list, though, will most likely be significantly less than what Anonymous will alllege, and, if it is legit, and if people start getting economic and/our physical consequences for appearing on these lists, well, there will be mostly innocent victims in the days, weeks, and months to come.

“Alt-right” domain registrar hacked, reportedly deanonymizing domain owners

From boingboing.net
2021-09-17 12:26:47
Rob Beschizza
Excerpt:

Epik, an internet services company that reportedly provided hosting and domain name services to right-wing sites such as Parler, Gab and the recently-infamous Texas abortion snitch site, was hacked this week and customer data leaked.

In a press release on the hack, dubbed Operation EPIK FAIL, Anonymous claimed that it was able to obtain “a decade’s worth” of information, including domain registrations and transfers, account credentials, and emails from an Epik employee.” This dataset is all that’s needed to trace actual ownership and management of the fascist side of the internet that has eluded researchers, activists, and, well, just about everybody,” the release alleges.

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UN Wants to Fund Taliban

Paul Collier September 16, 2021

The United Nations is urging nations to pay attention to the unfolding economic crisis of Afghanistan, which could hurt the majority of Afghanis under Taliban rule. The world organization is pushing for the country controlled by radical mountain Islamists that are openly engaged in activities commonly characterized by multiple nation-states, and even by the UN, as being terroristic in nature.

America could find it in the unenviable position of funding the same people that were just recently attempting to kill its own soldiers. The reputation of the American state on the world stage, which has already taken several hits recently, most notably in this same Afghanistan, could continue to diminish, leading many of our current ‘allies’ to consider maybe joining factions with stronger, more reliable allies like, perhaps, Russia, or China.

Whether these nation-states prove to be any more reliable than the US or not is not as important as the immediate perception that, compared to America’s last 10 years or so, almost anyone looks better as a source for protection from local threats than the US does right now. I predict the nation-states further outside of the central orbit of America, Australia, and the UK, might very well, at minimum, invite more presence by both Russia and China in a bid to hedge their bets should the US fail them like they did their allies in Afghanistan.

U.N. warns Afghanistan needs money to prevent total breakdown

From www.reuters.com
2021-09-09 21:48:00

Excerpt:

Deborah Lyons, Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations for Afghanistan makes a statement during the 2020 Afghanistan Conference at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland November 24, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 9 (Reuters) – The United Nations warned on Thursday that the freezing of billions of dollars in Afghan assets to keep them out of Taliban hands would inevitably spark “a severe economic downturn” and could push millions more Afghans into poverty and hunger.

U.N. special envoy on Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, said a way needed to be found to get money quickly flowing to the country “to prevent a total breakdown of the economy and social order” and with safeguards to ensure it is not misused by the Taliban.

Lyons told the U.N. Security Council that Afghanistan could be set “back for generations.”

“The economy must be allowed to breathe for a few more months, giving the Taliban a chance to demonstrate flexibility and a genuine…

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