Starvin Larry

 SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The head of Puerto Rico’s power company said Sunday the agency will cancel its $300 million contract with Whitefish Energy Holdings amid increased scrutiny of the tiny Montana company’s role in restoring the island’s power system following Hurricane Maria.

The announcement by Ricardo Ramos came hours after Gov. Ricardo Rossello urged the utility to scrap the deal for Whitefish’s help in rebuilding the electrical system.

“It’s an enormous distraction,” Ramos said of the controversy over the contract. “This was negatively impacting the work we’re already doing.”

 The current work by Whitefish teams will not be affected by the cancellation and that work will be completed in November, Ramos said. He said the cancellation will delay pending work by 10 to 12 weeks if no alternatives are found.

Ramos said he had not talked with Whitefish executives about his announcement. “A lawsuit could be forthcoming,” he warned.

Whitefish spokesman Chris Chiames told The Associated Press that the company was “very disappointed” in the governor’s decision, and said it would only delay efforts to restore power.

He said Whitefish brought 350 workers to Puerto Rico in less than a month and it expected to have 500 more by this week. Chiames said the company completed critical work, including a project that will soon lead to a half million people in San Juan getting power.

“We will certainly finish any work that (the power company) wants us to complete and stand by our commitments,” he said.

Roughly 70 percent of the U.S. territory remains without power more than a month after Maria struck on Sept. 20 as a Category 4 storm with winds of up to 154 mph (245 kph). Ramos said Sunday that the total of cost of restoring the system would come to $1.2 billion.

The cancellation is not official until approved by the utility’s board. Ramos said it would take effect 30 days after that.

Ramos said the company already has paid Whitefish $10.9 million to bring its workers and heavy equipment to Puerto Rico and has a $9.8 million payment pending for work done so far.

Ramos said cancellation of the contract will not lead to a penalty, but it’s likely the government will pay at least $11 million for the company to go home early, including all costs incurred in the month after the cancellation.

Federal investigators have been looking into the contract awarded to the small company from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s hometown and the deal is being audited at the local and federal level.

http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/puerto-rico-s-utility-cancels-controversial-million-contract-with-whitefish/article_ee1399c9-eee6-5fe8-ace2-bc77fa0aa058.html#utm_source=missoulian.com&utm_campaign=%2Femail-updates%2Fdaily-headlines%2F&utm_medium=email&utm_content=C3ACFED3ADB29D34D0D229DBDC329AC9DC32076F

http://christianmerc.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-second-amendment-is-test.html?m=1

http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=11873

h/t WRSA

Delaying Chinese Global Dominance

The 19th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party is over.  It was a seminal event.  It…

• …firmly consolidated political power in the hands of a single man, Xi (no successor was named).
• …clearly informed the world that China was now a global superpower (and the US was its only rival).
• …would promote a world based on ‘capitalism with Chinese characteristics’ (a capitalism in a Leninist cage) in opposition to Western Democracy.

In short, China publicly announced that it is now in a ‘cold economic war’ with the US for the future of the world.  In fact, China was so confident of its eventual victory, it clearly articulated the centerpiece of their effort to accomplish it:  one belt one road    

• It’s an investment of $8 trillion (to start!) to build a global road, rail and maritime system that connects Asia, Africa, and South America (60 countries in total) to China.  
• Transportation is a natural monopoly.  Xi is trying to build a transportation monopoly on a global scale.  It isn’t only backed by Xi personally, it is also now enshrined in the Communist party constitution (!).  In other words, it’s going to get done.
• By the time this round of investment is completed, a majority of the global economy will be in economic thrall to China.  Subsequent iterations ensure that the US will become a second tier economic power.  All within 20 years.

Unfortunately, due to a self-inflicted wound (Trump is merely a symptom), the US couldn’t be in a worse position to counter this effort.  Decades of blind adherence to economic and social neoliberalism has shattered US cohesion along all three vectors: moral, mental, and physical.   The result has been intractable economic stagnation, social turmoil, and political chaos.  Even worse is on the horizon: the US is careening towards identity authoritarianism.  In time, the US may be able to regain stability.  Regardless, it’s unlikely the US will find a way through this crisis fast enough to mount a successful conventional counter to China’s challenge.  So, what is to be done under the assumption the US will eventually recover, but not soon enough for conventional efforts?

Delaying China

One solution is to mount a rearguard action — a method of delaying an advancing enemy when your forces are in retreat.  An action that buys time for the US to regroup and regain cohesion.  The US faced a similar situation re; the Soviet Union in ’79 after the invasion of Afghanistan.  In that case, support for Afghan insurgents kept the Soviets occupied while the US recovered (Carter, inflation, Iran, etc.).  In this case, the rearguard action would be the disruption of China’s plans for one belt one road.  This could be done inexpensively and with very little manpower or visibility.  How? 

http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2017/10/delaying-chinese-global-dominance.html

h/t SLL

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-25/cloak-darkness-grows-us-widens-surveillance-dragnet-homegrown-violent-extremists

http://www.dailywire.com/news/22831/facebook-labels-duck-dynasty-patriarchs-content-joseph-curl?utm_source=dwemail&utm_medium=email&utm_content=102717-news&utm_campaign=position7?utm_source=dwemail&utm_medium=email&utm_content=102717-news&utm_campaign=position7