US Continues Crackdown On Huawei, Adds Racketeering Conspiracy Charge

From Zero Hedge:

One would think that with the US and China now in a trade war truce, tensions over the key pawn in the global tech war, China's telecom giant Huawei would finally be easing. One would be wrong.

According to Bloomberg, as part of the ongoing crackdown on Huawei, the US has now added a RICO charge, or "racketeering conspiracy", against the Chinese telecom provider - which in the past was reserved largely for criminal mob cases -  tripling the penalties the Chinese company would face if convicted.

Huawei was already facing a series of criminal charges for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions against Iran and North Korea.
The new charge steps up U.S. pressure on Huawei. The government already had banned the company’s technology and accused Huawei of aiding Beijing in espionage. Now the company faces even more significant criminal penalties, which could be up to 3x the sought damages, if prosecutors win a conviction in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

In return, Huawei has accused the U.S. government of orchestrating a campaign to intimidate its employees and launching cyberattacks to infiltrate its internal network. The accusations have ratcheted up tensions between Huawei and the Trump administration.

Meanwhile, as Bloomberg reminds us, as the criminal case against Huawei moves forward, the prosecution of its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, remains on hold. She is fighting extradition from Vancouver, Canada, after being arrested at the request of the U.S. last year. She was accused by the US of defrauding banks when she made a presentation to one of its major banking partners and lied about by lying Huawei’s business dealings in Iran, in violation of U.S. sanctions.

Soldiers now testing robot snakes, electric combat scooters and thermal-masking blankets

From ArmyTimes:

The EZRaider is an offroad electric scooter that soldiers are testing at the annual Army Expedionary Warfighter Experiments at Fort Benning, Georgia. (EZRaider)

In the hills and woodlands of western Georgia, soldiers in squad to company-sized teams are running mock battles, testing out the latest, greatest and weirdest tactical-level gear that the Army hopes will give them the edge in a rapid, complex, fight of the future.

The Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiments this year focused on six categories: lethality, mission command, mobility, survivability, sustainment, team and soldier performance.

The AEWE began in 2004 to focus modernization effort on the small unit. They run in two phases, the first phase, from October to January, are standalone and live fire events with each system.

The force-on-force experiments begins in February and will run for three weeks. The annual event culminates on March 17 with a an “Insights Day” at Fort Benning, Georgia, that includes briefings on gear tested and how soldiers used it during the experimentation, Maneuver Battle Lab spokeswoman Monica Manganaro told Army Times.

Below is a just small sampling of a few of the 68 items listed for experimentation in six categories.

LETHALITY

Cerberus GL UCAV

A 14 pound 3-shot, 40mm grenade-firing bot, this drone puts tactical-level loitering munitions in the hands of the small unit for fires support, basic aerial reconnaissance and battle damage assessments. The platform can fire explosive, flash, smoke, infrared and tear gas rounds and fly for 22 minutes at ranges up to 2 miles. It can also accommodate a laser rangefinder and swap out payloads to use a netgun for opposing drones, 12 gauge rounds and micro munitions. (Skyborne Technologies Pty Ltd.) ARC-Response

This shot-tracking, 1.6 ounce sensor is embedded in rifle or pistol handgrips. The device monitors, timestamps and geolocates all weapon use and weapon discharge in a given area. It uses a rechargeable battery that can run for 96 hours. The autonomous battle coordination system allows commanders to monitor and respond to “ground-level incidents in real time.” (Armaments Research Company, Inc.)

PDX carbine

The 6.75-pound, 18.5-inch suppressed 5.56mm rifle with collapsible stock for soldiers rides with vehicles like the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle or M1 Abrams tank. For day-to-day activities in permissive and semi-permissive environments, key leader engagements and urban settings, the weapon offers more firepower than a pistol but fits within vehicles, allowing for more maneuver room. (Maxim Defense Industries, LLC)

MISSION COMMAND

LETS/MACS-B Unmanned System Technology

This air and ground robot system deploys multiple drones from an unmanned ground robot to run rapid 3D-mapping of an area. The system can run autonomously and share data across networked devices. It can also be controlled for more fine-tuned use by a soldier. During force-on-force operations, soldiers can use the system for target acquisition, reconnaissance and mapping, as well as compile data for advanced fires planning. (Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armament Center)

Guardian S-robot

This snake-like robot gives soldiers the ability to check out subterranean, confined space or unstructured environments. The multipurpose unmanned ground vehicle can transmit visual, audio and data intelligence to the user. It can carry up to a 10 pound payload, including sensors for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear detection. Its range extends to 1,000 feet and can operate for up to three hours. (Sarcos Corporation)

ELM-2114

This tactical level radar kit can be mounted at sites across an area and will remotely monitor enemy movement. The system can detect human movement up to 500 meters and vehicles at up to 1,000 meters away. First displayed at the 2017 AEWE, upgrades include an integrated GPS, ruggedized connectors, MPU5 radios and wireless operation. (ELTA North America)

MOBILITY

EZRaider

This scooter-like ATV can ride either with a soldier driving or semi-autonomously. It can carry up to two people and pull a two-wheel, specially designed trailer for casualty or equipment transport. Both two- and four-wheel versions are available. It can fold onto itself for storage and transport. (Mistral Inc.)

Knee and ankle exoskeletons

The novel pneumatic exoskeleton is designed to reduce fatigue and give soldier knees more endurance for carrying loads or changing elevation. It can also help troops maintain peak running and walking speeds for longer when on flat ground. (Roam Robotics Inc.)

SURVIVABILITY

Ametrine thermal blanket

Material made using ametrine technology can shelter soldiers from thermal detection. It conceals heat signatures and can be used in forms like blankets, uniforms, or even a vehicle cover. (Federal Resources)

Audio gunshot detector

This body-worn system uses a wireless radio link to detect the source of small-arms fire and present that location on a visual display unit. It provides the direction and distance of the threat, allowing soldiers to collect information for targeting without having to see a shooter. That, coupled with other sensors, can help identify a target. (QinetiQ North America)

Safe Shoot friendly fire prevention

The weapons-mounted mesh networked radio system senses a weapon’s azimuth, angle and communication network backchannel to determine if a friendly entity is in the path of the weapon. It then provides immediate, automatic and autonomous alerts directly to the shooter. (Mistral Inc.)

SUSTAINMENT

Single soldier-portable micro generator

The P3 can provide consistent electrical output of 1 to 2 kilowatts and fits in a medium-sized backpack configuration, weighing 20 to 34 pounds. The microgenerator can run on any combustible liquid and is designed for low thermal output and sound attenuation. The microgenerator gives platoons with power requirements an “on-the-go” logistics option. (Enginuity Power Systems)

Bell Autonomous Pod Transport

The APT is a scalable drone that comes in two variants, one can carry up to 20 pounds and the other, 70. The larger version has a 48 kilometer range in under 30 minutes. With vertical takeoff, it does not rely on runways or roads. An all-electric system, it reduces fuel needs. And with swappable pods APT can support various missions from chemical-biological detection, to radio transmission/retransmission, to medical resupply. (Bell)

TEAM AND SOLDIER PERFORMANCE

FN WASP

The system integrates heads-up display goggles and weapons sensors to track weapon orientation, shot counting and downrange gunnery. It connects with existing platforms such as Nett Warrior, adding human performance data. The system can help commanders quantify shooter ability to engage targets accurately and consistently and identify weapon location and orientation. (FN America, LLC)

CRG Total Exposure Health Sensor Pod System

This system is designed to monitor varying air quality exposure. The sensor collects total exposure data for a variety of common volatile compounds and logs that information wirelessly into a system that can be adjusted to specific environments. The pods can be deployed in field environments or industrial settings. (CRG, Inc.)

What is it like to be interviewed by Elon Musk?

You’re never gonna have another interview like it.

Last semester I applied for a software internship working on Tesla’s autopilot programs. There’s so much mystique around Tesla these days. Around Elon Musk. And let me tell you, he doesn’t have time for any of that in person. He’s a busy man, and an important one.

The competition for one of his internships is one of the toughest in today’s job market, and that’s saying something. I was doing technical interviews over the phone for weeks. One day, an interviewer called in the morning and grilled me for so long that I just straight up skipped one of my classes!

Sacrifices. Elon appreciates those.

At long last I made it to the final round. It’s true what they say-- he interviews everybody who will ever work for him. They flew me out to the Fremont factory in California, and my hands started shaking as soon as I stepped into the building.

I was led into a conference room. And there he was. Elon Musk, in the flesh.

We exchanged pleasantries. Our tone was light, but Elon’s eyes never left mine. I could tell what he was doing. He was sizing me up. Testing the waters. Seeing if I would crack under the pressure.

Ever so slowly, we meandered closer to actual interview territory. “So your resume mentions app development. Tell me about that.”

I had to stop a smile from breaking out onto my face. Oh, wow, Elon Musk read my resume!

“So I, uh, had to spend a little time getting used to Swift, but--”

Elon cut me off. “You an iOS fan?”

“Yes. Yes, sir.”

“Here. Gimme a sec.” Elon disappeared from the conference room.

I let out a shaky breath and collapsed into my chair. Was I doing great? Poorly? Incredibly poorly? I’d heard the stories. Engineers fired after screaming rages, careers snuffed out in seconds. Oh, god, he wasn’t coming back with security, was he? He was only gone for a couple of minutes, but it felt like hours.

The door crashed open. I sat back up, ramrod straight. Here came Elon, and there was something in his hands. It was a jet-black container, shiny and spherical. Except that it wasn’t a sphere, exactly. There was a dent near the top, and it flared inwards towards the bottom. What did that remind me of...?

Elon unscrewed the top and gently tapped some of the container’s contents onto the table. A whitish dust spilled out. He took his credit card out of his wallet and started chopping the pile into lines.

My eyes bugged out of my head. Elon glanced up.

“Oh, no, don’t worry, it’s not coke. Take a look! You don’t have to worry.”

He slid the open container over to me and got back to his work. I picked it up. The stuff inside was a light gray, so he was right. It probably wasn’t coke. But what the hell was it?

I heard a guttural snort, and I almost dropped the container before setting it down. Elon reared up from his desk with fire in his eyes. “Woah! Still kicks.”

He had a rolled-up dollar bill in one hand, and he shoved it into my face. “Your turn.”

“Hang on. What...what’s happening? What is this?”

Elon looked at me like I was an idiot. “What do you think it is? Guess. I went and got this because you mentioned iOS. I want you to guess.”

Then it hit me. That container. It wasn’t just a sphere, and it wasn’t just an apple.

It was an apple-shaped urn.

“Oh my God, are you snorting Steve Jobs’ ashes?”

Elon did another line and clapped his hands. “Fantastic, man! Not a lot of people even know he was cremated. I knew I had a good feeling about you.”

This was a prank. It had to be. This all had to be one big, bizarre test, so I figured I would play along. “Security wasn’t that tight around his grave, huh?”

“Nope,” said Elon, too calmly. “Security at Alta Mesa’s a joke. Couple of months ago I just stayed until midnight, dug them out myself.”

Elon dipped a finger into the jar and rubbed his gums. “You know I met him once? Steve. He was such an asshole. He hated me. My companies. Well, look who’s laughing now.” He smiled at me, then coughed. A grey, powdery cloud billowed into the air. I tried not to breathe.

“Steve’s grave was unmarked,” he continued. “But that wasn’t a problem. I could smell him.”

Elon’s eyes started to unfocus. “I could smell the animus that drove his soul. The energy. And, soon, it will be mine.”

Nobody spoke for a while.

“It will all be mine,” whispered Elon, and it was like I wasn’t even in the room.

He blinked. “Anyways. You want a hit?”

For the first time in what felt like forever I felt like I was allowed to speak. “...No, man, I’m good.”

There’s no way I can do this. I fought back the urge to gag. That’s a human being floating in the air right now. There have to be laws against that kind of thing, right? And even if there weren’t, this feels so deeply, deeply wrong. I might have to talk to the authorities after this. After all, I still have my character, my convictions--

“Listen.” Elon clapped a hand on my shoulder. “One little bump, and you’re walking out that door with a job.”

Anyways, I start next quarter.

https://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-be-interviewed-by-Elon-Musk 

US Military Initiates "Global Campaign Plan For Pandemic"

Authored by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

It appears that the U.S. military is taking this coronavirus outbreak extremely seriously. 

An executive order has been issued which has initiated the implementation of “the Department of Defense Global Campaign plan for Pandemic Influenza and Infectious Diseases 3551-13”.  We don’t know all of the details of the plan, but we do know that it instructs U.S. military officials “to prepare for widespread outbreaks”.  Many in the mainstream media continue to try to convince us that this virus is not much more dangerous than the common flu, but if that is true then why is our military taking such a dramatic step?  The following comes from a Military Times article…

An executive order issued by the Joint Staff and approved by Defense Secretary Mark Esper this month directed Northern Command and geographic combatant commanders to initiate pandemic plans, which include ordering commanders to prepare for widespread outbreaks and confining service members with a history of travel to China.

The Navy and Marine Corps messages, issued Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, reference an executive order directing U.S. Northern Command to implement the Department of Defense Global Campaign plan for Pandemic Influenza and Infectious Diseases 3551-13.

For now, we are not being told the specific details of this plan, and when Northern Command was asked about it they issued a very vague statement…

“We coordinate with other combatant commands to assess potential impacts in the event of a pandemic and we ensure the U.S. military is poised to respond as required,” said Northern Command in a statement emailed to Military Times. “The military profession fosters a culture of planning, and the fact that we are coordinating planning efforts across the geographical combatant commands is consistent with how we prepare to respond, if directed.”

Thankfully, the virus is not spreading widely inside the United States so far.

But that could change at any time, and on Wednesday a 14th U.S. case was confirmed…

A second person evacuated from Wuhan, China, to a U.S. Marine base near San Diego has been diagnosed with the new coronavirus, raising the tally of confirmed cases in the United States to 14, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Wednesday.

The patient was among 232 individuals who had been placed under quarantine at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar after being airlifted from the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan earlier this month, CDC spokeswoman Ana Toro said.

But 14 confirmed cases is just a tiny drop in the bucket compared to more than 59,000 confirmed cases in China.

We should be thankful for the low number of cases in this country, but Dr. Nancy Messonnier is warning that “we are likely to see community spread in the U.S.” at some point…

Top health officials prepped Americans for the prospect of novel coronavirus spreading in communities in the United States during a Wednesday news conference.

“At some point, we we are likely to see community spread in the U.S.,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

And if we do start seeing tens of thousands of confirmed cases here, the level of fear is going to rise dramatically and a lot of people are going to go completely nuts.

In fact, we are already starting to see some really strange things.

For example, a couple of “pranksters” in New York thought it would be really funny to spill a bucket of “coronavirus” in the middle of a crowded subway car…

David Flores and Morris Cordewell donned hazmats suits for the stunt while holding a container filled with liquid that had biological hazard markings on it.

In the video Cordewell gets up and spills the liquid over the floor as train passengers quickly jump out of harm’s way. However, it turns out their bucket contained Kool-Aid juice.

Who would do something like that?

Yes, they probably thought that it was quite funny, but the truth is that this sort of a stunt could have taken a very tragic turn.

Over in China, we are witnessing things that are even more frightening.

For example, one woman that has apparently caught the virus decided to walk down the street in the middle of the day and touch every car door handle she came across.

西行小宝@htommy998

2/11 #Coronavirustruth #coronavirus
ROL regulates human behavior with law; religion does the same with morality. Both can help society in order. There is none in China. Video showed a suspicious infected woman touched every door handle of the cars parking on the street. Scary!

79

1:05 PM - Feb 11, 2020

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In other words, it appears that she was purposely trying to spread the virus to others.

When things get really nuts, most people will behave at least somewhat rationally, but there will always be others that will completely snap.

And without a doubt, there are always crazy people that are trying to bring unusual things into this country.  For instance, just check out this recent example from Zero Hedge…

That’s exactly what happened two weeks ago: U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, seized a bag of dead birds that was being carried in the luggage of an airline passenger traveling from China to Washington D.C. on January 27.

The birds were packaged in a bag that had cartoon images on it and was seized at Dulles Airport from a passenger, who was arriving from Beijing, according to the NY Post. The passenger claimed that the birds were “cat food” and that he was planning to bring them to Maryland after his flight.

Our world is getting crazier with each passing day, and it is inevitable that we will see a lot more weird stuff happen in the months ahead.

We are in a battle with a virus that is perfect for spreading fear.  It is invisible to the naked eye, it can survive on surfaces for up to 9 days, it has an incubation period of up to 24 days, and it spreads from person to person frighteningly easily.

To a certain extent, there is comfort in being able to see your enemy.

But we cannot detect this virus with our five senses.  It could be on the next grocery cart you push, the next door handle you twist or the next hand that you shake.

That sort of uncertainty is going to drive a lot of people crazy if this virus starts spreading widely inside the United States, and so let us hope that such a scenario does not become a reality.