+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ross Rants:
Inflation, as expected, is not transitory, and is not receding before mid-2022, if then. If they pass the big reconciliation bill then inflation will really take off. I do not think it will pass. The problem after this week, inflation is now embedded in everyone's mind, and that is when behavior starts to follow, and consumers and companies start to price in added cost increases which leads to more cost increases, and reductions in consumer spend. For the moment consumers are mostly accepting high prices, but that is not going to last long. As energy prices skyrocket over the winter, along with gas, rent and food, consumers are going to start to pull back on discretionary purchases. Real wages are negative now, so consumers will soon realize they are going backwards, and the things they don't really need won't get bought. The home renovation will be deferred or scaled back. The trip will be cancelled or reserved in less costly hotels as the rental car prices eat up the budget. Food purchases change to less expensive items. Auto purchases get deferred. The stimulus money is running out.
The Dems are happy with high energy and gas prices in the stupid belief that it will cause everyone to want "alternative sources". When there is another Texas or UK type power disaster when the windmills do not turn, or when there are more power outages in CA due to not enough fossil power generation, consumers are going to get angry and lose interest in alternative power. Reality is, it takes a large generation of power to build a windmill which is made of materials that eat energy to mine and build. And in a few years, there is the problem of what to do to dispose of old windmills and solar panels. They do not disintegrate in a landfill. Instead the voters will be yelling for opening up drilling and oil and gas production instead of asking OPEC to produce more. When the Republicans control Congress in 2023, they will probably bring forth legislation to undo many of the constraints on fossil production. Glasgow turned out to be as expected. Lots of hot air and minimal real substance. Promises to do this or that have never been met in any of the past climate conferences, and these will be no different. One example-S Africa is about to start operating the largest coal fired plant in the world. China and India continue to build coal fired plants, and only promised to phase them out-whenever that means. World temperatures will very slowly trickle up over the next 80 years, and will never be a crisis. El Nino, wildfires in CA, and volcanoes will have far more impact than anything they do in Glasgow. Recall what the leading climate scientist said- the cost to the world economy of all these climate plans on the world economy is much greater than the benefits to be derived. Man will adapt. Also keep in mind that Wall St loves all this climate stuff. They will get to finance hundreds of billions of these projects. Some governors and Senators love it because it means billions flowing into their state. So always ask what is the real agenda of the people supporting this stuff. Voters have shown they do not really care about climate. They care about the cost of gas and heating their home, and what is being taught to their kids. Reality-oil production is ramping up rapidly as the world starts to return toward normal functions, and that is not changing anytime soon.
Consumer sentiment is now at a 10 year low. 25% of consumers have said they are already cutting back discretionary spend due to inflation. Real wages are down 1.9%. Supply shortages and wage increases due to labor shortages continue to pressure margins in some products and services. There is a real question as to how much prices can be raised to cover higher costs before there is an even bigger cut back in consumer spend. All of this does not bode well for Q1 2022 spending, and earnings reports for Q4 2021 in January could possibly be disappointing. The ten year is beginning to creep up and is now 1.6% up from 1.48 just two weeks ago. I am slowly beginning to accumulate cash as it becomes more questionable how much longer the stock market can go up. The issue is bonds are a bad investment, and as rates rise, some real estate becomes less attractive. In my view the stock market is not headed for sizable gains from here. It is likely to end 2021 between 4750-4850, but could decline to around 4500 depending on a lot of unknowns in DC. January could potentially be a down period if earnings disappoint due to margin compression. It is unclear. They also still have not yet reappointed Powell which is another growing issue. The Fed needs to act much more aggressively now, but Powell is not going to do anything until he is renominated, if he is at all. A number of senior Wall St pros think 2022 will be a very good year for stocks due to the huge amount of cash still in bank accounts, and the belief that inflation will provide even higher asset values and higher profits as costs get passed on. I don't agree with that forecast. Inflation over time squeezes margins and forces consumers to cut back on purchases. There is also the risk that Manchin will fold as he always has, and the reconciliation bill will pass. If that happens inflation will go out of control as the Fed delays acting. I think there is real risk in 2022. Many other top Wall St pros I communicate with agree with me. You need to make your own assessment.
The quit rate is at an all-time high of 4.4 million. Wages go up 4.3% on average when someone quits for another job, but up only 3.6% if they stay in place. This is not good as employers are losing their better workers who they have trained, and then struggle to hire, and need to raise wages even more to keep or hire staff. More inflation. The good news is there will be no Covid shot mandate. The court put an end to that despite Biden saying companies should defy the court and demand vaccinations. It is the same as his defying the court on return to Mexico.
The home rental market is booming like never before. Single family home rental is seeing rents up 11% vs 6.3% for apartments. Single family renters in general are better educated and longer term renters. Vacancy is very low. Boise ID is the most in demand market with apartment rents up 26.9%. Phoenix, Tampa, Vegas and Atlanta are also in double digit increases. Even NYC is back with a strong rental and very strong purchase market, especially at the top end.
China is doing what it needs to in order to disassemble Evergrande and to keep condo prices high. They will also do what they need to do to keep the whole development industry from collapsing. There will not be any crisis. The government will do what it needs to do to maintain stability. The massive number of Evergrande condos are getting built by other developers where Evergrande cannot get it done. There will be industry consolidation and all of the unrelated businesses of Evergrande will get sold off in an orderly manner. While this is a massive problem for China, they will work through it. They have no choice. Ignore all the hype about Lehman moment and potential crisis for financial markets. The bond holders will get paid over time.
As more time passes, and inflation remains so bad, and as the voters learn what is the real cost, and what is really in the big bill, the less moderates will be able to vote for it. The more Dem moderates vote for it, the more seats the Republicans pick up. How a lot of them can vote for it is mystifying to me. It is political suicide. The more mandates stay in place, the more Republicans win. The more school boards push CRT and 1619, the more Republicans win. The more Biden lies and Kamala makes a fool of herself, as she just did, the more Republicans win. The more crime spins out of control the more Republicans win. The more illegals and drugs flood the border, the Republicans win. Then will come Durham with the cherry on top.
Europe is already seeing the consequences of shifting to alternative energy and power shortages increasing during the winter, giving more leverage to Putin with the gas pipelines. Merkel and the climate activists condemned the EU to being at the mercy of Putin. Now Putin is threatening Poland via Belarus, and Ukraine with troops, and there is little the EU can really do since they are so dependent on Russia for energy. Putin is now having fun using Belarus to threaten the gas supply, and a flood of Muslim refugees into Poland and Lithuania. I have been to Poland. There is almost nobody who is not white European living there. This is a major threat to political stability. All of this is due to Putin and Xi seeing Afghanistan, and understanding that Biden is weak and stupid when it comes to foreign policy, and they see the radicals trying to cut defense spending in favor of wasteful welfare with no work programs. It will get much more dangerous from here. There is a big black swan waiting to poop all over Biden's parade. The call last night with Xi may have been nice, but never trust Beijing .
Glasgow of course ended exactly as most expected- a big waste of time where they promised to try to do things, and to phase down coal, but no real commitments. Just a lot of dire warnings that this was the last chance to save the world, and maybe temperatures will never go back down, and a bunch of other total nonsense. The press continues to report pending catastrophe and forecasts of what the temperature will be in 80 years unless the world acts right now. It is laughable. Just imagine if you went before a company board and said net income will be X in 80 years. You would be fired on the spot. I think it is good to get rid of coal use and other things that pollute, but the world is not ending. Fossil fuels are not totally going away in our lifetime. That is reality.
So I think I have this correct- if I work for a big company, and I am a good tax paying citizen, and don't get a Covid shot, but I am immune, I get fired, and the company gets fined, but if I walk across the border I don't even get tested, and I do get free shelter, food, medical care, and some non-profit to take care of me all for free, and I get a free plane ride to FL where they have a place for me to live for free. If am American and I collect welfare, $300 a month for my illegitimate baby, and lots of free stuff including more food stamps than I need, I don't have any obligation to get a shot, nor do anything including no obligation to even seek a job. Seems perfectly fair and sensible.
The media, and of course Hollywood, have condemned Rittenhouse without listening to the trial, where the story played out. The media never stops publishing lies and garbage when it comes to anyone they decide to label as white supremacist. Due process does not apply to anyone who the left decides is guilty until proven innocent. No way to know what the jury will decide. Then there is the Senator Mark Kelly (D AZ) ad featuring the woman who labels all of us as terrorists because we are white males. And on it goes. Biden's nominee for Controller just came out and said she is good with all the oil and coal companies going BK so we can have climate change. And still Dem senators and the White House are backing her.
Off to Longboat Key this week. The next Rant will possibly be delayed as a result of travel
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ There is one way to make sure Wisconsin is forever in the blue column as Obama did in Minnesota::
Let’s Go Brandon.
This really is disgusting!
And we are paying for all of it!
Fort McCoy is a National Guard facility with a runway and other accouterments necessary for military training. Minnesota, among other states, utilize it for their State Militia and Air Guard annual active duty.
An Afghanistan Grows In Wisconsin
by Daniel Greenfield
The skies over Sparta have never been as busy as when the Biden administration decided to dispatch 13,000 Afghans, including at least one pedophile, to Wisconsin.
Sparta, a small town of less than ten thousand souls, whose claim to fame is being the “Bicycling Capital of America”, could only watch as a population of Afghans outnumbering its own population created a new Afghanistan on the premises of Fort McCoy.
None of the Afghans at Fort McCoy have a Special Immigrant Visa. Biden left the SIV visa holders behind in Afghanistan. The Afghans who have overrun the Wisconsin base are the ones whom the Taliban, for their own reasons, decided to allow through their checkpoints.
And they’re living up to the high cultural standards of the Taliban.
The problems began with the toilets. Then there were issues with the rice, the sexual abuse of young boys, and Afghans simply leaving on their own despite promises of taxpayer cash.
“Afghans were confused and upset by hygiene practices,” a Wall Street Journal article described. “Every toilet on base was Western style, with a seat and toilet paper. But a number of Afghans are accustomed to restrooms that allow them to squat so they don’t have to physically touch the toilet. It led to some cases of Afghans relieving themselves outside.”
This shouldn’t have surprised anyone after two decades in Afghanistan. But political correctness has mostly suppressed accounts of even the most basic facts about the beneficiaries of our great nation building project leaving Americans confused by the behavior of the new arrivals.
A Czech journal article from the Department of Military Hygiene noted that Afghan "people in rural areas were found to defecate almost everywhere according to convenience. It is important to observe that particularly the rural population does not know or does not use toilet paper."
More accurately, Islamic law is held by some authorities to ban the use of toilet paper.
“You should consider very carefully shaking hands during the contact with the local population,” the journal article warned. Unfortunately their local population is now our local population.
An account of the toilet practices of the defunct Afghan National Army described how our soldiers were forced to “share their toilet with the ANA, as they had been ordered to do by their commanding officers” to win their “hearts and minds”. Unfortunately “it was the custom of the ANA to wipe themselves with their hands, smear their excrement on the walls of the toilet, and rinse their hands in the sink, which left the sinks reeking.”
While great care is taken by Muslims to keep their clothes clean so that they are not “impure” during prayers, bathrooms can be left in a horrifying state because they’re already unclean.
Muslim tradition teaches that toilets are possessed by demons and as a result followers of the religion may be reluctant to make contact with them because they have been taught that “Satan plays with the backsides of the sons of Adam”. Islamic teachings encourage squat toilets and forbid men to urinate standing up because Mohammed “only ever used to urinate sitting down.”
At Kandahar Air Base, the toilets were segregated because, as an officer noted, “When they use our port-a-potties, they stand on the seats and it causes quite a mess. I think it's just a cultural thing." There are a lot of these cultural things. Many of them far worse than the toilets.
Although when dealing with a group where “90% of the population are infected by a parasitic disease” and which routinely goes around with fecal matters on its hands, it is an issue.
Democrats insist that 2-year-olds should wear masks, yet invite in a population that doesn’t understand the concepts of toilets, toilet paper, or disease transmission.
But the toilets were the least of the problems at Fort McCoy.
The Afghans, who had supposedly just been saved from death, didn’t like American food.
American rice was “swapped for basmati rice. New spices, hummus and dates were added to the chow hall’s menu” which was entirely Halal. Basmati rice is one of the most expensive varieties of rice available, but nothing was too good for the endlessly complaining arrivals.
While the Afghans were complaining to reporters about "hard rice", personnel at Fort McCoy were complaining about “multiple cases of minor females who presented as ‘married’ to adult Afghan men, as well as polygamous families." This wasn’t too surprising since the child marriage in Afghanistan stands at 57%. Like the toilets, it’s a “cultural thing”.
While no action was taken on those cases, Bahrullah Noori, an Afghan refugee, was arrested for trying to undress a 14-year-old boy and behaving inappropriately with a 12-year-old boy.
Mohammad Haroon Imaad was also arrested after his wife accused him of choking her. He had also allegedly threatened to “send her back to Afghanistan where the Taliban could deal with her” and also told her “that nine women have been killed since getting to Fort McCoy and that she would be the tenth.” An estimated 87% of Afghani women face domestic violence.
Like the toilets and the child rape, choking women is just another Afghan cultural thing.
General Glen VanHerck however visited Fort McCoy and assured reporters that the enlightened Afghans were much more law-abiding than the racist Americans.
I've done some research and how that compares to populations across the United States," VanHerck declared. "For example, in six weeks in Operation Allies Welcome, in a population of 53,000, there have been eight reported cases of robbery and theft.”
VanHerck neglected to Google the statistics for assaulting children and women. Or to note that this isn’t a measure of Afghans having lower crime rates than Americans, but a much lower willingness to report crimes to infidels who don’t resolve problems with the use of Islamic law.
"And how long are the Afghans going to be on U.S. military bases?" the FOX News correspondent asked.
"We're prepared to be here as long as we need to conduct this mission," VanHerck replied. "We'll be ready if we need to support through the winter months and into the spring."
If only there had been the same sort of commitment to getting Americans out of Afghanistan.
Forget the ‘Forever War’ and get ready for the ‘Forever Refugees’.
VanHerck claimed that the Afghans at Fort McCoy "are appreciative of our support and eager to begin their lives in America.”
They're so eager that they're just leaving.
Some 700 Afghans have left bases like McCoy despite promises of free taxpayer cash if they just stay and wait to be resettled. The deserting Afghans are upsetting the Biden administration, not because it’s concerned about potential terror threats from the refugees, but because it makes it harder for its refugee resettlement allies to cash in on every single Afghan. And it interferes with their plot to alter demographics in red states by resettling Afghans in the South.
Meanwhile Fort McCoy is near capacity. American soldiers are back to patrolling Afghan streets and trying to win their hearts and minds by asking them to use toilets and not to abuse their women and children. But the scenes of American soldiers trying to keep the peace among Afghans and communicate American values to them are no longer taking place in Kandahar, but in Wisconsin, and in other states with the misfortune of housing Afghans.
It’s almost as if we never actually withdrew from Afghanistan.
Americans are funding three Halal meals a day for tens of thousands of Afghans, our bases are full of mosques, our soldiers are trying to keep Afghans from killing and abusing each other, and we are on the hook for every dollar in welfare spending lavished on the Afghans while Americans struggle. As the Afghans leave Fort McCoy, the occupation of America will begin.
Biden didn’t withdraw from Afghanistan. He brought Afghanistan to America.
Let’s Go Brandon
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Most legal immigration occurs because those who apply are motivated by the belief America remains the land of opportunity and an upward potential remains open for those who put forth effort, work hard and obey our laws.
Illegal immigrants allegedly may come for the same reason but coming illegally undercuts the reasoning behind legal immigration. Furthermore, it has proven far too many have criminal records and once here engage in illegal activities and far too many assume anti-social behaviour. Illegal immigration is a boon for drug dealers, increases sex and drug trafficking and other immoral activities harmful to young people and causes a breakdown in our societal standards and increases severe health results including opiod deaths..
Why The Democrat Party engages, condones and embraces this type of activity is inexplainable. Anyone who votes for a member of this party is equally guilty because those politicians who verbally denounce these activities should not be rewarded for their hypocrisy..
Let’s Go Brandon.
This really is disgusting!
And we are paying for all of it!
Fort McCoy is a National Guard facility with a runway and other accouterments necessary for military training. Minnesota, among other states, utilize it for their State Militia and Air Guard annual active duty.
An Afghanistan Grows In Wisconsin
by Daniel Greenfield
The skies over Sparta have never been as busy as when the Biden administration decided to dispatch 13,000 Afghans, including at least one pedophile, to Wisconsin.
Sparta, a small town of less than ten thousand souls, whose claim to fame is being the “Bicycling Capital of America”, could only watch as a population of Afghans outnumbering its own population created a new Afghanistan on the premises of Fort McCoy.
None of the Afghans at Fort McCoy have a Special Immigrant Visa. Biden left the SIV visa holders behind in Afghanistan. The Afghans who have overrun the Wisconsin base are the ones whom the Taliban, for their own reasons, decided to allow through their checkpoints.
And they’re living up to the high cultural standards of the Taliban.
The problems began with the toilets. Then there were issues with the rice, the sexual abuse of young boys, and Afghans simply leaving on their own despite promises of taxpayer cash.
“Afghans were confused and upset by hygiene practices,” a Wall Street Journal article described. “Every toilet on base was Western style, with a seat and toilet paper. But a number of Afghans are accustomed to restrooms that allow them to squat so they don’t have to physically touch the toilet. It led to some cases of Afghans relieving themselves outside.”
This shouldn’t have surprised anyone after two decades in Afghanistan. But political correctness has mostly suppressed accounts of even the most basic facts about the beneficiaries of our great nation building project leaving Americans confused by the behavior of the new arrivals.
A Czech journal article from the Department of Military Hygiene noted that Afghan "people in rural areas were found to defecate almost everywhere according to convenience. It is important to observe that particularly the rural population does not know or does not use toilet paper."
More accurately, Islamic law is held by some authorities to ban the use of toilet paper.
“You should consider very carefully shaking hands during the contact with the local population,” the journal article warned. Unfortunately their local population is now our local population.
An account of the toilet practices of the defunct Afghan National Army described how our soldiers were forced to “share their toilet with the ANA, as they had been ordered to do by their commanding officers” to win their “hearts and minds”. Unfortunately “it was the custom of the ANA to wipe themselves with their hands, smear their excrement on the walls of the toilet, and rinse their hands in the sink, which left the sinks reeking.”
While great care is taken by Muslims to keep their clothes clean so that they are not “impure” during prayers, bathrooms can be left in a horrifying state because they’re already unclean.
Muslim tradition teaches that toilets are possessed by demons and as a result followers of the religion may be reluctant to make contact with them because they have been taught that “Satan plays with the backsides of the sons of Adam”. Islamic teachings encourage squat toilets and forbid men to urinate standing up because Mohammed “only ever used to urinate sitting down.”
At Kandahar Air Base, the toilets were segregated because, as an officer noted, “When they use our port-a-potties, they stand on the seats and it causes quite a mess. I think it's just a cultural thing." There are a lot of these cultural things. Many of them far worse than the toilets.
Although when dealing with a group where “90% of the population are infected by a parasitic disease” and which routinely goes around with fecal matters on its hands, it is an issue.
Democrats insist that 2-year-olds should wear masks, yet invite in a population that doesn’t understand the concepts of toilets, toilet paper, or disease transmission.
But the toilets were the least of the problems at Fort McCoy.
The Afghans, who had supposedly just been saved from death, didn’t like American food.
American rice was “swapped for basmati rice. New spices, hummus and dates were added to the chow hall’s menu” which was entirely Halal. Basmati rice is one of the most expensive varieties of rice available, but nothing was too good for the endlessly complaining arrivals.
While the Afghans were complaining to reporters about "hard rice", personnel at Fort McCoy were complaining about “multiple cases of minor females who presented as ‘married’ to adult Afghan men, as well as polygamous families." This wasn’t too surprising since the child marriage in Afghanistan stands at 57%. Like the toilets, it’s a “cultural thing”.
While no action was taken on those cases, Bahrullah Noori, an Afghan refugee, was arrested for trying to undress a 14-year-old boy and behaving inappropriately with a 12-year-old boy.
Mohammad Haroon Imaad was also arrested after his wife accused him of choking her. He had also allegedly threatened to “send her back to Afghanistan where the Taliban could deal with her” and also told her “that nine women have been killed since getting to Fort McCoy and that she would be the tenth.” An estimated 87% of Afghani women face domestic violence.
Like the toilets and the child rape, choking women is just another Afghan cultural thing.
General Glen VanHerck however visited Fort McCoy and assured reporters that the enlightened Afghans were much more law-abiding than the racist Americans.
I've done some research and how that compares to populations across the United States," VanHerck declared. "For example, in six weeks in Operation Allies Welcome, in a population of 53,000, there have been eight reported cases of robbery and theft.”
VanHerck neglected to Google the statistics for assaulting children and women. Or to note that this isn’t a measure of Afghans having lower crime rates than Americans, but a much lower willingness to report crimes to infidels who don’t resolve problems with the use of Islamic law.
"And how long are the Afghans going to be on U.S. military bases?" the FOX News correspondent asked.
"We're prepared to be here as long as we need to conduct this mission," VanHerck replied. "We'll be ready if we need to support through the winter months and into the spring."
If only there had been the same sort of commitment to getting Americans out of Afghanistan.
Forget the ‘Forever War’ and get ready for the ‘Forever Refugees’.
VanHerck claimed that the Afghans at Fort McCoy "are appreciative of our support and eager to begin their lives in America.”
They're so eager that they're just leaving.
Some 700 Afghans have left bases like McCoy despite promises of free taxpayer cash if they just stay and wait to be resettled. The deserting Afghans are upsetting the Biden administration, not because it’s concerned about potential terror threats from the refugees, but because it makes it harder for its refugee resettlement allies to cash in on every single Afghan. And it interferes with their plot to alter demographics in red states by resettling Afghans in the South.
Meanwhile Fort McCoy is near capacity. American soldiers are back to patrolling Afghan streets and trying to win their hearts and minds by asking them to use toilets and not to abuse their women and children. But the scenes of American soldiers trying to keep the peace among Afghans and communicate American values to them are no longer taking place in Kandahar, but in Wisconsin, and in other states with the misfortune of housing Afghans.
It’s almost as if we never actually withdrew from Afghanistan.
Americans are funding three Halal meals a day for tens of thousands of Afghans, our bases are full of mosques, our soldiers are trying to keep Afghans from killing and abusing each other, and we are on the hook for every dollar in welfare spending lavished on the Afghans while Americans struggle. As the Afghans leave Fort McCoy, the occupation of America will begin.
Biden didn’t withdraw from Afghanistan. He brought Afghanistan to America.
Let’s Go Brandon
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Most legal immigration occurs because those who apply are motivated by the belief America remains the land of opportunity and an upward potential remains open for those who put forth effort, work hard and obey our laws.
Illegal immigrants allegedly may come for the same reason but coming illegally undercuts the reasoning behind legal immigration. Furthermore, it has proven far too many have criminal records and once here engage in illegal activities and far too many assume anti-social behaviour. Illegal immigration is a boon for drug dealers, increases sex and drug trafficking and other immoral activities harmful to young people and causes a breakdown in our societal standards and increases severe health results including opiod deaths..
Why The Democrat Party engages, condones and embraces this type of activity is inexplainable. Anyone who votes for a member of this party is equally guilty because those politicians who verbally denounce these activities should not be rewarded for their hypocrisy..
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Will this increase probability of wars?
Israel’s next-gen robots could replace ground troops on front lines.
Elbit Systems and Roboteam have released the ROOK UGV, which will support infantry in a number of frontline roles.
“If you want to send robots where you don’t want to send soldiers, you need a solution for that,” said Elad Levy, CEO and founder of Roboteam.
His company, together with Elbit Systems, on Tuesday, announced the debut of what they are calling “the mothership of unmanned vehicles”: ROOK, a multi-payload military 6x6 Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV).
The UGV’s innovative design and built-in autonomy suite offers improved capacity, maneuverability and agility from its previous models, creating “a human machine” that is “really part of the team,” said Yoav Poizner, the senior director of Elbit C4I and Cyber.
He said the ROOK is the next step toward enabling “everything that happens in the sky” through use of drones and aerial robots to occur on the ground and in the field where soldiers need it, too.
The ROOK was developed based on the operational experience accumulated through fielding of the 4x4 PROBOT UGV systems, which became operational a few years ago through a first collaboration between the two companies.
Elbit's new Rook Unmanned Ground Vehicle, demonstrating medical evacuation capabilities. (credit: ELBIT)Elbit's new Rook Unmanned Ground Vehicle, demonstrating medical evacuation capabilities. (credit: ELBIT)
What makes ROOK most unique is that it started as a connected system, the teams said.
“Because we built it from the first screw, we know how the robot works with the software,” Levy said.
“It has built-in autonomy and built-in artificial intelligence that provides a full solution. Without that level of sophistication, you would not want to rely on it in the field.”
The ROOK was designed from scratch as a robotic UGV platform in compliance with applicable military standards, a release explained. It has a modular box structure that allows for components to be replaced by users in the field without the support of the manufacturer.
Other features include a low center of gravity, essential for carrying heavy payloads on rough terrain. The ROOK weighs 1,200 kg. (2,646 lbs.) and can carry a payload equivalent to its own body weight. It stands 24 cm. above the ground and travels at a speed up to 30 kilometers an hour (19 mph).
Elbit's new Rook Unmanned Ground Vehicle being used as a drone platform. (credit: ELBIT)Elbit's new Rook Unmanned Ground Vehicle being used as a drone platform. (credit: ELBIT)
The machine has full compliance with the UGV Interoperability Profile (IOP) for seamless plug-and-play payload integration.
The battery weighs 40 kg. (88lbs.) and lasts up to eight hours. There is an option to carry a spare battery or set up an internal generator for longer missions.
ROOK is operated either via the TORCH-X RAS application or through an all-weather seven-inch ruggedized display unit, enabling a single operator to control several unmanned systems.
The machine can navigate the desert, snow or other rough terrain, and during sunlight or at night. Its sophisticated sensors can recognize soldiers and follow after them in the field, allow it to drive off-road without toppling, and give it the power to tell the difference between grass, stone and other pathways to keep it on course and avoid an accident – just as if a human was driving it.
The company expects the machine to be used to deliver supplies, function as medevac to pull casualties from the field, take part in intelligence gathering missions - including carrying and dispatching drones - and serve as a remote weapons system.
Elbit's new Rook Unmanned Ground Vehicle carrying supplies such as ammunition that would ordinarily be carried on the backs on infantry. (credit: ELBIT)Elbit's new Rook Unmanned Ground Vehicle carrying supplies such as ammunition that would ordinarily be carried on the backs on infantry. (credit: ELBIT)
“You can send the ROOK to places you don’t want to go,” said Levy.
Roboteam was founded in 2009. Today, it has 40 employees working out of its United States and Israeli headquarters. All of the employees were either in the Israel Defense Forces or the US military, giving the company the ability to match and meld its engineering with the actual reality of the battlefield.
The company, Levy said, started with a vision in his grandmother’s house. Roboteam scored its first big contract in 2012 when it supplied 100 man-carried robots to soldiers in Afghanistan, a deal worth $10 million. Since then, the company has expanded, and now has robots in 20 countries worldwide.
It has contracts in Norway, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Thailand and other places.
Roboteam and Elbit joined forces in mid-2019 with a commercial agreement that led to making its PROBOT operational. The ROOK is its latest collaboration.
The machine will cost between $150,000 and $300,000 the company said, depending on configurations. The TOOK is ready to be deployed, Levy said, and is already being evaluated by some of its clients. Eventually, he believes there will be hundreds of thousands of ROOKs in the field.
What is next? Collaboration between air and land robots, he said, for example deploying an aerial and a land robot to photograph a certain area and then merging the pictures for a complete perspective.
“There is no end to the vision and imagination,” Levy said. “The ROOK is just the first step. We are talking about a revolution.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
One sparrow does not make spring.
Looks Like Joe Biden Just Lost The New York Times
His crumbling public approval rating must be troubling to President Joe Biden. But can it possibly compare to learning that the liberal mainstream media is turning on him as well?
On Tuesday, the New York Times sent an email to its morning update subscribers with the headline: “Who’s to blame for inflation?”
“It is dragging down President Biden’s approval ratings and fueling discontent among Americans,” writes senior economics correspondent Neil Irwin. “How did we get here? Who is to blame?”
We fully expected the Times to make excuses for Biden. And at first, it looks as though that is what Irwin is going to do, writing that “presidents have less control over the economy than headlines might suggest.” But then he adds that “the current situation is an exception to the rule.”
And even more remarkable is what comes next. Irwin writes:
You can draw a direct line from a specific policy decision that Biden and congressional Democrats made this past winter to some of the inflation happening now.
In designing the stimulus that Congress passed in March, Biden’s administration went big, with $1.9 trillion in pandemic relief — on top of a separate $900 billion package that passed three months earlier. Put the two together, and $2.8 trillion in federal money has been coursing through the economy this year while economic activity has trended only a few hundred billion dollars a year short of what mainstream analysts would consider full health.
The fact that the Times, along with others in the mainstream media, admits that inflation is a problem is in itself a noteworthy development, since for months it insisted that it was just a data anomaly – one that Republicans were trying to exploit for political gain.
Now, with prices for many common household goods having gone up by double digits over the past few months and no end in sight for the trend, the inflation story is impossible to ignore.
But the fact that any one of these “news” outlets is willing to blame Biden for the inflation spiral is a truly stunning development, given they’d spent months blasting out “fact checks” that aggressively slapped down any such claim.
In April, for example, a USA Today “fact check” told readers that COVID-19 was “to blame for spike in lumber prices, not Biden.” In June, it ran another saying that “Rising gas prices due to high demand and low supply, not Biden’s policies.”
The next month, AP declared that “House GOP falsely blames Biden for gas prices.”
When Republican Sen. Rick Scott stated in July that “Thanks to the insane tax-and-spending spree of President Joe Biden and Democrats in Washington, we are seeing six straight months of raging inflation,” the “fact checking” site PolitiFact labeled it “Mostly False.”
In August, CNN approvingly quoted the Democrats’ all-time favorite economist, Mark Zandi, as saying that “the jump in inflation has nothing to do with tax and spending policies.”
As is so often the case, the public was way ahead of the mainstream press on this one. A poll in June found that twice as many people blamed Biden as President Donald Trump for rising inflation.
It’s worth noting that the Times admission of Biden’s fault regarding inflation comes after CNN ran a piece exposing the growing antagonism between Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Which raises questions such as:
Why didn’t the New York Times editors “correct” Irwin’s story before it went out? Is it suddenly OK to run hit pieces on Biden, even if it risks helping Republicans? If so, what’s changed in the corporate newsrooms to allow such an infamia?
Now, bear in mind that we are not saying that the media has suddenly decided to do its job and cover the facts. As we pointed out yesterday, the mainstream press has racked up such an incredibly long list of false and misleading stories, all designed to help drive a leftist narrative, that it has pretty much lost all credibility outside crossword puzzles and TV listings.
But that makes this recent development at the New York Times even more astonishing. If the mainstream media lose faith in Biden, who will be left to defend him? Jimmy Carter?
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
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