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redsamuraiii · 2 years

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What to Do With the Dead Kaiju? (2022) *spoilers*

Life in Japan changes drastically when a Kaiju appeared and rampaged through cities before it died mysteriously. While people rejoice and bask in relief, the giant corpse left behind begins to slowly rot and bloat, as government and military officials are concerned with something new they do not understand.

While the Self Defence Force which normally handles national crisis like natural disasters, they are ill equipped to handle something of alien nature. A ‘Special Forces’ consisting of scientific and combat experts was formed as a task force to handle the studies and safe disposal of the Kaiju.

The Prime Minister declares a state of emergency for the safety of everyone asking people to stay indoors as much as possible as there are still things about the Kaiju that is unknown such as the increasing thermal temperature of the Kaiju and the presence of contagious fungus around the remains.

Three years later, the scientific research is still underway and the people have grown restless from the home quarantine issues and protests against the government for the military draft of its citizens to combat a possible Kaiju threat as many soldiers have died during the first incursion.

The government is facing an economic crisis facing budget constraints to rebuild its country from the destruction of the Kaiju attack and after three years of isolation that some of its cabinet propose that the Kaiju remains be used as a tourist attraction for people around the world to cover the costs of recovery.

Arata Obinata (Yamada Ryosuke) of the Special Forces is assigned as the commander of the clean up operations and work alongside his former team member and love interest, Yukino Amane (Tao Tsuchiya) who now works for the Department of Health as the Kaiju remains now falls under her jurisdiction.

Yukino is still perplexed by Arata’s disappearance three years ago, the same time the Kaiju dies. Further investigation revealed that a mysterious asteroid-like light hit the Kaiju which might have killed it, the same light Yukino went to investigate which caused her to be dismissed from the Special Forces.

Arata is defensive everytime Yukino tries to probe his past sensing that something is at play. Yukino began to learn of rumours of a “Chosen One” which was said to have killed the Kaiju, a mysterious being of light, which was revealed later at the end to be Arata.

It’s meant to be a comedy parody of Tokusatsu genre like Shin Godzilla and Shin Ultraman. A film that is not meant to be taken seriously, although the film does have its potential to be a serious one like Shin Godzilla. The depiction of the Special Forces is similar to SSSP of Shin Ultraman.

We’ve seen countless Kaiju films that show Kaiju rampaging through the cities and humans fighting back by conventional means or using Jaegers (Pacific Rim) or relying on another mysterious being (Shin Ultraman). But none of them focus on the aftermath and the logistical challenges of the clean up operations.

The one aspect of this film that I find to be actually interesting where you see the government officials debating issues from finance, health, foreign affairs and military operations to safely dispose of the Kaiju remains and the budget constraints for such a massive operations and to rebuild its destroyed cities.

Although there are certain jokes made by the Prime Minister and his cabinet which I find excessive and unnecessary, the plot is actually good. It’s clear that the film is heavily influenced by the latest Shin Godzilla and Shin Ultraman. I honestly did not expect that ending with a silhouette of an Ultraman-like being.

Nonetheless, it’s a fun show to watch. I like how they portray the unglamorous part of cleaning up, the ground crews, engineers and soldiers involved while waiting for the slow replies of the government, giving you a glimpse of how such people are involved in the clean up operations after every natural disaster.

The first bit of the movie reminds me of when Covid-19 pandemic first started where the world appears to stopped for a moment where everyone stayed home, people were panicking and hoarding items from the grocery stores, people protesting, and soldiers being activated to assist in lockdowns.

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#what to do with a dead kaiju #gian monster cleanup #daikaijū no atoshimatsu #yamada ryosuke #ryosuke yamada #tao tsuchiya #tsuchiya tao #tokusatsu #shin godzilla #shin ultraman #japan #kaiju #pacific rim #japanese film #japanese movie #my review #my recommendations

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protoindoeuropean · 4 months

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As we are moving to probably (at least) one referendum taking place in 2024 (on the building of the second block of the Krško nuclear power plant), here's an overview of the 27 referendums we've had in the country's history (i.e. the last 32 years).

The profusion of referendums has generated some interesting events:

a superreferendum Sunday (an established set phrase in the language by now) has occured twice (three referendums on the same date; it has happened in June 2011 and in November 2022);

one referendum had to be repeated after its results were declared invalid (because of the government using state budget funds for the campaign);

changes to the law concerning the national broadcaster (RTV) were put on referendum a record three times;

one successful referendum result was not implemented for 17 years (because of an alternative agreement between the concerned parties in the first years following the result; noted with an * above);

after the quorum requirement, two (three, if we include the original referendum that had to be repeated) referendums failed because not enough people voted, even though they were technically successful – not only did they fail to reach the quorum for the majority vote, the overall attendance was below the quorum as well

Some more notes:

a referendum can be proposed by the National Council, 30 members of the National Assembly or 40 thousand people;

referendums can be legislative (about a specific proposed or implemented law) or advisory (about a more general question concerning the country that does not need to have a law proposal attached to it; it is non-binding); legislative referendums can be rejective (seeking the abrogation of a law) or initiative (proposing a law) – as a rule, rejective referendums are also subsequent (as the law they seek to abrogate is usually already in place; they can be preliminary if the law is in the process of being proposed), while initiative referendums are preliminary (they have to be as the law is not yet actually established);

since 2013, not only do 50% of the votes have to be for/against for the referendum to succeed, but that majority also has to represent at least 20% of the voting population and referendums on emergency defence measures, financial and tax-related topics, ratifications of international contracts and laws amending unconstitutional human rights issues are not allowed.

I have notes on the particular referendums too and I can talk about those if anyone is interested, but this is it for now.

#j #slovenia #referendum #as i've said when the referendums were announced in 2021 and 2022 after a few years of nothing:#nature is healing #slovenian politics

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yesterdanereviews · 9 months

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R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned (2022)

Film review #575

Director: Paul Leyden

SYNOPSIS: Sherriff in the Old West Roeciphus Pulsipher is gunned down and killed in a shootout with some outlaws. Before he can proceed to the after life, he is recruited by the Rest in Peace Department (R.I.P.D.) to hunt down souls that have not departed from the Earth. "Roy" is partnered with veteran officer Jeanne to investigate a disturbance that could put the whole of humanity at risk...

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned is a 2022 film. Despite what the name implies, the film is not a sequel, but a prequel to the 2013 film R.I.P.D., in which we see the story of how veteran officer Roeciphus "Roy" Pulsipher joined the department. The film is set in the Old West, where Roy is killed in a shootout with a local outlaw gang. He is recruited by the Rest in Police Department (R.I.P.D.) to deal with souls called "Deados" who have remained on Earth after death and must be sent to the afterlife. Roy is teamed up with another officer, Jeanne, to investigate an increase in strange activity. If you watched the first film, you'll know exactly what to expect from this film, because it is basically the same plot: rookie and veteran partner up to stop the souls of the dead from returning to Earth. However, unlike the first film, which was still entertaining by just rushing through the film and relying on constant action and strong character performances, R.I.P.D. 2 doesn't even have that, and the film stumbles along without any real energy or appeal. It doesn't expand on the world or the lore in any way, it doesn't reveal anything new about the characters, it's just a completely recycled product with all the good stuff thrown out.

The only returning character from the first film is Roy, who was played by Jeff Bridges in the original, is played here by Jeffrey Donovan (obviously Bridges would have been a bit too pricey for this low-budget prequel). While I see a lot of praise for Donovan's performance, I just didn't see it. In his defence, it might just be the awful script and writing that is giving him stunted dialogue and interactions, which is certainly feasible, as the characters interact rather clumsily. Jeanne 's characters is very much a typical "veteran cop," and the French accent gives it away that she is meant to be Joan of Arc fairly early, although the film "reveals" it a lot later (although I'm not sure if it is meant to be obvious, because the writing doesn't indicate it). Despite her being a famous historical figure, it doesn't fails to add anything to the film or her character. Following the lore of the film, Roy and Joan look completely different to living people so they can't be recognised, and are given the appearance of two black women. This does present an opportunity for the film to address the racism and status of black people in the Old West, but the film chooses to play it safe and does the bare minimum with it. If they're not going to address the topic, they might as well just not bothered having it as a plot point at all.

Every establishing shot in the film gives away that everything is a set devoid of substance beyond the camera. The effects are plain, and nothing stands out to make things interesting. The ending wraps things up in a roundabout way and addresses issues that I didn't realise were an issue (who actually shot Roy or something). Overall, you're not going to get anything out of this film that the original, and is far inferior in every way. Everything about the film feels cheap and uninspired, and the things that made the original entertaining are absent. Releasing ten years after the original as well means that the opportunity to ride the hype of its predecessor is long gone, leaving it alone and essentially dead on arrival.

#movie #movie review #r.i.p.d. 2 raise of the damned #ripd #sci-fi #film #film review #2022 film

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usafphantom2 · 2 years

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Lockheed next to another billionaire contract for the F-35

Diego Alves By Diego Alves 07/26/2022 - 10:00 AM in Military

Lockheed Martin Corp.'s next megacontract for the production of several hundred F-35 jets will be worth about $30 billion, according to a defense officer involved in the negotiations. However, the total number of fighter jets purchased was affected by inflation and delays related to Covid.

The exact number of next generation poachers included in the agreement will be provided as soon as the contract is definitively granted - which may occur this summer or early autumn - although there is still a lot of work to reach this point, said the officer, who asked not to be identified while waiting for the completion of the hiring process.

The Pentagon announced last week that it has reached a preliminary agreement with Lockheed Martin on what are now 375 aircraft planned for the 15th to 17th production contracts. This is a reduction of a potential 485 listed in February 2019, before the start of negotiations, and 404 in April 2019, according to a memorandum of decision by interim acquisition head Stacy Cummings.

More than 760 F-35 fighters have been delivered. The world fleet has already accumulated more than 480,000 flight hours, 1,560 pilots and 11,680 maintainers. Illustrative image.

Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Laura Siebert said in an email that "the quantities of each contract are determined by our customers to meet their mission planning needs and budget requirements".

The then manager of the F-35 government program, Lieutenant General Eric Fick, told reporters in March that the cost per jet of the next batch would increase.

"I think it's likely that we will see costs rise, tail-by-tail," he said. "There are some very strong headwinds that we are working to combat," such as Covid-related production cost increases, supply chain interruptions and inflation, he added. "We just don't have that much money."

The 5th generation fighter has been consolidating itself as a standard fighter in the West. Illustrative image.

Since Fick's comments, the F-35 Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin "has made significant progress in the negotiations," Pentagon spokesman Russell Goemaere said in a statement.

The program office "considered the actual production costs during the Covid-19 pandemic and updated the information regarding inflation, which resulted in smaller quantities," he said. The Pentagon is also putting “more priority on investments in support to improve the readiness of the F-35,” he said.

The Government Accountability Office earlier this year said that F-35 readiness rates for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps have improved since 2019, but are still below the program's goals. The aircraft could fly and carry out all its assigned missions 39% of the time in 2020 before falling to 38% in fiscal year 2021. This falls far short of the goals of 72% for the Air Force and 75% for the Navy and Marines.

Tags: Military AviationF-35 Lightning IILockheed MartinMarinesU.S. NavyUSAF - United States Air Force / U.S. Air Force

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kgyst · 2 years

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Na ne.

“in Soviet times there was a family of R95−300 turbojet engines for cruise missiles. These engines were produced by Ukrainian enterprises. Therefore, after the collapse of the USSR, Russia started working on a replacement for them. However, even the early (pre-2014) variants of Kalibr missiles were probably equipped with these types of engines, which were removed from retired Soviet missiles.“

#Ukrajna

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beardedmrbean · 2 years

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Bulgaria’s caretaker government approved on September 21 a project worth close to $.13 billion to purchase eight more US-made F-16 fighter aircraft, caretaker Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said.

This was one of 13 investment projects, adding up to a total of 6.6 billion leva, approved by the caretaker government.

However, for the projects to go ahead, the National Assembly must vote its approval, given that the law requires that spending of more than 100 million leva may proceed only with parliamentary consent.

Pending Bulgaria’s October 2 2022 early parliamentary elections, the country has no sitting Parliament.

Stoyanov said that the further eight F-16s could be delivered in 2027.

Bulgaria already has purchased eight F-16s. Production of these is underway but the first deliveries have been postponed to 2025.

“It is important to acquire new equipment for the Bulgarian Air Force in the context of what we have,” Stoyanov said.

“At the moment we have old Soviet equipment that we cannot maintain because of what is happening with Russia. We need a fully organised squadron with included capabilities for striking – air-to-surface and air-to-air. The expectations are that they (the F-16s) will arrive in 2027,” he said.

Stoyanov said that the available Bulgarian MiG-29 fighter jets would continue to be in service until the end of 2023, and only on the condition that Poland delivers the engines that it has agreed to overhaul.

“After 2023, there is no certainty to ensure air sovereignty. This necessitates looking for opportunities to purchase a lease of another type of aircraft, for which we have sent inquiries to various countries and are awaiting specific offers,” he said.

An offer has been received from France, talks have been held with Sweden, and a response from the US and Israel is awaited, Stoyanov said.

He said that decisions by the caretaker government covered 13 out of 188 capabilities that it had been established that the Bulgarian military should have “as we have taken into account the economic situation”.

It would be a mistake to delay investments in the military, he said.

It was not clear in what time horizon the investments will be made and for which budget years the relevant costs are planned.

Among the priorities to be funded is the purchase of an infantry combat vehicle and the provision of 3D radars.

#nunyas news #not enough firepower to stop the big dogs #but that'll be 16 f-16's #which should be sufficient for any of their neighbors

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axvoter · 2 years

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Blatantly Partisan Party Review XI (Victoria 2022): Liberal Democratic Party

Prior reviews: federal 2013, VIC 2014, federal 2016, VIC 2018, NSW 2019, federal 2019, federal 2022

What I said before: “This is a cynical and callous party for people who lack empathy. Its economic and social policies are destructive; its approach to firearms is dangerous; its blinkered hostility to government accepts no possibility it can be used for—or that there even is such a thing as—collective good.” (federal 2022)

What I think this time: Every election, I think to myself that I should simply add this party to the list of parties I do not review. Unfortunately, the only reason I do not review a party is because they are likely to be very well known to my readers. The Liberal Democrats are too obscure for me to justify this.

So, why do I wish I could just skip right past them? They are aggressive right-libertarians, a callous “I got mine” ideology that assumes the worst about everyone. Think of the worst Ayn Rand stans or the most zealous gun nuts. I didn’t think they could get much worse than being intellectually bankrupt ideologues, but then the pandemic happened and they embraced anti-lockdown cooker attitudes. Their MPs pledge to never vote for a tax increase or a reduction in liberties, and it turns out blinkered one-size-fits-all pledges like these are utterly unable to address the complex realities of the world, because guess what! Pandemics sometimes require temporary restrictions for public health and everyone’s long-term liberty and happiness! Instead of explaining that exceptional circumstances require exceptional policies, they decided to bray against every pandemic measure they could.

Not only does the Liberal Democrats’ name routinely mislead people trying to find the Liberals or the Australian Democrats on massive upper-house ballots, but also this party that claims to be so democratic is in fact committed to anti-democratic Group Ticket Voting. Its members have advanced spurious defences of this system, which funnels all above-the-line votes to parties chosen through backroom deals rather than by voters themselves. The Liberal Democrats have benefitted enormously from this anti-democratic lottery: their two current members of the Legislative Council harvested preferences so well in 2018 that they won from primary votes of 0.84% (David Limbrick) and 3.78% (Tim Quilty). Both of these occurred because of completely artificial GTV preference flows that we can verify from other elections would not have happened if above-the-line voters had been able to distribute their own preferences.

On a lighter note, Quilty has peddled “Rexit” or “regional exit”, the creation of a regional state in inland Victoria and NSW separated from the control of Melbourne and Sydney. It is one of the more comical new state proposals of recent years. But he even got Victoria’s Parliamentary Budget Office to do an economic profile for his fever dream. Enjoy.

My recommendation: Give the Liberal Democratic Party a weak or no preference. Remember to vote below the line on the large ballot for the Legislative Council so that your preference goes where you want it to go; all ballots with 5 or more preferences marked below the line are valid votes.

Website: https://vic.ldp.org.au/

#auspol #vicvotes #vicvotes22 #vicvotes2022 #springst #Victorian election #Victoria #Election 2022 #Melbourne #Liberal Democratic Party #LDP #Liberal Democrats #ugh #Rexit #weak or no preference

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novumtimes · 4 hours

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German conscription plan an abrupt turnaround after decades of complacency expert | World | News

Germany’s plan to reintroduce conscription marks a “remarkable turnaround” after years of complacency and over-reliance on “US protection”, a former German MEP has said. Hans-Olaf Henkel believes his country’s abrupt volte face has been forced upon it by first ex-US President Donald Trump during his time in office, and then Russian President Vladimir Putin, with his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Proposals currently under consideration could see teenagers – both male and female – aged 18 and over required to do two years of national service Germany’s defence minister Boris Pistorius, is thought to be planning to go public with his ideas next month – with Rishi Sunak confirming plans for a similar, albeit non-compulsory, form of national service in this country should the Tories be re-elected on July 4. Mr Henkel, who is also the former president of the BDI, Germany’s equivalent of the CBI, who has been deeply critical of European commission President Ursula von der Leyen when she held the role currently occupied by Mr Pistorius, was unsurprised by the news. Referring to the unification of East and West Germany in 1990, he told Express.co.uk: “This is only the latest development in the most remarkable turnaround of German politics after WW2. “For decades, many German politicians promoted the idea that ‘weapons are the reasons for military conflicts’. “Once the wall came down in Berlin, they ran down the Bundeswehr further, drastically reducing Army, Navy and Air Force. “The then-Minister of Defense von Guttenberg, a Member of the very conservative Bavarian Party, CSU, made himself popular by eliminating the compulsury military service, replacing it by a system of an Army based on volunteers.” As a result, the number of soldiers in the German armed forces shrank to a historically low level, Mr Henkel pointed out. He continued: “In parallel, the German Government, first under Chancellor Angela Merkel and later under Chancellor Olaf Scholz, spent the money saved for social benefits, climate protection and foreign aid.” Mr Henkel continued: “Two foreign Heads of Government changed all that, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. “Chancellor Scholz abruptly changed course by declaring a Zeitenwende, (which translates to ‘turn of an era’). “Of course, it was Putin who shocked most if not all German politicians by invading Ukraine. Ironically, also Trump contributed to the dramatic shift in German politics. “Before Trump, Germany relied on America’s protection, underspent on the army at the expense of the US. tay payer for decades.” Most German defence ministers had ignored the NATO commitment to spend at least two percent of GDP on the military budget, Mr Henkel pointed out. He added: “Instead, German Foreign Ministers and Ministers for Aid to Developing Countries constantly boasted moral leadership through lavish financial support to every corner of the world. (Recently, it became public that Germany finances bycicle roadsn Peru to fight climate change.) “Today, Germany is by far the largest supplier of military aid in Europe, second only to the US I guess Zeitenwende has the potential to enter the English languages in the same way as kindergarten, angst, zeitgeist, wunderkind or weltschmerz.” Source link via The Novum Times

#The Novum Times

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govindhtech · 9 days

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Google Cloud hosting FedRAMP High & Moderate Workloads

FedRAMP

Among many other services, AI, security, and analytics are now mission-ready for FedRAMP High workloads

Following Google Distributed Cloud Hosted’s Top Secret/Secret permission, Google Public Sector today revealed it has accomplished another major milestone: more than 100 other cloud services have now received FedRAMP High authorization.

With Assured Workloads in FedRAMP High settings, U.S. federal customers may now take advantage of cutting-edge enterprise-grade Google Cloud features spanning cybersecurity, analytics, AI, and more. With the new permission, government agencies can now choose from a more contemporary selection of cloud suppliers to support their digital transformation and assist them fulfil their missions through enhanced data analytics capabilities, platform enhancement, infrastructure modernization, and app modernization.

Approved for Cost, Speed, and Innovation Benefits on Commercial Cloud

Significantly, isolated federal clouds are not the only places where the new FedRAMP High permission can be used. This authorization gives government agencies new ways to take advantage of Google’s best-in-class AI capabilities in secure environments across Google Cloud’s current product portfolio. It also aligns with the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) guidance for adopting commercial cloud-based solutions. Security restrictions are integrated into the system by default thanks to Google Cloud’s commitment in secure-by-default infrastructure, negating the need for a conventional, separate government cloud.

With Assured Workloads, users can securely secure and customise sensitive workloads to meet compliance and security needs thanks to Google Cloud’s FedRAMP-authorized services. No physical infrastructure separate from Google’s public cloud data centres is used by Assured Workloads. Rather, it provides an equivalent cost, speed, and innovation benefits of an enterprise-grade commercial cloud with a Software Defined Community Cloud.

FedRAMP

The federal Risk and Authorization Management Programme standardises cloud-based product and service authorization, security evaluation, and monitoring. It was created by the U.S. Federal government. Government-wide programme that provides a standardised, reusable approach to security assessment and authorization for cloud computing products and services that process unclassified information used by agencies,” it defined by Congress in 2022.

Except for some on-premise private clouds, all federal agency cloud deployments and service models must adhere to it standards at the proper risk impact level (Low, Moderate, or High).

Customers must choose Assured Workloads and Assured Support (High only) if they want to use Google Cloud services that are compliant with FedRAMP Moderate or High levels hosting.

Google Cloud’s Compliance with FedRAMP

The Department of Defence (DoD), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the General Services Administration (GSA), and other agencies as determined by the GSA Administrator and the FedRAMP director comprise the FedRAMP Board, which was formerly known as the Joint Authorization Board.

FedRAMP Moderate and FedRAMP High Authority to Operate (ATO) have been granted by the FedRAMP Board to Google Cloud infrastructure and certain Google Cloud Services Offerings (CSOs). Google Cloud regularly applies to the Board for FedRAMP Moderate and High clearances for additional services.

Customers under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) can obtain the following additional FedRAMP compliance paperwork from Google Cloud:

Customer Responsibility Matrix (CRM) for FedRAMP

The System Security Plan (SSP) for Google Cloud

Reports on penetration tests and other materials

You can obtain access to this content with the assistance of google cloud’s sales team or your Google Cloud agent.

Government clients can also use the FedRAMP Programme Management Office’s package request form to request Google’s FedRAMP package.

Purchase terms and conditions flow down from google cloud’s partners for customers who make purchases through a Google partner.

FedRAMP compliance for Google Workspace

Users of Google Workspace can use it in accordance with numerous international and U.S. federal government regulations for cloud security and privacy.Google Workspace has FedRAMP High authorization and ISO 27017, 27018, and 27001 certifications. It’s also audited to AICPA Service Organisation Control (SOC) standards.

FedRAMP High Readiness for GCVE

The Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE) High Readiness Assessment Report (RAR), which was supplied by a third-party assessment organisation (3PAO), was reviewed by the FedRAMP Programme Management Office (PMO) in 2023. Given the review’s excellent findings and the absence of any significant capability flaws, GCVE has been approved as a FedRAMP High Ready offering (FedRAMP Package ID FR2405153785).

The US federal government is informed that GCVE has a strong chance of receiving a FedRAMP Authorization when it achieves it’s strong Ready status. Additionally, GCVE is audited in accordance with the Service Organisation Control (SOC) requirements of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and certified against ISO 27017, 27018, 27001, and PCI-DSS.

FedRAMP high vs Moderate

The security measures are integrated and pre-configured to allow customers to achieve different compliance levels without requiring a traditional separated government cloud architecture, thanks to Google Cloud’s commitment in google cloud’s security-by-default infrastructure.

Assured Workloads are required for customers wishing to use Google Cloud to deploy their products in FedRAMP Moderate and High settings. With Google Cloud services, users may use Assured Workloads to securely configure and safeguard sensitive workloads in order to meet compliance and security requirements. Assured Workloads’ public cloud data centres are not connected to any physical infrastructure. Rather, it provides a Software Defined Community Cloud with advantages in terms of cost, speed, and innovation.

FedRAMP security measures are implemented by FedRAMP-authorized services made available through Assured Workloads, enabling clients to leverage Google Cloud’s capabilities to suit their organisational requirements. Through Assured Workloads Monitoring, Assured Workloads additionally offers insight into it’s workload compliance. With the use of this technology, you may identify and address compliance issues and give auditors control attestations regarding the status of your compliance.

Assured Workloads provides the following essential FedRAMP High controls by default for clients handling FedRAMP High government data, in addition to the controls fulfilled by the Google Cloud infrastructure FedRAMP High ATO.

barriers to keep FedRAMP High customer data within the United States; technical support personnel restricted to FedRAMP-adjudicated workers within the United States; encryption consistent with FIPS-140-2 both in transit and at rest; and personnel access controls for individuals with regular access to customer data

Only it-compliant goods and services are permitted. The FedRAMP Moderate and High standards are supported by the logical segmentation of the in-scope compliance boundary.

FedRAMP High and Moderate Data Hosting on Google Workspace

Customers can host FedRAMP Moderate and High data by utilising Google Workspace’s FedRAMP High ATO. When deploying Google Workspace in FedRAMP Moderate and High environments, customers must activate the it-authorized services that fulfil the corresponding permission requirements. Find out how to enable or disable a Google Workspace service.

Furthermore, FedRAMP High compliance and alignment with the customer’s own ATO are made possible by the integrated security controls and feature sets included in Google Workspace Business and Enterprise editions. Google Workspace customers can meet it’s data residency requirements using a Data Region policy.

How to Get FedRAMP ATO

Government data on Google Cloud may be considered by clients seeking an Authority to Operate (ATO). The following benchmarks should be taken into account by organisations in order to obtain an ATO on Google Cloud:

Ascertain whether FedRAMP Moderate or FedRAMP High Select Assured Workloads are needed for the in-scope data (FedRAMP Moderate is part of the free tier, while FedRAMP High requires a premium membership). Services on Google Cloud

Choose your Google Cloud FedRAMP border.

Set up your workloads in compliance with it requirements, the Customer Responsibility Matrix, the Shared Responsibility Model, and the services that are within the scope of Google Cloud.

Engage a third-party assessment organisation (3PAO) to conduct an audit.

Send your package for approval and review to the Federal Agency or FedRAMP Board.

Read more on Govindhtech.com

#FedRAMP #googlecloud #ai #security #publiccloud #cloud #cybersecurity #technology #technews #news #govindhtech

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wit-sg · 2 months

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The postmodern US revolution in empire-building

by Alex Lo - SCMP 25 Mar 24

There is always more than one meaning to any quotable quote. And one of the most quoted in the annals of American politics is from James Carville, Bill Clinton’s top election adviser, about the bond market: “I used to think if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the pope or a .400 baseball hitter. But now I want to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.”

He was, of course, talking about the private bond markets, or more specifically, what we nowadays call the “bond vigilantes”.

Imagine if there is an equivalent of a Marvel superhero in the financial world, he or she would be a bond vigilante.

Such superheroes are the fixed-income traders and investors who sell bonds, or threaten to do so, to push back against economic policies of a government or business plans of a private enterprise.

The justification is that these debt investors or traders – and their cheerleading pundits in the financial press – work to impose discipline on governments by selling off bonds of those that are being profligate or irresponsible, such as loose monetary policy or fiscal spending that is considered inflationary.

However, I have recently started to wonder why no one I have read ever thought Carville’s saying would also make perfect sense when applied to the US government bond market, namely US treasuries.

Washington’s unrivalled ability to borrow at a low cost is what sustains its global empire protected by the world’s – and history’s – most expensive military. The latest Pentagon budget is US$849.8 billion, needed to counter the Chinese bogeyman (and mini-me Putin)!

When a country, whether friend or foe, buys lots of US treasury debt and therefore lends its hard-earned money to Uncle Sam at low interest rates, it is essentially paying for its own oppression. That is, perhaps, the genius of the US treasury market that is the biggest, deepest, most liquid, and at least until recently, supposedly risk-free.

The daydreaming left and cynical right Both the left and the right have got it wrong about the US government debt, which now stands at US$31.4 trillion. I would argue the left gets it wrong because of their laudable and transparent but unrealistic agenda. However, the right has an unstated agenda that needs to make sure most people don’t really understand for it to work. It isn’t so much that the right is wrong but rather being deliberately misleading. It’s policy by misdirection. (How else do you explain the wellspring of support for Donald Trump from the working and underemployed classes?)

Now consider the usual respective and representative arguments of the left and right against “unsustainable” government debt in the United States. I will be generalising but hopefully not by much. They actually amount to the same argument, except that one side wants to cut warfare or defence spending, while the other wants to reduce welfare or social security and levy no or low taxes for the rich. However, both sides agree “the debt crisis” is unsustainable. Needless to say, the right has been successful for more than two decades now, reducing welfare and wages while cutting taxes and maintaining warfare!

Let’s start with the left. A recent article in Common Dreams by US economist Jeffrey Sachs is fairly representative of the left-of-centre position.

It’s titled “America’s Wars and the US Debt Crisis”, and it argues that “to surmount the debt crisis, America needs to stop feeding the military-industrial complex, the most powerful lobby in Washington”.

Certainly the figures Sachs cites sound alarming. “In the year 2000, the US government debt was $3.5 trillion, equal to 35 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). By 2022, the debt was $24 trillion, equal to 95 per cent of GDP,” he wrote.

“The US debt is soaring, hence America’s current debt crisis. Yet both Republicans and Democrats are missing the solution: stopping America’s wars of choice and slashing military outlays.

“Suppose the government’s debt had remained at a modest 35% of GDP, as in 2000. Today’s debt would be $9 trillion, as opposed to $24 trillion. Why did the US government incur the excess $15 trillion in debt? The single biggest answer is the US government’s addiction to war and military spending.”

The US national debt is rising by US$1 trillion about every 100 days. On its current trajectory, according to the Congressional Budget Office, US debt will reach 185 per cent of GDP by 2052.

What’s the solution? Cut military spending, according to the left. “Facing down the military-industrial lobby is the vital first step to putting America’s fiscal house in order,” Sachs concluded.

Now consider the right’s argument.

Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville is fairly representative of the right. He recently earned kudos in right-wing media for declaring the US is “dead broke” and that overall government spending, but especially social security, was a “scam.” By scam, I assume he means future Americans will end up paying for profligate spending in the present, thus mortgaging America’s future. Who can argue with that?

It strikes me that Tuberville would agree with almost everything Sachs wrote except the last bit about cutting defence. Rather than bringing the budgetary scalpel on defence spending, he would focus on “reforming” welfare and social security.

Both the left and the right’s usual arguments would be true or relevant if the US were your usual democratic republic. But it is also a global empire and maintaining itself by amassing deficit and debt is an imperative. But how?

An empire that runs on other people’s money Every empire in history had its own existential justification for the good of the world. In the US case, it’s freedom and democracy.

It may be counterintuitive but the US empire today requires running a huge national debt and trade deficit. The country does not have the industrial and manufacturing capabilities to earn enough to pay for history’s most expensive military. It needs other people’s earnings to pay for it, ergo rising government debt and trade deficit, and to do so by expanding rather than eroding hegemony.

The most concise explanation that I have come across of this weird epoch-changing phenomenon of postmodern empire-building and maintenance is from Yanis Varoufakis, the economist and former Greek finance minister during the last global financial crisis. He was speaking at a forum organised by the British-based Novara Media last month.

“If I were the Pentagon, I would not be worried about the developments on the military terrain,” he said.

As he explained it, the real challenge is from alternative financial channels and payment systems as well as other currencies, including a central bank digital currency (CBDC), which challenge the dominant status of the US dollar as the world’s premier reserve currency. He was specifically referring to China.

“{They} can easily undermine the monopoly that the dollar has on international transactions because all the power of the United States from this whole panoply of force is based on the US dollar,” he said.

“The American economy is becoming a smaller and smaller percentage of the world economy. It is highly in the red. They have {had} a huge trade deficit since 1968 and they have a huge budget deficit, so they need other people’s money.

“They {the US} are the only empire in the history of humanity who are growing stronger the more they are in the red. What allows them to do that is that they print the world’s {dominant reserve} currency.”

What Varoufakis means is that the whole world needs a lot of US dollars for all kinds of transactions, so Washington can keep printing money – unlike all other countries – while keeping inflationary pressure manageable.

The other side of the coin is that the US treasury market is the gigantic debt machine that absorbs the sweat and tears of other countries’ workers by issuing endless debt that goes into funding a military-backed empire that oppresses them.

Just think of inflation as making your currency less valuable or desirable. So long as everyone still wants or needs the greenback, it’s still valuable and desirable because the US-dominated global financial system creates and maintains constant demand for the dollar, even if its share of global GDP is constantly and irreversibly dropping.

The real dangerous challenge to the US empire, Varoufakis is saying, is to undermine or destroy that dollar demand, an unlikely prospect in the foreseeable future. However, China clearly presents that threat or at least the possibility of a credible threat. THAT is the real “yellow peril”, everything else about the “China threat” is just noise.

The postmodern empire, from gold to fiat Let me clarify that by the postmodern American empire, in contrast to premodern and other modern empires, I don’t mean that it was based on fiat currency, but rather the necessity of successfully running a high national debt and deficit to maintain it through the alchemy of state finance. A few Chinese dynasties, after all, had paper currencies, too. The Mongols, during the Yuan dynasty, issued the world’s first silver-backed paper currency. The dynasty’s rise, decline and fall were tracked by the changing status of its paper money through full silver convertibility and nominal silver convertibility, to fiat currency, between 1260 and 1368.

The early modern French monarchy also ran up huge national debt, usually to fund wars. But the heavy debt enfeebled, rather than strengthened the old regime, eventually contributing to 1789.

Debt, deficit and fiat money are different features of the underlying foundations of the US empire, which has become more imperial rather than less in recent years.

Granted, the US began and stayed for a long time as a fairly typical Western empire. From America’s inception, its ever-expanding militaristic empire was run pretty much like other traditional premodern and modern ones, at least until Richard Nixon.

Beginning with black slavery and the westward continental expansion that exterminated most of the indigenous populations, it expanded to Latin America along with annexing a large chunk of Mexico, and then turned the entire Western hemisphere into its sphere of dominance. So far, so normal for just another empire.

By the end of the 19th century, after two industrial revolutions, the US was already the world’s predominant economy, but not yet a military match to the British Empire.

That changed with World War II. The modern US empire that emerged out of it was still like a modern Western empire, if only bigger. As it took shape during the Cold War, it exterminated or helped exterminate resistant natives, and social-democratic and nationalist movements outside western Europe, under the guise of anti-communism, across what used to be called the Third World, but now the Global South.

The US dollar replaced the British pound as the world’s dominant currency and was tied to a gold standard as defined by the “Bretton Woods’” system of fixed exchange rates and its financial institutions.

Back then, US industrial output outpaced everyone. Its share of world GDP peaked in the late 1950s at over 40 per cent. Naturally, it ran budget and trade surpluses, not the least because its tax system was much more progressive back then. It used its own money to dominate the world, or at least those parts of the world outside the Soviet sphere of influence.

It could afford both bullets and butter while its middle and working classes flourished. It could bomb the rest of the world and still feed its own people. That, of course, was a healthy and well-rounded characteristic of every great empire worthy of its name throughout history: its ability to dominate and exterminate others while keeping its own people well-fed.

This was both a privilege and a burden. The privilege was that it didn’t have to worry about its balance of payments, which unlike everyone else, freed the US – at least for a time – from constraints on how it ran its (otherwise expensive) foreign policy, including wars, and its domestic economy.

The burden, however, is that, unlike all other currencies, it could not devalue the dollar. All other currencies would then also devalue and so the US would gain no advantage in its trade and payments positions.

Then came Richard Nixon. Whatever you say about the late president, he had some super-smart financial advisers who understood the global financial system, and he was wise enough to listen to them.

They convinced him that the US could keep its privileged position as issuer of the dominant reserve currency while freeing itself of the burden by getting off the gold standard, that is, ending the dollar’s convertibility with gold.

And so, in the early 1970s, he essentially told the world to stuff it, we have no more gold for you.

He also didn’t have much of a choice. The war in Vietnam was costing too much, and US balance-of-payments deficits were piling up throughout the 1960s, while the Bretton Woods system was breaking down and the US was depleting its gold reserves as a result.

It was a genius bet! The wonderful world of free-floating exchange rates arguably made the US empire even more powerful than ever over the decades by enabling it to run on other people’s money. The drawback, of course, is that deficit and debt are now probably permanent and irreversible features of the US economy.

Throughout history, successful empires never voluntarily gave up dominance. They only ended through a combination of external pressures and internal strife. Or, as historian Arnold Toynbee likes to say, civilisations – mostly based on empires – die by suicide, not murder, which is at most the coup de grace.

So, if you accept the US is an empire, but granted, a highly unusual one historically speaking, it’s simply out of the question that it will ever voluntarily follow the leftist solution and give up on escalating defence spending on which the empire is run.

The right will always win, even as it constantly complains about the evils of deficit and debt as an excuse to exercise the greatest theft of wealth and transfer of power from the masses to the very rich and powerful. Deficit and debt are the twin pillars of empire.

Unfortunately, they have enormously bad consequences on the living standards of its domestic population, and they will only get worse. Large swathes of the US population are impoverished and politically disenfranchised, and the future of young Americans is being mortgaged to run and maintain a militaristic empire not of their own choosing. Just like Rome, the empire is cannibalising the republic.

At some point, the US dollar will lose its lustre to the world, and when that time comes, the empire will end, too. We just don’t know when.

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head-post · 3 months

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16,000 Western sanctions have not ruined Russia’s economy — CBC

Over the past two years, the Russian government has managed to neutralise sanctions and curb inflation while investing nearly a third of its budget in defence spending, CBC reports.

The CBC quotes the Russian head of state Vladimir Putin:

They predicted a recession, failure, collapse. The entire economy has demonstrated resilience.

More than 16,000 sanctions have been imposed on Russia since 24 February 2022, according to US-based Castellum.AI. Some sanctions affect the economy more than others, with more than 11,000 targeting individuals and about 4,600 targeting legal entities, including financial institutions. Several sanctions hundred others target ships and aircraft. However, the latest iPhones and MacBooks are on Russian shelves today because the Russian government and businesses have been able to adapt.

In 2023, half of all of Russia’s oil and oil products were exported to China. Imports from China jumped more than 60 per cent, including shipments of cars and electronics. Trade between the two countries reached $240bn in two years, up 64%.