• Emerging Market Policy Makers Scramble To Tame Soaring Food Inflation As Unrest Looms
  Emerging Market Policy Makers Scramble To Tame Soaring Food Inflation As Unrest Looms

  SocGen’s market skeptic Albert Edwards pointed out last year why he started to panic about soaring food prices and how it may cause social unrest in emerging market economies. In July, Bloomberg acknowledged the same phenomenon, and now they point out politicians are searching for policies to neuter the effect of surging costs to thwart unrest. 

  Pandemic-driven hunger is sweeping the world as global food prices jumped 33% in August from a year ago. According to United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization data, vegetable oil, grains, and meat prices are surging. Extreme weather, record-high shipping costs, soaring fertilizer costs, labor shortages, and port congestion are also aiding in increasing prices. 

  

  As a reminder to readers, emerging markets are more vulnerable to food insecurity since working poor spend a far greater share of their income on food than those in the developed world. This makes it easier for large price swings to cause political pressure on elected officials to tame inflation.

  Politicians have one job and one job only: get re-elected. So amid a period of food inflation, it doesn’t come as a surprise that elected officials in India, Turkey, Europe, and other at-risk countries are requesting food wholesalers to slash prices and tweak trade rules to mitigate the impact on consumers. 

  

  “Governments can intervene and commit to supporting lower consumer prices for a while,” said Cullen Hendrix, non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington-based think tank.

  “But they can’t do it indefinitely.”

  Bloomberg must have read the script from Edwards’ warning last year. They said, “food inflation spurred more than two dozen riots across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, contributing to the Arab Spring uprisings ten years ago.” Already, there have been riots in Cuba and South Africa, areas that have extreme wealth inequality and soaring food inflation. 

  

  Alastair Smith, senior teaching fellow in global sustainable development at Warwick University in the U.K., said, “food is more expensive today than it has been for the vast majority of modern recorded history,” and that is a recipe for unrest. 

  Bloomberg lists some countries where politicians are preemptively adjusting policy to alleviate consumers:  

  • Tunisia: Crisis Management

  The ground zero for the Arab Spring protests, Tunisia has raw memories when it comes to food and politics. Just a few days after dismissing the government and suspending parliament in July, President Kais Saied urged producers and retailers to slash prices of selected produce.

  Red meat prices fell by about 10% almost instantly, with the nation’s main business lobby group Utica announcing unspecified cuts in prices for staples ranging from wheat flour, meat, to dairy, coffee and soft drinks. Fruit prices fell by as much as 20%, Tunisian media reported. Still, consumer prices overall rose at an annual rate of 6.2% in August.

  Then there’s the prospect of subsidy cuts. A debate is raging about a long-planned shift to focus spending on the neediest citizens as Tunisia tries to secure a new financing program from the International Monetary Fund. That will likely lead to reduced support for items likes flour and sugar as well as electricity for a substantial number of households.

  North African neighbors are also looking at subsidy cuts to help fix public finances. In Egypt, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi called for a rise in bread prices. Algerian bakers have already hiked prices of subsidized bread in an act of defiance amid a shortage of wheat or shrunk the size of loaves. In Morocco, authorities announced in July a plan that will see cuts to subsidies on sugar and low-cost wheat flour starting next year, subject to the approval of parliament.

  • Romania: Rethinking Trade

  The cost of bread is not just political for grain-importing countries in North Africa and the Middle East. Romania is Europe’s top exporter this season, and yet prices have soared at a double-digit pace. Overall inflation is set to be the fastest in eight years in 2021.

  The former eastern bloc country also has a dark history when it comes to feeding its population. Severe shortages were a hallmark of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu before he was overthrown and executed in 1989.

  Prime Minister Florin Citu’s government wants to cut dependence on imported processed food products as a way to reduce costs and narrow the trade deficit. He is already under pressure after the collapse of his coalition and faced a backlash over his answer to a question about the cost of a loaf of bread. “I don’t eat bread,” he answered.

  Romania earmarked 760 million euros ($896 million) for investment in farm storage and processing, Agriculture Minister Adrian Oros said. “We’re one of the biggest exporters of cereals and yet we import frozen bread products,” he said. As of this month, the government is waiting for farmers to submit eligible projects to tap the money over the next two years. However, while Romania’s agricultural potential is one of the biggest in Europe, it so far failed to use EU money to improve its local production.

  • India: Cutting Duties

  With one of the largest malnourished populations, India is also dispersing more aid. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is distributing 20.4 million tons of free rice and wheat, spending 672.7 billion rupees ($9.1 billion) on extra grains subsidies to reach potentially more than 800 million people.

  The country has also implemented trade measures to shield consumers from spikes in global prices. The government has cut duties on palm, soybean and sunflower oils as well as lentils.

  India isn’t the only nation to use trade to intervene in the food market. War-torn Syria has tightened imports of items ranging from cheese to cashew nuts to safeguard its dwindling foreign currency reserves for wheat purchases. Argentina and Bolivia have curbed exports of beef to keep prices at home in check, as has drought-hit Kazakhstan, which forbade exports of oat, rye and forage and added quotas for forage wheat.

  • Turkey: Market Action

  In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s popularity has slumped because of the economy and cost of living. Food inflation accelerated for a fourth month in August, to 29%.

  The government is making another attempt to control prices through threats of fines for businesses selling at elevated prices to an investigation into higher costs. Trade ministry officials are ordered to inspect allegations of excessive price increases in food products at wholesale markets in major Turkish cities, including Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

  Erdogan’s government is also working on some legislative changes to curb food inflation. From October, fresh fruit and vegetables that may have been wasted on farms will be brought to an online market, and an early weather warning system will be put in place to spot potential supply shocks. There’s also the prospect of tax incentives and more trade measures. Turkey removed import duties on grains and lentils on Sept. 8.

  • Russia: Losing Battle

  The world’s top grains exporter shows the limitation of adjusting trade rules to curb prices. Russia introduced a wheat export tax in February, but it’s also paying with a loss of market share. The nation’s wheat is no longer as competitive, derailing exports to Egypt, one of its biggest customers.

  At home, the measures haven’t helped curb food inflation, either. It’s hovering at a five-year high. Domestic wheat prices jumped in August to levels typically not seen this time of year as farmers and traders were reluctant to sell.

  If food inflation remains persistent and not “transitory,” measures to tame inflation may become exhausted, and unrest could follow. Perhaps, what happened in Cuba and South Africa is a taste for what’s to come. 
   

   

   

   

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/16/2021 – 02:45

• A Pandemic Of Authoritarianism…
  A Pandemic Of Authoritarianism…

  Authored by Alastair Crooke via The Strategicd Culture Foundation,

  What we see is an attempt to impose an idealised technical managerialism onto a complex, rather than pursue real solutions to problems…

  

  Change happens quickly and often unpredictably.

  Yet the unpredictable part seemingly is all about physics.

  Imagine, dropping one grain of sand after another onto a table. A pile soon develops. Eventually, just one grain starts an avalanche. Most of the time, it’s a small one. But sometimes the pile just slides and disintegrates entirely.

  Well, in 1987, three physicists began to play the sand pile game in their lab, seeking an answer to what it is that triggers the typical avalanche? After a huge number of tests, they found there is no typical number of grains that does it.

  To find out why such unpredictability should show up in their sand pile game, the physicists next coloured it according to its steepness. Where it was relatively flat and stable, they coloured it green; where steep and, in avalanche terms, ‘ready to go’, they coloured it red.

  They found that at the outset, the pile looked mostly green, but that, as the pile grew, the green became infiltrated with ever more red. With more grains, the scattering of red danger fingers grew until a dense skeleton of red instability ran through the pile. Here then was a clue to its peculiar behaviour: a grain falling on a red spot can, by domino-like action, cause sliding at other nearby red spots.

  

  Afghanistan was intended to be a showcase for western technical managerialism – an empirical petri-dish in which to prove the historical inevitability of technocracy. Its doctrine held that free markets somehow obviated the need for politics; that big data and ‘expert’ managerialism in markets (in markets extended to ‘everything’, that is), were the crux to re-setting the world in a better way (i.e. the Build Back Better meme). It was, in a word, postulated on data predictability.

  Existential political and social questions in this doctrine however, were to be nuanced through ‘Third Wayism’ (i.e. left unsolved – or fudged with easy answers, and easy money).

  Or … ‘regulated’ into compliance. The answer to social problematics was Cloud Computing of mass data. With enough input on past human choices, it is believed that experts can precisely predict human behaviour, which then can be ‘nudged’ in the direction that our élites wish it to go. Nudge behavioural psychology, of course, is about control – not active thinking.

  Yet unpredictably, this ‘world class’ managerial team in Kabul, so consumed by the notion of technocracy and mass data management, produced a project so rotten and corrupt (gaming the system) that it collapsed in eleven days.

  Many Americans and Europeans have barely recovered from the shock, and remain in denial.

  So, back to the sand pile: When the red spots come to riddle the sand pile, the consequences of the next grain become fiendishly unpredictable, the physicists discovered. It might trigger only a few tumblings, or it might instead set off a cataclysmic chain reaction involving millions. The sand pile seemed to have configured itself into a hypersensitive and peculiarly unstable condition, in which the next falling grain could trigger a response of any size whatsoever.

  Physics is saying we have systemic instability at a certain point of accumulation. Our technocrats deny it, and therefore will be unable to foresee even such a possibility. Their creed is the model.

  There are many subtleties and twists in the story, but the basic message is simple: The peculiar and exceptionally unstable organization of the critical state does indeed seem to explain why our highly complex world, at large, seems so susceptible to unpredictable upheavals. So much for AI and big data’s predictions – In the end, it was the landing of the Taliban ‘red grain’ that triggered an unpredicted, lightning cascade.

  The question must be: Will this trigger any chain reaction?

  Maybe not, yet there are several other ‘fingers of instability’ in the western sand pile which should be coloured ‘grain red’, and – judged in avalanche terms – may be poised to cascade.

  One such is the ‘vaccination’ (or gene therapy): The mRNA ‘vaccine’ doesn’t stop infection, nor does it stop the spread of the virus. A fully vaccinated person can catch the virus and spread it to others. There’s new evidence that double-vaxxed individuals build up huge viral loads in their noses and sinuses, causing them to become super-spreaders, and infect others. The unvaccinated therefore, have as much to fear in terms of catching the disease from the vaccinated as the other way around.

  Israel is providing a useful case study in the effectiveness – or lack thereof – of vaccines. Israel is one of the most heavily vaxxed countries in the world, with nearly 80% of the population fully vaccinated and almost 100% of the elderly. But now Israel is experiencing a massive increase in infections (and of serious cases), mainly among the fully vaxxed.

  There are ample reasons not to receive countless millions of mRNA spike-proteins into one’s circulatory system – including being recovered from Covid, and having stronger antibody protection than the vaccinated. Yet, the latter are being treated as lepers. And governments, like that of PM Draghi in Italy, continue trying to impose ever stringent vaccine mandates and other forms of authoritarian control. ‘Pandemic authoritarianism’ will do nothing to slow the spread of the disease. It may even adversely repercuss – as it has in Israel – to create a graver problem. What it will do however, is to tear an already tense society apart – particularly when set against the background of deteriorating economies.

  It is all reminiscent of the managerialist control efforts of an earlier ‘war’ (the equally failed) Great War On Terror, launched in the wake of 9/11, when a different, yet supposedly, ‘morally justified’ form of mass public control and surveillance was instituted – with the wider, awkward facts of counter-terrorism policy simply edited out from an already anxiety-ridden and de-sensitised audience.

  Today, there is an ongoing debate about whether we are going to ‘beat’ Covid in the way the general public conceives of these things. Scientists – not the ones you hear most from – always made clear that vaccines would not stop Covid in its tracks if, like other similar such viruses, the latter mutated into something more dangerous, and transmissible.

  The latter would constitute a variant which vaccination might actually accelerate, in a process known as antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) (on which the jury is still out). There is a popular misconception that – at some critical threshold of vaccination – Covid just ‘goes away’. The science however, (Draghi aside) suggests that a happy outcome arguably will only happen were new variants to become milder, like a ‘flu.

  In Afghanistan, where a ‘managerialist’ Pentagon had for 20 years, until the very eleventh hour, one General after another, repeating the mantra lie that all was fine: Plenty of ‘progress’ evident in Afghanistan. ‘Progress’ always was there – until it wasn’t. Until the state’s collapse. It was in essence a defeat driven by data addiction, at the expense of the ‘real’.

  So, in this other ‘field’ of Covid, we find the similar approach: Vaccine ‘progress’ will be achieved, if not with two, then three, and now four shots (in Israel) – until it isn’t. And with that, another ‘grain’ will settle on a red finger of instability.

  This issue is doubly pertinent, because just as Covid is not ‘sorted’, neither is the economy.  Anyone with a smattering of economics, might have also seen in advance that QE would never achieve its key goals. It is the quintessence of high tech (financial) managerialism. Central banks may keep saying they have achieved their goals (like the Generals calling ‘progress’ in Afghanistan), but the slump in productivity and the rise in inflation, and the shift to a reductive gig economy, all make it abundantly clear this is wishful thinking. It seems, we are now told that only trillion-dollar fiscal spends can halt the rot … Or, like vaccines, potentially with more and more shots, though possible ADE makes infections increase. Again, real solutions are edited out.

  The Telegraph’s International Business Editor, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, sees another red-grain finger of instability running through the sand pile:

  “Germany’s long-simmering anger with the European Central Bank (ECB) is again coming to the boil. It is hard to justify perennial [QE] and negative rates when German inflation is near 4pc – and rising. Political realities are forcing the ECB … to prepare for bond tapering sooner than it wants … in order to head off a bust-up with Europe’s anchor power [Germany].

  “[This means] it will have to start pulling away the shield that has protected the high-debt Club Med states from market forces for almost seven years, and that has conveniently covered their entire borrowing requirements under the cloak of “monetary policy”. It is this monetary tightening in conjunction with parallel moves by the U.S. Federal Reserve that poses the chief risk to overheated global asset markets, not the virus’ Delta variant.

  What is different this time [from past German grumblings], is that inflation can be felt everywhere – gefühlte Inflation – and parts of the German economy are patently overheating … German irritation should not be underestimated: The German Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) this week published an extraordinary paper, more or less alleging that ECB governors from the high-debt states are exploiting QE in order to bail out their own insolvent governments – and doing so in violation of EU treaty law”.

  Events are nearing the point where Germany must either challenge this process, or accept that it has lost control of the Euro, and together with other northern ‘frugal’ Euro-states, pull out.

  The ramifications deriving from the paradigmatic blow given by the Taliban to the Western technocratic vision; to Europe at its sudden discovery that America does not have Europe’s back; to inflation felt everywhere; to the QE impasse (that interest rates above 2% would kill the western economy); to geopolitical rejection of the western liberal model – arguably all these run through what happens next with Covid, and the mass resort to the imposition of ‘virtuous’ authoritarianism.

  There is, in the end, nothing more than one common single thread running through all these fingers of instability: It is the attempt to impose an idealised technical managerialism onto a complex, critical-state reality, rather than pursue real solutions to problems – and the resort to behavioural control psychology to conceal the rot beneath, and compel compliance.

  So, we are now poised at a critical state of what Paul McCulley calls ‘stable disequilibrium’ – where all actors work to maximize their personal outcome, and reduce their exposure to fingers of instability. But the longer the game runs, says McCulley, the more likely it is to end in a violent avalanche, as the fingers of instability have more time to build, and, eventually, the state of stable disequilibrium goes critical.

  Which finger goes first? Unpredictability again – any grain falling on a red spot can, by domino-like action, cause sliding at other nearby red spots.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/16/2021 – 02:00

• Brandon Smith: How States And Communities Can Fight Back Against Biden's COVID Tyranny
  Brandon Smith: How States And Communities Can Fight Back Against Biden’s COVID Tyranny

  Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

  A war is coming. I have heard it argued that this war must be avoided; that it is “exactly what the establishment wants.” I disagree. I think globalists like those at the World Economic Forum certainly want enough chaos to provide cover for the implementation of their global “Reset” agenda, but they don’t want a full blown rebellion. They only want events in which the outcome is controllable or predictable – They do not want a massive organized resistance that might surprise them.

  

  Ultimately it doesn’t matter because the war is already at our doorstep. A person has two choices: Fight or be enslaved. There is no third option. There is no walking away. There is no hiding from it and there is no passive solution to it.

  Joe Biden’s recent declaration of a federal level nationwide vaccine mandate has all but ensured that conflict is inevitable. Why?  Because it is the first major step towards a two-tier society in which the unvaxxed are cut out of the economy. The next step? Forced vaccinations under threat of fines and imprisonment, the threat of confiscation of one’s children, or vaccination at the barrel of a gun. Needless to say, this was not at all surprising to me. In December of last year I published an article titled ‘If You Thought 2020 Was Bad, Watch What Happens In 2021’, stating that:

  “There will then be a major push to require medical passports proving a person is not infected to enter into any public place. This means submission to 24/7 contact tracing or getting a new vaccine whenever ordered to. Basically, your life will be under the total control of state or federal governments if you want to have any semblance of returning to your normal life…..New mutations of COVID-19 will be conveniently found every year from now on, meaning the public will have to get new vaccinations constantly, and medical tyranny will never go away unless people take an aggressive stand.”

  I have also mentioned often in the past that Biden WOULD institute federal level vaccines mandates and possibly even Level 4 lockdowns. We are not to the point yet of lockdowns by executive order, but the Biden Administration is trying to dive headlong into the control agenda with an executive order stating that all businesses in the US with 100 employees or more must require those employees to provide proof of vaccination or demand employees show a negative covid test weekly (which will be impossible for most people). In other words, the Orwellian rise of vaccine passports has officially begun in the US.

  Not only was Biden’s announcement an utter violation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, it was also condescending and vitriolic towards Americans who refuse to become guinea pigs for the experimental and untested vaccines. Biden suggested that the establishment “Has been patient, but their patience is wearing thin.”

  I have to say, Biden is in for a shock if he thinks we care.

  I can’t cover every single lie and logical fallacy in Biden’s speech because that is not the purpose of this article. I can only once again point out some very basic logical conclusions and pieces of scientific evidence which debunk most of Biden’s nonsensical blather. Since he seems to be so interested in why we are “hesitant”, let’s go through this ONE MORE TIME, shall we…

  1) The median death rate of covid according to almost every single medical study and every official government tally remains at 0.26% of the infected. Given that around 40% of all covid deaths happen among people in nursing homes with preexisting conditions, it is likely that the actual death rate is much lower. But let’s just say that it is in fact 0.26% – Why is there any need to impose draconian medical controls over a virus that 99.7% of people will easily survive? Why not create a support fund for the 0.26% of people that are truly at risk so they can stay home while the rest of us get on with regular life?

  2) Throughout the course of the pandemic in the US the largest percentage of hospital ICU beds that have been occupied by covid patients is 17%. That is the PEAK of covid in the ICUs. For the past few months the percentage has been closer to an average of 8% or less. This is according to the government’s own stats, which the CDC now buries instead of posting openly for easy viewing by the public. So, when the corporate media or Biden claims that the ICUs are “overwhelmed” by covid patients, this is a lie

  A new nationwide study of electronic hospital records on covid patients also shows nearly half of covid “hospitalizations” are actually people that are asymptomatic, not deathly sick people as the media often portrays.

  3) The experimental mRNA covid vaccines have NO long term testing to prove their safety over the long term. At least none that has ever been released to the public. The average vaccine is tested for 10-15 years before it is approved and released for use in humans. The covid vaccines were rolled out in mere months. Again, there is NO PROOF whatsoever that the covid vaccines are safe in the long term, and there are already a number of examples of lack of safety in the short term. Why would we trust an experimental protein spike vax that has nowhere near the same testing history as the majority of other normal vaccines?

  4) Multiple studies in nations with high rates of vaccination, including a recent study from Israel, prove that there is no such thing as a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.” In fact, 60% of infection cases in Israel are actually fully vaccinated people. Furthermore, Israel has found that vaccinated people are 13-27 times more likely to get infected than people with natural immunity, and they are 8 times more likely to end up in ICU.

  These findings reinforce data released a month ago out of Massachusetts, where 5100 covid infections were fully vaccinated people and 80 of them died. In other words, the vaccines don’t work so great, especially when compared to natural immunity.

  5) Data from the Public Health England and the NHS shows that the vaccinated and unvaccinated have almost identical rate of infectiousness. In other words, a vaccinated person is almost as likely to give you covid as an unvaxxed person.

  Now, let’s present some rational questions in the face of this irrational covid circus of fear:

  If the experimental vaccines actually work, then how are unvaccinated people a threat to vaccinated people and why should unvaccinated people be forced to take the jab?

  If the vaccines don’t work, then, again, why should ANYONE be forced to take an untested and unreliable vax?

  Slow-Joe argues that the vaccinations are “safe and effective” against covid, but only seconds later in the same breath he claims that “unvaxxed people are a threat to vaccinated people.” He promotes the lie that this is a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”, then says the vaccinated are in danger. Even a child could pick up on the inherent contradictions in Biden’s claims.

  As always, the issue of “mutations” is brought up in defense of 100% vaccination campaigns. But if “mutations” are the concern, then why isn’t the government addressing the fact that a vaccinated population is just as likely if not more likely to create mutant variants of a virus when compared to unvaccinated people? Why are the unvaxxed being singled out as the supposed menace to society?

  The biggest question is – Why should anyone submit to covid mandates at all? Mandates are not laws, they are color of law restrictions without legal merit. The bottom line? Unconstitutional orders are not to be followed. This leads us to the state and local strategies for fighting back against the federal passport mandates. Let’s get into it:

  Simply Ignore The Mandates And Carry On With Life As Normal

  How does Biden plan to enforce these mandates on businesses? If they refuse to go along to get along, what can he do about it? Who would he send to threaten or punish these businesses? Who would be dumb enough to follow that order? Does he plan to send the IRS, the FBI, the Health Department? Someone has to do it, right? And what happens when a business is threatened and a crowd of conservatives in the community come to its defense? What happens when local and state law enforcement get in the way of federal agencies? What is Biden going to do about that? Answer – Nothing, at least not anything direct.

  The Indirect Method Works Both Ways

  If Biden is confronted with solid resistance to the passports in communities and states, there is really only one path he has left, which is indirect pressure through economic penalties. Biden WILL attempt to force states to comply by cutting of federal funds and tax dollars. This idea might terrify some people because there is a percentage of the population in every state that relies on federal EBT and other programs for their survival. However, the federal government can be punished in the same way just as easily by the states. Let me explain…

  Confiscate Federal Lands And Resources

  Any state that is cut off from its rightful share of tax dollars can easily claim domain over federal lands and the resources on them. It is the EPA restrictions on these lands that have been unfairly used to kill numerous industries across the country. With proper management, these resources can be used to revitalize state economies and offset any federal funds lost.

  Offer Businesses Federal Tax Exemptions If They Relocate

  Red states can also punish the federal government by stopping IRS tax collections within their borders and turning the tables on Biden. Numerous businesses would be itching to escape Biden’s high tax rates and would bring jobs and wealth into red states, leaving the conformist blue states in the dust.

  Boot Federal Agencies Out Of The State Or County

  Local law enforcement is refusing to enforce mandates in many places, which is a good start, but eventually sheriffs and communities may have to remove federal presence entirely in order to stop violations if civil liberties.

  Offer Safe Havens For Military Personnel That Go AWOL To Avoid Forced Vaccination

  A large percentage of soldiers say they will not comply with federal vax requirements and this is completely understandable given the evidence I just presented above. It would be to the benefit of red states to offer protection for soldiers that leave the military based on the principle of health autonomy. Perhaps they could even help in forming state militias…

  Reduce Restrictions On Medical Treatment Facilities – Start Vax Free Clinics

  30% to 40% of medical professional depending on the state say they will not take the experimental vax, and they are willing to lose their jobs in the process. Why not get these people with valuable medical skills to come to red states and counties and let them set up clinics outside of suffocating federal regulations? This may even reduce the prices on medical care in many cases.

  Form Trade Relationships With Other Free States

  Conservatives and constitutionalists need to organize and unify, and the best way to do this is to start with trade. It is likely that Biden will attempt to interfere with imports and the supply chain when it comes to red states, so they will need to stick together economically in order to prevent disruptions to the availability of goods. We need to rethink how states interact with each other and build more independent production and trade instead of relying on overseas suppliers. We will also need commodity backed banks with commodity backed currencies, because the buying power of the US dollar isn’t going to last much longer anyway.

  Unify For Defense

  If Biden and the globalists continue to push for medical tyranny in states and counties that do not want it, there will eventually be calls for secession. There will also be attempts by blue states to restrict the travel of people from red states using covid passport checkpoints. We all know this is coming. All conservative counties should be organizing localized security through public militias, and state governments should be thinking along these lines as well. If there’s one thing authoritarians HATE more than anything else it is suffering the existence of free neighbors. They will try to stop us from being free, and we must be ready to answer their violence with our own.

  Finally, I would like to speak to Joe Biden directly, since Joe was so keen on personally addressing us:

  Joe, let me clarify this in the simplest terms possible so that you can grasp it – You are not important. You are not a lawmaker and you are not a ruler, you are an employee of the American people, that is all your are supposed to be. And though you may wish to be a dictator, that’s not going to happen. We will not allow it. I realize that you are a puppet and that your globalist handlers make most of your decisions and write most of your statements for you, so you can pass this message on to them as well: WE WILL NOT COMPLY. It’s not going to happen. Get used to the idea.

  We are peaceful people and always have been. Our tolerance of your trespasses thus far is proof of that. But do not mistake our peacefulness as weakness. If you keep coming after us, you will regret it. We will teach you an important lesson in humility; a lesson you and your elitist friends sorely need and will not enjoy. This is a promise.

  *  *  *

  If you would like to support the work that Alt-Market does while also receiving content on advanced tactics for defeating the globalist agenda, subscribe to our exclusive newsletter The Wild Bunch Dispatch.  Learn more about it HERE.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 23:40

• These Will Be The 20 Fastest Growing Jobs In The Next Decade
  These Will Be The 20 Fastest Growing Jobs In The Next Decade

  The employment landscape is constantly shifting. While agricultural jobs played a big role in the 19th century, Visual Capitalist’s Jenna Ross points out that a large portion of U.S. jobs today are in administration, sales, or transportation. So how can job seekers identify the fastest growing jobs of the future?

  The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects there will be 11.9 million new jobs created from 2020 to 2030, an overall growth rate of 7.7%. However, some jobs have a growth rate that far exceeds this level. In this graphic, we use BLS data to show the fastest growing jobs—and fastest declining jobs—and how much they each pay.

  

  The Top 20 Fastest Growing Jobs

  We used the dataset that excludes occupations with above average cyclical recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, jobs such as motion picture projectionists, ticket takers, and restaurant cooks were removed. Once these exclusions were made, the resulting list reflects long-term structural growth.

  Here are the fastest growing jobs from 2020 to 2030, along with the number of jobs that will be created and the median pay for the position.

  

  Wind turbine service technicians have the fastest growth rate, with solar photovoltaic (solar panel) installers taking the third slot. The rapid growth is driven by demand for renewable energy. However, because these are relatively small occupations, the two roles will account for about 11,000 new jobs collectively.

  Nine of the top 20 fastest growing jobs are in healthcare or related fields, as the baby boomer population ages and chronic conditions are on the rise. Home health and personal care aides, who assist with routine healthcare tasks such as bathing and feeding, will account for over one million new jobs in the next decade. This will be almost 10% of all new jobs created between 2020 and 2030. Unfortunately, these workers are the lowest paid on the list.

  Computer and math-related jobs are also expected to see high growth. The BLS expects strong demand for IT security and software development, partly because of the increase in people that are working from home.

  The Top 20 Fastest Declining Jobs

  Structural changes in the economy will cause some jobs to decline quite quickly. Here are the top 20 jobs where employment is expected to decline the fastest over the next decade.

  

  Eight of the top 20 declining jobs are in office and administrative support. This could be cause for concern, given this category currently makes up almost 13% of employment in the U.S.—the largest of any major category. Jobs involved in the production of goods and services, as well as sales jobs, are also seeing declines.

  In all cases, automation is likely the biggest culprit. For example, software that automatically converts audio to text will reduce the need for typists.

  While the fastest declining jobs typically fall within the lower salary range, there is one outlier. Nuclear power reactor operators, who earn a salary of over $100,000, will see employment decline at a steep rate of -33%. No new nuclear plants have opened since the 1990s, and nuclear power faces steep competition from renewable energy sources.

  Warning: Education Required

  As the composition of employment shifts, it eliminates some jobs and creates others. For instance, while production jobs are declining, new opportunities exist for “computer numerically controlled tool programmers.” These workers develop programs to control the automated equipment that processes materials.

  However, while many of the fastest growing jobs are higher paying, they typically also require advanced education.

  

  Seventeen of the top 20 fastest growing jobs have a median salary higher than $41,950, which is the median salary for all jobs in total. Most also require post-secondary schooling. These opportunities are replacing jobs that only required a high school diploma.

  With tuition costs soaring relative to inflation, this could create challenges for displaced workers or young people entering the workforce.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 23:20

• FDA Says Authorized COVID-19 Vaccines Still Effective, Boosters May Not Be Needed
  FDA Says Authorized COVID-19 Vaccines Still Effective, Boosters May Not Be Needed

  Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday said that agency-authorized COVID-19 vaccines currently provide protection against death and severe disease and may not require additional boosters, coming after vaccine maker Pfizer submitted data saying that its vaccine’s efficacy is eroding over time.

  In findings released online, the FDA analyzed data submitted by Pfizer as part of their request to authorize a booster shot, or a third dose, of the vaccine to individuals aged 16 and older in the United States.

  The agency did not make a definitive statement on whether to support booster shots at this time, adding that regulators have not reviewed the available data.

  “There are many potentially relevant studies, but FDA has not independently reviewed or verified the underlying data or their conclusions,” the FDA wrote (pdf) in a 23-page document published online.

  “Some of these studies, including data from the vaccination program in Israel, will be summarized during the September 17, 2021 [Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee] meeting.”

  Some studies, they said, have indeed shown the Pfizer mRNA vaccine has waning efficacy against the Delta variant or symptomatic infection. However, other studies have not, the FDA said.

  “Overall, data indicate that currently U.S.-licensed or authorized COVID-19 vaccines still afford protection against severe COVID-19 disease and death in the United States,” FDA researchers wrote.

  

  Biden administration officials late last month said in a news conference that they are aiming for a Sept. 20 rollout for boosters, although they cautioned that their plan is contingent on whether the doses are approved by the FDA. A panel of outside observers will review the FDA’s report on Friday and will analyze the Pfizer analysis and other information to determine whether boosters are needed for the general population.

  If the panel recommends boosters, the FDA could distribute the doses within a few days.

  In August, the FDA fully approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for people aged 16 and older. Vaccines made by Moderna, which uses mRNA technology like Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson are still being distributed under the agency’s emergency use authorization.

  During its presentation to the FDA, which was uploaded on the agency’s website, Pfizer argued that data from the United States and Israel suggests its mRNA vaccine efficacy is dropping over time, warranting the need for boosters.

  “Real-world data from Israel and the United States suggest that rates of breakthrough infections are rising faster in individuals who were vaccinated earlier in the vaccination campaigns compared to those who have been vaccinated more recently,” Pfizer said.

  For its conclusion, the German-based pharmaceutical giant cited a study from healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente that suggested protection against COVID-19 infection dropped from 88 percent in the first month of getting the second dose to 47 percent after five months of inoculation.

  Earlier this week, a study that included two departing FDA officials said they do not recommend booster shots and said that possible side effects from them could outweigh the benefits.

  “Even if boosting were eventually shown to decrease the medium-term risk of serious disease, current vaccine supplies could save more lives if used in previously unvaccinated populations,” the authors wrote.

  Pfizer has not responded yet to a request for comment.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 23:01

• Tesla Repurposes Native American Casino To Build Showroom, Skirt New Mexico Auto Sales Laws
  Tesla Repurposes Native American Casino To Build Showroom, Skirt New Mexico Auto Sales Laws

  Nothing says ESG investing and furthering humanitarian causes more than exploiting Native American land to open up a car showroom and duck local regulations. Just ask Tesla.

  The automaker reportedly has opened a sales, service, and delivery center on Native American land in New Mexico in order to get around legislation that bars automakers from selling vehicles directly to consumers, according to a new report from Insider. 

  Nambé Pueblo in Santa Fe County is exempt from the law and, as a result, consumers can test Teslas on-site and owners can bring their vehicles there for service. New Mexico has 1,846 registered Teslas, with 361 in Santa Fe County, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican. 

  

  It is the first Tesla delivery and service center in the state. Prior to it opening, residents of Santa Fe would have to take their vehicles to El Paso, Texas, which is about 300 miles away. 

  Tesla repurposed a defunct casino to open the center. 

  “We are proud to be the first tribe to have Tesla on Indian lands,” Phillip Perez, the governor of Nambé Pueblo, said. He continued: “It was a cooperative effort between Tesla and the pueblo. It didn’t take long to come to terms. We are doing our part to protect Mother Earth,” the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.  

  A New Mexico-based Tesla owners club has been clamoring for a sales and service center in the state since 2015.

  The center “changes everything for owners” and is a “gigantic thing for New Mexico,” Brian Dear, President of the club, said. He continued: “The comparison up until now is to get your car fixed, you had to think of hotel reservations and possibly a multiday stay. You didn’t get a reservation for Thursday or Friday because they may not get to your car and then you would have to stay into the next week.”

  Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, was critical of the current laws in place prohibiting direct sales. He told the SFNM: “These are licenses to print money. If you have the Ford dealership in Santa Fe or Albuquerque or Las Cruces, you’re guaranteed to have a nice living because [customers] have to come to you; they can’t go anywhere else. It’s not exactly a monopoly because there could be two dealerships in one community, but they limit the franchises so that they maintain highly profitable relationships with their franchisors.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 22:40

• Evergrande Suspends Trading In All Bonds
  Evergrande Suspends Trading In All Bonds

  Earlier today we pointed out that in what can (obviously) only be a remarkable coincidence, China’s largest, and most systematically important real estate developer, China Evergrande (and its $300+ billion in debt), collapsed on the 13th anniversary of Lehman’s bankruptcy filing, when Beijing told Evergrande’s creditor banks that the insolvent company, which recently hired Houlihan Lokey as bankruptcy advisor, would not pay interest on its debt next week, nor would it repay principal, in effect blessing the coming default.

  And yet there was some trace of hope, because as Forte Securities trader Keith Temperton said “The Asian banks will get hit hard if there’s a default, but then there will be a 10-year recovery process. The market’s getting a hang of it. The way they’ve managed the news flow seems quite clever. They haven’t let a swathe of bad news at once” giving investors and creditors some hope that the money could still miraculously reappear.

  Not any more: in an exchange filing on Thursday, Evergrande’s main unit (onshore real estate) said that trading in all of its onshore bonds would be suspended on Sept 16 to ensure fair information disclosure following a downgrade to A from AA (which in China is viewed as the lowest investment grade rating) by China Chengxin International, to wit:

  In order to ensure fair information disclosure and protect the interests of investors, after the company’s application, all existing corporate bonds of Evergrande Real Estate will be suspended for one trading day from the opening of the market on September 16, 2021, and will be opened on September 17, 2021.

  Since the market resumes trading, the above-mentioned bond trading methods will be adjusted from the date of resumption of trading. Among them: (1) The trading methods of “15 Evergrande 03”, “19 Evergrande 01”, and “19 Evergrande 02” have been adjusted to only adopt quotation, inquiry and agreement trading methods since the date of resumption of trading. Shanghai Branch of Registration and Settlement Co., Ltd. provides settlement by transaction; (2) “20 Evergrande 01”, “20 Evergrande 02”, “20 Evergrande 03”, “20 Evergrande 04”, “20 Evergrande 05” The trading methods of “21 Evergrande 01” and “21 Evergrande 01” have been adjusted to only adopt the negotiated block trading method since the resumption of trading, and the original net price pricing method will be maintained.

  

  The press release ends with the hilarious “Investors are kindly requested to pay attention to investment risks.” Well… we sure can be certain they are paying attention now.

  It wasn’t clear why the company would need to suspend trading in all bonds for an entire day to “ensure” that everyone was aware that the company’s bonds were no longer rated as investment grade in China (they should be rated as default but we’ll cross that bridge in time) when just a simple press release would suffice.

  Instead, what the company did say is that the bonds would resume trading on Sept. 17, and the trading method for some of the securities will change to only allow block trades even as the previous pricing method will remain.

  Despite the company’s promise that its bonds will resume trading, we somehow doubt it and instead we expect that in the coming months, the frozen bonds will be equitized as part of China’s largest ever debt for equity exchange. Come to think of it, the rest of the market doesn’t believe it either with Evergrande stock plunging another 7% (Zeno’s paradox means the company can keep falling at double digits every day in perpetuity) and as of Thursday Evergrande’s only traded security was at the lowest price since Oct 2011, on its way to 0.

  

  Meanwhile, as the book on Evergrande’s story closes, the company’s imminent default and the sudden collapse in China’s property market which as we noted last night saw a 90% crash in land sales values in August…

  

  … have led to a dire outlook for the nation’s developers and their creditors. As Bloomberg’s Richard Frost writes, Country Garden, the nation’s largest developer by sales, plunged 16% in the past two days, while Gemdale slumped 12% as a  gauge of property shares in Shanghai tumbled almost 5% in the period, with valuations firmly below book value. Following the news, Guangzhou R&F Properties drops 10.8% to the lowest since Dec. 2008 while Greentown China -9.1%. At this point, one can safely call it a crisis.

  As contagion spread, risk is also hitting banks whose shares are suffering their fastest selloff in seven weeks. Furthermore, as discussed yesterday ahead of the coming Evergrande debt crisis, lenders in China are accepting the highest rates in four years to swap their dollars for yuan, a sign they may be preparing for what Mizuho calls a “liquidity squeeze in crisis mode.”

  

  The pain will only get worse. China’s government is unlikely to ease up on its tough curbs toward the property market given its current priorities of promoting common prosperity and deterring excessive risk-taking, according to Macquarie. The property sector will be a “main growth headwind” for next year, although policy makers may loosen restrictions to defend 5% GDP expansion, Macquarie analysts wrote in a Wednesday note.

  Adding to the pain, contagion concerns from Evergrande is making it more difficult for Chinese developers to refinance, despite a “critical” need to do so, according to Citigroup. Bond issuance is trickier onshore due to lower demand, and offshore due to increasing costs, they wrote in a Wednesday note. As we showed earlier this week, yields on China’s high-yield dollar have exploded rose to 13.7%, the highest since last year’s March market meltdown.

  

  Finally, always last to the party, the rating agencies chimed in, with Fitch saying that smaller banks exposed to Evergrande or other weaker developers may face “significant” increases in non-performing loans in the event of a default, while S&P downgraded Evergrande deeper into junk, saying the developer’s liquidity and funding access “are shrinking severely.”  

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 22:20

• Canada's Conservatives Are Using Soaring Inflation To Help Defeat Trudeau
  Canada’s Conservatives Are Using Soaring Inflation To Help Defeat Trudeau

  As Liberal PM Justin Trudeau sees his chances of winning another term during the upcoming snap election dwindle, his opponents, the Conservatives, have successfully used Canada’s runaway inflation as a cudgel to slam Trudeau and his Liberals for mismanaging the economy. They’re calling it “Liberal inflation”, and it looks like the term is sticking.

  

  According to Bloomberg, affordability has been one of the top issues ahead of the snap vote which is set for Sept. 20. Rising costs for housing, cars and gasoline have greatly benefited conservatives while accusing the incumbent Liberal government of stoking inflation with its debt-financed spending.

  

  Trudeau’s campaign won’t be helped by a 4.1% inflation reading for August, the highest since 2003. The Conservatives pounced on the number as soon as it hit Wednesday morning.

  “The numbers released today make it clear that under Justin Trudeau, Canadians are experiencing an affordability crisis,” Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole said in a statement.

  While cost-of-living issues are a regular of feature of Conservative election campaigns, it’s become a central part of the narrative this year as the party seeks to take advantage of polls showing the issue is on voters’ minds. A recent survey by Abacus Data showed 38% of Canadians believe reducing their cost of living was a key factor impacting their vote, making it the top issue by far.

  For many Canadians, inflation concerns are closely linked to housing affordability, which has worsened substantially over the last decade, but particularly since the start of the pandemic. Buying a home has gotten harder and more expensive almost everywhere in the country, not unlike the US.

  To be sure, much of the criticism is hype – O’Toole’s party isn’t offering up many concrete solutions to ease price pressures. An obvious way to curtail inflation, for example, would be to curb government spending but the Conservative platform’s fiscal projections don’t differ that much from those put forward by the Liberals.

  Many aspects of the inflationary pressures facing Canadians are part of a global trend. Choked up supply chains have led to shortages, while a lack of new supply has led to an explosion in housing prices.

  Like their counterparts in the US, Canada’s Liberals continue to insist that the inflationary pressures are “transitory”.

  And while they have tried to avoid talking about the issue, Trudeau was finally forced to mention it during a speech earlier this week.

  “We recognize that families are concerned about affordability,” Trudeau said Wednesday when asked about the latest inflation reading at a campaign stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He added that his government would continue to support Canadians through the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.

  There’s no question that this is making Trudeau politically vulnerable. The governing Liberals have been polling in low 30%-support levels for most of the campaign, well short of what would be required to gain majority control of the House of Commons, which was Trudeau’s goal when he called the “snap” election.

  Instead, not unlike David Cameron’s Brexit gambit, we could see the decision backfire, restoring power to the Conservatives while shunting the Liberals back into the opposition.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 22:00

• An ESG Backfire Conundrum Is Triggering A Global Energy Crisis
  An ESG Backfire Conundrum Is Triggering A Global Energy Crisis

  By Larry McDonald, author of the Bear Traps Report

  Ladies and Gentlemen, the VIX is up 20% since August 31 with stocks 2% off the highs and only 37 new highs on the NYSE Tuesday. 

  One thing is for sure: markets have stopped, at least for 2 weeks, going up on good news. Think CPI, soft in September (stocks sell-off), HOT CPI in June (stocks rip higher). This is meaningful. The market is pricing in two Bank of England rate hikes in 2022, 70+ hikes across Emerging Markets are expected over the next year and the Fed is still buying $120B a month of Treasuries and Mortgage-Backed Securities – all while promising no planned hikes until well into 2023-2024? The market is telling us the Fed will have a very hard time keeping up this sales pitch – especially with an ESG Backfire conundrum triggering a global energy crisis.

  Dollar at Key Level

  

  As we stressed last year in our commodity bull case, it is a Highly Orchestrated US Dollar Containment Strategy – let the other central banks lead this time. The fastest-growing emerging market countries – looking at the current rate hike path – see their expectations below. While the Fed still endlessly searches for “substantial progress” on inflation / jobs data: Looking out 12 Months – it is seventy-three 25bp hikes from EM central banks, twenty-four months: 101 hikes globally. Inflation risk is driving other central banks into pulling back accommodation, NOT the Fed so far. Unsustainable, the market is sending a message. We MUST listen.

  Risk – Reward is Extremely Poor Short Term

  

  With trouble on the way in Washington, pay-fors, debt ceiling, fiscal cliff – you are supposed to sell the S&P 500 here with a stop. The colossal divergence between Fed and RoW (rest of the world) central banks is unsustainable. The Fed desperately needs a fiscal boost, cannot afford a $1.5 to $2T fiscal cliff.

  US Fiscal Deficits

  • 2020: $3T
  • 2021: $3T
  • 2022: $1T???

  “Pay-Fors” Piling Up

  Ways and Means Committee – Pay Fors Piling Up – House Democrats this week are advancing through committee the tax provisions to pay for President Joe Biden’s economic agenda with the intention of completing work by Wednesday on “revenue raisers” worth some $2 trillion (Bloomberg), the media used to call these taxes. 

  S&P 500 New Highs – Smell to High Heaven

  

  New 52 Week Highs – one of the lowest marks since May. It makes little sense to chase stocks near the highs with smelly data like this, risk-reward is poor.

  Gas Black Swan in Europe 

  

  Dirt cheap natural gas has powered global manufacturing for a decade – NO more- ESG Backfire (see “Why One Bank Thinks ESG Could Trigger Hyperinflation”), colossal profit margin pressures – we count warnings from over 22 companies – GS now recommending gas consumers in Europe “protect themselves” from a winter black swan via buying out of the money calls – all after a 140% up move in gas prices.

  S&P 500: 20 and 50 Day Moving Averages – 20 Day Break

  

  When the S&P 500 has closed below the 20 day moving average, it has commonly led to tests of the 50 day moving average. The pattern worked once again on Tuesday, as the S&P 500 closed just above its 50 day after a selling-off throughout the day

  Buy High – Do NOT Buy Low

  Off 2% since August 20 – MSFT announced another $60b via buybacks, of course, they passed on the buybacks in Q2-Q3 last year with the stock at $180 in May 2020 ($303 today). Microsoft made its first corporate bond sale 12 years ago, now has $82B in debt, much issued in recent years, 10yrs ago MSFT (AAA at S&P) generated $24b in FCF, today it generates $56b/yr. over that period BBB yield went from 4.4% to 2.2%. net debt/equity negative every year. SPX companies repurchased close to $180B billion of shares in Q1 2021, +37% from Q4, and 2x the $90B in Q2 2020.. S&P 500 Buybacks are on pace $730B in 2021 vs $520B 2020 year-end.

  S&P 500 Covid Wedge

  

  The S&P 500 has been consolidating inside of a large wedge since the March 2020 bottom. Last week we broke below support and this week we have thus far failed at the same trend from below. 50 day support looks extra important, a gap-down below the 50 day overnight would be very bearish…

  US 10 Year Yield

  

  Pricing in a $2T fiscal cliff, bond investors are nervous – once the bill is passed in November, they will be sellers, uncertainty high next 45 days – US 10 year yields failed to break above the 1.38% level 3 times over the past months and are now falling below trend support after CPI inflation came-in relatively soft. In our view, inflation beneath the surface is more sustainable than the consensus believes.

  Median Inflation Creeping Higher 

  

  “I like to look at inflation data in a median sense (so rather than having one crazy category drive it all, we look at the center of the distribution, across 82 categories, equally weighted). On this metric, this CPI number was not low (here shown in 12-month space). The broadening is really quite a bit more important than what used car etc prices do month to month.” – with Jens Nordvig

  CPI Inflation Contribution

  

  Delta Cooling Hot CPI Sectors: “Larry – So we have a CPI miss driven by drop in used cars, air fares, and hotels likely due to delta.  Still gives enough room for Fed to delay rate hikes while talking up tapering, so delta normalization, global cases rolling over fairly hard, gets you a higher cpi trend looking forward.” CIO in CT.

  We agree here.

  Travel Impact on Soft CPI 

  “Global cases are plunging, nearly 6 billion jabs, if team Biden solves the covid problem, they have a colossal CPI problem.”

  Large CPI miss drivers, travel, and services – Airline fares down 9.1% MoM due to Delta-v (Covid).  The White House and the Transitory Message

  The White House will sell transitory very hard, they need large fiscal.

  “August CPI, most benign headline reading since January… but in a reversal from previous months the underlying trends were somewhat worse than the headline. The underlying trend many have focused on was about the same as previous months.”

  “Larry, What’s the deal with OER only rising 0.25%?  Moratoriums?” PM in NYC

  OER Owners Equivalent Rent Lags Housing Prices

  

  Although some expected a much larger jump in OER (Owners Equivalent Rent), the CPI component tends to lag housing prices. We see much higher OER (over 20% of CPI) in the coming months. The impact of the massive rise in US house prices has only just started to show up…

  Watch the $10T

  • Apple AAPL $2.5T
  • Microsoft MSFT $2.3T
  • Google GOOGL $1.9T
  • Amazon AMZN $1.8T
  • Facebook FB $1.1T
  • Tesla TSLA $0.75T

  *As of Q1 2021, 401(k) plans held an est $6.9T in assets, represented 1/5 of the $35T US retirement market. The Nasdaq 100 is worth $17-$18T vs. $1.5T in the XME Metals and Mining, XLE Energy ETFs combined. 

  Capital is Long Deflation Winners

  In our view, once inflation PCE normalizes off insane YoY base effects at a HIGHER plain than prior decades, $2 to $4T will come out of the NDX, into inflation hedges such as commodity exposed equities. Core CPI is close to 4.30% vs 2.00% from 2016-2019, if the new level is 2.7% to 3.7% 2021-2014, there are trillions of dollars in the wrong place.

  Bloomberg Commodity Index Surge

  

  To put the current commodity price rally into some context: in more than 50 years of data, the Bloomberg Commodity Spot Index has only settled above the current level during 20 torrid days between April and May 2011. One big difference between today and 2008 in commodity markets: policymakers and lawmakers have not (as yet) blamed hedge funds, speculators, and long-only funds for the price rally. And the CFTC hasn’t launched (yet) a nationwide investigation. And $6T in 2020-2021, 18% of GDP of fiscal deficits vs. $2T in 2009-2010 of 8% of GDP. Covid > Lehman.

  Bloomberg Dollar Index

  

  The soft CPI print means the Fed is less likely to be hawkish at the September meeting. The US Dollar is now falling below recent trend support. This is supportive for non-US risk assets and commodities.

  The Fed continues to run QE at $120B per month with PPI at 8.3% and CPI at 5.3%. In 2019, the Fed cuts rates 3 times with unemployment at 3.5%. USD containment.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 21:40

• Propane Prices Soar As Inventory Concerns Mount Ahead Of Winter
  Propane Prices Soar As Inventory Concerns Mount Ahead Of Winter

  Spot propane prices at Mont Belvieu, Texas, have reached their highest levels since 2014 ahead of the winter season on fears of low inventory. Energy inflation could be problematic for commercial and residential users of the fuel that heats building structures and powers vehicles, gas grills, patio heaters, generators, among many other uses. 

  Propane is set up for a volatile ride this fall/winter season as supplies are about 20% below the five-year average for this time of year. The most recent U.S. Energy Department data shows inventories of around 70.8 million barrels.

  

  The propane surge also comes from the rise in natural gas and crude prices. Propane is a byproduct of natgas production and petroleum-refining processes. About 80% of U.S. propane is a byproduct from natgas. 

  

  At Mont Belvieu, Texas, spot propane prices are up more than 60% this year, reaching levels not seen since 2014. Energy inflation will cause headaches for the 5% of U.S. households that heavily rely on the fuel that heats their homes. 

  

  Propane prices are coming to an inflection point in terms of seasonality. 

  

  Taking all of this into account, one can only hope the energy crisis in Europe of low natural gas supplies and record-high prices doesn’t spread to the U.S.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 21:20

• Rebutting Paul Krugman On The "Austrian" Pandemic
  Rebutting Paul Krugman On The “Austrian” Pandemic

  Authored by Robert Murphy via The Mises Institute,

  In a recent column for the New York Times, the world’s most famous Keynesian, Paul Krugman, attacked Austrian business cycle theory (ABCT). In addition to repeating his decades-old claim that ABCT suffers from an internal contradiction, as well as his charge that the Austrians misdiagnosed the 2008 financial crisis, in his latest piece Krugman argued that the 2020 pandemic really was a “reallocation shock” along Austrian lines. Yet even here, Krugman claims, the Austrian prescription of laissez-faire is dead wrong: as a new paper presented at the Jackson Hole monetary conference allegedly demonstrates, we need easy money from the Fed in order to rearrange labor without causing needless unemployment.

  It won’t surprise mises.org readers to learn that I disagree strongly with Krugman’s column. He makes some casual remarks that mislead his readers on the history of the 1930s, but more seriously, he misunderstands what ABCT actually says. This confusion leads him to reject the Austrian view as illogical, when in fact it is perfectly consistent and explains the data better than a Keynesian approach.

  

  Krugman’s Faulty History

  Krugman begins his discussion of the Austrian theory by reference to its place in the 1930s:

  [T]he idea that there was a titanic intellectual battle in the 1930s between Hayek and John Maynard Keynes is basically fan fiction; Hayek’s views on the Great Depression didn’t get much intellectual traction at the time, and his fame came later, with the publication of his 1944 political tract “The Road to Serfdom.”

  Already Krugman is making stuff up. (As I’ve written elsewhere, when Krugman uses the caveat “basically,” what he means is “This statement is literally false.”) Although the clash may not have involved dueling rap lyrics, Hayek really was the chief rival of Keynes in the early 1930s. As Bruce Caldwell explains:

  In 1929 [Lionel] Robbins had begun what was to become his long tenure as head of the Economics Department at the London School of Economics (LSE). Robbins invited Hayek to London in January 1931, and the next month the young Austrian delivered a series of lectures on the business cycle. The lectures were published later that year (with an effusive foreword by Robbins) under the title, Prices and Production. Hayek’s lectures, though at times opaque, caused quite a stir. By the fall of 1931, Hayek had been appointed the Tooke Professor of Economic Science and Statistics at the University of London. He was thirty-two years old.

  Sir John Hicks was at the LSE from 1926 to 1935 and remembers well the impact of Hayek’s arrival. Indeed, he divides his own stay at the University of London into a pre-Hayekian and a Hayekian period…. In his article, “The Hayek story,” Hicks reflects on the importance of Hayek’s early work.

  “When the definitive history of economic analysis during the nineteen-thirties comes to be written, a leading character in the drama (it was quite a drama) will be Professor Hayek. Hayek’s economic writings—I am not concerned with his later work in political theory and sociology—are almost unknown to the modern student; it is hardly remembered that there was a time when the new theories of Hayek were the principle rivals of the new theories of Keynes. Which was right, Keynes or Hayek?”

  Ludwig Lachmann writes of Hayek’s “triumphal entry on the London stage with his lectures on Prices and Production,” and recalls that when he (Lachmann) arrived at the LSE two years later, “all important economists there were Hayekians” …

  It’s undeniably true that in the eyes of the profession, Hayek lost the debate to Keynes. But Krugman is wrong to claim that Hayek was a minor player who was only known for his political writings.

  Krugman Oversimplifies Austrian Business Cycle Theory

  After downplaying its importance at the time, Krugman admits that there was an Austrian analysis of the Great Depression, and summarizes it in this way:

  Nonetheless, there was an identifiable Austrian analysis of the Depression, shared by Hayek and other economists, including Joseph Schumpeter. Where Keynes argued that the Depression was caused by a general shortfall in demand, Hayek and Schumpeter argued that we were looking at the inevitable difficulties of adjusting to the aftermath of a boom. In their view, excessive optimism had led to the allocation of too much labor and other resources to the production of investment goods, and a depression was just the economy’s way of getting those resources back where they belonged. (bold added)

  In the above excerpt, Krugman makes a subtle but important misstatement of the Austrian explanation of the boom-bust cycle. Specifically, Krugman is casting ABCT as a theory of overinvestment in capital goods and underinvestment in consumer goods.1

  Yet in reality, the sophisticated version of ABCT—especially in the writings of Mises—is more properly described as one of malinvestment among various types of capital goods coupled with too much consumption.

  It is this simple confusion that drives most of the erroneous objections to ABCT coming from professional economists. In a 2012 Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics article, Joe Salerno quotes extensively from such economists (including Krugman) and then clarifies:

  Had the critics seriously studied the original sources in which ABCT is expounded, they would have learned that it is not an “overinvestment” theory at all. In fact, Mises, Rothbard and, somewhat less emphatically, Hayek argued explicitly that “overconsumption” and “malinvestment” were the essential features of the inflationary boom. In their view, the divergence between the loan and natural rates of interest caused by bank credit expansion systematically falsifies the monetary calculations of entrepreneurs choosing among investment projects of different durations and in different stages varying in temporal remoteness from consumers. But it also distorts the income and wealth calculations and therefore the consumption/saving choices of the recipients of wages, rents, profits and capital gains. In other words, while the artificially reduced loan rate encourages business firms to overestimate the present and future availability of investible resources and to malinvest in lengthening the structure of production, at the same time it misleads households into a falsely optimistic appraisal of their real income and net worth that stimulates consumption and depresses saving. (bold added)

  In the remainder of the current article, I’ll continue to quote from Krugman’s recent column and then show why his initial confusion about ABCT drives all of his problems with it.

  But to repeat: Krugman views ABCT as a simple theory of overinvestment in capital goods and underinvestment in consumption goods (as do other ABCT critics). But in reality, the Misesian theory is that credit expansion leads to artificially low interest rates, which in turn cause entrepreneurs to invest in the wrong lines and cause consumers to believe they are wealthier than they really are and hence consume too much.

  Let us see how this confusion leads Krugman astray.

  Krugman Alleges Problems with ABCT, Both Theoretical and Empirical

  Returning to his recent column, below we reproduce two of Krugman’s long-running objections to ABCT, namely that it fails on both a theoretical and empirical level:

  [The Hayek/Schumpeter] view had logical problems: If transferring resources out of investment goods causes mass unemployment, why didn’t the same thing happen when resources were being transferred in and away from other industries? It was also clearly at odds with experience: During the Depression and, for that matter[,] after the 2008 crisis, there was excess capacity and unemployment in just about every industry—not slack in some and shortages in others.

  In the quote above, Krugman’s “logical problem” with ABCT derives entirely from his superficial understanding of the theory. Yes, if Mises had actually argued that the boom period is merely a switch of preferences one way, while the bust is a switch back—sort of like consumers deciding to try Mountain Dew for a few years, only to revert to Coke—then it would be weird to associate the first change with prosperity and the latter with privation.

  This is why Salerno emphasized the overconsumption during the boom period, when individuals falsely believe they are richer than they really are. The boom is unsustainable in physical terms; the members of society are not saving enough out of total income in order to complete all of the long-term production processes initiated during the boom. Armed with cheap credit, the entrepreneurs use the injections of new money to bid workers away from their original jobs and into new lines. This necessarily involves higher (real) wages and thus induces a feeling of good times.

  But when reality reasserts itself—typically when banks chicken out and stop injecting new credit into the system—many entrepreneurs realize their projects must be terminated. They lay off workers and halt their purchases of other inputs. Wages and other prices must fall (at least in real terms) to reflect the new reality. It is painful to be laid off; workers are poorer than they thought, and must search for a new job that doesn’t pay as well as their employer during the boom time.

  For a systematic exposition of the Austrian narrative, showing how it is logically consistent and can explain the asymmetry between the boom and bust, see my 2008 “sushi article” here at mises.org (which many readers have told me is one of their all-time favorites, for what that’s worth). In fact, Krugman himself praised my article at the time, and retreated from saying the ABCT had logical problems to merely alleging that it didn’t fit the data.

  Space constraints prevent me from rehashing the arguments here, but on the issue of empirical validity, once again the Austrians triumph over the Keynesians. In this article, I summarized some of the “tests” Krugman had thrown against an Austrian-type explanation of the housing bubble and 2008 crisis. As it turned out, using Krugman’s own rules for the test, the Austrian explanation made more sense. (For example, percentage declines in employment were larger in construction than in manufacturing, and higher in durable goods than nondurable goods, and unemployment was highest in the states that had the biggest swings in home prices. These outcomes are to be expected in a “sectoral readjustment” Austrian story, as opposed to an “everybody panicked and stopped spending” Keynesian story.)

  Hilarious: Krugman Resolves the “Logical Problem” When It Justifies Inflation

  Before closing the present article, I want to highlight a hilarious aspect of Krugman’s latest commentary. The specific news hook for his discussion of ABCT was a formal paper presented by elite economists at the Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole conference, held in August. Here is Krugman’s summary of the paper and its relevance to the Austrians:

  Although we aren’t hearing much about Austrian economics these days, the pandemic really did produce an Austrian-style reallocation shock, with demand for some things surging while demand for other things slumped….

  So we’re finally having the kind of economic crisis that people like Hayek and Schumpeter wrongly believed we were having in the 1930s. Does this mean that we should follow the policy advice they gave back then?

  No.

  That’s the message of a paper by Veronica Guerrieri, Guido Lorenzoni, Ludwig Straub and Iván Werning that was prepared for this year’s Jackson Hole meeting…. Guerrieri et al. never explicitly mention the Austrians, but their paper can nonetheless be construed as a refutation of their policy prescriptions.

  Hayek and Schumpeter were adamantly against any attempt to fight the Great Depression with monetary and fiscal stimulus. Hayek decried the use of “artificial stimulants,” insisting that we should instead “leave it to time to effect a permanent cure by the slow process of adapting the structure of production.”…

  But these conclusions didn’t follow even if you accepted their incorrect analysis of what the Depression was all about. Why should the need to move workers out of a sector lead to unemployment? Why shouldn’t it simply lead to lower wages?

  The answer in practice is downward nominal wage rigidity: Employers are really reluctant to cut wages, because of the effects on worker morale….

  Guerrieri et al. argue, with a formal model to back them up, that the optimal response to a reallocation shock is indeed a very expansionary monetary policy that causes a temporary spike in inflation. Workers would still have an incentive to change jobs, because real wages would fall in their old jobs but rise elsewhere. But there wouldn’t have to be large-scale unemployment….

  … Now that we’ve finally had the shock Austrian economists kept imagining, we can see that they were still giving very bad advice.

  And in case you’re wondering, the Fed, by accepting transitory inflation, is getting it right. (bold added)

  To summarize, the new paper by Guerrieri et al. argues that if accommodated by a burst of inflation, we can transfer workers from one sector to another without the need for large-scale unemployment. However, if the Fed doesn’t inflate, then the need to reallocate workers will lead to large-scale unemployment.

  Does the reader see the irony? That asymmetry has been Krugman’s chief objection (“logical problem”) to ABCT for decades. No matter how many times Austrians explained it to him, he just couldn’t wrap his head around the notion that monetary inflation might move workers around without causing an initial surge in unemployment.

  Yet when that same exact mechanism is invoked in order to justify the inflation—rather than to condemn it, as the Austrians do—then all of a sudden Krugman is able to understand the process. Incentives really do matter.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 21:00

• Fukushima Plant Operator Admits It "Neglected To Investigate" Faulty Exhaust Filters Used To Contain Radioactive Pollution
  Fukushima Plant Operator Admits It “Neglected To Investigate” Faulty Exhaust Filters Used To Contain Radioactive Pollution

  Fukushima officials have admitted that they have “neglected to investigate” faulty exhaust filters that have been put in place to prevent radioactive pollution from the premises. 

  Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, who operates the plant, disclosed the revelation on Monday of this week during a meeting with regulatory authorities, AP reported. 24 of the 25 filters attached to the water treatment equipment had already been found to be damaged last month. Alarms went over as workers were “moving sludge”, the report says.

  Last week, operations partially resume. 

  The purpose of the filters is to “prevent particles from escaping into the air from a contaminated water treatment system”, the report noted. 

  TEPCO has been accused of coverups and delayed disclosures at the plant since the meltdown. The operator said it had found “similar damage” to the filters two years ago never never investigated the cause and didn’t take any preventative steps.

  

  Nuclear Regulation Authority commissioner Nobuhiko Ban told AP: “At the core of this problem is TEPCO’s attitude.”

  Regulatory commissioner Satoru Tanaka added that TEPCO should have acted sooner, despite TEPCO claiming that dust monitors didn’t indicate radiation leaks or exposure to plant workers. 

  Akira Ono, head of TEPCO’s decommissioning unit, said he “regretted” the operator’s failure to address the problem. 

  Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency is working with Japanese officials to prepare a planned discharge of cooling water into the ocean in a fashion that keeps radioactivity levels below legal limits. 

  Three reactors at the plant melted down in 2011 as the result of an earthquake and the ensuing tsunami. A decommissioning of the plant is expected to take decades.

   

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 20:40

• World's Biggest Battery In California Overheats, Shuts Down
  World’s Biggest Battery In California Overheats, Shuts Down

  Authored by Daniel Khmelev via The Epoch Times,

  An “overheating incident” at the world’s biggest grid battery in California on Sept. 4 forced three quarters of the station to power down until further notice.

  

  South of San Francisco, the largest-of-its-kind Moss Landing energy storage facility recently grew from 300 to 400 megawatts (MW), with the ability to output for four hours.

  But after a limited number of modules reached operationally unsafe temperatures on Sept. 4, safety mechanisms triggered sprinklers that targeted the affected modules, resulting in the facility’s primary 300-MW section to shut off entirely.

  The overheating came as the state experienced a sweltering 100 degrees Fahrenheit heatwave over the Labor Day weekend.

  The North County Fire Protection District of Monterey County was called to the scene as a precaution. No injuries were sustained.

  The newly built 100-MW portion of the power station located in a separate building remained functional.

  On Sept. 7, Vistro, the owner, and battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution began investigations into the root cause of the incident.

  “The teams are in the early stages of this investigation and expect that it will take some time to fully assess the extent of the damage before developing a plan to safely repair and return the battery system to operation,” Vistro said in a media statement.

  Difficulties in managing battery fires mean that big battery facilities require obsequious temperature monitoring and management.

  This was illustrated last month in Australia after firefighters were unable to control a fire at the country’s largest grid battery, which burnt for close to four days.

  

  A fire at the Victoria Big Battery in Moorabool near Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, on July 30, 2021. (Fire Rescue Victoria)

  Local fire authorities said at the time that the nature of the fire meant it was extremely difficult to extinguish using conventional methods.

  “They are difficult to fight because you can’t put water on the megapacks … all that does is extend the length of time that the fire burns for,” the spokesman said.

  “The recommended process is you cool everything around it so the fire can’t spread, and you let it burn out.”

  The 400 MW capacity of the Moss Landing grid battery is part of state efforts to meet the energy storage legislation AB 2514 passed in 2013, which requires utilities to build 1,325 MW of operational energy storage capacity by 2024.

  The state’s transition toward greater renewable energy capacity had previously led California’s energy officials to ask for additional power capacity due to reliability concerns for the months of July and August.

  “California is using all available tools to increase electricity reliability this summer,” officials said, citing “unprecedented heat events, which are occurring throughout the West in combination with drought conditions that reduce hydroelectric capacity.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 20:20

• SpaceX Launches First-Ever Private Crew To Space For Three Day Mission
  SpaceX Launches First-Ever Private Crew To Space For Three Day Mission

  Update (2023ET): The Crew Dragon capsule separated from the second stage, and the Inspiration4 mission is now circling Earth with the first-ever private space crew. 

  Inspiration4 is expected to orbit around Earth for three days at an altitude of 360 miles, or about 150 miles higher than the International Space Station.

  Dragon and the @inspiration4x crew will orbit Earth for three days at an altitude of ~575 km, flying farther than any other human spaceflight since the Hubble missions pic.twitter.com/NZu2OM09zZ

  — SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 15, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Here are some of the views from inside the capsule. 

  

  

  * * * 

  SpaceX is preparing to launch the Inspiration4 mission on Wednesday evening from NASA’s facility in Florida. This mission is the first private crew of astronauts. 

  Watch Live:

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 20:06

• Collapse In Retail Investor Euphoria Points To "Imminent Correction", Vanda Warns
  Collapse In Retail Investor Euphoria Points To “Imminent Correction”, Vanda Warns

  The last time retail participation in the market dried up, was back in May when three months after retail investors took the stock market by storm sparking a series of historic short squeezes in meme stonks such as GME and AMC, the money from various stimmies dried up and retail enthusiasm for stocks suddenly faded.

  We discussed this on May 9 when we said “Retail Participation In Stock Trading Has Collapsed“, and pointed to the plunge in call option volumes, which had emerged as the preferred investment vehicle for millions of GenZ and Millennial investors.

  

  Perhaps coincidentally, our warning that day marked the top for the market for the next few weeks, with the S&P sliding some 200 points in just the next four days.

  

  We bring this up because at a time when retail investors have become instrumental in propping up the market and buying each and every dip, this time around retail enthusiasm is once again fading.

  Maybe it is because the S&P is at all time highs, or because retail euphoria has shifted to cryptos which have vastly outperformed even the most perky meme stonks, but as Vanda Research which tracks traffic on retail trading platforms and industry-wide order flows, the scale of retail interventions is getting smaller. This, according to the firms strategists, raises the chances of more serious declines if big investors continue to retreat.

  “While we have seen a pick-up in ETF buying this week, the magnitude has been a little underwhelming relative to previous selloffs,” Ben Onatibia and Giacomo Pierantoni wrote. “This diminishing appetite to support the equity rally raises the odds of a larger selloff if institutional investors continue to sell.”

  While this is especially bad news for apps like Robinhood whose entire business model depends on continued retail main, it is also bad news for bulls overall, as the army of retail traders has reliably shown up to buy broad ETFs at various points in 2021. And while they did so again in the five days through Tuesday, with $657 million of purchases, as Vanda’s Onatibia and Pierantoni note in the chart below, such buying was between 35% and 100% larger during similar-sized drawdowns in July and August.

  

  Here Bloomberg adds that while seasonal factors could be at play – as vacations end and a new school year begins – there’s another worrying sign according to Vanda: Retail investors have been concentrating their buying in tech stocks.

  “There are two distinct phases in the outperformance of technology shares,” the strategists wrote. “The first one is usually driven by institutional investors, who enter the trade when valuations are attractive. The second leg of the outperformance happens when FOMO-driven retail investors join the trade.” And since we are currently in the FOMO leg, it hints at “an imminent reversal” in market leadership, they said.

  Incidentally, the fate of retail dip-buying was cited by JPM quant Nick Panigirtzoglou last week as a potential counterweight to the growing bearish sentiment among major Wall Street banks. As we discussed in “The Six Largest Wall Street Banks Issue Market Red Alerts” in which we noted that the most popular sellside strategists had turned somewhat – or very – bearish, expecting an imminent correction anywhere between 5% and 20%, the JPM quant said that one possible saving grace was that retail investors have been buying stocks and equity funds at such a steady and strong pace “that makes an equity correction looking rather unlikely.”

  

  “So far this year retail investors have been buying stocks and equity funds at such a steady and strong pace that makes an equity correction looking rather unlikely” Panigirtzoglou wrote, adding that “whether the coming Fed policy change changes retail investors attitude towards equities remains to be seen.”

  At the same time, he also conceded the counter argument, namely “that the strength of the retail flow has pushed equities up by so much and has made investors globally more overweight equities, many of them unwilling, that the risk of profit taking should be naturally high. Indeed, in support of this counter argument, updating our most holistic of our equity position indicators, i.e. the implied equity allocation of non-bank investors globally, points to an equity allocation of 46% currently, only slightly below the post Lehman crisis high of 47.6% seen in 2018”

  

  And while the JPM quant admits that he is sympathetic to this counter  argument, “in the absence of a material slowing in the retail flow into equities, the risk of an equity correction remains low.” As such, we concluded last week, in his view monitoring this retail flow on a daily and weekly basis going forward “is key to the equity market outlook.”

  Considering that the latest retail trading data shows to an continued decline in the pace of purchases, it is merely the latest risk to consider when buying stocks some 2% away from their all time high.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 20:00

• 5-Minute-Plus Wait-Time For 911 Calls In Portland Amid Staff Shortages, Efforts To Defund Police
  5-Minute-Plus Wait-Time For 911 Calls In Portland Amid Staff Shortages, Efforts To Defund Police

  Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

  Portland residents calling 911 to report emergencies are facing a “dramatic increase” in hold times, with officials saying that the system has become “unmanageable” and is “broken.”

  

  According to The Oregonian, people dialing 911 are often left waiting over two minutes for their call to be answered, far longer than the national standard of 15 to 20 seconds.

  People calling 911 to report a Sept. 4 shootout at a Pearl District restaurant and other emergencies in the following half-hour waited an average of more than 7.5 minutes before a dispatcher answered, The Oregonian reported, adding that this was just “the latest example of serious problems plaguing the city’s emergency dispatch system.”

  Portland has dealt with unrest amid continuous riots that first broke out in the spring of 2020. Some of the people who have committed crimes are members of the far-left, anarcho-communist Antifa network. Others have identified as Black Lives Matter activists.

  Bob Cozzie, director of Portland’s Bureau of Emergency Communications, said his bureau answers about a million 911 calls a year, of which about 550,000 are emergency calls and 450,000 non-emergency calls.

  Speaking of the dramatic increase in hold times, Cozzie called the situation “horrible”, adding “There’s no other way to state it.” He noted that it was time for Oregon to start looking at other options and solutions to the increasing delays, such as routing non-emergency calls elsewhere.

  Cozzie said that the agency’s own statistics show an average hold time of a minute. But, it also shows a sharp rise in the number of 911 calls on hold for two minutes or longer starting in late spring and summer.

  As per The Oregonian, 574 of the 911 calls in the city had to wait on hold for more than five minutes in July. This number is more than double that of May, when 221 calls waited that long, and is drastically more than in March, when only eight 911 calls took more than five minutes to answer.

  

  Portland police officers walk past a fire started by a Molotov cocktail that a rioter hurled at them, in Portland, Oregon., on Sept. 23, 2020. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

  Compared to 2020, Portland’s Bureau of Emergency Communications has experienced a 20 to 45 percent increase in 911 calls, with residents making a total of 63,573 calls to 911 in July, 20 percent more than they did in July of 2020. Calls to 911 in July 2020 represented only a 2 percent increase over July 2019.

  Cozzie cited a number of reasons for the long wait times, such as a significant increase in the volume of 911 and non-emergency calls that his department receives, as well as less available staff.

  He noted that more than a dozen employees have “retired, taken leaves of absence, been promoted or resigned over the past six months,” contributing to staff shortages and thus longer wait times.

  Current staff are still in training on new medical and fire triage protocols put in place in an effort to cut down on the number of fire trucks sent to low-level medical calls, he said.

  “We’re at a tipping point now. It’s become unmanageable,” he said.

  “The system is broken.”

  The increase in both the number of 911 calls and the longer hold times comes amid a rising number of homicides in Oregon.

  

  People clash during rival rallies in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 22, 2021. (David Ryder/Reuters)

  According to the Portland Police Bureau, between July 2020 and July 2021, 98 homicide offenses were reported to the bureau. During that same period the year prior, from July 2019 to July 2020, just 23 homicide offenses were reported.

  Law enforcement officials have been resigning en masse from their posts amid continued calls to defund the police and other law enforcement agencies. In June, the entire Portland Police Bureau’s Rapid Response Team (RRT) left their voluntary positions after an officer was indicted on a protest assault charge.

  The team, which is responsible for providing public safety at crowd events when there was a threat of harm to the community, consisted of approximately 50 officers, all of whom resigned on June 16, but said they would continue with their regular assignments.

  The mass resignation came just one day after Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt announced his team had indicted one member, Officer Corey Budworth, on one count of fourth-degree assault for physically injuring someone during an Aug. 18, 2020, protest.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 19:40

• US, UK To Share Nuclear Submarine Technology With Australia In "Historic" Military Pact Against China
  US, UK To Share Nuclear Submarine Technology With Australia In “Historic” Military Pact Against China

  After breaking news of the the historic pact between the US, UK and Australia earlier, we have now gotten confirmation and additional information about the pact.

  As the SCMP confirmed, the US, Britain and Australia announced on Wednesday a “historic” security alliance to strengthen military capabilities in the Pacific, which will share advanced defense technologies and give Australian forces nuclear submarine technology  further extending Washington’s drive for military cooperation that has angered China (although we are confident Gen Milley has already shared said nuclear technology with China so their anger will probably be contained).

  President Biden, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison appeared virtually together to announce the partnership. “This is about investing in our greatest sources of strength, our alliances, and updating them to better meet the threats of today and tomorrow,” Mr. Biden said. “It’s about connecting America’s existing allies and partners in new ways and amplifying our ability to collaborate.” All three leaders stressed that the new submarine would be nuclear-powered and not armed, keeping in line with nuclear nonproliferation measures. None of them mentioned China in their remarks.

  The pact builds on the longstanding alliance between the three to share intelligence, deepen cooperation and help Australia as China’s influence grows.

  The new agreement, announced Wednesday by leaders of the three countries, was described by administration officials as a way to line up common interests in the Asia Pacific.

  As noted earlier, the partnership The partnership is called AUKUS, an acronym for Australia, United Kingdom and the US and will have a number of components, chief among them the development of the nuclear submarine capability for Australia. Others include security cooperation in cyberspace, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and undersea capabilities, administration officials said Wednesday.

  While officials declined to say the effort was intended to counter China, describing it as an effort to engage three allies together strategically in an important region, let’s be honest: the effort is intended to counter China whose response to this new venture will be most curious and certainly one that will not help ease the global inflationary wave . The announcement comes shortly after the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan last month, which was described as part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to focus on issues in the Indo-Pacific, including China.

  “This partnership is not aimed, or about any one country, it’s about advancing our strategic interests, upholding the international rules based order and promoting peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific,” one official said. “This is about a larger effort to sustain the fabric of engagement and deterrence in the Indo-Pacific.”

  Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington urged the U.S. and others to “shake off their Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice.”

  “Exchanges and cooperation between countries should help expand mutual understanding and trust,” the spokesman said. “They should not build exclusionary blocs targeting or [harm] the interests of third parties.”

  While the U.S., the U.K. and Australia already take part in common security arrangements, and all three participate in the Five Eyes alliance, an intelligence-sharing arrangement that also includes Canada and New Zealand the new security structure provides for the technology cooperation needed to share nuclear submarine technology and other common efforts in a region where China poses growing security concerns.

  The U.S. and U.K. are starting an 18-month period of consultation on helping Australia develop the nuclear submarine capability. That would eventually allow Canberra to conduct faster, stealthier submarine missions of longer duration than conventional submarine technology allows.

  The U.S. has shared its technology in developing such a capability only with the U.K. White House officials declined to say how long it would take Australia to build a nuclear submarine but said Australia’s conventional submarines fall short of the stealth, range, speed and maneuverability needed to confront nations like China.

  * * *

  Earlier:

  President Joe Biden is expected Thursday to deliver remarks on a major new “national security initiative” which ultimately appears aimed at countering China. Citing sources in the White House, Politico is reporting the US alongside allies Australian and Britain will unveil a landmark new security pact for sharing advanced defense technologies.

  In particular, nuclear submarine technology is expected to top the list for the tech sharing initiative. As Politico writes, “The trio, which will be known by the acronym AUUKUS, will make it easier for the three countries to share information and know-how in key technological areas like artificial intelligence, cyber, underwater systems and long-range strike capabilities.”

  

  It’s being further suggested that the pact is likely to result in Australia abandoning a $90 billion submarine deal with France – which was already for years fraught with tensions over soaring costs and production delays. 

  According to The Sydney Morning Herald the anticipated “AUUKUS pact” was the likely subject of federal ministers being called to an urgent “top secret” meeting in Australia’s capital: 

  In Australia, federal cabinet ministers were called to a top-secret meeting in Canberra on Wednesday ahead of the announcement. Some members of cabinet were granted border exemptions to urgently fly to Canberra for the hastily arranged meeting, sources familiar with the development said.

  The White House announcement of the US-UK-Australia pact is expected for Thursday afternoon, at a moment Aussie Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Peter Dutton are in Washington D.C. for annual Australia-US Ministerial Consultations. Likely they will be at the White House with Biden for the statement. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is expected to simultaneously make his own statement addressing the Australian public on the new agreement.

  Though there’s likely to be no explicit mention of China, it’s clear Washington is continuing to deepen its support to Indo-Pacific allies with an aim to curtail China’s influence, and interestingly at comes as Australia is locked in its own trade war with China, with Beijing over the past couple years curbing Australian beef imports and levying huge punitive tariffs on barley, wine, and other commodities. 

  “There’s nothing explicitly mentioning China in the three-way deal, the people said, but both noted that the subtext of the announcement is that this is another move by Western allies to push back on China’s rise in the military and technology arenas,” Politico underscored in its report.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 19:25

• Biden Mandate Will Only Boost Number Of Vaccinated By 12 Million: Goldman
  Biden Mandate Will Only Boost Number Of Vaccinated By 12 Million: Goldman

  Now that President Biden has abandoned his promise not to impose vaccine mandates on working Americans, Wall Street investment banks are trying to guess how Biden’s new mandates for federal workers – and his administration’s request that all private employers with more than 100 employees impose a similar requirement – will increase the level of vaccine-induced immunity.

  Unfortunately for Biden, a team of analysts at Goldman has run the numbers, and they’re saying the impact of Biden’s new program will probably be limited: Goldman estimates that the requirements will apply to about 25MM currently unvaccinated individuals, and boost the number of vaccinated individuals by 12MM (or 3.6% of the total population) through March next year.

  Ultimately, Goldman expects 82% of the total population (and 90% of adults) to be vaccinated with a first dose by mid-2022.

  What’s more, Goldman sees some downside employment risk in the near term, as 7MM affected workers report that they will definitely not get the vaccine, while mandates imposed earlier this summer caused some to leave their jobs.

  According to Biden’s edicts, federal workers have 75 days to comply with the vaccine mandate, and although the DOL rule has not yet been issued, we expect private businesses will be given a similar time period to comply, suggesting the rule could become binding in late-2021 or early-2022. Although the vaccine mandate will likely be challenged in court, the administration appears to believe it falls within OSHA’s authority (even if enforcement proves difficult).

  

  Goldman’s approach to estimating the impact of Biden’s order is based on the impact of French President Emanuel Macron’s immunity pass. equires proof of vaccination, immunity, or a negative test to get into restaurants, bars, hospitals, and public transportation or to work at a public venue. Although France’s immunity pass is mostly tied to spending rather than to work, it imposes similar vaccine/testing requirements to engage in normal economic life. The introduction of the vaccine passport in early July led to a sharp re-acceleration in the pace of first dose vaccinations in France, as shown by the chart above.

  Goldman’s alternate approach to projecting the impact of the order combines data from Census Household Pulse Survey on the shares of working individuals that are unvaccinated and “will probably not get it”, that “will definitely not get it,” or that are unvaccinated for other reasons, with an adjustment for individuals that misreport their vaccination status.

  Coupled with assumptions on the mandate-driven increase in the vaccination for each of these three groups, this approach implies that the requirements will boost the vaccination rate by just over 3pp by March next year. Averaging both approaches, we estimate that the new requirements will boost the number of vaccinated individuals by 12mn, or 3.6% of the total population.

  Incorporating these estimates, the recent somewhat faster-than-expected vaccination pace, and assuming that vaccinations for children ages 5-11 are approved in November, we now expect 82% of the total population (and 90% of adults) to be vaccinated with a first dose by mid-2022, as the chart below shows.

  

  As for the order’s impact on the labor market, while growing vaccination rates might convince some (at-risk) people that it’s finally safe to return to the work force, it’s more likely that Biden’s edict will lead to at least some employment reallocation this fall as vaccine-resisters search for jobs at smaller companies not subject to the mandate.

  

  Of course there is still a significant amount of uncertainty regarding the implementation of Biden’s mandate, including when and how strictly it will be enforced. At the very least, these projections will give us a chance to look back in three months and see how misguided – or perhaps how uncannily correct – they were.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 19:20

• They Are Creating The Biggest Witch Hunt In American History
  They Are Creating The Biggest Witch Hunt In American History

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

  Prior to this pandemic, if you wanted to weed out all of the “troublemakers”, “independent thinkers” and “non-conformists” from our society, how would you have done it? 

  I suppose that sending everyone a questionnaire asking them what they believe would be one way to do it, but of course a lot of people would give false answers and many others would simply ignore the questionnaire.  Social media profiles contain a wealth of information, but many “non-conformists” are not even on social media and digging through all of that data would take an extraordinary amount of time, money and energy.  Up until just recently, there just hasn’t been an easy and efficient way to identify those that are not eager servants of the system.

  

  But now the COVID vaccines have changed everything.  These injections are the perfect litmus test, because “troublemakers”, “independent thinkers” and “non-conformists” are pretty much the only ones that are refusing the shots at this point.  This makes it exceptionally easy to divide American citizens into two categories, and it also gives authorities a perfect excuse to push all of those “troublemakers”, “independent thinkers” and “non-conformists” to the fringes of society.

  As I discussed yesterday, I was literally sick to my stomach as I pondered the implications of Biden’s tyrannical new decrees.  Originally, Biden and other Democratic leaders were against any sort of vaccine mandates, but now I think that they have realized that mandates are a tool that they can use to fundamentally reshape our society.

  If you don’t understand where I am going with this, just keep reading, because it will become extremely clear by the end of this article.

  Biden’s new decrees cover almost every major institution in our society.  Just think about it.  Any “major institution” is almost certainly going to be employing more than 100 people, and all such organizations are covered by Biden’s mandates.

  In addition to businesses of various sizes, we are also talking about colleges, schools, churches, non-profits, political entities, sports teams and charitable organizations.

  Millions of Americans that are employed by such institutions could be forced to leave their positions if they refuse to comply with what Biden is demanding.

  And the rules that the Biden administration is coming up with will require the institutions to be the enforcers of these draconian new measures.

  Your bosses will be forced to make sure that you are submitting to the new rules, because if not they could be hit with massive fines.

  In my last article I used the word “sickening” to describe what Biden is trying to do to all of us, but the truth is that word is not nearly strong enough.

  What we are facing is a complete and total national nightmare, and it isn’t going to end any time soon.

  Biden’s new mandates are even stricter for employees of the federal government.  Previously, employees of the federal government were at least given the option to undergo regular testing if they didn’t want to be vaccinated, but now that option is being taken away.

  So now millions of federal employees will have to choose between their principles and their careers.

  And considering the fact that so many of these people are barely providing for their families right now, a lot of really heartbreaking choices are going to have to be made.

  Earlier today, I posted a video from a woman that works for the U.S. Treasury Department.  After all these years, she publicly announced on social media that she is going to leave her job because of Biden’s new mandates.

  And countless others will follow her out the door.

  Biden’s new decrees will also force nearly everyone in the entire healthcare industry to either get vaccinated or give up their careers.

  What a horribly cruel thing to do.

  Biden is essentially putting a gun to the heads of these people.  So many of them spent an enormous amount of time, energy and money to get their educations, and now Biden is telling them that they have to sacrifice everything that they have worked for if they will not comply with his demands.

  As I pointed out yesterday, healthcare workers won’t just be forced out of their current jobs.  Because virtually every health care provider in the entire country accepts Medicaid and Medicare, those that refuse to comply will essentially be banned from the entire industry.

  At a time when a shortage of qualified workers is causing chaos throughout our economy, Biden’s tyrannical orders could force millions of Americans to suddenly lose their jobs.  This is an incredibly foolish thing to do, and it could have very serious ramifications in the years ahead.

  Sadly, it won’t just be a few people quitting their jobs.  A poll that was just conducted discovered that 72 percent of unvaccinated Americans said that they would quit their current jobs rather than be vaccinated…

  Many making this argument have cited a Washington Post-ABC News poll released over the weekend. It showed that just 18 percent unvaccinated people whose employers don’t currently have mandates said they would likely get vaccinated if their employer required it. About 7 in 10 (72 percent) said that, if they couldn’t get a medical or religious exemption, they would probably quit rather than submit to the requirement.

  I don’t know what is going on behind the scenes, but it is my opinion that Kamala Harris has had a lot of influence in the recent decisions that Biden has been making.

  She has always had authoritarian tendencies, and if she ever becomes president that will truly be a catastrophic scenario.

  Needless to say, Biden’s new mandates are going to cause great anxiety for millions upon millions of people, and a recent CNN poll found that the mood of the country was already heading in a very negative direction…

  The new poll finds 69% of Americans say things in the country today are going badly, below the pandemic-era high of 77% reached in January just before President Joe Biden took office but well above the 60% who felt that way in a March CNN poll.

  And 62% say that economic conditions in the US are poor, up from 45% in April and nearly as high as the pandemic-era peak of 65% reached in May 2020.

  My hope is that Republican governors will fight Biden’s new decrees with everything that they have got.

  Because the truth is that this is one of the most critical moments in U.S. history.

  Our most basic liberties and freedoms are under full assault, and we really are descending into full-blown tyranny.

  If Biden’s new mandates are not overturned by the courts, millions of Americans that love liberty and freedom could be forced from their jobs.

  It would truly be a witch hunt of unprecedented size and scope, and it would represent the greatest purge of “troublemakers”, “independent thinkers” and “non-conformists” that any of us have ever witnessed.

  *  *  *

  It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 19:00

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Spanish Gov't Announces Temporary Tax Cuts To Relieve Consumers After Record Power Prices
  Spanish Gov’t Announces Temporary Tax Cuts To Relieve Consumers After Record Power Prices

  Spain’s Socialist-led government announced temporary tax cuts on power prices in an attempt to drive down household electricity costs, which have surged this summer and triggered outrage among working-poor, according to FT. 

  Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister, addressed the nation on Monday night to minimize political damage from the hyperinflationary rise in power prices. He said taxes on electricity would be significantly reduced, and energy companies would be taxed on their “extraordinary profits” and “redirected to consumers.”

  

  “We have made a firm commitment that all citizens will pay the same electricity bill [this year] as in 2018,” Sánchez said, adding that energy companies’ high profits are “not acceptable.”

  The emergency measures would reduce government revenues for 2021 by around 1.4 billion euros, he said, and 650 million euros will be taken from energy companies’ profits and used to assist households. The new package is expected to be approved Tuesday. 

  The exponential rise in Spain’s wholesale electricity prices shows no signs of abating. Prices jumped Tuesday to another record high of 172.78 per megawatt-hour. From the beginning of summer, prices are up more than 200%. 

  

  One primary concern is the price of power rising as the summer season winds down and winter is ahead has become one of the most heated political issues. Sánchez is acting to alleviate consumers as record-high power prices eat away their wages. 

  Angel Talavera, head of European economics at Oxford Economics, told FT, that “people are feeling the pinch in their personal finances but this is not a Spanish problem; it is a European if not a world problem.” 

  “The issue is that, because of the different way the Spanish market works, much of the world has not noticed it yet, but sooner or later, a similar trend will happen in other countries,” Talavera said. 

  Some of the factors behind the soaring electricity and gas prices can be pinpointed to several factors, including increased gas demand by China, higher carbon prices, and reduced supply from Russia. 

  Besides Spain, Germany, the UK, Netherlands, and Dutch have also seen explosive nat gas prices, which have caused power prices to surge. This is creating political pressure on European governments and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde to get a handle on prices. 

  Like it or not, and Europe doesn’t want to admit it, they will soon be drooling over cheap Russian gas via the Nord Stream pipeline as a way to cap soaring gas and power prices. Politicians will do anything to get re-elected, even if that means taking Putin’s gas. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 02:45

• Calls For Investigation Grow As "Close Ties" Emerge Between Huawei, Cambridge Research Center
  Calls For Investigation Grow As “Close Ties” Emerge Between Huawei, Cambridge Research Center

  Authored by Lily Zhou via The Epoch Times,

  A former Conservative Party leader has called on the British government to investigate the UK’s dependency on China as a research center of Cambridge University is alleged to have been “infiltrated” by Chinese tech giant Huawei.

  

  Speaking to The Times of London on Sunday, Sir Iain Duncan Smith said that universities in the UK are “far too dependent on Chinese money,” with Cambridge being “one of the worst offenders.”

  The senior Tory urged the government to set up an urgent inquiry into “the UK’s dependency on China across a range of institutions and companies.”

  His comment came after the newspaper reported that the chief representative and three out of four of the directors at the Cambridge Centre for Chinese Management (CCCM) have ties to Huawei.

  The Times said the information about Yanping Hu, who was listed as the chief representative of the CCCM, was removed from the CCCM website following inquiries from the newspaper.

  A cache of the page, archived on Aug. 17, said Hu had been the head of Huawei Management Engineering Group, director of Huawei Corporate Change Committee, director of Huawei Organisation Department, and the Deputy President of Huawei University before becoming the SVP at Huawei.

  The Chinese version of the page also said that Hu is the CEO of Huawei-affiliated Hua Ying Management, which is—along with Huawei and its other affiliates—on a Washington list of entities that “pose a significant risk of involvement in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.”

  The page also boasted Hu’s credential as an “expert who enjoys a special allowance from the State Council.”

  Tian Tao, one of the CCCM’s four directors, is a senior adviser at Huawei Technologies and a confidant of Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei.

  The Chinese version of the CCCM’s website also stated that it’s the CCCM’s role and “historical mission” to document, synthesize, spread, and contribute to the development and management of Chinese enterprises.

  Johnny Patterson, co-founder and policy director at human rights NGO Hong Kong Watch, said the link between the university and the Chinese Communist Party have serious implications.

  “Huawei’s ties with the Chinese government are no secret. It looks as if the research centre has been infiltrated by Huawei and the university should definitely investigate it,” Patterson told The Times.

  “The close links between Huawei and Cambridge University have serious national security and moral implications,” he added.

  A spokesperson for Cambridge University said any relationship the university has is in line with government guidelines.

  The CCCM “is a business management programme focused on Chinese business practices. As such, it engages with various sectors of the Chinese economy, including technology companies,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

  “The University of Cambridge has a robust system for reviewing all strategic relationships and strict protocols for engaging with any company. Any relationship the University has with any corporate entity, domestic or international, strictly adheres to the guidelines set out by the UK government.”

  Neither Huawei, nor the UK government responded to requests for comment by the time of publishing.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 02:00

• Iran Replaces Veteran Nuclear Negotiator With "Hardliner" As Vienna Talks Still In Doubt
  Iran Replaces Veteran Nuclear Negotiator With “Hardliner” As Vienna Talks Still In Doubt

  A week after Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned the US is “getting closer” to giving up completely on the Iran nuclear deal after Vienna talks have been on hold since June 20, Iran on Tuesday replaced its longtime veteran negotiator with a senior diplomat who’s widely being described as a “hardliner”.

  The recently installed administration of Ebrahim Raisi has named Ali Bagheri Kani to replace Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Araghchi had spearhead the original negotiations on the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and has been at the forefront of Iranian efforts in Vienna.

  However, Ali Bagheri Kani – who happens to also be a relative of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei – had been part of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team under former President Ahmadinejad from 2007 to 2013. It was during that time that efforts to achieve mutual understanding over Iran’s nuclear program with the West failed and sanctions were imposed.

  

  As Reuters details, it appears part of shake-up at the foreign ministry to replace “moderates” previously serving under Rouhani with more hardened “anti-Western” diplomats: 

  Hossein Amirabdollahian, an anti-Western diplomat chosen as foreign minister last month, also named Mohammad Fathali as his deputy for administrative and financial affairs and Mehdi Safari as deputy for economic diplomacy, state media reported. 

  Already external observers have been concluding that Tehran is preparing to take a firmer stance should talks resume in Vienna, which include indirect talks with the US delegation based on European intermediaries. 

  Meanwhile, Washington and European signatories to the 2015 JCPOA have expressed increasing skepticism that nuclear talks will get off the ground again, blaming the Islamic Republic for stalling. Initially Iran had said it wanted to wait for the next round of Vienna talks till after new President Raisi took office on Aug.5, but we’re now long past that.

  Blinken said last week while alongside German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas: “I’m not going to put a date on it but we are getting closer to the point at which a strict return to compliance with the JCPOA does not reproduce the benefits that that agreement achieved.”

  Both sides have previously said they won’t let things drag on forever. The Iranians putting a more hardline negotiator in place could suggest Tehran is now more willing to walk away, given especially the crucial demand of immediate sanctions relief hasn’t been met.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 01:00

• California Governor Newsom Projected To Survive Recall Election, Elder Topped Alternates
  California Governor Newsom Projected To Survive Recall Election, Elder Topped Alternates

  Preliminary results of the 2021 gubernatorial recall election are in and AP, ABC, & DecisionDeskHQ (among others ) have called the race for Gavin Newsom (who will likely not be recalled and will remain governor of California).

  

  Around 67.1 percent of people voted “no” in the election, according to the California Secretary of State’s Office, while 32.9 percent voted “yes.”

  

  Larry Elder has received the most votes at 43.4 percent for who would replace Newsom if he is recalled.

  

   

  As The Epoch Times’ Vanessa Serna reports, in the 2018 gubernatorial election, Gov. Gavin Newsom was elected by the widest margin in an election race since 1950. Since his time in office, Newsom has faced criticism for his decisions to close prisons, suspend the death penalty, enforce vaccine mandates, and enforce COVID-19 statewide restrictions.

  The grassroots effort to recall the governor began in 2020, more than a year before the recall petition cleared on June 23, 2021 and state officials confirmed there were over 1,495,709 signatures, the amount required to hold a special recall election.

  In previous interviews with The Epoch Times, recall organizers attributed the impetus of the recall campaign to the governor’s decisions regarding COVID-19 state-mandated shutdowns and restrictions.

  At the height of the pandemic in Nov. 2020, Newsom received backlash after attending a party at the French Laundry restaurant without wearing a mask and with visitors from multiple households—despite telling state residents to stay home and avoid holiday gatherings.

  Following the French Laundry incident, county registrar offices reported an increase of recall petition signatures by 596,721.

  As the pandemic continued, California continued to release unemployment funds to residents whose jobs have been lost due to the pandemic. As those eligible received additional funds, it was discovered more than $31 billion in EDD funds were claimed by scammers, including prison inmates.

  

  Governor Gavin Newsom speaks to reporters at AltaMed Urgent Care in Santa Ana, Calif., on March 25, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

  Amid the recall process, Newsom also faced critics who opposed his decision to allow for 76,000 state inmates, including violent criminals and repeat felons to exit prison earlier than their release date through the help of Proposition 57 that allows inmates to receive credits for good behavior.

  Recently, California announced the mandate of vaccines for health care workers and school personnel. In healthcare workspaces, workers are required to receive the vaccine by Sept. 30. Workers who refuse to receive the vaccine and fail to obtain a religious or medical exemption will be out of a job come Oct. 1.

  The last time a governor was recalled in the state was in 2003 when Gray Davis was in office. Arnold Schwarzenegger succeeded Davis after 55 percent of state voters voted “yes” on the recall.

  On Sept. 13, President Joe Biden visited Long Beach to promote Newsom’s campaign, calling Republican candidate Larry Elder a “clone of Donald Trump.”

  

  Republican gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder speaks to supporters during a rally in Westminster, Calif., on Sept. 4, 2021. (Ringo Chiu/AFP via Getty Images)

  Elder said if elected governor, he would immediately move to end mask and vaccine mandates.

  He also said he would suspend the California Environmental Quality Act, noting its effect on the cost of new housing being built and other construction projects.

  *  *  *

  While the final margin remains uncertain, because of the difficulty of estimating the margin of the remaining election day and late-arriving mail ballots – for what it’s worth, betting markets currently suggest that the recall is favored to fail by more than 20 percentage points.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/15/2021 – 00:15

• Constitution Day 2021: It's Time To Make America Free Again
  Constitution Day 2021: It’s Time To Make America Free Again

  Authored by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead via The

  “That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn’t even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn’t even an enemy you could put your finger on.”

  – Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

  

  The Constitution of the United States represents the classic solution to one of humankind’s greatest political problems: that is, how does a small group of states combine into a strong union without the states losing their individual powers and surrendering their control over local affairs? 

  The fifty-five delegates who convened in Philadelphia during the sweltering summer of 1787 answered this question with a document that called for a federal plan of government, a system of separation of powers with checks and balances, and a procedure for orderly change to meet the needs and exigencies of future generations.

  In an ultimate sense, the Constitution confirmed the proposition that original power resided in the people—not, however, in the people as a whole but in their capacity as people of the several states.  To bring forth the requisite union, the people through the states would transfer some of their powers to the new federal government.  All powers not reserved by the people in explicit state constitutional limitations remained in the state governments.

  Although the Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, the fear of the new federal government was so strong that a “bill of rights” was demanded and became an eventuality.

  Intended to protect the citizenry’s fundamental rights or “first liberties” against usurpation by the newly created federal government, the Bill of Rights—the first ten amendments of the Constitution—is essentially a list of immunities from interference by the federal government. 

  Unfortunately, although the Bill of Rights was adopted as a means of protecting the people against government tyranny, in America today, the government does whatever it wants, freedom be damned.

  “We the people” have been terrorized, traumatized, and tricked into a semi-permanent state of compliance by a government that cares nothing for our lives or our liberties.

  The bogeyman’s names and faces have changed over time (terrorism, the war on drugs, illegal immigration, a viral pandemic, and more to come), but the end result remains the same: in the so-called name of national security, the Constitution has been steadily chipped away at, undermined, eroded, whittled down, and generally discarded with the support of Congress, the White House, and the courts.

  A recitation of the Bill of Rights—set against a backdrop of government surveillance, militarized police, SWAT team raids, asset forfeiture, eminent domain, overcriminalization, armed surveillance drones, whole body scanners, stop and frisk searches, vaccine mandates, travel lockdowns, and the like (all sanctioned by Congress, the White House, and the courts)—would understandably sound more like a eulogy to freedoms lost than an affirmation of rights we truly possess.

  What we are left with today is but a shadow of the robust document adopted more than two centuries ago. Sadly, most of the damage has been inflicted upon the Bill of Rights.

  Here is what it means to live under the Constitution, post-9/11 and in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic.

  The First Amendment is supposed to protect the freedom to speak your mind, assemble and protest nonviolently without being bridled by the government. It also protects the freedom of the media, as well as the right to worship and pray without interference. In other words, Americans should not be silenced by the government. To the founders, all of America was a free speech zone.

  Despite the clear protections found in the First Amendment, the freedoms described therein are under constant assault. Increasingly, Americans are being arrested and charged with bogus “contempt of cop” charges such as “disrupting the peace” or “resisting arrest” for daring to film police officers engaged in harassment or abusive practices. Journalists are being prosecuted for reporting on whistleblowers. States are passing legislation to muzzle reporting on cruel and abusive corporate practices. Religious ministries are being fined for attempting to feed and house the homeless. Protesters are being tear-gassed, beaten, arrested and forced into “free speech zones.” And under the guise of “government speech,” the courts have reasoned that the government can discriminate freely against any First Amendment activity that takes place within a so-called government forum.

  The Second Amendment was intended to guarantee “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.” Essentially, this amendment was intended to give the citizenry the means to resist tyrannical government. Yet while gun ownership has been recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court as an individual citizen right, Americans remain powerless to defend themselves against SWAT team raids and government agents armed to the teeth with military weapons better suited to the battlefield. As such, this amendment has been rendered nearly null and void.

  The Third Amendment reinforces the principle that civilian-elected officials are superior to the military by prohibiting the military from entering any citizen’s home without “the consent of the owner.” With the police increasingly training like the military, acting like the military, and posing as military forces—complete with heavily armed SWAT teams, military weapons, assault vehicles, etc.—it is clear that we now have what the founders feared most—a standing army on American soil.

  The Fourth Amendment prohibits government agents from conducting surveillance on you or touching you or invading you, unless they have some evidence that you’re up to something criminal. In other words, the Fourth Amendment ensures privacy and bodily integrity. Unfortunately, the Fourth Amendment has suffered the greatest damage in recent years and has been all but eviscerated by an unwarranted expansion of police powers that include strip searches and even anal and vaginal searches of citizens, surveillance (corporate and otherwise) and intrusions justified in the name of fighting terrorism, as well as the outsourcing of otherwise illegal activities to private contractors.

  The Fifth Amendment and the Sixth Amendment work in tandem. These amendments supposedly ensure that you are innocent until proven guilty, and government authorities cannot deprive you of your life, your liberty or your property without the right to an attorney and a fair trial before a civilian judge. However, in the new suspect society in which we live, where surveillance is the norm, these fundamental principles have been upended. Certainly, if the government can arbitrarily freeze, seize or lay claim to your property (money, land or possessions) under government asset forfeiture schemes, you have no true rights.

  The Seventh Amendment guarantees citizens the right to a jury trial. Yet when the populace has no idea of what’s in the Constitution—civic education has virtually disappeared from most school curriculums—that inevitably translates to an ignorant jury incapable of distinguishing justice and the law from their own preconceived notions and fears. However, as a growing number of citizens are coming to realize, the power of the jury to nullify the government’s actions—and thereby help balance the scales of justice—is not to be underestimated. Jury nullification reminds the government that “we the people” retain the power to ultimately determine what laws are just.

  The Eighth Amendment is similar to the Sixth in that it is supposed to protect the rights of the accused and forbid the use of cruel and unusual punishment. However, the Supreme Court’s determination that what constitutes “cruel and unusual” should be dependent on the “evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society” leaves us with little protection in the face of a society lacking in morals altogether.

  The Ninth Amendment provides that other rights not enumerated in the Constitution are nonetheless retained by the people. Popular sovereignty—the belief that the power to govern flows upward from the people rather than downward from the rulers—is clearly evident in this amendment. However, it has since been turned on its head by a centralized federal government that sees itself as supreme and which continues to pass more and more laws that restrict our freedoms under the pretext that it has an “important government interest” in doing so.

  As for the Tenth Amendment’s reminder that the people and the states retain every authority that is not otherwise mentioned in the Constitution, that assurance of a system of government in which power is divided among local, state and national entities has long since been rendered moot by the centralized Washington, DC, power elite—the president, Congress and the courts.

  If there is any sense to be made from this recitation of freedoms lost, it is simply this: our individual freedoms have been eviscerated so that the government’s powers could be expanded.

  Yet those who gave us the Constitution and the Bill of Rights believed that the government exists at the behest of its citizens. It is there to protect, defend and even enhance our freedoms, not violate them.

  It was no idle happenstance that the Constitution opens with these three powerful words: “We the people.” As the Preamble proclaims:

  We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this CONSTITUTION for the United States of America.

  In other words, we have the power to make and break the government. We are the masters and they are the servants. We the American people—the citizenry—are the arbiters and ultimate guardians of America’s welfare, defense, liberty, laws and prosperity.

  Still, it’s hard to be a good citizen if you don’t know anything about your rights or how the government is supposed to operate.

  As the National Review rightly asks, “How can Americans possibly make intelligent and informed political choices if they don’t understand the fundamental structure of their government? American citizens have the right to self-government, but it seems that we increasingly lack the capacity for it.”

  Americans are constitutionally illiterate.

  Most citizens have little, if any, knowledge about their basic rights. And our educational system does a poor job of teaching the basic freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. For instance, a survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center found that a little more than one-third of respondents (36 percent) could name all three branches of the U.S. government, while another one-third (35 percent) could not name a single one.

  A survey by the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that only one out of a thousand adults could identify the five rights protected by the First Amendment. On the other hand, more than half (52%) of the respondents could name at least two of the characters in the animated Simpsons television family, and 20% could name all five. And although half could name none of the freedoms in the First Amendment, a majority (54%) could name at least one of the three judges on the TV program American Idol, 41% could name two and one-fourth could name all three.

  It gets worse.

  Many who responded to the survey had a strange conception of what was in the First Amendment. For example, 21% said the “right to own a pet” was listed someplace between “Congress shall make no law” and “redress of grievances.” Some 17% said that the First Amendment contained the “right to drive a car,” and 38% believed that “taking the Fifth” was part of the First Amendment.

  Teachers and school administrators do not fare much better. A study conducted by the Center for Survey Research and Analysis found that one educator in five was unable to name any of the freedoms in the First Amendment.

  In fact, while some educators want students to learn about freedom, they do not necessarily want them to exercise their freedoms in school. As the researchers conclude, “Most educators think that students already have enough freedom, and that restrictions on freedom in the school are necessary. Many support filtering the Internet, censoring T-shirts, disallowing student distribution of political or religious material, and conducting prior review of school newspapers.”

  Government leaders and politicians are also ill-informed. Although they take an oath to uphold, support and defend the Constitution against “enemies foreign and domestic,” their lack of education about our fundamental rights often causes them to be enemies of the Bill of Rights.

  So what’s the solution?

  Thomas Jefferson recognized that a citizenry educated on “their rights, interests, and duties”  is the only real assurance that freedom will survive.

  As Jefferson wrote in 1820: “I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of our society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.”

  From the President on down, anyone taking public office should have a working knowledge of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and should be held accountable for upholding their precepts. One way to ensure this would be to require government leaders to take a course on the Constitution and pass a thorough examination thereof before being allowed to take office.

  Some critics are advocating that students pass the United States citizenship exam in order to graduate from high school. Others recommend that it must be a prerequisite for attending college. I’d go so far as to argue that students should have to pass the citizenship exam before graduating from grade school.

  Here’s an idea to get educated and take a stand for freedom: anyone who signs up to become a member of The Rutherford Institute gets a wallet-sized Bill of Rights card and a Know Your Rights card. Use this card to teach your children the freedoms found in the Bill of Rights.

  If this constitutional illiteracy is not remedied and soon, freedom in America will be doomed.

  As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, we have managed to keep the wolf at bay so far. Barely.

  Our national priorities need to be re-prioritized. For instance, some argue that we need to make America great again. I, for one, would prefer to make America free again.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 23:45

• China Lodges Formal Protest With US Over Possible Taiwan Diplomatic Office Name Change
  China Lodges Formal Protest With US Over Possible Taiwan Diplomatic Office Name Change

  China has lodged a formal protest with the United States over the possibility that Taiwan might change the name of its diplomatic representation office in Washington from the current “Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office” (TECO) to “Taiwan Representative Office”.

  The formal request for the US to not allow the name change came just after on Monday state-run Communist Party mouthpiece Global Times published an op-ed Monday vowing that China’s military will send fighter jets directly over the island in assertion of Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan.

  

  The proposal was first requested by Taipei, and this current round of diplomatic tensions over the issue was sparked immediately upon reports the Biden administration is “seriously considering” allowing the name change. 

  Since 2017 a handful of countries including Nigeria, Jordan and Ecuador, briefly OK’ed Taiwan representation name changes, but quickly reversed course after feeling severe pressure from China, a large trading partner. 

  According to the South China Morning Post late in the evening Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry issued a formal denunciation of the possible name change at the end of a day it was being widely reported:

  Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Monday that China had “lodged solemn representations” with the US and urged it to abide by the one-China principle and the three US-China communiqués – joint statements in 1972, 1979 and 1982 that included the US stating its intention to gradually decrease arms sales to the island.

  Zhao said Washington should “stop any form of official exchanges between the US and Taiwan to improve substantive relations”, including by changing the name of Tecro.

  Meanwhile during this week’s testy Congressional hearings, Secretary of State Antony Blinken let slip the words “country” of Taiwan…

  Blinken said the US will defend the “country” of Taiwan, a rookie messaging mistake.

  — Max Abrahms (@MaxAbrahms) September 13, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Earlier in the summer the deputy director of the American Institute in Taiwan Raymond Greene, considered the de facto US diplomat to Taiwan, made statements indicating the US now sees in the Taiwan controversy an “opportunity” to counter Beijing. 

  The Chinese people don’t want war. We don’t build a military alliance, or impose coercive trade, all-around blockade or sanctions. We don’t request other countries to follow our political system. Americans should look in the mirror and see how bad they are. pic.twitter.com/c7pCQnaMmO

  — Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) September 13, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  “The United States no longer sees Taiwan as a ‘problem’ in our relations with China, we see it as an opportunity to advance our shared vision,” Greene had said in the June comments. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 23:25

• Buchanan: Who And What Is Tearing The US Apart?
  Buchanan: Who And What Is Tearing The US Apart?

  Authored by Pat Buchanan,

  In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, former President George W. Bush’s theme was national unity — and how it has been lost over these past 20 years.

  “In the weeks and months following the 9/11 attacks,” said Bush, “I was proud to lead an amazing, resilient, united people. When it comes to the unity of America, those days seem distant from our own. A malign force seems at work in our common life that turns every disagreement into an argument, and every argument into a clash of cultures.”

  Though he surely did not realize it, Bush had himself, moments before, given us an example of how that unity was destroyed when he drew a parallel between the terrorists of 9/11 and the Trump protesters of Jan 6. Said Bush:

  “There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home. But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit.”

  

  What is Bush saying here?

  That Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran shot to death trying to enter the House chamber on Jan. 6, and Mohamed Atta, who drove an airliner into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in a massacre of close to 3,000 people, are “children of the same foul spirit.”

  Query: Was not Bush himself here giving us an example of the “malign force” that “turns every disagreement … into a clash of cultures”?

  Bush did not mention his own contribution to our national divide: his invasion of a country, Iraq, that did not threaten us, did not attack us, and did not want war with us — to disarm it of weapons it did not even have.

  Which contributed more to the loss of America’s national unity?

  The four hours of mob violence in the Capitol the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, or the 18-year war in Iraq that Bush launched in 2003?

  “In those fateful hours” after 9/11, said Bush, “Many Americans struggled to understand why an enemy would hate us with such zeal.”

  Yet, well before 9/11, Osama bin Laden, in his declaration of war on us, listed his grievances. Our sanctions were starving the children of Iraq. Our military presence on the sacred soil of Saudi Arabia, home to Mecca, was a national insult and a blasphemous outrage to Islam.

  After 9/11, Bush invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. President Barack Obama attacked Libya and plunged us into the Syrian and Yemeni civil wars.

  Thus, over 20 years, we have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands — Afghans, Iraqis, Syrians, Yemenis, soldiers and civilians alike — and driven hundreds of thousands more from their homes and their countries.

  Are Americans really as oblivious, as Bush suggests, as to why it was that our enemies “hate us with such zeal”?

  Many of these peoples want us out of their countries for the same reason that 18th- and 19th-century Americans wanted the French, British and Spanish out of our country and out of our hemisphere.

  Yet, it is not only the Bush and Obama wars that have made us so many enemies abroad and so deeply divided us at home.

  Our southern border is being overrun by illegal immigrants whose number, since President Joe Biden took office, has been running at close to 2 million a year, with 30,000 “get-aways” a month. These last are mostly males who never make contact with the Border Patrol as they move on to their chosen destinations. They are coming now not only from Mexico and the northern tier countries of Central America but also from some 100 countries around the world.

  Americans fear they are losing their country to the uninvited and invading millions of the Global South coming to dispossess them of their patrimony. They never voted for this invasion and have wanted their chosen leaders to stop it.

  Former President Donald Trump earned their trust because he tried and, to a great degree, succeeded.

  Unlike previous generations, our 21st-century divisions are far broader — not just economic and political, but social, moral, cultural and racial.

  Abortion, same-sex marriage and transgender rights divide us. Socialism and capitalism divide us. Affirmative action, Black Lives Matter, urban crime, gun violence and critical race theory divide us. Allegations of white privilege and white supremacy, and demands that equality of opportunity give way to equity of rewards, divide us. In the COVID-19 pandemic, the wearing of masks and vaccine mandates divide us.

  Demands to tear down monuments and memorials to those who were, until lately, America’s greats — from Christopher Columbus to George Washington to Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, from Abraham Lincoln to Robert E. Lee to Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson — divide us.

  We are even divided today on the most fundamental of questions:

  Is America now, and has it always been, a good and great country, worthy of the loyalty and love of all its children, of all its citizens?

  And are we Americans proceeding toward that “more perfect union” or heading for a reenactment of our previous violent disunion?

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 23:05

• "Life Has Not Improved By As Much As We Hoped" – Singapore Outbreak Worsens With 80% Vaccinated
  “Life Has Not Improved By As Much As We Hoped” – Singapore Outbreak Worsens With 80% Vaccinated

  Singapore has just reached a level of vaccination penetration that many other developed economies would envy: 80% of its adult population has been vaccinated. And yet, it continues to struggle with one of the worst outbreaks yet. On Sunday, the nation of 5.7 million people reported 555 new local COVID-19 cases, the most since August 2020. One day prior, Singapore recorded its 58th COVID death, a partially vaccinated 80-year-old man with a history of diabetes, hypertension and heart problems.

  Rather than lowering restrictions, Singapore’s Ministry of Health last week banned social gatherings at workplaces, allegedly because clusters of workers gossiping around the water cooler led to an outbreak. And in their free time, Singaporeans have been asked to attend one social gathering per day, tops.

  

  Despite Singapore being one of the world’s most heavily vaxxed countries, not much about life has changed for the worst of the COVID pandemic. Alex Cook, an infectious diseases modelling expert at the National University of Singapore, acknowledged that life had not improved “by as much as we might have hoped,” despite Singapore being one of the world’s most vaccinated countries.

  A curious thing has happened since Singapore hit 80%, Cook reminds us: “The community cases have actually gone up since reaching 80 per cent coverage, in part because we’re allowing more social events for those who are vaccinated and, I dare say, more fatigue at the control measures,” Cook told the ABC.

  And the outlook isn’t exactly positive: Gan Kim Yong, co-chair of the multi-ministry task force, said the “worrying” spike in infections would “probably get to 2,000 new cases a day,” describing the next two to four weeks as “crucial.”

  It’s a lesson that’s not unique to Singapore; “One main lesson from across South-East Asia is that it is incredibly hard to prevent Delta’s spread and, as Singapore shows, even high vaccination rates will not help that much,” Cook added.

  While they’re mostly symptomatic, Singapore is still finding a lot of breakthrough infections among the vaccinated. At this point, it’s only the latest piece of evidence to suggest that even the revised official efficacy rate of the Pfizer jab just isn’t realistic when we look at the case numbers.

  Another scientist said the continued spread is merely a sign that 80% vaccinated is still “too low for delta”. Leong Hoe Nam, an infectious diseases expert from Singapore’s Rophi Clinic, said the Delta strain had moved the goalposts, in terms of what level of community vaccination was necessary.

  But looking at recent waves of COVID infections in the US, Europe and in Asia, it’s starting to look like that virus simply adapts so quickly, vaccines just aren’t effective enough. Maybe natural immunity is the better rout after all.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 22:45

• The Masking Of The Servant Class: Ugly COVID Images From The Met Gala Are Now Commonplace
  The Masking Of The Servant Class: Ugly COVID Images From The Met Gala Are Now Commonplace

  Authored by Glenn Greenwld via greenwald.substack.com,

  From the start of the pandemic, political elites have been repeatedly caught exempting themselves from the restrictive rules they impose on the lives of those over whom they rule. Governors, mayors, ministers and Speakers of the House have been filmed violating their own COVID protocols in order to dine with their closest lobbyist-friends, enjoy a coddled hair styling in chic salons, or unwind after signing new lockdown and quarantine orders by sneaking away for a weekend getaway with the family. The trend became so widespread that ABC News gathered all the examples under the headline “Elected officials slammed for hypocrisy for not following own COVID-19 advice,” while Business Insider in May updated the reporting with this: “14 prominent Democrats stand accused of hypocrisy for ignoring COVID-19 restrictions they’re urging their constituents to obey.”

  

  Most of those transgressions were too flagrant to ignore and thus produced some degree of scandal and resentment for the political officials granting themselves such license. Dominant liberal culture is, if nothing else, fiercely rule-abiding: they get very upset when they see anyone defying decrees from authorities, even if the rule-breaker is the official who promulgated the directives for everyone else. Photos released last November of California Governor Gavin Newsom giggling maskless as he sat with other maskless state health officials celebrating the birthday of a powerful lobbyist — just one month after he told the public to “to keep your mask on in between bites” and while severe state-imposed restrictions were in place regarding leaving one’s home — caused a drop in popularity and helped fueled a recall initiative against him. Newsom and these other officials broke their own rules, and even among liberals who venerate their leaders as celebrities, rule-breaking is frowned upon.

  But as is so often the case, the most disturbing aspects of elite behavior are found not in what they have prohibited but rather in what they have decided is permissible. When it comes to mask mandates, it is now commonplace to see two distinct classes of people: those who remain maskless as they are served, and those they employ as their servants who must have their faces covered at all times. Prior to the COVID pandemic, it was difficult to imagine how the enormous chasm between the lives of cultural and political elites and everyone else could be made any larger, yet the pandemic generated a new form of crude cultural segregation: a series of protocols which ensure that maskless elites need not ever cast eyes upon the faces of their servant class.

  Last month, a delightful event was hosted by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for wealthy Democratic donors in Napa — the same wine region of choice for Gov. Newsom’s notorious dinner party — at which the cheapest tickets were $100 each and a “chair” designation was available for $29,000. Video of the outdoor festivities showed an overwhelmingly white crowd of rich Democratic donors sitting maskless virtually on top of one another — not an iota of social distancing to be found — as Pelosi imparted her deep wisdom about public policy.

  Pelosi’s donor gala took place as millions face eviction, ongoing joblessness, and ever-emerging mandates of various types. It was also held just five days after the liberal county government of Los Angeles, in the name of Delta, imposed a countywide mask requirement for “major outdoor events.” In nearby San Francisco, where Pelosi’s mansion is found, the liberal-run city government has maintained a more restrictive outdoor mask policy than the CDC: though masks were not required for outdoor exercising (such as jogging) or while consuming food, the city’s rules for outdoor events required “that at any gathering where there are more than 300 people, masks are still required for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people.” Though Pelosi’s fundraising lunch fell below the 10,000-person threshold for LA County’s outdoor mask mandate, it may have fallen within San Francisco’s mask mandate. Either way, it appears arbitrary at best: how would The Science™ of COVID risk have drastically changed for those sitting with no distancing, at densely packed tables, if there had been a few more tables of Pelosi donors? The CDC’s latest guidelines for outdoor events urge people to “consider wearing a mask…for activities with close contact with others who are not fully vaccinated.”

  Trying to find a cogent scientific rationale for any of this is, by design, virtually impossible. The rules are sufficiently convoluted and often arbitrary that one can easily mount arguments to legally justify the Versailles-like conduct of one’s favorite liberal political leaders. Beyond the legalities, everything one does can be simultaneously declared to be responsible or reckless, depending on the political needs of the moment. But what was most striking about Pelosi’s donor event was not the possibility of legal infractions but rather the two-tiered system that was so viscerally and uncomfortably obvious.

  Even though many of the wealthy white donors had no food in front of them and were not yet eating, there was not a mask in sight — except on the faces of the overwhelmingly non-white people hired as servants, all of whom had their gratuitous faces covered. Servants, apparently, are much more pleasant when they are dehumanized. There is no need for noses or mouths or other identifiable facial features for those who are converted into servile robots.

  Similar scenes were visible at the even more opulent birthday bash which former President Barack Obama threw for himself to commemorate his 60 years on the planet. Held at his sprawling $12 million weekend estate on Martha’s Vineyard, Obama and 400 of his closest maskless friends spent hours in indoor tents dancing, chatting in close circles, and yelling in each other’s ears over the live music. While custom-made masks engraved with Obama’s renowned humility were provided to the guests (“44×60”), only the servants were reported to have worn masks. Who can throw a Hawaiian luau-themed party at one of the country’s wealthiest retreats in the middle of a pandemic and joblessness crisis while wearing disfiguring masks, however chic and carefully hand-crafted they might be?

  Discussing the controversy over Obama’s lavish party on CNN, New York Times reporter Annie Karni explained that while some of the former president’s neighbors found the party objectionable on the grounds of health and/or optics, many adamantly argued that such concerns were applicable only to ordinary people, not the more advanced and evolved species likely to be invited to such an extravagant and exclusive liberal party. Karni described this prevailing mentality with vivid accuracy:

  [The controversy] is really being overblown. They’re following all the safety requirements. People are going to sporting events that are bigger than this. This is going to be safe. This is a sophisticated, vaccinated crowd and this is just about optics. It’s not about safety.

  An avalanche of similarly repugnant imagery poured forth on Monday night at the most gluttonous and opulent royal court spectacle of them all: the annual Met Gala held by long-time Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Town and Country has lamented that the once-elevated-and-dignified event has become quite gauche ever since it became overrun by cultural celebrities and nouveau riche tycoons — “these days, the gala is a highly commercialized, celebrity-driven media circus that celebrates sensationalist preening by individuals who couldn’t be less interested in the museum.” Yet despite this degradation, the magazine nonetheless still regards the affair as “the fashion and society event of the year.” In 2014, Wintour complained that the event was insufficiently exclusive and raised the ticket prices to $25,000 per person in order to keep out the riff-raff who had been able to get in the prior year for the middling price of $15,000 per ticket. Tickets this year cost as much as $35,000 per person. It is, pronounced Wintour’s Vogue this week, “the fashion world equivalent of the Oscars.”

  While event organizers, in an act of noble self-sacrifice and social duty, sadly cancelled the gala in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, Wintour was determined this year not to let unpleasant matters like overflowing ICU wards, ongoing school closures, looming mass evictions, and pervasive mask mandates ruin the immense enjoyment bequeathed to the world’s serfs as they watch their beloved bejeweled class pose in designer gowns. Following Pelosi and Obama’s examples, a long list of America’s most glittering stars bravely risked exposure to a deadly virus by appearing without masks, all to ensure that Americans would never again be deprived of such a richly gratifying moment for them. Co-chaired by Timothée Chalamet, Billie Eilish, Amanda Gorman, and Naomi Osaka, honorary chairs included Tom Ford, Instagram’s Adam Mosseri, and Wintour herself.

  Much of the attention on Monday night was devoted to the appearance on the red carpet by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). The usual horde of embittered online nay-sayers and envious party-poopers tried implying that there was something incongruous about a socialist politician gleefully participating in the most vulgar tribute to capitalism and social inequality to emerge since the walled-off galas thrown by the French aristocracy at the Palace of Versailles. Some petty, resentful critics even suggested that AOC’s latest star turn somehow illustrated what Shant Mesrobian has disparagingly described as “the Squad’s brand of highly educated, professional-class cultural leftism,” which “now offers elected officials a path to fame and pop culture status that circumvents much of the old, hand-dirtying business of politics,” pursuant to which “elected office itself has become merely a stepping stone to social media celebrity” and “maintaining a social media influencer empire rivals, or even surpasses, the priority of being a successful legislator.”

  Fortunately, many of AOC’s most devoted socialist supporters stepped forth with passionate defenses of their leader. As they pointed out, AOC had painted onto the back of her pristine white gown — in perfectly proportioned and tastefully scrolled red ink highlighting the stunning virtues of the designer dress’ silhouette — a leftist phrase, Tax the Rich, that not only assaulted the Biden-supporting liberal celebrities in attendance but made them feel endangered in their own habitat, as if their wealth and privilege were being imperiled not from afar but from one of their own, from within. Far from being what AOC’s dirty and petty critics tried to malign this as being — an attention-seeking, celebrity-building, branding opportunity in which AOC yet again lavished herself in the multi-pronged rewards of the very economic and cultural hierarchies she claims to despise and vows to combat — she was actually engaged in a revolutionary and subversive act, injecting into aristocratic circles a beautifully artistic yet hostile message.

  This was not, contrary to the grievances of her small-minded and jealous critics, AOC reveling in one of Louis XVI’s court festivities. Instead, she was storming the Bastille: not with weapons or fire but with the graceful designer elegance of the insurgent Marxist renegade, which made her presence all the more deceptively disruptive. While it may have appeared that Vogue‘s perfectly-coiffed red-carpet correspondents and other Met luminaries were gushing with admiration and awe at her bold fashion statement, they were actually shaking with fear over what AOC had wrought. They were quivering with rage and fear, not swooning with delight as it appeared.

  Besides, as AOC herself put it with her trademarked class consciousness, the very fact that she can attend the Met Gala while you cannot is proof of the potency of the left-wing movement she leads. Standing next to Aurora James, the designer of her dress, AOC revealed the underlying clandestine strategy of her subversive attendance: “We really started having a conversation about what it means to be a working class woman of color at the Met … we can’t just play along, but we need to break the fourth wall.”

  “We really started having a conversation about what it means to be a working class woman of color at the Met … we can’t just play along, but we need to break the fourth wall.”

  — AOC at #MetGala pic.twitter.com/UZj22DjMl3

  — The Recount (@therecount) September 14, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  In a separate exposition, AOC explained that her appearance at the Met Gala was such a watershed moment for working-class politics because it is vital that she not be confined to dreary poor and lower-middle class venues when spreading her fist-raising rebellion. Instead, she must endure the burden of carrying her cause to the world’s richest and most privileged elite and the exclusive salons they occupy. Imagine being so unimaginative and myopic as to be unable to recognize and be grateful for AOC’s inventive praxis.

  The jealousy-driven attacks on AOC by her cultural inferiors were almost certainly driven by various forms of white supremacy, misogyny and colonialism, as AOC said of those who criticized her in 2018 for wearing an expensive designer dress (“women like me aren’t supposed to run for office”) as well as when she denounced the dismissive and condescending attitudes toward the Squad from Nancy Pelosi (“Nancy Pelosi has been ‘singling out’ freshman congresswomen of color”). Worse, Monday night’s traumatic bullying of AOC obscured the far more important fact that, yet again, we saw elites prancing around in the middle of a pandemic maskless, while those paid hourly wages to serve them or desperately try to snap a photo of them were required to keep their pointless faces covered with cloth at all times.

  

  COVID rules are now so convoluted that liberals are able to defend their leaders’ actions while not even pretending to make sense from a scientific or rational perspective. Many defended Newsom and Obama’s maskless partying on the ground that it was all “outdoors,” even though both were actually inside tents and people had been shamed for months for taking their kids to deserted beaches rather than keeping them locked away at home. Liberals argue that it is fine for elites at Obama’s party and the Met Gala to remain maskless since they are vaccinated, even as they defend the CDC’s new mask directives for vaccinated people based on the view that vaccinated people still dangerously transmit the Delta variant to both vaccinated and unvaccinated people alike. They will claim that it is fine for rich Democratic donors at Pelosi’s party to sit on top of one other maskless because they are eating even though the video shows they have no food in front of them (they are waiting for the masked servants of color to bring their food) and even though shoveling food into one’s open mouth does not actually create a wall of immunity against transmission of the virus from one’s open-mouthed table neighbors. The Met Gala’s red carpet is said to be “outdoors” even though it is surrounded by tent walls and other structures, and still leaving the question of why workers need to be masked in the same area.

  But all of this stopped being about The Science™ long ago — ever since months of relentless messaging that it is our moral duty to Stay At Home unless we want to sociopathically kill Grandma was replaced overnight by dictates that we had a moral duty to leave our homes to attend densely packed street protests since the racism being protested was a more severe threat to the public health than the global COVID pandemic. One can locate in all of this jumbled and always-shifting rationale various forms of control, shaming, stigma and hierarchy, while The Science™ is nowhere to be found.

  

  Even with all of this deceit and manipulation, there is something uniquely disturbing — creepy even — about becoming accustomed to seeing political and cultural elites wallowing in luxury without masks, while those paid small wages to serve them in various ways are forced to keep cloth over their faces. It is a powerful symbol of the growing rot at the core of America’s cultural and social balkanization: a maskless elite attended to by a permanently faceless servant class. The country’s workers have long been faceless in a figurative sense, and now, thanks to extremely selective application of decisively unscientific COVID restrictions, that condition has become literal.

  ---

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  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 22:25

• Chinese Data Dump Confirms Hard Landing Imminent
  Chinese Data Dump Confirms Hard Landing Imminent

  Update (2210): On the heels of data showing land sales collapsing, tonight’s smorgasbord of data (absent only GDP) on consumption, industrial output and investment will reveal the extent of the damage caused by an outbreak of the delta variant.

  As a reminder ahead of tonight’s August data, the latest official composite purchasing manager’s index fell to the lowest since February 2020, its first contraction after the virus lockdowns, signaling China’s robust economic recovery from last year’s coronavirus trough is losing momentum.

  • Industrial Production YTD YoY MISSED at +13.1% vs +13.5% exp DOWN from +14.4% prior

  • Retail Sales YTD YoY MISSED at +18.1% vs +18.9% exp DOWN from +20.7% prior

  • Fixed Asset Investment YTD YoY MISSED at +8.9% vs +9.0% exp DOWN from +10.3% prior

  • Property Investment YTD YoY MISSED at +10.9% vs +11.3% DOWN from +12.7% prior

  • Surveyed Jobless Rate IN LINE at 5.1% vs 5.1% exp IN LINE with 5.1% prior

  

  Perhaps most notably, year-over-year retail sales rose just 2.5% in August, dramatically worse than the +7% expected and well below the +8.5% in July…

  

  Retail weakness was most pronounced in communication appliances, clothing, household electronics, automobiles and eating out; and as Bloomberg’s Kevin Kingsbury notes, retail sales data are liable to be worse for September (and possibly October) as folks are apt to stay home during the upcoming holidays.

  Notably, the PBOC rolled over 600 billion yuan of funding in a move that signals Beijing is keeping liquidity levels amid the slowdown. The question is, with China’s credit impulse is at its most contractionary in 3 years, is this the turning point once again?

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Policy makers have so far refrained from large-scale stimulus this year, instead resorting to some low-profile tools to increase credit supply to parts of the economy, especially small businesses. It will be hard for Xi to back down from his ivory tower to suddenly flip-flop to support the economy – systemically or idiosyncratically – without appearing to kowtow to the elites at at time when he is clearly focused on avoiding social unrest among the non-elites.

  *  *  *

  As we detailed earlier, one month after we warned that China had just unleashed a stagflation shockwave, as inflation – and especially factory price inflation – hit the highest in 13 years, crushing corporate profits, while GDP disappointed, and weeks after we also pointed out that China’s credit growth in August had collapsed to the lowest level since the peak of the covid crisis in Feb 2020, Bloomberg writes in its economic preview of China’s economic data dump scheduled for tonight that the country’s economy “likely slowed further in August, with data on consumption, industrial output and investment due Wednesday to reveal the extent of the damage caused by an outbreak of the delta variant.”

  The extent of the slowdown will be closely watched for sign that it’s serious enough to prompt authorities to change their current stance of slowly withdrawing liquidity from markets and keeping stimulus limited. The ongoing regulatory crackdown on sectors like education, the internet and property may have exacerbated the recent economic weakness.

  And while Bloomberg expects substantial disappointments across the board for the month of August when China was hit hard by another round of covid restrictions, including disappointing consumption, property, infrastructure and unemployment data, the reality is that China may be this close to a hard landing.

  The reason for that is that while it won’t be featured in tonight’s data lineup, high-frequency data – actual data, not that kind “filtered” by Beijing’s National Statistics Bureau – points to an absolute disaster for China’s property sector, which has imploded over the past two weeks (coinciding roughly with the terminal collapse of Evergrande).

  According to Nomura, year-over-year growth in volume terms of new home sales, existing home sales and land sales dropped further to -26.6%, -46.6% and -38.3% in the first 11 or 12 days of September from -22.5%, -39.5% and -21.9% in August, respectively. It gets worse: land sales in value terms plunged to -90.4% y-o-y for 1-12 September from -65.0% in August. Some more details from Nomura:

  New home sales growth data for WIND’s 30-city sample serves as a good tracker of official NBS new home sales growth, thanks to their high correlation coefficient of 0.92 during the period from January 2018 to July 2021. Based on our estimates, year-on-year growth in new home sales (hereinafter in volume terms for new home sales) for the WIND 30-city sample declined further to -26.6% for 1-11 September from -22.5% in August and -4.4% in July (Figure 1), while its annualized 2y-o-2y growth also fell to -10.3% in month-to-date September from -5.2% in August and 3.4% in July (Figure 2).

  

  It gets even worse, because a breakdown of the data shows that low-tier cities fared much worse: developers’ net bond financing fell into deeper negative territory in August in both onshore and offshore markets, pointing to a further tightening in developer financing conditions.

  

  According to WIND, growth in land sales in value terms in the 100-city sample, a proxy for land purchases by property developers, slumped to -90.4% y-o-y during 1-12 September form -65.0% in August. In volume (floor space) terms, it also dropped sharply to -38.3% y-o-y from -21.9% (Figure 6).

  

  Although high-frequency land sales data may be under-reported to some extent, as WIND may not receive all cities’ data in a timely manner; the downtrend in land sales growth is quite evident.

  These data support the cautious view of Nomura’s Ting Lu of China’s property sector and macro economy. As Lu writes, “we believe the ongoing property curbs are unlikely to be eased in the near term, as Beijing has attached national strategic importance to reining in property bubbles, directly intervening in credit supply for the property sector, leaving it little room to dial back these curbs.”

  The likelihood of Beijing easing its property curbs is quite low. Actually, despite the worsening property sector, a number of cities have further tightened their curbs over the past two weeks.

  This brings us to another observation made by Nomura last month in the bank’s must read report “Asia Special Report – China: Beijing’s Volcker moment” (available for pro ZH subs at the usual place) namely that the country is facing its “Volcker moment“, as Beijing seems to be willing to sacrifice some growth stability for achieving long-term targets, namely

  • less dependence on foreign high-tech goods,
  • achieving a higher birth rate and
  • reducing wealth inequality.

  Here, Lu repeats his dire conclusion, warning that “there is likely to be a much worse-than-expected growth slowdown, more loan and bond defaults, and potential stock market turmoil.”

  It’s also clear that so far low-tier cities have borne the brunt of the ongoing property sector downturn, due to Beijing’s unprecedented tightening measures, the tapering of the PBoC’s pledged supplementary lending and continued population outflows towards large cities.

  Finally, the latest covid breakout (in the nation that created covid) isn’t helping. As we reported earlier, over the weekend, Putian city in East China’s Fujian province reported 64 local positive cases and the city already imposed locality-based lockdown and “discouraged” people from leaving the city – translation: another multi-million city is under massive quarantine. Of course, it has failed and the outbreak has already spread to neighboring cities in Fujian province, including Xiamen and Quanzhou, with several districts and hospitals put under lockdown there. The situation will get worse as some analysis estimate around 30,000 people have already traveled out from Putian.

  Bottom line: Beijing is facing an economy whose wheels have suddenly come off, and unless China’s political elite is willing to unleash another massive monetary and fiscal tsunami and bail out the economy all over again – something Beijing has repeatedly vowed it won’t do this time – a hard landing, whether or not accompanied by a Volcker Moment, is virtually guaranteed.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 22:08

• Microsoft Announces Record $60 Billion Buyback Just As Market Was About To Break Key Support
  Microsoft Announces Record $60 Billion Buyback Just As Market Was About To Break Key Support

  It was just last Thursday when, commenting on the record flood of corporate bond issuance to hit investment grade companies, which hit an all-time post Labor day high of $60.6BN in new issues across a record (for any two-day period) 39 deals (the previous two-day record was 36 deals immediately after Labor Day in 2019) we said that “while much of tens of billions in proceeds will be used to refi existing debt, we expect a good portion to stay as “general corporate purposes”, i.e., used as dry powder to repurchase stocks. Which means brace for a tidal wave of buybacks in the coming days.“

  We had to wait just three trading days for this prediction to come true because shortly after the close on Tuesday, Microsoft which is the second most valuable company in the world after Apple with a market cap of just over $2.2 trillion, announced that its board approved a new share repurchase program authorizing up to $60 billion in share repurchases. The new share repurchase program represents 2.7% of MSFT’s entire market cap and comes exactly two years after the company’s last buyback authorization which was $40 billion.

  In short, it is precisely the kind of buyback tsunami we had expected would arrive just days after the biggest bond offering onslaught in history.

  But there’s more, because while MSFT stock is up about 1% on this news alone and set to hit a new all time high in the next few days making the MSFT board extremely rich(er), the record repurchase could not have come at a more critical time for stocks: with Apple crapping the bed, and tumbling on its dismal iPhone 13 launch date, it had dragged the S&P just above the critical 50 DMA support level. And just when the market despertely need a boost, here comes Microsoft.

  

  Come to think of it, this is precisely what happened in mid-August, when just as the ES was about to drop below the even more critical 4,350 support level, banks unleashed a record round of buybacks according to BofA.

  

  And so, two birds with one buyback: MSFT stock is back to just shy of all time highs, and the S&P has been rescued, with the downward momentum from the recent selling solidly supported now that traders know that the tech giants will boldly step in with tens of billions in buybacks to prop up the “market.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 21:45

• Tajikistan Summons US Ambassador, Angry Over Biden's 9/11 Remarks
  Tajikistan Summons US Ambassador, Angry Over Biden’s 9/11 Remarks

  The central Asian country of Tajikistan, which shares the entirety of its southern border with Afghanistan, has summoned the US ambassador on Tuesday to mount protest over remarks by President Joe Biden during weekend 9/11 anniversary commemoration events. 

  “A verbal note of protest was conveyed to the US Ambassador in connection with the statements by the President of the United States of America Mr. Joe Biden during his visit to a fire station in Pennsylvania,” Tajikistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “The verbal note stated that such statements do not correspond to the spirit of friendly relations and partnership.”

  

  The US ambassador in residence in Dushanbe – the capital of Tajikistan – John Mark Pommersheim, was summoned on Tuesday. He was informed that the country was offended by Biden’s reference to Tajiks also “hanging in the well of the wheel” if the US had landed a large C-130 transport plane in Tajikistan. 

  The diplomatic protest comes after Biden claimed at a 9/11 commemorative event in Pennsylvania that like Afghans, many Tajiks would also be “hanging in the well of the wheel” if the US pulled up a C-130 Hercules aircraft in Tajikistan.

  Here’s the offending section of the speech which Biden had delivered during a 9/11 memorial event at a fire station in Pennsylvania, according to the White House readout: 

  “As I read it, I am told, 70 percent of the American people think it was time to get out of Afghanistan, spending all that money. “But the flip of it is, they didn’t like the way we got out. But it’s hard to explain to anybody how else could you get out. For example, if we were in Tajikistan and we pulled up with a C-130 and said, “We’re going to let, you know, anybody who was involved with being sympathetic to us to get on the plane,” you’d have people hanging in the wheel well. Come on.”

  Biden was defending the pullout and horribly botched evacuation initiated in mid-August, which resulted in multiple Afghan civilian as well as troop deaths. In particular he was referencing the Afghan civilians who attempted to hold on to the wheel skirt and landing gear of a C-130 while it took off from Kabul airport.

  

  At least two had been filmed plummeting to their deaths immediately after the US plane took off, while another young man was found dead in the wheel well when it landed in Doha. The grisly scenes were widely deemed “defining images” of the US pullout fiasco in its final days. 

  Biden comments offered Tajikistan as a place where the exact same thing would supposedly happen, according to the president’s words, which were framed using a whataboutism argument using Tajikistan as the foremost next example. No doubt, Tajikistan’s leaders are outraged at the implication that the population is so desperate to flee that Tajiks would risk death to get out. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 21:25

• Texas Hospital Faces Closure Over Vaccine Mandate, CEO Says
  Texas Hospital Faces Closure Over Vaccine Mandate, CEO Says

  By Becker Hospital Review

  Nearly 140 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, and the federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate could force at least one more to shut its doors. 

  President Joe Biden’s administration is taking steps to require millions of American workers, including certain healthcare workers, to get a COVID-19 vaccine. The plan requires those who work at hospitals and other types of medical facilities that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding to get a COVID-19 vaccine. 

  Brownfield (Texas) Regional Medical Center, a rural hospital, will lose up to 25 percent of its employees if the vaccine mandate is enforced, CEO Jerry Jasper told KCBD.

  

  Losing those workers would probably shut down the hospital because some nurses have already quit to take jobs with nursing agencies that offer higher pay, according to the report. 

  Not complying with the vaccine mandate and losing Medicare and Medicaid funding isn’t an option for Brownfield Regional Medical Center. About 80 percent of the hospital’s funding comes from Medicare and Medicaid, Mr. Jasper told KCBD. 

  The vaccine mandate puts Texas hospital leaders in a complicated position because Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order banning public hospitals from enacting COVID-19 vaccine mandates. 

  “How’s Governor Abbott going to take this? He hasn’t complied with anything federal laws have done so far,” Mr. Jasper told KCBD.

  “So, we’re going to have to, here in Texas at least, we’re going to have to wait and see how it plays out.” 

  Mr. Jasper isn’t the only hospital chief in Texas grappling with how to respond to the vaccine mandate. 

  “I’ve got President Biden telling me he’s going to mandate it, but I have Gov. Abbott who says I cannot mandate it,” Adam Willman, CEO of Clifton-based Goodall-Witcher Healthcare, told the Texas Tribune Sept. 10.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 21:05

• NBA Won't Impose Vaccine Requirement On Players After Union 'Refused To Budge'
  NBA Won’t Impose Vaccine Requirement On Players After Union ‘Refused To Budge’

  What do NBA players, Congress and US postal workers have in common? None of them will be subject to vaccine mandates that up to 100 million Americans face following last week’s Executive Order.

  

  According to ESPN, NBA players have become the latest ‘exempted class’ from the mandates, after their union (the NBPA) “refused to budge on its demand that players not be required to take the vaccine.”

  The NBA and NBPA continue to negotiate aspects of COVID-related protocols and procedures for the upcoming 2021-22 campaign, but the NBPA has refused to budge on its demand that players not be required to take the vaccine, sources say, and any proposal that mandates vaccination remains a “non-starter.”

  NBA referees and most NBA staff will be required to take the jab, according to the report.

  Roughly 85% of players are vaccinated, a league spokesman recently said, and, in a preliminary memo obtained by ESPN in early September, the league outlined a set of strict protocols for unvaccinated players.

  Such protocols include having lockers far from vaccinated teammates and having to eat, fly and ride buses in different sections. These protocols are not final and are still subject to talks with the NBPA. -ESPN

  Earlier this month, the NBA informed teams that vaccine requirements in both New York and San Francisco will be enforced for members of the Knicks, Nets and Golden State Warriors – including all players – unless there are approved medical or religious exemptions, according to a memo obtained by ESPN.

  And late last month, the NBA informed teams that anyone who came within 15 feet of players or officials during games would be required to be fully vaccinated by October 1.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 20:51

• Russia Releases Footage Of Armed 'Robot Tanks' In Action During Zapad-2021 Exercises
  Russia Releases Footage Of Armed ‘Robot Tanks’ In Action During Zapad-2021 Exercises

  Russia’s military has put its cutting edge robot armored fighting vehicles on display during the ongoing massive Zapad-2021 exercises with Belarus and other allied countries. 

  The Ministry of Defense (MoD) released brief footage of the robots being battle-tested during the exercise, with Russian state media describing that “Robotic Russian fighting machines fired anti-armor missiles and let rip with mounted flamethrowers on Monday, while their operators sat in safety away from the battlefield, in colossal drills attended by President Vladimir Putin.”

  

  One of the two models in the exercise was the Uran-9 armored fighting vehicle, which looks like a small conventional tank, and utilizes laser sensors to hone in on targets, and can be outfitted with rockets or large guns, and even a flame-thrower.

  The other model is called the Nerekhta combat robot, which has a purpose of going to places near or behind enemy lines where it’s too dangerous to send regular infantry forces. One Russian military official described that the Nerekhta is “designed to perform reconnaissance tasks, direct fire on enemy positions, and quickly deliver ammunition and equipment.”

  The pair of robots unleashed fire on a simulated enemy during the Zapad-2021 exercises. Russia is rumored to have actually deployed robotic fighting vehicles during prior years in the Syria war, though there’s yet to be footage or confirmation of this. 

  Footage of the robots in action released by the Russian MoD:

  In footage released by the Russian military, the robots maneuvering amidst a large battlefield scene looks like something straight out of The Terminator.

  Zapad-2021 kicked off last Friday, and is mainly taking place at over a dozen bases and ranges mostly on Russian and Belarusian soil. Considered the largest joint war games to take place in Europe in decades, it involves up to 200,000 troops – including elite paratroopers – nearly 800 tanks, and 15 warships plus 80 aircraft.

  #Footage The Baltic and Northern Fleet marines and underwater commandoes neutralize a group of conditional saboteurs, who took over the Russian battle ships’ homebase, during the #Zapad2021 strategic exercise https://t.co/PbWgygObNS#RussiaBelarus #JointExercises #BalticFleet pic.twitter.com/iFBYDDqGuI

  — Минобороны России (@mod_russia) September 14, 2021

  The drills are designed to test the allied militaries’ “interaction during combat operations and letting commanders and staff practice troop management during joint actions in repelling aggression against the Union State,” according to the MoD, which is a reference to the agreement going back to 1999 in which Russia and Belarus committed to deeper political, military, and economic integration.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 20:45

• NHTSA Asks 12 Competing Automakers To Help With Its Broad Investigation Of Tesla's Autopilot
  NHTSA Asks 12 Competing Automakers To Help With Its Broad Investigation Of Tesla’s Autopilot

  The wide-ranging NHTSA probe into Tesla’s Autopilot just got a little more “wide-ranging”.

  That’s because today it was reported that the NHTSA has asked for help from 12 major competitors other automakers in its probe of crashes involving Tesla vehicles. 

  General Motors, Toyota, Ford and Volkswagen were among the names contacted by the NHTSA as the regulator starts to conduct a “comparative analysis” with other “production vehicles equipped with the ability to control both steering and braking/accelerating simultaneously under some circumstances,” Reuters reported Tuesday. 

  The NHTSA is seeking out information on any crashes in which an advanced driver system was operating “anytime during the period beginning 30 seconds immediately prior to the commencement of the crash,” the report said. 

  The regulator is also looking into how driver assistance systems confirm that drivers are engaged and paying attention. And finally, the NHTSA asked other automakers about their “strategies for detecting and responding to the presence of first responder / law enforcement vehicles.”

  

  Recall, the NHTSA recently said it had opened a formal investigation into the company’s Autopilot feature. It said it is opening a probe into Tesla’s Model X, S, and 3 for model years 2014-2021. The broad range of models and model years means that this could be the broad investigation that Tesla skeptics have been requesting for years. Specifically, the regulator is looking into a litany of accidents involving Teslas on Autopilot slamming into inanimate emergency response vehicles on the road. 

  The NHTSA said the investigation would assess technologies, methods “used to monitor, assist, and enforce the driver’s engagement” during autopilot operation, according to Bloomberg.

  Goldman Sachs appeared anything but optimistic that the probe into Autopilot would be resolved quickly. “Given the current probe is related to a Level 2 driver-assist system, one solution could be for an enhanced driver monitoring system to ensure driver compliance with Tesla’s terms of use,” the investment bank wrote last month.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 20:25

• B-2 Stealth Bomber Damaged During "Emergency Landing" At Whiteman Air Force Base
  B-2 Stealth Bomber Damaged During “Emergency Landing” At Whiteman Air Force Base

  A U.S. Air Force stealth bomber was damaged Tuesday after an emergency landing at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. 

  

  Details are limited, but The War Zone received a statement from Air Force Global Strike Command about the incident that unfolded at 0030 local time at Whiteman AFB. 

  There has been an incident at Whiteman AFB. It occurred at approximately 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 14.

  A U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit experienced and [sic] in-flight malfunction during a routine training mission and was damaged on the runway at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, after an emergency landing.

  There were no personnel injuries and no fire associated with the landing. The incident is under investigation and more information will be provided as it becomes available.

  A notice to airmen, or NOTAM, was filed around Whiteman AFB, located near Knob Noster, Missouri, “to provide a safe environment for accident investigations.” The base is home to the B-2 Stealth Bomber of the 509th Bomb Wing.

  

  No damage reports have been released or if the stealth bomber was carrying a payload. The War Zone said there was no fire, and the pilots were unharmed. 

  Northrop Grumman only built 21 of these heavy strategic stealth bombers. One was lost in Guam in 2008. And possibly another has been damaged early Tuesday morning. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 20:10

• Contaminated Pfizer Vaccines Reported In Several Japanese Cities
  Contaminated Pfizer Vaccines Reported In Several Japanese Cities

  Several cities in Japan have reported ‘white-colored floating substances’ in Vials of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, according to Bloomberg.

  

  The vials came from lot FF5357, where white contaminants were first reported by Kamakura City in Kanagawa prefecture. On Tuesday, two more cities – neighboring Sagamihara and Sakai City in Osaka prefecture reported contaminated vials, however there were no reports of adverse reactions. In Sagamihara, white substances were reported at three different vaccination sites on Sept. 11, 12 and 14.

  The cities told Bloomberg that they will ask Pfizer for an analysis.

  Last month Moderna came under fire after black contaminants were found in multiple vials of their Covid-19 vaccine in Japan, causing the Japanese Ministry of Health to pull 1.6 million doses of the vaccine.

  

  According to NHK, “black substances” were found in syringes and a vial, while pink substances were spotted in a different syringe.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 19:57

• China's Xi Snubbed Biden's Suggestion Of Face-To-Face Summit In Phone Call
  China’s Xi Snubbed Biden’s Suggestion Of Face-To-Face Summit In Phone Call

  New reporting in Financial Times has revealed that President Joe Biden’s efforts to initiate an in-person summit with President Xi Jinping at a moment relations remain a low point have been snubbed by the Chinese leader. The serious overture that Biden made ultimately fell “on deaf ears,” the report emphasizes, as Xi apparently displayed no interest.

  FT reveals the offer was made by Biden during the two leaders’ 90-minute phone call last Thursday. The White House call readout made no mention of the proposed in-person summit. It only said “The two leaders had a broad, strategic discussion in which they discussed areas where our interests converge, and areas where our interests, values, and perspectives diverge,” and the statement added, “They agreed to engage on both sets of issues openly and straightforwardly.”

  

  But on Tuesday the FT reports, “The US president proposed to Xi that the leaders hold the summit in an effort to break a deadlock in US-China relations, but several people briefed on the call said the Chinese leader did not accept it and instead insisted that Washington adopt a less strident tone towards Beijing.”

  And further, “Five people briefed on the call said that although Xi had used less abrasive language than his senior diplomats had done this year, his overall message to Biden was that the United States must moderate its rhetoric.”

  Another official cited Biden’s efforts as including proposing “several possibilities for follow-up engagement with Xi” which included the idea of a summit. FT suggests there was widespread “disappointment” at the White House given Xi’s clear lack of interest in Biden’s significant overture.

  As for the Chinse reaction to the proposed summit, FT explains:

  Chinese accounts of the appeal pointed out that it was initiated by Biden, and quoted Xi as saying that US policies had caused “serious hardship.” They also noted that the United States “looked forward to more discussions and cooperation” with China, in language that implied Washington was pushing harder for engagement than Beijing.

  Biden on the phone to Xi last week: let’s avoid a New Cold War.

  Biden to his mates in Australia, Japan and India this week: let’s figure out how to deepen this New Cold War.https://t.co/YcRz3WAhbL

  — Carlos Martinez (@agent_of_change) September 14, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  So it appears Beijing is not at all scarred or feeling pressure by Biden’s ‘get tough’ on China stance, which has included continuing a number of Trump policies, particularly ramping up targeted sanctions on officials related to Hong Kong and Uyghur crackdowns – and continuing weapons sales to Taiwan, alongside an increased US naval presence in the South China Sea and through the contested Taiwan Strait.

  Following the revelation of this significant snub, which no doubt the White House would have preferred to keep a tight lid on, President Xi and Beijing officials likely see China as now a bit more comfortably in the driver’s seat when it comes to future proposals and efforts at direct engagement.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 19:45

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Watch: Latvian Army Conducts Shooting Drills In Busy Streets
  Watch: Latvian Army Conducts Shooting Drills In Busy Streets

  Footage of a war exercise in the busy streets of Latvia’s capital, Riga, shows heavily armed soldiers firing assault rifles among frightened residents.  

  According to RT News, videos of a field training exercise in Riga were first published online on Saturday morning, have since gone viral. Dozens of heavily armed soldiers conducted what appears to be urban warfare training, firing weapons with blank rounds. 

  Military exercises in the center of Riga, Latvia, no warning given

  Follow us on Telegram: https://t.co/Q7gy2WKwCh pic.twitter.com/JaFbB2RhJn

  — RT (@RT_com) September 13, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  In one scene, a soldier fired his assault rifle as a young woman walked by, causing her baby to cry. 

  The incident prompted a backlash among residents who complained the capital was transformed into a warzone without notice. This forced the military to issue an apology:

  “During such drills, we only use blank cartridges, which make noise but do not pose any danger to the health and life of others. In this case, blank cartridges were also used, and this situation was a bitter misunderstanding, for which we apologize. The Defense Ministry calls on the public to show understanding for the exercises,” the ministry said in a statement cited by the TVnet website.

  The exercise in Riga was part of the Namejs 2021 simulated warfare drills that are being held across the region through October. Latvia is a NATO member that is located between Lithuania and Estonia and also borders Russia. 

  Last week, Soviet satellite ally Belarus kicked off war games, which were some of the largest in decades. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 02:45

• UK Government Says Vaccine Passports Integral To COVID Winter Plan Day After They Were Supposedly Scrapped
  UK Government Says Vaccine Passports Integral To COVID Winter Plan Day After They Were Supposedly Scrapped

  Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

  The UK government has insisted that vaccine passports will remain an integral tool in fighting the spread of COVID just a day after health secretary Sajid Javid asserted that they had been completely scrapped.

  

  Well, that didn’t take long.

  During his media rounds yesterday morning, Javid said that vaccine passports represented a “huge intrusion into people’s lives,” adding, “I am pleased to say that we will not be going ahead.”

  However, within 24 hours, the government has indicated that the system will in fact form a “first-line defence” against a winter wave of coronavirus.

  Downing Street has insisted that vaccine passports are still a “first-line defence” against a winter wave of Covid-19 after the health secretary said plans to introduce them had been scrapped.

  https://t.co/ZRydxQfhfx

  — The Times (@thetimes) September 13, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  “No 10 said checks on the vaccine status of people going to nightclubs and other crowded events remained a crucial part of the government’s winter Covid plan due to be unveiled by the prime minister tomorrow,” reports the Times.

  It appears as though the only change is that the passports won’t be introduced at the end of this month, appearing instead during early winter when COVID cases will inevitably and conveniently begin to rise again.

  Mark Harper, chairman of the Covid Recovery Group, said of vaccine passports: “They shouldn’t be kept in reserve — they are pointless, damaging and discriminatory.”

  Trusting government pronouncements on vaccine passports is a fool’s game.

  At the end of last year, the British public were assured that they would never come into force, even as the government was paying millions of pounds to private contractors to set up the system.

  As we previously highlighted, vaccine passports will put nightclubs out of business because they operate at a net profit margin of 15 per cent, while one third of under 40’s in the UK haven’t had a single dose of the vaccine.

  Boris Johnson will also signal that he won’t hesitate to re-introduce mask mandates in winter if cases numbers significantly increase, which they are sure to do given that the UK counts ‘COVID deaths’ as any that occurred within a 28 day COVID diagnosis no matter what the cause of the death.

  As we have repeatedly highlighted, vaccine passports represent a digital ID, which represents the implementation of an onerous social credit score system in the west.

  *  *  *

  Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

  In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. I need you to sign up for my free newsletter here. Support my sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Get early access, exclusive content and behinds the scenes stuff by following me on Locals.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 02:00

• US Pledges "Ironclad" Commitment To Asian Allies After N.Korean 'Strategic' Long-Range Missile Test
  US Pledges “Ironclad” Commitment To Asian Allies After N.Korean ‘Strategic’ Long-Range Missile Test

  The Pentagon has expressed “ironclad” support to regional US allies Japan and South Korea after weekend long-range cruise missile launches by North Korea – the first in six months.

  State media described the launches as testing “newly-developed long-range cruise missiles” which flew 1,500 kilometers over North Korean territory and were successful in hitting their targets, according to Monday statements. The missiles were further described as capable of evading anti-air defenses, though it was left unspecified how many were actually launched. 

  

  US official VOA News noted that “Pictures posted in North Korean state media showed one of the cruise missiles being fired from a five-canister, road-mobile launcher that appeared to be parked on a highway.”

  It was the first significant missile test since last March, prompting US Indo-Pacific Command to put out a statement saying the Pentagon is “consulting closely with our allies and partners.”

  “This activity highlights DPRK’s continuing focus on developing its military program and the threats that it poses to its neighbors and the international community,” the US military statement said. “The US commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan remains ironclad.”

  It’s unclear if the weekend’s test included nuclear-capable missiles, given North Korean state media had dubbed the missiles as a “strategic” launch, leaving some ambiguity over whether they may have been nuclear capable. 

  One analyst of nuclear nonproliferation at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Jeffrey Lewis, at Monterey was quoted as saying in VOA, “This is another system that is designed to fly under missile defense radars or around them.”

  Nuclear and ballistic weapons talks between North Korea and the US have been stalled for two years, since the latter part of the Trump administration; however, it’s been years since the north openly tested a nuclear weapons, with the last known one being at the Punggye-ri test site in 2017.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 01:00

• China Reports First 'School-Centered' COVID Outbreak
  China Reports First ‘School-Centered’ COVID Outbreak

  Weeks have passed since China finally managed to suppress the broad-based delta-driven COVID outbreak centered around Nanjiang which prompted lockdowns, restrictions on movement and mass testing after the virus spread to nearly two dozen provinces.

  But unsurprisingly (since COVID is now endemic to the global human population), a new outbreak has already flared up in Putian, a city of roughly 3MM people in the East Chinese province of Fujian. There’s one interesting detail that sets this outbreak apart from earlier ones: the outbreak has centered around a school, with dozens of school-age children number among the 90 cases that have been confirmed in recent days.

  Since September 10, the infections linked to Putian’s epidemic outbreak have soared to 96 in just three days: 79 in Putian, 10 in Xiamen and seven in Quanzhou. The outbreak, which has been deemed “locally transmitted” despite the alleged link to Singapore. Around 20 of these cases have involved children younger than 12.

  

  Because of this, Chinese health experts quoted in the Global Times, a Chinese state-run newspaper, warned that this latest outbreak is unlikely to be tamed by the upcoming Autumn Festival, but should be stamped out before the National Day holidays (which take place in October).

  Chinese authorities claimed to have identified the recent traveler as the source of the outbreaks, although the authorities claimed that this patient didn’t test positive until after the quarantine period. The outbreak is said to have two “chains” of transmission: one related to Putou Primary School and one to the Xiesheng shoe factory. The total infections from the school increased to at least 15, along with 10 other infections from the factory. Xianyou county where the school and shoe factory are located started county-wide testing on Monday, testing more than 900,000 people.

  What’s more, the city has since asked residents to stay in the city and all schools and kindergartens, excluding grade three senior high students and boarding schools, were asked to go to online classes starting Monday.

  Although fewer vehicles were seen in the city’s streets on Monday, the city isn’t on lockdown, according to the GT.

  The local health authority has confirmed that the infections were caused by the delta variant. The NHC has warned that there’s still a risk this outbreak could spread to other provinces, and has advised the entire country to be on alert. Right now, the worst-case projections shared with the public suggest the outbreak could continue until early October. The big question now is whether the outbreak will spread to other surrounding provinces.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 00:20

• Science Denied: The Biden Vaccine Mandate
  Science Denied: The Biden Vaccine Mandate

  Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via Brownstone.org,

  President Biden has decided to go hard on the virus. No more Mr. Nice Guy.

  Sadly for him, those tiny little pathogens don’t pay taxes, don’t vote, don’t have Social Security numbers, can’t be drafted, and don’t answer phone calls from poll takers, which is to say that he and his agencies cannot really control them. That must be frustrating, poor man. 

  Instead his plan is to control what he can control: people, and, most immediately, federal workers and the employees of large regulated companies. For him, the key to crushing the virus is the vaccine. Not enough people are obeying his demand for near-universal vaccination. 

  

  In a maniacal move of wild desperation – or as an excuse to try out the most extreme powers of his office – he is using every weapon that he believes he has to assure compliance with his dream of injecting as many arms as possible. Only then will we crush the virus, all thanks to his leadership, all the complaints about “freedom” be damned – and never mind that the realization of his dream did not work in Israel or the UK. 

  What are the immediate problems here? At least five:

  1. The Biden mandate pretends that the only immunity is injected, not natural. And so it has been from the beginning of this pandemic, even though all science for at least a year – actually you can say centuries – contradicts that. Indeed, we’ve known about natural immunity since 400 B.C when Thucydides first wrote of the great Athens plague that revealed that “they knew the course of the disease and were themselves free from apprehension.” Biden’s mandate could affect 80 million people but far more than that have likely been exposed and gained robust immunity regardless of vaccination status. 

  2. This natural immunity is long-lasting and broad, and we’ve known that since last year when the first studies revealed it. You can say that the addition of a vaccine provides even more but it’s new and untested relative to most drugs approved by regulators, and many people are concerned about possible side effects of this vaccine that was approved much faster than any drug in my lifetime – and there is not one living human being in a position to say with certainty that these skeptics are wrong. 

  3. The mandate presumes that everyone is equally susceptible to severe outcomes from getting exposed to the virus, which we’ve known is not true since at least February 2020. In this entire 18-month fiasco, we’ve not seen any serious high-level communication about the huge range of demographic gradients in infection based on both age and overall health. This ignorance is a consequence of poor public-health messaging, and is grossly irresponsible. The aggregated mandate from the Biden administration ignores this completely, as did the models that suggested lockdowns in the event of a virus from the Spring of 2020. 

  4. Biden seems still of the belief that vaccines stop infection (he claimed this many times) and spread but we know with certainty that this is not the case, and even the CDC admits it. The best guess at this point is that it can help in preventing hospitalization and death but this experiment is still in its early stages, and the relationship between cause and effect in human affairs is not as easy as throwing around two data sets and saying one caused the other. Most cases in the developed world now are occurring among the vaccinated – and we all know this because we have vaccinated friends who got Covid anyway. Some have died. We are not idiots, contrary to what the Biden administration believes. Nor do any of us have all the knowledge and answers. And it is precisely because science is uncertain that the decisions surrounding it need to be decentralized, depoliticized, and open to correction rather than being imposed by top-down mandates. 

  5. Biden’s order flies in the face of basic human freedoms and rights. There is no other way to put it. And it is this fact that is the most prescient for the multitudes who are right now seething in anger that one man who happens to hold power can make health decisions for the whole population regardless of their perfectly rational judgements. When the needle filled with liquid is forced into the arms of people who either have natural immunities or do not fear exposure to the pathogen, it gets personal, and people get really mad, especially after they are still forced into masks and denied other essential rights. 

  Truth is that my phone has been blowing up all evening since Biden’s speech. People are demoralized, panicked, furious, and even at the point of losing it completely over this despotic moment in which we are living. Most of us believed that we live in a scientific age in which information would be broadly disseminated to the world and this technology would somehow prevent us as a society from falling prey to charlatans, mob mysticism, and brutal methods of population control, not to mention to the deployment of superstitious talismans and quackery. That turns out not to be true, and this is perhaps the greatest shock of all. 

  Scientists worked for many hundreds of years to understand pathogens. They worked to understand their effect on the body, the range of susceptibility to both infection and severe outcomes, the demographics of vulnerability, the means by which we come to be protected from them, and the opportunities and limits available to people to protect themselves and others. After all this, humanity put together institutions that protected human freedom, individual rights, and public health, while preserving peace and prosperity in the best of times. 

  In the last 18 months, all that hard work and knowledge seems to have been shredded, replaced by superstition masquerading as some kind of new science of social and pathogenic control. In this year and a half, we’ve observed no clear successes and unrelenting flops. One year ago, humanity had the opportunity to embrace the wisdom of the Great Barrington Declaration to protect the vulnerable while letting society otherwise function. Governments instead chose the path of ignorance and violence. The list is long but it includes: travel restrictions, capacity limits, business closures, school shutdowns, mask mandates, forced human separation (“social distancing”), and now mandates of vaccination that, quite apparently, vast numbers do not want. 

  It’s all designed so that governments can prove to the world that they are powerful enough, smart enough, educated enough to outsmart and manage any living organism, even an invisible one that has been part of the human experience since humans had experiences. In this, they have completely failed – in more ways than it is possible to count. 

  We keep thinking that surely, surely, we will come to the end of this madness. I personally believed it would end the second week of March 2020. Instead, it gets worse and worse, the illusion of control having seized the barely functioning brains of the ruling classes of the world’s richest nations. If this doesn’t prove the astonishing stupidity of the world’s most powerful and educated, nothing else in history does. 

  The great myth that has clouded our vision and our expectations has been that we as a people had progressed beyond the kind of statist shibboleths and fanatic brutality that define our age. The truth is that we are not. 

  This very day, a Karen attacked me for being maskless. I looked at her and thought only of the poor people in Colonial America who dared being caught wearing buckled shoes and therefore running afoul of the sumptuary laws, or of the religious minorities in Medieval Europe who were scapegoated for every plague (look up the origins of the the phrase “poisoning the well”), or the demonization of rebels in the ancient Roman empire or the disapprobation of heretics in the hundreds of years that followed the fall of Rome.

  It is a mark of a primitive society to attribute to political compliance or noncompliance what rational science shows is a feature of the natural world. Why? Ignorance, maybe. Power ambitions, more likely. Scapegoating is apparently an eternal feature of the human experience. Governments seem particularly good at it, even when it is less believable than ever. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/14/2021 – 00:00

• Maskless AOC Attends Elite $50k Per Ticket Met Gala In 'Tax The Rich' Dress
  Maskless AOC Attends Elite $50k Per Ticket Met Gala In ‘Tax The Rich’ Dress

  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) spent Monday night at the lavish Met Gala in New York wearing a “tax the rich” dress.

  

  The maskless AOC (who vowed to continue masking up despite being vaccinated – around poor people, we guess?) drew sharp criticism over social media for what many perceived as rank hypocrisy under the guise of a ‘bold’ political statement.

  What makes @AOC a bigger fraud:

  The “tax the rich” dress while she’s hanging out with a bunch of wealthy leftwing elites or the lack of masks after spending the past 18 months as one of the biggest authoritarian mask Karens in the country? https://t.co/pE84Pjquh1

  — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 14, 2021

  Tickets for the event range from $30,000 – $50,000, with tables reportedly going between $300,000 – $500,000 (h/t Sara Eisen)

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  “Tax the Rich”……But first I’m gonna go have the time of my life partying with them all at the most extravagant over the top party of the year that is essentially a celebration of richness. pic.twitter.com/ZkSUnRkqGs

  — Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) September 14, 2021

  Who wore it better? pic.twitter.com/IHQkmEn0as

  — Noam “MF Blum” (@neontaster) September 13, 2021

  When interviewed, she spat out word salad.

  “And we said, we can’t just play along, but we need to break the fourth wall and challenge some of the institutions, and while the Met is known for its spectacle, we should have a conversation about it.”

  WATCH @AOC speaks about her dress tonight: pic.twitter.com/qIGecrBevv

  — Henry Rodgers (@henryrodgersdc) September 14, 2021

  Virtue status: signaled

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/13/2021 – 23:40

• Facebook's Invisible Elite Rules Highlight Zuckerberg's Blatant Lies
  Facebook’s Invisible Elite Rules Highlight Zuckerberg’s Blatant Lies

  Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

  Facebook’s XCheck gives millions of celebrities, politicians and other high-profile users special treatment (but not Trump), a privilege many abuse…

  

  Equal Footing Lie

  I have little use for Facebook. I don’t trust it and never did. Today the WSJ has an article on Facebook that is hardly surprising. 

  Please note Facebook Says Its Rules Apply to All. Company Documents Reveal a Secret Elite That’s Exempt.

  Mark Zuckerberg has publicly said Facebook Inc. allows its more than three billion users to speak on equal footing with the elites of politics, culture and journalism, and that its standards of behavior apply to everyone, no matter their status or fame.

  In private, the company has built a system that has exempted high-profile users from some or all of its rules, according to company documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

  The program, known as “cross check” or “XCheck,” was initially intended as a quality-control measure for actions taken against high-profile accounts, including celebrities, politicians and journalists. Today, it shields millions of VIP users from the company’s normal enforcement process, the documents show. Some users are “whitelisted”—rendered immune from enforcement actions—while others are allowed to post rule-violating material pending Facebook employee reviews that often never come.

  In 2019, it allowed international soccer star Neymar to show nude photos of a woman, who had accused him of rape, to tens of millions of his fans before the content was removed by Facebook. Whitelisted accounts shared inflammatory claims that Facebook’s fact checkers deemed false, including that vaccines are deadly, that Hillary Clinton had covered up “pedophile rings,” and that then-President Donald Trump had called all refugees seeking asylum “animals,” according to the documents.

  Lies After Lies After Lies

  The documents that describe XCheck are part of an extensive array of internal Facebook communications reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. They show that Facebook knows, in acute detail, that its platforms are riddled with flaws that cause harm, often in ways only the company fully understands.

  Moreover, the documents show, Facebook often lacks the will or the ability to address them.

  At least some of the documents have been turned over to the Securities and Exchange Commission and to Congress by a person seeking federal whistleblower protection, according to people familiar with the matter.

  Time and again, the documents show, in the U.S. and overseas, Facebook’s own researchers have identified the platform’s ill effects, in areas including teen mental health, political discourse and human trafficking. Time and again, despite Congressional hearings, its own pledges and numerous media exposés, the company didn’t fix them.

  Pervasive Problem

  

  “This problem is pervasive, touching almost every area of the company. Whitelists “pose numerous legal, compliance, and legitimacy risks for the company and harm to our community.”

  The Solution?

  The WSJ comments “One potential solution remains off the table: holding high-profile users to the same standards as everyone else.”

  Lies and Perjury

  Facebook’s treatment of Trump raises howls, but It is within bounds of the law for Facebook to have rules and to claim Trump violated them.

  It is not within the bounds of the law to lie to Congress.

  Please consider False Statements to the Government Can Land You in Jail written in 2010 and the examples are dated.

  With the recent indictment of baseball great Roger Clemens, federal perjury and false statement charges are back in the news. While these charges tend to create press attention when they target celebrities—think Martha Stewart and rap star Lil’ Kim—they are powerful, and common, tools that federal prosecutors also use against ordinary individuals every day. And while these tactics may be common, the penalties are serious: a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000, for either charge.

  Perjury vs. False Statement

  You probably already know what perjury is—lying under oath. For example, if you lie to a grand jury, the Securities and Exchange Commission or any other federal or state agency about an important fact while giving testimony under oath, that’s perjury. If you lie to an FBI agent or other government agent who has knocked on your door, or when you sign a document making a certification you know is false, you haven’t committed perjury because you weren’t under oath. But you may have violated the federal law prohibiting making false statements, and the penalties are just as severe. 

  Consequences of Lies and Perjury

  There should be consequences to lies and perjury. 

  If Zuckerberg lied to Congress, and I believe he repeatedly did, the way to stop the lies is to hold CEOs accountable. 

  Fine Zuckerberg $250,000 (that won’t matter at all to him), and send him to prison for 5 years (that will).

  Then we can address rules and how to enforce them.

  *  *  *

  Like these reports? If you do, please Subscribe to MishTalk Email Alerts.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/13/2021 – 23:20

• Endgame Begins: Evergrande Hires Bankruptcy Advisors As Furious Investors Protest Imminent Default
  Endgame Begins: Evergrande Hires Bankruptcy Advisors As Furious Investors Protest Imminent Default

  It took Evergrande less than a day to go from denying “rumors” of bankruptcy (as per a statement posted on its website earlier today), to confirming that a bankruptcy is imminent.

  In a filing on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Tuesday, Evergrande which was busy trying to convince angry Chinese mobs that they will get their money and/or apartments and that it has no plans of default, the company all but conceded that a bankruptcy is imminent when it said it has hired notable bankruptcy advisors Houlihan Lokey and Admiralty Harbour Capital as joint FAs to “assess the firm’s capital structure”, a well-known euphemism of “prepare to file for bankruptcy.” And just so there was no doubt as to what is coming next, the company said if it’s unable to repay debts on time or get creditors to agree to extensions or alternative arrangements, it may lead to cross-default.

  It quickly went downhill from there, with the company saying that it expects “significant continuing decline” in contract sales in September, resulting in “continuous deterioration” of cash collection, according to the statement. That will place “tremendous pressure” on the group’s cashflow and liquidity.

  Finally, guaranteeing that a default is just a matter of days if not less, the company admitted that it has failed to make “material progress” on the sale of stakes in China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group Ltd. and Evergrande Property Services Group Ltd., while the sale of its office building in Hong Kong hasn’t been completed within the expected timetable.

  In short a total disaster, and all this is happening a tens of thousands of Chinese are starting to feel insurrectiony – the real thing, not that January 6 tourist trap – and if they suffer losses, and in a company with $300BN in debt they will suffer major losses, their protests which have been largely peaceful to date will turn quite violent.

  As we reported this morning, police descended on Evergrande’s Shenzhen headquarters late Monday after dozens of people gathered to demand repayments on overdue wealth management products. Protesters numbered in the hundreds on Sunday, Caixin reported. In addition to equity investors who are about to lose everything, the company is also facing angry homebuyers, creditors and even its own employees… who are also about to lose everything.

  “It looks like they are working on debt restructuring after no concrete results on asset disposals, and the first task is to stabilize the holders of wealth management products which could be a social issue,” said Daniel Fan, a credit analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “It seems the developer is working on rescheduling pretty much all onshore debt, and the next step is to do the same for offshore investors.

  Translation: a bond default is imminent, and the only question is what will creditors get in return.

  How imminent? According to Bloomberg, two units failed to discharge their guarantee obligations on time for wealth management products worth 934 million yuan ($145 million), the company said, adding it’s in talks with issuers and investors on a repayment arrangement. If the company fails to reach a resolution, it’s all over and the bankruptcy process begins.

  And while distressed investors are already circling the company’s dollar bonds which are trading around 25-30 cents on the dollar, with the market pricing in a potential restructuring, this is an especially risky proposition according to Citigroup.  According to the bank, the insolvent developer’s bonds are trading at levels that attract the type of investors who place bets on the hardest-hit companies, but dollar bond holders may not be prioritized in a debt restructuring and a resolution could take years, Citi warned. 

  “We caution that offshore holdco debt is deeply subordinated to onshore secured bank debt and opco debt, and recovery values in any restructuring could be low,” wrote Citi strategist W.R. Eric Ollom.

  “Disposition of Evergrande’s substantial land bank to meet creditor claims could be lengthy, resulting in stretched out legal proceedings.”

  Citi also speculated that a solution for Evergrande may include forced core asset sales as well as haircuts for some classes of debt – notably dollar-denominated ones – the Citi strategists wrote, noting that Evergrande’s offshore bonds may be treated as subordinated to bank and opco borrowings in an onshore restructuring. Meanwhile, Nomura credit analyst Iris Chen said a debt restructuring is “almost unavoidable,” predicting a base-case scenario where bondholders would recover 25% of their money.

  And while Evergrande’s bonds can’t really fall much more from here, and in fact are prone to short squeezes, the same can not be said for its peers, and as Evergrande stock plunged again, dropping as much as 8.6% to a the lowest since 2014, it also dragged fown lenders and companies that previously disclosed large revenue exposure to the developer after the news that bankruptcy advisors had been hired. Among them, China Minsheng Bank fell 1.2% in Hong Kong; Industrial and Commercial Bank of China fells at least 0.6%, Suning.com was down -0.4%,  Beijing Jiayu Door Window and Curtain Wall Joint-Stock -1.7%, Shenzhen Grandland -1.4%, Skshu Paint -3.5%.

  Expect much more pain once the company finally pulls the plug, and China’s Lehman moment arrives.

   

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/13/2021 – 23:00

• Prepare For A Bad Decade At The Border
  Prepare For A Bad Decade At The Border

  Submitted by Princeton Policy Advisors

  Apprehensions at the US southwest border track US job openings. And that means trouble is brewing.

  Jobs and Apprehensions

  As readers know, Customs and Border Protection reports southwest border apprehensions monthly. Readers may be less familiar with JOLTS, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, a monthly assessment of the US job market published since late 1999 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Department of Labor.

  Border apprehensions closely track JOLTS job openings. A quick tour through the historical data is enlightening.

  The previous peak for border apprehensions occurred during the hot economy of the dot-com boom in 2000, and apprehensions thereafter followed job openings down, bottoming in 2002 with the subsequent recession. The recovery from the dot-com bust brought more jobs and more migrants, with apprehensions interestingly peaking in 2005 with the US real estate market and declining precipitously thereafter. Indeed, border apprehensions were an earlier indicator than US job openings of the severe recession which took hold in late 2007.

  

  With the onset of the Great Recession in 2008, apprehensions continued to decline and collapsed to levels not seen since the late 1970s. They remained depressed until 2018.

  The Obama administration faced a small surge at the border in 2014, but managed to regain control over illegal entries by the end of that year. The border saw yet another surge in the months prior to Trump’s inauguration, with migrants accelerating their US crossings for fear of more difficult border conditions once Trump took office. Trump’s harsh rhetoric did in fact intimidate migrants into delaying their journeys north, with the result that 2017 border apprehensions were the lowest since the early 1970s. Action did not match words, however, and migrants soon came to appreciate the Trump administration as something of a paper tiger. Border traffic rebounded, culminating in another crisis starting in July 2018 and peaking in May 2019. During this period, the Trump administration undertook a series of measures to induce Mexican and Northern Triangle governments to curtail migrant movement and implemented the much-loathed Migrant Protection Protocols. These reduced apprehensions to more typical levels by the end of 2019, even though the US job market remained strong.

  The covid pandemic saw both job openings and border traffic crater. By this past spring, however, US job openings were headed into record territory and border apprehensions were keeping pace, likely to reach all-time highs this calendar year.

  The history of the last twenty years strongly suggests that migrants respond to US labor market conditions, both good and bad. Migrants are not driven principally by domestic hardship, as both CIS and I have shown. Rather, when US wages are strong and jobs are plenty, Central Americans head north. The strange and yet inescapable conclusion is that US and Latin American labor markets are to an extent integrated. Guatemala and Honduras may be exotic places in the American imagination, but Central Americans are no strangers to working in the US. The US is not exotic, it’s where the jobs are. Therefore, illegal Central Americans and Mexicans may be considered an integral part of the US labor force, a ‘subprime’ part perhaps, but nevertheless a part of it. This is quite remarkable given that crossing the border is ostensibly illegal. The migrant response to US job openings should not be so dynamic. But it is, and we see a healthy market as though the border were mostly an inconvenience, that is, we see a robust black market in migrant labor finding its way around border enforcement with comparative ease.

  Of course, US administrations have successfully limited illegal border crossings in recent years. As noted above, the Obama administration suppressed a smaller surge during 2014; the ‘Trump intimidation’ brought near record low crossings in 2017; and the various harsh Trump policies from July 2018 managed to restore order by the end of 2019. While all of these worked for a time and to an extent, traffic inevitably picked up if jobs were waiting.

  The Biden administration has managed to be both unlucky and inept, a combination not limited to border policy. The administration relaxed border enforcement straight into the teeth of the hottest job market in at least twenty years, with the likely result a record in border apprehensions for the year. The high number of border crossings is partly, but not entirely, due to administration policy. Be that as it may, the Biden administration will carry the blame, in this as in other matters.

  The Outlook for Illegal Immigration

  In some ways, the more pressing issue is the outlook for future border crossings. Just a few years ago, our friends at some of the think tanks assured us that the threat of massive surges in illegal immigration were over. By this line of thinking, granting amnesty to undocumented residents represented no risk of a new surge in illegal immigration, as had been the case in 1986 following the passage of IRCA, legislation which extended amnesty to undocumented Mexicans in the US. Clearly, the risk of a massive illegal immigration is not over.

  What should we expect in the future? Is the current surge an anomaly which will pass, or does it represent a return to earlier historical patterns? As it happens, this depends principally on the interpretation of the decade from 2008 to 2018, which in turn depends upon whether the Great Recession was only a recession, or in fact, a depression.

  A short digression on economics

  There is no agreed definition of the difference between a recession and a depression. However, if one cares to dig a bit, they can be distinguished, and if one works with a variety of time series data as I do, the hallmarks of a depression are evident after 2008. For example, on the graph below we can see US vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on US roads and highways, generally a good indicator of the country’s economic health. During the first oil shock of 1974 and the subsequent oil shocks of 1979-1982, vehicle miles traveled initially fell, but achieved new highs immediately after the recession officially ended. In the 1991 Gulf War recession and the 2001 dot-com bust, VMT barely flinched. By contrast, during the Great Recession, vehicle miles traveled fell steeply and did not regain their 2007 peak until 2014, seven years later. (And for that, thank you, US shales.) And further, VMT was not back on trend until mid-2017, ten years after the beginning of the downturn. Clearly, the Great Recession was qualitatively different from a normal recession, different even from the brutal and prolonged oil shocks of the late 1970s.

  

  These effects are also visible in housing and consumer credit, more relevant indicators for our discussion. Some analysts feel that the business cycle is essentially the housing cycle, and indeed, housing starts largely track recessions and recoveries. However, on only two occasions in modern history have house values fallen and remained depressed: the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Great Recession of 2008. Much like vehicle miles traveled, US house values did not recover their 2007 peak until late 2016, almost a decade later. This matters because homes are the primary collateral of consumers, and homeowners were thus compelled to spend the better part of a decade paying down mortgages and other loans, with consumer credit not recovering its 2008 peak until 2017. In the interim, borrowing remained depressed, employment and GDP growth were tepid, and the public mood remained sour. Establishment politicians struggled for credibility, and voters across the globe regularly turned to outsiders, including television personalities and a few comedians, hoping for a better approach to governance.

  

  So why does all this matter for illegal immigration? Because the patterns of depression are visible there as well. As with housing, vehicle miles traveled and consumer credit, remittances to Mexico from the US peaked in 2007 and did not regain that level until May 2018. Similarly, the undocumented Mexican population, according to estimates by Pew Research, peaked in 2008 and declined through 2018. Clearly, the undocumented immigrant population was under financial stress, as were US homeowners, and this stress may have contributed to some undocumented residents returning to Mexico, on the one hand, and likely acted as an impediment to new border crossers, on the other. A depression from 2008 to 2018 would explain the decline in the undocumented immigrant population.

  

  Remittances recovered their previous highs in May of 2018, and the Trump border surge began two months later, in July. This recovery in border traffic was interrupted by covid, but as the pandemic has eased, apprehensions have soared to what promises to be historic levels. One is left with the impression that the recent, elevated levels of apprehensions are not entirely one-off surges, but rather the restoration of patterns which persisted for decades before the Great Recession. It would appear that the Great Recession was the anomaly, and the Trump and now Biden surges constitute a return to business as usual.

  

  Demographic trends to 2030 — an aging US society coupled with a shortage of low wage workers — will make illegal border crossing attractive. Migrants may well be incentivized to jump the border for the balance of the decade. The future may therefore look like the pre-2007 era; indeed, from the migrant perspective, the 2020s may prove the best decade for illegal immigration since the current border regime was established in 1965.

  The numbers can be estimated. In the twenty years to 2007, border apprehensions averaged 1.2 million per year, and the undocumented population grew by 0.5 million per year. Therefore, if the Great Recession is the anomaly and the post-2018 period represents a return to normal patterns of illegal immigration across the southwest border, expect the undocumented population in the US to rise from its current level around 10 million to approximately 15 million by 2030.

  Everyone Loses

  For both the left and the right, a large increase in undocumented immigrants would be a disaster. For the Heritage Foundation, CIS and FAIR, an increase in the undocumented population of 50% is a catastrophic failure of their policy goals. But life is no better for amnesty advocates like fwd.us, the NILC or the Immigration Hub (the prior home of the President’s new immigration advisor, Tyler Moran). The emerging equilibrium may well mirror that of the 1987-2007 period, when high levels of illegal immigration made any talk of amnesty moot. Thus, a reversion to historical patterns portends disaster for literally every major stakeholder group dealing with illegal immigration: the border will be in chaos, illegal immigration will soar, and yet long-term undocumented residents will be no closer to legal status in 2030 than they are today. Even DACA may become trapped in the wash. That is what prohibitions and resulting enforcement regimes produce: wretched outcomes for everyone involved.

  As I have said many times, ending prohibitions — including the prohibition in migrant labor — is not hard. A legalize-and-tax approach ends the related pathologies in short order. We can fix the border and provide legal status for long-time undocumented residents, but we have to use the standard and proven market-based approach. It is the only one which works.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/13/2021 – 22:40

• 'You Can't Print Electricity' – Zimbabwe Begins Daily 12-Hour Power Cuts Amid Shortage
  ‘You Can’t Print Electricity’ – Zimbabwe Begins Daily 12-Hour Power Cuts Amid Shortage

  Zimbabwe finds itself in dire economic straits. Again. 

  The South African nation, which has a knack for money printing, began rationing power Sunday. With all the money printing, one would expect the country could afford additional power generation plants or at least import energy while conducting maintenance work at its largest power stations. 

  But that’s not the case whatsoever. Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Co. (ZETDC) has cut power to customers for 12 hours per day during upgrades at Zimbabwe Power Company Hwange Power Station and Kariba Hydro Power Station. 

  

  ZETDC told Bloomberg that it “is experiencing a power shortfall due to generation” and “limited imports.” 

  The power company conducted load shedding to “balance the power supply available and the connected load.” This involves widespread cuts to industrial and agricultural areas. Hospitals, water, sewer installations, and oxygen-producing plants are going to be spared during the blackouts. 

  Reports indicate communication disruptions could be seen. Traffic disruptions are expected. Trains might experience delays. And there’s a severe risk that ATMs and petrol stations could go dark. 

  With the economy in shambles, the Zimbabwe government is learning the hard way it simply can’t print electricity. 

  Meanwhile, as the country struggles with its usual hyperinflation demons, its finance minister, Mthuli Ncube, urged citizens to “invest in understanding emerging innovations like bitcoin,” which ironically will be impossible to mine given the power outages” 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/13/2021 – 22:20

• US Quietly Removes Patriot Missile Air Defenses From Saudi Base
  US Quietly Removes Patriot Missile Air Defenses From Saudi Base

  Authored by Jason Ditz via AntiWar.com, 

  Satellite images show that several missile batteries previously deployed to Saudi Arabia, including THAAD batteries and Patriot missiles, have been removed from the area. The images show that the removal happened sometime near the end of August.

  Pentagon press secretary John Kirby later confirmed that the air defense assets were “redeployed,” but did not provide details. The missiles were at Prince Sultan Air Base, near Riyadh.

  

  Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal was critical of the move, saying the US must not move Patriot missiles out of the kingdom, and saying that the nation needs reassurance of US military commitment.

  Faisal said this was a bad time for the US to withdraw missiles, “when Saudi Arabia is the victim of missile attacks and drone attacks, not just from Yemen, but from Iran.”

  With the Saudi invasion of Yemen ongoing, the Houthis have launched missiles and drones in retaliation, though these are mostly in southern Saudi Arabia, a fair distance from the US deployment. Iran’s only relation is that the Saudis tend to blame Iran for what the Houthis do, on the grounds that they are both Shi’ite.

  The timing of the redeployments may also be significant, coming ahead of new releases of 9/11 documents related to Saudi involvement. The documents, as usual, are trying not to directly implicate the Saudi government in the conclusion, but with Saudis so heavily involved in every stage of the plot, the administration may have decided this was a good time to be less conspicuously providing the Saudis with military support.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/13/2021 – 22:00

• "Like It's Loose Change": Taliban Says Former Afghan VP Left Behind $6 Million Cash & Gold Bars At Residence
  “Like It’s Loose Change”: Taliban Says Former Afghan VP Left Behind $6 Million Cash & Gold Bars At Residence

  The Taliban says it found over $6 million in cash and at least 15 gold bars after it raided the home of a longtime Afghan national politician, Amrullah Saleh.

  Saleh had been vice president since February 2020 until the collapse of the Afghan government when the Taliban overran Kabul in August. As soon as President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, reportedly with millions in cash, VP Saleh declared himself acting president of the country, which happened on Aug.17. The home where the cash was reportedly found was in the Panjshir Valley – recently taken by the Taliban. The Taliban released video of militants rummaging through the treasure that had been left behind…

  This is the money and gold found inside @AmrullahSaleh2‘s home. The vice president of one of the poorest countries around the world (where the economy entirely depends on aid) left $6,5 million behind like it’s loose change. pic.twitter.com/er5vJOrDSs

  — Sangar | سنګر پیکار (@paykhar) September 13, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Saleh has since the Taliban takeover been a prime opposition figure in the country fighting against the hardline Islamists’ rule – efforts which have been centered in recent weeks on contested Panjshir province, where it’s said the country’s last resistance leaders remain. 

  Saleh’s own brother was reportedly killed days ago at a Taliban checkpoint. The brother, “Rohullah Azizi was traveling with his driver on Thursday when Taliban fighters stopped them at a checkpoint in Khanez village in the province of Panjshir, the relatives said,” according to Germany’s Deutsche Welle. “As we hear at the moment [the] Taliban shot him and his driver at the checkpoint,” relatives of the family were cited as saying.

  Saleh had a long history with the US-backed national government, from 2018 to 2019 serving as interior minister, and from 2004 to 2010 being the head of the National Directorate of Security. It’s during his long career that he’s believed to have amassed his fortune, suggesting corruption.

  #BREAKING
  Taliban: We got 6.5 million dollars from Former Afghan VP Amrullah Saleh’s house pic.twitter.com/zQZyDv2ek9

  — Talib Times (@talib_times) September 13, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  However, some observers have questioned the video as possibly fake. In releasing it, the Taliban is hoping to publicize allegations of just how deep corruption went among former US-backed Afghan politicians.

  It’s being generally acknowledged as the Taliban’s biggest haul in terms of cash recovered from a single politician’s house. There’s long been reports and confirmation out of the Pentagon and US officials who’ve admitted to flying entire crates and bricks of cash into the country over the past couple decades of war.

  Often this was with the aim of “paying off” tribal warlords and even local politicians in order to ensure some degree of stability and peace for the US occupation. Often large quantities of cash would simply disappear. Likely the Taliban will continue to release videos of uncovering piles of cash, jewelry, and gold at former Afghan officials’ residence, in order to underscore the self-serving nature of the prior corrupt US propped-up government.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/13/2021 – 21:40

• One Of The Largest US Supermarket Chains Warns Inflation Is About To Impact More Americans
  One Of The Largest US Supermarket Chains Warns Inflation Is About To Impact More Americans

  By Jack Phillips of Epoch Times,

  An executive of Kroger, one of the largest supermarket chains in the United States, warned grocery prices are about to become even higher this year as inflation sets in.

  

  Inflation is running hotter than previously anticipated, and prices are slated to rise an additional 2 to 3 percent over the second half of 2021, Kroger CFO Gary Millerchip said during a call with reporters.

  Kroger will be “passing along higher cost to the customer where it makes sense to do so,” he said on Sept. 10.

  The comment comes as the price for beef, poultry, and pork have risen at grocery stores in recent months, leading White House officials to blame meat processing companies.

  “Just four large conglomerates control the majority of the market for each of these three products [beef, pork and poultry], and the data show that these companies have been raising prices while generating record profits during the pandemic,” said National Economic Council Director Brian Deese at a press briefing on Sept. 8.

  “Those companies have seen record or near-record profits in the first half of this year,” Deese said, taking aim at JBS, Tyson Foods, Cargill Meat Solutions Corp., and the National Beef Packing Company. “And that has coincided with a period where we’ve seen disproportionate increase in prices in those segments.”

  Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack claimed that some food companies may be price-gouging, although he noted that labor and transportation costs have risen since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

  “Our job is to make sure that that farmer gets a fair price and that the producer … when I go to the grocery store, and I’m in the checkout line, I’m paying a fair price,” Vilsack said.

  Neither official signaled that inflation may be the cause despite the producer price index increasing by 0.7 percent in August 2021 over the previous month. Final demand prices have also risen 8.3 percent from a year ago, which is the biggest increase since 2010, according to a Department of Labor report issued on Sept. 10.

  Other than Kroger’s warning, food giant Nestle’s Chief Financial Officer, Francois-Xavier Roger, acknowledged a higher input cost inflation in 2022 than this year.

  “If we talk of 2022, it is likely that input cost inflation will be higher next year than this year,” Roger said at a Barclays consumer staples conference, reported the Reuters news agency. 

  “Our strategy is to offset anything we receive through pricing. The idea is to pass it on to the trade and to consumers whenever we receive it,” he said.

  Earlier this year, CEO of supermarket chain Albertsons, Vivek Sankaran, said that regarding inflation, “It could go a little bit higher, but … we have a strong consumer” base in the United States.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/13/2021 – 21:20

• Google Has Been Underpaying A "Shadow Workforce" Of Contract And Temp Workers For Years, Report Reveals
  Google Has Been Underpaying A “Shadow Workforce” Of Contract And Temp Workers For Years, Report Reveals

  Google, who hilariously is included in many “ESG” funds, underpaid “thousands” of international contract workers across several countries, a new report by the New York Times revealed on Friday.

  Even better is the fact that the big tech company reportedly discovered it was violating pay-parity laws in numerous countries and then chose “not to immediately compensate the underpaid temporary staff,” according to follow up reporting by Insider.

  In Europe and Asia, pay-parity laws require companies to pay similar wages to full-time and temp workers who perform similar jobs. The U.S. has no such laws.

  Google employs over 900 temporary workers in countries like the UK, Ireland, India, Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Poland. The company’s temp and contract workers outnumber its full time staff, the report says, creating a “shadow workforce”. 

  Google chose only to correct its rate of pay for new employees after finding the error.

  

  The company also reportedly banned contractors from talking to full time employees and made temps “wear red badges” that led to a “sense of shame”, one employee told Insider.

  Google manager Alan Barry, who is based in Ireland, wrote in e-mails that the rise in pay would “give rise to a flurry of noise/frustration”. He also wrote: “I’m also not keen to invite the charge that we’ve allowed this situation to persist for so long that the correction required is significant.”

  Spyro Karetsos, Google’s chief compliance officer, told Insider: “While the team hasn’t increased the comparator rate benchmarks for some years, actual pay rates for temporary staff have increased numerous times in that period. Most temporary staff are paid significantly more than the comparator rates.”

  Karetsos continued: “Nevertheless, it’s clear that this process has not been handled consistently with the high standards to which we hold ourselves as a company. We’re doing a thorough review, and we’re committed to identifying and addressing any pay discrepancies that the team has not already addressed. And we’ll be conducting a review of our compliance practices in this area. In short, we’re going to figure out what went wrong here, why it happened, and we’re going to make it right.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/13/2021 – 21:00

• Chinese State Media Slams Soros As "The Most Evil Person In The World" And "The Son Of Satan"
  Chinese State Media Slams Soros As “The Most Evil Person In The World” And “The Son Of Satan”

  It didn’t take China long to respond to George Soros after he went nuclear on Beijing and US investment titans abandoning their “ESG ideals” to capitalize on China’s massive market.

  Over the weekend, China’s state-run tabloid Global Times labeled George Soros a “global economic terrorist” in a tit for tat exchange playing out in dueling op-eds that underscore the rising temperature in US-China relations, the Standard and Asia Times reported.

  The article, published on September 4, accused the billionaire hedge fund manager and liberal donor and Democrat supporter of providing finance to Hong Kong’s jailed newspaper owner Jimmy Lai to support the city’s anti-Beijing protests in 2019.

  Soon thereafter, Soros penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal that said New York-based BlackRock’s recent $1 billion mutual fund investment in China was a “tragic mistake” and would lose money for the asset manager’s clients. Soros wrote the BlackRock investment “imperils the national security interests of the US.” That followed an August 30 op-ed Soros published in the Financial Times that said Chinese President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on private enterprise has been “a significant drag on the Chinese economy” and “could lead to a crash.”

  Soros said indices such as MSCI’s ACWI, ESG Leaders Index and BlackRock’s ESG Aware, have “effectively forced hundreds of billions of dollars belonging to US investors into Chinese companies whose corporate governance does not meet the required standard — power and accountability is now exercised by one man (Xi) who is not accountable to any international authority.”

  The billionaire urged the US Congress to pass legislation limiting asset managers’ investments to “companies where actual governance structures are both transparent and aligned with stakeholders.” Previous reports said that Soros’ hedge fund had disposed all of its exposure to Chinese assets earlier this year.

  Having made a name (and $1.1 billion ) for breaking the Bank of England in 1992, during the Asian financial crisis in 1997, Soros also tried to break the Hong Kong dollar’s peg to the US dollar but was ultimately defeated by the Hong Kong government, which intervened heavily in markets to protect the peg. Soros was given the nickname “financial crocodile” by local media at the time.

  In September 2001, Soros was invited to visit China and met then Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji in Beijing. But after the 2008 global financial crisis, Soros told media in October 2009 that China should step up to the plate as the leader of a new global economic order.

  Then, in January 2016, Soros told a dinner audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos that “a hard landing is practically unavoidable” for the Chinese economy. A few days later, the People’s Daily, China’s Communist Party mouthpiece, warned that “Soros’s war on the renminbi and the Hong Kong dollar cannot possibly succeed – about this there can be no doubt.”

  In January 2019, Soros said Chinese President Xi Jinping was “the most dangerous enemy” of free societies for presiding over a high-tech surveillance regime. He said, “China is not the only authoritarian regime in the world but it is the wealthiest, strongest and technologically most advanced.”  He also said China’s ZTE and Huawei telecom giants should not be allowed to dominate the world’s 5G infrastructure rollout.

  But the Global Times’ “economic terrorist” label is a new escalation in the feud between the two.

  The Global Times’ commentary, titled “This global economic terrorist is staring at China!”, claimed Soros only started to criticize China because he felt regret after disposing all his investments in Tencent Music, Baidu and Vishop earlier this year.

  The article added that his Open Society Foundations financed Human Rights Watch, which it claimed spreads “rumors” against China over recent matters in Hong Kong and Xinjiang as well as the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Global Times commentary also claimed Soros had colluded with Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai to try to start a “color revolution” in Hong Kong in 2019. It also described Soros as “the most evil person in the world” and “the son of Satan.”

  This is not the first time a sovereign country has slammed Soros as “satan”: several years ago his native Hungary said George Soros is “Satan” and his agenda is one that “from its heart hates Christian Europe’s traditions and civilization.”

  In a speech entititled “The Christian duty to fight against the Satan/Soros Plan,” András Aradszki, the government’s secretary of state for energy, framed his ruling party’s long running campaign against Soros for the first time in explicitly theological terms.

  Linking Soros to “abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, and the forced politicization of gender theory,” Aradszki declared from the floor of Hungary’s parliament Sunday, “The Soros mercenaries do not cite the Holy Father’s thoughts on this.”

  He added: “Soros and his comrades want to destroy the independence and values of nation states for the purpose of watering down the Christian spirit of Europe.”

  Citing an alleged plan by Soros for to forcibly settle “tens of millions of migrants” in Europe, Aradszki declared, “The fight against Satan is a Christian duty. Yes, I speak of an attack by Satan, who is also the angel of denial, because they are denying what they are preparing to do — even when it is completely obvious.”

  Going back to China, AsiaTimes reports that the Global Times article was widely republished by mainland websites and cited by Hong Kong and Taiwanese media over the past few days.

  The Global Times was not finished, and in a separate op-ed, the Global Times wrote that:

  “George Soros, who is despised by many around the world for triggering and profiting from crises, started a fresh campaign against China’s economy over the country’s recent regulatory actions. But like his repeatedly failures and massive losses in betting against the world’s second-largest economy before, Soros’ latest attempt is not only doomed to fail but will also erase any credibility he still has when it comes to China.”

  The Global Times was also concerned by Soros’ criticism of BlackRock’s massive new investment in China and Xi’s regulatory clampdown, however it had little to worry about: when it comes to China, Larry Fink’s ideals are just as flexible as the Fed’s mandate for how many bonds and ETFs the asset management giant should buy on its behalf.

  In April 2021, BlackRock Chairman Larry Fink wrote in a letter to shareholders that “the Chinese market represents a significant opportunity to help meet the long-term goals of investors in China and internationally” and provides the company an opportunity to help address the challenge of retirement for millions of people in China.

  “As China’s capital markets continue to open to foreign firms, BlackRock has taken meaningful actions to expand our onshore presence and respond to the needs of our clients,” Fink said. Last August, China approved a wealth management joint venture between BlackRock, Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings and China Construction Bank. In May this year, the joint venture, which is 50.1% owned by Blackrock, 40% by CCB and 9.9% by Temasek, was granted a license by Chinese regulators.

  So far Soros’ attempts to hinder US investments in China by asset management giants have been met with scorn and mockery.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/13/2021 – 20:40

• 177 Stanford Faculty Members Urge DOJ To Stop Looking For Chinese Spies In Academia Because It Causes "Racial Profiling"
  177 Stanford Faculty Members Urge DOJ To Stop Looking For Chinese Spies In Academia Because It Causes “Racial Profiling”

  A group of Stanford professors have come together to urge the Justice Department to stop looking for Chinese spies at U.S. universities, a September 8 letter from the group reads.

  Arguing that such programs cause “racial profiling”, the  professors claim the “China Initiative”, which was set up to prevent U.S. technology theft, is “harming the United States’ research and technology competitiveness and “is fueling biases”, Reuters reported.

  The Justice Department brought 27 cases as a result of the initiative. While some have been dropped, others are ongoing. Peter Michelson, Stanford’s senior associate dean for the natural sciences told Reuters: “I think what the FBI’s done in most cases is to scare people – investigating people and interrogating them. And it’s harmful to the country.”

  What country, Peter?

  

  177 faculty members signed the letter, which was posted on a site they called “Winds of Freedom”. 

  “We, a group of 177 Stanford faculty members from more than 40 departments, have sent the following open letter to the U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, requesting that he terminates the Department of Justice’s China Initiative. The China Initiative was introduced by then Attorney General Jeff Sessions in 2018, with the objective of combating economic espionage, intellectual property theft and other threats associated with the government of China,” the site reads.

  It continues: “However, we believe the China Initiative raises concerns of racial profiling and is harming the United States’ research and technology competitiveness. This initiative has led to a significant increase of investigations and prosecutions to researchers in academia, with most cases unrelated to intellectual property theft or scientific/economic espionage. The investigations have been disproportionately targeting researchers of Chinese origin. The chilling effect of the China Initiative is discouraging many scholars from coming to or staying in the U.S. We believe that the China Initiative should be terminated.”

  You can read the full letter here:

   

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/13/2021 – 20:20

• Aluminum Tops $3,000 For First Time Since 2008 On Supply Woes
  Aluminum Tops $3,000 For First Time Since 2008 On Supply Woes

  Aluminum prices on the London Metal Exchange hit a 13-year high Monday, extending a year-long vertical ramp amid supply risks in Guinea and alumina refining woes in China and Europe. 

  The benchmark contract on the LME climbed nearly 1%, touching its highest level since 2008 at $3,000 per ton. Prices have jumped 50% this year and 15% in the last three weeks. 

  

  Aluminum prices have been supported by production curbs in Chinese smelting regions, often to alleviate the strain on the power grid. The latest price surge comes from a military coup in Guinea last Monday sparked concerns over the supply of bauxite, a sedimentary rock with high aluminum content.

  A stream of announcements from China has been about challenges faced by smelters. On Monday, Steelhome reported that Yunnan would limit smelter capacity to reduce energy. Smelters in the European Union are also facing pressure with record-high power costs.  

  “In China and increasingly in the EU, policy risk to aluminum supply is growing,” Goldman Sachs’ analysts Jeff Curri told clients in a note Monday. He is not worried about the coup in Guinea affecting the bauxite supply just yet and says upside risks persist due to further logistical bottlenecks. 

  Another factor boosting prices is dwindling exchange stockpiles and strong demand. LME warehouses report aluminum inventories have plunged 33% since March to 1.3 million tons, and stocks in Shanghai Futures Exchange plummeted 42% to 228,529 tons since April. 

  

  The metal has wide applications in everything from car pates, appliances, defense weapons, airplanes, and even the soda can, has faced strong demand since the pandemic after global central banks and governments unleashed trillions of dollars in stimulus. Goldman Curri recently told clients:

  “As demand improves seasonally from September, aided by reduced lockdown effects and some probable supportive policy adjustments, we expect continued tightness onshore into Q4 and support for higher import volumes of refined metal. This fundamental setup will offer support for a trend higher in both copper and aluminum prices in particular.”

  Another tailwind for Bloomberg Industrial Metals Index, already at a decade high, could be the troughing of China’s credit impulse. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/13/2021 – 20:00

• High School Barred Students From Commemorating 9/11 Over 'Racial Insensitivity'
  High School Barred Students From Commemorating 9/11 Over ‘Racial Insensitivity’

  Controversy erupted this past weekend at a Washington State high school over plans to commemorate the 20th year anniversary since the September 11 terror attacks. Students at Eastlake High School in the city of Sammamish had organized and planned to simply wear red, white and blue clothing to a patriotic-themed football game, but were told by school administrators that it would be “racially insensitive”. 

  A local media report said the patriotic commemoration was shut down because American flag colors might “unintentionally cause offense to some who see it differently” – and that specifically it could be could be “racially insensitive and offend some people.”

  

  It was described as a last minute cancelation and caused outrage among students and parents, particularly given the school has no basis on which to ban clothing that doesn’t fit the category of crude or offensive. Instead the school literally told students not to wear red, white and blue to the game.

  A school principal had reportedly sent an email to parents explaining that while the school understands “sacrifice and values our flag represents,” but ultimately that school leadership “just did not want to unintentionally cause offense to some who see it differently.”

  The school never explained just what about red, white and blue coloring would be “offensive” to anyone. Later the school district’s communications director claimed there wasn’t enough time before the game to let everyone know about the patriotic-themed event. The school also at one point suggested the display could cause offense to the other team without enough advanced warning. 

  “Since it was not a home game, there was no opportunity to have an announcement about Patriots Day and to share why students were dressed in red, white and blue,” communication director Shannon Parthemer was cited in local reports as saying. 

  Absurdly, the school is essentially saying that display of American flag and its colors must come with an advanced “trigger warning”.

  NEW: Students were set to wear red, white & blue colors at their football game to honor the lives lost on 9/11.

  But school staff pulled the plug.

  The principal said it could “unintentionally cause offense to some who see it differently.”https://t.co/lAcE5r7N7K

  — Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) September 12, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  One angry parent speculated as to the assumptions driving the school’s bizarre decision-making “The leadership and equity team decided that since it was against a predominantly Black team they did not want to ‘unintentionally cause offense to some who see (our flag) differently,’” the parent said.

  A local conservative talk radio show further captured the fierce pushback among much of the student body as follows: 

  Ryan Ware is the Eastlake senior class president and member of the football team. He said students were eager to wear red, white, and blue clothes and were disappointed by the school administration’s decision.

  “We disagreed and were extremely disappointed. I couldn’t believe their reasoning,” Ware explained to the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH.

  One other student noted the hypocrisy on display. The school is about inclusivity — just not when it comes to representing the country?

  “I was instantly upset, and frustrated,” one student emailed. “If Eastlake is all about including everyone’s beliefs and being together as a ‘family,’ then why are we being told we can’t represent the country we live in? I have seen other [Lake Washington School District] football teams that held a flag or did some sort of memorial recognition towards 9/11, but apparently we weren’t allowed to even wear USA colors.”

  The frustrations expressed tended to point to the school’s hypocrisy, given in past years it’s talked up and emphasized “inclusivity” – yet this apparently excludes public displays showing a minimal level respect to the United States and past Americans who have paid the ultimate sacrifice. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/13/2021 – 19:40

• Top Tax Rate In NYC Would Be 61.2%, 59.7% In California Under House Dems' New Tax Plan
  Top Tax Rate In NYC Would Be 61.2%, 59.7% In California Under House Dems’ New Tax Plan

  Update (1130ET): At least one influential Democratic lawmaker is claiming that the leadership has promised to kill the SALT deduction cap as part of Biden’s newly revised budget plan.

  Despite it not being included in the outline released by House Ways and Means earlier today, New York Rep. Tom Suozzi has just released a statement claiming that the leadership have committed to removing the cap for SALT deductions.

  Inbox: Rep. Suozzi (D-NY) threatens to withhold vote for reconciliation bill unless it removes cap for SALT deduction.
  Tax document released by House Ways & Means was silent on this issue pic.twitter.com/jfb3B1sawb

  — Catherine Rampell (@crampell) September 13, 2021

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  To be sure, it’s not exactly clear what this ‘meaningful change’ will be.

  * * *

  Update (1100ET): CNBC has just produced the first analysis of what the Dems’ new tax proposal would do to the overall tax rate of the wealthiest class of taxpayers.

  Top earners in NYC would face a combined city, state and federal income tax rate of 61.2%. For the top marginal federal income tax rate – which is the rate that taxpayers pay on every dollar of earned income above the threshold – would be 46.6%

  In NYC, the combined top marginal state and city tax rate is 14.8%. So, city taxpayers who earn more than $5MM a year would face a combined city, state and federal marginal rate of 61.2% if the House plan becomes law. These would be among the highest tax rates seen in the last 40 years.

  Things aren’t much better on the west coast. Top-earning Californians would face a combined marginal rate of 59.7%, while those in New Jersey would face a combined rate of 57.2%. Hawaii could face a combined rate of up to 57.4%. Meanwhile, there are no signs that the House will roll back any of the less popular tax hikes from the Trump plan, the SALT deduction cap, which has been a target of Democratic lawmakers since it was passed.

  However, some sources close to CNBC said it’s possible the House might seek to scrap the SALT deduction cap at a later time.

  * * *

  Update (0915ET): The House Ways and Means Committee has just released the new Democratic package of proposed tax hikes (which we previewed below, courtesy of BBG) as Dems take the first step toward revising their budget, now that Sen. Joe Manchin has made clear the $3.5 trillion pricetag wouldn’t work.

  The plan focuses on trying to lower taxes for the smallest businesses. In addition to an increase in the corporate tax rate to 26.5%, the Dems also want to impose a 3% wealth surtax on taxpayers with income above $5MM (or in excess of $2.5 million for a married individual filing separately), while increasing the top capital gains rate to 25%. Dems are also calling for a top personal rate of 39.6%, up from 37%.

  As Republicans and Moderate Dems expressed resistance to the $3.5 trillion figure in Biden’s budget plan, odds of a major hike have fallen, while the market’s expectation for a modest hike in corporate taxes, and in taxes for the wealthy, have emerged. And while there are plenty of other factors to blame for the recent market turbulence, tax hikes are certainly looming on the horizon with Dems in control of both houses of Congress.

  

  A team of Goldman Sachs strategists led by David Kostin, their top equity strategist, warned clients in a report that they probably aren’t taking the market risks of a tax hike seriously enough.

  “Tax reform, not reduced economic growth forecasts, is the key risk to US equities through year-end 2021,” they add, refering to increasing concerns among clients about what softer growth outlook means for equities. “The market appears to be only partially pricing an increased tax rate in 2022,” the strategists wrote.

  The Ways and Means Committee is planning a vote later this week.

  * * *

  Now that Sen. Joe Manchin has officially come out against President Biden’s $3.5 trillion spending package, the Democrats are being forced to rethink their budget plans – starting with the ‘income’ side, since President Biden has promised to offset additional spending with tax hikes. And so, just hours after Manchin confirmed his opposition to the budget in a series of interviews, Bloomberg reports that the Dems have drafted a new package of tax increases that falls well short of Biden’s ambitious targets.

  

  The new proposal would raise the top corporate rate from 21% to 26.5%, less than the 28% Biden had sought, people familiar with the matter said Sunday night. Meanwhile, the top rate on capital gains would rise from 20% to 25%, instead of the 39.6% Biden had originally proposed, per Bloomberg.

  The new set of “business minded” tax increases is estimated to raise more than $2 trillion, which still might not be low enough to appeal to moderate Democrats like Manchin.

  Still, the plan was criticized by conservatives, a preview of the fight ahead as the House Ways and Means Committee prepares to meet Tuesday to debate the tax portion of the economic package.

  Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative group that fights for lower taxes, said the proposed tax hikes would lead to an immediate increase in consumer utility bills and make the US less competitive on the world stage.

  “Democrats want to take the current rate of 21% and raise it to 26.5%, higher than communist China’s 25% and higher than the developed world average of 23.5%. This does not even include state corporate income taxes, which average another 4 – 5% nationwide,” the group said.

  The tax increases described in the document, which is circulating among lawmakers of both parties, would raise $2.9 trillion in revenue when combined with $700 billion in revenue and cost savings from Medicare drug price changes. To fully pay for the president’s plan, the proposal factors in $600 billion from the estimated economic growth effects of the spending increase.

  What’s more, the proposal would raise an estimated $16 billion by limiting deductions for executive compensation and $96 billion by higher taxes on tobacco and nicotine products, including e-cigarettes.

  Despite pushback from the crypto community, Dems are still planning to include cryptocurrency in general tax rules allowing for cryptocurrencies to be treated the same as other financial instruments and to prevent taxpayer abuse of the rules.

  Other new taxes in the new plan include: a proposal to cut in half the $24,000 estate and gift tax exemption for married filers on Dec. 31, 2021, four years earlier than set in the tax cuts passed under former President Donald Trump.

  Notably absent from the document is any discussion of lifting the $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction, raising questions about the fate of that costly proposal.

  The Ways and Means proposal “meets two core goals the President laid out at the beginning of this process – it does not raise taxes on Americans earning under $400K and it repeals the core elements of the Trump tax giveaways for the wealthy and corporations that have done nothing to strengthen our country’s economic health,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement.

  While the numbers are still subject to change before the proposal is officially released, such scaled-back plans would amount to an acknowledgment that even higher rates would have a tough time getting through Congress after some moderate Democrats expressed objections.

  With thin majorities in both chambers, Democrats can afford just three defections in the House and none in the Senate as they try to use a process called “reconciliation” to get their budget passed.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/13/2021 – 19:25

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• China Is Trying To Control Rising Semi Prices By Fining Auto Chip Manufacturers
  China Is Trying To Control Rising Semi Prices By Fining Auto Chip Manufacturers

  China is taking a page out of the Keynesian central banking playbook on how to micromanage an entire economy and is now reportedly fining auto chip sales companies for driving up prices. 

  And, like central banks will soon find out, we expect China to find out the hard way that you can’t print, fine or tax your way to productivity. 

  The price increases are likely a normal result of a shortage of supply in semiconductors, which has plagued auto manufacturers for the better part of the last year.

  China’s State Administration for Market Regulations said it had fined three local companies a total of 2.5 million yuan, according to a report in Automotive News Europe. 

  The companies fined included Shanghai Chengsheng Industrial, Shanghai Cheter and Shenzhen Yuchang Technologies. 

  

  Further, the regulator said it would continue to “closely monitor” prices and “crackdown on illegal market behavior”. You know, like letting supply and demand set prices…

  Recall, we noted just days ago how the semi shortage, combined with a Covid outbreak in South Asia, were causing auto manufacturers to slash production targets. 

  Toyota is the latest legacy auto manufacturer to come out and announce it is revising its full year production forecast by about 300,000 units to 9 million units for the year, Bloomberg reported Friday morning.

  The company is citing the Covid outbreaks in Southeast Asia that we have written about extensively, as well as continued shortages resulting from the semiconductor drought. 

  

  Output will be lower by 70,000 units in September and 330,000 units in October, the automaker said. It says its outlook for November, only two months away, is still “unclear” despite “very strong” demand. 

  We had cited Malaysian Covid outbreaks as throwing a wrench into the gears of already-stressed auto manufacturing plans for the summer. IHS predicts that 2.1 million units could wind up being lost in the third quarter of 2021 alone. 

  Malaysia is home to names like Infineon Technologies AG, NXP Semiconductors NV and STMicroelectronics NV, who all have operating plants in the country. With Covid infections soaring locally, plans for lifting lockdowns and re-opening production looked as though they could fall by the wayside last month. Daily infections were up to 20,000 per day in August, up from just 5,000 per day in late June. 

   

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/13/2021 – 02:45

• Thousands Protest In Turkey Against COVID-19 Vaccine Passports
  Thousands Protest In Turkey Against COVID-19 Vaccine Passports

  Authored by Lorenz Duchamps via The Epoch Times,

  Thousands of people gathered in the Maltepe district of Istanbul in Turkey on Saturday to protest against COVID-19-related restrictions, including vaccine mandates, saying the restrictions infringe on their rights.

  

  Nearly 3,000 people attended the rally, which was permitted by the governor’s office and started at 2 p.m. local time, Turkish news agency Diken reported.

  Demonstrators organized the protest in the wake of new measures that passed government and will go into effect starting Sept. 13—requiring proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test for all users of intercity planes, buses, and trains, as well as for those attending large events such as concerts or theater performances.

  According to videos and photos of the rally, a large crowd of people listened to speakers while holding placards that read: “The Turkish people will not become vaccine guinea pigs,” “Freedom is not free. We are ready to pay for it,” “My body, my decision,” and “The health ministry is not a vaccine marketing office.”

  

  A woman holds a placard reading, “Freedom is not free. We are ready to pay for it,” during a protest against official COVID-19-related mandates including vaccinations, tests, and masks, in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sept. 11, 2021. (Murad Sezer/Reuters)

  Representatives of 14 political parties were present for the rally, Diken reported. Participants in the demonstration, which was dubbed “The Great Awakening,” chanted slogans such as “big resignation” and “down with the murderers.”

  

  A woman holds a placard reading, “My body, my decision,” during a protest against official COVID-19-related mandates including vaccinations, tests, and masks, in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sept. 11, 2021. (Murad Sezer/Reuters)

  “This pandemic is just going on with even more restrictions on our freedoms and there’s no end to it,” said Erdem Boz, a 40-year-old software developer. “Masks, vaccines, PCR tests might all become mandatory. We’re here to voice our discontent with this.”

  “We’re against all these mandates,” said Aynur Buyruk Bilen, a member of the so-called Plandemic Resistance Movement.

  “I think that the vaccines aren’t complete and that it’s an experimental liquid,” he added.

  Starting on Sept. 13, all unvaccinated school employees are required to take a PCR test twice per week. Masks and social distancing are required in public.

  Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter on the day of the protest that vaccines are “the ultimate solution” and that mandating such rules is “essential.”

  

  Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca holds a press conference in Ankara, Turkey, on March 16, 2020. (Adem Altan/AFP via Getty Images)

  According to data collected by the Turkish Health Ministry, more than 51 million people in Turkey have received their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine under the country’s national program. Nearly 40 million people are fully inoculated as part of the program that started in January.

  New daily cases in Turkey average around 23,000, prompting a warning from Koca earlier this month, saying that right now the pandemic is only “for the unvaccinated.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/13/2021 – 02:00

• Why Americans Were Never Told Why They Were Attacked On 9/11
  Why Americans Were Never Told Why They Were Attacked On 9/11

  Authored by Joe Lauria via Consortium News,

  After a Russian commercial airliner was downed over Egypt’s Sinai in October 2015, Western media reported that the Islamic State bombing was retaliation against Russian airstrikes in Syria. The killing of 224 people, mostly Russian tourists on holiday, was matter-of-factly treated as an act of war by a fanatical group without an air force resorting to terrorism as a way to strike back.

  Yet, Western militaries have killed infinitely more innocent civilians in the Middle East than Russia has. Then why won’t Western officials and media cite retaliation for that Western violence as a cause of terrorist attacks on New York, Paris and Brussels?

  

  Instead, there’s a fierce determination not to make the same kinds of linkages that the press made so easily when it was Russia on the receiving end of terror. [See Consortium News’s Obama Ignores Russian Terror Victims.]

  For example, throughout four hours of Sky News’ coverage of the July 7, 2005 attacks in London, only the briefest mention was made about a possible motive for that horrific assault on three Underground trains and a bus, killing 52 people. But the attacks came just two years after Britain’s participation in the murderous invasion of Iraq.

  Prime Minister Tony Blair, one of the Iraq War’s architects, condemned the loss of innocent life in London and linked the attacks to a G-8 summit he’d opened that morning. A TV host then read and belittled a 10-second claim of responsibility from a self-proclaimed Al Qaeda affiliate in Germany saying that the Iraq invasion was to blame. There was no more discussion about it.

  To explain why these attacks happen is not to condone or justify terrorist outrages against innocent civilians. It is simply a responsibility of journalism, especially when the “why” is no mystery. It was fully explained by Mohammad Sidique Khan, one of the four London suicide bombers. Though speaking for only a tiny fraction of Muslims, he said in a videotaped recording before the attack:

  “Your democratically-elected governments continuously perpetuate atrocities against my people all over the world. And your support of them makes you directly responsible, just as I am directly responsible for protecting and avenging my Muslim brothers and sisters. Until we feel security you will be our targets and until you stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people we will not stop this fight. We are at war and I am a soldier. Now you too will taste the reality of this situation.”

  The Islamic State published the following reason for carrying out the November 2015 Paris attacks:

  “Let France and all nations following its path know that they will continue to be at the top of the target list for the Islamic State and that the scent of death will not leave their nostrils as long as they partake part in the crusader campaign … and boast about their war against Islam in France, and their strikes against Muslims in the lands of the Caliphate with their jets.”

  Claiming It’s a State of Mind

  Ignoring such clear statements of intent, we are instead served bromides by the likes of the State Department about the Brussels bombings, saying it is impossible “to get into the minds of those who carry out these attacks.”

  Mind reading isn’t required, however. The Islamic State explicitly told us in a press statement why it did the Brussels attacks: “We promise black days for all crusader nations allied in their war against the Islamic State, in response to their aggressions against it.”

  Yet, still struggling to explain why it happened, the State Department said, “I think it reflects more of an effort to inflict on who they see as Western or Westerners … fear that they can carry out these kinds of attacks and to attempt to lash out.”

  The statement ascribed the motive to a state of mind: “I don’t know if this is about establishing a caliphate beyond the territorial gains that they’ve tried to make in Iraq and Syria, but it’s another aspect of Daesh’s kind of warped ideology that they’re carrying out these attacks on Europe and elsewhere if they can. … Whether it’s the hopes or the dreams or the aspirations of a certain people never justifies violence.”

  

  After 9/11, President George W. Bush infamously said the US was attacked because “they hate our freedoms.” It’s a perfect example of a Western view that ascribes motives to Easterners without allowing them to speak for themselves or taking them seriously when they do.

  Explaining his motive behind 9/11, Osama bin Laden, in his Letter to America, expressed anger about U.S. troops stationed on Saudi soil. Bin Laden asked: “Why are we fighting and opposing you? The answer is very simple: Because you attacked us and continue to attack us.” (Today the US has dozens of bases in seven countries in the region.) 

  During a Republican presidential debate in 2008 Rudy Giuliani, who was New York mayor on 9/11, became incensed and demanded Ron Paul withdraw his remark that the U.S. was attacked because of US violent interventions in Muslim countries.

  “Have you ever read about the reasons they attacked us?” Paul said. “They attacked us because we have been over there. We’ve been bombing Iraq for ten years. I’m suggesting we listen to the people who attacked us and the reason they did it.“

  “That’s an extraordinary statement,” responded Giuliani. “As someone who lived through the attack of Sept. 11, that we invited the attack, because we were attacking Iraq. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before. And I’ve heard some pretty absurd explanations for Sept. 11.”

  The audience had never heard it either, as they heartily cheered Giuliani. “And I would ask the Congressman to withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn’t really mean that,” Giuliani said.

  “I believe very sincerely when the CIA teach and speak about blowback,” Paul responded. “If we think that we can do what we want around the world and not incite hatred, then we have a problem. They don’t come here to attack us because we are rich and we are free. They attack us because we are over there.“

  So why won’t Western officials and corporate media take the jihadists’ statements of intent at face value? Why won’t they really tell us why we are attacked?

  It seems to be an effort to cover up a long and ever more intense history of Western military and political intervention in the Middle East and the violent reactions it provokes, reactions that put innocent Western lives at risk. Indirect Western culpability in these terrorist acts is routinely suppressed, let alone evidence of direct Western involvement with terrorism.

  Some government officials and journalists might delude themselves into believing that Western intervention in the Middle East is an attempt to protect civilians and spread democracy to the region, instead of bringing chaos and death to further the West’s strategic and economic aims. Other officials must know better.

  1920-1950: A Century of Intervention Begins

  A few might know the mostly hidden history of duplicitous and often reckless Western actions in the Middle East. It is hidden only to most Westerners, however. So it is worth looking in considerable detail at this appalling record of interference in the lives of millions of Muslims and peoples of other faiths to appreciate the full weight it exerts on the region. It can help explain anti-Western anger that spurs a few radicals to commit atrocities in the West.

  The history is an unbroken string of interventions from the end of the First World War until today. It began after the war when Britain and France double-crossed the Arabs on promised independence for aiding them in victory over the Ottoman Empire. The secret 1916 Sykes-Picot accord divided the region between the European powers behind the Arabs’ backs. London and Paris created artificial nations from Ottoman provinces to be controlled by their installed kings and rulers with direct intervention when necessary.

  What has followed for 100 years has been continuous efforts by Britain and France, superseded by the United States after the Second World War, to manage Western dominance over a rebellious region. The new Soviet government revealed the Sykes-Picot terms in November 1917 in Izvestia. When the war was over, the Arabs revolted against British and French duplicity. London and Paris then ruthlessly crushed the uprisings for independence.

  France defeated a proclaimed Syrian government in a single day, July 24, 1920, at the Battle of Maysalun. Five years later there was a second Syrian revolt, replete with assassinations and sabotage, which took two years to suppress. If you walk through the souk in Old Damascus and look up at the corrugated iron roof you see tiny specks of daylight peeking through. Those are bullet holes from French war planes that massacred civilians below.

  Britain put down a series of independence revolts in Iraq between 1920 and 1922, first with 100,000 British and Indian troops and then mostly with the first use of air power in counterinsurgency. Thousands of Arabs were killed. Britain also helped its installed King Abdullah put down rebellions in Jordan in 1921 and 1923.

  London then faced an Arab revolt in Palestine lasting from 1936 to 1939, which it brutally crushed, killing about 4,000 Arabs. The next decade, Israeli terrorists drove the British out of Palestine in 1947, one of the rare instances when terrorists attained their political goals.

  Germany and Italy, late to the Empire game, were next to invade North Africa and the Middle East at the start of the Second World War. They were driven out by British imperial forces (largely Indian) with U.S. help. Britain invaded and defeated nominally independent Iraq, which had sided with the Axis. With the Soviet Union, Britain also invaded and occupied Iran.

  

  After the war, the U.S. assumed regional dominance under the guise of fending off Soviet regional influence. Just three years after Syrian independence from France, the two-year old Central Intelligence Agency engineered a Syrian coup in 1949 against a democratic, secular government. Why? Because it had balked at approving a Saudi pipeline plan that the U.S. favored. Washington installed Husni al-Za’im, a military dictator, who approved the plan.

  1950s: Syria Then and Now

  Before the major invasion and air wars in Iraq and Libya of the past 15 years, the 1950s was the era of America’s most frequent, and mostly covert, involvement in the Middle East. The first coup of the Central Intelligence Agency was in Syria in March 1949. The Eisenhower administration then wanted to contain both Soviet influence and Arab nationalism, which revived the quest for an independent Arab nation. After a series of coups and counter-coups, Syria returned to democracy in 1955, leaning towards the Soviets.

  A 1957 Eisenhower administration coup attempt in Syria, in which Jordan and Iraq were to invade the country after manufacturing a pretext, went horribly wrong, provoking a crisis that spun out of Washington’s control and brought the U.S. and Soviets to the brink of war.

  Turkey put 50,000 troops on the Syrian border, threatening to invade. Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev threatened Turkey with an implied nuclear attack and the U.S. got Ankara to back off. This sounds eerily familiar to what happened last month when Turkey again threatened to invade Syria and the U.S. put on the brakes. The main difference is that Saudi Arabia in 1957 was opposed to the invasion of Syria, while it was ready to join it last month. [See Consortiumnews.com’s Risking Nuclear War for Al Qaeda?]

  In the 1950s, the U.S. also began its association with Islamic religious extremism to counter Soviet influence and contain secular Arab nationalism. “We should do everything possible to stress the ‘holy war’ aspect,” President Eisenhower told his Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. After the Cold War, religious extremists, some still tied to the West, became themselves the excuse for U.S. intervention.

  Read the rest at Consortium News

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/12/2021 – 23:30

• Chinese Tech Names Slide On Report Beijing Seeks To Break Up Alipay; Hang Seng Tech Index Tumbles
  Chinese Tech Names Slide On Report Beijing Seeks To Break Up Alipay; Hang Seng Tech Index Tumbles

  Just when it seemed safe to poke out beyond the shell and buy some badly beaten down Chinese tech names, Chairman Xi had another surprise.

  Today’s reason why tech names are tumbling again after staging a modest rebound on Friday is a report in the Financial Times, according to which China seeks to break up Ant Group’s financial giant, Alipay, and create a separate app for its loans business.

  Citing two unidentified people familiar with the plan, regulators plan to split into an independent app the back end of its two lending businesses Huabei and Jiebei from the rest of its financial operations and bring in new shareholders. There is a plan to spin off Ant’s user data that underpins its lending decisions to a new credit scoring joint-venture which will be partly state-owned.

  For the time being Jack Ma’s team would run the new venture, the FT says citing an unidentified a person close to the company. However, the implication is that eventually the state will take control.s

  As a reminder, Ant already set up a new entity for consumer loan business which will include Huabei and Jiebei and started operations in June, but it appears that’s not enough for Beijing, whose regulators told Ant to go back to its origin of being a payments service provider and reform its lending business. Separately, WSJ reported in April that Ant was discussing with regulators the possibility of transferring some of its app-based financial services to another of its apps, called Ant Fortune, citing people familiar with the matter

  In response to the latest crackdown, the Hang Seng Tech Index – which soared on Friday on speculation that Beijing was finally done destroying its tech conglomerates, plunged as much as 3% in Hong Kong.

  

  The biggest decliners of the index are Trip.Com -5.8%, Zhongan online -5.5%; Alibaba fells as much as 4.5% after the report, while Tencent dropped as much as 3.6%. Meanwhile, Meituan dropped as much as 5.4% after Beijing tells platform companies to protect the working conditon of gig economy workers. Adding insult to injuryt, Fitch on Friday downgraded Meituan by a notch to BBB-, the lowest investment- grade rating, due to “the greater regulatory uncertainty” facing the company.

  Finally, the 21st Century Business Herald reported that MIIT hosted a conference with tech giants including Alibaba, Tencent, Bytedance, Baidu, Huawei and Xiaomi on Thursday and ordered them to open their platforms to each other before deadline. According to the report, the government will step up regulation on websites blocking competitors’ content.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/12/2021 – 23:27

• Palm Beach Developer Tries To Flip Island Mansion For $120 Million, 41% More Than It Sold For In July
  Palm Beach Developer Tries To Flip Island Mansion For $120 Million, 41% More Than It Sold For In July

  The South Florida housing market is sizzling with hot money from the North East, pushing up homes values sky high over the last year. One example of the mania is in Palm Beach, where a private island was bought in July and was relisted months later for a whopping 41% premium, according to WSJ. 

  One of Miami’s top real estate developers, Todd Michael Glaser, is taking advantage of the bubble, fueled by Wall Street bankers and other elites who have the economic mobility to leave the Northeast for the Sunshine State. 

  Glaser purchased 10 Tarpon Way, also known as 10 Tarpon Isle, for approximately $85 million in July and has since relisted the tiny 2.5-acre island for $120 million, or $35 million more than he paid a few months ago. The island was created by dredging crews in the 1930s and is only accessible by bridge. Glaser bought the island from private investor William M. Toll and his wife, Eileen, who paid $7.6 million for the property in 1998.

  Tarpon Island 

  

  The real estate developer said potential buyers have two options: pay the $120 million now or wait ten months for a new renovation for $200 million. 

  Concept Drawing Of New Renovation

  

  He said with all the hot money flowing into the Palm Beach area, “a $100 million house isn’t that crazy anymore, believe it or not,” adding that in the last 18 months, eight $100 million homes have been sold. 

  If a potential buyer wants to wait ten months and pay an additional $80 million. The developer will completely redesign the mansion by doubling it to 25,000 sqft, with 14 bedrooms, in addition to a hair salon, gym, and spa. A new pool, octagonal tennis pavilion, and a golf practice area will be installed on the outside. 

  Some ask how long will this speculation fever last as the Federal Reserve could embark on tapering its extensive bond-buying program later this year or early 2022. 

  One real estate expert believes the peak of the South Florida housing market could be nearing:

  Dr. Ken Johnson, a real estate economist with Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business, told local news WPLG that a peak in the housing cycle could have already arrived, but he believes a crash is not in the mix because demand still outpaces supply. 

  It remains to be seen if some greater fool will pay the $120 million for the island mansion or $200 million tens months later after renovations. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/12/2021 – 23:00

• Biden's Total Financial Surveillance
  Biden’s Total Financial Surveillance

  Authored by Matt Welch via Reason.com,

  What if every one of your non-cash financial transactions was automatically reported to a beefed-up, audit-hungry IRS?

  

  Imagine living in a world where every one of your noncash financial transactions—a restaurant meal, a Venmo transfer to a friend, maybe some bitcoin bought on the dips—was automatically reported to a beefed-up, audit-hungry IRS.

  That dystopia will become a reality if President Joe Biden gets his way.

  Biden, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and key Capitol Hill allies such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) are pushing a vast, intrusive financial surveillance system in the name of closing the “tax gap.”

  But don’t worry: There’s no need to fear if you’ve got nothing to hide.

  “For already compliant taxpayers, the only effect of this regime is to provide easy access to summary information on financial accounts and to decrease the likelihood of costly ‘no fault’ examinations,” the Treasury Department said this May in a nakedly authoritarian document called “The American Families Plan Tax Compliance Agenda.”

  But “for noncompliant taxpayers,” the department continues, “this regime would encourage voluntary compliance as evaders realize that the risk of evasion being detected has risen noticeably.”

  The administration’s proposed “comprehensive financial account reporting regime” would dramatically increase the types of financial institutions and transactions exposed to the feds’ prying eyes. “All business and personal accounts from financial institutions, including bank, loan, and investment accounts,” would be forced to “report gross inflows and outflows” to the IRS. And not just bank accounts: The dragnet would now include PayPal, settlement companies, and “crypto asset exchanges,” for starters.

  The new domestic surveillance program, which requires congressional approval, is one prong of a tripartite strategy for transforming the entire global financial system into a harmonious, haven-free collection funnel to the IRS. The second part, which has taken up the bulk of Biden’s multilateral diplomacy thus far, is getting the industrialized world to agree on a global minimum corporate tax of 15 percent, while setting up a system to prevent multinational companies from registering their profits in the lowest-tax jurisdictions.

  Cutting corporate taxes is “a self-defeating competition,” Yellen said in April, “and neither President Biden nor I are interested in participating in it anymore. We want to change the game.”

  In July, representatives from 130 countries, including finance ministers from the G-20 representing the world’s richest democracies, agreed in principle to a worldwide minimum corporate tax. “We have a chance now to build a global and domestic tax system,” Yellen crowed. “The race to the bottom is one step closer to coming to an end.”

  The agreement still has a significant obstacle to overcome—namely, the legislatures of 130 countries, including the U.S. Congress. But Yellen has some cause to be cocky, because the third prong of Washington’s strategy has already been constructed.

  In 2009, President Barack Obama promised to generate $210 billion in new tax revenue over 10 years by cracking down on “overseas tax loopholes.” While the corporate-tax element of the plan was quickly killed by lobbyists, the individual component remained in the form of the 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Built on a foundation of American exceptionalism (the U.S. is one of only two countries that tax citizens living abroad), FATCA imposed onerous new annual reporting requirements on Americans with more than $10,000 in overseas financial institutions. The law brazenly threatened international banks if they didn’t rat out their U.S. clients to the IRS.

  The results were predictable: Expats were locked out of banking services, record numbers of mostly middle-class Americans renounced their U.S. citizenship, and IRS collections went essentially unchanged. But for a very small political price (no one much cares about the estimated 9 million Americans living abroad), Washington was able to bend an entire global financial system to its will.

  An IRS with the ability to compel global transaction data sounds like something out of a Philip K. Dick novel. Yet here we are—unless we consciously cover our tracks.

  “Another concern is that [the] information reporting regime will shift taxpayers toward a greater use of cash,” the Treasury Department’s compliance plan frets. It also notes that cryptocurrencies “already pose a significant detection problem by facilitating illegal activity broadly including tax evasion.” Cash and crypto may be the last currencies compatible with privacy.

  “I promised to lead the world to deliver a foreign policy for the middle class, and today, we are doing just that,” Biden said after the 130-country agreement. Just as long as the middle class has nothing to hide.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/12/2021 – 22:30

• Journalism Schools Produce 'Useless' Degrees, Leaving Graduates Deep In Debt
  Journalism Schools Produce ‘Useless’ Degrees, Leaving Graduates Deep In Debt

  The WSJ’s education reporters have been on a roll lately, publishing a deeply reported series of stories about the unintended consequences of the fact that there’s no lending cap on the federal government’s “Grad Plus” student loan program. By allowing students with little to no income to borrow unlimited funds to further their education in the graduate domain (while leaving taxpayers on the hook for losses), pricey graduate degree programs have proliferated like the clap. And surprisingly, only a small fraction of these programs allow the average graduate to comfortably pay off their loans without financial help from their parents.

  

  Back in June, WSJ published its initial deep-dive into high priced “useless” masters degrees offered by elite Ivy League Universities. The a few weeks after that, it followed up with a deep-dive on second- and third-tier law and MBA programs, which boomed in popularity over the past twenty to thirty years, only for many graduates to realize that six-figure jobs are mostly reserved for graduates from the top-tier programs.

  Now, WSJ is targeting another universe of “useless” degrees: the  master’s degree in journalism. Expensive programs for what is by all accounts a dying discipline abound, with the “leading” programs found at Columbia, Northwestern and USC. Roughly a dozen other expensive programs continue to enroll students across the US. Together, they produce thousands of graduates a year for an industry that has seen the number of available jobs shrink practically every year for the last two decades.

  While students borrow heavily, starting salaries from even USC and Northwestern are shockingly low at just $42K for the median graduate. Columbia’s median number is stil just $49K (accounting for the dozen or so graduates every year who find decent-paying jobs at one of the country’s top national outlets, like WSJ, Bloomberg or the NYT).

  Interestingly, the University of Missouri, which has perhaps the best-known journalism program among America’s public universities, leaves its graduate journalism students with much smaller debt loads (around $21K) with median earnings of $50.5K right out the gate. The dean of Northwestern’s graduate J-school said ballooning debt for graduate students “keeps him me up at night.”

  “Graduate student debt is the thing that keeps me up at night,” Mr. Whitaker said. He attributed some of the earnings differential to the fact that undergraduates often complete their degrees with multiple internships and years of experience on student publications.

  One student who attended Medill shortly after finishing her undergrad career wishes she had been made aware told WSJ she wouldn’t have gone if she understood how much trouble she would have paying off her student loans.

  Katie Dzwierzynski said she was flattered when Medill offered her a scholarship of a few thousand dollars a decade ago. She lived at home to save money, and borrowed nearly $70,000 to cover the rest of her costs.

  She now earns about $65,000 writing newsletters and summarizing healthcare news for companies. Most months, Ms. Dzwierzynski, has made her loan payments, around $500, but sometimes she could only cobble together half that amount while the interest continued to grow. Her student-loan balance now stands at $79,000, including $62,000 from Medill.

  Ms. Dzwierzynski, 32 years old, said she understood that she would be going into significant debt for the degree but didn’t know how little she would likely earn.

  Another student said that while they feel “fulfilled” in their new job, finances are definitely a worry. But if President Biden (or President Kamala) offer student debt relief.

  Mr. Rhodes took a 40% pay cut from their New York job, but said they are more fulfilled in their new role. Still, the loans loom large. The federal government paused payments during the pandemic, but when that lifts early next year, the 28-year-old intends to enroll in a repayment plan limiting monthly payments to a set share of their income. After 20 or 25 years, the remaining debt could be erased, and taxed as income.

  Mr. Rhodes, who also has $33,000 in loans for their bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida, is holding out hope for President Biden to forgive at least some student debt.

  “I am admittedly stressed about finances,” Mr. Rhodes said. “But if there’s any time to take on this kind of debt, it might be when it is potentially going to be erased.”

  He has a point. If anything, just the prospect of student debt forgiveness from the Dems might encourage more risk-tolerant (or risk-ignorant) young students to go for it, and try to live their fantasy of becoming the next Bob Woodward.

  Ironically, as the power, prestige and financial backing of the media industry have diminished, public trust in the media has fallen to its lowest level in the history of the American Republic. One recent report found the US ranks last globally in media trust, despite its “free” press.

  The real issue here isn’t so much the money, but the fact that Bob Woodward didn’t go to J-School. Michael Lewis took on the issue in a piece for the New Republic published all the way back in 1993, before the collapse of the media industry.

  With a nip here and a tuck there, the inadequately schooled journalist could easily make the Columbia School of Journalism sound like a seven-month extension of this anecdote. Perhaps I am that journalist. The essential point here is that the desperate futility of journalism instruction becomes clearer the closer one gets to the deed. At journalism school, one does not simply report a story. One develops a “search strategy for mass communication” (see chart above). The principal text used at Columbia, in a section called “Truth Telling,” offers the mathematical formula: Story=Truth + X. “The story is never the full truth,” it intones. “There is always an X, a missing ingredient. Actually there is not an X but a series — X1,X2,X3,X4….” This sort of irrelevant blather infects the entire curriculum. Here, for instance, is how the Columbia course bulletin describes one of the two main core courses, “Critical Issues in Journalism”:

  At the end of the day, it’s not only the academics that staff these programs who are complicit in fleecing the next generation of would-be “journalists”. The elite media brands that tap their students for unpaid (or low-paid) labor, helping to give credence to the school’s marketing, are also, in a way, responsible.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/12/2021 – 22:00

• Pentagon Researching Microbe Mining Of Rare Earth Minerals To Cut Reliance On China
  Pentagon Researching Microbe Mining Of Rare Earth Minerals To Cut Reliance On China

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched a project to research the extraction of rare earth minerals for military technologies using microscopic bugs in an effort to reduce reliance on China.

  The technology to mine rare earth minerals using microbes doesn’t exist yet, and DARPA is researching if doing so is worth it on an industrial scale. “From a DARPA perspective, we’re looking at: what are some of the barriers for the US to maintain dominance in rare earth processing,” Stefanie Tompkins, the director of DARPA, told Defense News.

  

  DARPA launched the project in July, known as Environmental Microbes as a BioEngineering Resource. It seeks to expand supplies of 17 elements used in magnets for electric motors, high-temperature ceramics, and lasers.

  The DARPA project is just one example of how the US military is focusing on research to counter China.

  In its $715 billion budget request for 2022, the Pentagon allocated $112 billion for research, development, testing, and evaluation, known as RDT&E. The research will focus on advanced weapons, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, space and cyber capabilities, and hypersonic missiles.

  Researchers at the Pentagon have launched a project that aims to extract rare earth minerals critical for military technologies from domestic sources ― using microscopic bugs. https://t.co/9w7mdZIScw #Pentagon #Mining #RareEarths

  — Global Venture (@AGlobalVenture) September 9, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  The Pentagon has identified China as the top “pacing threat” facing the US. Hawks in Congress don’t believe the massive $715 billion budget is enough to face China and Russia. The House Armed Services Committee recently voted to add $24 billion to President Biden’s Pentagon budget.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/12/2021 – 21:30

• "Once The Situation Gets Out Of Control"- Chinese State Media Vows Its Military "Will Show Up At US Doorstep" And Will Win
  “Once The Situation Gets Out Of Control”- Chinese State Media Vows Its Military “Will Show Up At US Doorstep” And Will Win

  China’s state-run Global Times tabloid, which is viewed as representing the view of Beijing if with a hyperbolic slant, published an op-ed from its editorial board on Wednesday vowing that China’s military will soon confront the U.S. in a hostile exchange, American Military News reported.

  “The US will definitely see the PLA show up at its doorstep in the not-too-distant future,” the op-ed said. “The two sides’ warships and aircraft on the seas will carry huge mutual strategic hostility, and the two countries will not yield to each other.”

  “Once the situation gets out of control and triggers military clash between China and the US, we must give full play to our home field advantage. China will definitely win once there is a war,” the Global Times op-ed said.

  

  The op-ed came in response to U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold conducting a freedom of navigation operation near the Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands of the South China Sea on Wednesday, and follows China’s recent abrupt change in protocol according to which starting Sept 1, all foreign vessels (read US warships) must “report their information” when passing through what China views as its “territorial waters” and which most of China’s neighbors and Western nations consider contested.

  “What the US has done is a naked provocation, and this is obvious to all,” the Global Times op-ed said, adding that the ship “posed a threat” to the “many Chinese people and facilities” on the island.

  The op-ed further called on China to take action. “Only by making the US have a taste of its own medicine can we touch the nerves of the US and its allies, and reshape the Western world’s understanding of US bullying in the South China Sea,” it said.

  In response, the U.S. Navy 7th Fleet said the U.S. warship sailed in accordance with international law “within 12 miles of Mischief Reef,” an area that China has heavily militarized and reportedly began flying military flights out of earlier this year.

  “The land reclamation efforts, installations, and structures built on Mischief Reef do not change this characterization under international law. By engaging in normal operations within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef, the United States demonstrated that vessels may lawfully exercise high-seas freedoms in those areas,” the U.S. Navy said.

  While the U.S. does recognize China’s claim to the Spratly Island, it rejects any claim China makes beyond a 12-nautical mile limit of the Spratly Islands. Mischief Reef is among the seven island reefs China claims as its own and has been militarizing in recent years. China established 9,000-foot runways on three islands in the South China Sea to accommodate any aircraft in its fleet, including its nuclear-capable H-6 bombers.

  Earlier this year, Washington Times obtained satellite images showing PLA KJ-500 airborne warning and control planes, Y-9 transport planes, and Z-8 helicopters on the islands, indicating a now-permanent presence on the islands.

  The U.S. has repeatedly denounced China’s militarization of artificial islands in the South China Sea, as well as its construction of military bases and other industrial facilities in the region, and aggressive behavior toward other nations’ ships in the region.

  China claims most of the mineral-rich South China Sea, including areas that reach the shores of its smaller neighbors. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also have overlapping claims to the maritime region.

  Meanwhile, the U.S. has vowed to continue its freedom of navigation operations to ensure free passage in the South China Sea despite China’s threats. In July 2020, the U.S. released its first official statement rejecting most of China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea as “unlawful.”

  The document rejects China’s claims to certain territories, such as James Shoal, located 50 nautical miles from Malaysia, as well as other specific territories off the coasts of Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. China has claimed some of these territories in its “Nine-Dashed Line” claim announced in 2009, despite these territories being located up to 1,000 nautical miles away from China’s coast.

  The U.S. position aligns with a 2016 Arbitral Tribunal decision, in which it rejected China’s claims as baseless against international law. Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised the decision on its fifth anniversary earlier this year, which China swiftly denounced.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/12/2021 – 21:00

• It's Time To Acknowledge Anti-White Racism
  It’s Time To Acknowledge Anti-White Racism

  Authored by Lynn Uzzell via RealClearPolitics.com,m

  Recently, Michael Tesler commented on “The Rise of White Identity Politics.” Tesler’s analysis draws on years of research into racialized politics, and he shows convincingly that there is a rise in white identity politics and that this rise is tied to “perceptions of anti-white discrimination.” However, when trying to explain why perceptions of anti-white bias might also be on the rise, his analysis falls flat. Supposedly, it has something to do with Republicans and Donald Trump.

  Never once does the author speculate whether “perceptions” of such discrimination might be on the rise because anti-white racism is becoming increasingly common. In other words, perhaps white Americans are accurately perceiving a real phenomenon that is now pervasive in schools and the workplace.

  Anti-White Racism, by Definition

  As any student of George Orwell knows, no authoritarian government can ever gain complete control unless it commandeers people’s thinking through the manipulation of language. Thus, the dystopian powers in “1984” deliberately turned the meaning of words upside-down in a process known as double-think.

  

  The same process is happening today with the words used to discuss racism. In true Orwellian fashion, Ibram X. Kendi (pictured) insists that the only way to fight racism is to embrace racial discrimination in perpetuity. This “anti-racism,” as he calls it, is as likely to stamp out genuine racism as Orwell’s Ministry of Truth was apt to stamp out falsehoods.

  In order to understand what is going on, we must call to mind the traditional definition of racism: the stereotyping, denigrating, marginalizing, or excluding of persons on the basis of race. Look up any definition of racism prior to the racial awokening taking place in the last decade, and it will be: 1) race neutral; and 2) involve some act of free will—relating to word, deed, or belief.

  The definition of racism has undergone a radical change in a short time. According to the new eighth-grade curriculum for the Albemarle County (Va.) School District, racism now means: “The marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.”

  Perhaps the most jarring aspect of this new definition is that it is no longer race-neutral. It is now impossible, by definition, for white people to be the victims of racism. The definition itself constructs a “racial hierarchy” whereby only people of color may be victimized, and only “white people” may marginalize or oppress.

  But there is something even more insidious about the new definition. Since the “marginalization and/or oppression of people of color” is no longer committed by word, thought, or deed — but is based instead on an inescapable “socially constructed racial hierarchy” that always “privileges white people” — it means that white people are engaging in racism simply by being white (and hence privileged) within this impersonal system of marginalization and oppression.

  A person of color is a victim of racism, by definition. A person identified as white is a racist, by definition. Therefore, not only does the new definition fail to capture the full meaning of racism; the definition is itself an example of the anti-white racism being taught to our children.

  Teaching Anti-White Racism as American History

  Anti-white racism is also seeping into history lessons, most notably through the curriculum adapted from the New York Times’ 1619 Project.When the 1619 Project was first published, it attracted immediate criticism. Five eminent historians criticized it for its bias and factual errors. Others criticized it for emphasizing only what was blameworthy about America’s history and omitting what was praiseworthy.

  While these concerns are certainly valid, there is another serious problem that has received scant attention: The account is a surprisingly racist version of U.S. history.

  The lead article for the 1619 Project is by Nikole Hannah-Jones, who has been writing anti-white screeds at least since she was a college sophomore. In a letter to her college paper, she alleged: “The white race is the biggest murderer, rapist, pillager, and thief of the modern world.” Not only were the white people in America’s past “barbaric devils,” but the “descendants of these savage people” continue to harm “the Black community” to this day. Non-white peoples, by contrast, were uniformly portrayed as both virtuous and victimized.

  Of course, nobody should be held accountable for the hyperboles or inanities one might espouse as an undergraduate; few of us could bear the brunt of such an examination. The sophomoric scribblings of young Nicole Hannah would be irrelevant except that the pattern in her writing has not changed. What we find in her Pulitzer Prize-winning contribution to the 1619 Project is more moderate in tone and more sophisticated in composition, but otherwise it is the same racialized dualism she espoused in college.

  In Hannah-Jones’ article, an important part of the lesson plan adapted for schools, the word “white” is used to describe people or communities 77 times. In 35 cases, “white” people are described as holding some kind of power or privilege (almost always unearned or illegitimate). In 32 cases, the word is associated with oppression, injustice, and cruelty (“white enslavers,” “widespread white violence,” “systemic white suppression of black life,” etc.).

  In this telling of history, “white Americans” during the darkest days of Jim Crow held the same racist ideology as Jefferson and his “fellow white colonists.” With 32 instances of specifically “white” barbarity, it is impossible to ignore the gratuitous overuse of this racial category when describing everything that is diabolical in this country’s history. Nowhere do we read about a “white” American acting for the good, except a single instance in which certain “white Republicans” joined forces with the black community after the Civil War.

  We find the polar opposite when examining the 136 references to “black” people in this article. The word is used 72 times to describe victimization by violence or injustice (always at the hands of “whites”) and 49 times in laudable terms. There is not a single instance in which “black” is used to describe a person or deed deserving of criticism.

  While only a textual analysis can provide the big picture, individual passages drive home the racist message more explicitly. “For the most part,” according to this history, “black Americans fought [to secure rights] alone. Yet we never fought only for ourselves.” The article teaches schoolchildren that “black Americans, more than any other group, embrace the democratic ideals of a common good.” Children also learn: “Our founding fathers may not have actually believed in the ideals they espoused, but black people did.”

  Hannah-Jones’ composition is American history in black and white. It teaches that “blackness” is everything that ennobles this country and “whiteness” is everything that debases it. There was a time in the Jim Crow South, to their everlasting shame, when schools taught children lessons in white supremacy masked as American history. The 1619 Project has introduced a new form of black supremacy to American history, and it has been adopted by over 4,500 schools.

  Anti-White Racism in the Workplace

  Anyone who has been paying attention to corporate culture in America cannot but have noticed the increasing pressures to “diversify” the hiring and promotion process, often by explicitly demanding that white (especially white male) employees be held back.

  The Economist has reported on the “dizzying number of equity-related” hiring commitments promised by American businesses. Facebook alone “has promised to hire 30% more black people in leadership positions.” Since other businesses across America have made similar commitments, we can expect the competition to hire and promote black professionals will drive their value to stratospheric heights, while the perceived value of white professionals will plummet.

  A recent training program at Bank of America made the consequences of such commitments unmistakably clear. It instructed “white employees in particular” to “cede power to people of color.” There was no word that any member of Bank of America’s board of directors had offered to step down to make room for a replacement of color. Demands for self-denial are always made by persons who already hold seats of power and privilege (and who have no intention of giving them up). It is ever the less privileged employees who are expected to submit to degradation based on their race or sex.

  Thus far, the discontent arising among marginalized employees is only being discussed in whispers. Anne Applebaum recently interviewed a couple of men who believe they were punished at work “because a white, male boss felt he had to publicly sacrifice another white man in order to protect his own position.” Yet Americans are reluctant to speak out about anti-white racism, lest they be accused of being anti-black.

  Racism of any kind is never a single, defining act. It is death by a thousand cuts, and these cuts to white employees have become ubiquitous.

  I know of a book project that had been under contract for two years before being scuttled. The press rejected the volume of collected essays, in part, because the 14 contributing authors were not sufficiently “diverse.” The acquisition editor at the press defended the judgment of one of its anonymous reviewers: “Books coming out right now simply have to address the systemic whiteness and maleness that pervades the academy, and particularly political science.”

  This demand came despite a shortage of “scholars of color” who write on the particular subject the book addresses. Nevertheless, it was deemed essential that the volume’s contributors find some way to dilute their “whiteness” (in the subjective gaze of one anonymous reviewer) before the press would consent to publish on this topic.

  The Dangers of Anti-White Racism, and the Solution

  Skeptics inclined to dismiss the seriousness of anti-white racism will likely counter that the examples I’ve described are milquetoast; they’re not nearly as horrific as the anti-black racism of the Jim Crow South. Of course they’re not. Anti-white racism is not that bad now, nor is it reasonable to expect it will get that bad in the foreseeable future.

  Nevertheless, racism of any kind is an evil in itself; anti-white racism is today a greater problem, at least in the white-collar world, than anti-black racism; and its continued prevalence and severity is likely to spawn a backlash that will further enflame racial enmity.

  For anyone who may be skeptical that anti-white racism is now worse than anti-black racism, consider this: Overt acts of anti-black discrimination today are socially, politically, and professionally unimaginable. Anti-white discrimination, on the other hand, has become almost an institutional requirement. Schools and businesses seem fearful lest they are accused of not doing enough to stereotype, denigrate, marginalize, and suppress “whiteness.”

  In addition to the ubiquity of the evil itself, this racism is bound to provoke a backlash. The more that citizens identifying as “white” perceive themselves as under attack, the more likely they will be to coalesce politically as a form of defense. Hence, it is predictable that we would find, as Tesler has reported, undercurrents of white identity politics at the polls and, at the fringes, a rise in white supremacy and white nationalism.

  Yet, if Tesler and others are serious about combating this scourge of white identity politics, it will require a better understanding of its causes than they seem willing to explore. As long as anti-white racism is so flagrant, it is useless to hope that Americans won’t notice or won’t respond to it. Only by first acknowledging the rise in anti-white racism can we start thinking creatively about combating both the evil itself and the evils it spawns.

  Any permanent solution to America’s enduring problems with racism will ultimately have to come from the victims rather than the perpetrators. We have minimal influence over the minds and hearts of the bigots. However, as I’ve written before, if the targets of racism would identify as non-racial, they cease cooperating with the bigotry of racial sorting.

  It is not only anti-white racism that can be defeated by this strategy. Racial renunciation is emerging as a rallying cry from public intellectuals with diverse skin tones. Whether it’s known as “race abolitionism” or “unlearning race,” Kmele Foster, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Kenny Xu and Christian Watson, Erec Smith, Paul Rossi, and Angel Eduardo have all been powerful spokesmen for real change. In what is perhaps the best descriptor of this goal, Jason D. Hill has argued that black Americans, in particular, “are ideal candidates for racial self-emancipation.” There is a budding recognition that people of all complexions would benefit from renouncing the divisive racial categories imposed on us by others.

  If Americans can ever learn to internalize these three words, “I am non-racial,” it would free them from feelings of personal outrage when confronted by the racism of others. If they begin insisting that their bosses and teachers recognize their non-racial designation, they free themselves from the most overt forms of their discrimination. Eventually, there will come a day when racism will lose its grip on the minds and hearts of Americans.

  *  *  *

  Lynn Uzzell is Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics at Washington and Lee University. She specializes in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and the political thought of James Madison.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/12/2021 – 20:30

• "F**k Joe Biden" Chants Heard Across US College Football Stadiums
  “F**k Joe Biden” Chants Heard Across US College Football Stadiums

  Having garnered the most votes of any presidential candidate ever in November, Americans appear to be losing faith in President Biden’s ability to ‘build back better’.

  From the embarrassment of his chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal to increasing concerns over his tyrannical plans to ‘control’ the pandemic; and from soaring violent crime to anything-but-transitory food inflation, Americans (both young and old) are seemingly suddenly unafraid to express their dissatisfaction, as from coast to coast, college football stadiums on Saturday were packed with fans chanting “F**k Joe Biden.” 

  TENNESSEE CHECKING IN 🗣 #FJB pic.twitter.com/u3WHUHElgM

  — Old Row Sports (@OldRowSports) September 11, 2021

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  Fuck Joe Biden! 👊🏼🇺🇸👊🏼 pic.twitter.com/yt9MUz05lI

  — Art TakingBack 🇺🇸 (@ArtValley818_) September 11, 2021

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  FUCK JOE BIDEN CHANT IN DEATH VALLEY 🗣 @OldRowLSU pic.twitter.com/wS1yzbl7Yq

  — Old Row Sports (@OldRowSports) September 12, 2021

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  FUCK JOE BIDEN, ROLL TIDE! 🗣 pic.twitter.com/F551mJrC4b

  — Old Row Sports (@OldRowSports) September 11, 2021

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  Virginia Tech joins in! #FJB pic.twitter.com/VX6TekQbRW

  — Old Row Sports (@OldRowSports) September 11, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  The president’s approval rating has been in a downward spiral since Gallup first reported signs of a meaningful decline in support was observed in July.

  

  A CNN poll released Friday shows 69% of Americans say things are going wrong in the US. 

  Stadiums are one place where crowds of people cannot be censored, unlike social media platforms that will shadow ban or de-platform users for speaking their minds. 

  Not exactly what Democrats were expecting ahead of the midterms.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/12/2021 – 20:00

• Hedge Fund CIO: "We Have Entered The Most Uncertain Period Of Our Lifetimes"
  Hedge Fund CIO: “We Have Entered The Most Uncertain Period Of Our Lifetimes”

  By Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management, one of the largest institutional holds of cryptocurrencies.

  The Case for Quantum Change

  Change is the great constant in human existence. And yet, for reasons we will perhaps never fully understand, we seek its opposite – stability – a state that does not exist. In fact, stability is the one thing we cannot have no matter how hard we strive to secure it. All we can hope to attain is the illusion, so we conjure it, and shelter within. Even still, change finds us, we cannot escape. The passing of another day in a short human life. The gentle shift from summer’s green leaves to September’s hint of yellows, reds. Then one day we find ourselves suddenly old. Engulfed in autumn’s peak.

  Some change is undeniable, quantum, jarring. At least we perceive it so. An earthquake shocks, a raging forest fire too. While the forces that lead to such events are imperceptible, their outcome is inevitable, time uncertain. Silent subterranean pressures. Drying tinder. An invisible rise in atmospheric CO2, a warming ocean, the ferocious hurricane. Persistent forces quietly at work, compounding. These dynamics are not limited to the natural world. The intentions of individuals and human culture unleash the same grinding force. It is as much a part of us as we are a part of nature, which is to say, inseparable. Perhaps someday we will break free from the pattern of our origin; so far, there is scant evidence to suggest it.

  Each of us, at our core is a mystery; to those around us, to ourselves. Yet nearly all our behaviors are predictable, exploitable. The success of nearly every organization relies on harnessing the power of predicting behaviors. Governments, religions, militaries, corporations, central banks, universities, etc. These organizations maintain control by understanding how to manipulate us at scale. Having attained power, they are unwilling to relinquish it. Established organizations therefore actively oppose substantial change. It is their existential threat.

  Those with the courage and conviction to execute on innovative ideas change the world. They are ridiculed at first, dismissed, sometimes persecuted. Socrates. Galileo. A few break barriers, and are afterwards celebrated, sometimes enriched. Einstein. Edison. Even though the rest of us operate at lower altitudes, we too are sublime enigmas, each in our own way. So, although our behaviors are nearly always predictable, they are not entirely. And that is why, when connecting millions or billions of such creatures, we can often model the near future with reasonable accuracy but must recognize that the more distant horizon is highly uncertain.

  And this leads me to investing.

  There are many investor types. At one end of the spectrum are those who identify tiny anomalies in the prices of various securities and bet they will revert to mean. Such investing requires relatively little imagination, and therefore, enormous leverage is required to generate meaningful returns. At the other extreme are early-stage venture investors who are skilled at recognizing a changing world. They themselves do not generally conceive of that different future; rather, they see it through the eyes of visionaries who do, and then provide modest sums of capital to build it. Their unlevered returns can be enormous. More artistically minded people are often drawn to this investing style. 

  Between those poles are countless others. Each bet on outcomes they see as probable relative to what is priced into markets. The biggest obstacle to an investor’s success is in overcoming their own biases, weaknesses, shortcomings. That’s no small task. The fact that most human behavior is predictable extends to our market interactions. The central tendency of most creatures is to follow – traveling in packs, herds, flocks, schools, tribes. This is why most successful investors tend to be deeply introspective. Their study of human nature helps them step outside of themselves. Iconoclast, they learn to lean against the crowd when risks rise wildly relative to rewards, or the inverse. They jump on macro mega-trends as the world begins to change while the herd resists.

  But major transitions rarely happen. So, most investors bet heavily on tomorrow closely resembling today. Simple statistics point to this as the optimal path. It is especially true at the end of major cycles, when the rewards for predicting a continuation of the status quo have persisted for so long that they appear structural, perpetual. Returns for those bets compress through time, requiring investors to explicitly and implicitly leverage their portfolios to sustain performance. When the world changes, they are devastated. Great fortunes are made and lost in the transitions from one cycle to the next as a result. While we often view such episodes as isolated events, they are phases within a cycle, parts of a process, connecting what had come before to what inevitably follows.

  And this takes us to the profound shifts now underway.

  Investors tend to look at last year’s market collapse as a Black Swan. But it should be viewed as the final phase in a process that started in the late 1980s. An epic earthquake, decades in making. By early 2020, it was evident that monetary easing combined with central bank bond buying was no longer sufficient to spur the real economy on its own. To be sure, rate cuts and quantitative easing could lift asset prices if applied aggressively, but this in turn amplified inequality which contributed to the underlying conditions that afflicted the real economy. The Fed itself was crying out for politicians to engage in aggressive fiscal expansion.

  The central bank’s well intended efforts to meet its dual mandate meant it did whatever was necessary to support stable prices and maximum sustainable employment. This had the unintended consequence of relieving politicians of making hard policy choices. The Fed stood ready to offset any and every economic interruption, leaving politicians under little pressure to act in the long-term best interest of the nation. With de minimis political costs of inaction, very little good happened. Special interests feasted. Leadership withered. The body politic followed, frayed.

  The problem was not confined to the United States. It had become a global phenomenon. Decades of U.S. dollar dominance as the global reserve currency forced every developed nation to adopt the Fed’s general approach to monetary policy. Failure to do so resulted in currency appreciation, which in turn hurt international trade. In a world fixated on ever-expanding globalization, such a consequence was universally viewed as unacceptable. So, over the decades, global monetary policy converged with Fed policy.

  The world thereby entered 2020 with a level of global policy homogeneity unlike any previously experienced. That policy no longer worked. The pandemic provided the most potent catalyst imaginable to catapult developed economies into an entirely new policy paradigm. Had it not been COVID-19, it would surely have been something else. The pandemic allowed even the most dysfunctional global governments and warring political tribes to coalesce around a common economic policy at a scale that will change how the world operates for decades.

  By requiring governments to borrow and spend previously unimaginable sums to offset the economic depressionary forces, the pandemic restored politicians to power. Central banks played their part, accommodating the unprecedented borrowing. But it is not central bankers who spend money. It is elected politicians. And after decades of increasing political dysfunction, a wide range of societal, infrastructure, environmental and geopolitical problems had grown to the point that nearly everyone recognized them as such, even as they may have disagreed about how to address them. The pandemic pushed our politicians back into action.

  Unlike global bankers, who came to closely resemble one another as their policy frameworks coalesced around the Fed playbook, politicians are a varied species. How each approaches borrowing and spending can differ wildly even within a single country. The way they approach lists of long-neglected priorities naturally varies. What sectors will win and lose, what commodities will rise and fall, what taxes will come and go, regulations too, all such things are now in play. And nations differ. So, what had been a paradigm of unprecedented policy homogeneity, is in a year unrecognizable. Policy is now becoming increasingly heterogeneous.

  Were this the only transition now underway in our always evolving world, it would mark the most important change that has occurred in half a century. It has already resulted in the world’s largest economy borrowing roughly 15% of GDP for two years running, with the Fed buying nearly all that debt. The subterranean forces that produced such a shock are manifold and have only just begun to surface. Into this cauldron comes something earthshaking that was conceived as a response to these same forces. It manifested in 2009 and is so utterly revolutionary as to be initially incomprehensible to almost everyone.

  Blockchain technology.

  In twelve short years, the blockchain ecosystem has grown to include 6,000+ protocols with a market capitalization over $2 trillion. Many are built to replace something incumbent institutions presently do; only faster, cheaper, and more securely. Some protocols are built to do things we previously considered impossible. Still others do things not previously imagined. Many pioneers have generated the kind of wealth only amassed in periods of great disruption, transition. They are not cashing out; they have only just started. They see a world very different from what has been. They have a revolutionary mindset, a broadening view of what is possible, and the wealth to bring their dreams to life. They are not afraid to fail. Many will of course. But not all. Their spirit is extraordinary, the ambition breathtaking.

  The most revolutionary aspect of these technologies is that they allow for fully decentralized power. In their purest form, they are built to operate without central control. They allow the planet’s 7.9 billion people, connected through the cloud, to interact, exchange value, information, property rights, encrypted data, and do things we have only started to imagine, securely, without a centralized authority. Such change presents an existential threat to every organization operating with a centralized control model, which is nearly every single institution.

  Some incumbents will attempt to co-opt these systems, harnessing their efficiencies, while distorting the protocols to achieve centralized control. Such is the vast power of these technologies that this path holds the potential to lead the world toward a dystopian future. Beijing appears to be pursuing this path, reflected in the implementation of its central bank digital currency. Perhaps the West will take a different path, one that reflects its values and the source of its strength, providing the space for a Cambrian explosion of these new private technologies. Allowing them to flourish – all within a sensible regulatory framework – bringing with them innovations and efficiencies that we are only beginning to glimpse. Such a path holds the potential to produce another Renaissance. Where this all ultimately leads is impossible to say.

  And this brings me to investment strategies for the decade ahead.

  The most important thing to internalize when constructing portfolios for the coming years is that we have entered the most uncertain period of our lifetimes. It is even possible we are at the dawn of the period of greatest change for the past few centuries. This is almost inconceivable, considering the bruising pace of transformation we are living through now. Our natural inclination, our human bias, is to deny this possibility. But as investors, it is our job to step outside ourselves and survey the landscape objectively. A fair accounting of the range of potential outcomes when looking out over the coming decade or two spans from dystopia to Renaissance. It would be unsurprising, with so much uncertainty, for sentiment to swing from expectations for one such extreme toward the other, multiple times.

  Prices move over the longer-term to reflect fundamentals. The big moves happen because the future is materially different from the present. When that gap is not properly recognized and therefore not priced into today’s market, a large trend becomes inevitable. Of course, nothing is truly predetermined, and so sometimes price trends, once underway, can themselves distort the future. Such dynamics can either temper trends or amplify them reflexively. The latter can extend to such wild extremes that prices then reverse with equal force and severity.

  Given the change ahead, and the reluctance of people to accept it, let alone recognize it, one should expect large moves in prices. Trends. Such an environment will reward the artistically minded, the venture investors, and those prepared to break with what is now seen, after decades of growing policy homogeneity, as investing orthodoxy. It should come as no surprise that at the outset of such an environment, investors in digital assets and the companies that are focused on these new technologies have produced extraordinary returns. That trend has only just begun.

  There will be enormous trends in other assets as well. Volatility markets will naturally present exceptional opportunities. Talented discretionary investors with unconstrained mandates, open minds and disciplined risk management should produce tremendous returns. An exceptional way to systematically capitalize on such an environment at scale is by deploying capital to trend-following strategies (CTAs). By removing the emotion and bias that handicap discretionary traders, and by spreading bets across many individual markets representing all the major asset classes, systematic trend-following strategies can profit in bull markets, bear markets. Renaissance. Dystopia. Extreme outcomes in either direction. The strategies are agnostic to the outcome, passionless, open minded, adaptable.

  Systematic trend following has arguably just had its worst decade in the past century. The decade coincided with peak policy homogeneity, with central bankers expending extraordinary efforts to produce stability. Now trend strategies are generally shunned by investors, even as the world is transforming. Unsurprisingly, such strategies had their best decade of the last century in the tumultuous 1970s, producing tremendous returns in a period when inflation devastated most investment portfolios. After decades of low and stable prices, a return to a higher inflation regime appears not only likely, but it is a stated policy goal. None of this is to suggest we are headed for a repeat of the 1970s, or any other historical period for that matter. Systematic trend-following profits from great change, and it need not be a repeat of some previous regime.

  We are at a truly unique moment in human history, headed as always, into the unknown but with an unusually wide range of possible outcomes. This is a time of existential risk for those unwilling to adapt, and a time of extraordinary opportunity for those of us prepared to embrace quantum change. In periods of such profound transition, it is the case that the investment strategies that profited most handsomely in the old regime, suffer in the new. And as with all natural phenomena, those that struggled, have their day in the sun.

  Eric Peters
  Chief Investment Officer
  One River Asset Management

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/12/2021 – 19:30

• One In Five Americans Say Employer Requires Vaccination
  One In Five Americans Say Employer Requires Vaccination

  The share of Americans who are required by their employer to get vaccinated against COVID-19 took a jump up in August to 19 percent, according to a Gallup poll.

  As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz notes, the number had been as low as 9 percent in July and 6 percent in June.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Over the past couple of months, many major companies and government branches have released vaccination requirements and the type of employer issuing requirements goes beyond obvious ones like healthcare providers and the military. The full approval of the Pfizer vaccine on August 23 helped make the legal footing of employer-mandated vaccinations sounder.

  According to Fortune, companies that require vaccinations for employees in order to work from their premises include Bank of America, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Netflix and Uber. Three federal departments – those for defense, veteran affairs and health and human services – also require them without alternatives for frontline workers. Six states – Colorado, Maine, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington – have released mandates for healthcare workers to get vaccinated or be terminated, while the more common mandates for state and local government employees normally leave the option of regular testing and sometimes masking for the unvaccinated.

  The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an independent federal government agency, has said that it is legal for employers to require all employees who physically enter a workplace to be vaccinated against COVID-19, as long as the employers also comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act in order to accommodate those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/12/2021 – 19:00

• Navy SEAL Who Shot Bin Laden Says Internal Division Now Biggest Threat To America
  Navy SEAL Who Shot Bin Laden Says Internal Division Now Biggest Threat To America

  Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

  Robert O’Neill, the former Navy SEAL credited with killing Osama bin Laden, the terrorist mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, said that the biggest threat to America comes not from outside but from internal strife and division.

  

  Robert O’Neill, the former Navy SEAL who shot and killed Osama bin Laden, poses for a portrait in Washington, on Nov. 14, 2014. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)

  O’Neill made the remarks in an interview with Fox News on the eve of Sept. 11, as the nation prepared to honor victims of the terror attack on the World Trade Center 20 years ago that killed at least 2,977 people and injured thousands more.

  “My biggest concern is the division in this country,” O’Neill told the outlet.

  “Most people are good to each other. But the anger and the division gets the ratings, and that’s what people hear. A lot of people know if they keep people divided they can stay in power and it’s wrong.”

  “We can disagree with each other but we’re on the same team when it all comes down to it,” O’Neill added.

  

  Smoke billows from one of the towers of the World Trade Center as flames and debris explode from the second tower, in New York City, on Sept. 11, 2001. (Chao Soi Cheong/AP Photo)

  O’Neill was part of the 2011 raid in Pakistan targeting the Al-Qaeda leader and says he was the one who fired the fatal shot.

  In a separate interview with CBS News, O’Neill recounted the daring mission that left bin Laden dead.

  “When I turned the corner, I saw Osama bin Laden standing there,” he said, adding that he thought the Al-Qaeda leader may have been preparing to detonate an explosive.

  “He’s a threat, he’s going to blow up, I need to treat him like a suicide bomber and that’s why I had to shoot him in the face,” O’Neill said.

  

  Copies of a newspaper are seen outside the World Trade Center site after the death of accused 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden was announced by U.S. President Barack Obama, in New York City, on May 2, 2011. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

  O’Neill said the mission to get bin Laden was a testament to the ability of people holding different political views to join forces to counter threats against the homeland.

  “We proved that we can work together,” he said, adding that he hopes events like the anniversary of 9/11 are seized as an opportunity by both the right and the left to bridge divisions in the pursuit of common objectives.

  “When all is said and done, we’re all Americans and we should be on the same team,” he said.

  O’Neill’s remarks about the need for Americans to bridge political and ideological divides was echoed by President Joe Biden, who in a recorded video released on Sept. 10 recalled the heroics seen in the aftermath of the terror attacks and how America saw “a true sense of national unity.”

  Biden, who on Saturday was set to visit three sites attacked on 9/11, added in the video that “unity makes us who we are” and called for people to “have a fundamental respect and faith in each other and in this nation.”

  Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, told Fox News that he planned to visit Ground Zero in New York City on Saturday to mark the 20th anniversary of the attacks.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/12/2021 – 18:30

• "Bitcoin Really Does Fix This": El Salvador's Adoption Of Bitcoin Will Cost Money Transfer Companies Hundreds Of Millions In Fees
  “Bitcoin Really Does Fix This”: El Salvador’s Adoption Of Bitcoin Will Cost Money Transfer Companies Hundreds Of Millions In Fees

  If you’re from El Salvador living and working elsewhere in the world, Bitcoin wallet adoption in the country fixes an age-old problem that clunky money-transfer companies like Western Union used to have to solve: getting money back home. 

  According to CNBC, about 70% of the Salvadoran population receives remittance payments that could now be transferred using Bitcoin. 

  Jaime García of Saskatchewan, who left El Salvador after his house was bombed by rebels, told CNBC: “In this day and age, it is wild that I had to go to a physical Western Union office, give them actual cash, and then hand them another $25 on top of that, before they would send my money over.”

  “And then, of course, it takes three days for it to actually arrive in El Salvador,” he continued.

  Then, back in El Salvador, collecting also becomes a problem: “They have to take a bus to go to a physical location to pick it up, and there are gangs that hang out around those offices. They know what people are going there for, and they basically rob them.”

  Last year, more than $6 billion, or about 23% of the country’s GDP, was sent back home from the 2.5 million who have fled El Salvador. “60% of that cash comes via remittance companies and 38% through banking institutions,” CNBC reported, citing official data.

  The shift in how payments are made could wind up costing money transfer companies up to a billion dollars, Mario Gomez Lozada estimated. Lozada was born and raised in El Salvador, has previously worked as a banker with Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse and now works running a derivates exchange for crypto assets.

  

  Lozada said: “It will be interesting to see the impact on remittances in a few months and see what percentage of it uses the bitcoin network rails. My guess is most people initially will cash bitcoin into U.S. dollars, as this is what they are used to, but we should see a gradual adoption of bitcoin as the main means of transaction and pricing. I see a future where consumer items like milk and bread are priced in bitcoin directly and people might even start holding bitcoin.”

  Matt Hougan, chief investment officer of Bitwise Asset Management, told CNBC: “Remittances are one area where the status quo in our legacy financial system is terrible, with extraordinarily high fees leveled at populations that can ill afford them.”

  He continued: “It won’t be overnight; 100% of remittances aren’t going to move to the Chivo app tomorrow. These things take time, and people naturally worry about trying new things with money. But the current fee levels of charge for remittances are going to prove unsustainable.”

  Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer for the Human Rights Foundation, said: “Wherever you are now, you can send bitcoin to anyone with a Chivo wallet in El Salvador, and in minutes, they have the value and then they can go to one of the ATMs and take it out in cash without a fee. That’s drop-dead stunning. It’s an incredible humanitarian improvement.”

  Hougan concluded: “It’s a worn-out Twitter saying, but bitcoin really does fix this.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/12/2021 – 18:00

• North Korea Reportedly Test-Fires New Long-Range Cruise Missile
  North Korea Reportedly Test-Fires New Long-Range Cruise Missile

  South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency is reporting that North Korea’s state-owned media KCNA said that North Korea said it has successfully test-fired a “new type long-range” cruise missile on September 11 and 12.

  “The efficiency and practicality of the weapon system operation was confirmed to be excellent,” state news agency KCNA said in a statement

  The missiles flew 1,500km (930 miles) traveling for 7,580 seconds before hitting their targets and falling into the country’s territorial waters, KCNA said.

  The development of the missiles provides “strategic significance of possessing another effective deterrence means for more reliably guaranteeing the security of our state and strongly containing the military maneuvers of the hostile forces,” KCNA said.

  This is not the first such test-fire during Biden’s term.

  In March, Kim Jong Un test-fired two short-range ballistic missiles, prompting U.S. Indo-Pacific Command spokesperson Capt. Mike Kafka to warn at the time:

  “This activity highlights the threat that North Korea’s illicit weapons program poses to its neighbors and the international community.”

  But one still wonders at the timing of such a provocation.

  Kim would not fire anything without Beijing’s blessing, so is this Xi piling on more pressure on Biden as Washington faces turmoil in almost every foreign policy endeavor.

  Last week, North Korea staged its first military-style parade since Joe Biden became U.S. president, with Kim presiding over an event where displays of his state’s weaponry were scaled down from previous exhibitions. There were no ballistic missiles, which are faster and harder to intercept than cruise missiles, on show.

  

  Also interesting, given the timing, Australia’s Defense Minister Peter Dutton and Foreign Minister Marise Payne are in Seoul to meet with their South Korean counterparts, as the two countries mark the 60th anniversary of official relations.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/12/2021 – 17:35

• California Medical Ethics Prof With Natural Immunity Sues University Over Vaxx Mandate
  California Medical Ethics Prof With Natural Immunity Sues University Over Vaxx Mandate

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  We recently discussed the lawsuit filed by a George Mason University professor who refused to get the Covid vaccine upon the recommendation of his doctors and due to his natural antibodies after recovering from the virus. GMU later relented and gave him an exception. However, now a University of California professor has sued on the same ground. Aaron Kheriaty, professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the University of California at Irvine, is the latest effort to force review of the issue of natural antibodies as a protection from Covid.

  

  Kheriaty is suing the Board of Regents and the University president due to his antibodies from a case of Covid-19 in July 2020. He told SBG “[i]f my immunity is as good, indeed, very likely better, than that conferred by the vaccine, there doesn’t seem to be any rational basis for discriminating against my form of immunity and requiring me to get a different form of immunity.”

  What is most interesting about the case is that Kheriaty serves as director of UCI’s Medical Ethics Program and is a member of the UC Office of the President Critical Care Bioethics Working Group. Kheriaty has complained that it is now verboten to even raise natural antibodies despite studies showing that they may be even more effective than vaccines.  A study (often cited by the CDC) suggests the opposite.

  Kheriaty cited studies showing that recovery yields considerable protection, including a study from researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology found that that the immune systems of those who recovered from COVID-19 had durable memories of the virus up to eight months after infection.  He goes into detail on such studies. Thus, this is not some screed against vaccines but a science based challenge.

  There has been an obvious aversion of the CDC and the Biden Administration in addressing the natural antibody issue. Most media have held that same line and there has been little discussion of such objections.

  The challenge for Kheriaty is whether a court will find that taking the vaccine as someone with natural antibodies has not been found to be dangerous or harmful. As a result, it may conclude that it is simply too difficult for employers to establish natural antibodies and their specific level of protection. However, the same difficulty is present by vaccinated individuals who will likely have differing levels of protection over time.

  Past challenges to mandates have included the natural antibody issues.  Recently, in a challenge to Indiana University’s mandate, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit rejected a motion for a preliminary injunction. The Court noted that there is not “a fundamental right ingrained in the American legal tradition” to refuse a vaccine. Challenges have also bee rejected to policies at Houston Methodist Hospital and Los Angeles Unified School District.

  This case however presents the natural antibody case in its strongest and most direct terms. The odds are in favor of the university but it could be a case with potential for the Supreme Court.

  Here is the complaint: Kheriaty Complaint

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/12/2021 – 17:30

• Al Qaeda Leader Appears In New Video Marking 9/11, Despite Death Rumors
  Al Qaeda Leader Appears In New Video Marking 9/11, Despite Death Rumors

  It’s been years since the world heard from Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri, who became the main face of the terror group after the 2011 death of Osama bin Laden. After the wars in Iraq and Syria and with the rise of ISIS, al-Qaeda has also seen its “prestige” eclipsed in recent years. 

  Zawahri has even long been rumored to be dead; however, a new video of the reclusive 70-year old jihadi and one of the founding members of al-Qaeda is being considered fresh proof that he’s still alive and is directing the organization. The video was reportedly released to mark the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, as The Associated Press details:

  The SITE Intelligence Group that monitors jihadist websites said the video was released Saturday. In it, al-Zawahri said that “Jerusalem Will Never be Judaized,” and praised al-Qaida attacks including one that targeted Russian troops in Syria in January.

  17) Amid rumors of his death, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri shown in new 60-minute video, this time offering some evidence that he is not dead–particularly, reference to events after December, when rumors of death surfaced. (A speech from March offered no such proof) pic.twitter.com/IXpz6wIZvh

  — Rita Katz (@Rita_Katz) September 11, 2021

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  But there’s speculation that it may have been recorded at the start of this year, given no mention is made of the recent Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Rita Katz, head of the counter-terror analysis group SITE, said in a weekend statement of Zawahri that “He could still be dead, though if so, it would have been at some point in or after Jan 2021.”

  Clues in the video as to the timing of its production include the terror leader’s mention of a Jan.1, 2021 attack on Russian troops outside Raqqa in Syria. Al-Qaeda has for years been vocally supportive of the armed “jihad” in Syria and attempts to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

  The video is somewhat lengthy, at over 61 minutes, and was produced reportedly by al-Qaeda’s as-Sahab Media Foundation.

  22) As the AQ community continues to flood channels and hype up Zawahiri speech, their incitements remind one that AQ remains intent as ever to harm America. One pro-AQ magazine released today incites for more attacks with aircraft: “Are we not able to repeat it?” pic.twitter.com/BiypVvZVQw

  — Rita Katz (@Rita_Katz) September 11, 2021

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  Since the video’s weekend release – timed just as America held memorials at New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania where United Airlines Flight 93 went down after al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked it – al-Qaeda propaganda channels and media have suggested its terror operatives desire to “repeat” such a major attack against the West and the US.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/12/2021 – 17:00

• Two Years Ago Today: Wuhan Bat Lab Mysteriously Scrubbed Database With 22,000 Specimens
  Two Years Ago Today: Wuhan Bat Lab Mysteriously Scrubbed Database With 22,000 Specimens

  More than three months before Covid-19 officially ‘broke out’ in Wuhan, China, the Wuhan Institute of Virology mysteriously took its bat and rodent pathogen database offline – suddenly making over 22,000 specimens unavailable.

  

  This is the same China that ordered virus samples destroyed after a ‘rogue lab’ published the genome for Covid-19 (48 hours after the WIV database was further altered), and deleted more than 300 studies encompassing “hundreds of pages of information”

  We’re reminded of this by biologist and writer Matt Ridley, who said in a Sunday Twitter thread:

  …The explanation that Shi Zhengli gave, that there had been hacking attempts, makes no sense.

  Why would there be before the pandemic?

  And sharing the data with a secure source overseas to protect against it being altered would render hacking futile…

  — Matt Ridley (@mattwridley) September 12, 2021

  Continued: 

  …The fact sheet describing the database was not taken down but it was edited, on or before 30 December, to change the key words, and alter some terms from “wildlife” to “bat and rodent”. Why?

  The database remains inaccessible to the world to this day. We know it contains unpublished samples and sequences of bat viruses but we have never been told what they are. Shockingly,@peterdaszak has excused this lack of transparency, while other virologists have ignored it…

   

  There has been no call from the Royal Society, the US National Academy of Sciences or western governments for this database to be shared with the world, even though it could be vital to understanding how this pandemic started or how the next one may start. Why not?

  The failure to share this information at a time when millions have died is not just unforgivable. It is also circumstantial evidence of the relevance of the site. The quickest way to dispel suspicion is to share this information. pic.twitter.com/34kUpC9yWh

  — Matt Ridley (@mattwridley) September 12, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

   And as Paul Graham notes, “Perhaps it would be a useful exercise to try to pinpoint, if Covid-19 escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, exactly which day it did so. Perhaps “reconstructing the crime” would help ascertain whether it happened.”

  Perhaps it would be a useful exercise to try to pinpoint, if Covid-19 escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, exactly which day it did so. Perhaps “reconstructing the crime” would help ascertain whether it happened. https://t.co/cHhi33slIL

  — Paul Graham (@paulg) September 12, 2021

  We aren’t going to hold our breath for any answers from the CCP.

  Wuhan and PRC authorities have been asked for raw data that might help reconstruct / reverse trace the origins of SARS2. This was their response: https://t.co/5qbLbNdQl9

  — jj ⌛️💡🔭 (@murchiston) September 12, 2021

  Going even deeper down the rabbit hole… (click tweet to jump in)

  A thread on the origins of COVID-19, and a possible bio-containment failure at one of the Wuhan labs.

  I feel there are facts not enough people know about, so I decided to summarise the important & interesting ones in this post.

  — The Seeker (@TheSeeker268) October 7, 2020

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  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/12/2021 – 16:30

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• McMaken: 9/11 Was A Day Of Unforgivable Government Failure
  McMaken: 9/11 Was A Day Of Unforgivable Government Failure

  Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

  Perhaps more than anything else, the rationale given for the necessity of the state – and the necessity of supporting the regime at any given time – is that it “keeps us safe.” This permeates thinking about government institutions at all levels, from “thin blue line” sloganeering at the local level, all the way up to jingoism surrounding the  Pentagon.

  Presumably, the hundreds of billions of dollars extracted from taxpayers, year after year after year, is all both necessary and laudable because without it, chaos would reign on our streets, and foreign invaders would slaughter Americans.

  Yet, this rationale for state power also presumes that the nation’s alleged defenders are actually competent at their jobs.

  Whether or not this is case certainly remains debatable as the recent military disasters in Afghanistan have made clear. The Pentagon brass pushed for continued war in Afghanistan for 20 years, and ultimately, lost the entire country to the Taliban, the very people Pentagon generals assured us they would eliminate “soon.”

  Moreover, the so-called “intelligence community” in the United States has repeatedly failed in its mission at crucial times. This can be seen in the fact the CIA was asleep at the switch in the lead ups to both the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 —both of which constituted an immense blow to American “safety” by the American regime’s metrics.

  Needless to say, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were made possible by an immense military and intelligence failure on the part of the United States government. Not only did the US government provide the motivation for the attacks—through endless meddling in Middles Eastern regimes—but the US regime failed to protect its own citizens when the blowback arrived. 

  

  Yet, as is so common following displays of incompetence by government bureaucrats, virtually no government agents was held accountable for this failure. The head of the CIA on 9/11, George Tenet, continued at his post for years afterward. There certainly was no “house cleaning” at the FBI either. 

  Yet federal agencies allegedly formed to “keep us safe” were more or less AWOL in the lead up to 9/11, choosing to focus on relatively petty goals, and on augmenting the agencies’ public-relations efforts, rather than on terrorism.

  The CIA at the Center

  A bevy of books have been published over the last 20 years examining the massive intelligence blundering that preceded 9/11. Many of them are partisan, and many attempt to blame everything on elected officials. But the failures leading up to 9/11 go much deeper than that. Much of this is described in detail by Milo Jones and Philippe Silberzahn in their book Constructing Cassandra: Reframing Intelligence Failure at the CIA, 1947-2001.

  The authors note that the 9/11 failure was a failure of multiple intelligence agencies, as well as numerous US policymakers across many agencies and institutions.

  But, as Jones and Silberzahn contend, “the CIA stands at the center of the failure. … [p]rior to 9/11, the CIA was primus inter pares among the agencies of the U.S. intelligence community, chartered specifically to coordinate the community’s activities against threats—especially surprise attacks originating abroad.”

  The story of the CIA’s failure is one of an organization that was repeatedly warned of the al-Qa’ida threat by internal analysists. But both the CIA leadership, and the rank and file, chose to ignore the warnings.  Rather, before 9/11, the leadership insisted on focusing on China, Iran, and Iraq. Other priorities included drug trafficking, organized crime, and illicit trade practices and “environmental issues of great gravity.”

  Thanks only partly to guidance handed down form the Clinton administration in the late 1990s, “intelligence about al-Qa’ida [was] equal to that [of] …the illegal trade of tropical hardwood.” Jones and Silberzahn note the CIA did not “push back” against these priorities but concerned itself with telling politicians what they wanted to hear. 

  Looking at “CIA budgetary decisions prior to 9/11” it becomes clear that intelligence on terrorism and al-Qa’ida were “extremely low priorities” at the CIA and “the agency had repeatedly diverted money away from counterterrorism to other purposes.”

  For instance, the CIA’s intelligence briefings for the Bush administration in 2001 (prior to September 11) were extremely vague and never communicated much beyond the bland facts that Islamic terrorists exist and might carry out attacks—sometime, somewhere.  The agency never devoted many resources to following up on the possibility of these attacks. Briefings on the topic of Islamic terrorism were historical in nature with little effort given to anticipating the details of possible future acts. There was no “actionable warning.”

  The 9/11 Commission noted this problem:

  Commission staff member Douglas McEachin—a veteran former CIA analyst himself—thought that it was “unforgivable” that no NIE [National Intelligence Estimate] on al-Qa’ida or terrorism of any sort was produced for four years before the attacks. McEachin was “shocked that no one at the senior levels of the CIA had attempted for years— to catalog and give context to what was know about al-Qa’ida.”

  Yet, to this day, apologists for the CIA will shrug their shoulders and insist “hindsight is 20/20!” and “how could anyone have known?” These defenders of the regime, of course, ignore the fact that the intelligence community in 2001 was receiving $30 billion in taxpayer money—an amount that was real money in 2001—to anticipate security threats. Providing “early warning of an enemy attack” was (and is) their job.

  (It’s also worth asking if the perennial excuse-makers for government failure can provide an example of a military or intelligence failure that they wouldn’t shrug off.)

  The CIA Was Warned, and Did Nothing

  Moreover, the data is clear that it didn’t require revolutionary thinking to anticipate that Islamic terrorists might use airplanes as weapons, or that al-Qa’ida posed a credible threat.

  After all, the CIA leadership was warned by its own analysts, especially those under Michael Scheuer who headed up the CIA’s much-ignored bin Ladin unit. As early as 1996, Scheuer had attempted to warn his superiors at the CIA of the threat of Islamic terrorism in general, and al Qa’ida in particular. Usama bin Laden had been publicly threatening Western nations to Western media since 1993, and publicly declared war on the United States on September 2, 1996.

  Unlike most staffers and officials at the CIA, Scheuer took bin Ladin seriously, but he and his unit were regarded with little esteem at the agency. While Scheuer was attempting to raise the profile of al-Qa’ida, “Anyone with seniority or savvy avoided assignment to the bin Ladin unit.”

  Scheuer was regarded as “obsessive” and those who were assigned to work with him were usually “very junior” and also female. Indeed, the bin Ladin unit, staffed as it was by Scheuer and a number of women, came to be derisively called “The Manson Family” among CIA staff.

  Eventually, Scheuer lost what little influence he had in 1999. Frustrated with senior officials, Scheuer attempted to engage CIA director Tenet directly. This was regarded as an unforgiveable breach of bureaucratic protocol and Scheuer was demoted to the position of a librarian and shunted off to a cubicle in the library at Langley.

  Airplanes as Weapons: It Was Predictable

  Having studiously ignored the potential threat of al-Qa’ida throughout the late 1990s, CIA staff and leadership also failed to anticipate the methods eventually used on 9/11.

  Followers of early 2000s popular culture will sometimes recall that the television show The Lone Gunmen—a spinoff of The X-Files—aired an episode in March 2001 in which a nefarious “hacker” deliberately flies a 747 at the World Trade Center.

  Many note with amazement that authors of fiction saw the potential for the use of airplanes as weapons while the intelligence community apparently ignored the idea. Yet, the writers at The Lone Gunmen were hardly the first to conceive of the idea, which further illustrates the lack of imagination employed at the CIA.

  As Jones and Silberzahn note,

  In 1994, an Algerian group hijacked a plane in Algiers and apparently intended to fly it into the Eiffel Tower; in 1995, Manila police reported in detail about a suicide plot to crash a plane into CIA Headquarters; since the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, the NSC actively considered the use of aircraft as suicide weapons. Tom Clancy also wrote a novel about such an attack. As the [9/11] commission itself noted, the possibility of commercial planes as suicde weapons was both “imaginable and imagined” not just at the CIA.

  A Lack of Expertise

  So why was the CIA leadership so incapable to taking the al-Qa’ida threat seriously?

  Much of it, Jones and Silberzahn conclude, was due to sizable weaknesses in the CIA’s analytical capabilities. Just as a general example, the authors note that even as late as 2013, “very few CIA analysts can read or speak Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi, Urdu, or Farsi—which collectively comprise the languages spoken by nearly half the world’s population.”

  Jones and Silberzahn note this is part of a general problem at the CIA of cultural homogeneity. Prior to 9/11, and likely still today, the CIA capabilities in understanding foreign cultures is limited by the fact the CIA is largely the domain of college-educated Americans, generally from the same socio-economic strata.

  As noted by one CIA officer shortly after 9/11:

  The CIA probably doesn’t have a single truly qualified Arabic-speaking officer of Middle Eastern Background who can play a believable Muslim fundamentalist… For Christ’s sake most case officers live in the suburbs of Virginia.

  Indeed, “In 2001, only 20 percent of the graduating class of clandestine case officers were fluent in a non-Romance language.” It’s unlikely that in 2001, the CIA had even a single case officer who spoke Pashto, the language of the Taliban. These great intelligence “experts” were groping around in the dark, often due to bureaucratic laziness and ignorance. 

  The CIA’s defenders today may still make excuses for the CIA’s failure to know the details of the 9/11 conspiracy ahead of time, but it is clear today that the CIA wasn’t even looking in the right general direction to discover such information were it to present itself. Rather, in 2001, the CIA was apparently more interested in working with policymakers and media to leak headlines that would play up the foreign threats the CIA was most interested in talking about.

  Unfortunately, in spite of these enormous failures, the CIA and the intelligence community have seen little damage to their reputations. Nor is there any reason to assume the situation has substantially changed and that the federal bureaucracy is any more competent today than it was on September 10, 2001. There is no market test or objective measure of success in government bureaucracies. In the decade following 9/11, the US’s intelligence agencies were rewarded with a marked increase in funding over 1990s levels. 

  Twenty years after 9/11, a much-needed culture of skepticism around the nation’s “intelligence community” has yet to arise. This attitude will only pave the way for the next time it becomes tragically clear that America’s well-funded collection of intelligence agencies doesn’t actually “keep us safe.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/11/2021 – 23:30

• Boston Suburb Attempts To Limit Gun Stores With New Zoning Proposal
  Boston Suburb Attempts To Limit Gun Stores With New Zoning Proposal

  It comes as no surprise the Second Amendment is under attack in a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, one of the most anti-gun states in the country. 

  Members of the Select Board in Brookline, Massachusetts, are proposing zoning limits for gun stores, according to the Patch. 

  

  Under the new zoning proposal submitted by town board members Petra Bignami, Janice Kahn, Alexandra Metral, and Sharon Schoffman, gun stores would only be allowed to operate by special permit. It also states buffer zones will be around residential properties, private and public K-12 schools, and childcare facilities, which would block firearm businesses from operating within a certain distance. 

  The proposal came after the City of Newton, one town over, approved new zoning rules for gun stores in June that restricted them to three locations. This action was in response to a new gun store attempting to open. 

  “When the issue of the gun store going into Newton, that got everybody’s attention I think about potentially a flaw in the towns land use that might allow gun stores in places we don’t want, and so I asked the planning department to begin to work on that,” Brookline’s Town Administrator Melvin Kleckner said at a Select Board meeting last month. 

  Kleckner said the proposal is a good idea and is “essentially the Newton model.”  

  Responding to this liberal madness is The Machine Gun Nest (TMGN), who said: 

  “Not surprising that the proposal is coming from Massachusetts, one of the most anti-gun states in the country. The irony is that the same people who claim to be for personal freedom and free expression push laws that stifle commerce and limit free choice. The simple fact is that zoning gun shops out of participation in the local economy will do absolutely nothing to stop gun violence and will only make it harder for law-abiding citizens to access their 2nd amendment rights and defend themselves.”

  The Newton model might work in the Northeast, but elsewhere, 1,930 US counties are protected by Second Amendment Sanctuary legislation, and a crackdown on gun stores might be challenging. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/11/2021 – 23:00

• Gaslighting The American People: Biden's "Extraordinarily Successful" Withdrawal From Reality
  Gaslighting The American People: Biden’s “Extraordinarily Successful” Withdrawal From Reality

  Authored by J. Peder Zane via RealClearPolitics.com,

  The Democratic Party and its apparatchiks in the media keep asking the American people variations on a single question: What are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?

  

  From the Trump/Russia collusion fantasy and concocted claims that Hunter Biden’s laptop was “Russian disinformation,” to ongoing efforts to cast an America that has never been freer or fairer as a nation riddled with “systemic” racial oppression, they keep insisting that we reject clear and convincing evidence and embrace politically driven falsehoods.

  The latest example is President Biden’s refusal to even acknowledge the catastrophic failure of his withdrawal from Afghanistan. The nation heard him say on July 8 that it was highly unlikely that the Taliban would overrun the country. The Washington Post reports that his senior leadership team was caught so unaware by the Taliban’s August advance that many were on vacation when Kabul fell. Then came the images of chaotic panic at the airport, a grim scene turned violently grisly when a suicide bomber murdered scores of people, including 13 Americans.

  Biden subsequently described the withdrawal as an “extraordinary success” even as he left behind lethal state-of-the-art military equipment worth billions of dollars as well as many Americans and Afghans who had aided us during the 20-year struggle – including the interpreter who helped rescue Biden himself in 2008.

  Slowly but surely the mainstream press, which initially covered the debacle forthrightly,  is beginning to embrace Biden’s narrative. Ezra Klein offered his New York Times readers a fatuous counterfactual defense: “A better withdrawal was possible — and our stingy, chaotic visa process was unforgivable — but so was a worse one.” Jonathan Karl of ABC News played the Trump card: “The truth is that Biden accomplished exactly what Trump had tried to do in his final year in office. The only real difference is that Trump wanted to withdraw more quickly and with less regard for the Afghan citizens who worked with the United States.”

  Expect to hear more of the same in the coming weeks. Don’t be surprised if Biden is nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. The brazenness is stunning. This is not your typical political spin, it is propaganda. It is the willful effort to corrupt our perception of reality. Say it loud and long enough and people will believe it. If they don’t, get Twitter mobs and cancel culture to silence and punish them. That is increasingly becoming the Democrats’ playbook.

  Why do they do it? The obvious and most important answer is that they can, and it is incredibly useful. The spread of the Trump/Russia conspiracy theory helped them hobble a presidency just as the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story helped them win an election.

  They are able to get away with it because they have convinced their allies in the press and millions of voters that our nation is locked in an existential battle with an evil enemy: the Republican Party. False narratives that kneecap the enemy are serving a higher truth; admissions of error are taboo because they will only strengthen the opposition. Give no quarter is their mantra.

  There is also a politico-psychological dynamic behind this posture. Democrats are the party of well-educated elites, whose position in society and sense of self are anchored in their belief in their intellectual merit. Likewise, the Democratic Party’s argument for an all-powerful government is based on claims of competence and expertise. Acknowledging errors undermines their claims to authority.

  This helps explain the lack of accountability. Firing, say, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken or Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley for the Afghanistan debacle would suggest that our brilliant leaders are not so brilliant.

  To admit the obvious, yes, Republicans practice deception all the time. And it is also corrosive. But they do not control the government or, more importantly, the news. Their lies are almost always exposed, while those of the Democrats are often propagated.

  

  This is at the root of our country’s deep divide.

  Even thoughtful conservatives are rightly skeptical of most everything they are told. This increasingly knee-jerk antagonism not only leads some to seek the truth, but also others to reject honest information, such as the efficacy of vaccines.

  When you don’t know who to trust, you don’t know what to trust. As long as our leaders keep trying to subvert reality, this is the reality we are consigned to inhabit.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/11/2021 – 22:30

• The Road To Decarbonization: Visualizing The United States Electricity Mix
  The Road To Decarbonization: Visualizing The United States Electricity Mix

  The U.S. response to climate change and decarbonization is ramping up, and putting a focus on the country’s electricity mix.

  As pressure has increased for near-term and immediate action after the UN’s latest IPCC report on climate change, major economies are starting to make bolder pledges. For the United States, Visual Capitalist’s Omri Wallach notes that includes a carbon pollution-free utilities sector by 2035.

  But with 50 states and even more territories—each with different energy sources readily available and utilized—some parts of the U.S. are a lot closer to carbon-free electricity than others.

  How does each state’s electricity mix compare? This infographic from the National Public Utilities Council highlights the energy sources used for electricity in U.S. states during 2020, using data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

  

  The U.S. Electricity Generation Mix By State

  How does the United States generate electricity currently?

  Over the course of 2020, the U.S. generated 4,009 TWh of electricity, with the majority coming from fossil fuels. Natural gas (40.3%) was the biggest source of electricity for the country, accounting for more than nuclear (19.7%) and coal (17.3%) combined.

  Including nuclear energy, non-fossil fuels made up 41.9% of U.S. electricity generation in 2020. The biggest sources of renewable electricity in the U.S. were wind (8.4%) and hydro (7.3%).

  But on a state-by-state breakdown, we can see just how different the electricity mix is across the country (rounded to the nearest percentage).

  At a glance, regional availability of a fuel source and historical use is clear.

  For example, coal is the most-used electricity source in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Wyoming, historical coal rich regions and economies.

  On the flip side, the Pacific Northwest and New England generated the most hydroelectricity, and the biggest producers of wind energy were all located in the Great Plains. Even the biggest percentage producers of solar and geothermal energy, California and Nevada, have plenty of access to sunlight and geothermal activity.

  The Changing Electricity Landscape

  But for the U.S. to reach its ambitious carbon-free goal by 2035, the biggest impact will need to come from the biggest electricity producers.

  That title currently goes to Texas, which generated 12% of total U.S. electricity in 2020. Despite being the most populous state, California generated less than half Texas’ output, and less than both Florida and Pennsylvania.

  

  So although it’s positive that many states in the Pacific Northwest and New England have more plentiful non-fossil fuel electricity, their overall impact on the total U.S. picture is lessened.

  Still, more and more states (and countries) are increasing their efforts and ambitions to decarbonize, and that progress makes it easier and more affordable over time. States that might struggle to attain carbon-free electricity, or where costs are too high, face less hurdles as technology improves and subsidies increase.

  And with most major U.S. based utilities focusing on improving their ESG reporting and keeping up with decarbonization pledges of their own, the total electricity mix is expected to shift rapidly over the next decade.

  National Public Utilities Council is the go-to resource for all things decarbonization in the utilities industry. Learn more.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/11/2021 – 22:00

• US Military Court Rules Bump Stock Is Not A Machine Gun
  US Military Court Rules Bump Stock Is Not A Machine Gun

  Op-Ed via The Machine Gun Nest (TMGN). 

  There’s been big news for gun rights these past few days, with headlines focusing on President Biden officially pulling David Chipman’s nomination to serve as ATF director.

  With Chipman’s nomination removed, gun owners might have missed this story, absent from mainstream media, about military courts ruling bump stocks are not machine guns. 

  

  On Sept. 9, the U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that bump stocks are not machine guns in the case U.S. v. Ali Alkazahg. This is a big win for gun owners and reaffirms the fact that items that are not machine guns by legal definition cannot be classified as machine guns simply because the ATF “feels” like they meet the definition.

  Let’s take a peek at the case. Private Ali Akazahg was in Hawaii on the Marine Corps base in Kaneohe Bay. While there, he was convicted of possessing two machine guns in violation of the UCMJ or Uniform Code of Military Justice. Although, these “Machine Guns” were, in fact, bump stocks. Akazahg’s defense argued that bump stocks did not meet the legal definition of a machine gun.

  

  Here’s an excerpt from the decision:

  “Instead, the President directed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives [ATF] to issue a new interpretation of a rule—that contradicted the ATF’s previous interpretation—governing legislation from the 1930s. This Executive-Branch change in statutory interpretation aimed to outlaw bump stocks prospectively, without a change in existing statutes.”

  The court is essentially laying out the fact that the ATF bypassed Congress to create law. They go on to explain that:

  “In 1986, Congress passed the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act [FOPA], banning possession of machine guns not owned before 1986. FOPA also banned any parts, to include frames and receivers, which were part of a machine gun or were designed for converting a weapon into a machine gun. The current statute at issue is 26 U.S.C. § 5845(b), which defines what a machine gun is. Due to having a bump stock, Appellant was charged under the statute which states that a machine gun is “any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically, more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.”

  The court explains that the bump stock not only does not meet that definition, but similar situations have already been litigated in Civilian courts as well. They cite Gun Owners of America v. Garland, which took place in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. In GOA v. Garland, the Sixth Circuit agreed that bump stocks did not meet the definition of a machine gun. Interestingly, they noted that the current classification of bump stocks as machine guns has relied upon Chevron deference. For those unfamiliar, it is a legal principle that compels federal courts to defer to a federal agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous or unclear statute. 

  To sum up, the Judges declared that bump stocks are not machine guns. This adds to the growing list of bump stock court cases making their way to the Supreme Court, as the US Court of Military Appeals is like the Federal Court of Appeals, one step below the Supreme Court. 

  So now you might be asking yourself? “Why should I care about the bump stock?” Well put simply, the current legal precedent allows for ATF, and the anti-gun lobby to now take steps to ban all semi-automatic firearms. It is essential for those of us that care about our 2nd amendment rights to draw a line in the sand and say, “No More.” The goal of the anti-gun lobby and the Congressmen that line their pockets with their donations is the complete and total disarmament of the United States of America. The bump stock might just be the key to their goal. The complete and total repudiation of this ban is how we stop them.  

  * * * 

  … and if readers want to learn more about possible future gun policy via TMGN, they’ve laid out the “puzzle pieces” of how the ATF maybe David Chipman appointed as White House “Gun Czar” has plans to classify semi-automatic rifles, such as the AR-15, as “machine guns.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/11/2021 – 21:30

• KFC Bets On Vegan Nuggets Amid Nationwide Poultry Shortage
  KFC Bets On Vegan Nuggets Amid Nationwide Poultry Shortage

  Kentucky Fried Chicken is serving up a new vegan future for its fast-food chain amid poultry shortages and the continued disruption caused by the virus pandemic. 

  KFC’s president in the U.S., Kevin Hochman, has been preparing the Louisville-based fast-food restaurant chain, known for its “Finger-Lickin’ Good” chicken, for a future of plant-based meat. The company has been testing plant-based nuggets from Beyond Meat in select locations but has yet to take it nationwide. 

  

  The poultry shortage, which has disrupted chicken supply chains across the UK and US, could be why Hochman brings a faux option that replicates chicken to market faster than anticipated to alleviate supply woes. The shortage is so dire in the US that the company cannot promote its breaded chicken tenders on US television. 

  Bloomberg’s Leslie Patton said KFC is preparing for what looks like an inevitable future of fake chicken going mainstream. He sat down with the KFC executive to discuss more about faux nuggets. 

  “Our plan is to try to replicate that Kentucky Fried Chicken as close as we can, obviously without using the animal. A lot of that is about how the chicken cuts and tears and the mouth feel. The gold standard is the chicken tenderloin or chicken strip,” Hochman told Patton, adding that millennials are more receptive towards plant-based meat. 

  He continued: “We’re pretty bullish on that. We don’t think that plant-based is a fad, we think that’s something that’s going to continue to grow over time.” 

  However, vegan could be a tough sell for the fast-food chain. The C-suite employees at its Louisville headquarters are more rounded than anyone else in their target audience and shouldn’t deviate from the norm: Finger-Lickin’ Good” chicken. Trying to convince someone in middle America to eat fake meat versus the real thing could be a tricky sell. 

  In the meantime, fake chicken nuggets could be the solution for KFC to alleviate supply troubles. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/11/2021 – 21:00

• Escobar: 9/9 & 9/11, 20 Years Later
  Escobar: 9/9 & 9/11, 20 Years Later

  Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Asia Times,

  We may never know the full contours of the whole riddle inside an enigma when it comes to 9/11 and related issues…

  

  Massoud leaving Bazarak in the Panjshir after our interview in August 2001, roughly three weeks before his assassination. Photo: Pepe Escobar

  It’s impossible not to start with the latest tremor in a series of stunning geopolitical earthquakes.

  Exactly 20 years after 9/11 and the subsequent onset of the Global War on Terror (GWOT), the Taliban will hold a ceremony in Kabul to celebrate their victory in that misguided Forever War.

  Four key exponents of Eurasia integration – China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan – as well as Turkey and Qatar, will be officially represented, witnessing the official return of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. As blowbacks go, this one is nothing short of intergalactic.

  The plot thickens when we have Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid firmly stressing “there is no proof” Osama bin Laden was involved in 9/11. So “there was no justification for war, it was an excuse for war,” he claimed.

  Only a few days after 9/11, Osama bin Laden, never publicity-shy, released a statement to Al Jazeera: “I would like to assure the world that I did not plan the recent attacks, which seems to have been planned by people for personal reasons (…) I have been living in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and following its leaders’ rules. The current leader does not allow me to exercise such operations.”

  On September 28, Osama bin Laden was interviewed by the Urdu newspaper Karachi Ummat. I remember it well, as I was commuting non-stop between Islamabad and Peshawar, and my colleague Saleem Shahzad, in Karachi, called it to my attention.

  

  Saudi-born alleged terror mastermind Osama bin Laden in a video taken ‘recently’ at a secret site in Afghanistan. This was aired by Al Jazeera on October 7, 2001, the day the US launched retaliatory bombing of terrorist camps, airbases and air defense installations in the first stage of its campaign against the Taliban regime for sheltering bin Laden. Photo: AFP / Al Jazeera screen grab

  This is an approximate translation by the CIA-linked Foreign Broadcast Information Service: 

  “I have already said that I am not involved in the 11 September attacks in the United States. As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie. Neither I had any knowledge of these attacks nor I consider the killing of innocent women, children and other humans as an appreciable act. Islam strictly forbids causing harm to innocent women, children and other people.

  “I have already said that we are against the American system, not against its people, whereas in these attacks, the common American people have been killed. The United States should try to trace the perpetrators of these attacks within itself; the people who are a part of the US system, but are dissenting against it.

  “Or those who are working for some other system; persons who want to make the present century as a century of conflict between Islam and Christianity so that their own civilization, nation, country or ideology could survive. Then there are intelligence agencies in the US, which require billions of dollars worth of funds from the Congress and the government every year (…) They need an enemy.”

  This was the last time Osama bin Laden went public, substantially, about his alleged role in 9/11. Afterward, he vanished, and seemingly forever by early December 2001 in Tora Bora: I was there, and revisited the full context years later.

  And yet, like an Islamic James Bond, Osama kept performing the miracle of dying another day, over and over again, starting in – where else – Tora Bora in mid-December, as reported by the Pakistani Observer and then Fox News.

  So 9/11 remained a riddle inside an enigma. And what about 9/9, which might have been the prologue to 9/11?

  

  Arriving in the Panjshir valley in one of Massoud’s Soviet helicopters in August 2001. Photo: Pepe Escobar  

  A green light from a blind sheikh

  “The commander has been shot.”

  The terse email, on 9/9, offered no details. Contacting the Panjshir was impossible – sat-phone reception is spotty. Only the next day it was possible to establish Ahmad Shah Massoud, the legendary Lion of the Panjshir, had been assassinated – by two al-Qaeda jihadis posing as a camera crew.

  In our Asia Times interview with Massoud, by August 20, he had told me he was fighting a triad: al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the Pakistani ISI. After the interview, he left in a Land Cruiser and then went by helicopter to Kwaja-Bahauddin, where he would finish the details of a counter-offensive against the Taliban.

  This was his second-to-last interview before the assassination and arguably the last images – shot by photographer Jason Florio and with my mini-DV camera – of Massoud alive.

  One year after the assassination, I was back in the Panjshir for an on-site investigation, relying only on local sources and confirmation on some details from Peshawar. The investigation is featured in the first part of my Asia Times e-book Forever Wars.

  The conclusion was that the green light for the fake camera crew to meet Massoud came via a letter sponsored by CIA crypto-asset warlord Abdul Rasul Sayyaf – as a “gift” to al-Qaeda.

  In December 2020, inestimable Canadian diplomat Peter Dale Scott, author among others of the seminal The Road to 9/11 (2007), and Aaron Good, editor at CovertAction magazine, published a remarkable investigation about the killing of Massoud, following a different trail and relying mostly on American sources.

  They established that arguably more than Sayyaf, the mastermind of the killing was notorious Egyptian blind sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, then serving a life sentence in a US federal prison for his involvement in the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993.

  Among other nuggets, Dale Scott and Good also confirmed what former Pakistani foreign minister Niaz Naik had told Pakistani media already in 2001: the Americans had everything in place to attack Afghanistan way before 9/11.

  In Naik’s words: “We asked them [the American delegates], when do you think you will attack Afghanistan? … And they said, before the snow falls in Kabul. That means September, October, something like that.”

  As many of us established over the years after 9/11, everything was about the US imposing itself as the undisputed ruler of the New Great Game in Central Asia.

  Peter Dale Scott now notes, “the two US invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 were both grounded in pretexts that were doubtful to begin with and more discredited as years go by.

  “Underlying both wars was America’s perceived need to control the fossil fuel economic system that was the underpinning for the US petrodollar.”

  

  Deceased Taliban founder Mullah Mohammed Omar in a file photo. Photo: Wikimedia

  Massoud versus Mullah Omar

  Mullah Omar did welcome Jihad Inc to Afghanistan in the late 1990s: not only the al-Qaeda Arabs but also Uzbeks, Chechens, Indonesians, Yemenis – some of them I met in Massoud’s riverside prison in the Panjshir in August 2001.

  The Taliban at the time did provide them with bases – and some encouraging rhetoric – but deeply ethnocentric as they were, never manifested any interest in global jihad, in the mold of the “Declaration of Jihad” issued by Osama in 1996.

  The official Taliban position was that jihad was their guests’ business, and that had nothing to do with the Taliban and Afghanistan. There were virtually no Afghans in Jihad Inc. Very few Afghans speak Arabic. They were not seduced by the spin on martyrdom and a paradise full of virgins: they preferred to be a ghazi – a living victor in a jihad.

  Mullah Omar could not possibly send Osama bin Laden packing because of Pashtunwali – the Pashtun code of honor – where the notion of hospitality is sacred. When 9/11 happened, Mullah Omar once again refused American threats as well as Pakistani pleas. He then called a tribal jirga of 300 top mullahs to ratify his position.

  Their verdict was quite nuanced: he had to protect his guest, of course, but a guest should not cause him problems. Thus Osama would have to leave, voluntarily.

  The Taliban also pursued a parallel track, asking the Americans for evidence of Osama’s culpability. None was provided. The decision to bomb and invade had already been taken.

  That would have never been possible with Massoud alive. A classic intellectual warrior, he was a certified Afghan nationalist and pop hero – because of his spectacular military feats in the anti-USSR jihad and his non-stop fight against the Taliban.

  

  Jihadis captured by Massoud’s forces in a riverside prison in the Panjshir in August 2001. Photo: Pepe Escobar  

  When the PDPA socialist government in Afghanistan collapsed three years after the end of the jihad, in 1992, Massoud could easily have become a prime minister or an absolute ruler in the old Turco-Persian style.

  But then he made a terrible mistake: afraid of an ethnic conflagration, he let the mujahideen gang based in Peshawar have too much power, and that led to the civil war of 1992-1995 – complete with the merciless bombing of Kabul by virtually every faction – that paved the way for the emergence of the “law and order” Taliban.

  So in the end he was a much more effective military commander than politician. An example is what happened in 1996, when the Taliban made their move to conquer Kabul, attacking from eastern Afghanistan.

  Massoud was caught completely unprepared, but he still managed to retreat to the Panjshir without a major battle and without losing his troops – quite a feat – while severely smashing the Taliban that went after him.

  He established a line of defense in the Shomali plain north of Kabul. That was the frontline I visited a few weeks before 9/11, on the way to Bagram, which was a – virtually empty and degraded – Northern Alliance airbase at the time.

  All of the above is a sorry contrast to the role of Masoud Jr, who’s in theory the leader of the “resistance” against Taliban 2.0 in the Panjshir, now completely smashed.

  Masoud Jr has zero experience either as a military commander or politician, and although praised in Paris by President Macron or publishing an op-ed in Western mainstream media, made the terrible mistake of being led by CIA asset Amrullah Saleh, who as the former head of the National Directory of Security (NDS), supervised the de facto Afghan death squads.

  Masoud Jr could have easily carved a role for himself in a Taliban 2.0 government. But he blew it, refusing serious negotiations with a delegation of 40 Islamic clerics sent to the Panjshir, and demanding at least 30% of posts in the government.

  In the end, Saleh fled by helicopter – he may be now in Tashkent – and Masoud Jr as it stands is holed up somewhere in the northern Panjshir.

  

  In this file photo taken on September 11, 2001, a hijacked commercial aircraft approaches the twin towers of the World Trade Center shortly before crashing into the landmark skyscraper in New York. Photo: AFP / Seth McAllister

  The 9/11 propaganda machine is about to reach fever pitch this Saturday – now profiting from the narrative twist of the “terrorist” Taliban back in power, something perfect to snuff out the utter humiliation of the Empire of Chaos.

  The Deep State is going no holds barred to protect the official narrative – which exhibits more holes than the dark side of the moon.

  This is a geopolitical Ouroboros for the ages. 9/11 used to be the foundation myth of the 21st century – but not anymore. It has been displaced by blowback: the imperial debacle allowing for the return of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to the exact position it was 20 years ago.

  We may now know that the Taliban had nothing to do with 9/11. We may now know that Osama bin Laden, in an Afghan cave, may not have been the master perpetrator of 9/11. We may now know that the assassination of Massoud was a prelude to 9/11, but in a twisted way: to facilitate a pre-planned invasion of Afghanistan.

  And yet, like with the assassination of JFK, we may never know the full contours of the whole riddle inside an enigma. As Fitzgerald immortalized, “so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past,” probing like mad this philosophical and existential Ground Zero, never ceasing from asking the ultimate question: Cui Bono?

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/11/2021 – 20:30

• Japan's First Fully Autonomous Container Ship Is About To Tackle A 236 Mile Trial Run
  Japan’s First Fully Autonomous Container Ship Is About To Tackle A 236 Mile Trial Run

  The world’s first autonomous cargo ship, based in Japan, is facing its first real test as it gets ready to take on a 236 mile journey. It’s the first step in a literal journey of a thousand miles that Japan hopes will result in half of all domestic ships eventually piloting themselves. 

  Japan’s Nippon Foundation, a public interest organization, is backing the effort in hopes of seeing crewless ships make up 50% of Japan’s local fleet by 2040, according to Bloomberg. 

  The first such trial run will belong to Nippon Yusen KK, who is setting up a container ship to pilot itself from Tokyo Bay to Ise in February 2022. The 236 mile trip will be the first of its kind by an autonomous ship in heavy marine traffic.

  The autonomous global shipping market could be worth as much as $166 billion by 2030, the report notes.

  

  Satoru Kuwahara, a general manager at Nippon Yusen subsidiary Japan Marine Science Inc. told Bloomberg: “When it comes to the automation of ships, our mission is to have Japan lead the rest of the world.”

  He continued, stating that he thinks there’s a “real need” for autonomy in shipping because the country’s workforce is shrinking and aging. 40% of the country’s crew are 55 years or older, the report notes.

  The Nippon Foundation believes $9 billion in savings can be realized by autonomous shipping and that it can eliminate many maritime accidents. “With the issue of Japan’s shrinking workforce in mind, there’s growing need for these technologies to uphold safety,” Kuwahara said.

  Data will be collected from February’s test run and the vessel will be controlled remotely, if necessary. 

  Kuwahara predicts “practical use” of the technology by as early as 2025. 

  He concluded: “We need this technology to be recognized, otherwise actual implementation in society won’t move forward. As a first demonstration, we can’t fail.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/11/2021 – 20:00

• Canadian Schools Hold Book-Burning Demonstration To Be A More "Inclusive Country"
  Canadian Schools Hold Book-Burning Demonstration To Be A More “Inclusive Country”

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  We recently discussed how many on the left have discovered the allure of book burning, book banning, and blacklisting of authors.

  While expressing shock at ISIS and other extremist groups burning books, the practice appears acceptable based on the titles or content.

  

  Now educators in Ontario have held a “flame purification ceremony” for the local indigenous population by burning roughly 5,000 books.

  The notion of teachers burning books is almost as bizarre as the thought of book sellers embracing blacklisting but both are now part of the realities of our age of rage.These school officials actually videotaped the celebration of book burning for students at 30 schools with the announcement that:

  “We bury the ashes of racism, discrimination and stereotypes in the hope that we will grow up in an inclusive country where all can live in prosperity and security.”

  

  The announcement even has a type of Maoist cultural revolution feel to it. In addition, Lyne Cosette, a spokeswoman for the public French-speaking Catholic schools of Ontario, told the National Post newspaper, “Symbolically, some books were used as fertilizer.” 

  The entire demonstration was a disgrace to educators everywhere. The lesson of book burning left with these children will likely be indelible and lasting. I have worried about the rise of a generation of censors but the Catholic schools of Ontario appear intent on raising a generation of book burners.

  What is truly chilling is the Orwellian call for children to burn books in order to be a more “inclusive country.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/11/2021 – 19:30

• Forget New Or Used, Even Wrecked Car Prices Are Hitting Record Highs
  Forget New Or Used, Even Wrecked Car Prices Are Hitting Record Highs

  Junked-car auctioneer Copart, Inc., or simply Copart, reported earnings this week and said given the stellar growth in new and used car prices this year, wrecked car prices are getting a lot more expensive. 

  On Thursday, Copart’s CEO Jeffrey Liaw told investors on an earnings call that strong used car prices are a driving force behind “the record average selling prices” for wrecked cars. 

  

  Copart specializes in auctioning wrecked cars that insurers have totaled. The vehicles go to auction and are frequently bought by companies who part out vehicles. 

  Selling prices for wrecked cars surged 20.7% in the most recent quarter versus the same period in 2020. That compares with a 48% jump in the three months ending in April and 35% in the quarter before that. 

  

  During the question and answers part of the call with investors, the CEO told Jefferies’ Bret Jordan that insurers are totaling cars more quickly because technology has gotten so sophisticated that it might be too expensive to replace and recalibrate sensors in a minor fender bender. The rise in prices gives insurers a more significant economic incentive to total and let Copart auction it off than fixing. 

  “When it comes to the insurance vehicles, yes, more cars are drivable today because a car can be totaled because a rear sensor or front sensor or lane departure warning sensor on the mirror is knocked out and the replacement and calibration is expensive. That yes, there are more run and drive cars as a percentage of the total. 

  “If you visited some of our yards, you would be astonished by some of the high-value Range Rovers and European vehicles that you would see on the lots that at least on their surface look perfectly good and perfectly functional — and in many cases are,” Liaw said. 

  Another reason for soaring wrecked car prices is that supply-chain woes in the automotive industry have made it more challenging to find new parts, thus boosting demand for used parts. Also, higher metal prices have made wrecked cars more appealing to scrappers. 

  This is just more evidence that the Federal Reserve’s narrative of “transitory” inflation is a whole bunch of nonsense as rising prices rip through the automotive industry. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/11/2021 – 19:00

• Why Did The USA Hand Afghanistan To China?
  Why Did The USA Hand Afghanistan To China?

  Authored by Roger Simon via The Epoch Times,

  Paul Shinkman of U.S. News wrote the other day:

  “China is considering deploying military personnel and economic development officials to Bagram airfield, perhaps the single-most prominent symbol of the 20-year U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.

  “The Chinese military is currently conducting a feasibility study about the effect of sending workers, soldiers and other staff related to its foreign economic investment program known as the Belt and Road Initiative in the coming years to Bagram, according to a source briefed on the study by Chinese military officials, who spoke to U.S. News on the condition of anonymity.”

  As Moon Unit Zappa used to say, “Gag me with a spoon!”

  

  Feasibility study? You don’t have to be Nostradamus to figure out how that’s going to turn out, assuming it hasn’t been done already and this is just a masquerade.

  Why wouldn’t the Chinese take over Bagram? It’s sitting there.

  And no real estate could be more apt for their Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also known as One Belt, One Road), essentially a large-scale bait-and-switch operation. The Chinese—in reality the Chinese Communist Party—lends the poor country—in this case the impoverished Taliban—money to modernize their infrastructure with the caveat that, if they don’t pay off the loan in a certain amount of time, guess who owns said infrastructure?

  Well, we know the answer to that. The Chinese are in essence buying the world with the help, note well, of some of the most prominent American firms (pdf) busy enriching themselves with more money than most of us can compute.

  (If you’re interested in how successful the BRI has been, here’s a helpful map from the Council of Foreign Relations.)

  What has occurred in recent days is that China has achieved something absolutely free for which the Soviets and the United States wasted decades of personnel (tragically dead or wounded), matériel and trillions of dollars, not to mention ended up by disgracing themselves in the eyes of the world.

  Effectively, the Chinese own Afghanistan, the important parts of it anyway—airbases, ports, mineral rights, and so forth—or will shortly.

  As for internal Taliban affairs, the Chinese communists aren’t about to lift a finger about the horrifying level of women’s rights or the extensive drug growing and dealing the terror group engages in, especially if they send as much of it as possible to America.

  As long as the various Islamic terror organizations leave the Chinese alone, the Chinese will let them do as they wish. Yes, some—al-Qaeda, ISIS-K, one we haven’t heard of yet—may make a fuss about the treatment of the Uyghurs and make their violent presence known, but I would imagine they ultimately see the Chinese forces as much more ruthless than the Americans (now especially) and this will be at best a temporary sideshow of little global importance. Realpolitik will be at play on both Chinese and Taliban (Islamic) sides as they benefit each other, at least for now.

  So how did we get here? If this is all so obvious—and it is—wasn’t our State Department and our military aware of how this would, or certainly could, turn out? (Wouldn’t they at least leave a small NATO force guarding Bagram and destroy our weaponry?)

  I imagine many of our officials were—how could they not be—aware of this eventuality. And that’s highly disturbing.

  Why then did the USA cede Afghanistan—a territory bounded by Iran and Pakistan, among other states, not to mention control of much of the world’s rare earths and other key resources—to the increasingly totalitarian China of Xi Jinping?

  For an answer, it’s hard not to think back to those days when, shortly before declaring for the presidency and reversing himself on the topic, our current president told us “The Chinese aren’t our enemies, folks.”

  Was he covering up for his own activities and connections that could have been recorded on his son Hunter Biden’s laptop, much of which is as yet unseen? Do the Chinese, in the crudest sense, have something on him? Unfortunately, considering the operations and governance of our FBI and Department of Justice, we may never know.

  We can, however, make our own surmises. But whatever they may be, they’re only a part of a more depressing overall zeitgeist.

  I have believed for some time—and our extraordinarily rapid and ill-conceived evacuation of Afghanistan, leaving behind not only Bagram but enough U.S. weaponry to make the Taliban’s army nearly equivalent to the Italian’s, not to mention putting our advanced military technology in the hands of the Chinese and the Russians, only underscores this—that a large percentage of our Democratic Party leadership as well as a tragically significant percentage of the Republican have long believed the Chinese regime are winning the battle between China and America for global hegemony. They are therefore, overtly or covertly, consciously or subconsciously, throwing in with the Chinese side for their own economic—and to a lesser extent survival, though the two interact—advantage.

  Our globalist-leaning corporations, like the giant law firm linked above, that deal extensively with China are similar. They’re going with what they think is the winning side.

  And globalism is not democracy. For the globalist, people voting has been irrelevant, even retrograde, for decades. It’s the one-party state gone world-wide.

  So, to be overly colloquial, “bugging out” on Afghanistan to them is no big deal. And China taking over, well, to them it’s just part of the game.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/11/2021 – 18:30

• Stagflation "Phase 1" Begins As Democrats Scramble To Pass Largest Fiscal Stimulus Of All Time
  Stagflation “Phase 1” Begins As Democrats Scramble To Pass Largest Fiscal Stimulus Of All Time

  For all the speculation about the upcoming taper, which we now know will start in November at a pace of $15bn per month and conclude by July…

  

  … the main event this fall, if not this year, may be on the fiscal side, and specifically what is the final shape of the upcoming bipartisan + Build Back Better stimulus avalanche, which as BofA’s Michael Hartnett calculates will represent – at roughly $1 trillion in biparstian “infrastructure” spending plus some $3.5 trillion in Build Back Better reconciliation – some $4.5 trillion in “epic fiscal stimulus”, which at 20% of GDP will be more than double the size of the previous record stimulus and will represent the largest fiscal stimulus package of all time.

  

  This stimulus, which will pass one way or another, would arrive at a time of 12% GDP growth (if plunging fast), 5% inflation, and 33% deficit.

  

  Furthermore, the final size of the reconciliation package is, in BofA’s view, the driver for yields next 3-6 weeks – anything above $2 trillion  = higher yields as stimulus shores up weakening US consumption & heightens inflation.

  

  But stimulus or not – and for the sake of the economy and democrats there better be one – the macro backdrop is turning uglier by the day. As Hartnett notes, his macro backdrop for the second half is one of higher inflation, hawkish central banks, weaker growth, i.e. stagflation. At the same time, the investment backdrop is one of rising Rates, Regulation, Redistribution (3Rs)…

  

  … and peak Positioning, Policy, Profits (3Ps).

  This means that all else equal, investment returns will be low/negative for both stocks and credit in the second half, while the optimal H2 portfolio is a “barbell” trade of long inflation (e.g. commodities, TIPS, small cap, banks, Japan) & long quality (e.g. cash & defensive utilities, staples, healthcare, REITs).

  And speaking of stagflation, Hartnett compares the current period to the three stagflationary phases of the-1960s/70s and concludes that “we are in phase 1 with phase 2 starting in 2022…”

  1. 1965-68…inflation & interest rates breakout to upside from multi-year ranges, stock market peaks, but “stagflation” neither visible nor anticipated…equities outperformed via a “barbell” of small cap value and Nifty 50 tech outperform;

  

  2. 1969-73…end of Bretton Woods & oil shock causes sharp rise in inflation ending Nifty-50 bull market & kick-starting volatility & commodity bulls;

  

  3. 1974-81…inflation & real assets outperform all asset classes.

  

  Needless to say, stagflation is hardly what your financial advisor ordered as equity and bond returns tend to be especially ugly during such periods. So will this time be any different? Alas, central banks already blew their load, and while the differential between monetary and fiscal policy remains, (with monetary policy driving absolute returns, while fiscal policy driving relative returns) what is coming is ugly on the absolute return side, since the pace of central bank bond purchases is decelerating from its record of $8.5tn in ’20 to just $2.3tn in ’21, and then to just barely positive $0.3tn in ’22 before turning negative.

  

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/11/2021 – 18:00

• "A Decision They'll Regret" – Australia Regulator Bans Ivermectin Use As COVID-19 Treatment
  “A Decision They’ll Regret” – Australia Regulator Bans Ivermectin Use As COVID-19 Treatment

  Authored by Mimi Nguyen Ly via The Epoch Times,

  Australia’s medicine and therapeutics regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), has introduced new restrictions on the prescribing of ivermectin for COVID-19 and other off-label use.

  

  The TGA, an agency under Australia’s Department of Health, announced that the changes were introduced “because of concerns with the prescribing of oral ivermectin for the claimed prevention or treatment of COVID-19.”

  The new restrictions mean that general practitioners may only prescribe the drug for TGA-approved conditions and not for other non-approved purposes—also referred to as “off-label” use. No penalties were specified in the TGA announcement in the event of a GP skirting the rules.

  The Epoch Times has reached out to the TGA for further information.

  Only certain specialists can continue to prescribe oral ivermectin for off-label use. They include infectious disease physicians, dermatologists, gastroenterologists, and hepatologists, the TGA announced.

  Stromectol ivermectin 3mg is the only oral ivermectin product that is TGA-approved. The indications approved are river blindness, threadworm of the intestines, and scabies.

  Ivermectin is not TGA-approved for use to treat COVID-19 in Australia. The TGA said that its use for COVID-19 in the general public is “currently strongly discouraged” by three entities—the National COVID Clinical Evidence Taskforce (pdf), the World Health Organization, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

  TGA Lays Out Concerns

  The TGA in its announcement asserted that there are “a number of significant public health risks associated with taking ivermectin in an attempt to prevent COVID-19 infection rather than getting vaccinated.”

  The agency added that people who think they are protected from COVID-19 by taking ivermectin “may choose not to get tested or to seek medical care if they experience symptoms,” and claimed that doing so “has the potential to spread the risk of COVID-19 infection throughout the community.”

  The TGA said that a second concern involves “unreliable social media posts and other sources” that have reportedly advocated for the use of ivermectin in “significantly higher” doses compared to what is approved and found safe for the treatment of scabies or parasites.

  “These higher doses can be associated with serious adverse effects, including severe nausea, vomiting, dizziness, neurological effects such as dizziness, seizures, and coma.”

  The regulator also said that there has been a three- to four-fold increase in the dispensing of ivermectin prescriptions in recent months, which has resulted in “national and local shortages for those who need the medicine for scabies and parasite infections.”

  “It is believed that this is due to recent prescribing and dispensing for unapproved uses, such as COVID-19,” its statement reads.

  “Such shortages can disproportionately impact vulnerable people, including those in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.”

  Immediate Backlash by MPs

  Two Australian politicians immediately issued announcements late Sept. 10 criticizing the TGA restrictions.

  Federal MP George Christensen, a Liberal Party member from the state of Queensland, posted on Telegram a photo of his medications, writing, “My ivermectin treatment pack. Prescribed by a GP. Now the TGA has banned GPs from prescribing the drug off-label. It’s a decision they will regret.”

  Christensen also shared a lengthy list of studies, writing, “here’s some REAL INFO on IVERMECTIN.”

  Federal MP Craig Kelly, a former Liberal Party member and now leader of the United Australia Party, in a statement posted on Telegram called the TGA move “OUTRAGEOUS” and accused the agency of having “interfered with the sanctity of the Doctor patient relationship in Australia, by ignoring the evidence of over 50 published studies and also ignoring expert medical advice from doctors that have treated thousands of patients successfully with Ivermectin—by prohibiting doctors from prescribing this medicine to sick Australians.”

  “The UNITED AUSTRALIA PARTY tonight calls for [an] urgent Royal Commission in this TGA over this decision,” he wrote, saying that the decision “could be investigated for possible corruption.”

  “It’s a sad day for the nation, as the expert medical evidence from overseas indicates that this outrageous decision by the TGA will result in the death of Australians,” Kelly added.

  

  A health worker shows a box containing a bottle of Ivermectin in Cali, Colombia, on July 21, 2020. (Luis Robayo/AFP via Getty Images)

  On Ivermectin

  Ivermectin is a generic medicine that can be produced cheaply in many places around the world and has been widely used in humans against some parasitic worms, and to combat scabies, lice, as well as rosacea. It is also used as an anti-parisite drug in livestock, including horses and cows.

  William Campbell and Satoshi Omura in 2015 won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery and applications of ivermectin. The World Health Organization features ivermectin on its List of Essential Medicines. It is also an FDA-approved antiparasitic agent.

  Doctors and health care professionals have considered ivermectin as a repurposed medicine in tackling COVID-19, especially when used in early treatment. Many have praised ivermectin for having successfully helped thousands of their patients survive the initial waves of COVID-19.

  As of Sept. 9, there are at least 63 studies, of which 45 are peer-reviewed, on the treatment of COVID-19 with ivermectin.

  Two groups, the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance and the British Ivermectin Recommendation Development Group, have been campaigning for the off-label use of the drug to combat the disease amid the pandemic.

  Monash University, based in the Australian state of Victoria, announced in April 2020 that a study it led showed that “a single dose of the drug, Ivermectin, could stop the SARS-CoV-2 virus growing in cell culture.”

  But it cautioned that ivermectin “cannot be used in humans for COVID-19 until further testing and clinical trials have been completed to confirm the effectiveness of the drug at levels safe for human dosing.”

  “The potential use of Ivermectin to combat COVID-19 remains unproven, and depends on funding to progress the work into the next stages,” the university said at the time.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/11/2021 – 17:30

• Taliban Holds Flag Raising Ceremony On Same Day Americans Commemorate 9/11
  Taliban Holds Flag Raising Ceremony On Same Day Americans Commemorate 9/11

  On the day the US marked the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the Taliban sent its own ‘message’ by raising its large flag over the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul on Saturday.

  The Taliban’s cultural commission spokesman Ahmadullahh Muttaqi announced Saturday that the raising of the flag was part of a ceremony to mark the start of the new Taliban government over Afghanistan.

  

  “The Taliban’s new Prime Minister Mohammad Hasan Akhund raised the flag in a ceremony at 11 a.m. local time to mark the official start of work by the Taliban’s 33-member caretaker government,” The Associated Press reported of the event. 

  The group which the US fought in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks also painted their flag of jihad over the US Embassy in Kabul, which had been quickly abandoned in the days prior to the last US troops leaving Afghanistan on Aug.30.

  “Earlier, another Taliban official said the religious militia’s black and white flag was first raised at the palace on Friday,” AP continues. “The militant group has also painted their banner on the entry gate to the US Embassy building.”

  It was on Tuesday that the Taliban named and confirmed its caretaker government, complete with an Interior Minister who is still on the FBI’s ‘most wanted’ terrorism list. The Saturday ceremony officially inaugurates the government, but the symbolism of the timing couldn’t be clearer nor more ironic. 

  Afghan women at a pro-Taliban protest on 9/11 wore full burkas and shouted “death to America” as they marched with Taliban fighters standing guard. pic.twitter.com/S8XwwH6wo7

  — CBS News (@CBSNews) September 11, 2021

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  The Islamic ‘shahada’ – or Muslim confession of faith – was earlier plastered in large script over the entrance to the US embassy in Kabul…

  An Afghan Taliban photograph of its messaging and a giant shahada banner at the abandoned U.S. embassy in Kabul: pic.twitter.com/VoYvecMZgu

  — Christopher Anzalone (@IbnSiqilli) September 7, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  The formal raising of the black and white Taliban flag over Kabul’s government buildings took place simultaneous to the US holding somber memorial commemorations at New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania where United Airlines Flight 93 went down after al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked it.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/11/2021 – 17:00

• NY Hospital Forced To Stop Delivering Babies After Maternity Workers Resign Over Vaccine
  NY Hospital Forced To Stop Delivering Babies After Maternity Workers Resign Over Vaccine

  A hospital in upstate New York has been forced to ‘pause’ the delivery of babies starting Sept. 24 after a flood of maternity workers resigned over Covid-19 vaccine mandates.

  

  Lewis County Health System CEO Gerald Cayer made the announcement in a Friday press conference, according to WWNY. According to Cayer, six employees in the maternity unit resigned and another seven are ‘undecided,’ rendering the hospital unable to safely deliver children.

  “If we can pause the service and now focus on recruiting nurses who are vaccinated, we will be able to reengage in delivering babies here in Lewis County,” said Cayer.

  Cayer said 165 hospital employees have yet to be vaccinated against COVID-19; that’s 27 percent of the workforce.

  The other 464 workers, or 73 percent of employees, have gotten their shots, he said.

  In August, the state announced all health care workers at hospitals and long-term care facilities across New York would be required to have gotten at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccination by September 27.

  Cayer said the announcement prompted 30 workers to get vaccinated, while another 30 resigned. -WWNY

  New York isn’t the only state with healthcare workers who refuse to get vaxxed. Last month, a group of New Mexico healthcare workers protested vaccine mandates – which they say ‘take away people’s choice and informed consent,’ and ‘violate medical codes of ethics as well as fundamental human rights, the constitution, and the Nuremberg Code,’ according to KFOX14.

  Protests have also been held in California, Colorado, Wisconsin, Arizona, Washington and elsewhere.

  And judging by the overwhelming upvotes on YouTube, most people support them.

  

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/11/2021 – 16:30

• While Biden Joins 'Drone Club' At 9/11 Ceremonies, Trump Hits Streets Of NY
  While Biden Joins ‘Drone Club’ At 9/11 Ceremonies, Trump Hits Streets Of NY

  While President Biden joined former presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton at 9/11 services held at the World Trade Center and Shanksville, Pennsylvania – a group which presided over the deaths of countless Middle Easterners over 20 years of undeclared “wars on terror” that benefited the US Homeland Security-Industrial Complex and a few others, former President Trump took to the streets of New York to shake hands with first responders.

  It was quite the juxtaposition to say the least – with former President Bush pushing the ‘domestic terrorism‘ and ‘angry America’ narrative during a speech in Shanksville (echoing Klaus Schwab), and images of Biden pulling down his mask to shout at someone…

  

  Vs. President Trump being greeted by working men and women in uniform who won’t go home to mansions after the ‘ceremonies’ are over.

  

  SCOOP: NY firefighters break out in applause as President Trump makes surprise visit today pic.twitter.com/FBEhLxBbnf

  — Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) September 11, 2021

  Narrative fail pic.twitter.com/gWdZdODW6w

  — Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 11, 2021

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  More via Dan Scavino:

  

  

  

  We can’t imagine it would go as well for Biden and the other former presidents.

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/11/2021 – 16:00

• NYT Confirms Biden Murdered Innocent Family In Kabul Drone Strike
  NYT Confirms Biden Murdered Innocent Family In Kabul Drone Strike

  President Joe Biden murdered an innocent family when the US military conducted a “righteous strike” on Aug. 29 against a vehicle that American officials thought was an ISIS bomb that posed an imminent threat to thousands of people at the Kabul airport.

  In a late Friday afternoon report, the New York Times reveals that “Military officials said they did not know the identity of the car’s driver when the drone fired, but deemed him suspicious because of how they interpreted his activities that day, saying that he possibly visited an ISIS safe house and, at one point, loaded what they thought could be explosives into the car.”

  In reality, they were filling water bottles.

  Biden and Milley claimed this was an ISIS attack in the making

  They were filling water bottles

  And their entire family was murdered so Joe Biden could get a headline pic.twitter.com/kSXn0cbW3d

  — Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) September 10, 2021

  More via the New York Times: 

  Times reporting has identified the driver as Zemari Ahmadi, a longtime worker for a U.S. aid group. The evidence, including extensive interviews with family members, co-workers and witnesses, suggests that his travels that day actually involved transporting colleagues to and from work. And an analysis of video feeds showed that what the military may have seen was Mr. Ahmadi and a colleague loading canisters of water into his trunk to bring home to his family.

  While the U.S. military said the drone strike might have killed three civilians, Times reporting shows that it killed 10, including seven children, in a dense residential block.

  Mr. Ahmadi, 43, had worked since 2006 as an electrical engineer for Nutrition and Education International, a California-based aid and lobbying group. The morning of the strike, Mr. Ahmadi’s boss called from the office at around 8:45 a.m., and asked him to pick up his laptop.

  Scroll down for a lengthy recap by one of the NYT journos

  Milley lied. He murdered a US ally and his entire family.

  War crime.
  pic.twitter.com/oMbYH0e0pi

  — Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) September 10, 2021

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  The Biden administration lied about who it killed with its drone strike. They had no idea who they hit. The media mindlessly repeated the false claim that they killed “terrorists” when, in fact, they just killed innocent people.

  A perfect summation of the US Endless Wars: https://t.co/1qNbQZWrYQ

  — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 10, 2021

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  As we noted last week, NBC News spoke with members of the Ahmadi family who said they were hoping to make it onto an evacuation flight out of Kabul before the United States ended its withdrawal from the country.

  

  “They were 10 civilians,” said Emal Ahmadi, whose 2-year-old toddler, Malika was among those killed. “My daughter … she was 2 years old,” he said.

  

  More via NBC News:

  That day, Ahmadi’s cousin, Zemari Ahmadi, 38, had just pulled up at home from work, with his 13-year-old son, Farzad, his youngest of three, racing to greet him. (Other reports have said Farzad was 12, but both Ahmadi and another relative told NBC News he was 13.)

  Farzad, who had just learned to drive, wanted to park his father’s car, a wish Zemari was happy to oblige as other family members gathered around.

  It was in that moment that Ahmadi said an explosion tore through the vehicle, killing Zemari, Farzad and eight other family members, as was first reported by The New York Times and The Washington Post.

  According to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, Washington is “not in a position” to dispute reports that the Sunday drone strike killed civilians, however he claimed that one of the family members belonged to radical Islamic group, ISIS-K.

  Malika and two other toddlers were the youngest family members killed, along with Ahmadi’s nephews Arwin, 7, and Benyamin, 6, and Zemari’s two other sons, Zamir, 20, and Faisal, 16, Ahmadi said.

  Zemari was a technical engineer for Nutrition and Education International, a nonprofit working to address malnutrition based in Pasadena, California.

  Just a day before his death, he had been helping to prepare and deliver soy-based meals to women and children at refugee camps in Kabul, Steven Kwon, president of NEI, told NBC News in an email.

  One colleague and friend of six years to Zemari said he was devastated, while also describing Ahmadi as a “good man with good ethics.”

  

  Also killed in Biden’s drone strike was Ahmad Naser – a former officer in the Afghan Army and contractor with the US military, according to his cousin. Naser was days away from his wedding when he was killed.

  Instead, there will be a funeral.

  “They were all buried,” said 31-year-old Yousef. “We’re all ruined. The family is gone.”

  

  According to an evidence-free statement by US Central Command, however, there “were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle,” suggesting that there was a “large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties.”

  *  *  *

  We now know that was utter bullshit.

  Times journalist Evan Hill recaps the entire event in the following Twitter thread:

  Ahmadi was a 14-year employee of Nutrition & Education International, a U.S. NGO that fights malnutrition. He helped start up soy factories, repair machinery, transport his colleagues and distribute food from his Corolla to displaced Afghans. pic.twitter.com/S7r1TyHBs0

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

  But the U.S. military was on high alert. Three days earlier, an Islamic State suicide attack at the Kabul airport had killed 13 troops and more than 170 Afghans. “All threat warnings are flashing red,” a senior official told us. They expected another attack. pic.twitter.com/2haQhzhhHo

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  But @mattaikins interviewed all 5 men who were in the car with Ahmadi that day. They said that what the military interpreted as a series of suspicious moves represented a typical day in his life. He drove his colleagues around town, where they made plans for food distributions. pic.twitter.com/qD08rGmomI

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  At 2:35pm, Ahmadi and a colleague fill several large plastic containers with water. The footage shows Ahmadi bring them to the office earlier that day. His brother told us his neighborhood suffered from a water shortage and that he routinely filled up containers at the office. pic.twitter.com/GqzL8NeXmy

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

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  The location of the “unknown compound” overlaps with the location of the NGO’s office, and the military told us that they only saw the white sedan at one location that afternoon. We believe that what the military called an unknown compound was in fact the NGO’s office.

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Ahmadi drops his colleagues off and turns onto his street. His and his brothers’ children surround the car, his relatives said. The family has a habit of letting kids steer the car into the courtyard of their home. Somehow, the military said, the drone team sees none of this. pic.twitter.com/HjRbHxN5QX

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

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  The decision to strike does not flow down the typical chain of command. Because of the chaos of the Kabul airport evacuation, an official told us, President Biden and the military have delegated the authority to approve airstrikes to lower-level commanders.

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  We gathered photos and videos of the scene taken by journalists, and @mattaikins visited the courtyard multiple times. We shared that evidence with three experts. All three agreed that the damage was consistent with a single Hellfire strike, and not large secondary explosions. pic.twitter.com/HUXcZFHwCL

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

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  The morning after the U.S. drone strike killed Ahmadi and 9 others, the Islamic State did launch rockets at the airport, firing from an area that Ahmadi had driven through the previous day, and using a white Toyota to do so. pic.twitter.com/TPVu9Mwv0O

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Four days before Ahmadi was killed, his employer had applied for his family to receive refugee resettlement in the U.S. At the time of the strike, they were still awaiting approval. Looking to the U.S. for protection, they became some of the last victims in America’s longest war. pic.twitter.com/3IcgTyc5ca

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  This story began with the core and essential work of our team, a quick and accurate geolocation from @heytherehaIey: https://t.co/EuqimJpxyr. We followed that up with thorough reporting, expert consultation, and tireless on-the-ground work by @mattaikins.

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

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  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/11/2021 – 15:55

• The Insecurity Of Social Security
  The Insecurity Of Social Security

  Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

  The latest annual report from the Social Security Trustees showed the insecurity of social security.

  According to the July 2021 snapshot from the Social Security Administration, nearly 70-million people receive a monthly benefit check, of which 51.3 million are over the age of 65.

  

  Social Security provides the majority of income to most elderly Americans. The system provides at least 50 percent of incomes for about half of seniors. For roughly 1 in 4 seniors, it provides at least 90 percent of total incomes. But, that dependency ratio is directly tied to the financial insolvency of the vast majority of Americans. According to a CNBC report:

  “Morning Consult found that nearly 18% of adults with an annual income of $50,000 or less have no savings, while some 34% have enough to cover just three months of expenses. Another 11% would deplete savings within six months. Only 10% of that income group has more than a year’s worth of cash.

  Higher-income households are only somewhat better prepared, the survey found. Among those with annual incomes of $50,000 to $100,000, about 18% said they have between three months and six months of savings. About 25% said their cash would last less than three months, and 6% had set aside nothing at all. None of those questioned in that income group had more than a year’s worth of savings.”

  

  Such is a huge problem that will impact boomers in retirement.

  The Insecurity Of Social Security

  Given the financial insecurity of the bottom 90% of Americans, the dependency on social security is problematic. Here are some facts from the latest SSI report from CRFB:

  • Social Security is Only 13 Years from Insolvency. Social Security cannot guarantee full benefits to current retirees under current law. The Trustees project the Social Security Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund will deplete its reserves by 2033. The Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) trust fund will be insolvent by 2057. The theoretical combined trust funds will exhaust their reserves by 2034. Upon insolvency, all beneficiaries will face a 22% benefit cut.

  

  Source: CRFB

  • Social Security will run cash deficits of $2.4 trillion over the next decade. Such is the equivalent of 2.3% of taxable payroll or 0.8% of (GDP). Social Security’s 75-year actuarial imbalance totals 3.54% of taxable payroll. That is 1.2% of GDP or nearly $21 trillion in present value terms.

  • Finances Are Deteriorating. Social Security’s finances worsened over the last year. Current projections show Insolvency occuring a year earlier, and the 75-year actuarial deficit is over 10 percent larger. The 75-year shortfall is nearly 85% larger than orginally estimated in 2010.

  The problem is evident. Given the large and growing dependency on social security, benefits will get cut for recipients if Congress fails to act. As noted by the Center Of Budget & Policy, social security for many retirees is the difference between living in poverty or not.

  

  Demographics Are Destiny

  One of the primary contributors to the insecurity of social security is demographics.

  In 1940, the life expectancy of a 65-year-old was just 14 years. Today it is over 20 years. By 2035, the number of Americans 65 and older will increase from approximately 56 million today to over 78 million.

  The problem for social security is that in 1940, nearly 16-workers paid into the program for each person receiving benefits. Currently, that ratio is just 2.8 workers for each Social Security beneficiary. By 2035, that ratio will decrease to 2.3 covered workers for each beneficiary.

  “Social Security will see negative cash flow of $147 billion this year. The deficits will keep adding up as the population ages as fewer workers pay into the system relative to the number of retirees collecting benefits.” – Reason

  Such increases in the number of retirees and lower birth rates decrease the relative number of workers. However, this decline in the “support ratio” is not just domestic, but global.

  “Recently released official U.S. birth data for 2020 showed births fell continuously for more than a decade. The ‘total fertility rate,’ is a measure constructed from the data to estimate the average total number of children born. That rate fell from 2.12 in 2007 to 1.64 in 2020. It is now well below 2.1, the value considered to be ‘replacement fertility,’ which is the rate needed for the population to replace itself without immigration.“

  

  However, the problem isn’t just the “replacement rate” of workers paying into the system. But also the structural change to the workforce itself.

  A Structural Employment Problem

  The structural shift in employment is due to technology and automation. Yet, it is an overarching problem most give little attention to.

  While the mainstream media focuses their attention on the daily distribution of economic data points, there is a hidden depression running along the country’s underbelly. While reported unemployment is heading back to historically lower levels, there is a swelling mass of uncounted individuals. These are individuals assumed to have either given up looking for work or are working multiple part-time jobs. 

  The chart strips out the argument of retiring baby boomers, who ironically, aren’t retiring. Such is not because they don’t want to retire, but because they can’t afford to.

  

  These higher levels of under and unemployment apply downward pressure on wages even as work hours increase. Real wage declines are evident as companies opt for increasing productivity, continued outsourcing, and streamlining employment to protect corporate profit margins. However, as the cost of living is affected by the rising food, energy, and health care prices without a compensatory increase in incomes, more families are forced to turn to assistance to survive.

  

  Without government largesse, many individuals would live on the street. The chart above shows all the government “welfare” programs and current levels to date. The black line represents the sum of the underlying sub-components. Thus, while unemployment insurance did taper off after its sharp rise post-pandemic, social security, Medicaid, Veterans’ benefits, and other social benefits continue to rise.

  Importantly, these social benefits are critical to the average person’s survival as they make up more than 25% of real disposable personal incomes.

  With 1/4 of incomes dependent on government transfers, it is not surprising the economy continues to struggle. Recycled tax dollars used for consumption purposes have virtually no impact on the overall economy.

  The Social Security Insecurity Endgame

  As stated above, the biggest problem for Social Security, and the U.S. in general, comes when Social Security begins paying out more in benefits than it receives in taxes. Then, as the cash surplus gets depleted, Social Security can not pay full benefits from its tax revenues alone.

  

  Already, welfare programs in the U.S. are consuming ever-growing amounts of general revenue dollars to meet obligations.As noted recently,mandatory spending already consumes more than 100% of Federal tax revenues.

  “In the fiscal year 2019, the Federal Government spent $4.4 trillion, amounting to 21 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). Of that $4.4 trillion, federal revenues financed only $3.5 trillion. The remaining $984 billion came from debt issuance. As the chart below shows, three major areas of spending make up most of the budget.”

  

  Think about that for a minute. In 2019, 75% of all expenditures went to social welfare and interest on the debt. Those payments required $3.3 Trillion of the $3.5 Trillion (or 95%) of the total revenue collected. Given the decline in economic activity during 2020, those numbers become markedly worse. For the first time in U.S. history, the Federal Government will have to issue debt to cover the mandatory spending.“

  Eventually, either the benefits will get slashed, or the rest of the government will have to shrink to accommodate the “welfare state.” It is improbable the latter will happen.

  

  Conclusion

  Demographic trends are reasonably easy to forecast and predict. Each year from now until 2035, we will see successive rounds of boomers reach the 62-year-old threshold. Two problems are resulting from these consecutive crops of boomers heading into retirement.

  The first is that each boomer has not produced enough children to replace themselves, which leads to a decline in the number of taxpaying workers. It takes about 25 years to grow a new taxpayer. We can estimate, with surprising accuracy, how many people born in a particular year will retire. The retirees of 2070 were born in 2003, and we can see and count them today.

  The second problem is the employment problem. The decline in economic prosperity is the result of four decades of misguided policy:

  • Increases in non-productive debt and deficits,

  • Reduction in savings,

  • Declining income growth due to productivity increases; and,

  • The shift from a manufacturing to service based society that generates lower levels of taxable incomes in the future.

  “The more time that passes, the heavier the lift will be. According to an analysis from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which advocates for low deficits and sustainable entitlement programs, delaying action until insolvency hits in 2034 will make the needed tax increases or benefit reductions about 25 percent larger than if Congress acted today. In either case, the changes will be seriously disruptive to Americans’ retirement plans and financial security.” – Reason

  The entire social support framework faces an inevitable conclusion where no wishful thinking will change that outcome. The question is whether our elected leaders will start making the changes necessary sooner, while they can get done by choice or later when forced upon us.

   Post Views: 296

  2021/09/10

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/11/2021 – 15:30

• NYC Using $5.9 Billion In Federal Relief Funds To Pay Artists $5,000, Give Cash To Cab Drivers And Encourage Outdoor Dining
  NYC Using $5.9 Billion In Federal Relief Funds To Pay Artists $5,000, Give Cash To Cab Drivers And Encourage Outdoor Dining

  Instead of just reopening, NYC seems hell bent on keeping its workers and businesses on the Covid-stimulus government dole. The city is distributing a portion of its $5.9 billion in federal aid to cab drivers, artists and restaurants.

  The city is one of the first to distribute aid from President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan, according to Bloomberg. Last week the city published a more than 70 page report laying out its plans for the funds.

  Those plans include $2.27 billion for the city to replace lost revenue after the city shut down.

  The report read: “New York City’s Recovery for All plan prioritizes vaccinating against COVID-19 to jump-start the recovery, using the City government to fight inequality, building a fairer economy, helping children recover emotionally and academically from the impact of the pandemic, strengthening community-based solutions to public safety, and fighting the climate crisis.”

  

  $1.45 billion in funds will expand the state’s healthcare system, which will make Covid vaccines more available and will expand testing sites.

  Another portion of the cash will go to 1,800 grants of $5,000 each for artists and taxi medallion owners. It’s also going toward a program that will encourage outdoor dining, that starts in 2023. 

  $1.51 billion will be used to “support small businesses”, according to the report. We wonder if Bill de Blasio ever thought about supporting small businesses by actually allowing them to fully re-open, or if his plans are simply to paper over the entire NYC economy with printed paper.

  Finally, the city put aside $52.5 million for its tourism industry, which makes up 376,800 jobs and suffered from a 67% decline in visitors to the state in 2020. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/11/2021 – 15:00

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• Leftists Have Appointed Themselves As Our "Cultural Educators" – But They Have Nothing To Teach
  Leftists Have Appointed Themselves As Our “Cultural Educators” – But They Have Nothing To Teach

  Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

  It is often said that ignorance is the source of all evil, but I find that the most destructive people in the world are not the most ignorant, but the most arrogant. Ignorant people are more likely to become victims, while arrogant people have enough intelligence to knowingly absorb and regurgitate a particular dogma in a way that appeals to unsuspecting bystanders that were never given the tools to defend themselves.

  In other words, it’s malicious “educators” that promote incendiary collectivism, usually by preying on those that lack the armor of reason. Ignorance is encouraged by these supposed teachers as a marinade; it tenderizes their victims and makes them ready to absorb more and more cultism.

  

  Their arrogance is the key to all of this because these folks are really just middlemen for an agenda that is ultimately designed to harm them. They see themselves as brilliant minds that cannot be denied; they think they are the prophets of our age. They do what they do because they have a bias or hatred of independent thought, or, they believe they are earning a seat at the table of power by evangelizing for totalitarianism. The reality is that the globalist establishment will throw the leftists away as soon as they have what they want. History shows us that the most devout messengers of totalitarian regimes are usually lined up against a wall and shot once the revolution is achieved, but their hubris blinds them to this inevitable outcome.

  They generally fall into two categories – the young acolytes and the aging adherents, and the vast majority of them are leftists. Whenever I examine the dangers of leftists I inevitably get accusations that I am “perpetuating the false left/right paradigm”, but the people that make this argument don’t understand what the left/right paradigm is.

  At the top of any government pyramid you will find that the politicians may claim to represent different parties or ideologies but when it comes to their policies these leaders are all the same. Their vested interests are in maintaining power for themselves and the globalists that line their pockets. This is not to say all politicians are frauds, just most of them, and the higher up you go in government the more frauds you will find.

  The opposite is true in terms of the bottom of the pyramid among regular citizens – There is no “false paradigm” for the masses – The leftists are truly ideologically obsessed in their collectivism and communism, and conservatives and constitutionalists truly embrace personal freedom and civil liberties. The divide is not fake, it is very real. There are people who want to control others and there are people that want to be left alone, and the political left is staunchly on the side of control.

  Leftists are the ONLY people supporting draconian lockdowns, business closures, mask mandates, vaccine passports and forced vaccinations, mass censorship and the silencing of anyone that disagrees with their twisted worldview. They ignore all science to the contrary of their positions and seek to exploit every possible crisis to gain power through people’s irrational fears. They are also the only group that is receiving unmitigated support from governments, corporations and globalist foundations. The very people they say are “evil capitalists” are the same people that make their movement possible.

  This is why I have to laugh every time I’m confronted with a hatchling communist trying to “educate me” on the “dangers of conservatives and individualists”; they know nothing, but have an opinion on everything.

  The behavior and mentality of the acolytes is very familiar to me, and I have had many opportunities to observe burgeoning leftists in their native environments. The newer generations of leftists have never been told by those close to them that they really are not as smart as they think they are. They have never been given the reality check or the slap upside the head that they needed. They have been conditioned from a very early age to believe that everything they say and do is profound. And even though most of them have not accomplished anything of note or merit in their lives, they think that their ideology gives them the power to assume a mantle of wisdom and look down on others that do not share in their religion.

  The notion of the young teaching the old is an extension of a philosophy from the early 1900s called “Futurism”. It promotes the idea that all “old ideas” should be cast off and all new ideas are automatically superior. It teaches that tradition and heritage are a prison that holds humanity back from progress. Futurism is the root ideology that helped to spawn both the rise of the National Socialists (Fascists) in Europe as well as the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, so it’s not surprising that leftists today use a similar mantra.

  Of course, those of us who are a little older than 20 years of age know from experience that there are no new ideas, only old ideas like authoritarianism repackaged as new. Tear off the shiny wrapper and social justice and Critical Race Theory have the same rotten putrid guts as the communism and fascism of old.

  Strangely, many young leftists pontificate and worship at the altar of social justice extremism while at the same time claiming to be “moderates” or “middle-of-the-road.” They have learned that once they openly admit what they are it is much harder to demand the attention of others, so they will exhibit rabid fits of zealotry in the face of conservative viewpoints and then argue that Cultural Marxists “don’t exist.”

  The leftist ability to gaslight is really quite astonishing, because in order to master tactical dishonesty at such a high level one has to be an accomplished sociopath.

  To be clear, the purpose of confronting their disinformation and cultism is not to change their minds or to force them to admit they are wrong, that’s not ever going to happen. They will double and triple down on their false narratives no matter how much the facts debunk them. The only reason to confront them is so you can publicly dismantle them, so that the rest of the world can see how frail their dogma really is.

  The majority of the younger acolytes don’t have their own families and they never want a family. They have never been responsible for other human beings and the mere thought of it terrifies them. They can barely take care of themselves and they seem to like it that way. And though they tend to blame “boomers” for all the world’s ills, they also have a habit of living off their boomer parents well into their late 20s and early 30’s; some stick around for even longer.

  No one ever told them how boring they are or how badly they suck, so they never improve or strive for more. They then waltz into adult life with grand assumptions of their genius and righteousness.

  In their teens and twenties they think they are ready to refashion the very pillars of society and rewrite all the “wrongs” of humanity. It is no wonder than communists target the youth as a rule, because many of them lack a grasp on the basics and their views are painfully simplistic. Today young leftists think everything is racist, everything is sexist, everything is homophobic, everything is about discrimination and unfairness, all of their weaknesses are actually strengths, everything our society values is wrong and all of their failures are caused by others holding them back from their own imminent greatness. They cannot meet today’s standards of accomplishment because today’s standards are dated and obsolete. The world is wrong and they are right.

  As you can imagine, this mentality is enticing because it feeds young narcissism. No one at that age wants to admit they know nothing, and maybe that is one of the biggest problems in Western society.

  You cannot talk to these kids because they will not talk to you about anything other than themselves and their non-accomplishments and their social justice religion. They will never ask you about your own views or experiences or knowledge earned over a lifetime that dwarfs theirs – They don’t care. For how could you possibly know more than they do about anything of importance? Their cult has taught them that everything old is always wrong and has nothing to offer. Only the new and the young and the untested are relevant to the future.

  Tearing things down is far more exciting to them than keeping what has already been built alive. Surely this is insanity, but think about it from their perspective for a moment – When you have no merits or inherent abilities, how do you feel like you have control over your environment and your destiny? Building things and creating things of value is hard, but destroying things of value and burning structures down is easy.

  Gullible leftist children are not our main concern, however. The older adherents are the true source of the indoctrination campaign beyond the think-tanks and establishment non-profits that fund it. These people are the predators of the political left and they know EXACTLY what they are doing.

  I have long been fascinated with the existence of psychopathic people, and in particular I find the behaviors of narcissists at once horrifying and illuminating. If you ever wanted a chance to study an alien life-form, the closest you will probably ever get is to study a narcissistic sociopath or psychopath. One aspect of narcissists is that they tend to be magnetically drawn to a handful of career fields in which they can control people and gain a captive audience. You will often see medicine, finance, media, non-profits and politics listed as common fields that attract narcissists, but lesser mentioned fields include academia and teaching.

  I have come to realize recently that the teaching profession is a perfect petri dish for narcissists because it draws less negative attention while offering comparable fuel for their control addictions. Many people think that a person that wants to be a teacher must be a selfless saint because who wants to babysit other people’s kids all day unless they are kind hearted, but the temptations are plenty for those with aberrant psyches.

  Children are especially vulnerable to influence well into their teens. The younger they are the more trusting they tend to be of the adults around them, who they see as their protectors and providers in a world they have no power over. The further they tread into adolescence the more they start to question their place in the world and what values they should adopt in order to find meaning. Furthermore, they have an innate inclination to test boundaries and to rebel if their parents use helicopter methods or refuse to enforce rational limitations, and there’s nothing more dangerous than a rebel without a cause.

  Leftist adherents see these children as their playground and revel in the notion of manipulating their minds to bring them into the cultist fold. I can’t think of a more captive audience for a narcissist than a public school classroom or university lecture hall in which the teacher is able to establish a dominant hierarchy and demand fealty without ever actually having to EARN the trust of the students. The children are expected to listen and accept their pontificating without question from day one, even though the teacher in front of them might be a smooth-brained lunatic.

  I think the most revealing factor in these situations is that leftist teachers usually try to hide their lesson plans from parents, or argue that parents have no right to be informed of what goes on in the classroom.  This tells you all you need to know about their intentions.  If their lessons were valid and stood on their own merits, then they would not need to hide them at all. 

  Under indoctrination programs like CRT, teachers are the confessors, the saviors and the judges “awakening” their students to their own original racial sins. The kids that fall in line will be rewarded and the kids that don’t will be browbeaten into silence or submission. The teachers become the center of their universe for the bulk of their day and when those children go home they will still have to think about how to best navigate tomorrow so they do not attract the ire of the cult leaders and their growing flock. The pursuit of knowledge is supplanted by the stresses of conformity. Learning is the last thing on their minds.

  This is not to say that all teachers are like this, but the profession clearly attracts the worst of the worst in many cases. Teachers unions are the biggest driving force behind medical tyranny in the US next to the government itself. They are also the driving force behind the communist CRT indoctrination being introduced in public schools. To these people children are an endless buffet. Their goal is not to teach, but to coerce and to manufacture useful minions for the collective.

  Critical Race Theory and social justice are the new plantations and leftist adherents are the slave owners, or at the very least they are the overseers with their whips in hand. In the movie ‘Platoon’, Oliver Stone’s character Chris Taylor states: “Hell is the impossibility of reason.” The political left revels in its destruction of reason; they even think they have transcended it. The worst possible future would be to allow these people to continue their theatrics as supposed educators. You cannot mentor the next generation if your only goal is to manufacture an army of proxies that blindly think exactly as you do.

  *  *  *

  If you would like to support the work that Alt-Market does while also receiving content on advanced tactics for defeating the globalist agenda, subscribe to our exclusive newsletter The Wild Bunch Dispatch.  Learn more about it HERE.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 23:40

• China Reveals Flight Control System To Land Hypersonic Drone
  China Reveals Flight Control System To Land Hypersonic Drone

  Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post revealed Tuesday that Chinese military researchers have reportedly found a way to land hypersonic drones on standard runways safely. If reports are correct, this would be a monumental step for Chinese aerospace and put the country lightyears ahead of the US. 

  A peer-reviewed study released in the defense journal Tactical Missile Technology on Sept.1 described how Dai Fei of Beihang University in Beijing and his team worked with the People’s Liberation Army Air Force to refine the technology behind hypersonic drone landings. 

  They determined an “unpowered return guidance scheme” for the drones traveling at Mach 5 (3,836 mph) was sufficient. At those super-fast speeds, at an altitude of 19 miles, the onboard computer would shut off the drone’s engine 125 miles before landing. 

  

  Dubbed the “automatic landing interface,” the software prediction computer, similar to what is on commercial and military planes, would make micro-adjustments to the plane’s trajectory based on a multitude of variables, such as air pressure and altitude. The researchers said the new and improved software provides “possible landing scenarios” for the drone. 

  Researchers also said the drone would perform a series of subtle S turns to slow down ahead of landing. Shutting down the engines more than a hundred miles before landing adds to the complexity of the landing as hypersonic aircraft engines are more difficult to restart. 

  The new paper may confirm China’s hypersonic drone called the Wuzhen 8 appeared in Beijing’s military parade two years ago. It is unclear whether Dai’s team has successfully tested the new software in the field. 

  If China pursues hypersonic drones, it could provide an umbrella of defense around the South China Sea, Taiwan Strait, and other hostile areas against US stealth fighters. 

  On a commercial aspect, the technology could improve future hypersonic aircraft landings. These fast planes could whisk people around the world in an hour and take to the skies as early as 2035. 

  There’s no doubt in our mind that a rapidly advancing China challenges American airpower in the 21st century. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 23:20

• Mysterious Radio Signals From The Center Of The Milky Way Detected
  Mysterious Radio Signals From The Center Of The Milky Way Detected

  Via Entrepreneur.com,

  The nature of the emitting object is not known, since it does not coincide with anything known…

  

  We have much more to know! 

  If something has become clear in recent years, it is that we are largely ignorant of what happens outside the Earth (also within it). Millionaires embody a battle to reach the Moon, Mars and the ends of the galaxy, but there are countless unknowns. 

  Such is the case with a mysterious new radio signals coming from the center of the Milky Way.

  The technical name of the waves is ASKAP J173608.2-321635 .

  Scientists have not yet been able to know what it could be. The signal has been detected six times between January and September 2020, then reappeared until February 7 of this year.

  In a study on the finding, which has not yet been published in The Astrophysical Journal , but can be consulted on the arXiv server, the researchers explain that it is “a highly polarized, variable and steep spectrum radio strong” .

  ” ASKAP J173608.2-321635 , could be part of a new class of objects that are being discovered through radio imaging studies,” the authors write.

  How did they discover the signs?

  Thanks to the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) , a radio telescope. A set of 36 antennas of 12 meters in diameter, which function as one and make it one of the most sensitive in the world. It is designed to analyze cosmic magnetism, identify black holes, and explore the origin of galaxies.

  

  The signal is unknown, several types of stars have been ruled out. But it does share some properties with the Galactic Center Radio Transients (GCRT), another mysterious signal discovered in 2000, which is also emitted from the center of the Milky Way.

  To find out what it is, researchers need to observe radio signals longer. In this way, certain patterns that have not been seen before could be established. “We will be able to understand how unique ASKAP J173608.2-321635 truly is and if it is related to the galactic plane, which should ultimately help us deduce its nature.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 23:00

• Trudeau's Chances Of Winning Snap Election Dwindle As Conservatives Surge
  Trudeau’s Chances Of Winning Snap Election Dwindle As Conservatives Surge

  On Sept. 20, Canadians will head to the polls for a snap federal election called by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in an effort to try and parlay his handling of the COVID pandemic into a four-year mandate. The plan was to strike while the iron’s hot, so to speak.

  Trudeau’s primary motive is that since the last election in September, 2019, Trudeau has only commanded a minority in parliament, leaving him dependent on rival parties (mostly the left-leaning New Democrats) to govern. Trudeau argues the pandemic has changed Canada like WWIII changed Canada and the rest of the west, and that, due to this change, voters should now choose whom they want to call the shots going forward.

  

  Unfortunately for Trudeau, the resurgence in COVID cases across North America over the past couple of months have left him vulnerable to the criticism that he placed the health of Canadians at risk in the name of “ambition.” This take, along with Conservative leader Erin O’Toole’s other criticisms of Trudeau, have apparently resonated with voters, leaving the Conservatives neck and neck with Trudeau’s Liberals according to the latest polls, with early voting just about to begin.

  The opposition Tories have 33% support compared with 31% for Trudeau’s Liberals and 19% for the left-leaning New Democratic Party, according to the latest Nanos Research Group survey. The Nanos survey, which was conducted for CTV News and the Globe and Mail newspaper, is based on a three-day rolling average and has a margin of error of 2.8%, according to Bloomberg.

  

  If those numbers hold through the last 10 days of the campaign, Canada is facing another minority parliament in which the government needs the support of another party to pass legislation. Liberals could still win the most seats will losing the popular vote, like they did in 2019. Support for Trudeau has waned as the New Democratic Party has attracted more younger Canadians with more progressive politics.

  During a Thursday night debate, Trudeau was attacked frm all sides. O’Toole, who simultaneously criticized the prime minister’s record on fighting climate change and his motivation for triggering the vote, accused Trudeau of having “Great Ambition.”

  O’Toole also hammered Trudeau over his failure to secure the release of two Canadian men who were arrested in China likely as political retribution for Canada’s arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou at behest of the US. Trudeau replied with a memorable line: “you do not simply lob tomatoes across the Pacific” to illustrate his “delicate” approach to handling the situation with China.

  Trudeau was perhaps shaken by a major loss earlier that day, when the Conservatives won what could be decisive support from the popular premier of Quebec, Canada’s second most populous province. “For the Quebec nation, Mr. O’Toole’s approach is a good one,” Premier Francois Legault said, warning that victory for any other party could prove “dangerous” for provincial autonomy.

  When Trudeau was first elected in 2015, he ended nearly a decade of conservative rule under PM Stephen Harper. At the time, pundits in the US, Canada and all over the English-speaking world praised Trudeau’s win – despite his obvious inexperience and other flaws – as a generational shift. But Trudeau seems to finally have run out of steam barely halfway through. And in just a couple of weeks, Canada’s voters might finally relegate the political scion to the scrap heap of history.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 22:40

• The Unseen Costs Of The War On Terror
  The Unseen Costs Of The War On Terror

  Authored by Kim Iskyan via American Consequences.com,

  It’s similar – for generations before mine – to when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, or the moment that President John F. Kennedy was shot.

  For me… it was early evening (Moscow is seven hours ahead of New York), and I had wandered over to the trading floor of the investment bank to chat with a trader. Strangely, the TV in the corner – usually ignored, with the volume turned down – was the center of attention… And it was immediately clear why.

  Twenty years later, we’re remembering 9/11 and the 2,977 victims of the four terrorist attacks by the militant Islamist terrorist group Al Qaeda on American soil… and the people – in total, a multiple of the number of Americans who died on that day – who have died of illnesses stemming from being exposed to the debris of the attacks.

  The cost of the attacks on America in terms of human lives was enormous. And, in a different way, the cost of the resultant War on Terror – as launched by then-President George W. Bush shortly after the 9/11 attacks, to “direct every resource at our command” in order to “[disrupt and] defeat… the global terror network” – is similarly incalculable.

  The price of the War on Terror that was launched by the events of 9/11 has been the fundamental reweaving of the very fabric of American society, government, and culture… into something thinner and more likely to rip, unravel, and tangle.

  The astronomical cost of the War on Terror, beyond lives lost and the $8 trillion all-in price tag, has included the end of American privacy and the erosion – and redefinition – of freedom… a permanent fear and distrust of the world around us… the dissolution of one of America’s greatest intangible assets, its soft power… and a dangerous war fatigue.

  
  The End of Privacy

  One of the ironies of the War on Terror is that its objective of countering terrorism has long enjoyed almost unprecedented bipartisan support. Only the struggle to control and contain the Soviet Union during the Cold War experienced a similar level of sustained across-the-aisle consensus.

  Efforts to “win” the War on Terror, though, have been a slippery slope and have undercut some of the liberties the War on Terror was supposed to be defending. Today, “an abundance of caution” can lead to excessive and unnecessary – and ultimately counterproductive – efforts to contain COVID-19. And at the height of the War on Terror, there was no political upside to exercise restraint in the effort to fight Al Qaeda, particularly on American soil.

  One result has been the construction of a surveillance society “in which the long-standing ‘wall’ between surveillance for law enforcement purposes and for intelligence gathering has been dismantled,” the American Bar Association explained.

  An important part of this was the Patriot Act, the quick approval – and eventual de facto permanent institutionalization – of which stemmed from the “stop at nothing” attitude toward the War on Terror. If the parents of preciously precocious toddlers can be hoodwinked into paying more than $72,000 for preschool (at the Stephen Gaynor School in New York) – since, after all, that might make the difference between admission to Brown or just Tufts… and, after all, nothing is too good for Junior – it isn’t surprising that it didn’t take much to convince congressmen that no liberty should be left unsacrificed at the altar of the War on Terror.

  The Patriot Act in effect loosened the restrictions that had long been a bedrock of the assumption of privacy on government entities acquiring personal information about citizens that could (possibly, perhaps, maybe) link them to terrorist activities. And just like bureaucracies don’t simply fold up and go away when their assigned task ends, laws that extend the power of government agencies – privacy, and his close friends, freedom and civil liberty, be damned – don’t instantaneously dissolve when the immediate threat has passed.

  The Patriot Act has been trimmed and expanded, spun off, revamped, and reauthorized. Twenty years on, its evil spawn have hacked away at the privacy, liberties, and freedoms that Americans once took for granted.

  And today, in the post-9/11, post-Edward Snowden world, there’s little doubt that they are listening… or rather, that they can whenever they feel like it – and that you’re as much a terrorist as you are a moon-shooting billionaire is irrelevant. (There’s a reason that if you’re talking on your cellphone as you drive by the Central Intelligence Agency’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia, the reception regularly fails.)

  Before 9/11, most people could, most of the time, assume a certain level of privacy. But no longer.

  And since then, the threat is omnipresent… or at least that’s what you might think. Another effect of the War on Terror is that there’s always a reason to be afraid…

  Permanent Fear

  War on Terror bureaucracies – Exhibit A is the Department of Homeland Security, the proud employer of a quarter of a million Americans with a $50 billion budget – need a raison d’être. And in a world where data is power, government agencies – and the politicians who ostensibly oversee them – need a reason to collect more data. Like mojitos by the pool and flying Qatar Airways business class, there’s no such thing as enough, or too much, data.

  And what better way to do that than to cultivate a sense of fear of terrorism – forever. America’s presidents since the grandfather of the War on Terror, George W. Bush, have regularly pulled the levers of the fear of terrorism to their benefit. (Is there anything that can not be justified by a mention of “chatter” about a potential terrorist attack?)

  Former President Donald Trump elevated turning fear into power to an art form, as Foreign Affairs magazine explained in 2018…

  Donald Trump… helped incite a wave of fear about terrorism and then rode it to an unlikely electoral victory, vowing to ban Muslims from entering the United States and to ruthlessly target terrorists wherever they were found.

  But American presidents and legislators may be fueling the American frame of mind of fear as much as they’re mirroring it. Think tank and public-opinion pollsters Pew Research Center explained that “defending the country from future terrorist attacks has been at or near the top of… annual survey[s] on policy priorities since 2002.”

  As recently as 2020 – before COVID-19 emerged as a more immediate concern – 74% of Americans said that terrorism should be a “top priority” for the U.S. government… that compared with the economy at 67% and jobs at 49%.

  Is this permanent sense of fear justified? The American terrorism industrial complex has grown like a weed on steroids… which is, for some, justification in itself.

  But in terms of the actual threat… no. According to think tank Brookings Institution, just 100 Americans have died in militant Islamist terrorist attacks since 9/11.

  That’s one-third the number of people in the U.S. who die from falling off a ladder every year… It’s the number of Americans who died of an opioid overdose every 12 hours in 2020… or the number of people in America who were killed in a car crash each day last year.

  Have so few Americans died in jihadist terrorist attacks because of the country’s permanent fear posture? It’s when we let down our guard and our level of vigilance declines – so they say – that they will strike. Right?

  Meanwhile, America has lost something after 9/11 that’s arguably its most important asset on the international stage. And it’s not getting it back.

  The Decline of American ‘Soft Power’

  “Soft power” is the ability of a country to influence – and convert the preferences and behavior of – other countries, companies, and communities by using attraction or persuasion… rather than through force or coercion.

  Soft power is winning hearts and minds through leadership, values, and weapons of mass influence. It’s the flip side of – but a key complement of – the “hard power” of bullets and bombs. In the War on Terror, the power of American persuasion has been, in theory at least, an important element of the arsenal.

  But as I wrote in July, the United States has in recent years been losing soft-power ground. It’s ignored or abandoned long-held security and multilateral arrangements and commitments – like its wavering support for NATO, leaving the Paris Climate Agreement, and ending funding for the World Health Organization. (And more recently, it didn’t step up to swing at what would have been the biggest soft-power pitch in generations by vaccinating the world against COVID-19.)

  President Joe Biden has tried to reverse these soft-power own-goals. But the latest chapter of the War on Terror, the exit of American forces from Afghanistan, has washed away – like fragile topsoil on a floodplain – any small advances by the current White House in rebuilding soft power.

  The disastrous, hasty, and poorly executed American retreat from Afghanistan left allies shocked and appalled at being left out of the exit strategy… Afghan allies were stranded as the Taliban took over… and the U.S. appeared – and, in fact, was – unprepared, incompetent, unfaithful, and untrustworthy.

  As the Financial Times explained earlier this month, “[T]he manner in which [the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan] unfolded, with U.S. allies blindsided by the speed of the Taliban takeover and pleading in vain for more time to evacuate their citizens, has undermined confidence in the U.S.”

  When the “next Afghanistan” – it’s coming soon – happens, American soft power won’t be the potent pixie dust that it has been in the past. Instead, it will be little more than a pile of dirt. And the latest failure of the War on Terror just solidified that reality.

  A War-Fatigued America

  Whatever your vice – penthouse view of the beach, Sichuan food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, 18 holes in perfect weather, or binging Netflix – it would probably get old after doing it every day for two months… and that’s to say nothing of two decades.

  Sustaining excitement and engagement (or, at a bare minimum, support) for the War on Terror – no one’s idea of fun – for 20 years was, of course, impossible. The share of Americans who thought that the initial decision to use force was wrong doubled from 2006 to 2018, for example. That reflects a broader decline in support for the War on Terror, despite continued concerns about jihadist terrorism on American soil.

  This drop in interest reflects a dangerous “war fatigue,” as Foreign Affairs explained…

  Under four presidents, the American people at first celebrated and then endured the endless wars playing in the background of their lives. Gradually, the national mood soured, and adversaries have taken notice. Americans’ fatigue – and rival countries’ recognition of it – has limited the United States’ strategic options… Fatigue may seem like a “soft” cost of the war on terror, but it is a glaring strategic liability. A nation exhausted by war has a difficult time presenting a credible deterrent threat to adversaries.

  The American withdrawal from Afghanistan – and the broader winding down of the War on Terror as President Biden focuses on implementing his “foreign policy for the middle class” vision – signals to friends and foes alike that the U.S. has little appetite for foreign adventures. That may embolden (say) China to encroach upon Taiwan (as I wrote recently, a potential “next Afghanistan”)… or Russia to take another bite out of Ukraine. And the War on Terror will be to blame.

  The War on Terror as the response to 9/11 was – at the time – reasonable and necessary. But the sacrifices demanded of the War on Terror have metastasized, and the cancer is killing off parts of the country it was intended to save.

  And the risks to America – from the end of privacy, an aura of permanent fear, the decline of soft power, and war fatigue – are rising.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 22:20

• New Study Finds 'Excess Suicides' In Japan Surged Due To COVID Restrictions
  New Study Finds ‘Excess Suicides’ In Japan Surged Due To COVID Restrictions

  Here’s a study that wasn’t covered at all by the media, despite it’s chilling findings, which cut against claims by American health experts that COVID lockdowns haven’t led to an increase in suicides.

  A recent UK study showed 5x as many children have died via suicide since the start of the pandemic than the number who have died from COVID (almost no children – and no healthy children – have died from COVID in the US and UK). And the fact that suicides have increased in Japan over the past year has already been documented.

  According to this new study, which was carried out via scientists from a Japanese university along with Japan’s Infectious Diseases Surveillance Center, 2,665 excess cases of mortality were identified between July 2020 and March 2021. The study’s methodology was similar to that from an earlier study. “Excess mortality” was defined as the difference between the actual number of deaths, and the expected epidemiological threshold (assuming the actual number exceeds the expectation).

  The study used data from all causes, as reported, from 2005 through February 2021. Deaths reported from across Japan were incorporated.

  The total number of estimated EXCESS suicides traced to lockdowns in Japan is >2,600. https://t.co/HXIJtAe5bC

  — Dave Collum (@DavidBCollum) September 7, 2021

  Using their model, the researchers determined that “significant excess mortality attributable to suicide” was seen between July 2020 and March 2021, with the biggest excess seen in October of last year, which we noted at the time.

  The number of COVID deaths during that period was 8,153, meaning excess suicide deaths attributable to lockdowns and other pandemic-related circumstances were almost equivalent to one-third of the total deaths from COVID.

  

  The study’s authors concluded that governments should examine cost-effectiveness analysis. The impact on quality of life should be considered among the various drawbacks of lockdowns and other restrictions on economic and social activity as a major part of countermeasures.

  “Continued careful monitoring of excess mortality attributable to suicide is expected to be necessary.”

  Interested parties can read the study preprint below:

  2021.02.13.21251670v6.full on Scribd

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 22:00

• IPCC's "No One Is Safe" Slogan Is Deeply Misleading: Shellenberger
  IPCC’s “No One Is Safe” Slogan Is Deeply Misleading: Shellenberger

  Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

  The message stated in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) report, warning that “nobody is safe” from human-caused climate change is “irresponsible and misleading,” according to longtime environmental activist Michael Shellenberger.

  

  The IPCC published a report in August stating that human-caused climate change is accelerating and that radical changes to human behavior are needed to avert disaster.

  Following the findings, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said of the report that the “alarm bells are deafening” and the situation is a “code red for humanity.”

  Meanwhile, Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said the findings showed that “nobody is safe. And it is getting worse faster.”

  However, Shellenberger, who is the founder and president of the nonprofit Environmental Progress and the author of “Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All,” disagrees with this sentiment.

  In an interview with EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders,” Shellenberger noted that while climate change is a very “real” thing, the slogan that no one is safe is “misleading” to the general public.

  “Climate change is real. The world is getting warmer, it’s gotten about one degree Celsius warmer since the pre-industrial period. But on so many other environmental metrics, things are going in the right direction,” Shellenberger said.

  “The hottest the period of worst heat waves, for example, was in the 1930s. It has been a hot decade, but the 1930s remained the highest magnitude of heat waves. The chance of dying from an extreme weather event has declined over 99 percent for the average human being.

  “Deaths from natural disasters overall are 90 percent down, we produce 25 percent more food than we need. There’s no estimate of running out of food.”

  “Sea level rise is something that we’ve done a very good job adapting to and we’ll continue to do a good job adapting to. The Netherlands is a country where many parts of it are seven meters below sea level. The median estimate for sea level rise by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is about a half a meter,” he continued.

  “So what I object to is the painting of humans as sort of fragile or super vulnerable. We’ve never been more brilliant, we’ve never been less vulnerable, at least at a physical level. I think we’re seeing some rising anxiety and depression, particularly [among] young people, probably due to social media. But physically humans are safer than ever.”

  “But I think the the message that people need to hear that they’re not hearing is that the vast majority of environmental trends are going in the right direction, including on climate change.”

  

  The front page of the IPCC’s report “Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis.” (IPCC/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

  Shellenberger went on to call the communications in the IPCC’s report “irresponsible,” stating that, owing to more modern infrastructure, among other things, humans are are 99 percent less likely to die from extreme weather than they were previously.

  “The communications from the United Nations have been irresponsible. The slogan that they published the day of the IPCC reports publication was ‘no one is safe’ … It’s deeply misleading in that we’re safer than ever,” he said.

  “We just look around us [to see] we have a built infrastructure, go on YouTube and look at what life was like in 1800 or 1900, we were just much more vulnerable to weather events back then.”

  Shellenberger referenced a Financial Times graphic depicting the rate of climate change based on the IPCC’s findings, noting that “if you make your graph tall enough, and you cherry pick a particular period of time, you can make anything look scary … It’s really what they don’t show you.”

  The longtime environmental activist said that the public fails to be informed about other aspects that protect them from climate change, such as large increases in food surpluses and incredible flood management systems.

  He also noted that in Europe, more people live in areas where floods historically occur, such as riverbanks, and it was not because of a modest amount of more rain that more people experienced floods in Europe.

  “So we see in all these problems, whether it’s forest fires, or floods, or hurricanes, that what humans do on the ground massively outweighs any increase in wind speed or precipitation or air temperatures,” he explained.

  Shellenberger noted that while the natural science reviewed by the IPCC is accurate, “the vast majority of the distortions and the pessimism regarding climate change appears in the summary in the statements by those who helped assemble the report.

  “So it’s really in the public relations that the distortions are occurring. However, in this most recent report, there was some bad behavior in the actual scenarios they constructed,” the author continued.

  “So about half of the scenarios assume much higher levels of emissions, and therefore higher levels of warming in the future, than really any mainstream expert believes is possible,” he added.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 21:40

• PLA Military 'On Alert' As US Carrier For 1st Time Launches F-35 Stealth Jets In South China Sea
  PLA Military ‘On Alert’ As US Carrier For 1st Time Launches F-35 Stealth Jets In South China Sea

  For the first time ever a US Navy aircraft carrier with F-35 stealth fighters on board has entered the South China Sea this week. The Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group entered the contested waters near China days ago, and subsequently the Navy released a photo of an F-35 launching from the Carl Vinson.

  This comes as the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold is gaining most attention from Beijing after it sailed near Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands, which is an area long claimed by China.

  

  Business Insider details of the new stealth fighter carrier deployment, “The F-35A is a variant built for the Air Force. The F-35B, mainly used by the Marine Corps, is designed to fight from amphibious assault ships. And the C variant is designed to operate aboard US Navy carriers. It can carry more fuel and weaponry and is built for catapult launches and fly-in arrestments.”

  A subsequent report in Chinese state mouthpiece Global Times indicated that the presence of both the Benfold and stealth jet carrying Vinson carrier has put the PLA military on ‘high alert’.

  Global Times wrote: “As the first carrier to get the F-35C, the USS Carl Vinson went straight to the South China Sea with the aim of deterring China, but China has already developed a number of anti-stealth radar systems, so the F-35C can be detected, Fu said, noting that China also has countermeasures against the vertical take-off and landing-capable CMV-22Bs, which could land on islands and reefs in the region.”

  

  The PLA Southern Theater Command meanwhile charged the US Navy with “trespassing” and “violating” Chinese sovereign waters. It particular it claimed to have “warned off” the USS Benfold destroyer from near the reefs during the Wednesday incident. The US responded that the navy continues upholding lawful freedom of navigation operations.

  State media also called the carrier’s arrival with the stealth jets on board a “provocative deployment” which China is able to counter if needed.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 21:20

• Justice Breyer Issues Warning To Democrats Who Want To Remake Supreme Court
  Justice Breyer Issues Warning To Democrats Who Want To Remake Supreme Court

  Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

  Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer issued a warning on Democrats wanting to remake the Supreme Court, including expanding the institution with justices, suggesting that Republicans will exploit Democrats’ agenda.

  

  Breyer, in a wide-ranging interview with NPR, said he will not kowtow to calls from progressive lawmakers to retire due to his age.

  “I’m only going to say that I’m not going to go beyond what I previously said on the subject, and that is that I do not believe I should stay on the Supreme Court, or want to stay on the Supreme Court, until I die,” the 83-year-old justice told the partially publicly funded broadcaster. 

  “And when exactly I should retire, or will retire, has many complex parts to it. I think I’m aware of most of them, and I am, and will consider them.”

  When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died last year and Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to the top court, left-wing Democrat lawmakers called for the expansion, or “packing,” of the Supreme Court with several more justices.

  In April, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that established an investigatory body to determine whether more seats should be added to the Supreme Court or whether term limits should be established for justices.

  “There is no question that Justice Breyer, for whom I have great respect, should retire at the end of this term,” Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) told news website Cheddar in April, referring to Ginsburg’s death.

  “My goodness, have we not learned our lesson?” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has issued similar statements.

  But Breyer, who dismissed such calls earlier this year, again said that such notions haven’t had an impact on the justices.

  “What goes around comes around. And if the Democrats can do it, the Republicans can do it,” Breyer told NPR while promoting his upcoming book, “The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics.”

  During the interview, Breyer also said that he welcomes in-person oral arguments after the court went virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  “I think it’s better to be there where you can actually see the lawyer and see your colleagues, and you get more of a human interaction,” he said to NPR.

  “We’re not automatons. We’re human beings,” Breyer also said. “And I believe when human beings discuss things face to face … there’s a better chance of working things out. That’s true with the lawyers in oral arguments, and it’s true with the nine of us when we’re talking.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 21:00

• Exxon To Start Measuring And Disclosing Shale Gas Emissions Amidst ESG Pressure
  Exxon To Start Measuring And Disclosing Shale Gas Emissions Amidst ESG Pressure

  Exxon is caving to the expectations of activist investors and a market that is looking for ESG (or at least the optics of ESG) investments.

  The company announced this week it would start measuring its methane emissions from production of natural gas at a facility it owns in New Mexico, according to Reuters. Exxon joins other shale gas producers, like EQT, who already provide similar data. 

  Bart Cahir, a senior vice president at Exxon Mobil, told Reuters: “Certifying our natural gas will help our customers achieve their goals.”

  The oil major has signed an agreement with “independent measuring firm MiQ to certify 200 million cubic feet of natural gas per day” at its New Mexico facilities. 

  

  Its plant in Poker Lake, where the measurements will be take, already had some technology in place to help detect leaks and reduce emissions. Exxon says it continues to look at options for deploying technology to help mitigate leaks and emissions. 

  There is a possibility that the measurement initiative could carry over to other shale production areas of Exxons. 

  Meanwhile, MiQ also has similar deals with Chesapeake Energy and Northeast Natural Energy. Some LNG companies, like NextDecade, say they will follow suit and will offer greenhouse gas emission data to their clients. 

  Exxon’s plan is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15% to 20% by 2025, from 2016 levels. 

   

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 20:40

• Indian Media Claims Pakistan Airforce Struck Panjshir, Proves It With Video Game Footage
  Indian Media Claims Pakistan Airforce Struck Panjshir, Proves It With Video Game Footage

  Via SouthFront.org,

  Indian news broadcasts claimed that the Pakistani airforce attacked the Panjshir valley in Afghanistan to assist the Taliban in fighting the Resistance Front.

  

  Indian media did so by sharing footage of alleged Pakistani airstrikes.

  The only issue?

  It’s not real, as it was footage from the video game Arma 3.

  Hello @republic, The ‘exclusive video’ that your team has accessed of Airstrikes at #PanjshirValley is actually from a video game “Arma-3”. 🤦🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️🙆🏾‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/TG7dJmvsQ9

  — Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) September 6, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  The footage first appeared on Indian news channels including Republic TV, Times Now Navbharat, Zee Hindustan, and TV9 Bharatvarsh. The original video was credited to a source called “Hasti TV” on Facebook, which has since been deleted.

  In fact, the footage came from the above video, originally posted on the YouTube channel Compared Comparison, which has now been viewed 23 million times. The gameplay shows players engaging in a ground-to-air battle between a jet and a vehicle-mounted anti-air turret with tracer rounds seen firing through the sky at the jet.

  A representative for Arma 3 developer Bohemia Interactive confirmed that the original footage does indeed come from the game.

  “Strangely, we’ve seen this particular game footage be used several times by certain media outlets in support of their real-life news coverage,” the Bohemia Interactive rep said.

  “We know this because we’ve been previously approached regarding similar occurrences by fact-checkers from organizations such as Agence France-Presse, Check Your Fact, PolitiFact, and if I remember correctly, also Reuters.”

  “The clip in the [original viral tweet] is so cropped and low-res that I find it hard to compare and say for sure which it is, but I’m confident it is Arma 3 footage,” Bohemia Interactive’s rep said.

  During Republic TV’s broadcast, the anchor can be heard repeating the claim that the Pakistani airforce performed an airstrike in Panjshir. The claim was originally recognized as fraudulent by Boom, a group that calls itself India’s “first and leading fact checking website and initiative,” and is a member of the Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Network initiative.

  While Arma 3 is a somewhat realistic battle simulator, one has to question why mainstream news outlets began airing video content without verifying its authenticity, and in fact, called it “exclusive footage” to prove that Pakistan is helping out Taliban in Afghanistan. One media outlet, Republic, has now posted a clarification on its Facebook page, stating that:

  “The video in question of ‘Pak Army striking Panjshir’ was taken and credited to Hasti TV – which as per their bio claims to be ‘the only Afghan TV channel in the UK catering to the needs of the Afghan/Persian Diasporas in the UK and rest of the World’. Hasti TV aired the video on their channel and also shared it on social media with the caption which when translated reads, ‘A video that we just received from Panjshir shows that a Pakistani military airplane is flying over Panjshir. Until now, the official sources have not approved this video.’ Multiple media outlets have carried and reported the said video. Since it has been brought to our notice that the video may not be accurate, the erroneous video sourced to Hasti TV has since been deleted from our official handles.”

  The misleading content has now been taken off-air and has been removed from social media platforms, online coverage, and YouTube.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 20:20

• Companies Increasingly Using 'Tattleware' To Monitor Employees Working From Home
  Companies Increasingly Using ‘Tattleware’ To Monitor Employees Working From Home

  As waves of Covid-19 continue to dictate working (or not working) habits for millions of Americans, employers have been turning to digital surveillance platforms to monitor their at-home workers, according to The Guardian.

  

  David, 23, admits that he felt a twinge of relief when the first wave of Covid-19 shut down his Arlington, Virginia, office. A recent college graduate, he was new to the job and struggled to click with his teammates. Maybe, he thought, this would be a nice break from “the face-to-face stuff”: the office politics and small talk. (His name has been changed for this story.)

  “I couldn’t have been more wrong,” David says.

  That’s because, within their first week of remote work, David and his team were introduced to a digital surveillance platform called Sneek. -The Guardian

  Sneek captures live photos of people every minute or so via their laptop webcams – which are then displayed across a wall of a ‘digital conference room’ that everyone else on the team can see. If caught not working, other workers can forward the offending photos to bosses via Sneak Slack chat.

  “We know lots of people will find it an invasion of privacy, we 100% get that, and it’s not the solution for those folks,” said Sneek co-founder Del Currie. “But there’s also lots of teams out there who are good friends and want to stay connected when they’re working together.”

  David, however, wasn’t having it and quit after less than three weeks on the job thanks to the digital nanny.

  “I signed up to manage their digital marketing,” he said, “not to livestream my living room.”

  According to the report, such “tattleware” or “bossware” was more or less a niche market pre-covid, however in March 2020 that all changed – as employers scrambled to implement new rules surrounding the work-from-home movement due to the pandemic. Last April, for example, Google searches for “remote monitoring” rose 212% y/y. By April of this year, queries surged another 243%.

  One of the major players in the industry, ActivTrak, reports that during March 2020 alone, the firm scaled up from 50 client companies to 800. Over the course of the pandemic, the company has maintained that growth, today boasting 9,000 customers – or, as it claims, more than 250,000 individual users. Time Doctor, Teramind, and Hubstaff – which, together with ActivTrak, make up the bulk of the market – have all seen similar growth from prospective customers.

  These software programs give bosses a mix of options for monitoring workers’ online activity and assessing their productivity: from screenshotting employees’ screens to logging their keystrokes and tracking their browsing. But in the fast-growing bossware market, each platform potentially brings something new to the table. There’s FlexiSpy, which offers call-tapping; Spytech, which is known for mobile device access; and NetVizor, which has a remote takeover feature. -The Guardian

  Employers aren’t just using tattleware either – and have reportedly been using in-house IT departments to also monitor emails for phrases such as “recruiter,” or “salary,” in order to sniff out who’s looking to make a jump to greener pastures (we would note that spying on employees is hardly a recent phenomenon).

  In April, 2020, Zoom quickly canned a short-lived “attention tracking” setting which alerted call hosts if a participant was away from the camera for more than 30 seconds. In December, Microsoft anonymized a “productivity score” feature for its 365 suite which rated workers on various metrics – including email use and how long they’ve been connected to the network. The tool still exists, users are no longer identified by name.

  “There’s no real sign of this trend slowing down,” says digital researcher and privacy advocate, Juan Carloz, with the University of Melbourne. “No sign of legislative change in any jurisdiction I can name, and no sign of pushback from employees, even when they’re aware of it happening.”

  Does it work?

  UCSD professor of management Elizabeth Lyons says it does.

  “A study we conducted found people doing data collection work out of the office were more productive when they were made aware they were being monitored, compared to their colleagues who weren’t told they were being tracked,” said Lyons, who noted that remote employees ‘appreciate signals that their performance is integral to the organization.’

  That said, Lyons admits that employee morale can take a hit if monitoring is too Orwellian.

  “In other studies we’ve looked at, the workers were essentially saying, ‘If the manager is going to watch everything I do, then I’m not going to do anything above and beyond what they expect of me’,” she said.

  Carloz, meanwhile, expressed concern that the tattleware has created an unfair dynamic in favor of the employer.

  “Prior to the pandemic, the line between work and play was [clearer] – surveillance, in other words, stopped at the door,” he said.

  But the rise of tattleware changes the game. If an employee uses a spy-enabled, work-sponsored computer outside of hours, their employer could easily access their personal data, down to internet banking passwords and Facebook messages.

  Carloz concedes that most employers are probably not interested in collecting their workers’ personal information. They want to know what websites employees are on, and what tasks they’re dividing their time on, during the workday. However, if a boss does feel like snooping around off-hours, Carloz points out, there are “essentially no legal protections afforded to [those employees] in most western nations”. -Guardian

  “But since, rightly or wrongly, [surveillance software] is being framed as a trade-off for remote work, many are all too content to let it slide,” he added.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 20:00

• Facebook Pairs With Ray-Ban To Launch Smart Glasses, Sparking Privacy Concerns
  Facebook Pairs With Ray-Ban To Launch Smart Glasses, Sparking Privacy Concerns

  Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

  Facebook has teamed up with Ray-Ban to launch a pair of smart glasses that the social media giant says are “designed with privacy in mind,” though the product is already sparking privacy concerns.

  

  The glasses, which were created in partnership with Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica, allow wearers to listen to music, take calls, or capture photos and short videos and share them across Facebook’s services using a companion app, the company announced in a Sept. 10 release.

  Facebook insists that the spectacles, called “Ray-Ban Stories,” were designed with privacy in mind.

  “As with any new device, we have a big responsibility to help people feel comfortable and provide peace of mind, and that goes not only for device owners but the people around them, too. That’s why we baked privacy directly into the product design and functionality of the full experience, from the start,” the company said in the release, which features a video of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussing some of the product’s features.

  Zuckerberg touted hardware protections like a power switch to turn off the mic and camera, along with a light meant to alert people that the glasses are in capture mode.

  “We put this LED light on the front of the glasses so that people around you will know when you’re taking a photo or video,” Zuckerberg said in the recording. “It lights up to let people know that the camera is on.”

  

  Facebook and Ray-Ban’s first smart glasses which launched on Sept. 9, 2021. (Ray-Ban and Facebook/Handout via Reuters)

  In remarks to Axios, Jeremy Greenberg, privacy counsel for the Future of Privacy Forum, praised the idea of an indicator like the LED light but noted it was hard to spot from a distance or by people with low vision.

  “Hopefully we don’t have folks using these for stalking,” Greenberg told the outlet.

  Zuckerberg insisted in the presentation video that when the glasses are turned off, “they are completely off.”

  “The mic is off and you can’t take photos or record videos,” the Facebook chief added.

  Facebook told The Wall Street Journal that it had reached out to privacy groups and experts like the National Consumers League regarding the product’s design. John Breyault, vice president for the National Consumers League, said his organization recommended an automatic disable function for the camera when the light was covered, or modifying the design to distinguish them from regular Ray-Bans to make it easier for people who don’t want to be recorded to spot them and raise objections.

  “Unfortunately, those features weren’t included in this first iteration of these smart glasses,” Breyault told the outlet.

  Facebook, which reported revenue of about $86 billion in 2020, makes most of its money from advertising but has invested heavily in virtual and augmented reality, developing hardware such as its Oculus VR headsets and working on wristband technologies to support augmented reality glasses.

  Major tech firms including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Snap have raced to develop various smart glasses products, but early offerings like Google Glass proved difficult to sell to consumers put off by high price points and design issues.

  Facebook, which has in the past faced criticism over its handling of user data, said it would not access the media used by its smart-glasses customers without their consent.

  The company also said it would not use the content of the photos or videos captured using the glasses and stored in the Facebook View app for personalizing ads, and said the glasses would be an “ads-free experience.”

  Facebook has also launched a privacy-focused micro-site where it offers guidelines for responsible use of the smart glasses.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 19:40

• Top Container Ports In Asia Brace For Impact Of Powerful Typhoon
  Top Container Ports In Asia Brace For Impact Of Powerful Typhoon

  A powerful typhoon is expected to impact Taiwan and China this weekend. It may strain global supply chains even further due to the possibility of port disruptions and other logistical issues that would stem from storm damage. 

  Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau said Typhoon Chanthu is north of the Philippines Friday as it closes in on Taiwan and the Chinese coast. In the path of the storm are major containerized ports and factories. The intensity of the storm is a significant concern. 

  The storm is rated as a category four typhoon, one level below a super typhoon, with maximum sustained winds of around 130 mph and gusts up to 160 mph. Taiwan is expected to feel the brunt of the storm late Saturday, then China on Sunday. 

  

  In focus, we begin with Taiwan’s globally important ports and semiconductor factories, along with other manufacturing plants that could be in the path of the typhoon. Across the Taiwan Strait, some of the largest Chinese containerized ports are preparing for severe weather. 

  “The likelihood that this typhoon will reach super typhoon category is not ruled out,” the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said in its Friday evening bulletin.

  China’s Maritime Safety Administration posted a warning late Thursday for Fujian province’s Xiamen Port, one of the main ports for trans-Pacific shipping. The port has requested vessels to avoid the area. The Ningbo Maritime Safety Administration, which covers Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, one of the world’s busiest containerized ports in cargo tonnage, has also issued warnings to vessels. 

  Ningbo was in the news not too long ago for closing one of its terminals due to a COVID-19 case. The closure disrupted supply chains and caused congestion issues at surrounding ports.

  Ports across Asia have been bottlenecks for global trade. The impact of Chanthu could shut down or damage top ports in the region that would strain supply chains even more. This would be devastating considering exporters have entered peak shipping season to fulfill holiday orders for North America. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 19:20

• Mobs Of Angry Evergrande Homebuyers And Employees Begin To Protest
  Mobs Of Angry Evergrande Homebuyers And Employees Begin To Protest

  In two separate protests, mobs of China Evergrande Group customers and employees demonstrated this week as the world’s largest developer faces soaring probabilities of default. 

  According to Bloomberg, the first demonstration was held in Guangzhou as more than 100 homebuyers attended a demonstration in front of the Nansha district’s housing bureau Thursday wearing shirts that read “Resume construction, Evergrande.” Many of these customers are becoming increasingly angry as multiple large condominium projects have been halted for months, including the massive 5,000 apartment complex called Evergrande Peninsula since May. 

  The developer is stuck between a rock and a hard place as it struggles to restart stalled construction work due to its whopping $148 billion owed in trade and other payables to suppliers as of June. The company has more than $300 billion in liabilities and has been dubbed “China’s Lehman.” However, Beijing gave the company a lifeline Thursday by renegotiating payment deadlines with banks and other creditors. 

  There are more than 1.5 million Evergrande customers who put down payments on yet-to-be-completed condo building projects. This week’s protest could be an ominous sign of more social unrest to come.  

  Following the news of Evergrande’s dollar bonds due in 2023 slumping to a new low this week of 23.81 cents on the dollar (slightly rebounding to 25 cents on the dollar Friday) – Evergrande has become one of the biggest financial risks in China – the epicenter of a potential default shockwave given its massive pile liabilities to banks, shadow lenders, companies, investors, vendors, and home buyers.

  

  Other reports indicate employees of the developer demonstrated earlier this week. Some chanted: “Return my hard-earned money,” referring to the company’s suspension of interest payments to banks and payments to its wealth management products.

  Employees of #Evergrande, largest real estate developer in #China, shouting “Return my hard-earned money!” outside the company as Evergrande is not paying them. Is the bubble finally bursting? I kind of “predicted” it last year. Watch my show here: https://t.co/a4XbIoWtqh pic.twitter.com/yi5rZfm7TP

  — Jennifer Zeng 曾錚 (@jenniferatntd) September 7, 2021

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  If the Evergrande story continues to deteriorate, don’t be surprised if Beijing blinks again to save the company. The one thing the communist don’t want right now is to create panic in the housing market as food inflation soars, a recipe for social unrest. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 19:00

• Biden Adviser Says President "Will Run Over" GOP Governors Who Resist Vaccine Mandate
  Biden Adviser Says President “Will Run Over” GOP Governors Who Resist Vaccine Mandate

  Update (1650ET): Following Thursday’s threat from President Biden to “use my power as president” against GOP governors “to get them out of the way,” White House senior adviser Cedric ‘boy‘ Richmond said that Biden is willing to “run over” the governors.

  “The one thing I admire about this president is the fact that we are always going to put people above politics. And we’re going to fight for those who really need our help,” Richmond told CNN in response to a question about governors resisting the mandate. “And those governors that stand in the way, I think, it was very clear from the president’s tone today that he will run over them,” he added.

  “And it is important. It’s not for political purposes. It’s to save the lives of American people. And so, we won’t let one or two individuals stand in the way. We will always err on the side of protecting the American people.”

  Biden Advisor Cedric Richmond on vaccine mandates: “Those governors that stand in the way, I think it was very clear from the president’s tone today, that he will RUN OVER THEM.” pic.twitter.com/IAdJXPd1pb

  — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 10, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Cedric might want to get with the times – it’s way more than ‘one or two individuals.’

  

  More via The Epoch Times‘ Jack Phillips:

  Richmond’s comment, however, raises questions about how the federal government plans to “run over” states, as the United States government is federalist and combines the central government with state and local governments.

  A number of Republican governors on Thursday, following Biden’s speech, said they would resist the vaccine mandate. Should the federal government direct the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to impose testing or vaccine mandates on private employees, Biden will face an avalanche of lawsuits.

  “My legal team is standing by ready to file our lawsuit the minute Joe Biden files his unconstitutional rule,” South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, wrote in a Twitter post. “This gross example of federal intrusion will not stand.”

  Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, also a Republican, wrote that his administration will “pursue every legal option available” in order to halt what he called a “blatantly unlawful overreach.”

  And Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona said his state will “push back” against federal mandates, saying “Biden-Harris administration is hammering down on private businesses and individual freedoms in an unprecedented and dangerous way. This will never stand up in court.”

  He wrote: “This dictatorial approach is wrong, un-American and will do far more harm than good. How many workers will be displaced? How many kids are kept out of classrooms? How many businesses fined? The vaccine is and should be a choice.”

  Other than an order targeting private businesses, Biden also said he would mandate that all federal workers and contractors get the shot, mandate Medicare and Medicaid hospital staff to get vaccinated, and other mandates.

  *  *  *

  Republicans clapped back over the Biden administration’s unprecedented ‘jab or your job’ Executive Order for federal workers and contractors, and a ‘jab or test’ mandate for corporations with over 100 employees. 600,000 postal workers are oddly exempt.

  The sweeping new vaccine requirements, which completely ignore tens of millions in America who have recovered from Covid-19 and have natural immunity, will affect as many as 100 million Americans.

  Biden on people who haven’t gotten vaccinated:

  “We’ve been patient but our patience is wearing thin and your refusal has cost all of us.” pic.twitter.com/Hj4jnmWpuX

  — Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 9, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  In response, the Republican National Committed (RNC) vowed to sue Biden once the mandate goes into effect, with President Ronna McDaniel tweeting that Biden lied.

  

  “Joe Biden told Americans when he was elected that he would not impose vaccine mandates. He lied,” McDaniel said in a statement, adding “Now small businesses, workers, and families across the country will pay the price.”

  Joe Biden told Americans when he was elected that he would not impose vaccine mandates. He lied.

  When his decree goes into effect, the RNC will sue the administration to protect Americans and their liberties. pic.twitter.com/XinwFw4bam

  — Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) September 10, 2021

  “President Biden is so desperate to distract from his shameful, incompetent Afghanistan exit that he is saying crazy things and pushing constitutionally flawed executive orders. This is a cynical attempt to pick a fight and distract from the President’s morally disgraceful decision to leave Americans behind Taliban lines on the 20th anniversary of 9/11,” Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) told the Daily Caller. 

  Meanwhile, Republican governors across the country have issued statements vowing to sue, or otherwise oppose, the vaccine mandate after Biden threatened them during Thursday’s announcement.

  “Let me be blunt,” said Biden. “My plan also takes on elected officials in states that are undermining you in these life-saving actions. Right now local school officials are trying to keep children safe in a pandemic while their governor picks a fight with them and even threatens their salaries or their jobs. Talk about bullying the schools.”

  “If they’ll not help, if these governors won’t help us beat the pandemic, I will use my power as president to get them out of the way,” he added.

  Not so fast, say the governors

  West (BEST) Virginia joins the rebellion

  3rd time’s the charmhttps://t.co/sn6QMDJQPh pic.twitter.com/Lzu0p8LqeQ

  — Battle Beagle (@HarmlessYardDog) September 10, 2021

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  As Becker News reports:

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Republican governors have begun to issue their responses to the federal government’s overreach and the president’s threats.

  “South Dakota will stand up to defend freedom,” Noem wrote. “JoeBiden see you in court.”

  South Dakota will stand up to defend freedom. @JoeBiden see you in court.

  — Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) September 9, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Georgia’s Governor Brian Kemp also responded to Biden’s remarks.

  “I will pursue every legal option available to the state of Georgia to stop this blatantly unlawful overreach by the Biden administration,” Kemp tweeted.

  I will pursue every legal option available to the state of Georgia to stop this blatantly unlawful overreach by the Biden administration.

  — Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) September 9, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  “Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt says as long as I am governor, there will be no government vaccine mandates in state,” Josh Caplan reported.

  Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt says as long as I am governor, there will be no government vaccine mandates in state.

  — Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) September 9, 2021

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  “Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announces the state already working to halt Biden’s vaccine mandate ‘power grab’,” Election Wizard reported.

  BREAKING: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announces the state already working to halt Biden’s vaccine mandate “power grab.”

  — Election Wizard (@ElectionWiz) September 9, 2021

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  Alabama Governor Key Ivey also released a statement declaring her intention to fight the mandate.

  Once again, @POTUS has missed the mark. His outrageous, overreaching mandates will no doubt be challenged in the courts. Read my full statement below. #alpolitics pic.twitter.com/9BNbvenVEJ

  — Governor Kay Ivey (@GovernorKayIvey) September 9, 2021

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  Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon also issuing a statement saying: “Not now, and not ever.”

  

  Tennessee’s Governor Bill Lee also stated his broad opposition to the federal mandate.

  “The Constitution won’t allow this power grab, and in the meantime, I will stand up for all Tennesseans,” Gov. Lee wrote.

  For a fight that requires working together, a lot of cynical and divisive edicts came out of the White House today pitting the vaccinated against the unvaccinated, businesses against employees, and the federal government against states.

  — Gov. Bill Lee (@GovBillLee) September 9, 2021

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  Read more governors’ statements here.

  Cover illustration via Mother Jones, Getty

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 18:54

• NYT Confirms Biden Murdered Innocent Family In Kabul Drone Strike
  NYT Confirms Biden Murdered Innocent Family In Kabul Drone Strike

  President Joe Biden murdered an innocent family when the US military conducted a “righteous strike” on Aug. 29 against a vehicle that American officials thought was an ISIS bomb that posed an imminent threat to thousands of people at the Kabul airport.

  In a late Friday afternoon report, the New York Times reveals that “Military officials said they did not know the identity of the car’s driver when the drone fired, but deemed him suspicious because of how they interpreted his activities that day, saying that he possibly visited an ISIS safe house and, at one point, loaded what they thought could be explosives into the car.”

  In reality, they were filling water bottles.

  Biden and Milley claimed this was an ISIS attack in the making

  They were filling water bottles

  And their entire family was murdered so Joe Biden could get a headline pic.twitter.com/kSXn0cbW3d

  — Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) September 10, 2021

  More via the New York Times: 

  Times reporting has identified the driver as Zemari Ahmadi, a longtime worker for a U.S. aid group. The evidence, including extensive interviews with family members, co-workers and witnesses, suggests that his travels that day actually involved transporting colleagues to and from work. And an analysis of video feeds showed that what the military may have seen was Mr. Ahmadi and a colleague loading canisters of water into his trunk to bring home to his family.

  While the U.S. military said the drone strike might have killed three civilians, Times reporting shows that it killed 10, including seven children, in a dense residential block.

  Mr. Ahmadi, 43, had worked since 2006 as an electrical engineer for Nutrition and Education International, a California-based aid and lobbying group. The morning of the strike, Mr. Ahmadi’s boss called from the office at around 8:45 a.m., and asked him to pick up his laptop.

  Scroll down for a lengthy recap by one of the NYT journos

  Milley lied. He murdered a US ally and his entire family.

  War crime.
  pic.twitter.com/oMbYH0e0pi

  — Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) September 10, 2021

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  The Biden administration lied about who it killed with its drone strike. They had no idea who they hit. The media mindlessly repeated the false claim that they killed “terrorists” when, in fact, they just killed innocent people.

  A perfect summation of the US Endless Wars: https://t.co/1qNbQZWrYQ

  — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 10, 2021

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  As we noted last week, NBC News spoke with members of the Ahmadi family who said they were hoping to make it onto an evacuation flight out of Kabul before the United States ended its withdrawal from the country.

  

  “They were 10 civilians,” said Emal Ahmadi, whose 2-year-old toddler, Malika was among those killed. “My daughter … she was 2 years old,” he said.

  

  More via NBC News:

  That day, Ahmadi’s cousin, Zemari Ahmadi, 38, had just pulled up at home from work, with his 13-year-old son, Farzad, his youngest of three, racing to greet him. (Other reports have said Farzad was 12, but both Ahmadi and another relative told NBC News he was 13.)

  Farzad, who had just learned to drive, wanted to park his father’s car, a wish Zemari was happy to oblige as other family members gathered around.

  It was in that moment that Ahmadi said an explosion tore through the vehicle, killing Zemari, Farzad and eight other family members, as was first reported by The New York Times and The Washington Post.

  According to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, Washington is “not in a position” to dispute reports that the Sunday drone strike killed civilians, however he claimed that one of the family members belonged to radical Islamic group, ISIS-K.

  Malika and two other toddlers were the youngest family members killed, along with Ahmadi’s nephews Arwin, 7, and Benyamin, 6, and Zemari’s two other sons, Zamir, 20, and Faisal, 16, Ahmadi said.

  Zemari was a technical engineer for Nutrition and Education International, a nonprofit working to address malnutrition based in Pasadena, California.

  Just a day before his death, he had been helping to prepare and deliver soy-based meals to women and children at refugee camps in Kabul, Steven Kwon, president of NEI, told NBC News in an email.

  One colleague and friend of six years to Zemari said he was devastated, while also describing Ahmadi as a “good man with good ethics.”

  

  Also killed in Biden’s drone strike was Ahmad Naser – a former officer in the Afghan Army and contractor with the US military, according to his cousin. Naser was days away from his wedding when he was killed.

  Instead, there will be a funeral.

  “They were all buried,” said 31-year-old Yousef. “We’re all ruined. The family is gone.”

  

  According to an evidence-free statement by US Central Command, however, there “were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle,” suggesting that there was a “large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties.”

  *  *  *

  We now know that was utter bullshit.

  Times journalist Evan Hill recaps the entire event in the following Twitter thread:

  Ahmadi was a 14-year employee of Nutrition & Education International, a U.S. NGO that fights malnutrition. He helped start up soy factories, repair machinery, transport his colleagues and distribute food from his Corolla to displaced Afghans. pic.twitter.com/S7r1TyHBs0

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

  But the U.S. military was on high alert. Three days earlier, an Islamic State suicide attack at the Kabul airport had killed 13 troops and more than 170 Afghans. “All threat warnings are flashing red,” a senior official told us. They expected another attack. pic.twitter.com/2haQhzhhHo

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

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  But @mattaikins interviewed all 5 men who were in the car with Ahmadi that day. They said that what the military interpreted as a series of suspicious moves represented a typical day in his life. He drove his colleagues around town, where they made plans for food distributions. pic.twitter.com/qD08rGmomI

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  At 2:35pm, Ahmadi and a colleague fill several large plastic containers with water. The footage shows Ahmadi bring them to the office earlier that day. His brother told us his neighborhood suffered from a water shortage and that he routinely filled up containers at the office. pic.twitter.com/GqzL8NeXmy

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

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  The location of the “unknown compound” overlaps with the location of the NGO’s office, and the military told us that they only saw the white sedan at one location that afternoon. We believe that what the military called an unknown compound was in fact the NGO’s office.

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

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  Ahmadi drops his colleagues off and turns onto his street. His and his brothers’ children surround the car, his relatives said. The family has a habit of letting kids steer the car into the courtyard of their home. Somehow, the military said, the drone team sees none of this. pic.twitter.com/HjRbHxN5QX

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

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  The decision to strike does not flow down the typical chain of command. Because of the chaos of the Kabul airport evacuation, an official told us, President Biden and the military have delegated the authority to approve airstrikes to lower-level commanders.

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  We gathered photos and videos of the scene taken by journalists, and @mattaikins visited the courtyard multiple times. We shared that evidence with three experts. All three agreed that the damage was consistent with a single Hellfire strike, and not large secondary explosions. pic.twitter.com/HUXcZFHwCL

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

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  The morning after the U.S. drone strike killed Ahmadi and 9 others, the Islamic State did launch rockets at the airport, firing from an area that Ahmadi had driven through the previous day, and using a white Toyota to do so. pic.twitter.com/TPVu9Mwv0O

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

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  Four days before Ahmadi was killed, his employer had applied for his family to receive refugee resettlement in the U.S. At the time of the strike, they were still awaiting approval. Looking to the U.S. for protection, they became some of the last victims in America’s longest war. pic.twitter.com/3IcgTyc5ca

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  This story began with the core and essential work of our team, a quick and accurate geolocation from @heytherehaIey: https://t.co/EuqimJpxyr. We followed that up with thorough reporting, expert consultation, and tireless on-the-ground work by @mattaikins.

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) September 10, 2021

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  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 18:40

• Biden, Fauci, Pelosi, & Newsom All Objected To Mandatory Vaccines
  Biden, Fauci, Pelosi, & Newsom All Objected To Mandatory Vaccines

  A common mistake people make is assuming the lying liar isn’t lying this time.

  For example, Joe Biden and Anthony Fauci have both previously said they wouldn’t require, or ‘couldn’t see’ a Covid-19 vaccine mandate in the United States.

  August of last yearhttps://t.co/xRyXbHMOmi pic.twitter.com/r0OP68Viso

  — Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 9, 2021

  In April, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said “we cannot require someone to be vaccinated. That’s just not what we can do.”

  Looks like Pelosi disagrees with Biden on vaccine mandates

  Makes sense because congress can’t make people get vaccinated, instead, the regime sideswiped the democratic process to force businesses to do their dirty work

  Anti-democratic – this is illegalpic.twitter.com/edlkmd7yI0

  — ELIJAH SCHAFFER (@ElijahSchaffer) September 10, 2021

  And as recently as July…

  JEN IN JULY: It is “not the role of the federal government” to force Americans to get vaccinated.

  JOE IN SEPTEMBER: Abide by the federal vaccine mandate or “be prepared to pay!” pic.twitter.com/OiARHU7inc

  — Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) September 10, 2021

  Now, Human Events‘ Jack Posobiec reveals that California Governor Gavin Newsom – who’s essentially campaigning against his recall on mandatory vaccinations – had deep reservations over government officials ‘making a decision that is very personal.’

  Read:

  California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in July that healthcare workers and state employees must be vaccinated or succumb to weekly testing and wear masks; however, back in 2019, Newsom opposed the same kind of mandate. 

  

  “I believe in immunizations,” Newsom said at the meeting, “however I do legitimately have concerns about a bureaucrat making a decision that is very personal.” 

  California Gov. @GavinNewsom has just passed that test with his wise and sober opposition to a draconian proposal to forcibly vaccinate medically fragile children against the wishes of their parents and the … Read more: https://t.co/d8TQneA8BT pic.twitter.com/yRbxmVVEnL

  — Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 3, 2019

  “We don’t measure character or leadership by a commander’s posture during moments of comfort, but by his willingness to stand against the tides and storms of collective opinion during eras of controversy and hysteria,” Kennedy Jr. wrote in a Facebook post. “California Gov. Gavin Newsom has just passed that test with his wise and sober opposition to a draconian proposal to forcibly vaccinate medically fragile children against the wishes of their parents and the medical advice of their physician.” 

  “He expressed his concern about giving faceless government officials (with no medical training) veto power over vaccine exemptions deemed medically necessary by a child’s doctor,” Kennedy Jr. continued. “Gavin argued that those decisions should be made between patients and doctors without government involvement.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 18:30

• Red Light Robberies Across America
  Red Light Robberies Across America

  Authored by James Bovard,

  Crime is surging in American cities, but the official data leave out the most frequent source of highway robberies. More than 400 cities have set up red light cameras that are institutionalized racketeering that subverts public safety. Tens of thousands of American drivers have been injured and many people killed as a result of reckless revenue pursuit by local governments.

  Local governments have partnered with private companies to build, deploy, and maintain the cameras that bring bounty hunting to traffic intersections. Violations routinely hammer drivers for a hundred dollars a shot, and California skewers transgressors for up to $500.

  

  The evidence is clear

  Red light cameras have proliferated despite overwhelming evidence of their perils. In 2004, a U.S. Department of Transportation–financed study examined hundreds of red light cameras around the nation and revealed that they were “associated with higher levels of many types and severity categories of crashes.” In 2005, six years after the District of Columbia set up a red light regime that generated more than 500,000 tickets, a Washington Post analysis revealed that “the number of crashes at locations with cameras more than doubled.” A 2007 Virginia Department of Transportation study concluded that cameras were associated with a 29 percent “increase in total crashes.” A 2013 report by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation revealed “a 27 percent increase in the number of collisions involving an injury at red-light cameras intersections” in Philadelphia.

  With each passing year, more evidence has piled up proving the perils of red light cameras. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles analyzed traffic crash data and reported in 2016 that “fatalities from accidents doubled” at intersections with red light cameras. A Case Western Reserve University 2017 analysis predicted a 28 percent decrease in non-angle auto accidents if red light cameras were removed in Houston and Dallas.

  Chicago Tribune reporter David Kidwell, who exposed the chicanery behind his city’s red light regime, explained, “When you throw a red light camera up at an intersection, it creates a psychological problem because you’ve got all of these things going on in the driver’s mind. And one of them is, ‘Wow. If I don’t stop here and I go through on a short yellow at the very end, I’m gonna get nailed.’” Drivers slammed on the brakes — resulting in a “22 percent increase in rear-end accidents at these intersections that have red light cameras.”

  Yellow lights can kill

  Short yellow lights are also death warrants. Numerous federal studies have shown that the most effective and simplest step to reduce collisions at traffic lights is to lengthen the time of the yellow light to allow drivers more time to stop. A 2001 congressional report found that the time for yellow lights had been sharply shortened since the 1970s and that “inadequate yellow times are the likely cause of almost 80 percent of red light” violations. A Federal Highway Administration report concluded that “a one second increase in yellow time results in 40 percent decrease in severe red light related crashes.” Denton, Texas, added one second to yellow lights and reduced red light camera violations by almost two-thirds. After Georgia mandated longer yellow lights in 2009, the revenue from red light cameras collapsed by up to 90 percent in many localities.

  However, red light camera companies “often specify maximum yellow light times, and impose financial penalties if the city lengthens the yellow period,” as Digital Trends reported. Former San Diego mayor Roger Hedgecock testified to Congress that the city of Tempe, Arizona, “did a study which showed that simply increasing the yellow light interval cut photo enforcement citations by 50 percent. But the Lockheed Martin contract prevents the City of Tempe from extending the yellow light interval where Lockheed’s cameras are in place.” The Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), an activist group founded by Ralph Nader, reported that red light camera contracts for several California cities “potentially impose financial penalties on the city if traffic engineers extend the length of the yellow light … which would reduce the number of tickets the systems can issue.” In 2011, the Florida Department of Transportation revised official policy to shorten yellow light intervals. “A half-second reduction in the [yellow] interval can double the number of Red Light Camera citations — and the revenue they create,” an investigation by reporter Noah Pransky of WTSP-TV in Tampa revealed. In 2015, the state of Maryland suspended its mandate that yellow lights need to be at least three and a half seconds. Montgomery County, Maryland, reaped more than $300,000 in tickets after shortening one yellow light at a busy intersection to less than three seconds.

  In 2014, Chicago began issuing red light violation tickets for yellow lights shorter than three seconds — the federal minimum safety guideline. The city hit the jackpot, issuing an extra 77,000 tickets and pilfering almost $8 million from drivers’ pockets. A Chicago Tribune investigation “found malfunctioning cameras, inconsistent enforcement and millions of dollars in tickets issued purposely by City Hall even after transportation officials knew that yellow light times were dropping below the federal minimum guidelines.” After the Tribune exposed the city government scheme and after an Inspector General report labeled the red light camera regime “fundamentally deficient,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that the city would cease ticketing people for less-than-three-second yellow lights “because trust is the most important” thing. Three years later, after losing a class-action lawsuit, the city of Chicago grudgingly gave partial refunds to drivers who got shafted. Chicago activist and video camera expert Barnet Fagel said that “red light camera revenue is municipal crack cocaine. They’re hooked on it. They will go down fighting before they give up the revenue from the cameras.”

  Right turns on red

  The biggest cash cows for red light camera companies and local governments are drivers who make right turns on red without coming to a dead stop. A 2001 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report concluded that zero fatalities occurred nationwide in 1998 “from an accident resulting from a right hand turn on red when the driver yielded to oncoming traffic.” Ron Ely of the Maryland Drivers Alliance wrote in September 2012, “One study showed that an average motorist could drive a billion miles, the distance from Earth to Jupiter and back, before being involved in a deadly accident that resulted from a motorist making a rolling stop on a right-hand turn.” John Townsend, spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, observed, “Ninety percent of the tickets we’re seeing across the country … for running red lights, are actually because the driver made a so-called rolling right turn on red…. These cameras were designed for people who run the red light and barrel through the intersection.” Townsend labeled right-turn-on-red cameras as “the biggest scandal in automated traffic enforcement.” Yet, as the PIRG report noted, “Some contracts require municipalities to strictly issue tickets on all right turns that do not first come to a complete stop, or enable vendors to impose financial penalties on cities that choose to alter their enforcement standards.”

  Some cities pilfer drivers for imaginary offenses created solely to fatten government treasuries. Rockville, Maryland, boosted the number of red light camera tickets by more than 300 percent in 2012 after it began ticketing cars that failed to come to a complete stop before the white line at an intersection prior to turning right.

  Arizona State Rep. Travis Grantham observed, “The practice of privatizing law enforcement actions is just wrong. When you add the equation of for-profit into the mix, it presents a lot of opportunity for fraud, for abuse.” According to the National Motorists Association, one of the largest manufacturers of red light cameras “included clauses in their contracts that prohibit city engineers from applying engineering practices that improve compliance and reduce accidents.” Some red light camera contracts “penalize municipalities if they do not approve enough tickets, effectively setting a ticket quota and undermining the authority of local officials to decide which violations warrant citations,” the PIRG report noted.

  Red light corruption

  Why would politicians impose traffic regimes that pointlessly penalize or kill hapless citizens? Bribery is often a good explanation. Chicago, home of “the most lucrative red light camera deal in the country,” has imposed more than a billion dollars in fines since 2003. Because the cameras were ATMs for local politicians, most of the intersections where they were installed were already among the safest in the city. In 2016, a former city commissioner was sent to prison for 10 years for taking a $2 million bribe from Redflex Traffic systems. The company’s former top salesman testified that Redflex had “sent gifts and bribes to officials in at least 14 states.” (Redflex denied the salesman’s allegation.)

  Scandals have snowballed since the Chicago takedown. Former Redflex chief executive Karen Finley was sentenced to 14 months in prison in 2016 after being convicted of bribing Columbus, Ohio, government officials to deploy her company’s red light cameras. A Texas County judge was indicted for setting up a secret deal for a private company to set up speed cameras in 2016. Also in 2016, a former traffic light enforcement camera vendor was sentenced to prison for bribery and fraud in Arizona. In 2018, the Dallas County Schools superintendent was convicted for taking $3 million in bribes as part of a deal placing traffic cameras on school buses. Federal agents raided city halls in the Chicago suburbs in late 2019 as part of an investigation involving a red light camera contractor and its payoffs to local government officials. In 2019, the Illinois Comptroller office announced that it would no longer serve as a collection agency for red light tickets by reducing state income tax refunds to cover outstanding local tickets. Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza condemned red light ticket regimes as “a program that’s broken and morally corrupt” and recommended ending them across the state.

  Unnecessary and unjust tickets disrupt lives and destroy people’s ability to feed their families. A 2019 study by the Federal Reserve concluded that almost half of Americans “could not afford an unexpected expense of $400 or more.” The National Motorists Association warned, “The practical results for many poor people may be a lot like putting them in debtor prisons, unable to legally drive to work.” In 2018, the D.C. government created a “community service option” under which low-income red light and speed camera violators could pay off tickets by working unpaid for the city at the minimum wage rate. At least the city has not yet created chain gangs sweating to pay their automatic traffic debts.

  Red light cameras epitomize how democracy provides no protection against politicians willing to force citizens to pay any price to boost government revenue. “Taxation by citation” is a license for bureaucratic tyranny. How much longer will local politicians be permitted to plunder drivers and subvert safety with impunity?

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 18:20

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• German Finance Ministry Raided Over Failing To Report & Investigate Money Laundering
  German Finance Ministry Raided Over Failing To Report & Investigate Money Laundering

  On Thursday German prosecutors raided the finance and justice ministries over accusations that the government’s anti-money laundering agency, the Finance Intelligence Unit (FIU), failed to probe many instances of banks laundering money.

  The allegations center on the FIU failing to pass on the reports to the police and the judiciary, however, it is “still unclear if the FIU failed to pass on the reports of fraud of its own accord, or was directed to do so by someone at one or both of the ministries.”

  

  It’s believed the FIU (which is part of the Finance Ministry) looked the other way while cash “in the millions” was laundered, mainly from Africa. 

  It’s not the first time that the financial crimes oversight agency has come under scrutiny in recent months: “The organization has also been suspected of covering up fraud committed by the German fintech company Wirecard, which collapsed last year in spectacular fashion,” DW writes.

  “This is a security risk for Germany,” one lawmaker, Fabio De Masi said, in the wake of the raid. “We need a financial police with criminal expertise. Germany is a paradise for criminals.”

  Prosecutors have said they don’t currently suspect any particular employee of criminal wrongdoing, but a key question that remains over whether the FIU was ordered to ignore warnings from banks over suspect transactions, or whether it was incompetence and lack of resources, despite it recently increasing its staff from 165 to over 460, along with receiving more technical resources.

  Federal Ministry of Finance offices in Germany raided this morning as part of an investigation alleging that Financial Intelligence Unit withheld tips from banks on money laundering to the tune of millions of Euro to scuttle investigations.https://t.co/duO0hQtkRv

  — Lukas (@LukasLueg) September 9, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  According to Reuters, “The FIU has long struggled to keep up with the tens of thousands of warnings it receives about suspect money transfers, according to people familiar with its work.” And further, “It only stopped using fax machines to receive such reports from banks in the past few years, one German official has told Reuters.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 02:45

• Iran's Nuclear Weapons Weeks Away?
  Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Weeks Away?

  Authored by Majid Rafizadeh via The Gatestone Institute,

  Since the Biden administration assumed office, the nuclear talks with Iran have gone nowhere. Six rounds of negotiations have been concluded with no results. In contrast, two other issues have gone too far: the Biden administration’s appeasement policies towards the Iranian regime, and the advancement of the mullahs’ nuclear program.

  

  When the Biden administration took office, it announced that it would curb Iran’s nuclear program by returning to the 2015 nuclear deal — known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which by the way Iran never signed — and by subsequently lifting sanctions against the Iranian government.

  Apparently desperate to revive the nuclear pact, the Biden administration at once began appeasing the ruling clerics of Iran. The first concession was delivered when the administration changed the previous administration’s policy of maximum pressure toward Iran’s proxy militia group, the Houthis. Even as the evidence — including a report by the United Nations — showed that the Iranian regime was delivering sophisticated weapons to the Houthis in Yemen, the Biden administration suspended some of the sanctions against terrorism that the previous administration had imposed on the Houthis.

  Soon after, the Biden administration revoked the designation of Yemen’s Houthis as a terrorist group. In addition, in June 2021, the Biden administration lifted sanctions on three former Iranian officials and several energy companies. Then, in a blow to the Iranian people and advocates of democracy and human rights — a few days after the Iranian regime handpicked a mass murderer to be its next president — the Biden administration announced that it was also considering lifting sanctions against Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

  From the perspective of Iran’s mullahs, Biden’s desperate efforts to resurrect the nuclear deal manifested his weak leadership and therefore a delectable opportunity for Tehran to buy time, get more concessions, advance its nuclear program and become a nuclear state.

  Notwithstanding all these policies of incentives and appeasements, Iran’s mullahs continued to make excuses seemingly to drag out the nuclear talks. One of the latest overtures was that the world powers ought to wait until Iran’s newly elected president, Ebrahim Raisi, took office before resuming the nuclear talks.

  By now, Raisi has been president of Iran for more than a month but there has not been the slightest effort by the Islamic Republic to restart any talks; in fact, all the while, the regime appears to have accelerated its enrichment of uranium to weapons-grade. This escalation has even caused concerns among some European leaders and has, surprisingly, led the EU to pressure Tehran immediately to return to the negotiating table. “We vehemently ask Iran to return to the negotiating table constructively and as soon as possible. We are ready to do so, but the time window won’t be open indefinitely” a ministry spokesperson from Germany warned.

  After stating that they would resume talks when Raisi assumed office, Iran’s leaders are now saying that they are not likely to restart the nuclear negotiations for another 2-3 months.

  “the… government considers a real negotiation is a negotiation that produces palpable results allowing the rights of the Iranian nation to be guaranteed,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said during an interview broadcast by Iran’s state television.

  He added that the nuclear talks are “one of the questions on the foreign policy and government agenda… the other party knows full well that a process of two to three months is required for the new government to establish itself and to start taking decisions.”

  As Iran’s nuclear policy, however, is not set by the president or its foreign minister, this declaration sounded like just another excuse by the regime to buy time and advance enrichment. It is, of course, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who enjoys the final say in Iran’s nuclear and foreign policy issues.

  At the moment, the Iranian regime is reportedly 8-10 weeks away from obtaining the weapons-grade materials necessary for a nuclear weapon.

  “Iran has violated all of the guidelines set in the JCPOA and is only around 10 weeks away from acquiring weapons-grade materials necessary for a nuclear weapon,” Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz told ambassadors from countries on the United Nations Security Council during a briefing at the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem on August 4, 2021.

  “Now is the time for deeds – words are not enough. It is time for diplomatic, economic and even military deeds, otherwise the attacks will continue.”

  Once again it seems that the mullahs of Iran are masterfully playing the Biden administration and the EU by stalling the nuclear talks, buying time to get more concessions, and accelerating their enrichment of uranium and nuclear program to reach a weapons-grade nuclear breakout.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 02:00

• 20 Years Of Government-Sponsored Tyranny: The Rise Of The Security-Industrial Complex From 9/11 To COVID-19
  20 Years Of Government-Sponsored Tyranny: The Rise Of The Security-Industrial Complex From 9/11 To COVID-19

  Authored by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

  “I tell you, freedom and human rights in America are doomed. The U.S. government will lead the American people in – and the West in general – into an unbearable hell and a choking life.”

  – Osama bin Laden (October 2001), as reported by CNN

  What a strange and harrowing road we’ve walked since September 11, 2001, littered with the debris of our once-vaunted liberties.

  We have gone from a nation that took great pride in being a model of a representative democracy to being a model of how to persuade a freedom-loving people to march in lockstep with a police state.

  Our losses are mounting with every passing day.

  What began with the post-9/11 passage of the USA Patriot Act  has snowballed into the eradication of every vital safeguard against government overreach, corruption and abuse.

  

  The citizenry’s unquestioning acquiescence to anything the government wants to do in exchange for the phantom promise of safety and security has resulted in a society where the nation has been locked down into a militarized, mechanized, hypersensitive, legalistic, self-righteous, goose-stepping antithesis of every principle upon which this nation was founded.

  Set against a backdrop of government surveillance, militarized police, SWAT team raids, asset forfeiture, eminent domain, overcriminalization, armed surveillance drones, whole body scanners, stop and frisk searches, police violence and the like—all of which have been sanctioned by Congress, the White House and the courts—our constitutional freedoms have been steadily chipped away at, undermined, eroded, whittled down, and generally discarded.

  The rights embodied in the Constitution, if not already eviscerated, are on life support.

  Free speech, the right to protest, the right to challenge government wrongdoing, due process, a presumption of innocence, the right to self-defense, accountability and transparency in government, privacy, press, sovereignty, assembly, bodily integrity, representative government: all of these and more have become casualties in the government’s war on the American people, a war that has grown more pronounced since 9/11.

  Indeed, since the towers fell on 9/11, the U.S. government has posed a greater threat to our freedoms than any terrorist, extremist or foreign entity ever could.

  While nearly 3,000 people died in the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. government and its agents have easily killed at least ten times that number of civilians in the U.S. and abroad since 9/11 through its police shootings, SWAT team raids, drone strikes and profit-driven efforts to police the globe, sell weapons to foreign nations (which too often fall into the hands of terrorists), and foment civil unrest in order to keep the security industrial complex gainfully employed.

  The American people have been treated like enemy combatants, to be spied on, tracked, scanned, frisked, searched, subjected to all manner of intrusions, intimidated, invaded, raided, manhandled, censored, silenced, shot at, locked up, denied due process, and killed.

  In allowing ourselves to be distracted by terror drills, foreign wars, color-coded warnings, pandemic lockdowns and other carefully constructed exercises in propaganda, sleight of hand, and obfuscation, we failed to recognize that the U.S. government—the government that was supposed to be a “government of the people, by the people, for the people”—has become the enemy of the people.

  Consider that the government’s answer to every problem has been more government—at taxpayer expense—and less individual liberty.

  Every crisis—manufactured or otherwise—since the nation’s early beginnings has become a make-work opportunity for the government to expand its reach and its power at taxpayer expense while limiting our freedoms at every turn: The Great Depression. The World Wars. The 9/11 terror attacks. The COVID-19 pandemic.

  Viewed in this light, the history of the United States is a testament to the old adage that liberty decreases as government (and government bureaucracy) grows. Or, to put it another way, as government expands, liberty contracts.

  This is how the emergency state operates, after all, and we should know: after all, we have spent the past 20 years in a state of emergency.

  From 9/11 to COVID-19, “we the people” have acted the part of the helpless, gullible victims desperately in need of the government to save us from whatever danger threatens. In turn, the government has been all too accommodating and eager while also expanding its power and authority in the so-called name of national security.

  This is a government that has grown so corrupt, greedy, power-hungry and tyrannical over the course of the past 240-plus years that our constitutional republic has since given way to idiocracy, and representative government has given way to a kleptocracy (a government ruled by thieves) and a kakistocracy (a government run by unprincipled career politicians, corporations and thieves that panders to the worst vices in our nature and has little regard for the rights of American citizens).

  What this really amounts to is a war on the American people, fought on American soil, funded with taxpayer dollars, and waged with a single-minded determination to use national crises, manufactured or otherwise, in order to transform the American homeland into a battlefield.

  Indeed, the government’s (mis)management of various states of emergency in the past 20 years has spawned a massive security-industrial complex the likes of which have never been seen before. According to the National Priorities Project at the progressive Institute for Policy Studies, since 9/11, the United States has spent $21 trillion on “militarization, surveillance, and repression.”

  Clearly, this is not a government that is a friend to freedom.

  • Rather, this is a government that, in conjunction with its corporate partners, views the citizenry as consumers and bits of data to be bought, sold and traded.

  • This is a government that spies on and treats its people as if they have no right to privacy, especially in their own homes while the freedom to be human is being erased.

  • This is a government that is laying the groundwork to weaponize the public’s biomedical data as a convenient means by which to penalize certain “unacceptable” social behaviors. Incredibly, a new government agency HARPA (a healthcare counterpart to the Pentagon’s research and development arm DARPA) will take the lead in identifying and targeting “signs” of mental illness or violent inclinations among the populace by using artificial intelligence to collect data from Apple Watches, Fitbits, Amazon Echo and Google Home.

  • This is a government that routinely engages in taxation without representation, whose elected officials lobby for our votes only to ignore us once elected.

  • This is a government comprised of petty bureaucrats, vigilantes masquerading as cops, and faceless technicians.

  • This is a government that railroads taxpayers into financing government programs whose only purpose is to increase the power and wealth of the corporate elite.

  • This is a government—a warring empire—that forces its taxpayers to pay for wars abroad that serve no other purpose except to expand the reach of the military industrial complex.

  • This is a government that subjects its people to scans, searches, pat downs and other indignities by the TSA and VIPR raids on so-called “soft” targets like shopping malls and bus depots by black-clad, Darth Vader look-alikes.

  • This is a government that uses fusion centers, which represent the combined surveillance efforts of federal, state and local law enforcement, to track the citizenry’s movements, record their conversations, and catalogue their transactions.

  • This is a government whose wall-to-wall surveillance has given rise to a suspect society in which the burden of proof has been reversed such that Americans are now assumed guilty until or unless they can prove their innocence.

  • This is a government that treats its people like second-class citizens who have no rights, and is working overtime to stigmatize and dehumanize any and all who do not fit with the government’s plans for this country.

  • This is a government that uses free speech zones, roving bubble zones and trespass laws to silence, censor and marginalize Americans and restrict their First Amendment right to speak truth to power.

  • This is a government that persists in renewing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which allows the president and the military to arrest and detain American citizens indefinitely based on the say-so of the government.

  • This is a government that saddled us with the Patriot Act, which opened the door to all manner of government abuses and intrusions on our privacy.

  • This is a government that, in direct opposition to the dire warnings of those who founded our country, has allowed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish a standing army by way of programs that transfer surplus military hardware to local and state police.

  • This is a government that has militarized American’s domestic police, equipping them with military weapons such as “tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; a million hollow-point bullets; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft,” in addition to armored vehicles, sound cannons and the like.

  • This is a government that has provided cover to police when they shoot and kill unarmed individuals just for standing a certain way, or moving a certain way, or holding something—anything—that police could misinterpret to be a gun, or igniting some trigger-centric fear in a police officer’s mind that has nothing to do with an actual threat to their safety.

  • This is a government that has created a Constitution-free zone within 100 miles inland of the border around the United States, paving the way for Border Patrol agents to search people’s homes, intimately probe their bodies, and rifle through their belongings, all without a warrant. Nearly 66% of Americans (2/3 of the U.S. population, 197.4 million people) now live within that 100-mile-deep, Constitution-free zone.

  • This is a government that treats public school students as if they were prison inmates, enforcing zero tolerance policies that criminalize childish behavior, and indoctrinating them with teaching that emphasizes rote memorization and test-taking over learning, synthesizing and critical thinking.

  • This is a government that is operating in the negative on every front: it’s spending far more than what it makes (and takes from the American taxpayers) and it is borrowing heavily (from foreign governments and Social Security) to keep the government operating and keep funding its endless wars abroad. Meanwhile, the nation’s sorely neglected infrastructure—railroads, water pipelines, ports, dams, bridges, airports and roads—is rapidly deteriorating.

  • This is a government that has empowered police departments to make a profit at the expense of those they have sworn to protect through the use of asset forfeiture laws, speed traps, and red light cameras.

  • This is a government whose gun violence—inflicted on unarmed individuals by battlefield-trained SWAT teams, militarized police, and bureaucratic government agents trained to shoot first and ask questions later—poses a greater threat to the safety and security of the nation than any mass shooter. There are now reportedly more bureaucratic (non-military) government agents armed with high-tech, deadly weapons than U.S. Marines.

  • This is a government that has allowed the presidency to become a dictatorship operating above and beyond the law, regardless of which party is in power.

  • This is a government that treats dissidents, whistleblowers and freedom fighters as enemies of the state.

  • This is a government that has in recent decades unleashed untold horrors upon the world—including its own citizenry—in the name of global conquest, the acquisition of greater wealth, scientific experimentation, and technological advances, all packaged in the guise of the greater good.

  • This is a government that allows its agents to break laws with immunity while average Americans get the book thrown at them.

  • This is a government that speaks in a language of force. What is this language of force? Militarized police. Riot squads. Camouflage gear. Black uniforms. Armored vehicles. Mass arrests. Pepper spray. Tear gas. Batons. Strip searches. Surveillance cameras. Kevlar vests. Drones. Lethal weapons. Less-than-lethal weapons unleashed with deadly force. Rubber bullets. Water cannons. Stun grenades. Arrests of journalists. Crowd control tactics. Intimidation tactics. Brutality. Contempt of cop charges.

  • This is a government that justifies all manner of government tyranny and power grabs in the so-called name of national security, national crises and national emergencies.

  • This is a government that exports violence worldwide, with one of this country’s most profitable exports being weapons. Indeed, the United States, the world’s largest exporter of arms, has been selling violence to the world in order to prop up the military industrial complex and maintain its endless wars abroad.

  • This is a government that is consumed with squeezing every last penny out of the population and seemingly unconcerned if essential freedoms are trampled in the process.

  • This is a government that routinely undermines the Constitution and rides roughshod over the rights of the citizenry, eviscerating individual freedoms so that its own powers can be expanded.

  • This is a government that believes it has the authority to search, seize, strip, scan, spy on, probe, pat down, taser, and arrest any individual at any time and for the slightest provocation, the Constitution be damned.

  In other words, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, this is not a government that believes in, let alone upholds, freedom.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/10/2021 – 00:00

• Biden Unveils Most Severe COVID Actions Yet: Mandates Vax For All Federal Workers, Contractors, & Large Private Companies
  Biden Unveils Most Severe COVID Actions Yet: Mandates Vax For All Federal Workers, Contractors, & Large Private Companies

  Watch Live:

  *BIDEN SAYS NEARLY 80M AMERICANS ARE STILL NOT VACCINATED

  *BIDEN SAYS WE ARE IN A TOUGH STRETCH, COULD LAST FOR A WHILE

  *BIDEN: TSA TO DOUBLE FINES ON TRAVELERS WHO REFUSE TO MASK

  Highlights and reactions:

  BREAKING: President Biden says his ‘patience is wearing thin’ with unvaccinated Americans:

  “What more is there to wait for? What more to do you need to see? We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin and your refusal has cost all of us.” pic.twitter.com/XcALP2MrQB

  — Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 9, 2021

  Joe Biden threatens to get elected state leaders “out of the way.” pic.twitter.com/Q3WdtGlrYT

  — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 9, 2021

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  “Show some respect.”

  Pres. Biden calls out unruly passengers on planes: “The anger you see on television toward flight attendants and others doing their job is wrong. It’s ugly.” https://t.co/sJbdMAvu3F pic.twitter.com/wIBu7Y6GV4

  — ABC News (@ABC) September 9, 2021

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  BIDEN: “Many of us are frustrated with the nearly 80 million Americans who are still not vaccinated, even though the vaccine is safe, effective and free. You might be confused…” pic.twitter.com/9WQW0kQyqL

  — Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 9, 2021

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  What do troops have to do with this, like wtf man.

  — Alex Jones was right (@AlexJonesWs) September 9, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  .@JeremyDBoreing, CEO of @realDailyWire: proper, well-spoken, clear, and to the point@TyCardon, CEO of Blaze Media: ‘MERICA 🇺🇸🔥

  Separate, but equal 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/ZBC0Qu7Onr

  — TheBlaze (@theblaze) September 9, 2021

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  Joe Biden last year:
  I don’t trust the Trump vaccine.

  Joe Biden this year:
  You lose your job if you don’t trust the vaccine.

  — Rising serpent 🇺🇸 (@rising_serpent) September 9, 2021

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  She’s right. Women can make decisions about their own bodies.

  I now identify as a woman and will make a decision to not get vaccinated. https://t.co/DbnDTcGJoY

  — Hap (@hap317) September 9, 2021

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  Biden- “If you’re vaccinated you have almost zero risk of getting sick”
  Also Biden- “We must take more steps to protect the vaccinated”

  — Shill LeBeau (@Lebeaucarnew) September 9, 2021

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  Summary:

  • Biden to require ‘vast majority’ of federal workers and contractors to get vaccinated or test weekly
  • Biden expected to ask Labor Department for for rule on mandatory vaccinations
  • ‘Some’ exemptions for disability, religion
  • Psaki refuses to answer ‘my body, my choice’ question over vaccinations

  Update (1452ET): President Biden will speak at 5pm ET, where he is expected to announce what’s already been leaked – that most federal workers and contractors will be required to get vaccinated after a 75-day ‘ramp-up’ period. If workers decline to receive shots in that time frame, they will be subject to termination.

  “We would like to be a model for what we think other business and organizations should do around the country,” said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

  Further, Biden is expected to announce that the Department of Labor will compel employers with over 100 workers to mandate vaccines, or weekly testing.

  Employers who don’t abide by the new policy will face “substantial fines up to nearly $14,000 per violation,” according to a senior Biden official (via PBS). What’s more, Biden will require health care workers at hospitals which take Medicare and Medicaid to be vaccinated – impacting over 17 million workers.

  Reporter: “Can the Department of Labor or anybody else compel major employers, large employers, to force the vaccine mandates on their employees?”

  Jen Psaki: “Yes. Stay tuned. More to come this afternoon.” https://t.co/yRbPtR0ZVi pic.twitter.com/HsNZGEDUWb

  — CBS News (@CBSNews) September 9, 2021

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  More:

  The Labor Department in the coming weeks plans to issue an emergency temporary standard implementing the new requirement, which will cover 80 million private-sector workers, officials said. Businesses that don’t comply can face fines of up to $14,000 per violation, they said.

  The employers will also have to give workers paid time off to get vaccinated or to recover from any side effects of getting vaccinated. –WSJ

  Their way around it is by OSHA pic.twitter.com/H281ncEBcO

  — Neeiick (@Neeick) September 9, 2021

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  And of course, when a reporter asks what about ‘my body, my choice’ in regards to vaccination, Psaki makes a beeline for the door.

  Psaki runs away like her disgrace of a boss when a reporter asks her “what happened to my ‘body, my choice’ when it comes to vaccinations?”

  WATCH THIS. pic.twitter.com/vA043ziipw

  — Benny (@bennyjohnson) September 9, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  And as we asked earlier, what will the unions do?

  They have already pushed back (here, here, and here) against various mandates (and Dem leadership need all the support they can get as Biden’s approval plummets).

  Association representing 30,000 federal law enforcement officers and agents opposes vaccine mandate. pic.twitter.com/b2J0NvuEvz

  — Steve Herman (@W7VOA) September 9, 2021

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  *  *  *

  Update (1345ET): Now that the executive order has been confirmed, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki tells the public there will be limited exemptions for health and religious reasons.

  For everybody else, refusing to take the vaccine could lead to termination.

  * * *

  As resistance to President Biden’s booster-shot push grows, it appears the administration is – just as we expected – upping the pressure on federal workers who haven’t yet been vaccinated – while asking private businesses to do the same. According to CNN, the Biden Admin will no longer allow workers to get tested weekly instead of taking the vaccine. Instead, he’s signing an executive order Thursday requiring all workers to get the vaccine or face indefinite suspension.

  What’s more, Biden’s order will extend to employees of government contractors. Per CNN, the same standard will be extended to employees of contractors who do business with the federal government. The Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Indian Health Service and National Institute of Health will also complete their previously announced vaccination requirements, which the White House believes has covered 2.5MM people.

  

  This marks a significant escalation since earlier in the summer, when Biden unveiled a requirement that federal workers be vaccinated, but allowed for those who opted out to be subject to stringent mitigation measures like weekly tests.

  But mostly the White House is relying on private industry to impose and enforce its vaccine requirements. But Biden also believes the White House has a responsibility to set an example.

  We have one quick question though… What will the unions do?

  They have already pushed back (here, here, and here) against various mandates (and Dem leadership need all the support they can get as Biden’s approval plummets).

  And then there is Portland, whose city officials are preparing to exempt the police force from the “now legally dubious” vaccine mandates.

  The president also plans to announce a major expansion to free testing, a step public health officials have said would be critical to containing the virus, particularly as children return to school and more workers return to the office. Plus, it would, in theory, combat claims that the administration didn’t make the vaccine “accessible” enough.

  Thursday will impose more stringent vaccine rules on federal workers, and take steps to encourage private businesses to do the same, during a major speech meant to lay out a new approach to combating the coronavirus.

  Biden will talk about all this and more tonight, when he unveils his plans to stop the delta variant.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/09/2021 – 23:52

• Tik Tok Recommends Sex, Drug And Alcohol-Themed Content To Minors Aged 13 To 15, WSJ Investigation Reveals
  Tik Tok Recommends Sex, Drug And Alcohol-Themed Content To Minors Aged 13 To 15, WSJ Investigation Reveals

  Tik Tok’s algorithms are routinely serving up sexual content and content containing drugs and alcohol to children as young as 13, a new investigation from the Wall Street Journal revealed this week.

  Using the app under the guise of being a 13 year old user who searched for the term “onlyfan”, Tik Tok even presented the user of two instances of selling pornography. 

  Sexually oriented videos were also included in Tik Tok’s “For You” page, the investigation revealed. Content on this page, which is similar to Twitter’s timeline, is based off of prior searches and content that a user has spent the most time searching for, The Daily Mail added.

  

  As the “13 year old” user browsed more sexual content, more was recommended to them, despite the user’s age clearly being marked as 13 in their profile.

  Tik Tok has responded by saying they are “working on a new filter tool for younger accounts,” the Daily Mail wrote.

  The investigation took place using 31 bot accounts who were set between the ages of 13 and 15 in order to try and determine what type of content younger Tik Tok users were being shown. It revealed that feeds would eventually wind up becoming more focused on increasingly inappropriate content. 

  The Journal wrote:

  Even when the Journal’s accounts were programmed to express interest in multiple topics, TikTok sometimes zeroed in on single topics and served them hundreds of videos about one in close succession.

  TikTok served one account, which had been programmed with a variety of interests, hundreds of Japanese film and television cartoons. In one streak of 150 videos, all but four featured Japanese animation—many with sexual themes.

  One account that was set up to appear as though it was being used by a 13 year old, was shown 569 videos about drug user, including cocaine and meth addiction. It was also shown promotional videos for the online sale of drug products. 

  Other videos featured alcohol and eating disorders.

  Reporters from the WSJ sent Tik Tok more than 1,000 videos showing the inappropriate content that was shown to the teenage accounts. 255 videos were removed from the platform, including several videos about adults entering relationships with other adults who were pretending to be children. 

  

  Tik Tok responded: “Protecting minors is vitally important, and TikTok has taken industry-first steps to promote a safe and age-appropriate experience for teens.”

  A company spokesperson told The Mail: “While the activity and resulting experience of these bots in no way represents the behaviour and viewing experience of a real person, we continually work to improve our systems and we’re reviewing how to help prevent even highly unusual viewing habits from creating negative cycles, particularly for our younger users.”

  The company continued: “We care deeply about the safety of minors, which is why we build youth well-being into our policies, limit features by age, empower parents with tools and resources, and continue to invest in new ways to enjoy content based on age-appropriateness or family comfort.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/09/2021 – 23:40

• Escobar: What To Expect From Taliban 2.0
  Escobar: What To Expect From Taliban 2.0

  Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Asia Times,

  The announcement by Taliban spokesman Zahibullah Mujahid in Kabul of the acting cabinet ministers in the new caretaker government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan already produced a big bang: it managed to enrage both woke NATOstan and the US Deep State.

  

  This is an all-male, overwhelmingly Pashtun (there’s one Uzbek and one Tajik) cabinet essentially rewarding the Taliban old guard. All 33 appointees are Taliban members.

  Mohammad Hasan Akhund – the head of the Taliban Rehbari Shura, or leadership council, for 20 years – will be the Acting Prime Minister. For all practical purposes, Akhund is branded a terrorist by the UN and the EU, and under sanctions by the UN Security Council. It’s no secret Washington brands some Taliban factions as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and sanctions the whole of the Taliban as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” organization.

  It’s crucial to stress Himatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban Supreme Leader since 2016, is Amir al-Momineen (“Commander of the Faithful”). He can’t be a Prime Minister; his role is that of a supreme spiritual leader, setting the guidelines for the Islamic Emirate and mediating disputes – politics included.

  Akhunzada has released a statement, noting that the new government “will work hard towards upholding Islamic rules and sharia law in the country” and will ensure “lasting peace, prosperity and development”. He added, “people should not try to leave the country”.

  Spokesman Mujahid took pains to stress this new cabinet is just an “acting” government. This implies one of the next big steps will be to set up a new constitution. The Taliban will “try to take people from other parts of the country” – implying positions for women and Shi’ites may still be open, but not at top level.

  Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar, who so far had been very busy diplomatically as the head of the political office in Doha, will be deputy Prime Minister. He was a Taliban co-founder in 1994 and close friend of Mullah Omar, who called him “Baradar” (“brother”) in the first place.

  A predictable torrent of hysteria greeted the appointment of Sirajuddin Haqqani as Acting Minister of Interior. After all the son of Haqqani founder Jalaluddin, one of three deputy emirs and the Taliban military commander, with a fierce reputation, has a $5 million FBI bounty on his head. His FBI “wanted” page is not exactly a prodigy of intel: they don’t know when he was born, and where, and that he speaks Pashto and Arabic.

  This may be the new government’s top challenge: to prevent Sirajuddin and his wild boys from acting medieval in non-Pashtun areas of Afghanistan, and most of all to make sure the Haqqanis cut off any connections with jihadi outfits. That’s a sine qua non condition established by the China-Russia strategic partnership for political, diplomatic and economic development support.

  Foreign policy will be much more accommodating. Amir Khan Muttaqi, also a member of the political office in Doha, will be the Acting Foreign Minister, and his deputy will be Abas Stanikzai, who’s in favor of cordial relations with Washington and the rights of Afghan religious minorities.

  Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of Mullah Omar, will be the Acting Defense Minister.

  So far, the only non-Pashtuns are Abdul Salam Hanafi, an Uzbek, appointed as second deputy to the Prime Minister, and Qari Muhammad Hanif, a Tajik, the acting Minister of Economic Affairs, a very important post.

  The Tao of staying patient

  The Taliban Revolution has already hit the Walls of Kabul – who are fast being painted white with Kufic letter inscriptions. One of these reads, “For an Islamic system and independence, you have to go through tests and stay patient.”

  That’s quite a Taoist statement: striving for balance towards a real “Islamic system”. It offers a crucial glimpse of what the Taliban leadership may be after: as Islamic theory allows for evolution, the new Afghanistan system will be necessarily unique, quite different from Qatar’s or Iran’s, for instance.

  In the Islamic legal tradition, followed directly or indirectly by rulers of Turko-Persian states for centuries, to rebel against a Muslim ruler is illegitimate because it creates fitna (sedition, conflict). That was already the rationale behind the crushing of the fake “resistance” in the Panjshir – led by former Vice-President and CIA asset Amrullah Saleh. The Taliban even tried serious negotiations, sending a delegation of 40 Islamic scholars to the Panjshir.

  But then Taliban intel established that Ahmad Masoud – son of the legendary Lion of the Panjshir, assassinated two days before 9/11 – was operating under orders of French and Israeli intel. And that sealed his fate: not only he was creating fitna, he was a foreign agent. His partner Saleh, the “resistance” de facto leader, fled by helicopter to Tajikistan.

  It’s fascinating to note a parallel between Islamic legal tradition and Hobbes’s Leviathan, which justifies absolute rulers. The Hobbesian Taliban: here’s a hefty research topic for US Think Tankland.

  The Taliban also follow the rule that a war victory – and nothing more spectacular than defeating combined NATO power – allows for undisputed political power, although that does not discard strategic alliances. We’ve already seen it in terms of how the moderate, Doha-based political Taliban are accommodating the Haqqanis – an extremely sensitive business.

  Abdul Haqqani will be the Acting Minister for Higher Education; Najibullah Haqqani will be Minister of Communications; and Khalil Haqqani, so far ultra-active as interim head of security in Kabul, will be Minister for Refugees.

  The next step will be much harder: to convince the urban, educated populations in the big cities – Kabul, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif – not only of their legitimacy, acquired in the frontlines, but that they will crush the corrupt urban elite that plundered the nation for the past 20 years. All that while engaging in a credible, national interest process of improving the lives of average Afghans under a new Islamic system. It will be crucial to watch what kind of practical and financial help the emir of Qatar will offer.

  The new cabinet has elements of a Pashtun jirga (tribal assembly). I’ve been to a few, and it’s fascinating to see how it works. Everyone sits on a circle to avoid a hierarchy – even if symbolic. Everyone is entitled to express their opinion. This leads to alliances necessarily being forged.

  The negotiations to form a government were being conducted in Kabul by former President Hamid Karzai – crucially, a Pashtun from a minor Durrani clan, the Popalzai – and Abdullah Abdullah, a Tajik, and former head of the Council for National Reconciliation. The Taliban did listen to them, but in the end they de facto chose what their own jirga had decided.

  Pashtuns are extremely fierce when it comes to defending their Islamic credentials. They believe their legendary founding ancestor, Qais Abdul Rasheed, converted to Islam in the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad, and then Pashtuns became the strongest defender of the faith anywhere.

  Yet that’s not exactly how it played out in history. From the 7th century onwards, Islam was predominant only from Herat in the west to legendary Balkh in the north all the way to Central Asia, and south between Sistan and Kandahar. The mountains of the Hindu Kush and the corridor from Kabul to Peshawar resisted Islam for centuries. Kabul in fact was a Hindu kingdom as late as the 11th century. It took as many as five centuries for the core Pashtun lands to convert to Islam.

  Islam with Afghan characteristics

  To cut an immensely complex story short, the Taliban was born in 1994 across the – artificial – border of Afghanistan and Pakistani Balochistan as a movement by Pashtuns who studied in Deobandi madrassas in Pakistan.

  All the Afghan Taliban leaders had very close connections with Pakistani religious parties. During the 1980s anti-USSR jihad, many of these Taliban (“students”) in several madrassas worked side by side with the mujahideen to defend Islam in Afghanistan against the infidel. The whole process was channeled through the Peshawar political establishment: -overseen by the Pakistani ISI, with enormous CIA input, and a tsunami of cash and would-be jihadis flowing from Saudi Arabia and the wider Arab world.

  When they finally seized power in 1994 in Kandahar and 1996 in Kabul, the Taliban emerged as a motley crew of minor clerics and refugees invested in a sort of wacky Afghan reformation – religious and cultural – as they set up what they saw as a pure Salafist Islamic Emirate.

  I saw how it worked on the spot, and as demented as it was, it amounted to a new political force in Afghanistan. The Taliban were very popular in the south because they promised security after the bloody 1992-1995 civil war. The totally radical Islamist ideology came later – with disastrous results, especially in the big cities. But not in the subsistence agriculture countryside, because the Taliban social outlook merely reflected rural Afghan practice.

  The Taliban installed a 7th century-style Salafi Islam crisscrossed with the Pashtunwali code. A huge mistake was their aversion to Sufism and the veneration of shrines – something extremely popular in Islamic Afghanistan for centuries.

  It’s too early to tell how Taliban 2.0 will play out in the dizzyingly complex, emerging Eurasian integration chessboard. But internally, a wiser, more traveled, social media-savvy Taliban seem aware they cannot allow themselves to repeat the dire 1996-2001 mistakes.

  Deng Xiaoping set the framework for socialism with Chinese characteristics .

  One of the greatest geopolitical challenges ahead will be whether Taliban 2.0 are able to shape a sustainable development Islam with Afghan characteristics.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/09/2021 – 23:20

• Biden Exempts Over 600,000 USPS Workers From Federal Mandatory Vaccination Order
  Biden Exempts Over 600,000 USPS Workers From Federal Mandatory Vaccination Order

  All people are equal before “the science^TM“, but some unions are more equal.

  We previously noted that in an unspoken footnote to Biden’s bombastic “no jab, no job” speech, various labor unions had quietly (and not so quietly) voiced their displeasure to the now official mandatory vaccinations including NYC teachers, California’s largest public sector union and of course, the US Postal Service. And now we know that while Biden was eager to frame his new vaxx policy as all inclusive and with no exception, that was not really true.

  According to the Washington Post citing a “White House official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss not-yet-public portions of the president’s plan”, U.S. Postal Service workers were not included in Biden’s executive order requiring all federal employees to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

  While Biden framed his mandate as one covering all federal workers and all companies with more than 100 staff, he forgot to mention that any labor union that is instrumental in keeping the Democrats in power would be granted a very “unscientific” exemption. The loophole in question, according to the report, according to the White House source, is that the “USPS has a separate statutory scheme and is traditionally independent of federal personnel actions like this” even though postal workers would be strongly encouraged to comply with the mandate. Paradoxically, the WaPo also notes that this “explainer” is in conflict with reality: after all, the Postal Service is an independent agency of the executive branch, and it is required to be specifically included in executive orders that apply to working conditions for federal employees.

  In any case, we doubt “strong encouragement” will be sufficient to get most postal workers jabbed since the reason they refuse to get vaccinated in the first place is lack of trust in the government, the same reason tens of millions of Americans also refuse to get jabbed. But since they don’t represent one of the most politically powerful unions in the US, they don’t get to be “strongly encouraged” and instead are told what to do.

  What is even more bizarre is that according to the WaPo, the 644,000 strong USPS workfore, which represents a massive chunk of the federal workforce, interacts daily with an equally large swath of the public. As such if Biden was really worried about super spreaders, he would vaccinate postal workers first. The fact that he won’t suggests that other things are at play here besides “the science^TM“

  So how did over 600,000 Federal workers get a carveout? Simple: unions > science.

  One of the Postal Service’s powerful unions, the American Postal Workers Union, in July criticized the administration’s efforts to require federal workers to be vaccinated and demanded that postal leadership collectively bargain on the issue.

  “While the APWU leadership continues to encourage postal workers to voluntarily get vaccinated, it is not the role of the federal government to mandate vaccinations for the employees we represent,” the union said in a statement.

  As for why the increasingly unpopular – in the words of the NYT – Biden will go to such great lengths to discredit his own stated intent and further dilute people’s faith in the executive branch, the answer is simple: we are just over a year away from the next mail in elections and the Democrats can not take any chances.

  Curiously, shortly after the WaPo original reported about the USPS exemption, someone woke up Joe from his nap or got in touch with whoever really runs the country, and advised them that the natives may get restless at this glorious hypocrisy, and so a “senior Biden admin” told Yahoo that “U.S. Postal Service workers are subject to a rule to be developed by the Labor Department mandating coronavirus vaccinations for workers and weekly testing for non-vaccinated employees at companies with over 100 workers, a senior Biden administration official told CNN and the Washington Post.”

  In other words, for the purposes of keeping the labor union happy, USPS workers – which comprise the largest group of Federal employees – will be treated as, get this, private sector employees for legal purposes. This means they will be covered under the OSHA vaccine/testing mandate – and thus not face the “no jab, no job” dilemma – rather than the federal employee mandatory vaccination order.

  Finally, just in case WaPo’s Jacob Bogage gets a tap on the shoulder and is told to quietly delete what will spark even more confusion and chaos in the administration, here is a snapshot of their original report.

  

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/09/2021 – 23:00

• DHS's Shift To Domestic Terrorism Is "Chasing The Shiny Object", Says Ex-DHS Head At 9/11 Anniversary Event
  DHS’s Shift To Domestic Terrorism Is “Chasing The Shiny Object”, Says Ex-DHS Head At 9/11 Anniversary Event

  Authored by Terri Wu via The Epoch Times,

  With its recent focus on domestic terrorism, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is veering off its core competency by “chasing the shiny object,” according to former Acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf.

  He said that DHS should focus on international terrorism, especially given the security risks incurred by the withdrawal of American forces in Afghanistan. The talk of establishing a new statute on domestic terrorism seems like “weaponizing the criminal justice system,” added Chris Swecker, former FBI assistant director.

  

  At a 9/11 anniversary event hosted by the Heritage Foundation on Tuesday, Wolf said that DHS’s first-ever comprehensive threat assessment (pdf) published in October 2020 highlighted threats from China and Russia. However, domestic terrorism was a small piece in the overall picture, according to Wolf, adding that some people have “blown that [domestic terrorism] out of proportion.”

  Given that Afghanistan has become a safe haven for terrorists and that America has withdrawn its diplomatic presence, the area will be a “black hole” for the U.S. homeland security, according to Wolf.

  Wolf said that the normal vetting process for Special Immigrant Visas for Afghans is 18 to 24 months. Now Afghans are being paroled in and vetted in a matter of days. It would take only one or two bad actors to harm the security of the American homeland, added Wolf.

  Swecker highlighted that international terrorist groups could pressure family members in Afghanistan to extort people in the United States to do their bidding, similar to how the Chinese Communist Party operates. This could bring additional domestic security risks, said Swecker.

  Both expressed worries about a potential new statute on domestic terrorism. They said that existing laws cover prosecution of domestic terrorism acts. However, the proposed new rule seems to point to naming domestic terrorist groups or people, which could be dangerous in terms of harming people’s freedom of speech.

  Furthermore, Swecker pointed out that recent DHS bulletins on domestic terrorism did not mention Antifa or Black Lives Matter riots in 2020. The DHS threat assessment report documented these events: “DHS law enforcement officers suffered over 300 separate injuries and were assaulted with sledgehammers, commercial grade fireworks, rocks, metal pipes, improvised explosive devices, and more.”

  Wolf defined domestic terrorism as “committing crimes that are intended to force your ideology on a population on a government.” He said he worried that the domestic terrorism issue would become political:

  “Violence is violence, whether it’s coming from the right or the left. You have to condemn it equally. Otherwise, it becomes a political issue.”

  Calling the 9/11 terrorist attack “one of the most significant events of the last 100 years,” Swecker said, “It was an attack on our government and our people. And it was highly successful by a determined, well-funded, well-trained terrorist organization that hasn’t gone away.”

  Wolf added that it might be hard for some Americans to fathom that there were individuals and organizations “whose sole mission is to harm America.” He said China and Russia were examples of that. “I don’t think that can be overstated enough,” said Wolf.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/09/2021 – 22:41

• International Space Station Alarms Triggered After "Burning Plastic Smell"
  International Space Station Alarms Triggered After “Burning Plastic Smell”

  Less than one week after Russian cosmonauts discovered small cracks on the aging International Space Station (ISS), smoke alarms were triggered on the station in the early hours of Thursday, according to AP. Crew members reported dark smoke and the smell of burnt plastic coming from the Russian segment of the space station. 

  Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, said the incident unfolded at 0155 ET in the Russian-built Zvezda module during an overnight recharge of the station’s batteries. 

  

  French astronaut Thomas Pesquet said, “the smell of burning plastic or electronic equipment” made its way through the station into the US segment, RIA Novosti reported, citing a NASA broadcast.

  Pesquet and other crew members turned on air filters to scrub the station’s air of smoke/smell. There was no word on how much smoke was emitted, but reports indicate astronauts went back to sleep after air quality levels returned to normal. 

  It appears that whatever was burning didn’t affect operations on the station. Hours later, a planned spacewalk was conducted by cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy who fished an “ethernet” data cord around the outside of the multipurpose laboratory module of the space station. 

  One hour into today’s spacewalk and cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy works with a data cable that will be routed to the multipurpose laboratory module. Meanwhile, cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov installed three handrails on the outside of the module and now heads to join Novitsky. pic.twitter.com/pOyV0gy5xX

  — NASA (@NASA) September 9, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  The aging space station has suffered numerous failures, including air leaks, cracks, and misfiring engines. Russia said in April that it would leave the station in 2025, citing structural fatigue that could suggest it may not be capable of operating beyond 2030. 

  Meanwhile, the Chinese have launched a new space station that is expected to outlast the ISS. 

  The smoke incident comes a week after “superficial fissures have been found in some places on the Zarya module,” according to Vladimir Solovyov, the chief engineer of Moscow-based company Energia, the top contractor for Russia’s spaceflight program.  

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/09/2021 – 22:20

• Parent In China Sells Newborn Baby In Black Market, Child-Trafficking Organization Exposed
  Parent In China Sells Newborn Baby In Black Market, Child-Trafficking Organization Exposed

  By Shawn Li of the Epoch Times,

  A civilian exposed China’s black market involving the trafficking and selling of newborn babies under the guise of adoption after a year-long voluntary undercover investigation.

  

  According to The Paper, a Chinese state-owned digital newspaper, a civilian played a critical role in the anti-trafficking effort. The civilian, Zhengyi Shangguan, joined a baby trafficking WeChat group disguised as a barren woman who desired a daughter. After prolonged undercover work, Shangguan gradually gained the trust of the middleman and was later considered to be a suitable buyer.

  There were about 100 members in the WeChat group, consisting of people from various cities and provinces in China. Due to WeChat’s sensitive vocabulary recognition, the group often disbands and reassembles itself. New members must clearly state their needs or be removed from the chat group.

  Shangguan was able to identify the encrypted terms used by the group to avoid vocabulary detection. For example, the slang “bao” represents “baby.” The English letter “S” represents “sending for adoption,” and “L” represents “acceptance of adoption.” The two English letters corresponded to selling and buying.

  On June 11, Shangguan received an encrypted message on WeChat suggesting that a baby girl would be available, followed by a phone conversation. The party that reached out to Shangguan was Ms. Zhu, one of the alleged orchestrators.

  Zhu said the baby girl was expected to be delivered around July 20 at a hospital, and the price would be $17,000. She then guaranteed the baby’s health with a clean genetic history and offered to be there for the entire delivery process. To further dispel buyer worries, Zhu also suggested that payment could be made on the delivery day, but only cash would be accepted.

  In addition, Zhu repeatedly stated that a birth certificate was not recommended because it could easily be obtained afterward. However, if requested, the birth certificate would be an additional $6,000. She explained that getting a birth certificate at the time of delivery would require the birth mother to use the buyer’s identity to register the baby, which is not ideal because if the birth mother knows who the buyer is, she may decide to look for her child in the future. According to Zhu, it would be worrisome to know the birth mother could find her child one day.

  After thorough communications, Shangguan learned the entire delivery process and transaction details: A pregnant woman is usually admitted to the hospital’s delivery room in the morning. For the next three days, the newborn will be looked after by the nurses and screened for diseases and defects. After the examinations are completed, the baby is ready to be discharged. Upon discharge, the nurses will hand the baby directly to Zhu. After collecting payment, Zhu then passes the baby to the buyer along with a “consent to adoption letter” signed by the birth mother—then the transaction is complete.

  Zhu appeared to be detail-oriented in her operations and even provided the buyer tips in advance. She suggested that it’s best to pretend to be pregnant months before the transaction occurs. Otherwise, friends and neighbors might question when a child suddenly appears. “It may cast a shadow in the child’s future if not done properly,” Zhu said, according to CCP-backed media Sina.

  To ensure smooth operations, Zhu claimed that she had connections in the local hospitals and that doctors and nurses generally turned a blind eye. “You have to spend what you have to spend to make things work,” Zhu added, and suggested that there are even other staff that are part of the operation.

  Zhu claimed to have graduated with a master’s degree and was formally a teacher. After remarrying, she was unable to conceive and started her 10-year-journey to have a child and accidentally entered the business of trafficking. The middleman in the WeChat group once helped her get a surrogate, and the two became partners.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/09/2021 – 22:00

• LAPD Orders Cops To Collect Social Media Data On Every Single Person They Stop
  LAPD Orders Cops To Collect Social Media Data On Every Single Person They Stop

  Los Angeles police officers have been directed to collect social media information on every civilian they interview, including people who haven’t been arrested or accused of a crime, according to the Guardian, citing leaked records.

  According to the report, “field interview cards” used by LAPD officers contain instructions to record a civilian’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and any other social media accounts – along with basic biographical information. Chief Michael Moore has reportedly told cops to collect the data for use in “investigations, arrests, and prosecutions,” and has warned officers that the cards will be audited by supervisors to ensure they’re filled out completely.

  

  “There are real dangers about police having all of this social media identifying information at their fingertips,” said Rachel Levinson-Waldman, a deputy director at the Brennan Center for Justice, which obtained the documents.

  The Brennan Center conducted a review of 40 other police agencies in the US and was unable to find another department that required social media collection on interview cards (though many have not publicly disclosed copies of the cards). The organization also obtained records about the LAPD’s social media surveillance technologies, which have raised questions about the monitoring of activist groups including Black Lives Matter. -Guardian

  Monitoring of social media accounts began in 2015, when the LAPD’s interview cards contained a line for “social media accounts.”

  “Similar to a nickname or an alias, a person’s online persona or identity used for social media … can be highly beneficial to investigations,” wrote former LAPD Chief, Charlie Beck.

  According to the LA Times, over half of civilians stopped by LAPD and had their personal details taken were not arrested or cited. Last October, criminal charges were filed against three officers in the LAPD’s metro division for using cards to falsely label civilians as gang members once they were stopped.

  

  Known associates

  As the Guardian points out, when police obtain social media information from people, it invites the possibility that they’ll monitor people’s “friends” and other online connections, which creates additional privacy concerns.

  “It allows for a huge expansion of network surveillance,” said Levinson-Waldman, who noted that the authorities have historically used Facebook photos and “likes” to falsely accuse people of criminal gang activity.

  Hamid Khan of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition noted that the LAPD also shares data with federal law enforcement agencies through “fusion centers”, and has previously used “predictive policing” technologies that rely on data collected by officers in the field and which can criminalize communities of color.

  “This is like stop and frisk,” he said, of the use of field interview cards. “And this is happening with the clear goal of surveillance.” The LAPD, he noted, has allowed officers to pose undercover to investigate groups, meaning officers can create fake social media accounts to infiltrate groups.

  Dr Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter LA, said she had long suspected the LAPD conducted “targeted tracking” of specific groups or individual accounts, but was surprised to learn of the default collection of this information in everyday encounters. She fears this could be part of “a massive surveillance operation”. -Guardian

  Minority Report

  According to the Brennan Center, the LAPD is now looking to technology from Media Sonar, a social media tracking company that provides services to police departments. In the LAPD’s 2021 budget, $73,000 was allocated to purchase Media Sonar software to help “address a potential threat or incident before its occurrence.“

  According to one message between Media Sonar and the LAPD, the software can be used to “stay on-top of drug/gang/weapon slang keywords and hashtags,” and that it offers “pre-built keyword groups” to “help jumpstart implementation” of threats and help “cast a wide net.”

  In short, talk to the cops at your own risk.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/09/2021 – 21:40

• Taliban Declare Ban On Slogans, Protests That Don’t Have Their Approval
  Taliban Declare Ban On Slogans, Protests That Don’t Have Their Approval

  Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The Taliban on Sept. 8 announced a ban on all slogans, demonstrations, and protests that do not have their official approval in yet another signal that the Islamist group is taking a hardline and repressive approach to government.

  

  A decree was issued on Wednesday by the head of the Taliban’s new interior ministry, Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is a member of the Haqqani network that has long been designated as a terrorist organization by the Department of State. The department also has a $10 million bounty on Haqqani’s head, while the U.N. has Haqqani on a sanctions list.

  Haqqani’s decree said that protesters without the Taliban’s permission to stage demonstrations in a stated location and time will face “severe legal consequences.”

  Approval must also be given for any slogans that might be used during the protest.

  The decree also accused Afghans protesting in Kabul and other provinces in recent days for “disrupting security, harassing people, and disrupting normal life,” telling citizens that “no one should protest and cause concern to the citizens” without permission from the Ministry of Justice.

  It claimed, “The Islamic Emirate addresses the legitimate demands and rights of all citizens and must be given time to take the necessary steps to address other issues once security is restored.”

  The announcement comes amid multiple protests in the country between Taliban fighters and demonstrators—including one protest led by local women in Kabul.

  On Tuesday, the terrorist group was seen firing shots into the air in an effort to disperse a large protest being held outside the Pakistan embassy in Kabul, while several reporters were arrested as they attempted to document the demonstration, according to reports.

  Thousands of Afghan men and women took to the streets to protest against the Taliban and what they characterized as Pakistani intelligence’s interference in the affairs of the Middle Eastern nation and for allegedly being the guiding hand behind the Taliban’s return to power.

  Demonstrators allege Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) supported the Taliban’s latest offensive that routed resistance fighters in the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul—the last area where anti-Taliban resistance fighters have held out against the terrorist group. Islamabad denies this.

  Some of the protestors carried signs reading “ISI stay away.” Others shouted slogans such as “Azadi [freedom or liberty]” and “Death to Pakistan.”

  On Tuesday, the Taliban announced its new government for Afghanistan, challenging claims to rightful government by former Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who says he is the “legitimate caretaker president” according to the country’s constitution adopted in 2004. The Taliban’s cabinet notably does not include any women or non-Taliban figures, despite the militant group vowing to form an “inclusive government” as part of the Doha agreement.

  The group named Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund as the country’s interim prime minister and co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar as second in command, while Mullah Yaqoob, will be the defence minister.

  The international community has expressed concern over the lack of diversity within the Taliban’s so-called government, with the United States previously stating that it would not recognize a Taliban-led government if it wasn’t inclusive.

  “We note the announced list of names consists exclusively of individuals who are members of the Taliban or their close associates and no women. We also are concerned by the affiliations and track records of some of the individuals,” a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said in a statement following Tuesday’s announcement.

  

  “We understand that the Taliban has presented this as a caretaker cabinet. However, we will judge the Taliban by its actions, not words.”

  The UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson also echoed U.S. concerns over the Taliban’s proposed government and the distinct lack of diversity.

  “We would want to see, in any situation, a diverse group in leadership which seeks to address the pledges that the Taliban themselves have set out, and that’s not what we have seen,” a spokesman for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. “We will continue to judge the Taliban on their actions.”

  European Union spokesperson Peter Stano said the new government “does not look like the inclusive and representative formation in terms of the rich ethnic and religious diversity of Afghanistan we hoped to see and that the Taliban were promising over the past weeks,” in a statement to media outlets.

  Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the exclusion of groups outside the Taliban, coupled with the violence perpetrated by Taliban terrorists against protesters and journalists in Kabul “are not signals that give cause for optimism.”

  “It must be clear to the Taliban that international isolation is not in its interests, and especially not in those of Afghanistan’s people,” Maas added.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/09/2021 – 21:20

• California's Top Grid Operator Asks Feds To Burn More Fossil Fuels To Avert Blackouts
  California’s Top Grid Operator Asks Feds To Burn More Fossil Fuels To Avert Blackouts

  California’s power grid transition to renewable energy sources appears to be backfiring. The push into clean energy is not producing enough power to meet demand during hot summer days, and it’s becoming harder for the Golden State to avoid rolling blackouts.

  A stunning new revelation in the state’s top grid operator, California Independent System Operator, filing to US Department of Energy (DoE), titled “Request for Emergency Order Pursuant to Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act,” requested the federal government to declare an “electric reliability emergency” so it can use more fossil fuel power generation to prevent blackouts. 

  “An emergency order will allow the CAISO to dispatch additional generation that may be necessary for the CAISO to meet demand in the face of extremely challenging conditions including extreme heat waves, multiple fires, high winds, and various grid issues,” the filing read.

  CAISO wants the DoE to suspend air-pollution rules so it can use natural gas turbines as “back-up power generation and freeing up additional energy capacity to help alleviate electric demand on the electricity grid.” 

  The request was filed on Tuesday ahead of CAISO’s statewide flex alert that urges customers to “conserve electricity” in the evening due to hot weather. The grid operator warned, “energy supply is tight at the moment.” 

  Good morning, CA! The California ISO has issued a statewide #FlexAlert for today, Sept. 9, from 4-9 p.m. due to above normal temperatures affecting much of the state and West, and tight energy supply. Urging consumers to conserve electricity. Learn more: https://t.co/GslP8IKUsO pic.twitter.com/LAOJkD3glP

  — California ISO (@California_ISO) September 9, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  The state is struggling to balance its clean energy push, and the request to the DoE is a sore eye for environmentalists who’ve been on a crusade to ban fossil fuel generation from the grid. It’s also negative news for President Biden’s infrastructure spending that aims of “achieving 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2035.” 

  If the widespread blackouts that shocked Texas earlier this year due to a cold snap that froze wind power generation sources was a lesson for the future of green power grids – then maybe America is not ready for Biden’s 2035 decarbonization target. 

  … and why isn’t climate alarmist Greta Thunberg bashing California on Twitter for wanting to burn more fossil fuels? 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/09/2021 – 21:00

• Intelligence Community Assessment On COVID-19 Origins Ignores Readily Available Information
  Intelligence Community Assessment On COVID-19 Origins Ignores Readily Available Information

  Authored by Jeff Carlson and Hans Mahncke via The Epoch Times,

  In May 2021, President Joe Biden gave the intelligence community 90 days to write a report on the origins of COVID-19. The declassified version of that assessment has now been released.

  

  The report is only 493 words long and curiously ignores readily available information, instead choosing to focus on and reinforce questions that are, for the most part, unknowable.

  Specifically, the Intelligence Community (IC) claimed that in order to reach a conclusive assessment, it required “clinical samples or a complete understanding of epidemiological data from the earliest cases.”

  This China-reliant approach aligns with a recent response from Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). When he finally conceded in June of this year that the virus might have originated in a Wuhan lab, Fauci also said that clinical samples of the earliest cases were needed.

  At the same time, while the IC claims that China’s cooperation is needed to determine the origins of COVID-19, it acknowledges that China has refused to cooperate with any true investigation.

  Fauci and the IC both understand that if there was information helpful to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), that information would have been released immediately.

  The report, unsigned but issued under a Director of National Intelligence letterhead, appears to be structured in a manner designed to avoid upsetting China. More importantly, the report effectively protects China, repeatedly giving weight to the lack of foreknowledge of the outbreak on the part of China officials. The report ignores that if the pandemic resulted from a lab accident, no official would have had foreknowledge.

  The IC also appears to conflate cause and effect by claiming that China’s failure to cooperate with an investigation is motivated by “frustration” that the international community is “using the issue to exert political pressure on China.”

  Notably, the IC has shown a marked lack of interest in the copious amount of data that is already available and does not require CCP assistance.

  Perhaps the most obvious fact pointing at a lab leak is simply that Wuhan is at least 1,000 miles from natural bat habitats—a point not even mentioned in the IC’s report. 

  Additionally, Wuhan was the only location in China where bat virus experiments were taking place. In fact, Wuhan had at least three labs conducting such work—the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), the Wuhan CDC Lab, and the Wuhan University Center for Animal Experiment. 

  The director of the WIV, Shi Zhengli, herself admitted that she never expected this kind of virus to emerge in Wuhan. When viruses emerged naturally in the past, they emerged in Southern China.

  Also ignored by the IC Report was the type of research being conducted at WIV since at least 2007, which has been well documented. Research papers provide direct evidence of increasingly sophisticated gain-of-function experiments—a process whereby viruses are deliberately made more virulent in order to predict emerging diseases—being carried out by the WIV lab in the years leading up the pandemic, including a number of experiments specifically designed to make coronaviruses more transmissible to humans.

  Some of these gain-of-function experiments were also detailed in a Nov. 9, 2015, article in the journal Nature about experiments that were being conducted at the Wuhan lab using “chimeric viruses” in mice.

  Notably, In 2014, Fauci’s NIAID awarded a $3.7 million grant to the New York-based EcoHealth Alliance, headed by Peter Daszak. According to Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), some of the grant funds “went to Wuhan” as part of “a subcontract from EcoHealth.” In August 2020, after President Donald Trump canceled the first grant, Fauci awarded Daszak’s EcoHealth a new grant of $7.5 million. 

  Only one section of the report refers to animal handling and sampling by the WIV. This section is in reference to one intelligence agency that concluded that it was moderately confident that the virus may have leaked from a Wuhan lab. Notably, all other agencies leaned toward natural origins for the virus’s outbreak. 

  The report ignores that live bats were kept at the WIV, apparently the only location in Wuhan where bats could actually be found. The report also fails to note that thousands of bat samples were brought from Southern China to Wuhan by lab scientists.

  The huge depository of bat samples in Wuhan was confirmed by Daszak in July 2020, when he discussed the early discovery of a close genetic match to COVID-19, noting that “It was just one of the 16,000 bats we sampled. It was a faecal sample, we put it in a tube, put it in liquid nitrogen, took it back to the lab. We sequenced a short fragment.”

  Daszak, the person through whom Fauci was providing funding for the WIV, denied that live bats were kept at the Wuhan lab, claiming that that was not the way science worked. Daszak later deleted his tweet denial without explanation. Pictures from inside the WIV Lab have since emerged, confirming that live bats were indeed held by laboratory staff.

  The report also fails to address the fact that the director of the WIV, Shi Zhengli, tried to cover up the fact that she had maintained possession of the closest known relative to COVID-19 for more than seven years. Shi suddenly renamed the virus in early 2020 at the onset of the pandemic, thereby obscuring that her lab had held a closely related virus.

  Shi also obfuscated the virus’s origin. The location where Shi originally found the COVID-like virus was later discovered to be the Mojiang Mine where three miners had died with COVID-like symptoms in 2012. Shi would later admit that the Mojiang Mine was indeed the source of her virus.

  Shi’s research on bat coronaviruses had previously drawn the attention of diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in China. In 2018, after visiting the WIV, they sent a number of cables to the State Department warning of the inadequate safety conditions at the lab. 

  Fauci’s own official representative in China, Chen Ping, had herself sent multiple messages to Fauci’s office—all of which should have raised red flags. Chen noted that research papers detailing gain-of-function experiments at the WIV were being published as NIH-funded work.

  Her inquiries with Fauci’s office appear to have gone unanswered. Chen also complained that she was being denied access to the WIV. When, after two years, Chen was finally allowed to visit the facility, she was forbidden from taking any pictures inside the lab.

  Since the start of the pandemic, unearthed video footage taken by Chinese TV crews inside the lab has been used to pinpoint a number of biosafety lapses, as well as the fact that the lab was keeping live bats.

  In 2015, an article in Nature specifically warned about the pandemic potential from the WIV experiments. Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist and biodefense expert at Rutgers University, presciently stated, “The only impact of this work is the creation, in a lab, of a new, non-natural risk.”

  There is no mention of any of these pre-pandemic warnings in the IC’s report. Nor is there any mention of the warnings from the French government, which had initially helped with the construction of the WIV’s BSL-4 (biosafety level 4) lab as part of a joint venture with the Chinese regime.

  However, the French government later refused to certify the WIV’s lab based on bioweapon concerns from military officials. France also denied China access to safety equipment and viruses over similar concerns that these could be used for bioweapons research.

  Additionally, in 2009, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was warned in a diplomatic cable of the construction of the WIV BSL-4 lab and the potential for biological weapons proliferation.

  The IC report also failed to note that both the WIV and the Wuhan CDC were conducting bat coronavirus experiments in BSL-2 labs, a low biosafety environment that falls below the accepted threshold of safety for coronavirus research levels. A minimum of BSL-3 is required for working with coronaviruses, including isolation, culture, and amplification.

  When Shi Zhengli finally admitted to conducting coronavirus experiments at BSL-2, a prominent natural origins supporter, Ian Lipkin, changed his view on the pandemic’s origin. Lipkin now thinks the virus did come out of a Wuhan lab, saying that “It shouldn’t have happened. People should not be looking at bat viruses in BSL-2 labs. My view has changed.”

  A more recent development also ignored in the IC’s report is that the World Health Organization’s (WHO) lead origins investigator, Peter Ben Embarek, has now claimed in a Danish documentary that a lab leak is likely and “may well have been started by an employee at one of the city’s laboratories.”

  Embarek, who headed the WHO’s team that visited Wuhan in February of this year, had earlier claimed that a lab leak was extremely unlikely. But he now admits that that claim was the result of pressure from the Chinese regime. Embarek told the Danish documentary team that after two days of negotiations, a deal was struck between the Embarek’s team and their Chinese counterparts. 

  Under the deal struck with the CCP, Embarek would be allowed to mention the lab leak theory—but only on condition that it was determined to be “extremely unlikely” and that there would be no further studies into the issue.

  The IC report also fails to address a Feb. 1, 2020, teleconference that was hastily organized by Fauci and Dr. Jeremy Farrar, director of the British Wellcome Trust. The teleconference took place after the previous night’s public reporting of a potential connection between COVID-19 and the WIV.

  Fauci and Farrar were concerned about previous U.S. involvement with the lab, and that they had knowledge of public statements made by the Wuhan lab’s director about U.S. funding being used for controversial gain-of-function research conducted there.

  Following the teleconference, public discussion of the source possibly being a lab leak was actively suppressed by social media platforms, health officials, and the WHO.

  Teleconference participants were also instrumental in publishing two influential articles that were used extensively by media organizations to push the natural origins theory. Simultaneously, alternative theories—including that of a possible lab leak—were widely discredited as conspiracy theories.

  Another related area of focus that the IC report failed to address was funding of the WIV from domestic sources in the U.S. government and how those funds were being utilized. The funding agencies, including Fauci’s NIAID and NIH, have responsive records and documentation in their possession, as does Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance, through whom funding of the WIV was arranged.

  Indeed, EcoHealth documents recently released under the Freedom of Information Act have confirmed that Fauci’s NIAID funded gain-of-function experiments—including the construction of novel chimeric SARS-related coronaviruses at the WIV. Those engineered viruses were tested on humanized mice showing that the viruses could infect humans and were more pathogenic than the original virus.

  Publishers such as Springer-Nature and Lancet, both of whom aggressively advanced the natural origins narrative, have archives of early drafts, data, and review reports of the many papers submitted by WIV staff. The Wellcome Trust, with whose help Fauci orchestrated his secret teleconference, has records pertaining to both its role in the teleconference as well as in funding the WIV.

  The lab that trained WIV staff, the Galveston National Laboratory in Texas, has detailed information both on the training and the staff. The government of France has records on the construction of the lab and on the disputes that ultimately led France to withdraw from the WIV. The EU also funded the WIV and has pertinent records. 

  There are also whistleblowers from Western countries. While it is not realistic to gain direct access to Chinese whistleblowers such as Xiao Botao, a scientist from Wuhan, who was the first to publicly blame a lab leak for the pandemic on Feb. 6, 2020, there are many others—including some scientists who may have been initially misled by their peers.

  Andrew Huff used to work as associate vice president at Daszak’s EcoHealth. He has since posted a number of statements on LinkedIn blaming a lab leak for the pandemic and also blaming international scientists for collaborating in the lab leak cover-up.

  In response to the claim that the virus’s origin could not be determined, Huff stated that “you can read the peer reviewed studies, patent filings, grant applications, and Fauci emails, and it is very clear what Fauci’s role was.”

  There are also a number of scientists involved in initial efforts to push the natural origins theory who have since had a change of heart. Stanley Perlman now says that the lab leak theory is “back on the table.” And signatory Charles Calisher claims that it was “over the top” to call the lab leak a conspiracy theory.

  Another signatory, Peter Palese, is now demanding a proper investigation. Most notably, University of Chicago professor Bernard Roizman has stated that the virus originated from the lab due to “sloppiness,“ claiming that Wuhan lab personnel “can’t admit they did something so stupid.”

  The intelligence community’s report has stated that “China’s cooperation most likely would be needed to reach a conclusive assessment of the origins of COVID-19.”

  But there is a wealth of information in the public realm that is readily available and does not require the vast resources of our nation’s intelligence communities or the CCP’s cooperation.

  If the IC’s intention was to provide the public with an answer to the origin of the virus, that answer could easily be found.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/09/2021 – 20:40

• Amazon Plans To Sell New TV Line, A Move To Dominate Market For In-Home Entertainment
  Amazon Plans To Sell New TV Line, A Move To Dominate Market For In-Home Entertainment

  Amazon, over the years, has harvested data from its users and third-party vendors to determine what new products to private label. A new report from Bloomberg indicates the e-commerce giant is set to introduce a new line of televisions on Thursday. 

  According to the report, Amazon Fire TV will offer two lines of televisions, the first called “Omni,” priced around $409.99, and the second called “4-Series,” which will start at $369.99. 

  The TVs range from 43 inches to 75 inches and will go on sale in October. The move is to compete against Roku and Google to dominate the market for in-home entertainment, which has tremendously grown since the beginning of COVID. 

  

  Amazon is already the largest player in the connected-TV industry, with more than 100 million Fire Sticks devices sold. The company wants to private label televisions to gain market share, not just from Roku and Google, but also control a slice of the television market.

  The question many have is how well will customers be receptive towards an Amazon TV. A little more than half a decade ago, the e-commerce giant tried to take on Apple and Google with its first-ever smartphone, which ended up as a colossal disappointment. 

  Amazon’s price points for Fire TV need to be ultra-competitive towards rivals. Now, with Affirm, a buy now, pay later payment provider, customers might be able to afford these televisions. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/09/2021 – 20:20

• US Airstrikes Have Killed Up To 48,000 Civilians Since 9/11
  US Airstrikes Have Killed Up To 48,000 Civilians Since 9/11

  Authored by Kenny Stancil via CommonDreams.org,

  Airstrikes conducted by the United States have killed between 22,000 and 48,000 civilians since September 11, 2001, according to a report published Monday by Airwars, a military watchdog that monitors and seeks to reduce civilian harm in violent conflict zones.

  The new analysis, released ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the retaliatory launch of the so-called “War on Terror,” came just days after a U.S. drone strike killed at least 10 members of a single family in Kabul amid the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

  

  Most media accounts point out that more than 7,000 U.S. service members have died in post-9/11 wars, but only some go on to state the massive civilian death toll, and “almost exclusively in generalities,” researchers lamented.

  While Brown University’s Costs of War project estimates that over 387,000 civilians have been killed as a result of the War on Terror, Airwars sought to answer a specific question: How many civilians have likely been killed by U.S. airstrikes in the last 20 years?

  The answer, Airwars found, is least 22,679, and potentially as many 48,308 civilians.

  Acknowledging the imprecision of their estimate, the group noted that “the gap between these two figures reflects the many unknowns when it comes to civilian harm in war.”

  On average US-led airstrikes have killed more than 1,000 civilians a year since 2001 pic.twitter.com/r3kwDO1Wim

  — Airwars (@airwars) September 6, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  “Belligerents rarely track the effects of their own actions—and even then do so poorly,” researchers wrote. “It is left to local communities, civil society, and international agencies to count the costs.”

  The Pentagon has declared a minimum of 91,340 airstrikes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen—seven countries the U.S. military invaded or assaulted with bombs or drones—in the past 20 years. Notable peaks occurred during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and between 2015 and 2017, the height of the military offensive against ISIS in Iraq, Syria, and Libya.

  Given the dubious nature of data supplied by the U.S. military—which notoriously undercounts civilian fatalities—Airwars “gathered together every reliable assessment of direct civilian harm caused by U.S. actions” to construct a dataset that includes information from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Iraq Body Count, The Nation, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, and their own previous studies.

  

  “Wherever possible we sought to measure civilian harm just from U.S. airstrikes but in some cases, such as the first years of the Iraq invasion, it was impossible to disaggregate airstrikes from artillery fire and other heavy munitions, which were therefore included,” researchers noted. “Likewise in some U.S.-led coalitions it was impossible to determine whether each individual strike was American, though U.S. airpower has dominated all such campaigns.”

  Based on its comprehensive review of credible sources, Airwars identified 2003 as the deadliest year of the War on Terror, “when a minimum of 5,529 civilians were reported to have been killed by U.S. actions.”

  “The next deadliest year was 2017, when at least 4,931 civilians were likely killed, the vast majority in alleged coalition bombing of Iraq and Syria,” researchers wrote. “However, if we include maximum estimates of civilian harm then 2017 was in fact the worst year for civilian casualties, with up to 19,623 killed.”

  

  According to Airwars, 97% of reported civilian deaths during the War on Terror took place in three countries—Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria.

  

  Joe Dyke, senior investigator at Airwars, told Middle East Eye that “for much of the last 20 years people living in Washington or New York could have been forgiven for forgetting their country was at war.”

  “Whether a drone strike in a Yemeni village or a military base in rural Afghanistan, it often felt far removed—almost another world—but that isn’t how it felt for those millions of people living in those conflicts,” Dyke added.

  Meanwhile, in an email responding to Airwars’ request for official military estimates of civilian causualties in post-9/11 U.S. wars, the Pentagon said that “the information you request is not immediately on hand in our office as it spans between multiple operations/campaigns within a span of between 18 and 20 years.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/09/2021 – 20:00

• Beijing Blinks: Will Allow Evergrande To Renegotiate Debt Terms
  Beijing Blinks: Will Allow Evergrande To Renegotiate Debt Terms

  Maybe it was the 3rd consecutive day in a row that Evergrande bonds were halted after furious selling amid growing concerns of imminent default…

  Evergrande 6.98% 2023 Local Bond Halts Trading After Plunge

  How many times can a bond “plunge” before hitting 0

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 9, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  … or maybe one of those pro-China US billionaires – such as Larry Fink and Ray Dalio – who are now engaged in discrediting George Soros for speaking out against the one true Chairman, and who still remember what happened the weekend after Lehman collapsed made a phone call to Beijing and urged them to reconsider, but whatever the reason, on Thursday China blinked and according to Bloomberg, regulators in Beijing signed off on a China Evergrande’s proposal to renegotiate payment deadlines with banks and other creditors, paving the way for a temporary reprieve as the cash-strapped developer struggles to come to grips with more than $300 billion of liabilities.

  The news comes one day after REDD reported late Wednesday that Evergrande plans to suspend interest payments on loans from two banks due Sept. 21, adding that the developer asked one lender to wait for details on a proposed extension plan, suggesting the developer did that already knowing the government would back it.  Not that it will do much good of course, as Evergrande has been unable to liquidate even its prize asset – its HQ – at cost, but at least it has bought itself some time.

  In any case, while Evergrande bonds were crashing in the past weeks, China’s Financial Stability and Development Committee, the nation’s top financial regulator, had already given its blessing to Evergrande’s plan last month after the property giant missed interest and principal payments on some loans, a Bloomberg source said.

  Having gotten the government’s blessing, Evergrande has already contacted some banks and trusts to request deadline extensions, according to Bloomberg although it was unclear how many of those discussions – if any – have led to agreements and whether the company intends to delay payments to bondholders. As a reminder, all it takes for one creditor to balk at nonpayment for a technical event of default to have taken place.

  Perhaps just as important, we learn that Evergrande’s last minute reprieve comes as the company’s main banks had discussed setting up a creditor committee as recently as last week – something that happens only when the debtor is bankrupt – but then lenders and regulators decided to give Evergrande more time to solve its liquidity crisis before taking more drastic measures. Like forcing the company into involuntary bankruptcy perhaps.

  As Bloomberg notes, and as has become all too clear judging by the non-stop coverage of this company on this website, Evergrande’s intricate web of obligations to banks, shadow banks, bondholders, suppliers and homeowners has become one of the biggest sources of financial risk in the world’s second-largest economy. While China’s government has publicly urged the company to solve its debt problems, officials have yet to state explicitly whether they would allow a major debt restructuring or bankruptcy. Speculation over Evergrande’s fate has fueled outsized swings in its shares and bonds, with the latter rising from record lows on Thursday.

  

  Even with the bounce, bond investors are pricing in a virtually certain likelihood of default. Even after Thursday’s rally, Evergrande dollar notes due next year are trading at just 27 cents on the dollar.

  Still, some lenders – usually those who are state-backed and thus have no balance sheet concerns – have indicated a willingness to be flexible on payment deadlines. Bloomberg reported last month that China Minsheng Banking, China Zheshang Bank Co. and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co. had agreed to give Evergrande extensions on some project loans. Citic Trust, one of the developer’s biggest non-bank lenders, has given preliminary approval to a three-month extension on loans that were due in August, a Bloomberg source said.

  But while Evergrande’s fate is all but sealed, the big fear is one of contagion, and whether the company’s troubles infect the broader credit market. While junk bonds trading in China have seen their yields explode to levels last seen during the depths of the March 2020 covid shutdown due to growing Evergrande concerns…

  

  … a default will certainly push them even higher as holder of Chinese junk debt puke; as such the degree of contagion depends on the company’s ability to buy time with banks as a messy default on loans could stoke fears of widespread contagion, something Xi Jinping’s government has been keen to avoid even as it tightens financing restrictions on overstretched developers and discourages government bailouts.

  So for now, Beijing blinked but it remains unclear if it will do so again when not just interest but maturities come due. And there is a lot of maturities, starting with some $7.4 billion next year and only rising from there. Indeed, the company’s borrowings totaled 716 billion yuan ($111 billion) at the end of December, with nearly half due in less than a year.

  

  It owes about 830 billion yuan in trade and other payables to suppliers, and has received down payments on yet-to-be-completed properties from more than 1.5 million homebuyers.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/09/2021 – 19:40

• US Sails Warship Near Chinese-Claimed Reef, Testing New Maritime Law
  US Sails Warship Near Chinese-Claimed Reef, Testing New Maritime Law

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  The US sailed a warship near a Chinese-claimed reef in the disputed South China Sea on Wednesday, the first such maneuver since China enacted a new law requiring foreign vessels to report themselves when entering Beijing’s claimed territorial waters.

  As expected, the US ignored the new law, and the maneuver drew a sharp rebuke from Beijing. “The actions of the US side seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security, which is further solid evidence of its aggressive navigation hegemony and militarization of the South China Sea,” said Col. Tian Junli, a spokesman for China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Tian added that the US is the “biggest destroyer” of peace and stability in the region.

  

  The US Navy’s Seventh Fleet said the guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold passed within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef, a feature of the Spratly Islands that is controlled by China and also claimed by the Philippines and Vietnam. After China’s rebuke, the Seventh Fleet updated its statement, calling the Chinese statement “false.”

  “The PLA’s statement is the latest in a long string of PRC actions to misrepresent lawful US maritime operations and assert its excessive and illegitimate maritime claims at the expense of its Southeast Asian neighbors in the South China Sea,” the Seventh Fleet said.

  Since the Obama administration, the US has inserted itself into the maritime dispute between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors. In 2015, the US started sending warships near Chinese-claimed islands on a regular basis, what the Pentagon calls Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs).

  

  FONOPs to challenge China increased during the Trump administration. In 2020, the US conducted nine FONOPs in the South China Sea, a record high. Wednesday’s maneuver marks the fifth FONOP in the South China Sea this year.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/09/2021 – 19:20

• Owner Of The Country's Most Expensive Mega-Mansion Has Defaulted On $165 Million In Debt
  Owner Of The Country’s Most Expensive Mega-Mansion Has Defaulted On $165 Million In Debt

  The owner of the country’s most expensive house, dubbed “The One”, has defaulted on $165 million in debt. 

  The megamansion, once expected to sell for $500 million in Los Angeles, was placed into receivership by the Los Angeles County Superior Court and will be re-listed for sale at a lower price. 

  The property’s creator, Nile Niami, once called the property his “life mission”. 

  The house suffered from “repeated delays, funding problems and changing strategies,” according to CNBC.

  Recall, we noted the property faced default back in March of this year when we reported Niami was delinquent on a $82.5 million construction loan from Hankey Capital for the 100,000-square-foot mega-mansion in Bel-Air. In the last three years, the property’s debt has surged to as high as $110 million, we noted. 

  Niami has had bad luck over the last year and a half. He sold an LA mansion called “Opus” that was once listed for $100 million for a 50% haircut during the pandemic.

  

  According to a document obtained by The Times earlier this year, Hankey, the lender, who is was aware of market conditions, wanted their money back and slapped Niami with a default notice. The developer had just 90 days from that notice to repay the loan or restructure the agreement in some way so that Hankey doesn’t force the sale of the home.

  That obviously didn’t happen. Hankey said at the time:

  “We felt the owner of ‘The One’ was distracted from the job at hand, which is to bring the biggest and best house in the United States to market for sale,” said Don Hankey, chairman of Hankey Investment Co.

  “We hope our actions will kick off the official listing.”

  Niami began constructing the 100,000-square-foot mega-mansion in 2013 as part of a speculative bet on the LA mansion market. But over the years, economic conditions have morphed from party to pandemic. Bets on housing in metro areas have gone sour in the recent year as people exit cities for rural communities. 

  “Default notices are nothing new for Niami,” said The Times back in March. In 2020 alone, the developer received a default notice for $10 million on a property on 369 Londonderry Place in the Hollywood Hills, and one for a debt of $23.4 million on a mansion at 10701 Bellagio Road. 

  Last summer, he posted a video on his Instagram account saying The One was a couple of months away from completion. 

  “Seven years ago, I had an idea to create the biggest, most expensive house in the urban world: The One Bel-Air. And I did it.”

  You sure did, Nile.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/09/2021 – 19:00