- Brandon Smith: There Are Things Worth Fighting For, And Fates Far Worse Than Death
Brandon Smith: There Are Things Worth Fighting For, And Fates Far Worse Than Death
Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,
Activism in the liberty movement often requires a painful examination of details. We look at political and economic trends, identify inconsistencies in the mainstream narrative, point out inevitable outcomes of disaster or attempts at collectivist power, and ask – “Who benefits?” Ultimately, the analysts and activists with any sense of observation come to the same conclusion: There is a contingent of financial elites embedded within the political world and the corporate world that have a specific ideology and malicious goals. They create most geopolitical and economic crisis events using puppets in government as well as influence in central banking. They then turn the consequences of these events to their advantage.
This group is identified by their intent as well as their associations. Their intent is utter dominance through globalism to the point that national borders are erased and all trade and governance flows through a single one-world edifice that they seek to control. As Richard N. Gardner, former deputy assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations under Kennedy and Johnson, and a member of the Trilateral Commission, wrote in the April, 1974 issue of the Council on Foreign Relation’s (CFR) journal Foreign Affairs (pg. 558) in an article titled ‘The Hard Road To World Order’:
“In short, the ‘house of world order’ will have to be built from the bottom up rather than from the top down. It will look like a great ‘booming, buzzing confusion,’ to use William James’ famous description of reality, but an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault.”
They want to reinvent civilization and mold it into a homogenized and highly micromanaged global hive. Within this collective, they see themselves as not only the future masters of social evolution, but also as demigods that are worshiped by the masses. And, they are willing to do almost ANYTHING to achieve this endgame.
In an article I wrote last year titled ‘Global Elitists Are Not Human’, I outlined the connection between globalist ideology, globalist actions and the psychology of narcissistic sociopaths (narcopaths or pyschopaths). I theorized that the globalists are in fact a stark example of tightly organized psychopathy. In other words, like a criminal cartel or cult, they are a group of psychopaths that have unified their efforts to become more efficient predators. And like many psychopaths, they have conjured elaborate philosophical explanations for their abhorrent activities to the point that they seem to have developed their own disturbing brand of religion.
There comes a moment in the life of many liberty movement activists or analysts when they are confronted with this reality: The reality that we are not fighting a faceless “system” that was built passively by mistake, or built in the name of mere random greed. No, the system is only an extension of a greater agenda and the weapon of a conspiratorial army. What we are really fighting are very evil people with psychopathic desires to dominate and destroy. Attempt to change the system without removing the cabal behind it, and you will fail every time.
This is where we hit a wall of indecision and find ourselves at an impasse on solutions within the movement. There are even some people who argue that “nothing can be done”.
This is, of course, a lie. Something can indeed be done. We can fight and remove the elites from the equation entirely. In fact, we have no choice but to fight if we hope to retain any semblance of our sovereignty or foundational principles. But sadly, there are people in the movement with some influence who do not seem to understand the difference between fighting to survive, and fighting to succeed.
Let me break it down a little further…
The liberty movement is obsessed with the concept of “survival”. We see the globalist efforts leading to the ruin of the common man’s future and we know that the threat is very real. So, we prepare; we prepare to survive, but not necessarily to prevail.
Survival in itself is meaningless. There are many ways to stay alive. A person could just as easily sell out to the globalists and help them, and that person would probably have better “odds” of survival than I will farming my homestead as a producer and living off my preps in defiance of them. If survival alone is your goal, then you are NOT a liberty activist and you have missed the bigger picture.
Even in the event that you can weather the storm of economic chaos or political civil war safely in an isolated retreat somewhere on a far off mountaintop, what kind of world will you be coming back to when you finally have to leave that idyllic castle? What kind of world will your children be coming back to? And their children…?
I’m certainly not dismissing the usefulness of survival culture. I’m a big proponent of it. But there are self proclaimed survival “gurus” out there that are misleading the movement into thinking that survival is the final goal. And to this end, they have criticized people for organizing or preparing to fight the establishment. They claim it can’t be done. We’ll be “wiped off the face of the Earth”. The enemy is far too strong and what can a mere rifle do against a tank? But if survivalism requires running away and hiding like a coward from a known evil or refusing to take action for the sake of future generations, then I don’t want to be a survivalist…
Freedom cannot be boiled down to a dream or a wish; something that might happen someday if we are able to stay alive long enough. Freedom is a responsibility that is already born into most human beings. It’s not a cheesy or childish ideal, it’s a timeless ideal. Freedom and the fight for peace and balance in the face of would-be emperors is an infinite battle. It never ends. The fight IS freedom. Without the fight, freedom disappears.
For each person that defies collectivists and totalitarians, even at the risk of their own life, the shadow is held back another day. This is what matters, and this is what the survival purists don’t get. You have to make yourself WORTHY of surviving, by standing for principles and values that are bigger than you are. Otherwise you’re not worth a damn to anyone, even yourself.
As for the notion of the impossible mountain; the lone rebel taking on a vast globalist army…this is not a delusional fantasy and these people are not alone. There are millions of us out there, getting ready and forming pockets of resistance. In the meantime we fight the information war, because the globalist’s most powerful weapon is not a tank or even a nuclear bomb, it’s propaganda. The ability to turn a population in on itself and cause it to self destruct is far more dangerous than any technological advancement or military marvel.
As a long time mixed martial artist, I have seen the biggest and most intimidating opponents toppled by clever strategy and willpower. There is no such thing as an unbeatable man, nor an unbeatable army. There is always a way to prevail.
Finally, when I consider the claim made by some people that beating the elites in a direct confrontation is a “pipe dream”, I have to ask a fundamental question: Why do these people assume we have a choice? I’ve witnessed some pretty desperate attempts at silver bullet solutions to globalism in my years in the movement, from presidential election campaigns to change a system that cannot be changed from within, to “revolutionary” cryptocurrencies that the banking elites happily invest in and co-opt.
People misplace their faith in corrupt politicians and the rigged political process, even though they should know better by now. In the final analysis, politics is designed to keep society in stasis, frozen with inaction or fighting in the name of a false leader. Always, when the dust settles the elites escape blame and scrutiny while the public picks up the pieces and tries to understand just what happened. The current chaos surrounding Donald Trump is no different; it is only different in that Trump is a puppet whose job is to appeal directly to liberty activists. For once we’re getting recognition, but it’s not the good kind…
And while building alternatives to the mainstream system and removing yourself from the grid is a step in the right direction, this alone is only a stop-gap. One day, the establishment will come to take what you have. There is no way around this. Narcopaths are like ravenous parasites feeding on every last morsel of humanity. They take whatever can be taken.
The question is, when they come to digest that which you hold precious, how will you respond? Is fighting back impossible, or is it preferable to slavery? Is dying for a better tomorrow a fool’s errand, or the only errand we are put on this Earth for? These are questions that need to be answered and answered soon. The time left to ponder them is running out.
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Tyler Durden
Thu, 11/07/2019 – 00:00 - Soaring Homelessness Forces San Fran To Issue Record Housing Debt
Soaring Homelessness Forces San Fran To Issue Record Housing Debt
In response to a housing affordability crisis in the Bay Area, one where wages haven’t kept up with soaring home prices in the last decade, voters on Tuesday have likely given the government of the City and County of San Francisco permission to issue a $600 million affordable housing bond, the largest in the city’s history, reported KQED News.
Preliminary results from Tuesday night’s vote showed 69% of voters supported the measure while 31% opposed it. The bill needs a two-thirds majority to pass.
Proposition A, a project to build 2,800 units of low-income and middle-income housing to clean up the homelessness crisis on the streets of the Bay Area, could become a reality once the measure is passed.
“It’s a big bond. It’s a lot of money and some people may have been asking themselves is this going to be meaningful to me,” said Matthias Mormino, policy analyst for Chinatown Community Development Center, an affordable housing development group in San Francisco.
“But being able to expand these affordable housing projects geographically in other neighborhoods is exciting,” said Mormino.
Some interesting #SFElections history on affordable housing bonds …
In 2015, voters passed a $310 million bond (74.2%)
In 2004, voters rejected a $200 million bond (64.2 %)
In 2002, voters rejected a $250 million bond (55.8%)
In 1996, voters passed $100 million bond (67.4%)— Erika A. Aguilar (@erikaaaguilar) November 6, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
The possible passage of the largest-ever affordable housing bond is in response to the Bay Area’s homelessness crisis.
Based on a 2017 point-in-time (PIT) estimate, 28,000 people were homeless across the area. An approximated 70% of these people were living on the streets in Santa Clara, San Francisco, and Alameda Counties.
Preliminary PIT estimates show in 2019 a 43% jump in the homeless population in Alameda Counties, 31% in Santa Clara, and 17% in San Francisco from 2017 to 2019.
Total homeless populations in the Bay Area will likely increase through the early 2020s as wealth inequality expands. If the bill is approved, the build time for these new structures could take several years.
Under Proposition A, funds will be allocated to these five areas (list provided by Bloomberg):
- $220 million for extremely low- and low-income people
- $150 million to repair and rebuild public housing developments
- $150 million to acquire and construct housing for seniors
- $60 million to acquire and rehabilitate affordable rental housing to prevent the loss of such housing and to assist middle-income city residents and workers to secure permanent housing
- $20 million to support affordable housing for educators and employees of the San Francisco Unified School District and City College of San Francisco
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/06/2019 – 23:40 - CJ Hopkins Exposes The Ministry Of Wiki-Truth
CJ Hopkins Exposes The Ministry Of Wiki-Truth
Authored by CJ Hopkins via The Unz Review,
OK, here’s a silly one for you.
Have you ever wondered how all those Wikipedia articles get produced… you know, the ones you pull up on your phone to look up an actor, an author, or a recipe, or a historical or scientific fact?
Unfortunately, one of the Consent Factory staff had an opportunity to find out recently.
Apparently, what happened was, someone (presumably one of my readers) tried to add a reference to one of my essays to Wikipedia’s Identity Politics page. The Ministry of Wiki-Truth objected, adamantly. A low-level edit war ensued. Once the Ministers had quashed the rebellion, one of them, “Grayfell,” immediately went to the CJ Hopkins Wikipedia article and started punitively “editing” its contents for “neutrality.”
Other Ministers soon joined in the fun. The list of my awards was summarily deleted. My debut novel, Zone 23, which I published under the Consent Factory’s literary imprint, Snoggsworthy, Swaine & Cormorant Paperbacks, was “edited” into a vanity publication that I “self-published,” probably in my mother’s basement. The “Snoggsworthy, Swaine & Cormorant” imprint (which every bookseller, library, and professional catalog recognizes) was disappeared so that my potential readers will be warned that I’m trying to trick them into buying a book that wasn’t published by a “real” (i.e., corporate) publisher, like the Penguin Group, or one of its … uh, imprints. References to my “political satire and commentary,” and to many of the alternative outlets that regularly repost my essays (like the outlet you’re probably reading this in) were also zapped, because they’re all “fake news” sites operated by Putin-Nazi agents.
Also, given my attempted book fraud, the Wikipedia Ministers immediately launched an investigation into whether I had possibly made up my entire career. Perhaps I had invented all the productions of my plays, and my awards, and even my existence itself. I assume they have contacted my “legitimate” publishers, Bloomsbury Publishingand Broadway Play Publishing, to verify that I haven’t somehow hacked their websites and faked my other books. If they haven’t … well, they should probably get on that.
This “editing” and pursuant investigation was overseen and approved by a senior member of the Ministry’s Arbitration Committee, Doug Weller, who is apparently a “Grandmaster Editor” or a “Lord High Togneme Vicarus” in Wiki-speak. (I kid you not … click the link.) Given Lord Weller’s supervision of the process, I think it’s probably safe to say that this was not just the work of a bunch of kids attempting to negatively impact my book sales because someone on the Internet pissed them off.
This brouhaha was brought to my attention by the Consent Factory’s in-house Wikipedia Liaison, King Ubu (or König Ubu in German). As his job title suggests, King Ubu’s duty is to periodically check my Wikipedia article and make sure that no one has posted anything false, defamatory, or just plain weird. Naturally, when he saw how the Ministers of Wiki-Truth were punitively “editing” my page for “neutrality,” he attempted to engage them. This did not go well. I won’t go through all the gory details, but, if you’re curious, they’re here on the CJ Hopkins “talk” page (which King Ubu reports that he has copied and archived, which I find a bit paranoid, but then, I’m not an IT guy).
Look, normally, I wouldn’t bore you with my personal affairs, but my case is just another example of how “reality” is manufactured these days. In the anti-establishment circles I move in, Wikipedia is notorious for this kind of stuff, which is unsurprising when you think about it. It’s a perfect platform for manufacturing reality, disseminating pro-establishment propaganda, and damaging people’s reputations, which is a rather popular tactic these days. The simple fact is, when you google anything, Wikipedia is usually the first link that comes up. Most people assume that what they read on the platform is basically factual and at least trying to be “objective” … which a lot of it is, but a lot of it isn’t.
If the name Philip Cross doesn’t ring any bells, you might want to have a look into his story before you go back to uncritically surfing Wikipedia. As of May 14, 2018 (when Five Filters published this article about him and his service at the Ministry of Wiki-Truth), he had been editing Wikipedia for five years straight, every day of the week, including Christmas. He (if Cross is an actual person, and not an intelligence agency PSYOP) specializes in maliciously “editing” articles regarding anti-war activists and other anti-establishment persons. The story is too long to recount here, but have a look at this other Five Filters article. If you’re interested, that’s a good place to start.
Or, if you don’t have time to do that, go ahead and use my case as an example. See, according to Ubu, the Ministry’s punitive “editing” of my article to make it more “neutral” began when this specific Minister (“Grayfell”) discovered (a) that I existed, and (b) that I am a leftist heretic. “Grayfell,” as it turns out, is extremely invested in maintaining a positive image of Antifa, whose Wikipedia article he actively edits, and whose honor and integrity he valiantly defends, not only from conservatives and neo-fascist bozos, but apparently also from nefarious leftist authors and political satirists like myself.
Which … OK, I probably deserve it, right? I have satirized identity politics. I have satirized Antifa. I have satirized liberals. I don’t forbid controversial outlets (or any other outlets for that matter) from republishing my political satire and commentary, even after I was instructed to do so by the Leftism Police at CounterPunch. Jesus, I even included a link to a Breitbart article in the preceding paragraph … don’t read it, of course, it’s all a bunch of lies, notwithstanding all the supporting evidence.
Chief among my leftist heresies, I haven’t insulted Trump nearly enough. I don’t believe he’s a “Russian asset” or the resurrection of Adolf Hitler. I believe he is the same narcissistic ass clown and self-absorbed con man he has always been. Much as I dislike the man, I’m not on board with the deep-state coup the Intelligence Community, the Democrats, and the rest of the neoliberal Resistance have been trying to stage since he won the election.
I’m not a big fan of Intelligence agencies, generally. I don’t care much for imperialism, not even when it’s global capitalist imperialism. I do not support the global capitalist ruling classes’ War on Populism, or believe in the official Putin-Nazi narrativethat they and their servants in the corporate media have been disseminating for the last three years. I do not sing hymns to former FBI directors. I don’t believe that all conservatives are fascists, or that the working classes are all a bunch of racists, or that “America is under attack.“
Let’s face it, I’m a terrible leftist.
So it’s probably good that “Grayfell” and his pals discovered me and are feverishly “correcting” my article, and God knows how many other articles that don’t conform to Wikipedia “policy,” or Philip Cross’ political preferences, or Antifa’s theory of “preemptive self-defense,” or whatever other non-ideological, totally objective editorial standards the “volunteer editors” at the Ministry of Wiki-Truth (who have nothing to do with the Intelligence Community, or Antifa, or any other entities like that) consensually decide to robotically adhere to.
How else are they going to keep their content “neutral,” “unbiased,” and “reliably sourced,” so that people can pull up Wikipedia on their phones and verify historical events (which really happened, exactly as they say they did), or scientific “facts” (which are indisputable) … or whether Oceania is at War with EastAsia, or Eurasia, or the Terrorists, or Russia?
Oh, and please don’t worry about my Wikipedia article. König Ubu assures me he has done all he could to restore it some semblance of accuracy, and that the Ministers have moved on to bigger fish. Of course, who knows what additional “edits” might suddenly become a top priority once “Grayfell” or Antifa gets wind of this piece.
* * *
C. J. Hopkins is an award-winning American playwright, novelist and political satirist based in Berlin. His plays are published by Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) and Broadway Play Publishing (USA). His debut novel, ZONE 23, is published by Snoggsworthy, Swaine & Cormorant Paperbacks. He can be reached at cjhopkins.com or consentfactory.org.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/06/2019 – 23:20 - White Men's Lives Matter – How Many People Are Killed By Police In The US?
White Men's Lives Matter – How Many People Are Killed By Police In The US?
Almost 1000 people in the U.S. have been shot and killed by police in 2018. In 2017 and 2016, about an equal amount of people died this way, according to the Washington Post. As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz shows in the below infographic, most of those killed by police are male and white.
While around 450 of the deceased were white, 229 were Black. This is a relatively high share, keeping in mind that close to 13 percent of Americans belong to that race group.
You will find more infographics at Statista
Around half of those shot and killed by police carried a gun themselves. But in the case of more than a hundred people, they were either unarmed or it is unknown if they carried a weapon. In 35 cases, the deceased had been seen with a toy weapon that was mistaken for the real thing.
Out of the nearly 1000 killed, more than 200 were listed as having shown signs of mental illness.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/06/2019 – 23:00 - Sidewalk Labs' Smart-Cities Will Create A For-Profit Social Credit System
Sidewalk Labs' Smart-Cities Will Create A For-Profit Social Credit System
Smart city surveillance, is much worse than anyone could have imagined.
Two years ago, I revealed how a CIA “signature school” was installing thousands of CCTV cameras and microphones in smart cities, but Sidewalk Labs wants to take public surveillance to a whole new level.
The Globe And Mail revealed that Sidewalk Labs “Yellow Book,” a guidebook designed to help Google employees build a smart city from the ground up, would give their employees control of public services.
Yellow Book describes how Google plans to turn at least four major cities in North America into Sidewalk Labs smart cities.
“The book proposed a community that could house 100,000 people on a site of up to 1,000 acres, and contains case studies for three potential sites in the United States: Detroit, Denver, and Alameda, Calif. It also includes a map with dots detailing many other potential sites for Sidewalk’s first project, including a dot placed on the shores of Lake Athabasca in northern Saskatchewan.”
The fourth area, Toronto’s waterfront, has received lots of criticism from privacy experts. With some going so far as to call it “surveillance capitalism.”
“The smart city project on the Toronto waterfront is the most highly evolved version to date of … surveillance capitalism” US venture capitalist Roger McNamee wrote to the city council, suggesting Google will use “algorithms to nudge human behavior” in ways to “favor its business.” (To join the campaign against Sidewalk Toronto click here.)
The Yellow Book allegedly reveals how Google wants to control city services like Disney World does in Florida.
“Sidewalk will require tax and financing authority to finance and provide services, including the ability to impose, capture and reinvest property taxes,” the book said. The company would also create and control its own public services, including charter schools, special transit systems and a private road infrastructure.”
Sidewalk Labs wants to control the police and justice system
credit: UK Reuters
The Globe and Mail also revealed that Sidewalk Labs wants to control a cities’ police department and justice system.
“(Sidewalk notes it would ask for local policing powers similar to those granted to universities) and the possibility of an alternative approach to jail, using data from so-called root-cause assessment tools. This would guide officials in determining a response when someone is arrested, such as sending someone to a substance abuse center.”
People could literally be arrested by Sidewalk Lab’s police and and sentenced by their judges.
Sidewalk Lab’s police could use “unique data identifiers” to track anyone they want.
“Early on, the company notes that a Sidewalk neighborhood would collect real-time position data for all entities – including people. The company would also collect a historical record of where things have been and “about where they are going. Furthermore, unique data identifiers would be generated for every person, business or object registered in the district, helping devices communicate with each other.”
Google’s “SensorVault” already gives police a disturbing amount of personal information about a person’s cellphone.
The data Google is turning over to law enforcement is so precise that one deputy police chief said it “shows the whole pattern of life.”
The Globe and Mail also revealed that Sidewalk Labs’ smart cities could use a tiered (social credit) level of services system that rewards certain people while punishing those who wish to remain anonymous.
“People choosing to share in-home fire safety sensor data could receive advice on health and safety related to air quality, or provide additional information to first responders in case of an emergency. Those choosing to remain anonymous would not be able to access all of the area’s services: Automated taxi services would not be available to anonymous users, and some merchants might be unable to accept cash, the book warns.”
Forcing people to give up their privacy to receive health and safety advice, emergency services and forcing them to use credit cards is just one more example of smart city “comply or deny” mentality that wants to know everything about everyone.
Google’s Sidewalk Labs turns smart cities into a for-profit social credit system.
Harvard University professor Shoshana Zuboff said,
“Sidewalk Labs was like a for-profit China that would use digital infrastructure to modify and direct social and political behavior.”
If you combine a corporate run police department and justice system with real-time position data, CCTV cameras, social media monitoring, Stingray devices, SensorVault and a tiered social credit system it doesn’t take a privacy expert to see just how dangerous smart city surveillance really is.
Smart cities should really be called “comply or deny cities” because corporations will force people to modify their social and political behavior or they will be denied public services, just like China does.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/06/2019 – 22:40 - The Art Of The Deal – China Approves Brazil For Shipments Of Swine-Offal
The Art Of The Deal – China Approves Brazil For Shipments Of Swine-Offal
The Art of the Deal is alive and well in how China is acquiring foreign pig products.
China’s recent move to smash pig prices in the Western Hemisphere by blocking shipments from the US, let their cold storage facilities swell, then go to surrounding countries and make heavily discounted deals.
This is precisely what happened in Brazil, where China signed the first-ever trade deal with Brazil to start receiving shipments of swine offal, or organ meats (hearts, tongues, stomachs, and entrails).
Brazil Agriculture Minister Tereza Cristina told reporters Monday that it didn’t previously have access to China’s swine-offal market.
Now it does, and JBS SA and BRF SA are the Brazilian meat companies that will immediately start sending pig byproducts to China.
The US had a significant influence on China’s swine offal market, but since China slapped 50% tariffs last year on US pork — trade between both countries has sagged.
Brazil’s swine offal sales to China are expected to soar in the coming months. The Asian nation has been desperately searching for pig products around the world as its domestic herd has been halved this year thanks to African swine fever.
The trade deal with Brazil comes at a time when the US and China are attempting to agree on a “Phase 1” trade deal of their own.
It’s not really a comprehensive trade deal, it’s just China buying a lot of agriculture products from the US — but has been packaged up by the Trump administration as the “greatest” deal ever to pump stocks.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/06/2019 – 22:20 - Are You A Moral Grandstander?
Are You A Moral Grandstander?
Authored by Scott Barry Kaufman via Scientific American,
Do you strongly agree with the following statements?
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When I share my moral/political beliefs, I do so to show people who disagree with me that I am better than them.
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I share my moral/political beliefs to make people who disagree with me feel bad.
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When I share my moral/political beliefs, I do so in the hopes that people different than me will feel ashamed of their beliefs.
If so, then you may be a card-carrying moral grandstander. Of course it’s wonderful to have a social cause that you believe in genuinely, and which you want to share with the world to make it a better place. But moral grandstanding comes from a different place.
First defined and delineated in the moral philosophy literature, moral grandstanding can be defined as “the use and abuse of moral talk to seek status, to promote oneself, or to boost your own brand.”
A moral grandstander is therefore a person who frequently uses public discussion of morality and politics to impress others with their moral qualities. Crucially, these individuals are primarily motivated by the desire to enhance their own status or ranking among their peers.
Let’s face it: Moral grandstanding seems to be everywhere these days. As clinical psychologist Joshua Grubbs notes, “Perhaps, just perhaps, part of the reason so many of us are so awful to each other so much of the time on here is related to a desire to show off to likeminded others. In essence, sometimes we behave poorly in an effort to gain the respect and esteem of folks like us.”
Interested in scientifically investigating this phenomenon, Grubbs teamed up with the philosophers who first defined moral grandstanding– Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke– as well as the psychologists A. Shanti James and W. Keith Campbell. Across 6 studies (involving 2 pre-registrations involving nationally representative samples), 2 longitudinal designs, and over 6,000 participants, these are their core findings:
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Moral grandstanders (those scoring high on the moral grandstanding survey) tend to also score high in narcissistic characteristics and also tend to report status-seeking as their fundamental social motive.
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There is no relationship between moral grandstanding and political affiliation. However there is a link between moral grandstanding and political polarization: people on the far left and far right are both more likely to score higher in moral grandstanding characteristics than those who are more moderate democrats and republicans.
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Moral grandstanders are more likely to report greater moral and political conflict in their daily lives (e.g., “I lost friends because of my political/moral beliefs”) and they report getting into more fights with others on social media because of their political or moral beliefs. This correlation was found even after controlling for other personality traits, and continued over the course of a one-month longitudinal study.
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Grandstanders were more likely to report antagonistic behavior over time, such as attacking others online, or trying to publicly shame someone online because they held a different moral or political belief.
Of course, moral grandstanding is not the only factor predicting public conflict, and not every instance of public moral or political sharing is motivated by narcissistic motives. As Grubbs notes, a real difficulty in understanding socially toxic behaviors “is that oftentimes, the same behavior (by appearance) may be driven by vastly different motives, and intent matters quite a bit in interpreting those behaviors.”
Nevertheless, since we are such a social species, the human need for social status is very pervasive, and often our attempts at sharing our moral and political beliefs on public social media platforms involve a mix of genuine motives with social status motives. As one team of psychologists put it, yes, you probably are “virtue signaling” (a closely related concept to moral grandstanding), but that doesn’t mean that your outrage is necessarily inauthentic. It just means that we often have a subconscious desire to signal our virtue, which when not checked, can spiral out of control and cause us to denigrate or be mean to others in order to satisfy that desire. When the need for status predominates, we may even lose touch with what we truly believe, or even what is actually the truth.
To be sure, the human drive for social status can be a great driver of growth and goodness in the world. It really depends on whether one has a healthy regulation of this fundamental human need. Interestingly enough, Grubbs and his colleagues found that moral grandstanding motivations are reminiscent of the two different routes to social status found in the psychological literature: dominance and prestige. The dominance pathway to status is paved with hubris, deceit, and aggression, whereas the prestigious pathway to status is paved with pride for one’s authentic accomplishments, and the desire for personal growth and connection with others.
Likewise, moral grandstanding can be fueled by either:
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The need to seek social status by dominating others (“When I share my moral/political beliefs, I do so to show people who disagree with me that I am better than them”)
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The need to seek status through being a knowledgeable and virtuous example (“I want to be on the right side of history about moral/political issues”, “If I don’t share my views, others will be less likely to learn the truth about moral/political matters”, “I often share my moral/political beliefs in the hope of inspiring people to be more passionate about their beliefs.”)
The researchers found that the dominance path to social status was much more strongly linked to antagonistic behaviors and conflict in everyday life compared to the more authentic/prestigious route to social status. Maybe so much of the strife seen on social media could be prevented if before hitting “Tweet”, we asked ourselves: “Do I truly believe in the importance of this cause/idea/belief or am I mainly just saying this to gain status from my peers and take down those who disagree?”
Of course, gaining social status from saying what one truly believes is a rewarding outcome, but when advancing your brand becomes the sole motivating force behind all of your political and moral pronouncements, that might not be the best route to getting at the real truth about what will actually help advance an important cause, not to mention your own well-being and happiness.
Hopefully more research along these lines will help advance our understanding of this important individual differences variable and how this factor is currently playing out in this divided moral and political landscape.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/06/2019 – 22:00 -
- As US Moves To Ban Huawei 5G, CEO Says Good Riddance Ahead Of Great Decoupling
As US Moves To Ban Huawei 5G, CEO Says Good Riddance Ahead Of Great Decoupling
The great economic decoupling has started, this is something that we’ve warned about since the trade war began. Years of elevated financial market volatility will follow as the world is sliced in half, with one side being controlled by the US, and the other side controlled by China.
The latest evidence of decoupling comes from Huawei Technologies CEO Ren Zhengfei, who spoke with The Wall Street Journal and said: “We can survive very well without the US. The China-U.S. trade talks are not something I’m concerned with.”
In May, the Commerce Department blacklisted Huawei, the world’s largest 5G equipment and smartphone producer, from doing business US firms.
Zhengfei said, “we have virtually no business dealings in the US” since the blacklisting.
Huawei was a major buyer of US semiconductors before it was blacklisted. Sales figures showed the company bought $11 billion of technology from US suppliers in 2018. The blacklisting has forced Huawei to find alternative sourcing.
Zhengfei said the company is rapidly expanding its 5G network products across the world without US chips. He said 5,000 5G base stations are being constructed every month.
Despite the blacklisting, Huawei is still purchasing some chips from US firms that produce offshore, where US restrictions don’t apply.
Will Zhang, Huawei’s president of corporate strategy, told The Journal that purchasing levels of US chips are at 70% to 80% of its previous level.
The Trump administration has spent at least 15 months creating Sinophobia across the world, by warning countries not to use Huawei 5G equipment because of spying concerns.
Zhengfei has denied the allegations that it spies on its customers or any government, though the Trump administration has labeled Huawei a national security threat.
Beijing views Huawei as a centerpiece of its economic success and is considered an essential piece of any future trade deal between the US.
The next several quarters will be critical for Huawei. That is if it can continue sourcing most of its chips from alternative producers and continue dominating the global smartphone space and the build-out of 5G networks across the world, then that will indicate the great decoupling from West to East is well underway.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/06/2019 – 21:40 - When They Can Take Your Children Away… How Free Are You?
When They Can Take Your Children Away… How Free Are You?
Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,
George Reby was driving from New Jersey to Tennessee to pick up a car he had purchased on eBay when he was stopped for speeding.
Like many Americans, George felt he had nothing to hide from the police. So when the officer asked him if he was carrying any large amounts of cash, he admitted he had $22,000 on him because he was buying a car.
George was able to show the officer his eBay bids, and that the sale was legitimate. He was able to demonstrate that he has income from his job as an insurance adjuster.
But none of that mattered. The cop seized George’s money on the spot.
Later, in a court hearing that George was not allowed to participate in, the judge allowed the police to keep the money even though George was never charged with a crime.
There was no proof of wrongdoing. Even more, George had proof that there was NO wrongdoing.
“You live in the United States, you think you have rights — and apparently you don’t,” George commented later.
He was forced to hire an attorney and jump through a ton of bureaucratic hoops over a period of several months before the state of Tennessee finally returned his money.
But not everyone is so lucky.
Numerous victims of the Tenaha police department in East Texas (population ~1,300 people) never got their money back.
One victim had his baby taken by child services because he chose to fight the town when they seized his assets without cause.
Another family was threatened with the same because they were carrying $6,000 in cash to buy a car. Police said the children were possibly decoys.
Threatening parents with child services was just one of the tactics Tenaha police used to try to make sure no one fought their absurd abuse of civil asset forfeiture.
Yet none of these people was ever charged with a crime. And that’s because there was no evidence of crimes. They were just carrying a few thousand dollars in cash.
(By the way, carrying cash is completely LEGAL.)
But it’s legal for police to do this in the Land of the Free.
It’s called Civil Asset Forfeiture; and the rules allow police to take money, cars, houses, and other property without ever charging you with a crime.
The government also has the legal authority to take children away from their parents; these laws are supposed to exist to safeguard children who are in abusive and dangerous environments.
Yet there’s an appalling number of incidents where local officials weaponize this authority to harass, intimidate, and extort people out of money.
Last week I told you about how moving abroad could save you tens of thousands of dollars in taxes through the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion.
(Under the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, you and your spouse can EACH earn more than $105,000 annually, tax free, plus even more tax benefits for housing and other expenses.)
And in addition to the taxes, the lifestyle benefits of being abroad are also substantial. The cost of living is often much cheaper abroad. High quality medical care can be very inexpensive.
You can become proficient in another language; and for younger children in particular, they can learn the local language to an almost native level.
But even above all of those reasons, I still find one of the most compelling benefits of living overseas is that I feel more free.
For many people this is a conundrum– they cannot possibly envisage a lesser developed country being more free than ‘Murica.
And certainly there are tradeoffs. I don’t want to butter your buns with wild tales of exotic women feeding you grapes all day just because you move overseas. (Unless you go to the Philippines, in which case, I hope you like grapes.)
But one thing that’s been consistent for me having lived in half a dozen countries (including places that are fairly underdeveloped) is that you and your family are generally just left alone to live your lives.
And even in places that still struggle with corruption, locals would be absolutely shocked to hear about the government threatening to take someone’s children away.
That stuff doesn’t even fly in banana republics.
It might seem radical at first. But, if you find yourself agitated at the steady erosion of freedom in your home country and the never-ending howls of the Bolsheviks, consider taking a trip abroad… and see if you breathe free again.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/06/2019 – 21:20 - US "Stoking Confrontation" With "Dangerous" Resumption Of Joint Aerial Drills: N.Korea
US "Stoking Confrontation" With "Dangerous" Resumption Of Joint Aerial Drills: N.Korea
Just days after North Korea confirmed a provocative test a new “super-large” rocket launcher which sent two projectiles 200 miles where they crashed into the sea, Pyongyang has blasted US plans to resume combined aerial exercises with South Korea.
In a charged statement, Kwon Jong Gun, the DPRK’s permanent roving ambassador, said such a resumption would destroy any good will built up with the US administration after the recent series of talks between Trump and Kim Jong Un.
He said, according to an official press release: “The U.S. reckless military frenzy is an extremely provocative and dangerous act of throwing a wet blanket over the spark of the DPRK-U.S. dialogue on the verge of extinction and stoking the atmosphere of confrontation on the Korean peninsula and the region.”
Image via Reuters/SCMP This after “the U.S. Defense Department officially announced that it is pushing ahead with the procedure for resuming the combined aerial exercise with the south Korean army in December,” according to the statement.
The North Korean ambassador said resumption of military exercises aimed at the DPRK marks a violation of the June 2018 US-North Korea summit in Singapore, which he characterized as “reckless military frenzy” and an “extremely provocative and dangerous act”.
“The U.S. intention to openly hold war exercise against the DPRK at a sensitive time when the whole world is concerned about the prospect of the DPRK-U.S. relations clearly proves again its nature as the chieftain harassing world peace and security and the hegemonic state regarding the recourse to military strength as a cure-for-all in settling issues,” the statement continued. “Our patience is nearing limitations,” the statement concluded.
Restart of US-#ROK aerial military exercises “an extremely provocative and dangerous act of throwing a wet blanket over the spark of the DPRK-US dialogue on the verge of extinction,” says #DPRK roving ambassador. pic.twitter.com/nfbBeDGWrS
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) November 6, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
The ambassador’s angry condemnation comes after earlier in the day military magazine Stars and Stripes confirmed the joint drills would move forward as planned, citing US military officials.
According to the report:
The United States and South Korea will hold a combined air exercise next month to replace the former annual drills known as Vigilant Ace, officials said.
The allies canceled Vigilant Ace and several other joint drills last year to facilitate nuclear talks with North Korea, which considers them a rehearsal for an invasion.
“There are no plans to skip upcoming combined exercises,” Army Lt. Col. Dave Eastburn, a Pentagon spokesman, said Tuesday in Washington, giving it a generic name. “We are proceeding with the Combined Flying Training Event as planned.”
Crucially, working talks between Kim and Trump are rumored to continue as early as December. If so, we could be witnessing early jockeying for leverage ahead of such a potential summit.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/06/2019 – 21:00 - Crashing The Financial System For Fun And Profit
Crashing The Financial System For Fun And Profit
Authored by Bruce Wilds via Advancing Time blog,
It would be wise to remember we are in uncharted waters and this market could reverse on a dime. The stories flowing out of companies such as WeWork that are burning through cash screams danger ahead! This means we should not discount the idea that those in charge might reach a tipping point where they crash the financial system for fun and profit. While this may seem outlandish the possibility is real. This doesn’t mean that every rich guy and gal would sign on to this plan, just enough to push things over the edge. When things have gone too far in one direction history shows that a correction always takes place. It could be argued we have reached that point and true price discovery has been lost.
A huge amount of money can be made during a market crash for those properly positioned. As long as the Fed and the big banks survive those who control these institutions couldn’t care less about how the 99.5% at the bottom fair. In fact, the Dodd-Frank Act which is over 2,300 pages allows this under Title II what is viewed by many as a “bank bail-in”. This is done by imposing the losses of insolvent financial companies on their common and preferred stockholders, debt holders, and other unsecured creditors including depositors.
The whole event of a “bank bail-in” can be viewed as another way to disguise a massive default and it can happen here in America. An example of just how delusional we have become as to the fragility of our financial system is that many people have taken comfort in the efforts to control the banking sector through the Dodd-Frank act following the 2008 crisis. This legislation is over 2,300 pages and still growing. Under Title II it allows the government to impose the losses of insolvent financial companies on their common and preferred stockholders, debt holders, and other unsecured creditors including depositors.
Crashing the financial system would result in wiping out the pension funds, the hedge funds, the mutual funds, and more. Of course, if such a scenario were to unfold there would be no smoking gun it would be something that “just happened.” Sure there would be a great deal of finger-pointing and experts would opine as to what went wrong and how to fix the system but things would go on. Rest assured that with so much blood in the streets little effort would be made to determine who instigated the trauma. Most likely as in the 2008 crisis, nobody would be held accountable or go to jail.
While this may seem unfathomable to many people it could happen. It also would be extremely profitable to those on the right side of a collapse. If you find this hard to stomach then imagine just how fast this could occur. Most investors think that even if things go downhill fast that they will be smart enough to get out of the markets. But what if it hits like the flash crash on steroids? Imagine a scenario where the market falls like a flash crash on steroids and investors are trapped.
Investors have been assured that can’t happen because circuit breakers have been put in place to arrest panic style moves but, if trade is halted, and the market simply does not reopen for days or even weeks suddenly it is a new game. As remote as this might seem, if it were to happen it would have far-reaching ramifications. While you are imagining this scenario realize that America’s stock market is the gold standard and consider how less stable global markets would react in countries like China and Brazil.
As for a catalyst, many exist and not all as sinister as what is being predicted by award-winning journalist Dr. Paul Craig Roberts. The former Assistant Treasury Secretary in the Reagan Administration, who has a PhD in Economics, predicts the oligarchs of the New World Order (NWO) will do anything to boot President Trump out of office. This includes taking down and crashing the financial system as a last resort if all else fails. “They will wipe us out in order to get rid of Trump.”Dr. Roberts says forget about the Left/Right Democrat and Republican paradigm. Dr. Roberts explains, “This isn’t a Democrat vs. Republican thing…”
Adding to questions about where we are heading is just how little most people know about the economy. Years ago, Fed watchers were surprised when Ben Bernanke’s former special advisor, Andrew Levin, said that “a lot of people would be stunned to know” the extent to which the Federal Reserve is privately owned, stating next that the Fed “should be a fully public institution.” A recent post from the BOE’s Banker Underground blog looked at the question of who really owns central banks. It found that around the world, central banks have a number of different ownership structures this means who they must be accountable to varies a great deal.
Central banks, like the Bank of England, are wholly owned by the public sector. Shareholders of central banks, like the Banca d’Italia are wholly private sector entities. Other central banks, like that of Japan, are a mix of the two. The problem is that more than half of the banks the world’s central banks oversee are at risk of collapse in the next global downturn if they don’t start preparing for tough times ahead. McKinsey & Company warned in a 55-page report titled The last pit stop? Time for bold late-cycle moves, that 35% of banks globally will have to merge or sell to larger firms if they want to survive the next crisis. This adds to the notion the masses will be thrown under the bus when push comes to shove.
Returning to the crux of this article, there is a great deal of money to be made during a market collapse. Those with money can swoop in and pick up bargains when the market is not liquid and fear runs wild. This market is ripe for such a scenario and there is a great deal of money waiting in the wings for such an event. With nothing notable to invest in as of late, it is reported that Berkshire has surpassed Apple and Google as the world’s biggest corporate cash holder. In Q3 Berkshire reported a record cash pile of $128 billion.
Many economy watchers concede the decade long “great manipulation” we have witnessed will not work indefinitely, and eventually markets will come crashing down around those in charge. With this in mind, it is easy to understand the allure of being one of those that will reap a fortune when it unravels. Years ago President Eisenhower warned the American people about the Industrial Military Complex but nobody warned us an even more evil alliance that of the “Financial-Political Complex.” It would be wise to remember those at the top control the game and make the rules. In doing so, generous they are not.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/06/2019 – 20:40 - US Healthcare Costs Are Exploding: Here's Why
US Healthcare Costs Are Exploding: Here's Why
We have previously written extensively on America’s soaring healthcare and health insurance costs (here, here, here and here), so instead of boring readers with even more words, here are some charts courtesy of Deutsche Bank that make a most persuasive case. Now if only the Fed, which is still convinced inflation is well below 2% and should keep easing, were to notice these.
We start with a very painful for many observation: after a period of modest quiet, healthcare inflation is soaring, with insurance inflation now the highest since before the financial crisis.
That’s just the beginning though: it’s only downhill from here for healthcare inflation. Or, rather, uphill.
It’s not just healthcare of course: as the next chart shows, there is plenty of inflation in the price of healthcare, education, and housing:
After the number of Americans without health insurance tumbled into Obama’s second term, this number has started to rise again, perhaps as a result of the surge in insurance costs.
Those who do have insurance are probably not all that happy: in the past decade, total annual healthcare premiums increased more than 50%!
The average annual premium for US families has risen to $20k in 2019.
Yet while a near record number of Americans have health insurance, ironically out-of-pocket healthcare spending has soared in recent years:
As a result, the total annual healthcare spending per family is now a record $23,000.
What is the reason for this divergence: one words – deductible. As the chart below shows, the annual deductible across all health insurance plans has tripled since 2006.
Even more ironically, the US should have the world’s best healthcare system, if only based on how much money is spent on it as a share of GDP:
As a reminder, Medicare and Medicaid spending make up more than 25% of total federal outlays.
One reason behind America’s woeful healthcare situation: 27% of the population have pre-existing conditions.
So where do Americans spend the most money? Why at hospitals of course, followed by clinics, dental, home healthcare, and prescription drugs.
Of course, if it wasn’t for insurance, prescription drugs would be in first place by a huge margin. Here’s why:
Then again, it’s not like hospital costs will drop any time soon:
One final point: just in case there is any confusion at the Fed, this is how much faster than CPI and wage inflation healthcare premiums have risen in the past two decades:
And one bonus chart: here is a map showing the share of US population spending more than 10% of their income on premium contributions.
Source: Deutsche Bank
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/06/2019 – 20:20 - Human Batteries? Debunking Matrix 'Science'
Human Batteries? Debunking Matrix 'Science'
Authored by Julianne Geiger via OilPrice.com,
It’s wonderfully exciting to think about the potential for harvesting humans for their energy–an idea made famous by the movie The Matrix. But leave it to science to ruin a perfectly good movie. As it turns out, humans are one of the most inefficient power sources available, and our vital energy isn’t going to be powering the world–or the evil machines–any time soon.
But we understand the fascination with this human battery concept.
The search for cleaner energy, limitless energy, and cheaper energy has reached a fever pitch, and the great minds of science are exploring all avenues of how to generate this premium energy. In their quest to discover new ways of supplying energy to the world, we stumble on some pretty far out ideas–and Hollywood has given us some of the more colorful ideas.
Some of these theoretical ideas have even inspired real-life developments, which has given rise to the sensible question, is this even possible?
In the Matrix, machines have successfully overthrown their masters, and have harnessed the energy of humans to power their world. Rows and rows of humans are seen in tanks, connected to hoses to siphon off whatever energy a human body could create. The humans, unaware of their situation, are in a dream state, living their life solely through their imagination.
Morpheus, Laurence Fishburne’s character in the movie, explains it thusly:
“The human body generates more bio electricity than a 120-volt battery and over 25000 BTUs of body heat. Combined with a form of fusion the machines had found all the energy they would ever need.”
And that sounds great! The part about the battery output, not the part about the evil robots using you as a power source. The preoccupation with battery advancements is understandable.
Science continues to work on coming up with a better battery. All types of batteries today–including both ones that we use today and ones that are in development–have at least one major drawback, creating a kind of Goldilocks scenario. The material is expensive to mine. The material is expensive to recycle. The battery doesn’t work in the cold. The battery doesn’t last very long in between charges. The battery can spontaneously explode. The battery takes too long to charge. The battery is too big. The list is seemingly endless–unfortunately so for the transportation sector, which has been desperately waiting for a mass adoption of electric cars, busses, vans, semis, and planes.
It’s no wonder why the possibility of the Matrix proposition holds the interest of many, robot masters aside.
But no worries. As it turns out, those evil machines can’t take over the world using yourself against you. And here’s why some have called this particular battery idea utter nonsense.
As it turns out, humans suck at being batteries, even while we are in a evil-machine-induced coma and have nothing else to do except for imagining our way through life. Go ahead and add that to your list of things you suck at.
I guess we don’t put out nearly as much power as Morpheus suggested. Lies, all lies!
Morpheus said the net energy output of a human is 315 W of power. At 7.7 billion people on the planet, that would be a total energy output of 2,425,500,000,000 W. Or 2.4255 terawatts. But that’s just not true. Humans are lousy energy converters, and estimates are that humans can convert fuel (food) into energy at a 25% efficiency rate.
That ranks us somewhere above the fluorescent lamp and under the engine of a car. Frankly, we expected better.
Real science–as opposed to Hollywood science–suggests that all the people on the planet–combined–would generate far less, no more than 0.6 terawatts on a best-case scenario. We’re not sure whether we should be relieved that this means the motive for using us as batteries is unremarkable, or whether we should be concerned that someone has already investigated how much power humans could generate.
The problem with the conversion and why we’re not so good at it is because human bodies need energy too. We need food. Energy in, energy out. But while we consume a significant amount of food even in our resting state, only 25% of this is converted into energy, in the form of heat. And that’s assuming these machines have found a way to capture that heat and use it as energy.
Even so, work on the human battery idea is moving forward, in an attempt to get around the battery bottleneck that is holding up electronic advancements. We’d like to think these experiments will not involve evil machine overlords.
The Matrix 4 has just been announced, and science aside, we are expecting even more crazy energy ideas this go around.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/06/2019 – 20:00 - Profits, Trading Plunge At World's 3rd Largest Exchange As Hong Kong Chaos Spreads
Profits, Trading Plunge At World's 3rd Largest Exchange As Hong Kong Chaos Spreads
The social-economic turmoil in Hong Kong is certainly unprecedented.
Retail sales have crashed, housing prices are rolling over, monetary policy via the Hong Kong Monetary Authority is failing to stabilize the economy, and now, new evidence suggests the financial industry is starting to crack.
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., the world’s third-largest stock exchange (in terms of average daily trading volume), recorded its worst profit in three years as investors fled regional stocks.
Net income of the exchange plunged 10% to $282 million in Q3 YoY, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. This was one of the most significant drops since the global slowdown in 2016.
Last week, Hong Kong crashed into a technical recession, the first time since the 2008/09 financial crisis. Hong Kong’s economy plunged 3.2% in Q3, government data showed last week, exceeding economists’ lowest estimates and confirming a technical recession has begun.
Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan warned after more than half a year of violent anti-government demonstrations, the end of October marked the start of the recession.
“After seeing negative growth in the second quarter, the situation continued in the third quarter, meaning our economy has entered technical recession,” Chan wrote in a blog post.
“It seems it will be extremely difficult for us to reach full-year economic growth of 0 to 1%. I would not rule out the possibility that the full-year economic growth will be negative.”
With two consecutive quarters of negative growth and no end to the protests in sight, Bloomberg has noted in a series of graphs that a full-year economic contraction is likely for 2020.
Since the protests became violent in early summer, Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing shares have slipped 12%.
As the crisis deepens in Hong Kong, it’s likely the Hang Seng is setting up for another leg lower.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/06/2019 – 19:40 - Almost 80,000 California Retirees Receive Over $100,000 In Pension Pay
Almost 80,000 California Retirees Receive Over $100,000 In Pension Pay
Via Transparent California blog,
The number of California retirees collecting a public pension of $100,000 or more hit an all-time high of 79,235 last year, up 85 percent since 2013.
That’s according to an analysis of 2018 pension payout data posted on Transparent California — the state’s largest public pay and pension database.
Those receiving pension payouts of at least $100,000 accounted for nearly 20 percent of the $51.7 billion total payments made last year, which is also an all-time high, according to the data.
“The only reason public pensions are an issue of public concern is because of the costs they impose on taxpayers,” explained Transparent California Executive Director Robert Fellner.
“The data show that one out of every five dollars paid out by California’s public pension funds last year went to someone who is drawing an annual pension of at least $100,000,” Fellner said.
Data from the US Census Bureau reveals a similar explosion in taxpayer costs, which hit an all-time high of $39.3 billion last year, more than double the amount spent in 2013.
“Guaranteed, lifetime annual pensions of over $100,000 are quite expensive, as the soaring cost to taxpayers in recent years makes quite clear,” Fellner concluded.
The number of retirees receiving annualized pensions of at least $100,000 at the Kern County pension fund increased 21 percent from 2017 to 2018, the biggest year-over-year increase of any pension fund statewide, as shown in the below table:
Nearly half of all California cities face a “high risk” of fiscal distress due to rising pension costs, according to a recent analysis from the California State Auditor.
“Rising pension costs will force working class Californians to pay higher taxes, while receiving fewer public services,” Fellner explained.
To see a complete list of the more than 1.2 million pension checks issued last year, please click here. To view the data by individual pension fund, please click here.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/06/2019 – 19:20 - Nuclear Superpowers Unleashed: New START & Open Skies Pacts With Russia Fast Collapsing
Nuclear Superpowers Unleashed: New START & Open Skies Pacts With Russia Fast Collapsing
It’s not just the ‘Open Skies’ treaty with Russia that’s on the chopping block, but more significantly the two Cold War rivals’ last major arms control treaty, New START, which is the landmark nuclear arms reduction treaty signed by the two superpowers in 1991 and took effect in 1994. It is set to expire in February 2021.
That would be a mere weeks after the next presidential inauguration. As NPR alarmingly put it this week: “The world’s two nuclear superpowers have never unleashed their atomic arsenals against one another, but two longstanding agreements that have helped keep the United States and Russia from doing so now appear to be on the verge of collapse.”
File image: Tu-95 bombers over the Kremlin, via AFP/Getty. By all appearances President Trump is ready to let it die:
President Trump and his aides have signaled repeatedly that he intends to let it expire unless it can be broadened to include other nations with strategic weapons, chiefly China.
But the Chinese are not interested – their arsenal is far smaller and they have shown no interest in negotiating a nuclear weapons deal. Mr. Trump’s insistence on including other nations, including China, in a renegotiation has largely been seen as a move to kill the treaty, which was negotiated by President Obama.
President Vladimir V. Putin’s government has said that Russia hopes to renew or revise the treaty – but that the negotiations to revise it would have to begin immediately.
Moscow has recently signaled its position that it’s already too late to work out a new accord, or extension of New START, also given Russia says it’s unsure who on the Washington side will be tapped to continue any potential negotiations.
“The ball is now in the Americans’ court,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimir Leontyev told reporters late last week. “We are looking forward to their decision and to them saying who will represent them and when we can resume our discussions on strategic stability issues.”
And as we reported early last month, the White House is expected to also ditch ‘Open Skies’ agreement, which Trump has signaled he considers obsolete. This also after the US pullout of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).
The ‘Open Skies’ treaty which the US signed in 1992 and went into effect in 2002 is the agreement which allows Russian surveillance planes to occasionally fly over the heart of North America. The post Cold War treaty allows its 34 member states to conduct short-notice, unarmed observation flights to monitor other countries’ military operations in mutual verification of arms-control agreements.
Pressure is building for Trump to pull the plug, as NPR notes further: “Last week two of the Open Skies pact’s harshest congressional critics, Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced a Senate resolution demanding the U.S. ditch the treaty.”
These treaties are designed to prevent the kind of Cold War arms race which nearly took the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation, thus many analysts fear once removed there’s no putting the lid of a major arms race back on.
As The American Conservative’s Daniel Larison recently observed, “Refusing to renew the treaty is the same as killing it, and the US will be to blame for the collapse of the last limits on the biggest nuclear arsenals on earth.”
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/06/2019 – 19:00 - Brazil's Overhyped Oil Auction Ends In "Total Disaster"
Brazil's Overhyped Oil Auction Ends In "Total Disaster"
Authored by Julianne Geiger via OilPrice.com,
What would have been Brazil’s biggest oil auction ever has ended in what Bloomberg called a “total disaster”, as oil majors steered clear of the pricey oil areas up for grabs. Brazil was hoping to rake in more than $25 billion from the auction to offset a portion of its budget deficit and change its nationalistic oil industry ways by offering foreign players at seat at the table.
Another $25 billion was set to go to Petrobras in exchange for work Petrobras had already done in exploring the areas up for grabs.
But Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras), and a consortium that involved Petrobras, were the only winning bidders, according to the Associated Press, picking up two of the four blocks. The other two blocks, however, went unsold in what was a major disappointment for Brazil—and Petrobras.
A Petrobras (90%) consortium that involved CNOOC and CNODC managed to take home the mega Buzios field, as expected, after Petrobras admitted it would bid to win for Buzios. Petrobras also secured the rights to the Itapu block, for which it was the only bidder.
But Petrobras will be stretched mighty thin in developing Buzios, as attractive as that block may be. And with just a tiny amount of the $25 billion it was expecting in fees from other winning bidders in the auction, it will be stretched even thinner.
Still, Brazil took in $17 billion in licensing fees from the two blocks that were awarded, and Brazil is calling it a success. Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque said it would offer the unsold blocks again next year.
“We’ll need to evaluate why oil majors didn’t participate,” Albuquerque told reporters.
But everyone else – including oil titan ExxonMobil, seems to know exactly why the oil majors didn’t participate: it was just too expensive.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/06/2019 – 18:40 - Arizona County Declares Itself A "Second Amendment Sanctuary"
Arizona County Declares Itself A "Second Amendment Sanctuary"
An Arizona county which borders Nevada, California and Utah has declared itself a ‘Second Amendment Sanctuary County’ in a largely symbolic move.
Photo via The Organic Prepper “The Board affirms its support of the Second Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, and declares Mohave County a Second Amendment Sanctuary County,” reads a resolution approved unanimously on November 4 by the Mohave County Board of Supervisors.
“We have the support of the sheriff, and if it ever gets to the point where the courts would have to get involved because of gun laws implemented by the feds or the state, we would step up and fight them,” said Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Hildy Angius.
Those opposed to the new declaration say it’s illegal.
Mohave County’s new resolution doesn’t appear to elicit any actual changes in law. If it did, that could be illegal, according to Gerry Hills, the founder of Arizonans for Gun Safety, who pointed out that state preemption law blocks cities or counties from making gun policies that are different from state law.
“Either they’re going to enforce gun laws, or they’re not going to enforce gun laws,” Hills said. “And if it’s their policy not to enforce gun laws, then that’s a violation of the preemption law. Municipalities don’t get to pick and choose which laws they want to follow.”
That law, ARS 13-3108, bans local firearms laws that are “inconsistent with or more restrictive than state law.” –Phoenix New Times
“Although this is symbolic in nature, this reaffirms the county’s commitment, as well as mine, to support and defend the U.S. and Arizona constitutions,” said State Senator Sonny Borrelli.
According to the Phoenix New Times, the move follows a recent trend across the southern and western United States for rural municipalities to reaffirm their support for gun rights by calling themselves “sanctuaries.”
Last week, Parker County, Texas similarly declared its 2A Sanctuary status – while on October 9, Hood County, Texas did the same according to Breitbart.
In early July, the California town of Needles – which borders Mohave County, also declared itself a “2nd Amendment Sanctuary City,” which was more or less a symbolic affirmation of support for gun owners. The move had no immediate impact on the city’s 5,000 or so residents, and instead resulted in the authorization of a request to California legislators to allow licensed gun owners from other states to carry their firearms in town.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Arizona, voters in the liberal city of Tucson overwhelmingly voted to reject a plan to become a sanctuary city.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/06/2019 – 18:20 - Why Illinois' Government Has Become Predatory And Unjust
Why Illinois' Government Has Become Predatory And Unjust
Authored by Richard Porter, op-ed via RealClearPolitics.com,
While taxes imposed by municipalities and states are often debated on economic, efficiency or equitable grounds, the justice of taxation is rarely a subject for discussion.
But we need to have that debate in Illinois, where our government has become predatory, perverse and unjust.
We believe government may justly compel a range of things, including taxation. The premise behind government of, by and for the people is that everyone is created equal and free, and that therefore just government does not rule, it serves; just government does not impoverish, it enriches.
So, taxation is just, even though compulsory, when imposed by an elected government pursuing common welfare. For example, we generally agree that taxes imposed for our common defense, to alleviate poverty or to enhance opportunities in the community are just because they create a better, stronger community for us all.
When is government unjust? When a strong few — such as a king and his knights — tax to enrich themselves, or when a government does the opposite of what it should do, such as taking something from the community, piling up what has been taken and burning it.
Predatory governments serve themselves, not the community as a whole, and perverse governments impoverish the community instead of enriching it.
Which brings us to Illinois.
Illinois is the least tax-friendly state in the nation, according to both Kiplinger’s and WalletHub, and so Illinois’ population shrinks while population in neighboring states grows. As people leave or decide not to come, property values fall; WirePoints estimates that Chicagoland homeowners lost more than $250 billion in recent years. This massive loss in property values not only dwarfs the revenue Illinois and its municipalities collect each year, it’s greater than some measures of our unfunded pension debt. However, no one benefits from this property loss — it’s as if the government took a portion of each resident’s wealth, piled it up and burned it.
Residents of Illinois do not receive better government services for their higher taxes; they receive less and less because an extraordinary growing share of all government revenues are devoted to paying past promises to Illinois’ valuable government workers.
Government must offer competitive compensation to attract people who will provide excellent services to its communities. Taking care of government employees is necessary for any government to function. However, generations of politicians didn’t actually put up the money to pay for their generous promises. As a result, funding those pension promises is becoming a core purpose of Illinois’ government and the obsession of its leadership, making our government both predatory and perverse.
As Illinois keeps increasing taxes on middle-income Anne (who has no pension) to pay ever greater pension benefits to government worker Jay, not only is Anne paying more for the same or less service, but the value of Anne’s house and nest egg for her own retirement falls too. When government knowingly causes Anne, with no pension, to lose money for her retirement to pay Jay’s pension, government is serving Jay, not Anne.
Our government’s focus on funding Jay’s increasing pension is becoming futile as tax hikes raising money for him hurt Jay too — because a shrinking tax base leaves less to fund his increasing lifetime pay.
Nor is increasing taxes on the rich a practical alternative: Illinois’ liabilities are too vast and the rich are too few — and they can leave too, which means more taxes for Anne and more uncertainty for Jay. Scaring rich or ambitious people away is unfair to everyone.
This is Illinois today: a place where government causes everyone to lose — and that’s perverse. The state has entered a self-reinforcing spiral of failure, with shrinking wealth, a shrinking population and shrinking pension funds too, despite the ever higher taxes to save them.
Illinois leaders need to face and fix the structural problem making our government unjust; government needs to restructure in order to refocus on serving and building communities. The only way out of this death spiral is lower taxes, which means we must reduce liabilities driving taxes higher — which means pensions must be reset to be fair to workers and sustainable for taxpayers.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/06/2019 – 18:00
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