• Russiagate Continues To Survive Like A Sci-Fi Monster Resilient To Bullets
  Russiagate Continues To Survive Like A Sci-Fi Monster Resilient To Bullets

  Authored by Ray McGovern via Consortium News,

  Russiagate continues to survive like a science fiction monster resilient to bullets.   

  The latest effort at rehabilitating it is an interview by Adam Rawnsley in the current issue of Rolling Stone magazine of one Michael van Landingham, an intelligence analyst who is proud of having written the first draft of the cornerstone “analysis” of Russiagate, the so-called Intelligence Community Assessment.

  The ICA blamed the Russians for helping Trump defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016.  It was released two weeks before Trump assumed office. The thoroughly politicized assessment was an embarrassment to the profession of intelligence.

  

  Worse, it was consequential in emasculating Trump to prevent him from working for a more decent relationship with Russia.

  In July 2018, Ambassador Jack Matlock (the last U.S. envoy to the Soviet Union), was moved to write his own stinging assessment of the “Assessment” under the title: “Former US Envoy to Moscow Calls Intelligence Report on Alleged Russian Interference ‘Politically Motivated.’” 

  In January 2019, I wrote the following about the ICA: 

  “A glance at the title of the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) (which was not endorsed by the whole community) — ‘Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections’ — would suffice to show that the widely respected and independently-minded State Department intelligence bureau should have been included. State intelligence had demurred on several points made in the Oct. 2002 Estimate on Iraq, and even insisted on including a footnote of dissent.

  James Clapper, then director of national intelligence who put together the ICA, knew that all too well. So he evidently thought it would be better not to involve troublesome dissenters, or even inform them what was afoot.

  Similarly, the Defense Intelligence Agency should have been included, particularly since it has considerable expertise on the G.R.U., the Russian military intelligence agency, which has been blamed for Russian hacking of the DNC emails.

  But DIA, too, has an independent streak and, in fact, is capable of reaching judgments Clapper would reject as anathema. …

  With help from the Times and other mainstream media, Clapper, mostly by his silence, was able to foster the charade that the ICA was actually a bonafide product of the entire intelligence community for as long as he could get away with it. After four months it came time to fess up that the ICA had not been prepared, as Secretary Clinton and the media kept claiming, by ‘all 17 intelligence agencies.’

  In fact, Clapper went one better, proudly asserting — with striking naiveté — that the ICA writers were ‘handpicked analysts’ from only the F.B.I., C.I.A., and NSA. He may have thought that this would enhance the ICA’s credibility. It is a no-brainer, however, that when you want handpicked answers, you better handpick the analysts. And so he did.”

  [See: The January 2017 ‘Assessment’ on Russiagate] 

  Buried in Annex B of the ICA is this curious disclaimer:

  “Assessments are based on collected information, which is often incomplete or fragmentary, as well as logic, argumentation, and precedents. … High confidence in a judgment does not imply that the assessment is a fact or a certainty; such judgments might be wrong.”

  Small wonder, then, that a New York Times report on the day the ICA was released noted:

  “What is missing from the public report is what many Americans most eagerly anticipated: hard evidence to back up the agencies’ claims that the Russian government engineered the election attack. That is a significant omission…”

  Burying Obama’s Role

  Mainstream journalism has successfully buried parts of the Russiagate story, including the role played by former President Barack Obama.

  Was Obama aware of the “Russian hack” chicanery? There’s ample evidence he was “all in.” More than a month before the 2016 election, while the F.B.I. was still waiting for the findings of cyber-firm CrowdStrike, which the Democratic Party had hired in place of the F.B.I. to find out who had breached their servers, Obama told Clapper and Dept. of Homeland Security head Jeh Johnson not to wait.

  

  So with the election looming, the two dutifully published a Joint Statement on Oct. 7, 2016:

  “The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations. The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts. These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process. … “

  Obama’s role was revealed in 2022 when the F.B.I. was forced to make public F.B.I. emails in connection with the trial of fellow Russiagate plotter, Democratic lawyer Michael Sussmann

  Clapper and the C.I.A., F.B.I., and NSA directors briefed Obama on the ICA on Jan. 5, 2017. That was the day before they gave it personally to President-elect Donald Trump, telling him it showed the Russians helped him win, and that it had just been made public.

  On Jan. 18, 2017, at his final press conference, Obama used lawyerly language in an awkward attempt to cover his derriere:

  “The conclusions of the intelligence community with respect to the Russian hacking were not conclusive as to whether WikiLeaks was witting or not in being the conduit through which we heard about the DNC e-mails that were leaked.”

  So we ended up with “inconclusive conclusions” on that admittedly crucial point… and, for good measure, use of both words — “hacking” and “leaked.” 

  The tale that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee in 2016 was then disproved on Dec. 5, 2017 by the head of CrowdStrike’s sworn testimony to Congress. Shawn Henry told the House Intelligence committee behind closed doors that CrowdStrike found no evidence that anyone had successfully hacked the DNC servers. 

  But it is still widely believed because The New York Times and other Democrat-allied corporate media never reported on that testimony when it was finally made public on May 7, 2020.

  Enter Michael van Landingham

  Rolling Stone’s article on July 28 about van Landingham says he is still proud of his role as one of the “hand-picked analysts” in drafting the discredited ICA.

  The piece is entitled: “He Confirmed Russia Meddled in 2016 to Help Trump. Now, He’s Speaking Out.” It says: “Trump viewed the 2017 intel report as his ‘Achilles heel.’ The analyst who wrote it opens up about Trump, Russia and what really happened in 2016.” 

  Without ever mentioning that the conclusions of the ICA were proven false, by Henry’s testimony and the conclusions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that found no evidence of Trump-Russia “collusion,” Rolling Stone says:

  “The 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), dubbed ‘Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent U.S. Elections,’ was one of the most consequential documents in modern American history. It helped trigger investigations by the House and Senate intelligence committees and a special counsel investigation, and it fueled an eight-year-long grudge that Trump has nursed against the intelligence community.” 

  Rawnsley writes in Rolling Stone the following as gospel truth, without providing any evidence to back it up. 

  “When WikiLeaks published a tranche of [John] Podesta’s emails in late October, the link between the Russian hackers and the releases became undeniable. The dump contained the original spear phishing message that Russian hackers had used to trick Podesta into coughing up his password. News outlets quickly seized on the email, crediting it for what it was: proof that the Russians were behind the campaign.”

  Because Rawnsley didn’t tell us, it’s not clear how this “spear phishing message” provides “undeniable” proof that Russia was behind it. Consortium News has contacted Rawnsley to provide more detail to back up his assertion. 

  Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan and close friend of Julian Assange,  suggested to Scott Horton on Horton’s radio show in 2016 that the DNC leak and the Podesta leak came from two different sources, neither of them the Russian government.

  “The Podesta emails and the DNC emails are, of course, two separate things and we shouldn’t conclude that they both have the same source,” Murray said. “In both cases we’re talking of a leak, not a hack, in that the person who was responsible for getting that information out had legal access to that information.”

  Reading between the lines of the interview, one could interpret Murray’s comments as suggesting that the DNC leak came from a Democratic source and that the Podesta leak came from someone inside the U.S. intelligence community, which may have been monitoring John Podesta’s emails because the Podesta Group, which he founded with his brother Tony, served as a registered “foreign agent” for Saudi Arabia.

  “John Podesta was a paid lobbyist for the Saudi government,” Murray noted. “If the American security services were not watching the communications of the Saudi government’s paid lobbyist in Washington, then the American security services would not be doing their job. … His communications are going to be of interest to a great number of other security services as well.”

  Leak by Americans

  Horton then asked, “Is it fair to say that you’re saying that the Podesta leak came from inside the intelligence services, NSA [the electronic spying National Security Agency] or another agency?”

  “I think what I said was certainly compatible with that kind of interpretation, yeah,” Murray responded. “In both cases they are leaks by Americans.”

  William Binney, a former U.S. National Security Agency technical director, told Consortium News this regarding Rolling Stone‘s assertion about the Podesta emails:

  “Saying something does not make it so. There is no evidence the phishers or hackers were Russian. In today’s networks, you really have to have the underlying internet protocol (IP nr) or device medium access control (MAC nr) to show the routing to/from [sending and receiving] devices to show exfiltration plus trace route evidence to show if that data went any further.

  [In other words, you would need the unique computer addresses of the hacked and the hacker and anyone they may have relayed it to, if it were a hack.]

  [Rawnsley] gives none of this type of data.  So, until he provides this type of data, I view his statements as an opinion and not worth much at all. 

  The whole world-wide network has to have these numbers to get data from point A to point B in the world. No one (NSA included) has shown this data going to Wikileaks for publication. The 5EYES have Wikileaks under cast iron cover/analysis and would know this and report it.”

  

  “There is one more aspect that’s important to take into account,” Binney added. “It’s the network log. This contains a record of every instruction sent on the network along with addresses for the sender and receiver. It’s held for a period of time according to storage allocated to it.”

  Binney said:

  “So, if there’s a hack, then the instruction to achieve the hack is in the log. Remember, Crowd Strike did the analysis of the DNC server all through this time and never talked about the network log. Now, Podesta’s computer does not have a network log, but the DNC and worldwide network providers do.”

  Binney told CN that he proposed automated analysis of the worldwide log for the NSA in 1992, “but they refused it as it would expose all the money and program corruption in NSA contracts.”

  Binney said he was putting that function into the ThinThread program in 1999/2000 that he was developing for the NSA, but the agency “removed it in 2001 after 9/11.”

  A report by the private cybersecurity firm SecureWorks in June 2016 assessed with “moderate confidence” that a group identified as APT28, nicknamed “Fancy Bear” among other names “operating from the Russian Federation … gathering intelligence on behalf of the Russian government” was behind the Podesta phishing, though as Binney points out, the NSA found no such evidence, when it would have had to, had Russia done it.   

  The name “Fancy Bear” of the alleged hackers from GRU, the Russian defense intelligence agency, incidentally, was coined by Dmitri Alperovich, the anti-Putin Russian co-founder of CrowdStrike. 

  “This whole Russiagate affair was a concoction of the DNC, the Clintons, the F.B.I. etc. and none of them have produced any specific basic evidence to support their assertions,” Binney said. “The idea that the word ‘Bear’ implies Russia is about the level of technical intellect we are dealing with here.”  

  Binney said these are the key technical questions that still need to be answered: 

  1. What are the IP and/or MAC numbers involved? And, what are the allocations of these numbers by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (network number allocation authority)?

  2. What are the trace routes of the hacked packets going across the worldwide network?

  3. What instructions are in the network log indicating data exfiltration of data?

  4. Are there any other specific technical aspects that are relevant to a potential hack? No opinions or guesses, that’s not factual evidence of anything beyond the writers biases.”

  Binney said in email:

  “Even if you assume the Russians did the hack and have the DNC/Podesta emails, you still have to show the transfer of these emails to Wikileaks to know who really did the deed. So far, no one has evidence the emails were sent to Wikileaks.

  Most importantly, Julian Assange publicly said it was not the Russians. Kimdotcom said he helped others (not the Russians) to get data to Wikileaks. Craig Murray talked about physical transfer of data. These statements by people involved in WikiLeaks is clearly consistent with the technical evidence I and others have assembled.”

  Binny said that “until such time as those others produce specific technical evidence for peer review and validation (like we have), they are just pushing sludge up an inclined plane with a narrow squeegee hoping they can get it over the top and accepted by all.”

  Binney noted that the ancient Greek school of sophism called this the fallacy of repetition. “That’s where they keep repeating a falsehood over and over again till it is believed (it helps when they say the same thing from many different directions especially by people in positions of authority),” Binney said.

  So the head of CrowdStrike testifies that there’s no evidence anyone hacked the DNC and according to Binney and Murray, there is no definitive proof that Russia was behind the Podesta phishing expedition either.  WikiLeaks maintains that a state actor was not the source of either. 

  And yet the Russiagate myth persists. It is useful in so many ways for those in the U.S. who still want to ratchet up even more tension with Russia (as though Ukraine isn’t enough) and for a political party to perhaps again explain away an election loss if it happens in November. 

  Thanks to Bill Binney and two other VIPS very senior NSA “alumni”, and the detailed charts and other data revealed by Edward Snowden, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) was able to publish a memorandum on Dec. 12, 2016 that, based on technical evidence, labeled the Russian hacking allegations “baseless.” The following July we issued a similar VIPS  memo, with the title asking the neuralgic question, “Was the ‘Russian Hack’ an Inside Job?” The question lingers.

  Shameless or Just Dumb? Michael van Landingham brags to Rolling Stone that he wrote the first draft of the meretricious cornerstone of Russiagate, the “Intelligence Community” Assessment falsely blaming the Russians for helping Trump defeat Hillary in 2016https://t.co/1yWupvqvcg

  — Ray McGovern (@raymcgovern) July 30, 2024

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

  I have now posted an item on X to call attention to this latest Russiagate indignity.

  I cannot escape the conclusion that journalism is not like war: In war the victors get to write the history; in today’s journalism, the losers — who get it wrong — get to write it.

  O Tempora, O Mores!

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/10/2024 – 23:20

• These Are The Most (& Least) Popular US Governors
  These Are The Most (& Least) Popular US Governors

  With a net approval rate of 13 percent, Democratic nominee for the vice presidency, Tim Walz, is only the 36th most popular governor in the country. He currently is the first in command in Minnesota.

  However, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, other governors who were reportedly being considered for Kamala Harris’ running mate in the upcoming 2024 election are much more popular at home, namely Andy Beshear, who has a net approval rate of 40 percent in Kentucky, and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who places 16th with a net approval of 25 percent. This is according to data collected by Morning Consult.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  However, according to NBC, Walz and Harris reportedly got along best in person and the Democratic nominee for president felt that he was best suited for a role of supporting the president loyally.

  Walz, who has (admittedly controversial) military experience in the Army National Guard, worked a blue collar job in addition to having been a teacher and is a gun-owning hunter, is hoped to appeal to moderates and voters from non-coastal states and therefore complement Harris’ profile. 

  Voters describe Walz as “normal” and “genuine”, but his policies are progressive despite his regular guy image, which might have also endeared him to Harris and her campaign. However, Walz’s stance has also caused pushback among more conservative voters in Minnesota, resulting in a lowish net approval.

  Additionally, he has been criticized both for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the protest that followed the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis in 2020.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/10/2024 – 22:45

• Trump Campaign Hacked, Microsoft Says Iran-Backed Group "Mint Sandstorm" Responsible
  Trump Campaign Hacked, Microsoft Says Iran-Backed Group “Mint Sandstorm” Responsible

  Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Microsoft’s cyber threat assessment unit said on Aug. 9 that a high-ranking official on a U.S. presidential campaign had been hacked by an Iran-backed group, with the Trump campaign later revealing that it had been the target of a cyber attack and linked the breach to “foreign sources hostile to the United States.”

  

  The report from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) indicates that an Iranian group called Mint Sandstorm that is connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign from the compromised email account belonging to a former senior campaign adviser.

  “Mint Sandstorm similarly targeted a presidential campaign in May and June 2020 five to six months ahead of the last U.S. presidential election,” MTAC said, adding that the same group also tried but failed to breach an account belonging to a former presidential candidate.

  No details were released on the official’s identity, but Microsoft’s threat assessment team said that the Iranian-linked breaches related to increasing attempts to influence the U.S. presidential election in November.

  “This recent cyber-enabled influence activity arises from a combination of actors which are conducting initial cyber reconnaissance and seeding online personas and websites into the information space,” according to the report.

  Following the release of the report, the Trump 2024 presidential campaign confirmed that it had been the target of a cyberattack in which campaign documents were stolen.

  The breach, which Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told Politico on Aug. 10 has been attributed to “foreign sources hostile to the United States,” marks a significant development in the area of foreign interference in U.S. elections as the race for the White House heats up.

  Politico reported that, on July 22, it began receiving emails from an anonymous source using the alias “Robert.” The emails reportedly contained internal documents from the Trump campaign, including a 271-page research dossier on Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who was vetted as a potential vice presidential nominee and later chosen as former President Donald Trump’s running mate.

  Cheung pointed to the Microsoft report and its finding that Iranian hackers had broken into the account of a high-ranking official on the U.S. presidential campaign as evidence of involvement of a foreign hostile power in the Trump campaign breach.

  “These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our democratic process,” Cheung told the outlet.

  He also linked the timing of the breach to reports of Iranian plots against Trump, who remains a target of Iranian hostility after ordering the 2020 assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.

  Cheung, who did not immediately respond to a request from The Epoch Times for more details of the development, declined to tell Politico whether the Trump campaign had contacted law enforcement in regards to the breach.

  U.S. intelligence officials recently stated that Iran had been hard at work sowing political discord in the United States via the use of clandestine or ghost social media accounts. Iran has denied that such practices are taking place and said that any actions against the United States are purely defensive and do not involve cyber attacks.

  The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a statement in July confirming that Iranian groups had targeted the U.S. political campaign, specifically that of Trump, to influence the upcoming election.

  The U.S. intelligence community “has observed Tehran working to influence the presidential election, probably because Iranian leaders want to avoid an outcome they perceive would increase tensions with the United States,” the statement reads.

  Microsoft’s report said that the hackers’ activity also covered a wider scope, including gaining intelligence on U.S. political campaigns, which allowed Iranian groups to target political swing states in the United States.

  The report also stated that the previous breach involving the county official, which took place in May, was part of a wider “password spray operation.” This type of operation involves the use of common or leaked passwords, which hackers use on multiple accounts until they find a match and break into one.

  The report confirmed that no other accounts were compromised through the breach and that all other targeted officials were notified of the cyber attack.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/10/2024 – 22:10

• Half Of OECD Countries Earn Less Now Than Pre-Pandemic
  Half Of OECD Countries Earn Less Now Than Pre-Pandemic

  According to a recent report, around half of OECD countries are earning less now than they had before the pandemic.

  As Statista’s Katharine Buchholz reports, when considering hourly real wages – wages adjusted for inflation – people in the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia and many European countries now have less money at their disposal than roughly four years ago. No data was published for Turkey, Chile and Colombia.

  While the pandemic caused issues for some industries, others also started paying workers more as they wound up being in short supply due to the upheavals to employment Covid-19 caused. After the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in early 2022, most workers around the world took a hit to their real wages as inflation was running hot in many countries, causing price increases to effectively outweigh any potential wage growth.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Finland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Sweden and New Zealand were hardest hit by this phenomenon according to the OECD Employment Outlook 2024, seeing real wages decrease by more than 5%. Sweden saw wages dwindle most, by 7.5%. The country is known for relatively low real wages compared to its pricy standard of living—pay is 11% lower than in neighboring Denmark and 16-20% lower than in Germany, the Netherlands or Norway. Trade unions negotiate a majority contracts in the country that has placed a focus on equality, but like in many European nations, collective bargaining has become more contentious. In this context, observers have even referred to a “lost decade” for Swedish wages.

  The United States fared better than others as real wages were just 0.8% lower in Q1 of 2024 than in Q4 of 2019. Neighbor Canada lost 2.4% of hourly real wages in roughly the same time period, while the loss was even more severe in Australia at 4.8%. The University of Sydney comments that a departure from collective bargaining and a decrease in manufacturing have affected the jobs that used to be peak performers for wage growth in the country.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/10/2024 – 21:35

• Is A Much Deadlier Strain Of Monkeypox Going To Be The Next Great Global Health Scare?
  Is A Much Deadlier Strain Of Monkeypox Going To Be The Next Great Global Health Scare?

  Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

  Should we be alarmed? 

  Many of us have been watching the spread of a deadly new strain of Monkeypox for quite some time, and now it appears that this crisis is about to reach a boiling point.  It is being reported that the World Health Organization is going to hold an “emergency meeting” to determine whether or not to declare a “public health emergency of international concern” due to a rapidly growing outbreak of Monkeypox in central Africa.  For those that are not familiar, a “public health emergency of international concern” is the highest level of alert that the WHO issues.  For example, in January 2020 a “public health emergency of international concern” was declared when COVID started to spread like wildfire inside China. 

  So could we now be on the verge of the next great global health scare?

  

  Two years ago, an outbreak of Monkeypox quickly spread all over the planet, and it is truly a horrifying disease…

  Mpox is a viral disease that causes painful rashes and flu-like symptoms such as fever, headaches and body aches. The virus that causes it comes from the same family as that of smallpox. It spreads from person to person and from animals to people through direct contact.

  In May, scientists reported a new strain of the virus in the DRC that they said was more virulent and might spread more easily.

  Right now, if you somehow got infected with the strain that spread throughout the world in 2022, there is a good chance that you would be in so much pain that you would actually believe that you were about to die.

  But that strain was rarely fatal.

  Unfortunately, this strain is much more deadly.

  According to the head of the World Health Organization, this new strain has already killed more than 500 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo so far this year…

  The outbreak, which began in the Democratic Republic of the Congo but has spread recently to at least three other neighboring countries, has involved more than 14,000 reported cases so far this year alone, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, with at least 511 deaths reported.

  Some experts believe that this new strain also spreads more easily.

  Like the strain that spread all over the globe in 2022, this new strain spreads through sexual contact, but apparently it also spreads in other ways as well…

  The CDC said in the alert that outbreaks in some provinces in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been associated with sexual contact.

  In other parts of the country, however, patients have gotten sick through contact with infected animals, household transmission or patient care, the CDC said, adding that a high proportion of cases have been reported in children younger than 15.

  “Most reported cases in known endemic provinces continue to be among children under 15 years of age,” the World Health Organization wrote on its website on June 14. “Infants and children under five years of age are at highest risk of severe disease and death.”

  In 2022, very few children got infected.

  But this time around lots of children are getting infected.

  There had been hope that this outbreak could be confined to the Democratic Republic of Congo, but that didn’t happen.

  At this point, confirmed cases have been detected in four nations that directly border the Democratic Republic of Congo…

  The WHO said the virus has now ‘spread to previously unaffected provinces.’

  In the past month, at least 50 Mpox cases have been reported in four other countries bordering the DRC – countries that have not experienced the virus before.

  They include Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.

  The genie is out of the bottle.

  What are they going to do now?

  Well, it appears that the first step will be to declare a “public health emergency of international concern”…

  World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday called an “emergency” meeting of international experts amidst growing worries over the mpox virus.

  With mpox spreading outside of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tedros said the WHO emergency committee would meet “as soon as possible” to advise him on “whether the outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern.”

  When a “public health emergency of international concern” is officially declared, it will get a ton of media attention and that will really ramp up the fear level.

  As I noted earlier, it is the “highest level of alert” that the WHO can issue…

  PHEIC, the emergency classification Ghebreyesus referred to, is the W.H.O.’s highest level of alert. The W.H.O. declared a PHEIC over the novel coronavirus that was first detected in China in late January 2020.

  Thankfully, there have been no confirmed cases outside of Africa yet.

  But last week the CDC instructed doctors in the United States “to be on the lookout” for cases…

  The Centers for Disease Control on Wednesday alerted doctors to be on the lookout for a deadly new strain of mpox spreading through parts of Africa while U.S. officials committed $424 million to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is the epicenter of the outbreak.

  What are they expecting?

  Do they anticipate that there will soon be confirmed cases here in the United States?

  Needless to say, such a development would deeply alarm millions of people.

  Interestingly, the CDC is also instructing Americans to limit contact with animals at county fairs all over the nation due to concerns about the bird flu…

  Your trip to the county fair might look a little different this year all because of avian influenza also known as “bird flu.”

  Organizers across the U.S. are working to ensure their events do not lead to the spread of the virus.

  Children under five, people 65 years and older, pregnant people, people with certain chronic medical conditions, and others are at a higher risk of developing serious flu complications and should limit contact with animals that could carry influenza viruses, if possible, according tothe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

  Will H5N1 cause more panic during the months ahead, or will it be Monkeypox?

  We will just have to wait and see how all of this plays out.

  In any event, it is just a matter of time before the next major health scare paralyzes the entire globe just like we witnessed a few years ago.

  Even as you read this article, scientists in secret labs all over the planet are playing around with some of the deadliest diseases ever known to humanity, and as we have seen it is way too easy for an “accident” to happen.

  We live at a time when great pestilences will be a constant threat, and fear of those great pestilences will cause chaos all over the world.

  So buckle up and hold on tight, because what we went through before was just a preview of what is ahead.

  *  *  *

  Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/10/2024 – 21:00

• Newsom Hires $200k/Year Celebrity Photographer For Glamor Shots
  Newsom Hires $200k/Year Celebrity Photographer For Glamor Shots

  As 20% of California suffers in poverty amid soaring power bills, soaring homelessness, businesses fleeing the state, and sky-high taxes, one might expect the state’s leadership to focus on solutions. Instead, Governor Gavin Newsom has taken a rather unconventional approach: hiring a celebrity photographer, Charles Ommanney, with a $200,000 annual salary to enhance his public image.

  

  Yes, you read that right. In a state where many struggle to make ends meet, Newsom has brought on board a photographer known for capturing the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. Ommanney’s task? To ensure that the governor is photographed in his most flattering light, whether it’s wearing aviator sunglasses while picking up trash from a homeless encampment or surveying wildfire damage in designer workwear.

  This new role, which was quietly created and filled without the usual fanfare, is particularly egregious amid the backdrop of California’s economic struggles. With Ommanney now a full-time member of the governor’s team, his photos aren’t just about documenting events—they’re about crafting a carefully curated image of Newsom as a hands-on leader, Politico reports.

  And while residents suffer, their governor is ramping up his meticulously polished persona, perhaps with an eye on the national stage. Earlier this year, instead of delivering the traditional State of the State address, Newsom’s office produced a glossy video, complete with dramatic visuals—some of which were shot by Ommanney—highlighting national issues over local crises.

  Izzy Gardon, a spokesperson for Newsom, defended the hire.

  “Charles plays an instrumental role in communicating the work of state government across visual platforms — including social media, helping us meet Californians where they are at.”

  Yet, it’s hard to overlook the absurdity of this situation: a governor who earns $234,101 annually is paying a photographer nearly as much to follow him around the state, capturing photos that are, in essence, taxpayer-funded PR.

  In a time when California’s residents need real solutions and tangible action, the governor’s decision to prioritize a high-priced image consultant raises more than a few eyebrows. For a state in dire need of economic revival, the focus on optics over substance is a bitter pill to swallow.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/10/2024 – 20:25

• "Neither Scholar Nor Journalist": How A NYT 'Influencer' Undermined Groundbreaking Study Debunking Mask Mandates
  “Neither Scholar Nor Journalist”: How A NYT ‘Influencer’ Undermined Groundbreaking Study Debunking Mask Mandates

  Authored by Paul D. Thacker via The Disinformation Chronicle,

  Hey guys, I had a piece last week in UnHerd discussing hundreds of emails I had gone through that found social media influencer Zeynep Tufekci pressured the prestigious medical nonprofit Cochrane to put out a statement attacking their own review that found there is little evidence that masks stop respiratory viruses. One of the people Tufekci interviewed for the piece also told me that she twisted his words, which is obvious from the emails.

  

  I want to walk you through some of those emails, but if you’d like to read the piece in UnHerd, it’s here: How the NYT undermined mask evidence: Leaked emails reveal how scientists were smeared.

  The emails were sent to me after someone had filed Freedom of Information requests at different universities, and I got others from a person at Cochrane who is upset at what is happening inside the organization. Let’s first set the stage for what happened.

  Mask activist on the attack

  In March 2023, New York Times columnist Zeynep Tufekci wrote an essay arguing that “masks work” while attacking a review on masks by Cochrane, which publishes the gold standard of evidence for medical interventions. When Tufekci’s piece first appeared, I knew it smelled fishy.

  Just a month prior, I had published a long Q&A with Tom Jefferson, the lead author of the Cochrane 2023 mask review. Jefferson loves going into all kinds of details about the hierarchy of evidence, how reviews are done, the contrasts between different types of reviews, and other tiny bits of medical information that only interest people with decades of expertise in clinical trials and medical research.

  In short, very hard to follow.

  My interest in masks was to help readers cut through all the controversy, to understand whether they really help with COVID and if mask mandates make sense in their schools and local community. I had noticed videos and news stories circulating on social media pointing out that several public health officials had done a 180 from the early months of the pandemic, first stating that masks don’t work, before pivoting to advocate for masks.

  I called this the “great mask-science flip flop of 2020” and participants included Canada’s chief health officer, Theresa Tam, as well as the leading public health official in England, Jenny Harries.

  Even Tony Fauci performed a mask-science flip flop, first arguing that masks didn’t work, before pivoting into full-on mask activist.

  

  As Jefferson kept rambling on with tiny details about how to perform medical reviews that nobody but an expert in medical reviews could really follow, I stopped him.

  “Wait, did you just say that Cochrane has done this mask review several times?” I asked. “This isn’t the first one?”

  “Yes,” he replied.

  So we went down the list. The Cochrane mask review published in February 2023 wasn’t the first time Cochrane scientists had examined the scientific literature to see if there was any evidence masks worked to stop viruses. They had published prior updates finding the same thing in 2020, 2011 2010, 2009, and 2007.

  So the whole thing started 17 years ago.

  Every time Cochrane has put out a review that looked at masks, nobody said anything, because masking wasn’t controversial. Everyone agreed that masks didn’t seem to stop viruses. Physicians had first started using masks over a hundred years ago but that was to stop spreading bacteria during surgery. And bacteria are hundreds of times larger than viruses.

  I then started digging around and found several scientific studies concluding masks don’t do much to stop respiratory viruses, as well as several examples of international medical bodies drawing similar conclusions. For example, the World Health Organizations stated in their 2019 pandemic preparedness plan, “There have been a number of high-quality randomised controlled trials (RCTs) demonstrating that personal protective measures such as hand hygiene and face masks have, at best, a small effect on influenza transmission.”

  

  So why was I reading a “masks work” essay in the New York Times?

  The only explanation is Zeynep Tufekci. I didn’t really know Tufekci until I read her “masks work” essay last year, and when I looked into her background I found that she was mostly unknown in the scientific world until COVID. Once the pandemic started she made a name for herself writing essays in places like Wired and Scientific American. Intrigued, I looked into her academic publishing record and found that her academic CV was a tad barren, with few peer-reviewed studies but a slew of opinion articles.

  Plus, Tufecki has no training in medicine or public health.

  I then discovered that her profile had exploded in March 2020 when a New York Times media reporter praised Tufekci for a March 1 tweetstorm and March 17 essay in The New York Times that swayed the CDC to alter federal guidance and begin advising people to mask.

  As I read the article praising Tufekci, I started laughing at how crazy it was that national policy could be set by tweets and an essay, not anything published by scientists. It was just so bizarre.

  Tufekci has bounced around to different universities in the past four years, but at the beginning of the pandemic, she was a professor at the University of North Carolina. North Carolina’s big paper is the Raleigh News & Observer, and I found that they profiled Tufekci in 2021, anointing her a COVID hero who had challenged top health officials and got the facts right — but with essays, not science.

  Instead of conducting lab experiments related to Covid-19, she used her platform on Twitter and in the opinion sections of Scientific American, The Atlantic and The New York Times to inform the public with practical advice about what to do and why.

  I read that newspaper article thinking, “Thank God Tufekci didn’t use her platform on Twitter to challenge airline pilots at Raleigh-Durham International that she could fly a 747 to London’s Heathrow.”

  And then I got the emails.

  Opinions mean nothing, emails and documents everything

  One of the first things I noticed was that Tufecki had emailed Michael Brown, a physician at Michigan State University, on February 24, 2023. According to other emails, I learned that Michael Brown had been the sign off editor for the mask review.

  Why, I wondered, had Tufekci contacted Brown at this time?

  Searching the news, I realized that Tufekci’s New York Times colleague, Bret Stephens, had published an essay three days prior, ribbing mask advocates like Tufekci because of Cochrane’s mask review: “The Mask Mandates Did Nothing. Will Any Lessons Be Learned?”

  Tufekci’s rise in prominence is based mostly on her mask advocacy, and the thrust of Stephens’ piece in the New York Times must have cut her open like a surgeon’s scalpel:

  [W]hen it comes to the population-level benefits of masking, the verdict is in: Mask mandates were a bust. Those skeptics who were furiously mocked as cranks and occasionally censored as “misinformers” for opposing mandates were right. The mainstream experts and pundits who supported mandates were wrong. 

  Without much of a scientific publishing record and so much of her credibility tied to her mask advocacy, Stephens’ essay must have felt threatening.

  But when she contacted Brown, Tufekci laid it on thick that she was an academic researcher, claiming expertise in statistics and causal inference, as well as scientific reviews.

  “I use and participate in reviews myself (I’m writing one in my own field soon) and thus am familiar with many of the challenges and issues.”

  

  You don’t need to have attended university to know that Tufekci is fibbing here. I glanced through Google Scholar to see what Tufeckci has published in the academic literature and didn’t find much except opinion pieces. In all of 2024, Tufecki has not published a single article in the scientific literature, and in 2023, she published one piece: an opinion essay.

  

  As for the review Tufeckis told Brown in March 2023 that she was writing “in my own field soon”? It has never appeared.

  When I contacted Brown about Tufekci, he told me that he had been a bit naive perhaps in dealing with her, as he hadn’t looked into her background, and didn’t realize that she was a mask activist. But what Tufecki did with the quotes she took from Brown is quite disturbing.

  In her article, Tufekci quoted Brown and followed up in the next paragraph implying that he supported the idea that “the evidence is really straightforward” that masks provide protection from COVID. But Brown told me that’s not what the science concludes.

  Here’s the section of Tufekci’s essay:

  Brown, who led the Cochrane review’s approval process, told me that mask mandates may not be tenable now, but he has a starkly different feeling about their effects in the first year of a pandemic.

  “Mask mandates, social distancing, the other shutdowns we had in terms of even restaurants and things like that — if places like New York City didn’t do that, the number of deaths would have been much higher,” he told me. “I’m very confident of that statement.”

  So the evidence is relatively straightforward: Consistently wearing a mask, preferably a high-quality, well-fitting one, provides protection against the coronavirus.

  This is just sleazy.

  When I contacted Brown, he said that Tufecki spun his words, because the evidence is clear that masks don’t seem to do much. Brown actually stated as much some months after Tufekci interviewed him. Emailing the organizer of a talk he was giving, Brown wrote that masks “likely” provide “some” protection but “do not make a major impact at the community level when promoted as a public health intervention.”

  

  This is basically the opposite of how Tufekci framed Brown’s quote in her essay.

  Brown also told me that he had told Tufekci to contact the scientists who wrote the Cochrane review, because they are the real experts. Duh! While he was the editor of the review, he hadn’t read each and every published study like the review authors.

  But Tufekci ignored Brown. Instead, Tufekci contacted Karla Soares-Weiser, the woman running Cochrane. Apparently, Tufekci sent a slew of questions, because Soares-Weiser then emailed Lisa Bero, a professor medicine at the University of Colorado who serves as Cochrane ethics advisor.

  “Lisa, I have been back and forth with NYT about the mask review. CAN I GET YOUR VIEWS ON THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS?” emailed Soares-Weiser. She then sent questions to Bero that she had gotten from Tufekci.

  What makes this all comical is that Tufekci obviously knows nothing about reviews, yet Soares-Weiser freaked out because Tufekci writes a column at the New York Times.

  It’s science by essay writer.

  After Bero answered the questions, Soares-Weiser thanked her. “Thank you, Lisa. I’m navigating a difficult situation and of course need to take these points into account. Help appreciated.”  

  

  For anyone with a passing familiarity with scientific research, one thought should come immediately to mind: why didn’t Soares-Weiser tell Tufekci to send those questions to scientists who had written the review? That’s what Michael Brown did.

  That will become clear in a bit.

  I got a copy of the email Tufekci sent Jefferson for questions and it’s dated March 9, the day before she published her 2000+ word essay. I’ve written for the New York Times. It’s a rather laborious process dealing with editors and fact checkers. It would impossible for Tufekci to contact Jefferson for comment and then slam out a 2000+ word essay, get that essay edited, deal with those edits, and then get it fact checked.

  What those dates tell you is that Tufekci had the essay ready to publish before she contacted Jefferson for comment, suggesting she didn’t even care what he had to say. Jefferson has been publishing scientific research on respiratory virus for several decades, but Tufekci wasn’t interested in what he had to say because she already considered herself the expert.

  The day Tufecki published her essay, Soares-Weiser then rushed out a statement claiming she was working to fix problems in the Cochrane mask review. But Soares-Weiser did this without consulting the scientists who had done the work. This would be like the editor-in-chief of the New York Times publishing an essay complaining about a New York Times investigative series without bothering to consult any of the reporters or editors who had done the work.

  “I will not speak for the others but am deeply distressed by this course of events which have occurred without our knowledge,” replied Jon Conly, a professor and former head of the department of medicine at the University of Calgary.

  

  Michael Brown responded that he had spoken to Tufekci and told her that “I stood by the conclusions of the review but asked that she reach out to you, the authors, to answer some of her questions directly. She assured me that she would do so.”

  

  Of course, Tufekci did NOT reach out to the scientific authors, because she wasn’t interested in what they had to say.

  Brown then sent an email to Soares-Weiser and several of the Cochrane editors reminding them that changes were being considered to the mask review language, even though it was the same wording as had been used in the 2020 update.

  Why were changes being considered then? As Brown explained, it had nothing to do with science. “[I]t was only under intense media coverage and criticism that these revisions were suggested.”

  

  Emails find that Soares-Weiser appeared to be in a bit of panic, monitoring negative commentary about her decision to publish a statement without bothering to consult the scientists. “I had a challenging meeting with the [governing board] yesterday. I am holding on, stressed, but OK,” she emailed Lisa Bero.

  

  Bero then suggested to Soares-Weiser that Cochrane publish negative comments being submitted by outsiders criticizing the mask review. “That should be published as soon as possible (following screening for libel or profanity),” Bero emailed. “It is important for readers to know that criticism has not just come through the media, but through the formal channels that we have.”

  

  Shortly after bullying Cochrane’s Soares-Weiser to put out a statement claiming she would make changes to the mask review, Tufekci began tweeting that she had gotten the review “corrected.”

  However, this isn’t true.

  

  A month back, Soares-Weiser put out a correction to her prior statement, and now says that Cochrane will not make any changes to the mask review.

  

  The entire saga calls into question Zeynep Tufekci’s ethics and whether Soares-Weiser is still fit to lead Cochrane.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/10/2024 – 19:50

• MSM Absent In Reporting "Dozens Of Night Time Low Temp Records" Across US 
  MSM Absent In Reporting “Dozens Of Night Time Low Temp Records” Across US 

  Climate alarmists and their left-wing corporate media allies, who constantly spread fear and anxiety among an already heavily medicated population, churn out endless streams of climate doom headlines right at the peak of the Northern Hemisphere summer (how convenient). They deliberately ignore the fact that the 2022 Tonga Volcano eruption is contributing to some of the Earth’s warming—and they’ll conveniently leave out this critical piece of climate news:

  “Dozens of night time low temp records have been broken the last 2 mornings. Many folks waking up to temps in the upper 40s and lower 50s this morning,” private weather forecaster BAM Weather wrote on X. 

  

  BAM Weather explained these low temperatures are “Typical of early October weather for most.” 

  

  Let’s not forget that climate alarmists usually point to ‘record temperatures’ with data going back several decades, half a century, or a little more. If they were to show the entire picture, well, their agenda and climate grift would evaporate overnight. 

  

  The lower 48 region is about three weeks post-peak summer.

  

  Looking ahead, the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center still expects the weather phenomenon La Nina to emerge “during Sep-Oct-Nov (66% chance) and persist through the Northern Hemisphere winter 2024-25 (74% chance during Nov-Dec-Jan).” 

  #ENSO-neutral is expected to continue for the next several months, with La Niña favored to emerge during Sep-Oct-Nov (66% chance) and persist through the Northern Hemisphere winter 2024-25 (74% chance during Nov-Dec-Jan). A #LaNina Watch remains in effect. https://t.co/5zlzaZ0D9Z pic.twitter.com/hRzW9Dj8un

  — NWS Climate Prediction Center (@NWSCPC) August 8, 2024

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

  Here are the weather impacts in a La Nina year across the Lower 48.

  

  Leftist corporate media usually get it wrong – with zero accountability – because they’re plagued by the ‘climate religion’ and push an agenda to scare folks into believing that more government taxes and banning cow farts and Taylor Swift’s jet will solve the world’s problems.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/10/2024 – 19:15

• Police Audio Corroborates Claims Biden Had A Medical Emergency In Vegas
  Police Audio Corroborates Claims Biden Had A Medical Emergency In Vegas

  Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

  Police audio has been released revealing that law enforcement in Las Vegas were engaged in a snap operation to secure a route for Joe Biden to get to University Medical hospital, a trauma center, corroborating previous reports that there was some sort of medical emergency involving Biden before he stepped down as the Democratic nominee.

  

  As we highlighted at the time, police sources claimed that US Secret Service informed local law enforcement that there was an emergency situation involving Biden on July 17, and to close necessary streets so that he could be transported immediately to the hospital.

  According to the sources, hundreds of officers and employees heard the broadcast live and set in motion emergency response procedures, with radio dispatchers asking for a “surge” of police resources to secure the area and the emergency room on standby.

  The plan then abruptly changed and Biden was flown back to Delaware at high speed.

  Speculation was that Biden was displaying stroke like symptoms, and that he could have experienced a transient ischaemic attack, also called a “mini stroke”, a serious condition where the blood supply to the brain is temporarily disrupted.

  The new audio is from the Las Vegas Metro Police Department’s protective detail for Biden and was released Friday afternoon by Oversight Project, which obtained the recordings through a Freedom of Information Act request.

  🚨BREAKING – AUDIO OBTAINED🚨

  We just obtained the recording from the Las Vegas Police Department and have decided to immediately release it while we are simultaneously reviewing.

  Links in next post. https://t.co/WUa7DjmFFA

  — Oversight Project (@OversightPR) August 9, 2024

  The three recordings, containing police chatter, are not time stamped, but appear to span a few hours.

  Here are the 3 police audio files obtained by Oversight Project through a FOIA request that corroborate the claim Joe Biden experienced some sort of medical emergency in Las Vegas, putting cops and the University Medical Center on standby. Report: https://t.co/nCAd3p1lF8 pic.twitter.com/AHhdZAXsQo

  — m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) August 10, 2024

  In two clips, both of around four-minutes, officers are asked to respond Code 3, which is an emergency response posture.

  In the third longer clip of 43 minutes, someone on the radio states “For everybody on the radio, right now they’re on a hold for something regarding the President.”

  These links should work on mobile devices and desktops:https://t.co/GnuFPCgqGchttps://t.co/TDLn2A8cBdhttps://t.co/W70D8mbGe0

  — Oversight Project (@OversightPR) August 9, 2024

  The protective detail was then informed “For everyone on the radio, right now POTUS is 421. He’s being seen, so we’re just kinda waiting to see how this is shaping out. So, for everybody’s knowledge, he’s 421 right now; we’re just trying to figure out what’s going on and we’re gonna go from there.”

  Code 421 means a sick or injured person, according to LVMPD’s code sheet.

  The rest of the audio contains chatter about the protective detail quickly moving their resources to ensure a secure route for “POTUS movement.”

  While it is difficult to determine exact details from the audio, it is clear evidence that something significant happened to Biden. Something that the American people and the world is still not privy to.

  *  *  *

  Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/10/2024 – 18:40

• US Will Lift Ban On Offensive Weapons Sales To Saudi Arabia
  US Will Lift Ban On Offensive Weapons Sales To Saudi Arabia

  Via Middle East Eye

  The Biden administration will lift its ban on the sales of offensive weaponry to Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported on Friday, a move that reverses the three-year US ban amidst ongoing attempts by the administration to broker a Saudi-Israel normalisation deal.

  The move comes against the backdrop of the 10-month-long Israeli war on Gaza and after Middle East Eye’s reporting that Russia has deployed military intelligence officers to assist Yemen’s Houthis with targeting commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

  

  A congressional aide told Reuters that the administration briefed Congress this week on the decision, and another source said that Biden was moving ahead on Friday afternoon with notifications about a sale. “The Saudis have met their end of the deal, and we are prepared to meet ours,” a senior Biden administration official told Reuters.

  Middle East Eye reached out to the White House for comment on the report, but didn’t hear back by time of publication.

  The Biden administration first invoked the ban on offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia in February 2022, a move that came after US lawmakers, progressive activists, and antiwar groups were calling on Washington to end its support of the Saudi-led coalition’s war efforts in Yemen.

  War broke out in Yemen in 2014 after the Houthi rebel group seized the capital Sanaa, prompting Saudi Arabia and allied Gulf Arab countries – chiefly the United Arab Emirates – to launch a coalition to fight against the Houthi gains and reinstate the internationally recognised government.

  The Saudi-led coalition launched a brutal bombing campaign that killed thousands of Yemeni civilians. Outrage spread in the US when reports began to emerge that US-supplied bombs were being used by coalition forces in attacks that killed civilians.

  However, the harder line taken by the Biden administration against Saudi Arabia soon began to fade, most notably since last year as the US attempted to broker a historic deal that would see Saudi Arabia and Israel normalise diplomatic relations for the first time in history.

  At the same time, the US and the UK have for months been actively battling Yemen’s Houthis in the Red Sea, launching several air strikes on Houthi military sites as the armed group responded with attacks on American naval vessels and downing multiple armed reaper drones.

  The Houthis, whose fight against the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen has been paused due to a UN-brokered ceasefire in April 2022 that has so far held, began to target ships travelling to and from Israel in the Red Sea last year, in what they said was in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.

  The war between Israel and Hamas is spreading far beyond the borders of Israel and Gaza.

  Days ago, Yemeni Houthis went far beyond striking Israel-bound cargo ships, to navigating an armed drone over 1,200 miles, past Israel’s iron dome and into Tel Aviv.

  And in the last few… pic.twitter.com/aRyeYnZy0G

  — Truth In Media (@Truth_InMedia) August 1, 2024

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

  The Houthis also claimed responsibility for a deadly drone attack in Tel Aviv in July, which prompted Israel to launch air strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah. “We are regularly conducting airstrikes to degrade Houthi capabilities, an effort that is ongoing and will continue together with a coalition of partners,” a senior Biden official told Reuters.

  “We have designated the Houthis as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, and we will have imposed sanctions and additional costs on the Houthi smuggling networks and military apparatus. This pressure will continue to build over the coming weeks.”

  Middle East Eye’s reporting of the assistance to the Houthis provided by Moscow, a major rival to the US, has added another dimension to the situation.

  The US has been actively providing Ukraine with billions of dollars in military support, including advanced weaponry such as tanks, amid Kyiv’s efforts to fend off a Russian invasion that began in 2022.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/10/2024 – 17:30

• As East Coast Says Goodbye, Debby, A New Tropical Threat Emerges 
  As East Coast Says Goodbye, Debby, A New Tropical Threat Emerges 

  For those on the East Coast, finally – goodbye, Debby. But now, the focus shifts to a new tropical system forming in the Atlantic Basin.

  The National Hurricane Center’s latest advisory note on ‘AL98’ said shower and thunderstorm activity has increased in association with a tropical wave between the Cabo Verde Islands and the Lesser Antilles. Tropical development probabilities currently stand at 30% over the next 48 hours and 80% over the next seven days.

  Here’s the full advisory note:

  Near the Lesser and Greater Antilles (AL98): Shower and thunderstorm activity has increased since yesterday in association with a tropical wave located roughly midway between the Cabo Verde Islands and the Lesser Antilles. Gradual development of this system is possible during the next couple of days while it moves westward to west-northwestward across the central tropical Atlantic. Afterwards, conditions are expected to become more conducive for development, and a tropical depression is likely to form by the early to middle part of next week while the system approaches and then moves near or over the Lesser Antilles. The system is forecast to continue moving generally west-northwestward and could approach portions of the Greater Antilles by the middle to latter part of next week.

  • Formation chance through 48 hours…low…30 percent
  • Formation chance through 7 days…high…80 percent.

  AL98’s seven-day trajectory model 

  

  Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel wrote on X, “Invest #98L is gradually get its act together, and as these things go we could easily have a depression or storm close to the Leeward Islands Tuesdayish.”

  Invest #98L is gradually get its act together, and as these things go we could easily have a depression or storm close to the Leeward Islands Tuesdayish. From there, a trip north of the islands or a trip into the Greater Antilles is possible with a ramp up in intensity too for… pic.twitter.com/Yc5KnyqccX

  — Jim Cantore (@JimCantore) August 10, 2024

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

  “A hurricane is likely to be near the US East Coast next weekend, but how close?” Ben Noll, a meteorologist with New Zealand’s National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, wrote on X. 

  A hurricane is likely to be near the U.S. East Coast next weekend, but how close?

  Most ECMWF-EPS members are safely offshore, nudged by an upper trough, but a small handful are close enough for a U.S. impact.

  Atlantic Canada & Bermuda will want to watch this one closely! pic.twitter.com/g7B9mHecZ9

  — Ben Noll (@BenNollWeather) August 10, 2024

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

  If AL98 does become a named storm, it will be called “Ernesto.” Spaghetti models show AL98’s potential track could make a presence on or near the East Coast.

  

  The hurricane season is beginning to ramp up, as the peak is in mid-September. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/10/2024 – 16:55

• The Trillion Dollar Coin: A Dumb Idea That Some Government People Take Seriously
  The Trillion Dollar Coin: A Dumb Idea That Some Government People Take Seriously

  Authored by Mike Maharrey via Money Metals,

  When I was about 7 years old, my friend Tommy and I decided we were going to dig a cave. We envisioned a massive cavern we could stand up in. It would be our secret fort. We went as far as digging a pretty deep hole in Tommy’s backyard. 

  It was a dumb idea.

  But our cave-building scheme wasn’t nearly as dumb as the notion that simply minting a trillion-dollar coin can solve America’s debt problem.

  

  The idea is pretty simple. The U.S. Treasury could mint a $1 trillion platinum coin, deposit it at the Federal Reserve, and then the federal government could write checks against that asset.

  Voila! Budget problem solved.

  Now, it may sound a little bit like creating money out of thin air.

  That’s because it is. But hey, if it’s legal, why not? 

  I’ll be honest; when people were discussing the trillion-dollar coin during the 2023 debt ceiling fight, I thought it was just an attention-grabbing political gimmick. Even Janet Yellen eventually nixed the idea. Surely nobody seriously considered such a scheme, right? 

  Wrong.

  Documents obtained by Bloomberg investigative journalist Jason Leopold reveal that government officials discussed the feasibility of minting a trillion-dollar coin on at least two occasions in 2013 and 2015. 

  According to a heavily redacted November 2013 memo, Treasury Department officials and Department of Justice lawyers discussed the legality of issuing a “large denomination coin in order to obtain funds for making debt payments and other expenditures if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling.” 

  A second memo dated Oct. 27, 2015, reveals another round of discussions about the legality of such a scheme.

  It seems to me they should probably consider the economic ramifications before fretting over legal minutia, but that’s just me. 

  Yale professor Jack Balkin promoted the $1 trillion coin scheme back in 2011. Here’s how it would work:  

  “Sovereign governments such as the United States can print new money. However, there’s a statutory limit to the amount of paper currency that can be in circulation at any one time.

  “Ironically, there’s no similar limit on the amount of coinage. A little-known statute gives the secretary of the Treasury the authority to issue platinum coins in any denomination. So some commentators have suggested that the Treasury create two $1 trillion coins, deposit them in its account in the Federal Reserve and write checks on the proceeds…

  “The ‘jumbo coin’ [strategy works] because modern central banks don’t have to print bills or float debt to create new money; they just add money to their customers’ checking accounts.”

  In effect, it would be no different than the quantitative easing operations (QE) the Federal Reserve currently runs to expand the money supply.

  In a QE operation, the Federal Reserve buys securities (primarily U.S. Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities). The catch is the money to buy these assets doesn’t exist until the Fed “writes a check” for the purchase. Imagine your bank honoring a check you wrote even though your balance was zero. That’s QE in a nutshell. The central bank creates the money out of thin air and injects it into the economy.

  The trillion-dollar coin scheme would have the same practical effect as QE, but the government would be off the hook from having to pay off bonds on the Fed balance sheet. Instead of having to borrow money by issuing bonds for the Fed to later monetize, the government would just create the money itself bypassing the Fed middleman.

  So, what’s the problem?

  Well, we just saw what happens when the Fed creates money out of thin air. During the pandemic, the central bank created nearly $5 trillion through quantitative easing. After that, prices went through the roof. This was inevitable because money creation is, by definition, inflation. One of the consequences of monetary inflation is price inflation. 

  Minting a trillion-dollar coin would have a similar effect. 

  The coin is just a prop for monetary kabuki theatre to make it all seem legal and above board. They wouldn’t even use 1 trillion dollars in platinum. If they did, it would weigh over 60 million pounds.

  In fact, they don’t even need the coin. As economist Robert Murphy explained, the Treasury could sell a paperclip to the central bank. Just imagine a QE operation using a paperclip instead of Treasury bonds.

  “The Federal Reserve has the power to buy whatever assets it wants at whatever price it wants. In principle, [the Treasury Secretary] could sell a paperclip to the Fed for $2 trillion. The Fed would simply write a check made out to the Treasury, drawn on the Fed itself.

  “When the Treasury deposited this check with its own bank — which just so happens to be the Fed — then its own ‘checking account’ balance would go up by $2 trillion. This money wouldn’t come from anywhere in the sense that some other account would need to be debited $2 trillion. On the contrary, the system’s total reserves (and what is called the ‘monetary base’) would have swelled by $2 trillion. The Treasury would be free to start paying bills by writing checks on the $2 trillion in its account.”

  Nevertheless, some people think this is a great idea. In their minds, it would be “free money.”

  But as the saying goes, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. You would pay for the $1 trillion coin through the inflation tax – just like you’re still paying for the pandemic-era stimulus every time you go to the grocery.

  Minting a coin or selling a paper clip and pretending it is worth $1 trillion doesn’t change the economic dynamics. When you boil it all down, it’s just a weird scheme to increase the money supply.

  And I can’t emphasize this enough – increasing the money supply is inflation.

  In theory, the government could keep price inflation under control by using the newly created funds judiciously and with restraint. In theory, they could just dribble the new money out slowly as they need it to minimize the inflationary effect. In theory, it could work!

  And in theory, Tommy and I could have dug a cave fort.

  Let’s be honest – judicious and restrained aren’t qualities you find in politicians. They’d blow through that $1 trillion like a spring tornado through Kansas. And when they spent it all, they’d mint another coin. And another. And another.

  There would be no dribble. It would unleash a cascade of spending on top of the tidal wave we already have.

  But this is what you get when you have an entire school of economics that disconnects money from stuff. 

  Sure, the federal government could mint a $1 trillion coin. But it can’t mint stuff. It can’t create stuff out of thin air. It can’t mint cars, food, clothing, houses, and cell phones. It can’t wave a wand a create vital services.

  But don’t you worry! We’re dealing with “smart” people here. They’ll tell you, “Don’t worry! This is different.” And then they’ll start spinning. They’ll offer up seemingly plausible reasons a $1 trillion coin will work. They’ll couch it in academic speak and technical jargon to make it sound even more plausible. They’ll yammer about how the dollar is the global reserve currency and everybody wants more of them. They show you some convincing-looking accounting tautologies. They’ll babble and gesticulate. And suddenly, you’ll be thinking, “Heck yeah! Mint that $1 trillion coin! That’s the ticket!”

  No.

  It’s dumb. 

  Tommy and I quickly realized our cave fort was a dumb idea. But unfortunately, dumb ideas spun out in the hallowed halls of government rarely die so easily.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/10/2024 – 16:20

• Ukraine Says It Hit & Destroyed Russian Offshore Gas Platform In Black Sea
  Ukraine Says It Hit & Destroyed Russian Offshore Gas Platform In Black Sea

  Ukraine says its military has targeted and destroyed an offshore gas platform in the Black Sea which had allegedly been converted to a forward operating sea base by Moscow forces.

  “Ukraine’s navy and military intelligence have attacked and damaged a former offshore gas platform used by Russian forces in the Black Sea,” a Ukraine navy spokesman said Saturday.

  The Ukrainians further released a video purporting to show the strike. The nighttime footage shows a large explosion and fire engulfing an offshore platform. Dozens of people may have been killed in the attack, but it is unconfirmed whether they were military or civilian platform operators.

  A Ukrainian government spokesman, Dmytro Pletenchuk, announced on social media: “The occupiers used this location for GPS spoofing to make civilian navigation dangerous. We cannot allow this to happen.”

  He further claimed there “were no civilians there” and that the “platform was not performing its normal functions” – and thus was a legitimate military target.

  Moscow did not immediately comment on the Ukrainian claims or the video. Starting Friday the Kremlin did acknowledge a sizeable Ukrainian naval attack on its Black Sea fleet and infrastructure, as well as drones sent over Crimea.

  Russian state media said the bulk of these attacks in various locations were thwarted:

  The Russian military has intercepted an attempted landing by Ukrainian marines near Kherson and destroyed a group of sea drones headed for Crimea, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow.

  Overnight, a group of unmanned surface vessels (USVs) was detected on approach to the Black Sea Fleet base in Sevastopol. Combat camera footage released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Friday showed them being destroyed in the water.

  “The on-duty fire systems destroyed seven unmanned boats in the Black Sea,” the ministry said, without elaborating.

  Meanwhile, a group of Ukrainian commandos tried to land at the tip of the Kinburn Peninsula, overlooking the mouth of the Dnieper, early on Friday. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, four boats approached the Kinburn Spit, attempting to land a “sabotage and reconnaissance group.” Under covering fire from two of the boats, about a dozen troops stormed the beach.

  

  All of this is also taking place against the backdrop of the surprise Ukraine cross-border attack into Russia’s Kursk region, which as of Saturday has entered day five.

  Ukraine has in the past months dramatically stepped up its attacks and sabotage campaign against Russian oil and gas infrastructure. Currently a Ukrainian cross-border force appears to be in control of Gazprom’s Sudzha trans-shipping hub for Russian natural gas to Europe via Ukraine, which is a crucial part of the Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhhorod pipeline. Still, supplies appear to be pumping normally, and very little has been confirmed of the current status of fighting in Sudzha amid an information blackout and fog of war.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/10/2024 – 15:45

• Manners Are The Glue That Binds Society
  Manners Are The Glue That Binds Society

  Authored by Rob Smith via RealClearMarkets,

  

  Convention, customs, manners and civility.

  When my daughter Ella was 16, I met her at a local restaurant for dinner. I was already seated when she arrived and before I could hold the chair out for her, she plopped down in the seat next to me. I was livid. I stood up and told her to get her ass out of the chair and stand up. I told her to always wait until the gentleman held the chair out for her, no matter how long it takes. I followed with “you need to demand respect from men, because if you don’t, you’ll never get it.”

  Manners are important. Indeed, they are the adhesive glue that binds society together and allows it to operate in smooth, orderly and conciliatory fashion. Like all convention, customs and manners developed organically because they served important functions. There was never a top-down Napoleonic Code of Manners that was dictated to the populace by some sort of government edict. I think all would agree that we have seen a degradation of civil society over the past 30 plus years. Our cities are trashed, there’s violence in the streets, and  civil  adult discourse is rare. Politicians and talking heads are totally uninhibited from telling not just “straight up lies,” but lies that are so fantastically and obvious false that a 3rd grader can immediately recognize the deceit. I attended schools with rigid honor systems and grew up in a culture where such blatant dishonesty made one an outcast and an immediate social pariah, cast out from respectable society. I remember a childhood contemporary was kicked out of boarding school for cheating on a test. At the time, this seemed like a punishment worse than death, as he would have to live with the stigma of dishonor the rest of his life. These long-established honor codes reflected the mores of the culture, anyone who violated these standards polluted the student population and had to be immediately drummed off campus. Today dishonesty seems to be rewarded as long as it advances an agenda.

  I have lots of nicknames, Robbie, Jones, Big Rob, Big, B.R., B-aura, Mr. Bread Truck, Professor and a few others, one of which is Mr. Mayor. I don’t know why folks call me Mayor, but I have thought quite a lot of what I would do if I was the mayor of Richmond, or better yet Governor of Virginia. The very first initiative, before any government policy proposals would be to start a campaign to re-establish civility and good manners. And what better place to begin than Richmond, Virginia, which I am quite sure, at one point not terribly long ago was the good manners capital of the world. I want to bring those days back. An initiative like this takes leadership and passion. Oh, how I hate to see what is happening to my city, not to mention the fabric of our national culture. My campaign would be much like Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” program. No government money.

  When Robert E. Lee became president of what would become Washington and Lee University in 1865, he initiated the “Speaking Rule.” Other Virginia schools followed. I don’t remember there being such a rule at the University of Virginia, primarily because the natural, organic culture that already existed was one spoke to everyone he passed and engaged in a pleasantry. It’s demoralizing to walk down the sidewalk in Richmond and watch your oncoming neighbor try NOT to make eye contact to avoid speaking. They know nothing of the “speaking rule,” and it’s sad. In the world of social media where people rage at complete strangers, there is no better salve than to look someone in the eye , smile and say “Good morning.”

  Good manners revolve around respect for others, and of course such respect is the essence of the Golden Rule. Good manners have a transcendental nature in that they create a system that one can’t see and can’t touch, but nonetheless create a benign social order. This evolves into a “custom” which evolves further into an almost universal “convention.” Kindness, gentleness, respect and tolerance are the result. Moreover, when a child is raised in this social order, this invisible ethos of civility instills itself in one’s personality, it is imbued, cooked in the sauce, and the act of being well mannered and thoughtful occurs without any conscience volition or effort to be that way. A few years ago, I visited two older gentleman I knew in the Alzheimer’s ward. There were ladies present, and I’ll never forget, although they couldn’t remember their names, they didn’t forget their manners. They were as we say perfect “southern gentlemen.” It was “baked in.”

  Before the advent of “business casual,” we all wore suits. How well I can remember 100 degree, extremely humid days and the perfumed smell of tobacco resting in downtown Richmond warehouses. Despite the heat and humidity, men did not take off their jackets when wandering outside their offices. If one was in the presence of a lady, the custom was to seek her permission before taking off one’s jacket. Now this might sound archaic to some, but the foundation of this rule, like so many others, is respect for and deference to women. As these exercises in civility have waned, what are we left with? The absolute barbarity of men beating the tar out of women in an Olympic sport.

  Dressing well is important.  By putting forth an effort to look nice, you exhibit respect and appreciation towards everyone you encounter, but the respect works both ways, your dress illustrates that you respect yourself.  Likewise, being punctual illustrates your respect for the other party and the value of his time, but it also illustrates that you respect yourself. 

  Boy, how many lessons did I learn from my father! Always stand when a lady enters a room. Stand when she leaves the dinner table and stand again when she returns. Ladies are always served first. Never, ever begin to eat until the last lady at the table has picked up her fork and put food in her mouth.  I’ll always remember him telling me to always wear a sports jacket and sometimes a tie when traveling on a plane. “Son, wherever you go in this world, you are a representative of the Commonwealth of Virginia and our family.” When I was old enough to drive and before cell phones, the custom was to follow a woman home and make sure she got into her house safely. When I see kids that I coached or taught in Sunday School wearing a hat in restaurant, I yank it off their heads and ask them what the hell is wrong with them. That was Dad’s biggest pet peeve! Offer the black housekeepers walking through the neighborhood to the bus stop a ride. Always be a good sport, and win or lose after any competition, whether athletic or business, shake the other fella’s hand. When using the telephone, introduce yourself and say “may I speak to,” and not “is so and so there.” Never go through a woman’s pocketbook or anyone’s mail. There’s a proper way to shake hands. Oh, he was a stickler for proper English! Using words correctly and phrased pleasantly honors the recipient. And, I will never forget exactly where I was when I heard the biggest rule of all. I was 5 years old. Dad was driving.  I can remember the story Dad told me, the exact bend in the road and the message was the most despicable thing a man could ever do, and was never, ever permissible under and circumstances, was to hit a woman!

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/10/2024 – 15:10

• US Arms-Makers Warily Consider Production In Ukraine At Pentagon's Urging
  US Arms-Makers Warily Consider Production In Ukraine At Pentagon’s Urging

  At the urging of the Pentagon, several American arms-makers are exploring the possibility of producing weapons inside Ukraine, but are grappling with assessing a host of risk factors that include not only Russian bombs but also Ukraine’s infamous corruption. 

  In June, President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bilateral agreement  committing to “defense industrial cooperation, including codevelopment, coproduction, and supply of Ukraine’s defense industrial base requirements.”

  The next month, Northrop Grumman was first to take the plunge, announcing that it had finalized a deal to coproduce medium-caliber ammunition in Ukraine. Crucially, no Northrop employees are to set foot inside the embattled country. “As part of the co-production agreement Northrop Grumman will provide the equipment and training to install an assembly line so that [Ukranian firm Ukroboronservice] can produce and test advanced medium caliber ammunition in Ukraine,” a spokesman told Breaking Defense. 

  

  If that first project goes well, Northrop could take on more ambitious ventures. “[Medium-caliber ammo] is our first project that’s paid for with Ukrainian dollars. We are looking to expand that into tank ammo, 155 mm, others as we find innovative processes,” Dave Bartell, the firm’s director of international business for Northrop’s defense systems sector, told Breaking Defense in June.  

  Other companies are still crunching the numbers and weighing risks that are difficult to quantify. An unnamed State Department official says they’re champing at the bit. “I think our industry is really eager, but at the same time, [it] has to make sense from a business case, right? And financing is an issue too, how you can actually pay for this stuff,” the official told Defense One. 

  The official also acknowledged other risks that go beyond the prospect of employees and production lines being vaporized. “Clearly, corruption is a concern,” the official said, before offering the mandatory Western-government claim that Ukraine is making progress on that front.  

  In May, Ukraine’s former deputy head of the presidential administration was charged with “illicit enrichment,” having amassed real estate, vehicles and other riches valued in excess of 10 times his disclosed salary and savings. A few weeks earlier, local media revealed that the wife of the head of the Security Service’s cybersecurity operation bought a $500,000 apartment, which prompted President Zelensky to fire her husband. There are many more examples where that came from.

  

  There’s also the question of whether a heavy investment would be accompanied by long-term opportunity, or whether the breakout of peace — God forbid — would turn a Ukrainian-based project into a money-loser. Given the uncertainty, companies are likely to emphasize less ambitious undertakings. The ability to obtain insurance is another concern. 

  “It has to be a business case for what they’re trying to do, and so looking at maybe starting off with a maintenance, repair, and overhaul type stuff, spare parts production, so kind of starting a crawl-walk-run-type philosophy, before you actually get to the more advanced stuff,” the official added. 

  We suspect that, if things turn south, the Pentagon will find a way to make it up to US weapon manufacturers — and pass the cost on to you. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/10/2024 – 14:35

• Polling On Latinos Shows Trouble For Harris
  Polling On Latinos Shows Trouble For Harris

  Authored by Jeffrey Baldwin via RealClearPolitics,

  According to a new survey, Latinos are disillusioned with President Joe Biden and his administration’s policies. 

  

  The survey, primarily sampling Latinos living in several key states such as Pennsylvania, finds that a majority feel like things are worse than they were four years ago. And a whopping 72% say that the country is headed in the wrong direction. 

  The findings are significant because Biden comfortably won the Latino vote in the 2020 presidential election, and Latinos have traditionally voted for Democrats in previous elections. 

  And following the dramatic shake up atop of the Democratic ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign will need to put together a coalition – which includes Latinos – if she is to win the presidency.

  Unfortunately for Harris, our poll shows that the economy is front and center for most Latino voters.

  According to our findings, consistent with other polls, Latinos are most worried about jobs, the economy, inflation, and the high cost of living. 

  According to our findings, two-thirds of Latinos say the state of the economy is either fair or poor. It’s no surprise, then, that our poll found that though Latinos still continue to believe in the American Dream, nearly 88% believe that it’s harder to achieve than ever before. 

  These findings are consistent with what I am hearing every day from Latinos drawn to our workshops on financial literacy, the role of government, and English as a Second Language (ESL) classes. Hispanics are drawn to America because of the promise of a better life and want to be active in making this country better and more prosperous. 

  Most immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean are not looking for handouts, but instead are looking for ways to get ahead in a country of abundant opportunity and prosperity. They know that unlike other countries – including the ones they may have fled from – the United States is where people can accomplish extraordinary things through hard work and perseverance. 

  But as our polling makes clear, Latinos are feeling battered after years of runaway spending, crony capitalism, and ever-expanding regulations that make owning a business or raising a family more difficult.  

  The everyday Latinos I talk to, who are working two shifts or struggling to make ends meet, are looking for solutions from our elected officials. They are looking for bold leadership and they are tired of partisan politics.  

  Many of us, having come from countries ruled by dictators with little chance of prosperity, are grateful to take on the responsibilities that come with living in a republican democracy where the elected officials are accountable to the people – not the other way around.  

  We’re not a perfect nation, but the founders of this country knew that to make this a “more perfect union,” this great experiment of democracy needs an educated and vibrant citizenry. Latinos are showing that we are both and will not be seen as a monolithic, one-issue voting bloc for anyone. 

  As one of the youngest and fastest growing demographic, Latinos will have an outsized role in determining the future of our country. This election is just the start in shaping the next chapter of America’s history.  

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/10/2024 – 14:00

• Biologist Richard Dawkins Says Facebook Nuked Account After Posting That Male Boxers Shouldn't Fight Women
  Biologist Richard Dawkins Says Facebook Nuked Account After Posting That Male Boxers Shouldn’t Fight Women

  Facebook has nuked the account of famed evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins after he said that genetically male boxers should not be allowed to fight women in the Olympics.

  

  On Saturday morning, Dawkins posted on X about the shocking censorship – saying that there was no reason given for the sudden removal of his account.

  

  “My entire @facebook account has been deleted, seemingly (no reason given) because I tweeted that genetically male boxers such as Imane Khalif (XY undisputed) should not fight women in Olympics. Of course  my opinion is open to civilised argument. But outright censorship?”

  My entire @facebook account has been deleted, seemingly (no reason given) because I tweeted that genetically male boxers such as Imane Khalif (XY undisputed) should not fight women in Olympics. Of course my opinion is open to civilised argument. But outright censorship?

  — Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) August 10, 2024

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  [Dawkins presumably meant that he posted it on Facebook, not “tweeted.”]

  Social media exploded in controversy following a women’s Olympic boxing match between Italy’s Angela Carini and Imane Khelif of Algeria – in which Carini quit just 46 seconds into the fight after receiving a barrage of powerful punches from Khelif.

  

  Notably, the International Boxing Association banned Khelif and another boxer, Lin Yu-ting from last year’s World Boxing Championships for having failed gender testing.

  “This test conclusively indicated that both athletes did not meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors,” the IBA said in a statement.

  Furthermore, IBA president Umar Kremlev told Russian news agency TASS that DNA tests “proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded from the sports events.”

  As Why Evolution Is True opines;

  There are debates about whether the two boxers in question were of XY chromosome constitution, had high levels of testosterone (they had previously been disqualified in other competitions), or had genetic disorders of sex development (DSDs).

  But regardless, to ban someone’s account for expressing the opinion that genetically male boxers shouldn’t fight against biological women is unconscionable. Richard said that one of the boxers is “XY undisputed,” and since I’ve been out of touch, that may be the case.  And if that is the case, then there is a real debate to be had.

  There’s a general debate to be had about these boxers anyway since, last I heard, people were arguing about every aspect of the two is subject to dispute.

  Facebook botched this one very badly, and should restore Dawkins’s account.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/10/2024 – 13:25

• Tether Mints 1.3BN USDT Since Market Bottom: Can It Push Bitcoin Above $65K?
  Tether Mints 1.3BN USDT Since Market Bottom: Can It Push Bitcoin Above $65K?

  By Zoltan Vardai of CoinTelegraph

  Tether, the issuer of USDT — the world’s largest stablecoin — has minted over $1.3 billion worth of stablecoins since the market bottom, as investors prepare to buy the dip.

  Tether’s treasury has printed over $1.3 billion worth of USDT since the market bottomed on Aug. 5. The $1.3 billion was transferred to some of the most popular centralized cryptocurrency exchanges — including Kraken, Coinbase, OKX and Bullish — according to an Aug. 9 X post by Lookonchain.

  1.3B $USDT has been transferred from #TetherTreasury to exchanges since the market crash on Aug 5! pic.twitter.com/BYtMqgVRyZ

  — Lookonchain (@lookonchain) August 9, 2024

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  Large stablecoin inflows to crypto exchanges could signal incoming buying pressure, as stablecoins are the main on-ramp from the fiat to the crypto world used by investors.

  Is the local crypto market bottom in?

  Following the aggressive $510 billion crypto market sell-off, the local market bottom may be in.

  The 1.3 billion USDT has been minted since Aug. 5, when Bitcoin price bottomed at a five-month low of above $49,500 before starting to recover, according to Bitstamp data.

  

  Since then, Bitcoin price has staged an over 21% recovery to trade at $60,271 as of 10:44 am UTC. The world’s first cryptocurrency has risen over 5.2% during the past 24 hours.

  Can USDT help push Bitcoin above the key $65,000 mark?

  Bitcoin could still see more downside volatility unless it manages to reclaim the crucial $64,000–$65,000 mark.

  This price level acts as the short-term whale holder realized price for large Bitcoin holding entities, according to an Aug. 9 X post by CryptoQuant.

  Pay attention to #Bitcoin short-term whales

  “The short-term holder whale realized price is in the 64K-65K range. This level may present itself as a resistance.” – By @XBTManager

  Get the full insight 👇https://t.co/MgZCbsB060 pic.twitter.com/Rqs3GPtht3

  — CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) August 9, 2024

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  Inflows from the United States spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have also turned positive, which could contribute to Bitcoin’s price appreciation. The US Bitcoin ETFs amassed a cumulative $194 million worth of net positive inflows on Aug. 8, according to Farside Investors data.

  

  ETF inflows can significantly contribute to a cryptocurrency’s price appreciation. For Bitcoin, ETFs accounted for about 75% of new investment in the cryptocurrency by Feb. 15 as it surpassed the $50,000 mark.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/10/2024 – 12:50

• Russia Blocks Signal, Curbs YouTube, As Ukraine Troop Incursion Results In 76,000+ Civilians Evacuated
  Russia Blocks Signal, Curbs YouTube, As Ukraine Troop Incursion Results In 76,000+ Civilians Evacuated

  Ukraine forces’ cross-border attack into Russia’s Kursk region has entered a fifth day, with the Russian defense ministry acknowledging it is “continuing to repel” the offensive which has shocked Kremlin leadership and the population.

  But this has apparently led to crackdowns on US-based social media platforms and messaging apps. Friday into Saturday there have been widespread reports that Russia has blocked the Signal messaging app while also throttling YouTube.

  

  State media regulator Roskomnadzor told the RBC business daily on Friday that Signal has been banned from the country for “violations” of national law.

  It has been restricted “due to violations of the requirements of Russian legislation, compliance with which is necessary to prevent the use of the messenger for terrorist and extremist purposes,” Roskomnadzor stated.

  The statement came Friday within hours after users across Russia complained of widespread outages for the secure messaging app which allows for communication via encrypted text and calls.

  Russian opposition activist and independent journalists who are critical of the Kremlin have complained that this move primarily targets them, as they heavily rely on Signal in their reporting and to talk to sources. Similarly, Russia had banned Telegram’s messaging app in 2018.

  As for YouTube, while it has not been banned, users have noticed loading speeds significantly drop. Some regions of Russia have seen users say that it is inaccessible. This as Russian reserve and national defense convoys have been observed on Russian highways headed south in large numbers.

  Today, #Russia initiated a block on the #Signal web messenger (@signalapp), known for its robust encryption, aiming to hinder Russians from sharing videos, photos, and news about the invasion of the #Kursk region by Ukrainian forces and possible coordination of subsequent… https://t.co/CO37rSBZnK

  — Viktor Kovalenko (@MrKovalenko) August 9, 2024

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  Al Jazeera interviewed users and wrote this week:

  Russian internet monitoring service Sboi.rf said thousands of glitches had been reported on Thursday with users saying they could only access the platform through virtual private networks (VPNs).

  “YouTube is not working,” one anonymous user said in comments on the site.

  Reuters news agency reporters in Russia were unable to access YouTube. The website remained available on some mobile devices.

  A Russian political scientist named Boris Pastukhov, who maintains a popular YouTube channel, has said, “We’ve seen that particular regions lose Youtube connectivity overall or slow down by 90 percent for a few days, which is not really explainable by servers being old.”

  The fear is that YouTube could be next to be blocked by Kremlin authorities, but this would prove a deeply unpopular move among the Russian population. Reports commonly estimate that more than 50 million Russians use YouTube every day.

  The US is actively enabling a literal ground invasion of Russia at the moment, and it’s not even being treated like a particularly big story

  — Michael Tracey (@mtracey) August 10, 2024

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  At this point a whopping 76,000+ Russians living near southern border areas have had to evacuate their homes amid the ongoing Ukrainian cross-border offensive. 

  According to a regional summary of Saturday events:

  Moscow on Saturday mounted a “counter-terror operation” in three border regions adjoining Ukraine to halt Kyiv’s advance deeper into Russia and warned that the fighting endangered a nuclear power plant.

  Ukrainian units stormed into Russia’s western Kursk region on Tuesday morning in a shock attack, the largest and most successful cross-border offensive by Kyiv of the two-and-a-half-year conflict.

  Its troops have advanced several kilometers and Russia’s army has rushed in reserves and extra equipment, including convoys of tanks, rocket launchers and aviation units – though neither side has given precise details on the extent of the forces they have committed.

  Russia’s nuclear agency on Saturday warned the Ukrainian attack posed a “direct threat” to the nearby Kursk nuclear power station.

  At least 16,000 civilians have left their homes in Russian border areas, where emergency aid and medical supplies have been ferried in, and extra trains to the capital Moscow have been put on for people fleeing.

  TASS has subsequently put this figure at over 76,000 Russian citizens who have had to be emergency evacuated to safety as fighting encroached on dozens of towns and villages, citing the country’s Emergencies Ministry.

  President Putin has accused Ukrainian troops of “indiscriminately firing various types of weapons, including missiles, at civilian facilities, residential buildings, and ambulances.” US-supplied equipment, especially Bradley Fighting Vehicles, have been observed during the assault.

  The Russians published a video of the transfer of forces to the Kursk region. On the last seconds of the video an interesting vehicle can be see – MT-LB with an installed Grad-1 rocket launcher pic.twitter.com/oOcUVokKog

  — Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) August 9, 2024

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  Verifiable information coming from the areas of fighting in Kursk has been scant. Each side is claiming successes and advances, but as we detailed Friday President Putin and top Kremlin leadership were caught off guard by these surprise developments.

  With scenes like the below now widely unfolding in Russia’s southern oblasts, Moscow is likely about to hit Ukraine hard, but it must restore stability and security to Kursk, Belgorod, and Lipetsk first.

  

  With evidence of a large-scale tank deployment on its own territory to repel the Ukrainian invaders, Russia is very likely to accelerate its war in Ukraine. This is indeed a significant turning point, and not helping matters is the fact that the US is appearing to positively back the cross-border move by Kiev.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/10/2024 – 12:15

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• Climate Fear-Mongering Fail: Great Barrier Reef Sees Third Record Year Of Coral Growth
  Climate Fear-Mongering Fail: Great Barrier Reef Sees Third Record Year Of Coral Growth

  Authored by Chris Morrison via DailySceptic.org,

  Massive increases in coral across the Australian Great Barrier Reef (GBR) have been reported for 2023-24 making it the third record year in a row of heavy growth. Across almost all parts of the 1,500 mile long reef, from the warmer northern waters to the cooler conditions in the south, coral is now at its highest level since detailed observations began. The inconvenient news has been ignored in mainstream media which, curiously, have focused on a non-story in Nature that claimed “climate change” poses an “existential threat” to the GBR.

  “The science tells us that the GBR is in danger – and we should be guided by the science,” Professor Helen McGregor from the University of Wollongong told Victoria Gill of BBC News. 

  The existential threat is “now realised” reported the Guardian.

  

  Travelling back from the reality inhabited by the Guardian, it can be reported that last year’s gains were eye-catchingly large. On the Northern GBR, hard coral cover leapt from 35.8% to 39.5%, in the central area it rose from 30.7% to 34%, while in the south it went from 34% to 39.1%. The report is the result of monitoring of hard coral cover reefs from August 2023 to June 2024 by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). The percentage of hard coral cover is a standard measurement of reef conditions used by scientists and is said to provide a simple and robust measure of reef health. Similar reports have been published by the AIMS over the last 38 years.

  For the first two years of record coral growth, the narrative-driven mainstream media ignored the recovery story. But this year, the suspicious might contend, something had to be done to blunt the sensational news of the stonking rises. Help has come in the form of a paper just published in Nature which uses proxy temperature measurements and climate models to suggest temperatures around the vast reef area are the highest recorded in 400 years. This time period is the blink of an ecological eye-lid given that coral has been around for hundreds of millions of years during periods when temperatures and atmospheric carbon dioxide have been markedly different. Nevertheless, this is said to pose an existential threat despite it being known that sub-tropical corals thrive between 24°C-32°C, and in fact seem to grow faster in warmer waters.

  Natural bleaching, when the coral expels algae and turns white, can occur with temporary local temperature changes, but evidence from many years of scientific observation suggests the corals often and quickly recover. Long term changes in water temperature – tiny compared to coral’s optimum conditions – pose no threat, but alarmists concentrate on the bleaching events to warn of possible ecological collapse. The Guardian noted a recent fifth mass bleaching in eight years across the reef, driven, it claimed, by “global heating”. So far, its readers are in the dark as to how this squares with the recent record growth.

  A decade of mass bleaching, relentlessly catastrophised in the interests of Net Zero by activists in the media, academia and politics, does not appear to have done much harm to the recent growth in the Northern GBR.

  

  Or the central area.

  

  Or even in the south where the water temperatures are slightly cooler.

  

  To read the latest AIMS report is to read the best possible spin on the story that the reef is heading for disaster. And, of course, it is all down to the unproven changes in climate that are said to be caused by human activity. It is claimed this will cause more frequent and long-lasting marine ‘heatwaves’, a product no doubt of a climate model. It is generally suggested that these heatwaves and mass bleaching were rare prior to the 1990s, although how anyone can know this is a mystery. Detailed GBR observations and temperature recordings barely stretch back a few decades.

  As is often the case with publicly-funded operations, the political message is never far from the surface. Thus we learn that “enabling coral reefs to survive these stressful conditions requires a combination of a reduction in global greenhouse emissions to stabilise temperatures… and the development of interventions to help reefs adapt to and recover from the effects of climate change”. No doubt this last proposal requires large amounts of money from the taxpayer to cover the costs of such worthy work.

  Not everyone goes along with the coral fear-mongering. The distinguished scientist Dr. Peter Ridd has studied the GBR for 40 years and notes that coral numbers have “exploded” in recent years. He says that all 3,000 reefs in the world’s largest system have excellent coral. “Not a single reef or even a single species of reef life has been lost since British settlement,” he reports. The impact of bleaching is “routinely exaggerated by the media and some scientific organisations”. In his view, the public is being deceived about the reef. “How this occurred is a serious issue for the reef-science community which has embraced emotion, ideology and raw self-interest to maintain funding,” he observes.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 23:25

• What Effect Will Voter ID Laws Have In The 2024 Election?
  What Effect Will Voter ID Laws Have In The 2024 Election?

  Since the last presidential election in the United States, four states have implemented strict photo ID laws at the polls, bringing the count of places with these types of laws to 10. Additionally, three more states have made their ID laws stricter and in one state, such a change was blocked by courts.

  Around 29 million Americans of voting age live in states where voter ID laws were tightened, while the number of those living under strict photo ID requirements rose from fewer than 30 million to more than 50 million. Research by the University of Maryland shows that as of the fall of 2023, almost 50 million Americans or around 20 percent of adults citizens were estimated to not have a valid driver’s license or at least not one with their current name or address on it, among them 23 million Democrats, 15.7 million Republicans and 10.5 million Independents.

  As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below, combining these numbers means that around 10 million voting-age adults could be negatively affected by photo ID laws in November 2024. 

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Other research, however, shows that party mobilization and outreach have successfully compensated for these negative effects on voter turnout in the past.

  Voter ID laws, specifically those strictly requiring photo ID, are a contentious topic. 

  While proponents say that bringing official and easy-to-verify identification on election day should be a no-brainer, the lack of a uniform national ID system in the U.S. means that some people do not have a photo ID. This most often affects poor and otherwise marginalized people as well as people of color, which has led to the topic of voter ID having become a partisan one in the country.

  Most states that currently have strict photo ID law for voting are in the Southern United States or the Midwest. New laws were passed in the last four years in Nebraska, Arkansas, North Carolina and Ohio, while they have existed for longer in Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee, among other. A bigger group of states requests photo ID at the polls, but voters without it can use a workaround, for example signing a sworn affidavit or other document or have their signature matched by a clerk. Even states with strict photo ID laws mostly allow voting a provisional ballot and bringing in ID by a specific deadline as well as some exception in case voters have specific impairments, objections on religious grounds or others.

  In Texas and South Carolina, this line between exception and workaround has been increasingly blurred, showing the tug-of-war that surrounds U.S. voter ID laws. Voters in both states who do not have photo ID can fill out a reasonable impediment declaration. While this sounds like voters will need to prove that they qualify for an exception, the cause can be any “obstacle you find reasonable”, the South Carolina Election Commission informs. In Texas, the situation is similar.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 23:00

• Fauci's "DNA Of Caring"
  Fauci’s “DNA Of Caring”

  Authored by Randall Block via The Brownstone Institute,

  Dr. Anthony Fauci often claims a “DNA of caring” yet his actions reveal a stark contrast. Avoiding direct patient care, Dr. Fauci focused on populations—effecting a mindset aligned with abstract compassion for humanity that nonetheless neglects individual rights. His so-called ‘DNA of caring’ has most recently doubly stranded those subjected to it: first, by amplifying fear about Covid-19 while burying mitigating data; second, by pushing a vaccine in a draconian, methodical, and threatening manner, taking away liberty and jobs to an extreme never seen before in the history of mankind. 

  Additionally, by fast-tracking and strong-arming an mRNA vaccine-platform technology heretofore devoid of Phase II or III safety studies, Dr. Fauci prioritized hypothetical scientific advancement over actual current health, medical knowledge, and personal liberties—effectively double-crossing both the public’s trust and violating his own integrity: contradicting medically foundational principles he had spent his career enunciating—perhaps influenced by pharmaceutical interests.

  

  Introduction: From Public Health to Panic: The Motivations Behind Dr. Fauci’s Pandemic Pivot

  In early 2020, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of NIAID, initially approached the coronavirus with standard public health strategies. By late February, Dr. Fauci had become the deciding influencer for the New York Times’ Donald McNeil’s decision to go “up to eleven,” announcing: “To Take On the Coronavirus, Go Medieval on It.” This article heightened panic in New York City, soon to be America’s pandemic landfall—and marked a shift from a century of public health’s more measured responses BACKWARDS to draconian measures. Remember: “lockdowns” emanate literally from 1970s prisons.

  Several theories potentially explain this pivot. One suggests Fauci’s involvement with NIAID grants to the Wuhan lab pushed him to deflect accountability. Another points to political motivations, aiming to undermine an adversary, Donald Trump—by destabilizing the economy, and influencing the election through lockdown-necessitated mail-in ballots.

  A deeper, but not necessarily mutually exclusive motive may lie in Fauci’s support for mRNA vaccine technology. Previously, mRNA treatments had only reached Phase I trials. The pandemic allowed for emergency-use authorization, fast-tracking this experimental platform and breaking regulatory barriers—likely saving a decade by creating a precedent for future mRNA treatments. He did this knowing systemic vaccines may not be appropriate for respiratory illnesses, and having observed close hand China’s failure to create an effective Coronavirus vaccine in the 2000s after SARS.

  And this wasn’t the first time: his persistence in pushing for mRNA technology was evident during the previous decade’s Zika Microcephaly pandemic response. Even as Zika had fizzled to zero (microcephaly-) cases, Fauci persisted in pushing for Zika (DNA-and mRNA-) vaccines. He dangled ~$100 million in front of Brazil in 2018, but it refused—whereupon he pivoted in the 2020s to Johns Hopkins to inject and infect women with Zika to test the vaccine. This is a man who will not let a public health emergency go to waste—even if it involves aggrandizing it.

  Despite his self-assessment as having a “DNA of caring,” Fauci’s actions suggest a focus more on institutional goals and the advancement of mRNA technology than on the people themselves—via corporatism: merging governmental authority with big business interests. Treating populations with a one-size-fits-all approach, stripping away individual rights, and using people as means to societal ends evokes an antidemocratic utilitarianism.

  A Self-Professed “DNA of Caring”

  A Google search for “Dr. Anthony Fauci’s promotion of the mRNA vaccine” performed today (helpfully for the otherwise beleaguered Dr. Fauci) funnels towards his On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service book tour—including this ironic and self-titled fluff piece: ‘I had that DNA of caring for people‘ sweetly afforded by PBS’ uncritical, team player Geoff Bennett. 

  

  Nearly comically—this June 2024 video, intending to polish his legacy, inadvertently highlights his dictatorial tendencies, tin ear, and inability to learn from mistakes. Despite his mea culpa about failing to listen to stakeholders during the 1980s’ HIV/AIDS crisis and promising to have learned from that experience, merely a few sentences later Fauci lashes out at his contemporary Covid-19 critics. 

  The irony here is stark. Fauci admits that he and his institutions were domineering and unheeding of criticism during the HIV/AIDS crisis—whereupon he retroactively wishes he had given those activists input into the process that had so directly affected them. 

  DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Understandably, but unacceptably, the scientific community and the regulatory community just said, “We know best for you. We’re the scientists. We’re the ones with the experience.” And they kept saying, “No, no, no. We really want a seat at the table.” When we didn’t listen, then they started becoming theatrical, iconoclastic, disruptive, and confrontative. As John Lewis used to say, ‘there’s trouble and there’s good trouble.’ They were making ‘good trouble’ in the field of health in wanting to have a seat at the table. One of the best things I think I have done in my career was to put aside the theatrics (note: an admission against interest) and listen to what they were saying, because what they were saying made absolutely perfect sense. And I remember saying to myself that, if I were in their shoes, I’d be doing exactly what they were doing.

  GEOFF BENNETT: When you describe that (HIV/AIDS) experience as “enlightening,” how did it inform your approach moving forward to confront other epidemics?

  DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Yes. Yes, listen to the patients. Listen. And don’t think that everything comes from the top down. Listen to the community. Listen to what they’re experiencing. And you’re going to make a much better and more appropriate response to whatever the disease challenge is. That was a lesson that was very well-learned from the activists.

  Volte-face and thin-skinned (a possible alternate title for his book), he shows no such sympathy for those who opposed his Covid-19 rabbit-out-of-a-hat absurdities, dismissing them outright:

  DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: I think it’s important to say, because it’s the truth, that if ever there was a time when you didn’t want to have a public health crisis was at a time of profound divisiveness within our country, where you were having people making decisions about health based on political ideology. That is the worst possible circumstance.

  It would have been really nice if we had a uniform message: “Masks work. Use them.” “Vaccines are good and save lives.” Let’s do it.

  “No, hydroxychloroquine not only doesn’t work, but, in fact, it could harm you.” (ignoring risk/benefit ratio; “right to try,” FDA-approval, and track record—and that this is true for any treatment, cf. vaccines). 

  This dismissive attitude toward dissenting voices is ironic given Fauci’s complete 180 on his own views. He refuses to engage with anyone who challenges him, yet seems blissfully unaware he’s contradicting his past self. And there is this gem uncovered by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic from Dr. Fauci, Summer 2021—so different from his supposed HIV-lesson-learned to “Listen to the community. Listen to what they’re experiencing”—speaking more like a mob boss:

  “I have to say that I don’t see a big solution, other than some sort of mandatory vaccination. I know federal officials don’t like to use that term. Once (administrators) feel empowered and protected legally, (they’ll) say, ‘you want to come to this college buddy, you’re going to get vaccinated.’ Yeah, big corporations are going to say ‘you want to work for us, you get vaccinated.’ And it’s been proven that when you make it difficult for people in their lives, they lose their ideological bullshit and they get vaccinated.”

  Dr. Fauci’s actual “DNA of caring” is caring about pharmaceutical mRNA.

  Fauci 1.0 Vs. Fauci 2.0

  Somewhere around February 2020, there seems to have been a ‘software update’ of Dr. Fauci’s mindset, and not for the better. Generally speaking, people only turn to questionable behavior when faced with a greater agenda, threat to self, or conversion. Here’s a by-no-means complete table of Fauci Covid-era “flip-flops:”

  

  This transformation was likely triggered by the realization of his agency NIAID’s and/or his own embarrassingly damaging complicity in the gain-of-function genesis of the “Wuhan flu” SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus threat. He aimed for self-preservation, politically maneuvering against Donald Trump to compromise him, while also greasing the skids for the mRNA vaccine. 

  This necessitated performing life support for the “emergency” in the “Emergency Use Authorization/ EUA” by quashing any interim medications, aggrandizing the threat of SARS-CoV-2—when he knew, from the Diamond Princess data, that it was not that severe (zero deaths, 25 days after exposure)—and backtracking from his comments that respiratory illnesses were not best approached by vaccines; that natural immunity was preferable to vaccine immunity, and that flu shots needed to be timely for the upcoming variant. Despite his previously calling the coronavirus threat “minuscule,” Fauci’s actions followed a pattern of (mis)using the crisis to bequeath a Big Science/Big Pharma (-regulatory-capture cycle untested mRNA treatments. 

  Covid-19 Pandemic: Overreach and Ignoring Early Data

  During the Covid-19 pandemic, Fauci’s approach starkly contradicted the lessons he claimed to have learned from the HIV/AIDS crisis. He enforced top-down measures that often lacked scientific backing. For instance, he admitted in a January 2024 Congressional hearing (belatedly released in June) that he did not know the scientific basis for the six-foot social distancing rule and could not substantiate masking requirements for children. 

  “Collectively, the four pillars of the “Covidian Cult” were lockdowns, masks, social distancing and mRNA vaccines. Dr Fauci was one of the most powerful advocates of all of these things, and he became the public face of each demand. But here we have one of the architects, without too much pushing, admitting that two of those four pillars were never set in any scientific foundation at all. Now what this admission does is utterly destroy the entire Covidian argument. Because the argument was that we should “Follow the Science.” The argument was that technocratic experts had decided the course of action to follow, and that we had no right to question that course because they were the experts and we were simply, “Tracy from Facebook.” Daniel Jupp “Fauci’s Evidence: It just sort of appeared. You know, from nowhere.”

  Fauci’s stance on vaccination mandates was equally inconsistent. In 2004, he advised against flu vaccines for those who had already contracted the flu. Yet during the Covid-19 pandemic, he supported mandatory vaccinations regardless of prior infection, ignoring the virus’ evolving nature. Vaccines were administered for an outdated strain, akin to giving expired flu shots, which are typically removed from circulation once the virus mutates significantly. This inconsistency highlighted his failure to adapt his policies to the realities of the virus’ mutations.

  Fauci 1.0 had said, “You seek and learn…from an experiment“ (2005). The floating coronavirus-incubation/quarantine experiment, a.k.a. Diamond Princess was an incredible serendipity for the world—if not its 3,711 captives. Trying to enlist that number of people for an unknown viral threat would’ve required a pre-payout of ~$10 billion (and could not have included this random selection of individuals)—yet, the world was the beneficiary of this experiment in a timely fashion, February 2020 for “free” (although the passengers and crew might disagree with that term).

  Instead of focusing on the obvious good news results: zero fatalities after three weeks’ exposure; essentially none of the children or young adults feeling much ill or even noticing infection—Fauci 2.0 sided with Chinese propaganda and extreme measures, contributing to widespread panic and economic devastation. Fauci 2.0 ignored the possibility of Chinese guile, either blithely or willfully—but in either case to our nation’s discredit, discomfort, disunion, and disinformation.

  The Gates Foundation’s mRNA Finesse; Zika Emergency

  In 2017, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $100 million to Moderna to develop an mRNA-platform vaccine for Zika. This investment was made despite the fact that Zika, a relatively harmless dengue variant, was not (by that time) persistently linked to the microcephaly cases it was blamed for. The Zika-microcephaly phenomenon just petered out even in the initial “pandemic” panic crisis year of 2016. This rush to develop an mRNA vaccine for a non-crisis reflects a broader trend of aggrandizing potential threats to justify rapid and untested vaccine development.

  My book, Overturning Zika: The Pandemic That Never Was, points out the complete absence of any Zika-related microcephaly increase in any year, including the incipient 2015 year. Once Zika tests were developed and Brazil adopted the WHO standard for statistical microcephaly determination, the link between Zika and microcephaly was never substantiated—and effectively disappeared. “Zika-Microcephaly” had always and only been “science” by press release, political pressure, and professorial self-aggrandizement.

  Dr. Fauci never stopped pushing for Zika vaccines long after it was clear there was no recurrence of Zika-related microcephaly in Latin America. In 2018, he attempted to initiate a human challenge trial (HCT) in Brazil, but the authorities refused, not wanting to introduce the Zika virus into the population through experimentation.

  

  HCTs had fallen out of favor due to the negative outcomes of the Guatemala and Tuskegee experiments. In 2017, the NIH’s ethics panel determined that Zika did not warrant human challenge trials, but Dr. Fauci pushed for them regardless, ignoring prevailing public health wisdom. 

  Why was he jonesing for a putative Zika vaccine? Fauci was a proponent of synthetic vaccinology and mRNA platforms. Conveniently ignoring Zika-Microcephaly’s fizzle, he continued over-generously funding Moderna (whose very name is a portmanteau of “modified RNA”).

  When Zika’s shoddy underlying science and non-recurrence failed to sustain the necessary “emergency” for mRNA technology, an unrepentant and unpunished Fauci aggrandized Covid-19 to achieve the same goals. Had he been reprimanded for violating the NIH ethics panel’s decision, he might not have been so rash and brash in exaggerating Covid-19. It appears Fauci pursued his “fix” of stealthily introducing mRNA technology to the public and mainstreaming it through vaccines, despite the ethical breaches and potential risks involved.

  mRNA Vaccines: From Never Done to Pandemic Panacea

  The foundation for mRNA-vaccine technology was laid years before the pandemic. Here’s an excellent history (behind paywall) of the endeavor, beginning with Robert F. Malone’s late-1980s conceptualization—although (reminiscent of Breaking Bad’s Gray Matter Technologies: Walter White says, “It was my hard work. My research. And you and Elliott made millions off it.”) all of the financial-windfall beneficiaries currently in the field are happy to orphan whistleblower Malone who said the coronavirus “should never have been politicized.” Legacy media is happy to help discredit him: effectively always, his name is accompanied by the term, “spreading misinformation.”

  The Obama Administration invested heavily in mRNA research through DARPA (via the mysterious network, “JASON”) and BARDA. By the end of the Obama era, mRNA vaccines were being tested in both animals and humans – but never beyond Phase 1. 

  The Covid-19 pandemic fast-tracked the push for mRNA vaccines under Operation Warp Speed, prioritizing them over traditional vaccines like Johnson & Johnson’s adenovirus vector vaccine. Concerns about side effects, such as myocarditis in young males, were brushed aside in the rush to advance mRNA technology. This urgency overshadowed the critical need for proper safety trials, effectively using the public as guinea pigs in a massive, premature experiment.

  Now, with the ice broken, a flood of new mRNA vaccines is in the pipeline for diseases like cytomegalovirus (CMV), influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Researchers are even exploring mRNA vaccines for avian flu, hepatitis C, HIV, and more. This rapid adoption bypasses decades of proven safety from traditional vaccine platforms, raising ethical concerns about using the global population for untested innovations.

  Even if mRNA vaccines prove beneficial in the long run, we deserve better than to be test subjects in this grand experiment—without getting a share of the proceeds. It’s like “My parents went to Vegas and all I got was this lousy T-shirt,” but with much higher stakes.

  

  Profit over Safety

  The profit motive may be king. Much as the ‘minor issues’ of people’s freedoms and safety (I’m joking) were completely ignored to help speed the development of mRNA vaccines, being politically favored has its benefits. Every accommodation is made for electric vehicles or climate change initiatives. One wonders, given that everyone turned a blind eye to safety and is still doing so regarding Covid’s mRNA vaccine(s), whether these newer possibilities—which are not emergencies per se—will go through proper multiphase studies over the proper length of time to check for long-term side effects. 

  Studies for “long-term effects” ipso facto need a “long-term” study: eight or 10 years may not even be enough. Other vaccines have been out for decades and there are still questions circulating given that they are being given more frequently and with multiple other vaccines in combination throughout the course of tender childhood. 

  Pre-NCVIA (1986 federal liability waiver for vaccine manufacturers), kids got a handful of vaccines, now we are up to 72 separate inoculations recommended through adolescence. With whispers of avian flu and other potential “emergencies,” we have to be careful that these aren’t just efforts to fan the flames and bypass safety studies once again.

  The silver lining, the promise we are given is that mRNA technology may help cancer treatment, food- and environmental- allergies, genetic diseases, heart disease, stroke, heart failure, and neurodevelopmental disorders. While these advancements are promising, it is essential to balance innovation with rigorous safety protocols; to balance self-interested Big Science/Big Pharma claims with the normal skepticism, given the track record.

  Lockdowns: Misguided Anachronism 

  Fauci’s advocacy for lockdowns was another significant departure from standard public health practices. Historically, “lockdown” was a term used exclusively in prison settings. Before Covid-19, general population lockdowns were virtually unheard of, except in extreme cases like a tuberculosis outbreak in a South African prison and limited restrictions during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. Implementing such measures for Covid-19 ignored the relatively benign nature of the virus for most of the population. The lockdowns caused widespread economic disruption, halted education, and inflicted severe mental health consequences.

  Donald McNeil of the New York Times famously espoused a “go medieval” approach to the virus, but only after the endorsement specifically of Dr. Fauci. McNeil’s article, “To Take On The Coronavirus, Go Medieval on It,” drummed up enormous fear and overreaction. In August 2020, McNeil revealed that his consultation with Dr. Fauci was pivotal in shaping the article.

  

  Donald McNeil wrote: 

  “There are two ways to fight epidemics: the medieval and the modern. The modern way is to surrender to the power of the pathogens: Acknowledge that they are unstoppable and try to soften the blow with 20th-century inventions, including new vaccines, antibiotics, hospital ventilators and thermal cameras searching for people with fevers. The medieval way, inherited from the era of the Black Death, is brutal: Close the borders, quarantine the ships, pen terrified citizens up inside their poisoned cities.” 

  Mr. McNeil, writer and rhetorician (and decidedly not a scientist) is merely channeling this Fauci 2.0 bureaucrat/autocrat whose decidedly medieval methods fall into stark contrast with (erstwhile) modern public health’s. Fauci 2.0 essentially settled the issue for McNeil, who readily adopted this extreme stance.

  Ironically, those advocating for a more modern public health approach, like the (genuine) experts behind the Great Barrington Declaration, were shut down. Fauci’s supposed “DNA of caring” seems to only extend to himself, his views, and his control over the narrative. His actions during Covid-19 show that he learned nothing from his self-professed enlightenment during the HIV/AIDS crisis.

  He ignored and dismissed any criticism, especially from those on or above his level. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, (economics), for example, is arguably more qualified than Fauci, more of a political than medical ace. This is evident in his absurdly anachronistic “medieval” approach to the pandemic; his inability to tolerate dissent; his failure to listen to those who challenge him—in fact his censoring them, codifying a policy of “Shut Up!” to skeptics of his overreaching policies. 

  Even Fauci 1.0 was not a great medical doctor. In the 1980s, during the HIV/AIDS crisis, Fauci speculated that close household contact, without sexual interaction or needle sharing, could lead to AIDS transmission. This glib and unfounded claim led to widespread fear and misinformation. As a result, AIDS patients (it is posited) were often abandoned by their families due to the fear of casual transmission.

  His stubborn focus on producing a vaccine rather than therapeutics was of particular frustration to activists and other scientists. Ironically, this emphasis on vaccines over therapeutics repeated in 2020 and 2021 with the push for mRNA vaccines, despite the availability of other potential treatments. 

  The government, under Fauci’s influence, went out of its way to insult and ridicule FDA-approved, off-label usage, rational treatment alternatives, such as hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and Nobel-Prize generating ivermectin (which was FALSELY derided as mere horse medication). Many drugs used in humans are also used in animals. This dismissal and ridicule were strategic, aimed at maintaining the narrative that only a vaccine could solve the crisis, thus justifying the emergency use authorization (EUA) for the mRNA vaccines. Absent an emergency, they would not have been able to circumvent the necessary safety measures. This strategy was not only misleading but potentially criminal, as it prioritized the adoption of untested vaccines over exploring all possible treatment avenues.

  Unprecedented Excess Deaths

  The implications of these decisions have been far-reaching and devastating. According to researchers from Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, there have been more than three million excess deaths since 2020, with the trend continuing despite (or because of) the rollout of vaccines and containment measures. In BMJ Public Health, the authors stated, 

  “excess mortality has remained high in the Western World for three consecutive years, despite the implementation of COVID-19 containment measures and COVID-19 vaccines. This is unprecedented and raises serious concerns. During the pandemic, politicians and the media emphasized daily that every COVID-19 death mattered and every life deserved protection through containment measures and COVID-19 vaccines. In the aftermath of the pandemic, the same morale should apply.”

  This is the tragic outcome of Fauci’s policies. The world was promised salvation, but instead, we have worse economies, more top-down nondemocratic management, halted education, and disrupted lives. Children couldn’t see people’s faces, and the societal impacts have been profound.

  We Were Betrayed by Falsehoods

  Dr. Anthony Fauci’s actions during the Covid-19 pandemic mirrored the very failings he claimed to have learned from the HIV/AIDS crisis. His inability to adapt, combined with a penchant for authoritarian measures, has left a legacy of distrust and division. Fauci’s enforcement of arbitrary measures, disregard for scientific data, and contribution to economic and social disruption have caused untold harm. His tenure stands as a stark reminder of the dangers of unchecked authority.

  Fauci’s role in the Covid-19 response has shown a disregard for American values of liberty and openness. His actions have inflicted deep scars on the nation, from economic devastation to the erosion of public trust. The world deserves better from its public health leaders, and Fauci’s tenure stands as a cautionary tale of what happens when power goes unchecked. The suffering caused by his decisions is a legacy not of public health triumph but of public health failure and manipulation.

  

  As H.L. Mencken famously said, “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” Unelected Dr. Fauci’s prison-styled lockdowns and tyrannical, unproven, mRNA-over-vaccinating within an overall disdainful, peremptory medical misgovernance made sure of that.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 22:35

• Visualizing 45 Years Of Growth In US Real Wages, By Income Group
  Visualizing 45 Years Of Growth In US Real Wages, By Income Group

  Since 1979, the top income earners in America have seen their real wages grow at more than double the rate of every other income group.

  Given this rapid rise, income inequality in the U.S. exceeds nearly every other rich nation, driven by several complex factors. Among these, tax policy, technological change, and economic downturns have widened this gap. Diminishing bargaining power across workers has also contributed to wage disparities.

  This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows the growth in real wages over time across income groups, based on data from the Economic Policy Institute.

  

  Stark Differences in Real Wages Over Time

  Below, we show the cumulative growth in real wages between 1979 and 2023 by wage group:

  

  As we can see, the lowest paid workers in America have seen their real wages increase just 17% over the period—averaging a dismal 0.4% annual growth rate.

  If we take out the pandemic-era’s period of strong wage growth for low-wage workers, this figure drops to 0.1% between 1979 and 2019. By contrast, real wages boomed at an annualized rate of 2.9% over the pandemic, outpacing wage growth in the previous 40 years combined.

  A similar trend of slow wage growth can be seen across all other income groups apart from the highest income earners. This has contributed to the middle-class—those falling between the lowest and highest income quintiles—to shrink from 61% of the population in 1971 to 51% in 2023.

  At the same time, the share of lower-income households grew by 27% in 1971 to 30% in 2023, while the share of upper-income households rose from 11% to 19% over the period.

  Wage Growth During the Pandemic

  As we can see in the table below, high labor demand during the pandemic led to significant wage increases, particularly for lower-income groups:

  

  What is notable about these wage gains is that they outpaced inflation, which totaled nearly 20% over this period.

  Today, a strong labor market is continuing to push real wages above inflation as price pressures have eased, but this growth has slowed considerably since pandemic peaks. In June 2024, year-over-year real wage growth was 0.8% on average, compared to 7.7% in April 2020.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 22:10

• Overnight Drone Attack Targets US Troops Occupying Syria
  Overnight Drone Attack Targets US Troops Occupying Syria

  Update(2210ET): American troops occupying northeast Syria have come under overnight attack by a drone, which some reports say was sent by ‘pro-Iran’ militants.

  US officials did not indicate that there were any initial casualties, in what is the second such attack on a US base in less than a week. “Initial reports do not indicate any injuries, however medical evaluations are ongoing. We are currently conducting a damage assessment,” a defense official told Reuters.

  The U.S. Military Base at Kharab al-Jir Airport in Northeastern Syria has reportedly been Struck by several Iranian-Backed Drones within the last hour, with Fire and Smoke seen coming from the Base. pic.twitter.com/dUgFLmuccN

  — OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) August 9, 2024

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  But it’s not just Iran-linked militants who have upped the pressure on the US occupation of late – Arab tribes have been attacking US-backed Kurdish positions in the oil and gas rich eastern region as well.

  The whole region is still on edge awaiting a likely Iranian attack on Israel, which would likely see stepped-up activity from Hezbollah and from militias in Syria and possibly even Iraq.

  A drone attack on US forces at Kharab al-Jir base in Syria resulted in a massive explosion and destroyed at least one building a few hours ago.

  An individual told me “I’ve never been so terrified in my life dude. That shit was way too close. Once we heard the actual drone there… https://t.co/kukfjfDdmk pic.twitter.com/hbOquWwdYO

  — Shoe (@samosaur) August 10, 2024

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  * * *

  With the Middle East on the brink of a possible major war between Iran and Israel, also involving Lebanese Hezbollah, the White House and its regional partners are desperately trying to salvage ceasefire talks.

  The United States, Qatar, and Egypt are calling on Israel and Hamas to step back to the negotiating table. They say it is urgent “to resume urgent discussion” on August 15 in Doha or Cairo “to close all remaining gaps and commence implementation of the deal without further delay.” Gaps?

  While the statement speaks of “remaining gaps” – a fresh Axios report cites a diplomatic source strongly suggests the situation is a far cry from mere closing gaps…

  A source familiar with the negotiations said the planned summit is a “Hail Mary” attempt by the Biden administration to get a deal and prevent a regional war.

  The White House also needs to present to the American public that it has helped secure a ceasefire, which would be a boost to Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and her supposed foreign policy credentials going into the November election.

  

  The statement from the US, Qatar, and Egypt continued: “It is the time to conclude a ceasefire agreement and release hostages and prisoners,” they said.

  “We have worked for months to reach framework agreement and it is now on the table, with only details of implementation missing.”

  But this is the same language that negotiators have presented to the public for several months at this point. They are always and ever “near the goal line,” we are told. Yet Israeli and Hamas officials themselves constantly suggest the opposite. There also doesn’t seem to be much US pressure on Israel, or serious efforts to reign in its adventurism in places like Iran.

  Additionally, Washington policy itself is schizophrenic: President Biden has criticized Israel at times, lamenting the mass civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip, while at the same time he continues to arm Israel’s military to the teeth.

  Consider too the rosy picture of negotiations painted by Secretary of State Antony Blinken last month at the Aspen Security Forum: “I believe we’re inside the 10-yard line and driving toward the goal line in getting an agreement that would produce a cease-fire, get the hostages home and put us on a better track to trying to build lasting peace and stability,” Blinken said July 19.

  Perhaps it’s past time for Blinken and US officials to retire the football metaphors when it comes to Hamas negotiations? 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 22:09

• US Ambassador Boycotts Nagasaki A-Bomb Ceremony Because Israel Not Invited
  US Ambassador Boycotts Nagasaki A-Bomb Ceremony Because Israel Not Invited

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel boycotted Friday’s memorial service in Nagasaki commemorating the 79th anniversary of the US dropping a nuclear bomb on the city because Israel was not invited to attend.

  Emanuel said the ceremony had become “politicized” by the decision not to invite Israel, but Russia and Belarus will also be excluded for the third year in a row, a move supported by the US.

  Envoys from the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and the European Union sent a letter to Nagasaki last month saying it would “become difficult for us to have high-level participation” if Israel wasn’t invited. The envoys said the decision would equate Israel with Russia and Belarus.

  

  Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki stuck to his decision not to invite Israel despite the pressure. He said it was due to concerns that Israeli attendance could lead to demonstrators disrupting the ceremony. “I will continue to persevere and ask for understanding of the decision as often as necessary,” Suzuki said.

  Suzuki said he made the decision “not for political reasons” but to ensure “a smooth ceremony in a peaceful and solemn environment.”

  Israel’s ambassador to Japan was invited to Hiroshima’s ceremony on Tuesday, which was attended by Emanuel and other Western ambassadors. The ambassadors of the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and the EU are expected to boycott the Nagasaki ceremony along with Emanuel, and the Western nations will send lower-level representatives instead.

  Israeli officials have pointed to the US and allied bombings of Japan and Germany during World War II to justify the mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. President Biden said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed to the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed over 200,000 Japanese civilians, in conversations they had about Gaza.

  Let me get it straight… Israel, which did not exist as a country then, wasn’t invited. So the US… which actually dropped the bomb.. is angry. https://t.co/muhnmPU8Di

  — Brad Hoff (@BradRHoff) August 8, 2024

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  “It was pointed out to me that — by Bibi (Netanyahu) — that ‘Well, you carpet-bombed Germany. You dropped the atom bomb. A lot of civilians died,'” Biden said in December 2023.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 21:45

• Panama Hits 'VIP' Chinese Migrant-Smuggling Route Through Notorious Darien Gap
  Panama Hits ‘VIP’ Chinese Migrant-Smuggling Route Through Notorious Darien Gap

  In the latest indication that new President Jose Raul Mulino may be serious about his campaign pledge to end the country’s role as a major funnel of masses of illegal immigrants bound for the United States, Panamanian border police on Wednesday arrested 15 people linked to an illicit “VIP” migrant-smuggling operation that caters to Chinese clients, AFP reports. The detainees — who face 15 to 20 years in prison — are all Panamanian, but are accused of working for Colombian gangs. 

  While the Pan-American Highway stretches some 19,000 miles through South, Central and North America, there’s a 66-mile gap that starts just inside Colombia and stretches into Panama. That means migrants have to make a harrowing journey on foot through a mountainous and marshy region called the Darien Gap. They not only have to survive dangerous natural conditions, but also criminal gangs known to rape, murder, kidnap and rob them.

  

  The VIP service targeted this week promised a faster, easier and safer passage into Panama — but at a higher price. Migrants pay about $500 for a standard escort through the gap, but fees for this expedited trip range from $2,600 to $8,000, local prosecutor Emeldo Marquez told AFP. Given the price, most customers who can afford the first class experience are Chinese. 

  The VIP trip is shortened in a variety of ways, starting with boat service that bypasses a portion of the jungle trip by departing the Colombian coast from Capurgana or Necocli and dropping migrants in Carreto or Caledonia, Panama. Smugglers then whisk them through the remaining wilderness using canoes, horses and ATVs. That helps cut the average VIP jungle jaunt down to just two days, instead of upwards of eight days or more for everyone else. 

  

  About a half-million migrants made the Darien Gap trek in 2023, and about 200,000 so far this year. They come from many countries, but most of the recent migrants are Venezuelan. While still a small percentage, Chinese traffic has soared, with more than 55,000 Chinese crossing the Mexican border since 2023. 

  On the campaign trail, President Jose Raul Mulino emphasized his intent to end Panama’s role as a critical link in a path that funnels northbound migrants into Central America. He reiterated that intention in his inaugural address, saying, “I will not allow Panama to be a path open to thousands of people who illegally enter our country supported by an entire international organization related to drug trafficking and human trafficking.”

  

  Earlier this summer, Panama started installing concertina-wire fences inside the Darien Gap. “The patrol at the national border service has begun to block the majority of border passages,” said Frank Abrego, Panama’s minister of public security during a June 28 visit to the area.  

  On July 1 — the same day that Mulino was sworn into office, Panama announced it had signed an agreement with the United States with a goal of cutting the flow of migrants through the isthmus. Under the deal, the US government has committed to covering Panama’s expenses for deporting people who enter Panama illegally, and to help with “equipment, transportation and logistics.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 21:20

• Democratic California State Lawmaker Switches To Republican Party
  Democratic California State Lawmaker Switches To Republican Party

  Authored by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A California state lawmaker announced on Thursday that she’s switching affiliation to the Republican Party in a bid to save the state from heading in the wrong direction under a Democratic supermajority.

  

  State Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil, who represents the state’s fourth Senate district, said she joined the Senate Republican Caucus and party after deep reflection and to help “in their fight to fix California.”

  “I was elected to serve the public, not a political ideology,” Alvarado-Gil said in a statement. “The status quo under a supermajority Democratic rule in the legislature is simply not working for this state.”

  Democratic state Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire said her decision would be disappointing for voters who elected her in 2022.

  “They trusted her to represent them, and she’s betrayed that trust,” he said in a statement.

  However, Alvarado-Gil, who represents a largely conservative-leaning rural district in northeast Central Valley, said the decision was “right for the constituents that voted me into office” and about putting them first.

  California has a Democrat supermajority in both the Assembly and the Senate. After Alvarado-Gil’s defection, which gives Republicans nine votes in the 40-member Senate, Democrats will retain their veto-proof majority.

  Despite Democrats having more power and ability in the state Legislature, Alvarado-Gil said that since she’s been elected, she’s had a front-row seat to watching the Democratic supermajority push California in what she characterized as a wrong direction.

  Republicans’ nine votes still leaves them well under the majority they need to control the chamber. Democrats hold supermajorities in both the Assembly and Senate at the Capitol.

  Alvarado-Gil is known for working with Republicans and has split from Democrats to vote on issues where she feels politics is being put over public safety.

  State Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones, in a statement welcoming Alvarado-Gil to the GOP, said it takes courage for a lawmaker to stand up to the supermajority the way she has.

  “Her record on tackling crime, protecting communities from sexually violent predators, and prioritizing her constituents speaks for itself,” said Jones, who has recently worked with Alvarado-Gil on a number of key Republican measures.

  Alvarado-Gil, who is in her first term, has broken with Democrats on a number of bills, including gun legislation, caps on oil industry profits, and restrictions on homeless encampments over the last year. She was one of three state Democratic senators to co-author legislation led by Jones to restrict homeless encampments.

  She said on Thursday that she will continue to aggressively advocate for fiscal responsibility, public safety, supporting veterans, tackling the homelessness crisis, and lowering living costs.

  Alvarado-Gil has supported legislation addressing crime, fentanyl, human trafficking, child sex trafficking, sexual assault, and relocating sexually violent predators to rural communities.

  “I look forward to collaborating with my Republican colleagues on their plan to Fix California and continuing to lead with a pragmatic approach on issues affecting my district and this great state,” she said.

  California Republican Party Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson said, “Senator Alvarado-Gil has represented her community as an independent, fiscally-conservative voice in Sacramento, and we are honored to have her represent them going forward as a member of the Republican Party.”

  Alvarado-Gil beat out a progressive Democrat by more than five points in the 2022 election. Registered Republican voters in her district have increased since 2022 to nearly 39 percent to Democrats’ 34 percent in 2024.

  It’s uncommon for a member of a majority party to switch affiliation, according to California State Library legislative historian Alex Vassar.

  The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 20:55

• Breast Or Bottle? China Is The Global Market For Infant Formula
  Breast Or Bottle? China Is The Global Market For Infant Formula

  In a press release published ahead of World Breastfeeding Week (August 1 to 7), the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that:

  “Over the past twelve years the number of infants under 6 months who are exclusively breastfed increased by more than 10 percent globally. Now, almost half (48 percent) of infants worldwide benefit from this excellent start in life”.

  But this progress needs to be put into perspective if we take into account sales of breast milk substitutes, which have more than doubled worldwide over the last twenty years. Additionally, while countless studies have found the benefits of breastfeeding, others have claimed that when you eliminate selection bias, i.e. richer women being more likely to breastfeed, the positive effects almost disappear as larger socioeconomic factors overlay the still substantial benefits that breast milk does have.

  Breastfeeding is sure to provide all the nutrients and energy needed for the growth and development of newborns and provides immune protection and other benefits through bioactive ingredients that formula doesn’t have.

  In developing countries, water safety is another factor that makes breast milk the superior option, while of course, the small chance of formula itself being contaminated also remains a risk.

  However, the product is still marketed aggressively around the world, using with exaggerated claims to its benefits – something that has been criticized widely together with the baby milk industry’s high spending on lobbying.

  The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding until the age of 6 months and continued breastfeeding (with appropriate complementary feeding) until 2 years or more. However, apart from the response to marketing, not exclusively breastfeeding can have many reasons, including the mother working, personal reference, division of labor considerations and physical issues breastfeeding.

  As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz shows in the chart below, based on UNICEF data, the regions where breastfeeding is most prevalent are South Asia and Eastern and Southern Africa, where around 60 percent of infants aged 0 to 5 months are exclusively breastfed.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Conversely, breastfeeding rates up to 6 months are lowest in North America (26 percent) and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (36 percent). For Western Europe, this data is not available due to the lack of a standardized collection method and incomplete national data, but breastfeeding rates are generally low across Europe.

  However, despite the high rate of breastfeeding in Asia, China is the biggest market worldwide for baby milk and infant formula.

  In 2024, Statista Market Insights estimates that sales will reach almost $17 billion in the country. The second biggest market, the United States, is far behind at just $6.2 billion. However, per-capita spending was higher in the U.S. and actually lowest in China out of the top 5 biggest markets. Numbers by UNICEF show that the use of formula is more widespread in more developed countries and has also become typical in China’s burgeoning middle class, while it hasn’t caught on everywhere in the nation – explaining the lower per-capita spending.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Like in other nations, families in China are subject to aggressive baby formula marketing and urban Chinese women were found to have the highest exposure to respective advertising messages in a recent survey.

  Due to its high price, the global market for baby formula is large at almost $54 billion.

  The above survey also names Vietnam as a country saturated with such marketing. It was identified as the fifth biggest formula market by Statista, while another Asian nation, Indonesia, came in rank 3. Out of the top 5, Vietnam exhibited the highest estimated per-capita spending on infant formula given that estimates say only 17 percent of babies there are exclusively breastfed for the first six months of their lives.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 20:30

• Smith Is No Longer In A Hurry: Special Counsel Moves To Slow Down District Court Judge
  Smith Is No Longer In A Hurry: Special Counsel Moves To Slow Down District Court Judge

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  For over a year, Special Counsel Jack Smith has made one element the overriding priority in his prosecution of former president Donald Trump: speed. Smith repeatedly moved to curtail Trump’s appellate rights and demand expedited appeals to try to secure a conviction before the election. In that effort, he found an equally motivated judge in U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who virtually turned her court into a rocket docket to try Trump. Now, in a neck-breaking change of direction, Smith is trying to slow down Chutkan who appears again ready to pull out the stops in this case.

  After the mandate in the case was returned to her, Judge Chutkan immediately resumed her high-speed scheduling to look at the pre-trial issues after the Court reversed her earlier rulings on the basis of presidential immunity.

  

  The past problem with a court making speed the priority is that it does not allow much time to create a record. The remand will now require Judge Chutkan to do so on the question of what charges and evidence may be barred under the ruling in Trump v. United States.

  As it has in the past, the Court adopted a three-tiered approach to presidential powers based on the source of a presidential action. Chief Justice John Roberts cited Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer, in which the court ruled against President Harry Truman’s takeover of steel mills.

  In his famous concurrence to Youngstown, Justice Robert Jackson broke down the balance of executive and legislative authority between three types of actions. In the first, a president acts with express or implied authority from Congress. In the second, he acts where Congress is silent (“the zone of twilight” area). In the third, the president acts in defiance of Congress.

  In this decision, the Court adopted a similar sliding scale. It held that presidents enjoy absolute immunity for actions that fall within their “exclusive sphere of constitutional authority” while they enjoy presumptive immunity for other official acts. They do not enjoy immunity for unofficial or private actions.

  Only hours after receiving the mandate, Judge Chutkin scheduled an Aug. 16 conference to lay out the schedule and issues going forward. The former version of Jack Smith would have been delighted.

  He did not even see the need for the right for an en banc appeal in previously pushing for a pre-election trial.

  Now, however, Smith is telling Judge Chutkin to slow down already.

  Smith told the court that:

  “The Government continues to assess the new precedent set forth last month in the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States. Although those consultations are well underway, the Government has not finalized its position on the most appropriate schedule for the parties to brief issues related to the decision.”

  He has asked for a three-week delay to further consider what he wants to do. It is not clear if the press and pundits will now charge Smith with “slow walking” the case.

  The question is whether Smith is considering a drastic move in light of the calendar and the ruling. There is, of course, always the possibility that he either throws in the towel or opts for a post-election trial. That would certainly go against the grain of Smith, who has always pushed both the law and the calendar to the breaking point. However, as some of us have been arguing for months, he may no longer view a trial as a plausible objective.

  There is also the possibility that Smith will do something that some of us have discussed over the last year: pare down his case. Smith has always been undone by his appetite. As shown in his 8-0 reversal in his conviction of former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, Smith has rarely shown moderation as a prosecutor.

  His overloaded criminal complaints created this disaster for his team.

  In Florida, Smith unwisely loaded up the prosecution with controversial charges on the retention of classified material. It not only triggered difficult challenges but slowed the case to a crawl as the parties dealt with classification laws. Had he proceeded solely on obstruction charges, he might have secured his trial before the election (and before the recent ruling on immunity). Even if the reduced case was heard by the Court on immunity, an obstruction case would have been far stronger for Smith.

  The same is true with the D.C. case. Smith loaded up the case to raise the January 6th speech and other issues. Most were unnecessary, but Smith used his press conference to denounce the January 6th riot.

  A three-week delay will give Smith ample time (in addition to the weeks following the Supreme Court decision) to deliberate. However, it will take roughly a month off the calendar for just internal debate with the election only three months away.

  So, even with a judge who appears chomping at the bit to resume the fast track to trial, Smith now wants more time. Even before this request, it was hard to see how a trial could be held before the election. Now it seems a virtual certainty that any trial will have to await the results of the election. As I wrote in 2023, the odds were against a federal trial before the election, which would convert the voters into the largest jury in history.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 20:05

• Million Dollar Ba-Boy: Genetic Male Wins Gold In Women's Olympic Boxing
  Million Dollar Ba-Boy: Genetic Male Wins Gold In Women’s Olympic Boxing

  Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, a genetic male, won a gold medal in the Paris Olympics Friday night after beating 13 women to snatch victory in the walterweight final.

  

  The 25-year-old Khelif – who was disqualified from last year’s IBA World Championships for failing a gender test, beat China’s Yang Liu in front of a packed audience at Roland Garros – capping off a controversial path to first place in which the boxer didn’t lose a single round.

  🚨 IMANE KHALIF STEALS GOLD MEDAL IN WOMEN’S BOXING.

  Today, the IOC allowed a male boxer with XY chromosomes to win a gold medal in women’s boxing, beating 4 women to get there.

  For shame. Women’s sports is a joke.

  SAVE WOMEN’S SPORTS. #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/Zms6jACk2r

  — Hazel Appleyard (@HazelAppleyard_) August 9, 2024

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  After winning, Khelif could be seen with a raised arm in a mock military salute before being carried around the ring.

  As the Daily Mail notes, questions have been raised over whether Khelif should have been permitted to fight in the women’s competition in Paris, where eligibility rules were lax compared to the IBA.

  The IBA was stripped of its right to run the Olympic competition amid a war with Games bosses the IOC. As a result, there are no gender or testosterone exams in Paris and the category is open to those who have ‘female’ in their passport.

  Khelif, who roared ‘I am a woman’ after cruising to quarter-final victory, has been the subject of a wave of online abuse.

  Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting, who was also disqualified from the IBA World Championships, will fight for gold in the featherweight division on Saturday night.

  There has been a massive controversy over whether Khelif was actually born a male or a female – with some claiming ‘she’ has hyperandrogenism, a condition which features higher-than-usual levels of androgens (male hormones), however earlier this year IBA president Umar Kremlev told Russian news agency TASS that DNA tests “proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded from the sports events.”

  The IBA told The Guardian that it had made the decision “following a comprehensive review and was intended to uphold the fairness and integrity of the competition.”

  Last week the IOC and the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit issued a joint statement saying that every athlete competing in the 2024 games had complied with their regulations.

  “All athletes participating in the boxing tournament of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations set by the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit (PBU).”

  And since there were no gender tests, and all that was required was a passport that says ‘female,’ they complied.

  Meanwhile, IOC President Thomas Bach claims there are ‘zero scientific ways’ to identify a woman.

  International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Bach just said we have zero scientific ways to identify a woman pic.twitter.com/LUqsrNXLr3

  — End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 9, 2024

  The balls on these people…

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  It’s no secret men can easily beat the fuck out of women. That’s why we carry a gun.

  — Valentina Gomez (@ValentinaForSOS) August 9, 2024

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  Fuck the Olympics. This is horrific.

  — Alexander (@AlexandrTheOkay) August 9, 2024

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  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 19:40

• RNC Asks Supreme Court To Reinstate Arizona's Citizenship Check Voting Laws
  RNC Asks Supreme Court To Reinstate Arizona’s Citizenship Check Voting Laws

  Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The Republican National Committee (RNC) is asking on the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate an Arizona law requiring voters to prove their U.S. citizenship for the upcoming presidential election.

  

  In an application for emergency relief filed on Aug. 8, the RNC asked Justice Elena Kagan to block a previous lower-court ruling that put the state law on hold.

  The Committee centered much of its filing around how the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handled the matter.

  The laws at the center of the debate are H.B. 2492 and H.B. 2243—collectively known as the “Voting Laws”—which were passed by the Arizona Legislature in 2022.

  Among other things, they require that people who register to vote in Arizona using a state form provide “satisfactory” proof of citizenship or residency, such as a birth certificate, to be eligible to vote.

  The laws also require individuals to include their state or country of birth and mandate that counties conduct citizenship checks and remove non-citizens from the rolls.

  Although a district judge partially blocked the law in 2023 after ruling that federal laws, not state, take precedence when it comes to proof of citizenship for voters, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit later stayed the injunction.

  In July, another panel of judges granted a request from Republicans to reinstate some but not all parts of the laws.

  However, the same panel turned down the RNC’s bid to require election officials to check records from the Social Security Administration and other databases to ensure individuals who do not provide proof of citizenship are actually citizens.

  In its Aug. 8 filing, the RNC said the Ninth Circuit’s reversal violates what’s known as the Purcell principle, which bars federal courts from enjoining the enforcement of state election laws with an election impending.

  “The principle recognizes the important interests state officials have in protecting their elections and avoiding voter confusion,” the RNC wrote. “But the Ninth Circuit turned this principle against the enforcement of state election-integrity laws.”

  It further argued that the district court’s injunction is an “unprecedented abrogation of the Arizona Legislature’s sovereign authority to determine the qualifications of voters and structure participation in its elections.”

  Voting Rights Group Sue to Block Arizona Laws

  The district court’s judgment will also “irreparably harm” the RNC, while a stay in the matter “would not inflict any countervailing harms on the plaintiffs or the public interest,” the Committee said in its filing.

  Republicans are asking for the court to rule on the issue by Aug. 22.

  While Arizona lawmakers have said the voting laws are needed to prevent voter fraud, voting rights groups—including the Arizona-based Mi Familia Vota and Living United for Change in Arizona—quickly filed lawsuits against both measures.

  In court filings, the groups argued the measures were discriminatory, confusing, and unnecessary, among other things.

  Current Arizona law states that, in order to be qualified to vote in Arizona, a person “must be a United States citizen, a resident of Arizona, and at least eighteen years of age.”

  Section 2. A of the state’s election law specifically says: “No person shall be entitled to vote at any general election, or for any office that now is, or hereafter may be, elective by the people, or upon any question which may be submitted to a vote of the people, unless such person be a citizen of the United States of the age of eighteen years or over, and shall have resided in the state for the period of time preceding such election as prescribed by law, provided that qualifications for voters at a general election for the purpose of electing presidential electors shall be as prescribed by law.”

  The law notes that “citizen” is defined as “persons of the male and female sex.”

  In a statement, the RNC called the application for emergency relief a “critical legal step in ensuring Americans decide American elections,” and said it is important that “only citizens vote in our elections, especially by mail.”

  If successful, the move will allow Arizona to “enforce proof of citizenship requirements” in the upcoming presidential election, the RNC said.

  “Requiring proof of citizenship is common sense and fundamental to preserving the integrity of our elections – especially in our country’s most important presidential election,” said RNC Chairman Michael Whatley. “This application in the Supreme Court is pivotal to ensuring that Arizonans’ votes are not canceled by non-citizens. ”

  “Non-citizen voting is illegal and we are taking every possible action to ensure American elections are decided solely by Americans,” Whatley added.

  The Epoch Times has contacted Mi Familia Vota and Living United for Change in Arizona for comment.

  Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 19:15

• Cartel Drones Fly With Explosives Near Southern Border 
  Cartel Drones Fly With Explosives Near Southern Border 

  Vice President Kamala Harris’ role as President Biden’s “border czar” has sparked the worst border crisis in American history, a fact well known by now. However, a new report highlights a concerning new threat stream: drug cartels on the southern border are increasingly weaponizing drones with explosives, similar to what’s being seen on modern battlefields in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. All of this is happening under VP Harris’ watch. 

  Here’s the report from the New York Post: 

  Cartel drones packed with explosives are flying just south of Arizona’s border with Mexico, The Post has learned, alarming Senate defense hawks who are pushing for legislation to counter novel aerial incursions into the US.

  Members of Los Salazar, a cell of the notorious Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico, are using drones “to drop explosives” on Los Pelones, an independent rival cartel, as part of ongoing conflict in Sonoyta, Mexico, according to an internal bulletin circulated by the US Border Patrol’s Yuma Sector Intelligence Unit on Tuesday.

  The US Border Patrol’s internal bulletin noted the following:

  The Yuma Sector Intelligence Unit recently received information that members of Los Salazar are utilizing drones to drop explosives on members of Los Pelones in an ongoing confrontation south of Sonoyta, MX. Other confrontations between these two organizations have occurred along the border, south of Wellton Stations area of operations, in recent months.

  

  Separately, US Northern Command’s top general, Air Force Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in a hearing in mid-March that more than 1,000 incursions of drones occur along the southern border each month.

  Guillot warned lawmakers on Capitol Hill that the incursions present a “growing” defense threat to the homeland. 

  Since the Biden-Harris Administration assumed office, there have been more than 8 million illegal aliens encountered entering the country through the southwest border and over 1.6 million ‘gotaways.’ 

  Biden-Harris’ border crisis is an absolute mess, which has contributed to murders, sexual assaults, and serious bodily injuries committed against numerous Americans by illegal aliens. 

  Earlier this week, an interim staff report from the House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, revealed nearly 100 illegal aliens on the FBI terror watchlist were released into the US after being arrested by Border Patrol. 

  Most Americans care about two things before the elections: 1) inflation and 2) the border. 

  For Harris and Obama’s Democrat party, there’s no escaping that disastrous border issue.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 18:50

• Harris's Big Gift To Trump… If He Uses It
  Harris’s Big Gift To Trump… If He Uses It

  Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via X,

  Harris’s selection of Walz at least reveals the left’s full-bore agenda, something that previously her handlers seemed at pains to hide: an overt doubling down on the Biden neo-socialist record that will require a far more vigorous stealth 90-day campaign to camouflage the hard-left record of both Harris and Walz.

  

  Minnesota under Walz became merely a smaller version of Gavin Newsom’s California – shameless woke pandering, wars against fossil fuels, fiscal nihilism, thousands fleeing the state, high crime, high taxes, poor services, sanctuary city/pro-illegal alien activism, eroding downtowns of once majestic cities, loud-in-your-face, attack-dog denials of reality, a two-tier state legal system, tolerance of BLM/Antifa/Hamas street violence, and on and on.

  So Walz is a force multiplier of Harris’s vulnerabilities.

  His selection (was Harris terrified of leftwing threats from her base that a Shapiro pick would guarantee her 1968-like riots at her Chicago convention?) did not just reveal the now overt anti-Semitic, anti-Israel nature of the Democratic Party (Shapiro would have likely ensured Pennsylvania’s electoral votes). Her pick also reveals the confidence that the Left has in winning what will be the most flagrant, bait-and-switch 90-day campaign in presidential history.

  So, the real Harris-Walz campaign messaging will be: ‘In 2024 we have to lie and mislead you about who we are and what we did, so that in 2025 we can govern you in ways you will not like.’

  What are the challenges for this weirdest of tickets?

  Harris, in Biden-fashion, cannot finish a coherent thought. So again, like Biden in 2020, she will retreat and outsource her campaign to the media, while counting on outspending Trump 3-1, and radiating feigned moderation.

  She is taking heat for neither yet meeting with a real journalist nor speaking impromptu. But in her defense, to do either might at any opportune moment collapse her stealth campaign, given that to listen to her for 60 seconds off script is to prefer her to remain silent and hidden. And she has confidence in absentia that a bankrupt media will praise her nonexistent elegance, fluency, and articulateness.

  Walz will customarily serve as a designated hit man for Harris. But he is just as much a liability— a shoot-from-the-hip blowhard, while owning an even more embarrassing leftwing record than Harris. And he is even less discreet.

  This week Walz introduced himself to the nation as a VP candidate by smearing J.D. Vance with the brazen “couch” lie. And then while foolishly beaming, he doubled-down on his crude slur (“See what I did there?”). So, he even outdid Harris who had recently called Trump a “predator”—just days before it was disclosed that her married husband earlier had once impregnated his own children’s young nanny and tutor and had never disclosed what followed from his predation.

  Both will either ignore or lie about their joint opposition to fracking and pipelines; their disgraceful pro-BLM/Antifa advocacy during the lethal and destructive 2020 looting and rioting; their support for open borders and illegal immigration; their woke pandering; and their generic leftwing promotion of the usual high taxes, big government, poor services, and ‘who cares if they flee my state’ arrogance.

  The Harris-Walz ticket will also collapse if, horribile dictu, the prior Biden-Harris appeasement of Iran, distancing from Israel, weakening of the military, and loss of deterrence in the next 90 days leads to theater-wide wars on the Ukrainian borderlands or in the Middle East and/or to a recession due to cumulative inflation, high interest, stagnant wages and anemic citizen employment, and unsustainable national debt service.

  In sum, Trump is very much even in the race. He was given a rare gift by the shunning of Josh Shapiro as Harris’s running mate. That leftwing blunder could energize the Trump campaign—if again he sticks to warning the country of who these two are, what they have done, how they are hiding their real agendas, what they will do if elected, and how they differ from his own presidential record and future agenda.

  Nothing else matters.

  And that means Trump should ignore the now inert and evaporating Biden, refrain from attacking any Republican, stop all recriminations about 2020, avoid race and DEI ambushes, and prep hard and in detail for as many debates as he can obtain.

  Trump should appear magnanimous and above the fray by compromising with Harris on the debates: one debate now by her rules on ABC, and one by his rules on Fox before early voting begins.

  Rarely have the Democrats so foolishly gone hard left.

  And when they did in 1972, 1980, and 1988, Republicans used to know how to use those gifts, expose them, and win landslides despite media and institutional bias.

  They can do it again, but only if they are as adroit, united, and disciplined as their predecessors once were.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 18:25

• Iran's New President Battling IRGC Hardliners Over Tempering Response To Israel: Telegraph
  Iran’s New President Battling IRGC Hardliners Over Tempering Response To Israel: Telegraph

  While Western mainstream media in general has a terrible record of reporting on Iran and its intentions, a fresh report in The Telegraph comes to an interesting conclusion concerning the prospect of major war breaking out with Israel.

  It claims that there is an ongoing severe internal split among Iran’s top decision-makers on how to respond to Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month. Well over a week after the July 31st assassination, and the ballistic missiles have still been held back, despite several vows of severe retaliation against Israel being issued from Iranian leadership.

  New Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian is said to be fighting hardliners especially within the military establishment, specifically leaders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), over the extent of a response. Pezeshkian reportedly wants a toned down and limited response, akin to the April 13th missile and drone attack on Israel – which was something highly telegraphed and thus averted all-out war. The IRGC is ready to launch a much bigger operation, the report says.

  

  Pezeshkian, widely viewed as a ‘moderate’, wants to strike hidden Mossad spy bases in the region, while IRGC generals have pressed for more aggressive retaliation which is direct in nature, The Telegraph says. According to the publication’s sources within the Iranian government:

  “These recent [military]exercises in the country’s western border are just to intimidate Mr Pezeshkian. Sepah [the IRGC] is very insistent on targeting Israel and they think it is easy,” a second aide to Mr Pezeshkian told The Telegraph.

  “He has suggested targeting somewhere related to Israel in the Republic of Azerbaijan or [Iraqi] Kurdistan and let these countries know before that and get done with the whole drama.”

  The Telegraph report further paints a picture of a somewhat rogue IRGC leadership which has by and large dismissed the newly installed president as too weak.

  The IRGC is directly answerable to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, so if this is accurate it means there is currently some distance between the Ayatollah and Pezeshkian’s office as well.

  The UK-based report says an IRGC official has conveyed: “The number one consideration is still striking Tel Aviv with Hezbollah and others at the same time.” The official is further cited as saying, “There has been discussion within the forces on how to block Mr. Pezeshkian’s efforts. Almost everyone believes what he is insisting on is not in the revolution’s reputation.”

  🚨#BREAKING: Is Iran bluffing?

  U.S. Secretary of State, told Members of the G7 during a Conference Call last tonight, that Iran could launch an Attack against Israel in the next 24-48 Hours

  but all Iran has done so far is air war propaganda videos, threaten that they have… pic.twitter.com/kp9bKQt65V

  — Wesley Marius (@WesleyMarius) August 5, 2024

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

  But again, whether the report detailing this alleged back-and-forth between moderate and conservative factions within Iran over how to respond to Israel is accurate remains an open question.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 18:00

• Abbott Orders Texas Hospitals To Report Health Care Costs For Illegal Immigrants
  Abbott Orders Texas Hospitals To Report Health Care Costs For Illegal Immigrants

  Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

  Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order on Aug. 8 requiring that hospitals collect data on patients living illegally in the United States and report the costs of medical services provided to them.

  

  In a statement, Abbott said he aims to collect data on illegal immigrants who use public hospitals so that Texas can seek reimbursement from the federal government for their medical expenses.

  “Texas will hold the Biden-Harris Administration accountable for the consequences of their open border policies, and we will fight to ensure that they pay back Texas for their costly and dangerous policies,” the Republican governor stated.

  Under the executive order, Texas hospitals are required to collect data on inpatient discharges and emergency visits by illegal immigrants, as well as the costs of medical services provided to them, starting on Nov. 1.

  Hospitals will need to report the information to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) by March 1, 2025, and continue reporting data on a quarterly basis.

  The executive order also requires that hospitals inform patients that, under federal law, their responses to questions about their immigrant status will not affect patient care.

  It stated that HHSC will need to report annually to the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the House speaker on the preceding year’s costs for medical care provided to illegal immigrants starting Jan. 1, 2026.

  Abbott said that people in Texas should not have to “shoulder the burden” of financially supporting medical care for illegal immigrants.

  The Epoch Times has reached out to the White House for comment.

  The Texas Hospital Association (THA), representing over 85 percent of the state’s acute-care hospitals and health care systems, said that it is reviewing Abbott’s executive order “as quickly as possible.”

  “Right now, hospitals don’t ask about patient immigration status as a condition of treatment,” THA said in a statement.

  “Hospitals are required by law to provide life-saving treatment to anyone, regardless of ability to pay or status.”

  

  More than 1,000 illegal immigrants wait in line to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Dec. 18, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)

  Texas has seen a 74 percent decrease in illegal border crossings since the launch of the state’s border security mission, dubbed Operation Lone Star, in March 2021, the governor’s office stated on June 14.

  As part of the initiative, state authorities have deployed floating border barriers, installed wire fencing, and used the Texas National Guard to stem the flow of illegal immigrants.

  According to the statement, the multi-agency effort has led to over 513,700 illegal immigrant apprehensions and more than 44,000 criminal arrests, with more than 38,600 felony charges so far.

  The Texas governor criticized President Joe Biden’s recent executive actions, announced by the White House in June, stating that they “will do little to stem the flow of illegal immigration into the country.”

  “As long as the Biden Administration refuses to provide any type of enforcement, any type of blockage, of people crossing illegally, all that this new Biden policy is going to do is to actually attract and invite even more people to cross the border illegally,” Abbott said in the statement.

  According to a White House fact sheet published on June 4, the executive orders will bar illegal immigrants from receiving asylum when border officials deem illegal border crossings are at “high levels.”

  “This ban will remain in place until the number of people trying to enter illegally is reduced to a level that our system can effectively manage,” Biden said at a news conference on June 4.

  U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded more than 1.44 million encounters with people trying to enter the United States nationwide as of June 2024.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 17:40

• Putin Said To Be Stunned By Ukraine's Shock Attacks On Kursk & Lipetsk
  Putin Said To Be Stunned By Ukraine’s Shock Attacks On Kursk & Lipetsk

  In addition to the ongoing Ukrainian cross-border offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, Russia has been hit hard by a “massive attack” of drones Thursday and Friday, Lipetsk’s regional governor has said Friday.

  The chief target appears to have been a nearby airfield. “The enemy is hitting civilians in Kursk and Belgorod,” Gov. Igor Artamonov wrote on Telegram. “Today [it] massively attacked our region with drones. We will not be frightened, we will not give in, but we are not going to risk the lives of our people either.”

  The Ukrainian National News agency has claimed that some 700 guided bombs were destroyed in the strike on Lipetsk airfield. Russia’s defense ministry subsequently said it intercepted at least 75 “aircraft-type” drones in the southern region, and others were sent over Crimea and the Black Sea. The Skhemy investigative project of US state-funded Radio Liberty has circulated the following before and after satellite images of the airfield…

  

  

  Thousands of civilians were already evacuated in Kursk, which has seen intense battles over the past four days of what appears an outright Ukrainian invasion attempt; and on Friday at least hundreds have been evacuated in western Lipetsk. Several villages have been emptied out amid a state of emergency.

  New reporting by a source which claims to have an insider’s view on the Kremlin’s halls of power says President Putin and his top officials were caught off guard and stunned by these developments:

  Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk and Lipetsk border regions has stunned the Russian military and come as a “slap in the face” to President Vladimir Putin personally, four Russian officials told Politika.Kozlov. 

  The ongoing offensive, which Russia has failed to repel for three days, has exposed Russia’s territorial defense shortcomings and undermined Putin’s propaganda coup as the rescuer of an FSB hitman and failed Russian spies in last week’s prisoner swap with the West. 

  “The chief [Putin] was in a poor mood… He probably hasn’t been seen like this since our [Russian army] was forced to retreat from Kherson in the fall of 2022,” said an official involved in preparing Kremlin events involving Putin.

  The official, along with Politika.Kozlov’s other sources, spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic.

  Putin’s appearance and facial expressions during his public appearances on Wednesday and Thursday indicated that he was “dissatisfied” and “annoyed” with the situation, several Russian officials who have known Putin personally for years told Politika.Kozlov.

  This also comes as images and videos widely circulate which point to serious Russian troop losses in these cross-border attacks on Kursk and Lipetsk.

  

  Ukraine forces have also filmed themselves in possession of Gazprom natural gas facility in Sudzha…

  ⚡Ukrainian media outlets publish video showing Ukrainian soldiers saying they control Gazprom facility in Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region pic.twitter.com/YhGEbmJ5oB

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) August 9, 2024

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

  Pro-Russian military bloggers have acknowledged the authenticity of many of these videos, and the troop losses which they reveal:

  A video that surfaced online appears to show bodies on burnt-out Russian military trucks in the country’s southwestern Kursk region, the latest sign that Ukraine’s cross-border assault is probing more deeply and inflicting significant damage on Moscow’s troops.

  In the daytime video – shared by Russian military bloggers and independent outlets, and geolocated by CNN – about a dozen trucks are seen on the side of a road in the village of Oktyabrskoye, about 8 kilometers (5 miles) east of the town of Rylsk, appearing to contain dozens of dead bodies.

  …The video, which a Russian military blogger says shows the aftermath of a Ukrainian strike Thursday night, comes three days after Kyiv shifted tactics with a surprise incursion into Russian territory.

  Despite these attempts of Ukrainian forces to capture territory inside Russia being essentially a suicide mission, Kiev is spiking the proverbial football and is seizing the moment to lobby for even more muscular Western military support.

  Watch Putin’s face while Gerasimov speaks

  ‘Ukrainian forces lost 54 armored vehicles and 7 tanks in the Kursk attack.’ pic.twitter.com/s5nvxjRgRo

  — OSINTNic (@OSINTNic) August 7, 2024

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

  Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, claimed that most of Ukraine’s Western allies “quietly approve” of the cross-border action.

  Podolyak has praised the West’s reaction to the surprise assault as being “absolutely calm, balanced, objective, and based on an understanding of the spirit of international law and the principles of defensive warfare.” He added: “Now, a significant part of the global community considers [Russia] a legitimate target for any operations and types of weapons.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 17:20

• There's Just One Problem: AI Isn't Intelligent, And That's A Systemic Risk
  There’s Just One Problem: AI Isn’t Intelligent, And That’s A Systemic Risk

  Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

  Mimicry of intelligence isn’t intelligence, and so while AI mimicry is a powerful tool, it isn’t intelligent.

  

  The mythology of Technology has a special altar for AI, artificial intelligence, which is reverently worshiped as the source of astonishing cost reductions (as human labor is replaced by AI) and the limitless expansion of consumption and profits. AI is the blissful perfection of technology’s natural advance to ever greater powers.

  The consensus holds that the advance of AI will lead to a utopia of essentially limitless control of Nature and a cornucopia of leisure and abundance.

  If we pull aside the mythology’s curtain, we find that AI mimics human intelligence, and this mimicry is so enthralling that we take it as evidence of actual intelligence. But mimicry of intelligence isn’t intelligence, and so while AI mimicry is a powerful tool, it isn’t intelligent.

  The current iterations of Generative AI–large language models (LLMs) and machine learning–mimic our natural language ability by processing millions of examples of human writing and speech and extracting what algorithms select as the best answers to queries.

  These AI programs have no understanding of the context or the meaning of the subject; they mine human knowledge to distill an answer. This is potentially useful but not intelligence.

  The AI programs have limited capacity to discern truth from falsehood, hence their propensity to hallucinate fictions as facts. They are incapable of discerning the difference between statistical variations and fatal errors, and layering on precautionary measures adds additional complexity that becomes another point of failure.

  As for machine learning, AI can project plausible solutions to computationally demanding problems such as how proteins fold, but this brute-force computational black-box is opaque and therefore of limited value: the program doesn’t actually understand protein folding in the way humans understand it, and we don’t understand how the program arrived at its solution.

  Since AI doesn’t actually understand the context, it is limited to the options embedded in its programming and algorithms. We discern these limits in AI-based apps and bots, which have no awareness of the actual problem. For example, our Internet connection is down due to a corrupted system update, but because this possibility wasn’t included in the app’s universe of problems to solve, the AI app/bot dutifully reports the system is functioning perfectly even though it is broken. (This is an example from real life.)

  In essence, every layer of this mining / mimicry creates additional points of failure: the inability to identify the difference between fact and fiction or between allowable error rates and fatal errors, the added complexity of precautionary measures and the black-box opacity all generate risks of normal accidents cascading into systems failure.

  There is also the systemic risk generated by relying on black-box AI to operate systems to the point that humans lose the capacity to modify or rebuild the systems. This over-reliance on AI programs creates the risk of cascading failure not just of digital systems but the real-world infrastructure that now depends on digital systems.

  There is an even more pernicious result of depending on AI for solutions. Just as the addictive nature of mobile phones, social media and Internet content has disrupted our ability to concentrate, focus and learn difficult material–a devastating decline in learning for children and teens–AI offers up a cornucopia of snackable factoids, snippets of coding, computer-generated TV commercials, articles and entire books that no longer require us to have any deep knowledge of subjects and processes. Lacking this understanding, we’re no longer equipped to pursue skeptical inquiry or create content or coding from scratch.

  Indeed, the arduous process of acquiring this knowledge now seems needless: the AI bot can do it all, quickly, cheaply and accurately. This creates two problems: 1) when black-box AI programs fail, we no longer know enough to diagnose and fix the failure, or do the work ourselves, and 2) we have lost the ability to understand that in many cases, there is no answer or solution that is the last word: the “answer” demands interpretation of facts, events, processes and knowledge bases are that inherently ambiguous.

  We no longer recognize that the AI answer to a query is not a fact per se, it’s an interpretation of reality that’s presented as a fact, and the AI solution is only one of many pathways, each of which has intrinsic tradeoffs that generate unforeseeable costs and consequences down the road.

  To discern the difference between an interpretation and a supposed fact requires a sea of knowledge that is both wide and deep, and in losing the drive and capacity to learn difficult material, we’ve lost the capacity to even recognize what we’ve lost: those with little real knowledge lack the foundation needed to understand AI’s answer in the proper context.

  The net result is we become less capable and less knowledgeable, blind to the risks created by our loss of competency while the AI programs introduce systemic risks we cannot foresee or forestall. AI degrades the quality of every product and system, for mimicry does not generate definitive answers, solutions and insights, it only generates an illusion of definitive answers, solutions and insights which we foolishly confuse with actual intelligence.

  While the neofeudal corporate-state cheers the profits to be reaped by culling human labor on a mass scale, the mining / mimicry of human knowledge has limits. Relying on the AI programs to eliminate all fatal errors is itself a fatal error, and so humans must remain in the decision loop (the OODA loop of observe, orient, decide, act).

  Once AI programs engage in life-safety or healthcare processes, every entity connected to the AI program is exposed to open-ended (joint and several) liability should injurious or fatal errors occur.

  If we boil off the mythology and hyperbole, we’re left with another neofeudal structure: the wealthy will be served by humans, and the rest of us will be stuck with low-quality, error-prone AI service with no recourse.

  The expectation of AI promoters is that Generative AI will reap trillions of dollars in profits from cost savings and new products / services. This story doesn’t map the real world, in which every AI software tool is easily copied / distributed and so it will be impossible to protect any scarcity value, which is the essential dynamic in maintaining the pricing power needed to reap outsized profits.

  There is little value in software tools that everyone possesses unless a monopoly restricts distribution, and little value in the content auto-generated by these tools: the millions of AI-generated songs, films, press releases, essays, research papers, etc. will overwhelm any potential audience, reducing the value of all AI-generated content to zero.

  The promoters claim the mass culling of jobs will magically be offset by entire new industries created by AI, echoing the transition from farm labor to factory jobs. But the AI dragon will eat its own tail, for it creates few jobs or profits that can be taxed to pay people for not working (Universal Basic Income).

  Perhaps the most consequential limit to AI is that it will do nothing to reverse humanity’s most pressing problems. It can’t clean up the Great Pacific Trash Gyre, or limit the 450 million tons of mostly unrecycled plastic spewed every year, or reverse climate change, or clean low-Earth orbits of the thousands of high-velocity bits of dangerous detritus, or remake the highly profitable waste is growth Landfill Economy into a sustainable global system, or eliminate all the sources of what I term Anti-Progress. It will simply add new sources of systemic risk, waste and neofeudal exploitation.

  *  *  *

  Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

  Subscribe to my Substack for free

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 17:00

• Investors Flooded Into Money-Market Funds & Bank Deposits As Markets Crashed
  Investors Flooded Into Money-Market Funds & Bank Deposits As Markets Crashed

  Money-market fund assets rose to a fresh record ($6.19TN) as a global selloff in risk assets earlier in the week sent investors flying into cash. About $52.7BN flowed into US money-market funds in the week through Aug. 7, the largest weekly inflows since the period ended April 3 (Tax-Day prep)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Also of note this week, demand for a rarely used Federal Reserve facility rose to the highest level in almost a month on Thursday as counterparties tested its accessibility.

  Counterparties tapped the Fed’s Standing Repo Facility, or SRF – where eligible banks can borrow reserves in exchange for Treasury and agency debt – for $101 million on Thursday, the most since July 11.

  There’s been at least one pop in usage every month since February, which suggests banks are testing their systems, though with minuscule amounts for a facility that at its peak attracted $153 billion in March 2020

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Reserves are closing in on the $3 trillion level Federal Reserve Board member Christopher Waller has touched upon as the lowest comfortable level of reserves, i.e. the level that funding problems could manifest.

  The RRP represents a sort of buffer on top of the current level of reserves, as (principally) money market funds can draw down it, adding to reserves in the process.

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  As all of that was happening, and yen carry trades unwound, US bank deposits soared on both a seasonally-adjusted (+$90BN) and non-seasonally-adjusted (+$189BN) basis.

  That surge pushes SA deposits back above pre-SVB levels for the first time…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The NSA rise is the largest since May 2023 and the SA rise in deposits is the largest since the end of April 2024.

  Excluding foreign flows, US domestic deposits spiked dramatically: +$77BN SA (large banks +$75BN, small banks +$2BN)…, +$179BN NSA (large banks +$149BN, small banks +$30BN)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  On the other side of the ledge, loan volumes soared by their most since the start of the year with large bank loan volumes rising $16.8BN and small bank loan volumes up $2.7BN…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Finally, we note that as reserves fade, US equity market capitalization has begun to catch down to that long-tight-correlation…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The question is – how long will The Fed allow this to drop before juicing reserves once again?

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 16:40

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Chinese Rocket 'Breaks Apart' In Space, Unleashing 'Significantly Hazardous' Debris Cloud 
  Chinese Rocket ‘Breaks Apart’ In Space, Unleashing ‘Significantly Hazardous’ Debris Cloud 

  The Chinese Long March 6A rocket, launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China on Tuesday, carrying 18 Qianfan (“Thousand Sails”) satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO), has broken up in space.

  On Thursday afternoon, US Space Command announced on X that the “Long March 6A rocket launched on Aug. 6, 2024” has broken up in LEO, “resulting in over 300 pieces of trackable debris in low-Earth orbit.” 

  Space Command has “observed no immediate threats and continues to conduct routine conjunction assessments to support the safety and sustainability of the space domain.”

  

  Earlier, UK Space Command wrote on X that “the break-up of the Long March 6A rocket body” has created a “debris cloud” in LEO and is still analyzing the situation to “determine implications” for satellite constellations operating in LEO.

  

  Space News said the Qianfan satellites are part of a new “planned mega constellation of more than 14,000 low Earth orbit (LEO) communications satellites,” adding, “the mission appears to have created a string of debris along its orbital path.” 

  

  Slingshot Aerospace, a space-tracking and data analytics firm, published data on the debris cloud on X, indicating the “space debris that poses a significant hazard to LEO constellations below 800 km altitude.”

  🚨 Slingshot Orbital Alert 🚨

  Following China’s launch of 18 G60 satellites on August 6th, Slingshot is tracking over 50 pieces of space debris that pose a significant hazard to LEO constellations below 800 km altitude. pic.twitter.com/Etmui8X5Po

  — Slingshot Aerospace (@sling_shot_aero) August 7, 2024

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

  Swiss firm S2a Systems posted some of the first images of the debris cloud. 

  Our first visual observations of some of the CZ-6A upper stage debris from the launch of the 18 G60 satellites. It is a widely scattered debris field. Many thanks for publishing orbital data to @sling_shot_aero. @shell_jim pic.twitter.com/x3xPfp1Zu3

  — s2a systems (@s2a_systems) August 8, 2024

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

  So when comes the uncontrolled reentry of the rocket body? China has a history of this…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 02:45

• Bulgaria Bans LGBT Propaganda In Schools
  Bulgaria Bans LGBT Propaganda In Schools

  Authored by Grzegorz Adamczyk via Remix News,

  The Bulgarian parliament has passed an amendment to the preschool and school education law, which bans the “promotion of ideas and views related to non-traditional sexual orientation.”

  

  The amendment was adopted with 135 deputies voting in favor, 57 against, and 8 abstentions.

  The new regulations stem from a survey conducted in schools about the attitudes of students aged 14 to 18 towards LGBT issues.

  The draft amendment was quickly passed on Wednesday after being introduced in the national parliament.

  Under the new law, Bulgarian preschools and schools face a total ban on promoting “in any way ideas and views related to non-traditional sexual orientation or defining a gender identity different from biological sex.”

  Members of the nationalist Vazrazhdane party, the leftist BSP, the Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, the There Is Such a People party, and part of the center-right GERB party supported the amendment.

  The entire center coalition, We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria, opposed it.

  Supporters of the coalition organized a protest outside the parliament on Wednesday evening, arguing that the amendment would hinder efforts to combat bullying of young lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender individuals in schools.

  In 2023, the Bulgarian Supreme Court ruled that “changing sex” through judicial proceedings is not permissible under the current legal framework, emphasizing that “gender is recognized at birth and defines a person until death.”

  Meanwhile, in another European country, Georgia’s parliament approved in the first reading a package of laws banning LGBT propaganda proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party.

  The second and third readings are scheduled for the autumn parliamentary session, just before the elections set for Oct. 26.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/09/2024 – 02:00

• 2024 Echoes '1984'
  2024 Echoes ‘1984’

  Authored by Victor Joecks via American Greatness,

  The book “1984” is supposed to be a warning. Today’s leftists are using it as an instruction manual…

  

  George Orwell’s classic novel is set in a dystopian world where Big Brother controls the population through information control and surveillance. See if any of this sounds familiar.

  “Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”

  During her career, especially when running for president in 2020, Kamala Harris took a number of radical positions. She praised efforts to defund the police. She once insinuated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was comparable to the KKK and suggested the agency should be rebuilt “from scratch.” She wanted to decriminalize border crossings. She co-sponsored the Green New Deal. She supported a mandatory gun buyback program, eliminating private insurance and reparations. She was in favor of banning fracking and plastic straws.

  Those policies play great in San Francisco, but not in battleground states. Not to worry. She’s flip-flopped on at least five major policy positions since becoming the presumptive nominee.

  Instead of exposing this duplicity, the national mainstream media is participating in it.

  “Harris is calibrating her policy pitch for going to battle with Trump,” the Associated Press wrote about her reversals.

  “If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened — that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death.”

  The attempted assassination of Donald Trump happened just over three weeks ago. The iconic photo of a bloodied Trump defiantly standing and pumping his fist went viral. Outside of conservative sites and social media accounts, it’s barely been seen since. The national media has largely moved on, eager to fluff up Harris.

  Less than two weeks ago, pro-Hamas rioters stormed Washington, D.C., to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking to Congress. They tore down U.S. flags outside of Union Station and raised Palestinian flags. They burned an American flag, vandalized monuments and assaulted park police. Charges against some of the few people arrested have already been dropped.

  An easy prediction: You’ll hear less about these two stories than Trump’s out-of-context “bloodbath” remark and Jan. 6. It’s like events that would make Trump look heroic and hurt the left never happened.

  “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten …”

  You can see this happening in real time. Last week, I googled “Trump rally.” The top result was “Kamala Harris rally in Atlanta.” The same thing happened to Elon Musk and many others.

  Recently, Meta AI refused to acknowledge that Trump was almost assassinated. Meta is the parent company of Facebook. It inaccurately labeled a fist-pumping photo of a bloodied Trump as “altered.” When people used Google to search for information on Trump’s attempted assassination, its auto-fill wouldn’t even suggest his name.

  Both companies claim they weren’t trying to rig search results. Those excuses would be more believable if almost all mistakes like these didn’t go in the same direction.

  “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end, we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.”

  Illegal aliens are merely undocumented migrants. Men who claim to be women are women. People voting for Donald Trump are a threat to democracy. Ramming scissors into the skull of an 8-month-old preborn baby and sucking her brains out is health care. Israel is the oppressor for defending itself against genocidal terrorists. Diversity requires ideological conformity.

  2024 looks a lot like “1984,” but you get to help write the ending. Choose wisely.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/08/2024 – 23:25

• Every Second American Buys Food Online
  Every Second American Buys Food Online

  According to Statista’s Consumer Insights, more than half of Americans have ordered groceries online for delivery in the past 12 months before the survey was carried out between July 2023 and June 2024. 53 percent said they had ordered items to their house in this way.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  The most popular category of food ordered online for delivery was one fitting this rather lazy method of shopping: snacks and candy at 24 percent.

  However, all categories of groceries ordered online for delivery were very close together. The healthier fruits and vegetables category follows close behind at 23 percent, ahead of frozen food and rice & pasta, both at 22 percent. A similar number of Americans had ordered breakfast cereal, meats & sausages as well as dairy and bread.

  The survey also showed that Walmart was the most popular store to order groceries from online, followed by Amazon, Costco and Instacart.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/08/2024 – 23:00

• The 1948 Irgun Re-Born?
  The 1948 Irgun Re-Born?

  Submitted by Alastair Crooke,

  The signposts are there for all to read: The West — in deliberately overlooking such explicit markers — cannot then complain, or escape, the ensuing consequences.  

  No, the ‘tin ear’ is not some new western derangement — a unique mass collapse of sanity — that we are living through. It is something worse: a return to a dogmatic, authoritarian version of truth which dissident physicist Eric Weinstein complains has (in the West) also destroyed true science — ignoring and silencing its most important dissident voices, whilst amply rewarding Science’s frauds.

  Consider: Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the US Congress on 24 July saying, in an unrelieved Manichaean mode, that the West is facing an “axis of evil” (Iran and allies), which the US must join in destroying. It was a call to participate in civilisational war.

  His invitation was celebrated with 58 standing ovations from US legislators.

  Netanyahu returned home to a disaster in the Druze community on the Golan. Missile fragments had struck, killing and wounding many children playing football (the exact circumstances are still not clear). Western rationality however is perfectly capable to deduce firstly that Majdal Shams lies in Occupied Syria; secondly, that the Druze community there remains overwhelmingly Syrian (rejecting Israeli citizenship) and largely pro-Syrian. And that they are neither Jews nor Israelis. The West seemingly cannot however, adduce the further very obvious conclusion: Why on earth would Hizbullah intentionally attack a Syrian community on Syrian land that largely is sympathetic to the Resistance?

  They wouldn’t. Yet these obvious facts are completely ignored by a rationality that, as Weinstein suggests, actively prefers fraud to truth. Spokesman Kirby said Hizbullah had attacked children in northern Israel. 

  Israel’s Defence minister repeatedly says:

  “We don’t want war”. Western leaders parrot the same meme: No-one wants war. ‘We are fully confident that Israel’s response will be constrained and limited to military targets’. The White House: “In our view, there is no reason for some dramatic escalation in southern Lebanon and there is still time and space for diplomacy”.

  So what then occurs?  Two major assassinations: one in Beirut and the other in Tehran (i.e. to a guest on Iranian sovereign territory).  Western leaders express their ‘concern’.  The Hamas target in Tehran, Ismail Haniyeh, as the Qatari PM noted, was the key Gaza hostage negotiator.  

  This too will be overlooked, though Netanyahu’s intent to weave together Hamas, Hizbullah and Iran into a single ‘axis of evil’ cloth – thus speaking to his Join-Session of Congress thesis – must be evident even to a blinkered Washington.

  Recall the new ‘equation’ that followed the assassination of a senior IRGC official in the Iranian Consulate in April 2024: Henceforth Iran will respond directly — and directly from Iran. Washington says it does not want war with Iran, yet the latter explicitly was what Netanyahu advocated. Did the legislators miss his point?

  For nearly ten months, Israel has been unable to stabilize the situation along the northern border and allow for the return of displaced Israelis to their homes. Even if the Beirut strike doesn’t lead to wider war, restoring a negotiated stability on the Lebanese border is now beyond reach – as is too, a Gaza hostage deal. “How can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side”, Qatari PM al-Thani ruefully observed.

  So too ‘overlooked’ in the West, will be that which happened in Israel on the same day the assassinations later took place: Right-wing vigilantes descended from their settlements, storming two military IDF bases. The anarchic scenes of mass break-ins, fomented by several members of the ruling coalition, some of whom took part in the forcible entries, sparked angry condemnation from Defence Minister Gallant. 

  The invasions were supported by one minister and several Knesset members seeking to free reservists that are suspected of aggravated abuse and forcible sodomy against a Palestinian detainee. According to a security source, the injured detainee was taken to a hospital with severe injuries, including to an intimate body part which left him unable to walk.  

  “The spectacle of military police officers coming to arrest our best heroes at Sde Teiman is nothing less than shameful”, said Ben Gvir, whose ministry controls the Israel Police and Israel Prison Service, said of the storming of the IDF post. 

  Yet the wider picture as related by Yossi Melman is:

  “What is happening on the part of the nationalistic messianic Right with the backing, winking or silence of ministers and MKs of the Right is a “putsch”.  The youth coming down from the hills of the ‘State of Judah’ to act with the same violent methods – used against the Palestinians – (but now) are being used against the state of Israel.  MK Limor Son Har-Malech (Otzma Yehudit) said: “The people of Israel will fight against enemies from outside and enemies who try to destroy us at home” [those such as the Advocate General seeking to investigate the torture being practiced Sde Teiman]. The concept of the knife in the back and the betrayal at home echoes the voices in Germany after WWII”.

  Again, overlooked but not in the news: The situation at Sde Teiman was widely-known and said to be “more horrific than anything we’ve heard about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo”.  A UN report has detailed how Palestinians arbitrarily detained faced torture and mistreatment. The vigilantes from the settlements nevertheless described those committing the anal rape as “heroes” — and cast the IDF investigators as fifth columnists.  Reports suggest that the perpetrators at Sde Teiman enjoy high level protection. 

  This account of systematic torture followed earlier revelations that the Israeli army had marked tens of thousands of Gazans as suspects for assassination, using an AI targeting system, called Lavender, with little human oversight and a permissive policy for casualties.

  In the same vein, Right-wing Cabinet ministers celebrated the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on social media Wednesday morning, as: “This is the right way to purge the world of this filth”, Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, a member of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party, tweeted:

  “No more imaginary ‘peace’/surrender agreements, no more mercy for these dead men walking. The iron fist that will strike them is the one that will bring quiet and a modicum of comfort, and strengthen our ability to live in peace with those who seek peace. Haniyeh’s death makes the world a slightly better place”.

  What then is this ‘truth’ that the West ignores and silences reality, whilst amplifying its narrative frauds? It is that the Israel which they presume to understand is now something very different. And that it has an epistemology at odds with mechanistic rationalism.

  An eschatological Right-wing cult now holds the majority in cabinet — and wields a vigilante militia ready to attack the military establishment, and the Israeli state. No one was arrested for the attack and take-over of the two bases. They do not dare.

  Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon, former Chief of Staff of the IDF, who also served as Israel’s Defence Minister, had this to say in a video interview on the forces taking over in Israel:

  “When you talk about Smotrich and Ben Gvir: They have a Rabbi. His name is Dov Lior. He is the Rabbi of the Jewish Underground, who intended to blow up the Dome of the Rock – and before that the buses in Jerusalem. Why? In order to hurry up the ‘Last War’. Do you [not] hear them talking in terms of the Last War; or of Smotrich’s concept of ‘subjugation’?  Read the article he published in Shiloh in 2017. First of all, this concept rests on Jewish supremacy: Mein Kampf in reverse”.

  “My hair stands on end when I say that – as he said it. I learned and grew up in the house of Holocaust survivors and ‘never again’. It is Mein Kampf in reverse: Jewish supremacy: and therefore [Smotrich] says: “My wife won’t go into a room with an Arab”.  It is anchored in ideology. And then actually what he aspires to – as soon as possible – is to go to a big war. A war of Gog and Magog. How do you start the flames?  A massacre like the [1994] Cave of the Patriarchs?  Baruch Goldstein is a student of this Rabbi. Ben Gvir has hung up Goldstein’s picture [in his house]”. 

  “This is what goes into the decision-making process in the Israeli government”.  

  Rabbi Dov Lior has been described by Netanyahu as the “élite unit that leads Israel”, because of his influence and control over the settler forces. The 1948 Irgun, drawing heavily on the Mizrahim, is being reborn?

  

  Isn’t it time that the western ruling structures raised their eyes from their reverie, and read the runes that manifest all around them?  Some serious players don’t think as you westerners do; they seek Gog and Magog (the prophecy that “the children of Israel” will be victorious in the battle of Armageddon). That is what you risk.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/08/2024 – 22:35

• Yet Another Cargo Theft From A Refrigerated 18 Wheeler In Philadelphia
  Yet Another Cargo Theft From A Refrigerated 18 Wheeler In Philadelphia

  Cargo thefts are becoming a trend in Philadelphia…and it doesn’t look like the swearing in of new Mayor Cherelle Parker – who is supposed to be far tougher on crime than her predecessor Jim Kenney – is deterring them. 

  This time around thieves made off with “large cartons of tuna from a refrigerated truck” in South Philadelphia, according to 6ABC. 

  The crime took place at about 3:30am on Thursday near Pattison Ave. when the truck was parked on the roadway. The report said that “multiple male suspects got away in two vehicles – a white sedan and a SUV.”

  Back in April, thieves made off with more than $12,000 in pork from a Northeast Philadelphia truck. That crime marked the 37th cargo theft in the area for the year, and it was months ago. 

  

  The thieves made off with 56 cases of pork at the time. 

  As ABC noted in April, the location where the pork was stolen is a popular overnight stop for truckers en route to morning warehouse deliveries. However, it’s also become a hotspot for theft, with recent incidents on March 14 involving stolen bourbon and meat while drivers were asleep.

  Captain Jack Ryan of the Philadelphia Police Dept. commented: “They are asleep in a lot of cases. The refrigerated trucks make a lot of noise.”

  And, recall last year thieves also stole 2 million dimes worth $200,000 from a truck parked at a Philadelphia Walmart. The truck had $750,000 in dimes in it altogether. Many were found strewn about in a Walmart parking lot where the trailer was parked. 

  The dimes had been picked up at the Philadelphia Mint, but the driver of the truck went home to sleep before planning to drive the next day to Florida. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/08/2024 – 22:10

• Nevada Agrees To Purge 90K Ineligible Voters From Election Rolls
  Nevada Agrees To Purge 90K Ineligible Voters From Election Rolls

  Authored by Luis Cornelio via HeadlineUSA.com,

  Nevada has agreed to purge over 90,000 ineligible voters from its rolls following a legal battle with the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign, according to a press statement from the Nevada GOP. 

  

  The purge will focus on Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, and will remove individuals no longer active under state law, the Wednesday statement alleged,

  RNC Chair Michael Whatley praised the decision as a significant step for voter security. 

  “Election integrity starts with clean voter rolls, and that’s why we’ve brought litigation in key states to compel outcomes just like this,” he tweeted.

  The Nevada GOP’s Executive Board also expressed satisfaction with the voter roll cleanup in a press statement. 

  “We are incredibly pleased with the recent voter roll clean-up in Clark County. Our team has worked tirelessly to ensure a fair and free election this November,” the board stated.

  HUGE WIN: 90,000 inactive voters have been removed from the rolls in Clark County, Nevada as a result of our efforts to Protect The Vote.

  Election integrity starts with clean voter rolls, and that’s why we’ve brought litigation in key states to compel outcomes just like this. https://t.co/71NAmue2qR

  — Michael Whatley (@ChairmanWhatley) August 7, 2024

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

  The party vowed to achieve similar victories across the state’s 16 counties ahead of the 2024 presidential election, where President Donald Trump is expected to face Kamala Harris, the embattled and unpopular vice president.

  The push for clean voter rolls began in April 2024, shortly after former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel’s resignation. In June, U.S. District Court Judge Cristina Silva dismissed the lawsuit, claiming the state had insufficient time to address the issues raised. 

  According to Nevada-based News 4, Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat, began the cleanup after sending postcards to over 150,000 voters whose mail was returned as “undeliverable” during the 2023 primaries.

  The voters who did not respond by Aug. 6 were moved to inactive status and will not receive automatic ballots until they update their registration, the outlet reported. 

  It isn’t immediately clear whether Aguilar’s actions came after the GOP’s requests. Headline USA has reached out to the RNC for clarification.

  Nevada is considered a pivotal state for both Trump and Harris in 2024. Trump narrowly lost the state in 2016 and 2020 to Democrats Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, respectively. Redfield & Wilton Strategies poll shows both candidates tied at 40%.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/08/2024 – 21:45

• US CENTCOM Confirms F-22 Raptors Land In Middle East For "Force Posturing" Against Iran
  US CENTCOM Confirms F-22 Raptors Land In Middle East For “Force Posturing” Against Iran

  Update:

  United States Central Command confirmed on X that an unspecified number of F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets have arrived in its ‘area of responsibility’—which includes over 4 million square miles and 21 countries in the Middle East, Central and South Asia, and Northeast Africa.

  “U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors arrived in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility Aug. 8 as part of U.S. force posture changes in the region to mitigate the possibility of regional escalation by Iran or its proxies,” US CENTCOM said. 

  U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors arrived in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility Aug. 8 as part of U.S. force posture changes in the region to mitigate the possibility of regional escalation by Iran or its proxies. pic.twitter.com/BuuzbUHu9s

  — U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) August 8, 2024

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

  We reported earlier that as many as 12 F-22s arrived in the Middle East today (see the reporting below)… 

  Unconfirmed, but some X users that identified as “OSINT”—or open-source intelligence—pointed out some of stealth fighters landed at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. 

  Al udeid Air Base, Qatar 🇶🇦 https://t.co/qUFkVVVZfu

  — MenchOsint (@MenchOsint) August 8, 2024

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

  *   *   *

  Some geopolitical observers anticipate retaliation by Iran (or Iranian proxy groups), possibly including a direct assault on Israel. This suggests the Middle East is on the brink of a broader conflict that could escalate into a regional war. 

  In recent days, the Biden administration has been working through diplomatic channels, utilizing its Middle East allies to convince Tehran to reconsider its retaliation strike against Israel. They’ve warned Tehran that a massive missile and drone strike on Israel could spark regional conflict, Politico said, citing two senior US officials earlier this week. 

  Tehran may also be dissuaded by the US show of force this week, and secret White House communications passed via the Swiss embassy in Tehran and the Iranian mission at the United Nations, the report said.
  “Iran understands clearly that the US is unwavering in its defense of our…

  — Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) August 7, 2024

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

  While initial assessments had expected a retaliation strike earlier this week, Al Arabiya has reported any retaliation may now be postponed. However, we’ve noted…

  • ‘Do Not Fly’ Alert Over Iran Issued For Airlines During Oddly Specific Night Hours

  In another development, Israeli journalist Hananya Naftali reported Wednesday, “Twelve American F-22 Raptors head to the Middle East, ready to counter any Iranian threat against Israel.”

  BREAKING: Twelve American F-22 Raptors head to the Middle East, ready to counter any Iranian threat against Israel. pic.twitter.com/0cyaoTjvqG

  — Hananya Naftali (@HananyaNaftali) August 7, 2024

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

  On Tuesday, YouTube CobraEmergency filmed twelve F-22s that landed at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, England. 

  Large crowds gathered at RAF Lakenheath today to watch as twelve F-22 Raptors arrived from Alaska. They have stopped while en route to the Middle East for a deployment among rising tensions in the region.

  Video: https://t.co/6A0GbXg78q pic.twitter.com/wvxI3Aisuz

  — CobraEmergency (@CobraEmergency) August 6, 2024

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

  By Thursday morning, X users that identified as “OSINT”—or open-source intelligence—pointed out that these stealth fighter jets were headed towards the Middle East. 

  “It was previously believed that they would be Deployed to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, but this approach direction suggests that it may be an Airbase that’s further West, like Muwaffaq Salti in Jordan,” OSINTdefender wrote on X. 

  The Squadron of F-22 “Raptor” Stealth Fighters and their KC-46A Aerial-Refueling Tankers from Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska, are finally beginning to approach U.S. Central Command’s Area-of-Operations from the Eastern Mediterranean. It was previously believed that they would… pic.twitter.com/6Cs8858mWv

  — OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) August 8, 2024

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

  Meanwhile, the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier is positioned in the Gulf of Oman. 

  

  The US has more than 50,000 troops stationed across the Middle East.

  

  Earlier this week, Jared Cohen, President of Global Affairs and Co-Head of the Goldman Sachs Global Institute, noted in a conversation with another colleague, “We don’t know the timing of a potential Iranian retaliation, and it’s impossible to predict the scale with certainty. But a direct Iranian-led assault against Israel looks increasingly likely, and Israelis and their partners are preparing.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/08/2024 – 21:20

• National Guard Disputes Walz's Military Bio; CNN Calls Out 'Absolutely False' Claim Over Deployment
  National Guard Disputes Walz’s Military Bio; CNN Calls Out ‘Absolutely False’ Claim Over Deployment

  The Minnesota National Guard has disputed Governor Tim Walz’s military biography, saying that his claims of retiring at the rank of command sergeant major is untrue.

  

  Minnesota National Guard spox Army Lieutenant Colonel Kristen Augé told Just the News that Walz, Kamala Harris’ vice presidential running mate, was demoted and did not retire as a command sergeant major as he has claimed for years – including on his official gubernatorial biography – as he failed to complete a 750-hour course in the Army’s Sergeants Major Academy, a mandatory course for E-9s, the Army’s highest enlisted rank.

  While Walz temporarily held the title of command sergeant major he “retired as a master sergeant in 2005 for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy,” Army Lt. Col. Kristen Augé, the Minnesota National Guard’s State Public Affairs Officer, told Just the News.

  The statement reignited a controversy that began during his 2018 election for governor in which National Guardsman claimed on social media and in a paid ad that Walz declined to deploy to Iraq for combat duty in 2005 and forfeited his title of command sergeant major. Walz chose to run for Congress that year. -Just the News

  The governor’s biography, however, says that “Command Sergeant Major Walz” retired from the Minnesota National Guard in 2005. At the time he was serving as one of the highest ranking members of the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion.

  “He retired as a master sergeant in 2005 for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy,” said Augé.

  WATCH: More stolen valor from Kamala’s VP pick Tim Walz:

  Tim Walz on August 10, 2018: “I’m a retired sergeant major.”

  Fact check: Walz NEVER completed the coursework for the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy. pic.twitter.com/fFUzQRyQ6e

  — Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) August 8, 2024

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

  That said, an unnamed Guard spokesperson told Task & Purpose, in direct contradiction to Augé, that Walz’s demotion was a technicality.

  “Soldiers who do not finish the course revert back to their prior rank,” they told the outlet. “This is what we refer to as an administrative reduction and not punitive in nature.”

  The outlet also claims that the Guard ‘confirmed’ that Walz was properly promoted and served in the E-9 role, and “retired as” an E-9, despite the later reduction.

  That said, Task & Purpose also framed the entire stolen valor controversy as “The ‘Swift Boating’ of Tim Walz” – as if his on-record lies about ‘weapon of war, that I carried in war’ (he never saw war), are the same as disputed allegations over John Kerry’s (D) Vietnam war record.

  Tim Alberta thinks that this is a question of They Said vs He Said

  It’s not. Walz is on video, and in print embellishing his service but this is about protecting this ticket at all costs. https://t.co/LBPugpearO

  — Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) August 8, 2024

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  On Wednesday we noted that Walz straight up lied about having been deployed in a combat zone.

  “We can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, are only carried in war” – Tim Walz

  What’s more disturbing about what Tim Walz says here?

  1. Gov. Walz never went to war yet clearly said he did
  2. Gov Walz is a far left gun grabber#TamponTimmy #TimWalz… pic.twitter.com/P7gK6l5qbt

  — Mrgunsngear (@Mrgunsngear) August 6, 2024

  The lies were so egregious that even CNN acknowledged they were less than ideal.

  “Walz did make a comment speaking to a group, he’s done it a couple of times, where he has used language that has suggested that he carried weapons in a fighting situation,” said CNN correspondent Tom Foreman in a fact check. “As you know, with your contact with the military, I know from coming from a military family, there is a difference between being in a combat area, being involved at a time of war and actually being in a position where people are shooting at you. There is no evidence that at any time Governor Walz was in a position of being shot at, and some of his language could easily be seen to suggest that he was.”

  “So that is absolutely false when he said that about gun rights out there. The campaign has essentially come forward to say, ‘Look, he had a long career, he would never want to purposely mislead people about this.’ It’s what campaigns tend to say,” Foreman continued.

  CNN Reporter Delivers Devastating Fact Check On Walz’s Claim That He ‘Carried Weapons In A Fighting Situation’ pic.twitter.com/YXQghYf1LZ

  — Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 7, 2024

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

  Meanwhile, in a 2006 press release issued by his campaign, Walz is described as a “veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom,” the US military operation in Afghanistan. As modernity.news notes, some have charged that this is misleading given that Walz was stationed in Italy at the time, with his battalion providing base security in Europe.

  Tim Walz held a sign in 2004 falsely identifying himself as an Operation “Enduring Freedom veteran,” even though he never served in Afghanistan. https://t.co/e4wRUWS08N pic.twitter.com/egUG45GtNx

  — Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) August 8, 2024

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

  In 2007, @Tim_Walz talked to C-SPAN about his military service: “I spent 24 years in the National Guard, some of that full-time. I was an artilleryman. I deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. My battalion provided base security throughout the European theater from… pic.twitter.com/igULhtIhgB

  — Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) August 7, 2024

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  Walz has also come under fire from the men he served with, who they described in a 2019 letter as ‘Traitorous, fraudulent and shameful.’

  In my experience if you want to understand someone talk to the men he served with in the military. The men who served with Tim Walz describe his service as Traitorous, fraudulent, and shameful. Read their open letter from 2019 (before he was running as Kamala Harris’s vice… pic.twitter.com/mYft0jj0NL

  — @amuse (@amuse) August 6, 2024

  The men and women who served with Tim Walz were shocked when he quit after receiving the order to deploy to Iraq. “What is he? Some sort of coward.”
  To then imply he served in combat is disgusting and a further betrayal to those who went.
  Credit: @MegynKellyShow pic.twitter.com/afj5NNmwvf

  — Big Fish (@BigFish3000) August 7, 2024

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

  🚨Just in: A Video from 2009 shows a veteran confronting Tim Walz’s staff over claims that he served in Afghanistan. The veteran said Walz could go to jail for violating the Stolen Valor Act of 2006 for claiming to have served in Afghanistan when he didn’tpic.twitter.com/LdvtHJ5FnQ

  — The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) August 8, 2024

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

  Meanwhile, the Free Beacon reports that Walz knew his National Guard battalion was being eyed for a likely redeployment to Iraq when he decided to retire.

  “As Command Sergeant Major, I have a responsibility not only to ready my battalion for Iraq, but also to serve if called on,” Walz said in a campaign statement on March 20, 2005. Just three days prior, the National Guard Public Affairs Office announced that at least part of his battalion could be shipped overseas to the Middle East in the next two years.

  Walz left the National Guard that May. Two months later, his battalion was put on notice that they would be deploying to Iraq.

  When questioned about all of it, Walz decided to duck, cover, and run from a journalist before an explanation could be ‘deployed.’ 

  REPORTER: Your response to allegation of stolen valor?

  WALZ: *ignores*

  REPORTER: Your response to allegation of stolen valor!?

  WALZ: *runs away* pic.twitter.com/el3sPGDYuM

  — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 7, 2024

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

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/08/2024 – 21:01

• Neuroscientists Blame Racism For Black Women Aging Faster
  Neuroscientists Blame Racism For Black Women Aging Faster

  Authored by Micaiah Bilger via The College Fix,

  Stress on the body caused by racism may cut African American women’s lives short, according to a recent study by neuroscientists at Harvard and Emory universities.

  

  Their research, published in the journal JAMA Network Open in June, found a connection between “higher self-reported racial discrimination” and “DNA methylation age acceleration” among black women.

  “Racism steals time from people’s lives – possibly because of the space it occupies in the mind,” lead researchers Negar Fani and Nathaniel Harnett wrote in an article this week at The Conversation.

  Fani is a professor at Emory and Harnett at Harvard, both in the areas of psychiatry and neuroscience. Both also receive funding from the National Institutes of Health, according to the article.

  “Aging is a natural process. However, stress can speed up the biological clock, making people more vulnerable to aging-related diseases, from cardiovascular disease to diabetes and dementia,” they wrote.

  In their study of 90 black women in the U.S., they found that those who reported being “more frequently exposed to racism showed stronger connections in brain networks involved with rumination and vigilance,” Fani and Harnett wrote.

  “We found that this, in turn, was connected to accelerated biological aging.”

  The scholars wrote:

  Racial discrimination is a ubiquitous stressor that often goes unnoticed. It might look like a doctor questioning a Black patient’s pain level and not prescribing pain medication, or a teacher calling a Black child a “thug.” It is a constant stressor faced by Black people starting at an early age.

  Rumination – reliving and analyzing an event on a loop – and vigilance, meaning being watchful for future threats, are possible coping responses to these stressors. But rumination and vigilance take energy, and this increased energy expenditure has a biological cost.

  Their study found changes in two different parts of the brain that were caused by stress linked to racial discrimination.

  “These brain changes, in turn, were linked to accelerated cellular aging measured by an epigenetic ‘clock,’” they wrote.

  According to their findings, these “higher clock values indicate that someone’s biological age is greater than their chronological age. In other words, the space that racist experiences occupy in people’s minds has a cost, which can shorten the lifespan.”

  Fani and Harnett said they plan to conduct more research on aging and racism in the future. Among other things, they said they want to explore “how different types of racial discrimination and coping styles influence brain and body responses.”

  As to the purpose of their research, Fani and Harnett said a greater understanding of the issue can lead to better therapeutic and prevention measures, including “programs that target implicit bias in physicians and teachers.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/08/2024 – 20:55

• US Hints At Regime Change In Tehran If Israel Is Attacked
  US Hints At Regime Change In Tehran If Israel Is Attacked

  The US is preparing to play Air Force for Israel’s skies as it deploys a dozen F-22 stealth raptor jets to the Middle East region. This change in ‘force posture’ was not debated in Congress (nor is it even really being debated on the mainstream networks), despite that clearly US service members could soon find themselves in the middle of a war between Iran and Israel.

  The White House has issued a fresh warning to Tehran on Thursday as it is said to still be gearing up for a strike on Israel in retaliation for the July 31st killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at a residence in Tehran. The new warning from Washington includes both negative economic consequences and threats of destabilizing actions directed against the newly elected government of Masoud Pezeshkian.

  

  “The United States has sent clear messaging to Iran that the risk of a major escalation if they do a significant retaliatory attack against Israel is extremely high,” a US admin official told The Wall Street Journal.

  The official further said that Tehran has been put on notice over “a serious risk of consequences for Iran’s economy and the stability of its newly elected government if it goes down that path.”

  Is this a threat of regime change? To the ears of Iranian officials, it will sure sound like it given the country on its eastern border and the country on its western border were both regime-changed by Washington.

  Currently, the consensus among US national security officials is that Hezbollah is likely to play a much bigger and coordinated role in any potential Iranian ballistic missile and drone attack on Israel:

  Officials also don’t know for sure whether Hezbollah plans to attack at the same time in a coordinated offensive with Iran or separately. Hezbollah has a large arsenal of missiles that can reach Israel and the concern is that the group and Iran might attack at the same time to try to overwhelm Israel’s missile defenses. 

  “Last time we got more of a heads up, and this time people are making their best guesses,” said a third U.S. official. 

  But while the US mainstream media narrative remains that it is exclusively Iran and its regional allies that are the regional ‘aggressors’ against Israel and the US, the fact remains that it is Israel which has attacked close Tehran ally Syria literally hundreds of times over the past years.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  And more recently, Israel attacked the Iranian embassy in Damascus (the aftermath which is pictured above). Nation-states did not attack each other’s embassies even during World Wars I and II, and the strike on the diplomatic complex was unprecedented in history as an intentional act prior to Israel’s April 1st operation in the Syrian capital.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/08/2024 – 20:30

• "Progress" – NIH Brags About Using Tax Dollars To Fund More Research By Black Scholars
  “Progress” – NIH Brags About Using Tax Dollars To Fund More Research By Black Scholars

  Authored by Micaiah Bilger via The College Fix,

  Even as diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts draw increased scrutiny at the state level, a federal government agency is bragging about promoting DEI – and using Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars to do it.

  

  “Progress” is how National Institutes of Health diversity officer Marie Bernard recently described the agency’s work to fund more research by black scholars.

  But the massive amount of time and money the NIH is dedicating to DEI in higher education is anything but “progress” when the color of a person’s skin or their “gender identity” is weighed more heavily than their merit.

  Meanwhile, professionals are expressing concerns about DEI efforts leading to a lower caliber of students and recent graduates, including future doctors and military leaders.

  The NIH has been working since 2011 to close up what an agency-commissioned report described as a “gap” in funding to black researchers, Bernard wrote in a recent blog post on the NIH website.

  “Over the last 13 years since the release of the Ginther report, NIH has initiated numerous initiatives to foster diverse perspectives in science,” including a Diversity Program Consortium and institute-wide trainings “to foster diverse perspectives in science,” she wrote.

  Her own role as the chief officer for scientific workforce diversity also was created as a result of the report, Bernard wrote.

  While “gaps remain in funding rates by race and ethnicity for research project grants,” Bernard said the NIH is “encouraged by the overall trends.”

  But Bernard denied that the NIH is funding projects “based on demographic characteristics,” writing:

  “Clearly, to benefit from the full range of talent available within the United States and foster creativity and innovation in science, we need as broad a range of voices as possible. … NIH, of course, does not fund based on demographic characteristics, and those data are not available to reviewers during their deliberations. However, we will continue looking at the data retrospectively to determine whether we are achieving equity and evaluating our programs and policies to be assured that there are no barriers to everyone being at the table.”

  In the same article, however, she mentioned the NIH Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation initiative, which “target[s] early career faculty who have an interest and commitment to [diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility].”

  That initiative awarded more than $64 million to four universities earlier this year for the purpose of recruiting more “diverse” faculty. And it’s the third round of awards – meaning that is just a fraction of the total funding.

  For those wondering why identity politics and DEI have become such a big focus in higher education, consider the old adage “follow the money.”

  With the federal government continuing to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into such projects, it is little wonder these controversial ideas are getting so much attention.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/08/2024 – 20:05

• Value Of US Housing Hits Record $50 Trillion, Up 7% In Past Year, Just In Time For Fed Rate Cuts
  Value Of US Housing Hits Record $50 Trillion, Up 7% In Past Year, Just In Time For Fed Rate Cuts

  The Fed’s rate hikes were supposed to slow down the economy and, thanks to soaring interest rates, lower prices and make housing more affordable. That did not happen, and instead housing is now the least affordable it has been in US history.

  And while an entire generation of potential buyers will be forced to rent indefinitely, the flip side is that anyone who has been lucky enough to buy a house, is celebrating on a day real-estate brokerage Redfin reports that the total value of U.S homes gained $3.1 trillion over the past 12 months to reach a record $49.6 trillion.

  In percentage terms, the total value of the US housing market grew 6.6% year over year, laughing in the face of a Fed chair who kept on hiking rates in hopes of lowering prices. Zooming out further, the total value of U.S. homes has more than doubled in the past decade, climbing nearly 120% from $22.7 trillion in June 2014.

  

  “The value of America’s housing market will likely cross the $50 trillion threshold in the next 12 months as there are not enough homes being listed to push prices down,” said Redfin Economics Research Lead Chen Zhao. “Mortgage rates have started falling, but many potential sellers and buyers are waiting to make a move, meaning we are likely to continue seeing a pattern where prices slowly tick up. That’s great news for the millions of American homeowners who see their equity rising, but first-time buyers are going to keep finding it tough to find an affordable home.”

  That, of course, is an understatement: what Zhao meant is that for millions of Americans, the dream of owning a home is now gone for ever, because if they couldn’t afford to buy a house during the most aggressive rate hike cycle since Volcker, the coming rate cuts will certainly not make it easier.

  The number of metros where the total value of homes topped $1 trillion grew to eight—doubling from four a year ago—with Anaheim, CA, Chicago, Phoenix and Washington, DC, joining New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Boston in the trillion-dollar club. San Diego and Seattle look like they will join them in the next 12 months if home values keep increasing at a similar pace.

  

  It’s worth noting that while San Francisco’s aggregate home value is roughly $700 billion, when combined with neighbors Oakland, CA, and San Jose, CA, the combined Bay Area housing market is worth nearly $2.5 trillion. Likewise, the combined Dallas ($734 million) and Fort Worth, TX ($294 million) metro area also surpasses the $1 trillion mark.

  Rural home values outpaced those in urban areas and the suburbs, jumping 7% year over year to $7.8 trillion. The total value of homes in urban areas rose 6% to $10.3 trillion, while the value of homes in the suburbs cracked the $30 trillion mark for the first time, increasing 6.8% to $30.1 trillion.

  

  There are around 57 million homes in the suburbs, compared to 22 million in urban areas and 21 million in rural areas.

  Thirteen major metros posted double-digit percentage gains in total property value over the last year, led by relatively-affordable New Jersey metros within commuting distance of New York, where property is more expensive. The value of properties in New Brunswick, NJ rose 13.3% to $582.6 billion, while Newark, NJ climbed 13.2% to $406.2 billion. Anaheim, CA (up 12.1% to $1.1 trillion), Charleston, SC (up 11.8% to $188.9 billion) and New Haven, CT (up 11.8% to $91 billion) rounded out the five metros with the highest gains.

  

  Cape Coral, FL was the only metro to record a fall in total home value, dropping 1.6% to $204.2 billion. Sun Belt metros—especially those in Texas—grew slower than those in other regions, with New Orleans (up 0.8% to $128.2 billion), Austin, TX (up 1.9% to $392.8 billion), North Port, FL (up 2.1% to $251.8 billion) and Fort Worth, TX (up 2.3% to $293.7 billion) rounding out the bottom five metros.

  

  Broken down by age group, the total value of homes owned by millennials rose 21.5% year over year to $8.6 trillion in the first quarter of 2024—the most recent period for which generational data is available—nearly four times as fast as any other generation.

  The increase is partly due to the overall growth in home prices, but also because millennials are now the largest generation by population and have reached an age and financial position where they make up a larger share of the homebuying market. Around two-thirds of the mortgages taken out in 2023 were issued to homebuyers under the age of 45.

  Meanwhile, the total value of homes owned by the Silent Generation fell for the fifth straight quarter, dropping 1.6% to $4.6 trillion. The value of homes owned by baby boomers increased 6.1% to $19 trillion, while Gen X home values rose 5.9% to $13.6 trillion.

  

  Finally, Asians once again made the best decisions, and after falling in 2022-2023, the total value of homes in neighborhoods that are majority Asian bounced back over the past 12 months, rising 9% to $1.4 trillion. The increased value is being caused by price growth in West Coast cities—where many Asian neighborhoods are located.  In comparison, majority white neighborhoods experienced a 6.6% increase in value to $39.4 trillion, while majority Black neighborhoods saw a 5.4% increase in value to $1.4 trillion. The value of homes in majority Hispanic neighborhoods increased 6.4% to $2 trillion.

  

  More in the full report available here.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/08/2024 – 19:40

• How Chinese Traders & Miners Got Around China's Crypto Ban
  How Chinese Traders & Miners Got Around China’s Crypto Ban

  Authored by Yohan Yun via CoinTelegraph.com,

  Chinese investors are finding innovative ways to tap into the digital assets markets and participate in some of the year’s most profitable trends despite Beijing’s ban on cryptocurrency trading.

  

  The government has banned crypto amid a blaze of publicity numerous times, including a 2013 ban on banks dealing in crypto, a 2017 ban on initial coin offerings and exchanges, followed by a trading and mining ban in 2021.

  

  Despite this, accessing cryptocurrencies in the mainland isn’t that difficult, pseudonymous investor Lowell tells Magazine.

  Lowell is a recent university graduate who describes herself as a full-time cryptocurrency trader. She had the option to pursue a career in her field of study but says that a “normal” job cannot match the profits she can make with crypto.

  China’s cryptocurrency bans aren’t always crystal clear or effective. Though crypto trading and businesses are prohibited, there are channels for investors to partake in the global market.

  Local traders say they buy and sell their cryptocurrencies to other investors via peer-to-peer trading on centralized exchanges like OKX and Binance. While China’s Great Firewall prohibits access, savvy users with VPNs can access the websites and apps they need.

  Investors also seek lucrative opportunities in borderless DeFi, like using bots or hiring students to farm airdrops which has become a quasi-industry for some.

  Crypto isn’t totally illegal in China

  As it happens, crypto tokens are not themselves illegal in China, Robin Hui Huang, a law professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong tells Magazine. Exchanging them also falls into a gray area.

  “People can hold cryptos in China. They can also exchange cryptos for other properties, but such exchanges are not protected by law, that is, if the other party breaches the contract, no legal protection is available.”

  While the law does not protect these transactions, it also does not ban them. Therefore, private individuals can exchange cryptocurrencies for other properties if they mutually agree to do so and fulfill their commitments, Huang adds.

  

  Rumors of China’s crypto ban reversal. (Mike Novogratz)

  Outside the mainland, rumors are circulating, fueled by key opinion leaders in the cryptocurrency community including Galaxy Digital’s billionaire founder Mike Novogratz, suggest that Beijing may be contemplating a reversal of its crypto ban. 

  However, experts tell Magazine that the likelihood of this rumor being true is quite low.

  They point to recent developments concerning China’s central bank digital currency, the digital yuan, which were highlighted during the Third Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, chaired by President Xi Jinping.

  China mining ban fails to ban mining

  Although China’s Bitcoin mining ban was widely reported by pretty much every major media outlet in 2021, it has conspicuously failed to prevent mining in the country.

  According to Bitcoin ESG researcher Daniel Batten, that’s because the ban was misreported as being harsher than it actually was. He argues that closer analysis of the wording of the ban suggests the legislation actually prohibited the establishment of new mines and merely contained a “statement of intent” that mining should be gradually eliminated due to electricity use, climate targets and the association with money laundering.

  Precise figures aren’t that easy to come by, and many appear to be out of date, but most estimates suggest China still accounts for at least a fifth of the global hashrate.

  According to the University of Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, and World Population Review figures, China accounts for around 21.1% of the total, while CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju released a chart in July showing Chinese mining pools account for 54% of the global hashrate. Not all miners in a pool are located in China, he noted, but added “Some mining farms might still be operating covertly in China, with authorities possibly concealing data.”

  

  CryptoQuant data suggest Chinese mining pools are in control of more than half of the global hashrate. (Ki Young Ju)

  VPNs and trading apps make crypto available in China

  Crypto users in China are aware of the trading bans of course, they just find creative ways to get around them without attracting the attention of authorities. 

  “Most crypto traders in China, we don’t talk about these things because we know that China is like that,” Lowell says.

  Today, P2P trading channels are available on social media or crypto exchanges enabling users to buy crypto with the Chinese yuan via bank transfers, WeChat Pay or Alipay — two of the nation’s top payment rails.

  OKX and Binance are two of the most popular in Lowell’s network, though she personally prefers the former. As you can see in the picture below, Binance offers yuan P2P sales in the China region. The two exchanges did not respond to Magazine’s request for comment.

  

  Users have the option to select the Chinese yuan currency and the Chinese region in Binance’s P2P market. (Binance)

  “I can access these two apps. I use an iPhone and I can download these two apps on the Hong Kong store or other country stores,” says Lowell, adding that the apps are not available on Apple’s mainland App Store.

  Access to apps in China is governed by a more restrictive internet environment compared to what users outside the country experience. This system, known as the “Great Firewall,” blocks access to popular domains like Google and Facebook, among many others.
  Magazine requested a source in mainland China to test access to cryptocurrency exchanges. The test confirmed that users cannot access Binance and OKX websites without using VPNs. The mobile applications for these exchanges are accessible without VPNs.

  Some projects like MakerDAO prohibit users from accessing the protocol with VPNs, but that’s mainly out of fear of getting sued by US regulators rather than Chinese ones.

  

  VPN searches in China over time. (Google Trends)

  Wayne Zhao was formerly the CEO of Beijing-based analytics firm TokenInsight, who relocated to Singapore to start his DeFi project BitU. He says that using a VPN is almost second nature to mainland internet users. 

  “VPN is common sense for people if you want to visit Google or YouTube,” Zhao says. The same applies to DeFi platforms.

  For platforms, providing users P2P access is a “gray area” that risks regulators coming down on the overseas exchanges and their executives, Joshua Chu, co-chair of the Hong Kong Web3 association tells Magazine.

  “That could lead to a lot of legal costs even if they don’t always lead to prosecution, especially once they enter China,” says Chu, pointing to the recent detention of a Binance executive in Nigeria as an example.

  Airdrop farming in China

  Chinese crypto trades are restricted to P2P options, but that’s not the only way to get a hold of tokens.

  Lowell has profited handsomely from airdrops, including $50,000 from Ethena’s ENA campaign and $40,000 from StarkNet.

  According to at least three local sources, airdrop farming in China has scaled up to an industrial level.

  Similar to how Bitcoin mining was once accessible to private individuals using laptops in their bedrooms, but eventually grew into a profitable enterprise with businesses investing in professional equipment and filling warehouses, airdrop farmers are now investing in advanced technology and equipment to maximize their profitability.

  

  China once led the industry in crypto value received before the 2021 ban. (Chainalysis)

  Zhao attributes the rise of airdrops to the move-to-earn era during the pandemic, popularized by StepN, a Solana-based project that rewards users with its GST tokens for moving.

  “When people started to find out that you can actually earn money with your cell phone, it’s quite natural to think that you can do it with hundreds of cell phones at the same time, Zhao tells Magazine. 

  Airdrop farmers automate transactions with bots on up-and-coming protocols believed to be planning a future airdrop, or even manually log them with multiple devices.

  Protocols are aware of users deploying bots to automate transactions to farm their airdrops, and take measures to limit them.

  But airdrop farmers are taking creative routes to bypass the blockers. Some Chinese airdrop farmers even hire students to conduct transactions to replicate organic onchain behaviors.

  “My friend earned a lot more than me in airdrops because they hired some college students to do transactions for them,” Lowell says.

  “I had about 30 or 40 accounts but they have like 200 accounts,” she says.

  Crypto traders and businesses still exist, but there’s always a risk

  

  Crypto businesses can receive closure notices at any given moment and they have no legal grounds to resist. (Tim Mossholder/Unsplash)

  Any crypto business in China always carries the risk of sudden shutdown notices.

  “It happened before with a very good friend of mine,” Zhao says.

  “They just got a notice that said, ‘Sorry guys, you cannot do this anymore. You have to shut it down,’ and that was it. A few days later, they shut it down.”

  P2P traders face risks as there is no trusted intermediary. 

  They are buying cryptocurrencies directly from strangers, often without knowledge of the assets’ origins. This poses the risk of unknowingly participating in money laundering or being deemed guilty by association with other illegal activities.

  Due to such risks, Lowell says she prefers dealing with personal acquaintances, though this option is limited.

  “When I’m selling to my friends, I know they won’t do some illegal things and I won’t be arrested,” she says.

  “So I’m willing to sell my USDT to people I know but they may not always have that much money so I also need to use exchanges.”

  CBDC plans put paid to crypto ban reversal rumors

  Winston Ma, an adjunct law professor at New York University, tells Magazine that it is unlikely that Beijing will reverse its crypto ban as it wants to go all in on a CBDC.

  In July, Beijing held its third plenary session, a meeting of senior Communist Party officials. The meeting resolved to promote RMB internationally with a particular focus on the digital yuan, state-backed media Xinhua News Agency reported.

  China considers its CBDC as the sole legal digital tender, rendering all other digital currencies, including Bitcoin, illegal for use as payment.

  

  China’s retail digital yuan is in its pilot phase and it’s among the most advanced in major economies. (Atlantic Council)

  “You can expect the central bank to now move at full speed because it’s coming from the Central Committee. You cannot get more authoritative than that,” Ma says.

  Ma says the renewed momentum for China’s CBDC points to the “complete opposite” direction of a crypto ban reversal.

  “You can expect the central bank to now move at full speed because it’s coming from the Central Committee. You cannot get more authoritative than that,” Ma says.

  Ma says the renewed momentum for China’s CBDC points to the “complete opposite” direction of a crypto ban reversal.

  Local traders have all they need

  Zhao of BitU believes that while trading continues, the demand for crypto in China is low at present, and points to the trading performance of Hong Kong’s newly launched crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

  Chinese nationals are banned from accessing the ETFs unless they have a temporary or permanent residency permit.

  “We all saw what happened to the Hong Kong ETF. The trading volume, it sucks,” Zhao says.

  “The reason is that most of the people in mainland China or Hong Kong who are willing to buy Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies have already done it.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/08/2024 – 19:15

• Israel Attacks Airbase In Central Syria Known To House Russian Troops
  Israel Attacks Airbase In Central Syria Known To House Russian Troops

  Following late night explosions being reported in the central Syrian region of Homs, state media SANA has subsequently confirmed that an Israeli airstrike has wounded at least four soldiers and caused “material losses” at the Shayrat Airbase.

  The Israeli attack came from the direction of northern Lebanon. It has become common for Israeli jets to use undefended Lebanese airspace from which to attack targets inside Syria. Images showing a series of large explosions have circulated on social media.

  

  Shayrat Airbase has long been well-known also as a base of Russian troop operations over several years. It remains unknown if Russians were present at the base when it was struck late Thursday night. Some Israeli sources have said ammo storage depots were hit, or else ‘Iranian assets’ were targeted – as is the usual refrain after such operations.

  The airfield is the same base bombed by then President Trump in April of 2017:

  The US launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles from its warships in the eastern Mediterranean early Friday, taking aim at the Syrian airbase it believes houses the aircraft that carried out the attack.

  But it’s not just Syria that uses the Shayrat airfield – Russia, its key ally, has forces based there too.

  Al-Shayrat hit tonight by Israeli forces. The initial information about an air attack targeting the vicinity of Al-Shayrat Airport in the eastern countryside of Homs, central Syria, and air defenses intercepted a number of missiles. https://t.co/eaOuIvjUaz

  — Mats Nilsson (@mazzenilsson) August 8, 2024

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

  Elsewhere in Syria, pro-Damascus Arab tribes in the east are seeking to drive out American occupying forces in the vicinity of Syria’s oil and gas sites.

  Turkish media reported at least nine separate clashes between Syrian Arab militants and US-backed Kurdish groups. “A warplane belonging to the international coalition led by the US made a low flight above the Deir ez-Zor countryside,” Anadolu Agency said. One regional report has said the Syrian national army is involved in the fighting:

  Syrian army troops shelled positions of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Thursday, responding to attacks from the Kurdish militia on its territory in the countryside of the eastern governorate of Deir Ezzor. 

  The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) shelled SDF positions in Al-Busayrah city and the towns of Al-Sabha, Bariha, Jadid Bakara, and Al-Dahla in Deir Ezzor’s eastern countryside, Al Mayadeen reported on Thursday. 

  The SDF’s media center announced on August 8 that its militants targeted the Syrian army and allied forces in the Al-Zubari and Sa’lu villages of the Deir Ezzor countryside with artillery and mortar shells. 

  Beirut-based The Cradle additionally reports that “A coalition of Syrian Arab tribes, dubbed the Army of Tribes, seized several towns from the SDF in the countryside of eastern Syria’s Deir Ezzor governorate on 7 August.”

  🇸🇾🇺🇸The US backed SDF brings in huge military reinforcements including tanks and armored vehicles in north of Deir Ezzor, and heads to the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor.

  Fight is going on.

  6/ pic.twitter.com/2Kl24zWG53

  — Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) August 7, 2024

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

  In the evening hours of Thursday there have been unconfirmed reports of a fresh attack against American forces located at the Rumalyn Landing Zone in Northeastern Syria.

  All of this is happening against the backdrop of continued fierce fighting between Hezbollah and Israel in southern Lebanon, a situation which threatens to escalate further…

  Several Israeli Airstrikes just now on the Town of Hanaouay in the Tyre District of Southwestern Lebanon, with Fire and Smoke being seen from Miles by Residents. pic.twitter.com/zSpJusnKIy

  — OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) August 8, 2024

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

  Very likely, the Syria situation will continue to unravel rapidly in the event of a major clash between Israel and Iran (and its proxies). Some 1,000 US troops (and likely many more contractors) continue to occupy northeast Syria, and we could be witnessing the beginning of the end of the Pentagon’s occupation of sovereign Syrian territory.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/08/2024 – 18:50

• Why Did Kamala Snub The Obvious VP Choice In Josh Shapiro
  Why Did Kamala Snub The Obvious VP Choice In Josh Shapiro

  Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

  It was just a couple of days ago that I wrote an article labeling Kamala Harris “The Next Worst Thing” to Joe Biden, and suggesting that her ascent to the top of the Democratic Party was another tried and true product of a guarantee I call “politicians always make the worst decisions possible.”

  My theory was given a serious shot in the arm this week when Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her vice-presidential candidate.

  As somebody who thinks the country would implode into itself like a dying star if Harris won the election, I was extraordinarily relieved to see her pick.

  I was all but certain that Harris was going to pick Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro as her running mate. Everything about the pick made sense: he was racially her foil, he was younger, a well-spoken candidate, he was viewed as more of a moderate, he has great support in the extraordinarily crucial swinging state of Pennsylvania, and he could help the Democratic Party claw back some of the Jewish vote that they’ve (deservedly) lost over the last year while their far left fringe, including ‘the squad’, has all but openly supported Hamas.

  The Shapiro pick made so much sense and, in my opinion, guaranteed the election for Harris so much, that I thought it would even break through the dumb-ass-politician-blood-brain barrier and be the inevitable selection.

  But instead, nope! We get Tim Walz. The party who claims to hate old milquetoast white men, instead selected an even further left old milquetoast white man. What a time to be alive!

  

  Without going into the worst points about Walz, not the least of which is he oversaw the destruction of his own state during the George Floyd riots of 2020, the pick is so conservative strategically, it just might fail. It reminds me of when Hillary Clinton picked Tim Kaine as her running mate.

  It was as if, all of a sudden, millions of voices cried out in terror…

  

  Tim Walz is a pick that you make when you are far ahead in the polls and literally have nothing to worry about. He’s an NFL prevent defense that should only be run when you are multiple touchdowns ahead and the clock has less than 20 seconds on it.

  Walz is a declaration that the Democrats do not think they, in any way, need to be aggressive in order to earn your vote…as if Kamala Harris not holding a press conference since becoming the presidential nominee hasn’t told you that already.

  I also have an unfounded and unproven theory on how Walz became Harris’s running mate.

  

  If you remember, on Friday, Philadelphia mayor Cherelle Parker, or a staffer of hers, accidentally tweeted out a pre-made and clearly pre-planned congratulatory message on Josh Shapiro being picked as Kamala’s vice president. The pre-planned nature of it made it clear that the leak was a legitimate accident and the pick was likely legitimate.

  On the 2nd, PBS reported on the leak:

  

  Everybody, including myself, braced for what I thought would be the inevitable this week: Josh Shapiro would become Kamala Harris’s running mate.

  But then there were scattered reports this weekend that Harris was still doing some last-minute vetting. On the 3rd, the next day, this article hit the wires:

  

  Now we know, at some point, assuming the Shapiro pick was legitimate, Harris changed her mind. Could it have possibly been that after the leak on Friday, members of the progressive base and Democratic voters lashed out at Harris for picking a Jewish running mate?

  After all, there were widespread reports last week of whitewashing Josh Shapiro’s Wikipedia page and attempts to try and cover up his past support for Israel.

  

  In Walz, did the Democratic Party choose to abandon its Jewish base and side with activists and supporters of Palestine?

  One way to make that statement would be to pick the man who oversaw the looting and riots of 2020, that’s for sure.

  

  Either way, the sugar high of Harris becoming the nominee is going to soon start to run out, and it’s difficult for me to see how the Democratic base is going to get any sort of additional dopamine hit from her vice-presidential selection.

  In fact, I think this pick will force the onus to be aggressive to shift back to Harris and the momentum back to the Trump campaign. Everybody knows there was a fair amount of second-guessing regarding Trump’s vice-presidential pick. Shapiro likely could have given Vance a run for his money in attracting moderates and debating. But Walz is just the opposite: my guess is that to people in the center, Vance now looks more like the moderate and, in general, the candidate who has their sh*t together the most.

  ---

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  I like that the Trump campaign isn’t giving in to having a debate on ABC. I don’t think anybody on either side of the aisle thinks that Trump is afraid to debate Kamala Harris, no matter how many times she repeats it. The Democratic Party got absolutely everything they wanted for the first debate with Joe Biden: they got their favorite network, they got their favorite anchors, and they got rules, including microphone control and no audience, that obviously favored President Biden. And they still got their ass kicked. Now, like an NBA playoff series, the Trump campaign is owed a match on their home territory.

  As many said this week, if Harris can’t handle a debate on Fox News, how in God’s name is she going to negotiate with world leaders like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping?

  I said it earlier this year and I will say it again: the Eagles and Doug Pederson won the Super Bowl against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots by being aggressive.

  The Democratic Party right now is the Tom Brady dynasty New England Patriots. They deflate the balls before the game, you wouldn’t be surprised to find out they cheat, and they have an incredible winning record over the last 10 years. This move by the Harris campaign is taking a victory lap way too soon, and if Trump dials up his aggressiveness from this point forward, including directly addressing Walz’s record repeatedly on immigration, law and order, and socialism in general, the Republicans can take the momentum back quicker than I would’ve ever guessed they would have had a chance to.

  And if you’re Kamala Harris, news flash: you are out of cheap gimmicks to attract attention. It’s time to debate, it’s time to hold press conferences, and it’s time to see how excited all-important independent voters get when she is put to explaining the substance behind her policy positions.

  Now read:

  • George Gammon Explains The Yen Carry Trade Chaos
  • Matt Taibbi: Kamala, Trump & The Death Of Objective Truth

  

  QTR’s Disclaimer: Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only. In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. I may or may not own names I write about and are watching. Sometimes I’m bullish without owning things, sometimes I’m bearish and do own things. Just assume my positions could be exactly the opposite of what you think they are just in case. All positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice and at any point I can be long, short or neutral on any position. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I’m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/08/2024 – 18:25

• 50 Years On… The Bait-And-Switch Behind Post-Watergate "Reforms"
  50 Years On… The Bait-And-Switch Behind Post-Watergate “Reforms”

  Authored by Stephen Anderson via The Mises Institute,

  Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the resignation of President Richard Nixon, who later was pardoned of all Watergate crimes by President Gerald Ford. The Watergate break-in occurred at the Democratic National Committee headquarters office in June 1972 at the Watergate building in Washington, DC, during a presidential election year. The Nixon Administration exerted great effort to conceal its involvement in the break-in. The United States Department of Justice and press reporters (Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward) found five people involved in the break-in received thousands of dollars of hush money from the Committee to Reelect the President, which was the fundraising organization of President Nixon’s reelection campaign.

  

  Many of Nixon’s administration staff were convicted of federal crimes, leading to their being sentenced to federal prison from the Watergate scandal. President Nixon used presidential powers to obstruct the Watergate investigation which pundits claim led to greater public cynicism and distrust of the federal government. The response of Washington’s political elites, naturally, was to further expand centralized power.

  Members of Congress claimed that Watergate evils came from the misuse of presidential campaign donations used in the break-in cover-up. One “solution” to solve these election finance evils and rein in presidential power excesses was to expand federal power through legislation into federal election finances.

  One post-Watergate legacy was the passage of new federal election finance laws and the creation of a new agency to enforce, finance, record, and regulate them. This law was passed by Congress in 1974, creating the Federal Election Commission (FEC). One FEC function is to dole out federal taxpayer money to congressional, senatorial, and presidential election campaigns, which incentivizes federal election control.

  These new laws required candidates, political parties, and political action committees that were raising and spending money in federal elections to file periodic campaign finance reports subject to FEC audit and enforcement. When a campaign chose to receive federal tax dollars for their federal election campaign, one requirement was accepting campaign contribution limits from nonfederal sources and hold to campaign spending limits.

  Mises Institute executive editor Ryan McMaken, in a Mises Wire article in October 2016 entitled “Decentralize the Elections,” described the history of states administering elections for federal offices and the methodical takeover of elections by the federal government over time. Presidential candidates began receiving federal funds for their campaigns from the 1971 campaign finance law, and funds distribution expanded in 1974.

  The stated intent of federal taxpayer financing for presidential campaigns was to level the candidates’ playing field and remove the major party nominees’ need to seek political contributions during the general election. Taxpayer funding and the increased campaign fundraising demand included Congressional candidates. Expanded federal funding allowed more presidential candidates to run and extended the campaign season, with increased fundraising pressures on each candidate. Major party nominees spend much of their time today raising campaign cash for their parties, despite the fact that the alleged reason for government campaign funding was to eliminate the need for such fundraising.

  The federal government’s campaign-funding intervention resulted in a presidential candidate’s campaign depending on federal taxpayer dollars to function. This long-term federal intervention has led to higher campaign costs with candidates chasing money.

  The FEC board is composed of six members, with three affiliations each from the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Each member is nominated by the president and confirmed by a Senate majority for staggered six-year terms. A presidential campaign contributor can be nominated by the president to the FEC board as a favor for past sizable campaign contributions.

  The board needs four sitting members for a quorum to conduct agency business. FEC board functionality in the twenty-first century is partisan with each side pointing fingers at each other on alleged federal campaign financial wrongdoing. Sometimes the board only had three sitting members, so a quorum was not attained, and agency decisions halted. Some members remained after completing their six-year term when no nominee was confirmed to replace them.

  For all the lessons supposedly learned from the Watergate scandal, the only real lesson is that so-called reform in Washington is little more than bait-and-switch. While Congress passed a number of post-Watergate laws that supposedly reined in what progressives were calling Nixon’s so-called imperial presidency along with its phantom campaign funding, the power of the executive branch has grown exponentially in the past five decades, and campaign spending has grown with it.

  No doubt, the usual suspects in the media will be praising the Watergate reforms and claim that Congress rescued the nation from Richard Nixon’s lawlessness and set the country on the right path again. The truth is that whatever executive power Nixon abused probably would seem trivial when compared to what happens regularly today in the White House.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/08/2024 – 17:40

• Hezbollah-Aligned Newspaper Urges Rockets On Tel Aviv
  Hezbollah-Aligned Newspaper Urges Rockets On Tel Aviv

  Israel has informed Washington that if Hezbollah harms more civilians in a retaliation campaign for the assassination of its top military commander Fuad Shukr last week, Israel’s military will have no choice but to launch a disproportionate response.

  “In the internal discussions with the U.S., Israel stressed that the cost of another Hezbollah mishap would be heavy and that Hezbollah would pay a disproportionate price if it harmed civilians as part of its retaliation,” a senior Israeli official told Axios.

  

  The report continues, “Two Israeli officials said that in recent days Israel told the U.S. via several military channels that it is concerned Hezbollah could hit civilian population centers if it tries to target military bases in central Israel.”

  Last month 12 children were killed in the occupied Golan Heights town of Majdal Shams during a Hezbollah rocket attack. Israeli officials believe the rocket was intended to hit a nearby IDF military base, while Hezbollah leadership has claimed an errant Israeli anti-air missile struck the soccer field where civilians died.

  Meanwhile, Hezbollah has since the killing of Shukr in Beirut declared that its strikes will hit targets deeper inside Israel.

  On Tuesday, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar – widely seen as sympathetic to Hezbollah – wrote that Hezbollah could decide to hit Tel Aviv, which would mark a new major escalation, likely leading to all-out war.

  “If Hezbollah can choose targets, it is possible that it will target Tel Aviv and civilians might be harmed on the margins. The effective thing will be to hit a significant center of the organization that made the decision about the assassination and took part in it,” the Al-Akhbar op-ed said. This too has been seen as a severe warning conveyed indirectly via Lebanese media.

  The front page of Hezbullah’s Al Akhbar features this morning a picture of Tel Aviv with the adage: “Delayed or hastened… punishment is coming, don’t be fooled!” pic.twitter.com/t5zcIMvOHk

  — Ilan Zalayat🎗️ (@ilanzalayat) August 6, 2024

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

  Axios cites Israeli officials who “interpreted the article as saying the target for Hezbollah’s response could be the IDF headquarters in the center of Tel Aviv or the Mossad headquarters and other key intelligence bases in northern Tel Aviv.” They conclude: “The bases are all close to civilian neighborhoods and if a rocket were to miss them, it would likely harm civilians.”

  In a fresh speech, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah stated, “The fact that Israel is waiting for the response for a week is part of the punishment because it is also a psychological war that influences morale.” At the same time, Iran is expected to launch an attack on Israel following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh which occurred in Tehran. But nothing has happened and some observers believe that Iran’s leadership is being talked down amid a global diplomatic press.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/08/2024 – 17:20

• LA County To Extend Guaranteed-Income Plan To 2,000 Foster Dependents
  LA County To Extend Guaranteed-Income Plan To 2,000 Foster Dependents

  Via City News Service,

  The Board of Supervisors voted Aug. 6 to expand its “Breathe” guaranteed-income program to provide financial stipends to more than 2,000 non-minor dependents in the foster care system.

  

  Holly Mitchell, a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, speaks to the media in Los Angeles on April 1, 2021. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

  In addition to the stipends, the foster dependents will also have access to career and education counseling, financial empowerment training, housing and other programs as recommended by the Department of Consumer and Business Affairs’ Center for Financial Empowerment.

  The Breathe guaranteed income program began as a pilot project in March 2022, providing monthly $1,000 payments to 1,000 in-need residents.

  Last year, the board agreed to expand the program to include 200 former foster care youth adjusting to life outside the system.

  “While Breathe’s initial expansion supports 200 former foster youth, the continued support of transitioning foster youth can provide essential financial stability during such a critical and pivotal time in their lives where data has demonstrated the risks youth exiting care face, including homelessness to justice system involvement,” according to a motion by Supervisor Holly Mitchell.

  According to the motion, funding to expand the program is available through the state’s Flexible Family Support funding. The FFS funding requires that recipients use the money for specific purposes, defined as “extracurricular and enrichment activities that are designed to enhance the foster child or non-minor dependant’s skills, abilities, self-esteem, relationships, and overall well-being and healing.’’

  Noting that L.A. County is home to the largest population of youth living in foster care, Mitchell on Tuesday called guaranteed income a “powerful and effective way to truly disrupt poverty.’’

  Supervisor Lindsey Horvath also spoke out in favor of the idea, saying foster youth often have the worst outcomes when transitioning out of the system, including homelessness, dropping out of schools, poor health and poverty.

  “By offering financial support combined with career and education counseling, financial literacy, housing and benefit access support, we‘ll begin to provide stable transition out of care,’’ Horvath said.

  The expansion will provide support to two groups of people in the foster system between ages 18 and 21:

  — The first group will be 1,000 people aged 18 and 19, providing them $500 monthly stipends for 18 months, along with access to career and education counseling, financial empowerment training, and other supportive services.

  — The second group will be 1,000 individuals between ages 19 and 21 who are likely to age out of foster care during the 18-month program, providing them with $1,500 quarterly stipends, with the final payment provided in the quarter in which the person turns 21. They would also be provided access to counseling and other supportive services.

  To enact the expansion, the board approved through the motion a $4 million increase to a contract with Strength Based Community Change— the program administrator– which will also evaluate the program’s impact and how recipients are using the funds.

  It also backed a roughly $15 million expansion in the contract with MoCaFi, which distributes the debit cards used in the program and also distributes the stipends to those cards, to cover the costs of the payments.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/08/2024 – 17:00

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• Ukraine's Sneak Attack Against Russia's Kursk Region Might Be Its Last Hurrah
  Ukraine’s Sneak Attack Against Russia’s Kursk Region Might Be Its Last Hurrah

  Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,

  Russia is fighting to fend off Ukraine’s sneak attack its Kursk Region, though conflicting reports have emerged about the location of these clashes. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that all the fighting has taken place on the Ukrainian side of the border, while Rybar – which boasts nearly 1.2 million subscribers and functions as a think tank of sorts – said that it’s taking place inside of Russia’s borders.

  Whatever the truth may be, this latest development is still immensely important.

  

  Simply put, it might be Ukraine’s last hurrah since it represents a massive gamble to open up a new front inside of Russia’s pre-2014 borders with the intent of having its foes redeploy some of their troops to Kursk from Donbass, where they’ve continued gradually gaining ground this year. Russia had hitherto braced for yet another attack against neighboring Belgorod Region, ergo the difficult but necessary decision to impose a strict security regime there late last month, so it was taken by surprise.  

  Prior to that, there was serious concern that Ukraine might be preparing to launch an offensive into Belarus, which could have expanded the conflict and possibly served as a pretext for Polish involvement. Taken together in light of what just happened in Kursk Region, Ukraine’s moves in those two directions might have been meant in hindsight to “psyche-out” Russia, thus facilitating its latest attack. Unlike prior cross–border raids, this one also involves uniformed Ukrainian troops, not terrorist proxies.

  Nobody took Ukraine seriously when it announced that it plans to launch another counteroffensive by sometime later this year, though what’s presently unfolding might be what its policymakers had in mind. That said, the scale isn’t anywhere near what last year’s failed counteroffensive was, and it’s not truly a counteroffensive since Russia wasn’t attacking Ukraine from Kursk. Nevertheless, it’s still the largest cross-border attack so far, and it was clearly planned for some time instead of being an impromptu raid.

  These observations don’t imply that it’ll succeed, however, since the military-strategic dynamics have been trending in Russia’s favor for the entire year. After all, Ukraine is diverting limited troops and equipment from the Donbass front to the Kursk one, and this could easily backfire by creating an opening that Russia could exploit. Furthermore, they’re unlikely to hold whatever they might have captured in Kursk, thus precluding the possibility that they can “trade it back” during peace talks.

  Even so, the very fact that what’s turned into a two-day-long battle at the time of this analysis’ publication could even happened in the first place shows that Ukraine still has some tricks up its sleeve, namely its continued ability to evade Russia’s surveillance, intelligence, and reconnaissance. Russia didn’t detect any notable buildup near Kursk’s border ahead of time, only Belarus’ and Belgorod’s, otherwise it would have launched preemptive strikes and imposed a security regime along the border.

  That’s not to knock Russia but to draw attention to NATO’s impressive tactical capabilities in being able to successfully disguise its proxy’s sneak attack. This contributed to the growing number of civilian casualties that Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova condemned as proof of Kiev’s terrorism. It might get a lot worse than even that before it gets better too if Ukraine is able to achieve a breakthrough in Kursk Region that leads to it threatening the eponymous nearby nuclear power plant.

  The odds of that happening are low though according to Major General Apty Alaudinov, who’s the deputy chief of the Russian Armed Forces’ military and political department and commander of the Akhmat special forces unit according to TASS. Another point to make though is that Rybar’s earlier hyperlinked report claimed that Ukraine seized control of a gas pipeline transit station, which if true, could end up seeing that facility destroyed and thus cut off Russian gas to its Central European clients.

  Kiev has an interest in punishing Hungary and Slovakia for their anti-war positions, hence why it recently sanctioned a Russian oil company that had an EU waiver to continue supplying those two, so it might accordingly want to inflict maximum damage against them by destroying the aforesaid gas facility. To be clear, Rybar’s report hasn’t been confirmed and might be untrue, but its importance and Alaudinov’s remarks about the nearby nuclear power plant rest in highlighting the huge stakes involved in Kursk.

  For these reasons, it can be concluded that this was in the works for a while and is therefore likely to be Ukraine’s last hurrah, which it’s only attempting now out of desperation to receive some relief along the Donbass front where Russia continues to gain ground and might be on the brink of a breakthrough. Russia will likely soon regain its lost territory, if any has really been captured by Ukraine that is, and then make Kiev pay for this dastardly sneak attack.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/08/2024 – 02:00

• American Theocracy: Politics Has Become Our National Religion
  American Theocracy: Politics Has Become Our National Religion

  Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

  “You shall have no other gods before me.”

  – The Ten Commandments

  “Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore.”

  – Donald Trump

  Politics has become our national religion.

  While those on the Left have feared a religious coup by evangelical Christians on the Right, the danger has come from an altogether different direction: our constitutional republic has given way to a theocracy structured around the worship of a political savior.

  For all intents and purposes, politics has become America’s God.

  

  Pay close attention to the political conventions for presidential candidates, and it becomes immediately evident that Americans have allowed themselves to be brainwashed into worshipping a political idol manufactured by the Deep State.

  In a carefully choreographed scheme to strip the American citizenry of our power and our rights, “we the people” have become victims of the Deep State’s confidence game.

  Every confidence game has six essential stages: 1) the foundation to lay the groundwork for the illusion; 2) the approach whereby the victim is contacted; 3) the build-up to make the victim feel like they’ve got a vested interest in the outcome; 4) the corroboration (aided by third-party conspirators) to legitimize that the scammers are, in fact, on the up-and-up; 5) the pay-off, in which the victim gets to experience some small early “wins”; and 6) the “hurrah”— a sudden manufactured crisis or change of events that creates a sense of urgency. 

  In this particular con game, every candidate dangled before us as some form of political savior—including Donald Trump and Kamala Harris—is part of a long-running, elaborate scam intended to persuade us that, despite all appearances to the contrary, we live in a constitutional republic.

  In this way, the voters are the dupes, the candidates are the shills, and as usual, it’s the Deep State rigging the outcome.

  Terrorist attacks, pandemics, economic uncertainty, national security threats, civil unrest: these are all manipulated crises that add to the sense of urgency and help us feel invested in the outcome of the various elections, but it doesn’t change much in the long term.

  No matter who wins this election, we’ll all still be prisoners of the Deep State.

  Indeed, the history of the United States is a testament to the old adage that liberty decreases as government (and government bureaucracy) grows. To put it another way, as government expands, liberty contracts.

  When it comes to the power players that call the shots, there is no end to their voracious appetite for more: more money, more power, more control. Thus, since 9/11, the government’s answer to every problem has been more government and less freedom.

  Yet despite what some may think, the Constitution is no magical incantation against government wrongdoing. Indeed, it’s only as effective as those who abide by it.

  However, without courts willing to uphold the Constitution’s provisions when government officials disregard it and a citizenry knowledgeable enough to be outraged when those provisions are undermined, the Constitution provides little to no protection against SWAT team raids, domestic surveillance, police shootings of unarmed citizens, indefinite detentions, and the like.

  Unfortunately, the courts and the police have meshed in their thinking to such an extent that anything goes when it’s done in the name of national security, crime fighting and terrorism.

  Consequently, America no longer operates under a system of justice characterized by due process, an assumption of innocence, probable cause and clear prohibitions on government overreach and police abuse. Instead, our courts of justice have been transformed into courts of order, advocating for the government’s interests, rather than championing the rights of the citizenry, as enshrined in the Constitution.

  The rule of law, the U.S. Constitution, once the map by which we navigated sometimes hostile government terrain, has been unceremoniously booted out of the runaway car that is the U.S. government by the Deep State.

  What we are dealing with is a rogue government whose policies are dictated more by greed than need. Making matters worse, “we the people” have become so gullible, so easily distracted, and so out-of-touch that we have ignored the warning signs all around us in favor of political expediency in the form of electoral saviors.

  Yet it’s not just Americans who have given themselves over to political gods, however.

  Evangelical Christians, seduced by electoral promises of power and religious domination, have become yet another tool in the politician’s toolbox.

  For instance, repeatedly conned into believing that Republican candidates from George W. Bush to Donald Trump will save the church, evangelical Christians have turned the ballot box into a referendum on morality. Yet in doing so, they have shown themselves to be as willing to support totalitarian tactics as those on the Left.

  This was exactly what theologian Francis Schaeffer warned against: “We must not confuse the Kingdom of God with our country. To say it another way, ‘We should not wrap Christianity in our national flag.’”

  Equating religion and politics, and allowing the ends to justify the means, only empowers tyrants and lays the groundwork for totalitarianism.

  This way lies madness and the certain loss of our freedoms.

  If you must vote, vote, but don’t make the mistake of consecrating the ballot box.

  As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, it doesn’t matter what religion a particular candidate claims to subscribe to: all politicians answer to their own higher power, which is the Deep State.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/07/2024 – 23:25

• USA Has More Millionaires Than The Entire Population Of Ireland
  USA Has More Millionaires Than The Entire Population Of Ireland

  The world’s total millionaire count comes in at 15 million, more than all of Rwanda, the 28th most populous African country.

  In this visualization, Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao shows the top 10 countries with the largest millionaire populations and compare each to a country with a similar total population.

  

  Data for this graphic is sourced from Henley & Partners and the World Bank, current to 2024. Importantly, a millionaire is someone with liquid investable wealth of $1 million or more.

  Millionaire Populations vs. Countries

  At the top of the list, the U.S. has the most millionaires in the world, at nearly 5.5 million. For comparison, this is more than the entire population of Ireland.

  

  Note: Figures rounded.

  In just 10 years, the number of U.S. millionaires has jumped 62%, and in 2024, it accounts for more than one-third of all millionaires worldwide.

  As the world’s largest economy, the U.S. draws millionaires from other countries, looking for opportunities in further wealth creation.

  While no other country has such a high millionaire count, it’s interesting to contextualize just how many millionaires there are all over the world.

  For example, China has 860,000 millionaires, more than the people in the South American nation of Guyana. And Germany has slightly over 800,000 millionaires and they could single-handedly replace all of Bhutan’s population.

  Perhaps most interesting is Switzerland, whose millionaire population (428,000) could replace Iceland. Switzerland’s population itself comes in at around 8 million, which means one out of every 20 Swiss residents has over $1 million of investable wealth.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/07/2024 – 23:00

• A Tale Of Two Diagrams
  A Tale Of Two Diagrams

  Authored by Susan Crabtree via RealClearPolitics,

  Are Local Police Deflecting Blame for Assassination Attempt?

  

  Ahead of Tuesday’s Senate grilling of acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe, local Pennsylvania police released a curious diagram from the July 13 rally in Butler that ended in an assassination attempt of former President Trump, the death of rally-goer Corey Comperatore, and injuries of two others.

  The aerial photo of the event site, the Butler Farm Show, contained labels for the locations of Butler County and Beaver County police assets, including two local law enforcement “snipers” assigned to cover the American Glass Research building, where shooter Thomas Crooks perched with his AR-15 rifle about 150 yards from Trump’s onstage performance and fired eight bullets at the former president and the crowd.

  The diagram includes a narrow red triangle, clearly labeled “Beaver Sniper Line of Sight.” That line of sight is narrowly conscribed between the location of the snipers inside the AGR building to the stage and pointedly does not cover any area of the rooftop where Crooks ran across and then stopped to open fire.

  

  The narrow scope of the red triangle’s purported “line of sight” immediately stood out to some sources within the Secret Service community as purposefully narrowly constructed so as to try to prove that the local snipers never had any portion of the AGR building rooftop in their line of sight and therefore were not at fault for failing to monitor that rooftop.

  “Either the red vector was drawn deliberately to avoid responsibility, or it does not include any part of the roof by sheer accident,” one source told RealClearPolitics. “Either way, no one had eyes on the [AGR] roof.”

  The shooter likely moved to his left to put a tree between himself and the Secret Service counter snipers who were positioned behind the stage, the source suggested after watching a recently released cell phone video from a rallygoer showing Crooks – in plain view from the stage – running along the rooftop before stopping and firing the eight shots.

  But the narrow nature of the red-triangle line of sight doesn’t sit well with many law enforcement sources who asserted that a local police sniper would have had a much wider line of sight perspective that included most of the AGR roof, if sitting close to the window’s edge and constantly looking out.

  In other words, he would have seen Crooks, if he had properly done his job, the sources argued.  

  “If you are handling your window post properly, you would have seen and maybe heard him on the tin roof,” one source remarked. “If local snipers weren’t supposed to cover the roof, then what could possibly have been their role? Covering grass?”

  Acting Secret Service Director Rowe, during his Senate testimony on Tuesday, put out a more simplified diagram showing a direct line of sight, or view of the entire AGR rooftop from where the local snipers were positioned.

  “Why was the assailant not seen when we were told that building was going to be covered?” Rowe angrily demanded during his Tuesday testimony. “That there had been a face-to-face that afternoon – that our team leads met.”

  “This was the view,” Rowe said, pointing to a photo of the AGR building’s rooftop. “These were discussions that were had between the [Secret Service’s] Pittsburgh Field Office, the local counterparts, and everyone supporting that visit that day.”

  Rowe went on to describe his visit to the Butler rally site and said he laid down on the AGR rooftop to recreate the line of sight that Crooks had.

  “That’s why when I laid in that position, I could not, and I will not, and I cannot understand why there was not better coverage or at least somebody looking at that roofline when that’s where they were posted.”

  Lawmakers and Secret Service officials and sources have repeatedly traded accusations over the failure to man or surveil the AGR rooftop in the 20 days since a bullet pierced Trump’s ear and killed Comperatore. Headlines have criticized Rowe for blaming local partners and not fully explaining whether the Secret Service assigned the local snipers to the AGR rooftop, instead of inside the building.

  The Secret Service’s shifting narrative for that failure has been the butt of viral memes and jokes after former Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle told ABC News in her only media interview that it wasn’t manned because it was sloped and too dangerous to place Secret Service or local law enforcement on it. Instead, she said, “the decision was made to secure the building from inside.”

  In her testimony before the House Oversight Committee nearly a week later, Cheatle was ridiculed over that explanation and several members of Congress said it was the final straw leading to their calls for her resignation, which she submitted one day after the hearing.

  Local law enforcement officials have also cited a complete breakdown in communications, with local police who were tracking Crooks siloed from the Secret Service when they are supposed to have interoperability and coordinated communications through a joint command post. (They are never on the same radio frequencies because synchronizing them is technically impossible, but communications are supposed to be coordinated through the command post.)

  It’s unclear if that joint command post with representatives from local law enforcement paired with senior Secret Service agents existed that day in its typical form.

  Sources in the Secret Service community have privately brushed off accusations from the local police that senior special agents never showed up for a briefing for all local officers assigned to the Farm Show grounds that day. The sources told RCP that they don’t usually provide briefings for every local police officer but the top agents in charge of the site security do conduct a detailed walk-through with top supervisors of local police.

  It wouldn’t hurt, some sources suggested, if the Secret Service starts to utilize a written legal agreement signed between the agency and local law enforcement laying out legal liability if one side or the other fails to properly carry out responsibilities.

  The agency simply doesn’t have the manpower to fully staff the events themselves, and even if Congress were to immediately provide more funding for additional hires, it takes nearly a year for an agent to get hired and minimally trained.

  Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, engaged in a heated exchange with Rowe during his testimony last Tuesday, demanding to know why no one at the agency had been fired yet over the failures.

  Rowe, however, did confirm to Hawley that the Secret Service refused drones from local law enforcement, a detail brought to light by whistleblower allegations brought to Hawley’s office. Hawley also has said that whistleblowers told him that local police snipers were assigned to the AGR rooftop but abandoned their post and went inside because it was too hot.

  Videos of alarmed rally-goers near the building pointing to Crooks and shouting that he was on the roof several minutes before the shots rang out have only heightened criticism of the Secret Service and law enforcement failures that day.

  Pennsylvania State Police Col. Christopher Paris testified before Congress on July 23 that in a meeting before the shooting, “We were told that Butler ESU was responsible for that area, by several Secret Service agents on that walk-through.” Paris was referencing the AGR building.

  Paris also said it was his understanding that ESU officers left their post to look for a suspicious person. He added that he was not sure if those officers could have seen Crooks if they had stayed at their post.

  Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger, who would be responsible for defending at least one of the local snipers’ actions that day if criminal charges were ever brought against the police department, pushed back against Paris’ testimony amid the ongoing finger-pointing between local law enforcement and the Secret Service.

  Goldinger said that Paris’ testimony “misstated” local law enforcement’s response after snipers first spotted Crooks 20 minutes prior to the shooting. He said the two local snipers snapped a photo Crooks, who was seated outside the AGR complex, and circulated it along with noting that he was a “suspicious individual” to the “command center” for the Secret Service and the local police.

  Goldinger asserted that “at some point,” Crooks got up and moved to the other side of the building, spurring local law enforcement to move within the building in an “attempt to keep eyes” on the suspect.

  One of the local snipers, from his location inside the building, noticed Crooks was sitting on a picnic table with a backpack in front of the building. It was only then that one of the officers ran outside to look for Crooks after seeing him run away. The other officer remained in his position on the second floor of the building, according to Goldinger.

  The other sniper returned to their post inside the building after failing to locate Crooks outside.

  “Neither officer could see Crooks on the other building due to the visual angle they had from their location to Crook’s location,” Goldinger said.

  Both officers, he added, were at their predetermined posts when Crooks opened fire.

  “Their post was the building,” Goldinger stressed. “While one of the officers did leave the building briefly, it was in response to a suspicious person who had not encountered law enforcement despite them notifying other law enforcement of the suspicious person. Even so, that officer returned to the post, and the post was never left vacant as the other officer remained in the building.”

  “To say that these officers left their post is a misstatement,” he added.

  “These ESU officers and all of the other ESU officers, volunteered their time to be present for the rally to assist the Secret Service. They performed the duties to which they were assigned.”

  Yet, the Pennsylvania State Police told Fox News that the agency stands by Paris’ testimony.

  According to a partially redacted timeline in an after-action report from the Beaver County police, the police first observed Crooks at 5:10 p.m., then took photos of him at 5:14 p.m., and then spotted him looking at news feeds on his cell phone, and getting out a range finder. The Butler police then called into “command” about a suspect, communicating the description and the range finder and reporting that Crooks was “lurking around the AGR building.”

  At 5:45 p.m., there was a text sent to a Beaver ESU command about the suspect, and the person who sent it was told to relay it to “command,” although it’s unclear whether that means the Secret Service command. It wasn’t until 5:55 p.m. that someone on the local team acknowledged sending it to “command.” In a redacted section of the timeline, there’s mention of a redacted individual or entity asking for the direction of the suspect’s travel at 6 p.m., and it wasn’t until 6:05 p.m. that someone spied Crooks at picnic tables and moving with a backpack on.

  Then in line with the timing from 6:06 p.m. to 6:12 p.m., one of the local snipers stationed at the AGR building went downstairs to meet “a patrol” and let them know the suspect was “around the building on the side of the fairgrounds.”

  At 6:12 p.m., Crooks fired off the shots, and then at an “unknown time” the shooter was “down,” according to the timeline.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/07/2024 – 22:35

• Israel Vows To Eliminate New Hamas Chief Sinwar, Seen As Even Closer To Tehran
  Israel Vows To Eliminate New Hamas Chief Sinwar, Seen As Even Closer To Tehran

  Israel has vowed to “eliminate” new Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, who just yesterday was announced as the new political leader of Hamas, replacing the slain Ismail Haniyeh, killed in Tehran by an Israeli covert assassination operation on July 31st.

  Among some alernative possible options for the top leadership spot were candidates deemed ‘moderate’ by comparison, but Hamas’ choosing Sinwar is intended to send a firm message that the Gaza-based organization will “continue its path of resistance,” according to a statement.

  Sinwar, who was Hamas military leader in Gaza since 2017, is considered the mastermind behind the Oct.7 terror attack on southern Israel. He is also seen as closer to Tehran compared to the late Haniyeh, who had lived in Qatar. Few outsiders have laid eyes on Sinwar in years, and it’s widely believed he’s been commanding operations from tunnels deep below Gaza throughout the war which is now in its 11th month.

  

  Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said late Tuesday that Sinwar being named to the Hamas top leadership spot is “yet another compelling reason to swiftly eliminate him and wipe this vile organization off the face of the earth.”

  A statement from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has already blamed Sinwar for lack of progress in Qatar-mediated ceasefire talks: 

  American and Israeli officials have accused Hamas of intransigence over the deal, and they say Mr. Sinwar has always had the power to veto any proposal, given his leadership of the group in Gaza. Antony J. Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said the announcement on Tuesday would reinforce that role.

  The choice of Mr. Sinwar “only underscores the fact that it is really on him to decide whether to move forward with a cease-fire,” Mr. Blinken said at a news conference in Annapolis, Md., late Tuesday, shortly after the appointment was announced. “He has been and remains the primary decider when it comes to concluding a cease-fire.”

  Sinwar had spent two decades in an Israeli prison – a long stint which began in 1988 for murdering four Palestinians on suspicion of collaborating with Israel.

  He reportedly spent much of that time not only learning Hebrew, but closely studying Israeli culture and politics in order to ‘understand the enemy’. The NY Times writes of his background: 

  When he was released from Israeli prison in a prisoner swap in 2011, Mr. Sinwar said that the capture of Israeli soldiers was, after years of failed negotiations, the proven tactic for freeing Palestinians incarcerated by Israel.

  “For the prisoner, capturing an Israeli soldier is the best news in the universe, because he knows that a glimmer of hope has been opened for him,” Mr. Sinwar said at the time.

  Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar In His Own Words 2018-2022 #Hamas #Sinwar pic.twitter.com/X6cxtt4x0l

  — MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) August 7, 2024

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  During his time in prison, Sinwar tried to escape several times, and once told an Italian newspaper that “Prison builds you” as it allows a person to understand the level of sacrifice needed to achieve their goals.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/07/2024 – 22:10

• Whack-A-Fallacy: A Game For The Election Season
  Whack-A-Fallacy: A Game For The Election Season

  Authored by Jeff Minick via The Epoch Times,

  In Whack-a-Mole, an arcade game invented by the Japanese nearly 50 years ago, moles or other figures pop up from different holes mounted on a playing cabinet while players use a soft mallet to try and knock them back into place. Search online for “whack-a-mole game,” and you’ll find lots of variations based on the original.

  With that model in mind, and with the election season fast upon us, now seems a good time to have a go at Whack-a-Fallacy, my own addition to this genre of sport. For equipment, you need a screen for watching speeches and press conferences, a pen or pencil, a pad of paper, and a timer. The rules are just as simple. Before beginning play, write down the fallacies you are looking to detect on the pad of paper. On your television or phone, find the event you’ve selected, a politician delivering a public address, engaging in debate, or holding a press conference. Start the timer, and every time a fallacy on your pad pops up, jot down a hash mark beside it.

  

  To help you get started, below are some common logical fallacies by which politicians—and the rest of us, for that matter—slip illogical arguments into their verbal punches.

  The Ad Hominem Attack

  This one is quite common, particularly in heated political arguments, and easily spotted. The user ignores the argument and the issue at hand to personally attack an opponent. Ad hominem assaults can also be delivered against entire groups of people united by similar ideas or goals.

  Name-calling or innuendo are the weapons of choice here. “You’re no scientist, so why don’t you stick to what you know?” is an ad hominem tactic to avoid a debate. “Senator X wants to send our troops to the Middle East, but he’s never served in the military.”

  Keep your eye out for this one, and you’re sure to rack up points.

  Red Herring

  This fish fry fallacy occurs when the speaker attempts to slide away from the original topic. A person losing an argument may try to change the topic by bringing up the weather or pointing out some extraneous detail from last night’s party. One woman I know can deflect attention from the matter at hand just by saying, “Interesting,” and then telling an anecdote from her workplace.

  Under fire at a press conference about the shape of the American economy, a candidate for reelection to the Senate may suddenly reply, “Look, this isn’t the main issue of our day. The main issue is climate change,” and he continues on from there with his concerns about melting polar caps and gas-powered vehicles. Down that rabbit hole he scurries, and the issue of the economy disappears.

  The False Dilemma

  Most of us frequently resort to either/or propositions, seeing only two possible choices when there may in fact be several. “We can go bowling or go to the movies,” a teen says to friends, but they could also play video games, take a long walk, or study for Monday’s math test. “Would you rather become a sculptor or keep working your 9-5 job?” leaves out the possibility of doing both.

  Politicians love false dilemmas in part because they create fear. “Vote for me or America will become a dictatorship.” “Vote for my opponent, and you are condemning your children to a life of ignorance.” “If you don’t vote for me, you are a bigot.”

  Appeals to Celebrity Authority

  This is a subdivision of an appeal to a false authority, and is both common and easy to spot, as may be seen when a movie star endorses a particular car or a sports figure gives her stamp of approval to a brand of toothpaste.

  We’ll see this fallacy at work everywhere this fall. A film personality will appear on a talk show or a podcast to appeal to voters to support a candidate. A pop musician will pause on stage to attack a politician, often knowing less about that candidate or the issues of the day than the ordinary citizen.

  Listen up for this fallacy, and you can run up that tally faster than you’d ever imagine.

  Bandwagon Fallacy

  Anyone raising teenagers is familiar with this one. “But Mom, everybody’s going to the concert!” “But Dad, nobody does well in Mr. Caldwell’s math class!” If everyone is on the bandwagon, goes this fallacy, then it’s surely the place to be.

  Watch out for politicians who claim to speak for all Americans. That bandwagon doesn’t exist except in his or her mind. Watch out for politicians who speak about being on the wrong side of history. Beware of anyone who uses the phrase “science says.” These are attempts to get you to leap aboard the bandwagon.

  If you want to add other fallacies to your list, simply explore online for “logical fallacies,” and you’ll find such classics as the straw man fallacy, circular reasoning, and slippery slope, along with examples of each.

  Of course, my point here isn’t my made-up game of Whack-a-Fallacy. My point is that we should listen carefully to what our politicians are saying. We may not be playing a game, but we may well be getting played.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/07/2024 – 21:45

• Coming Clean On Clean Energy: It's A Dirty Business
  Coming Clean On Clean Energy: It’s A Dirty Business

  Authored by Kristen Walker via RealClearEnergy,

  Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are probably aware of the massive push to transition to green energy. The goal is to have wind and solar replace coal and natural gas; the electric vehicle (EV) will supposedly replace internal combustion engines. Directives are coming from the highest office in the land; the current administration has made green energy a large part of its agenda.

  

  We are being told that these technologies are clean and will save the planet from climate change. However, these alternative forms of energy being espoused are riddled with their own problems.

  Hidden behind the solar panels, wind turbines, and EV batteries are some dirty secrets that get swept under the rug and ignored by climate enthusiasts. Fossil fuels are constantly put under a microscope and condemned as an evil destructive polluter; green energy is typically put on a pedestal. Green energy, however, is not as perfect and wonderful as we are made to believe. Yet, we are putting a lot of trust into these energy sources, without considering their ramifications.

  The American Consumer Institute just released a report detailing many of the environmental impacts associated with the so-called green energy forms being heavily promoted. The life cycle of all three—the wind turbine, solar panel, and EV battery—involve significant environmental consequences that should not be overlooked and need to be part of the discussion when implementing energy policies.

  One of the biggest issues involved with these forms is the extraction and manufacturing processes of various critical minerals that are required for wind turbines, solar panels, and EV batteries. Many underdeveloped nations, where there’s an abundance of minerals, are at risk. The operations and procedures not only overtake land but contaminate surrounding soil and water sources. In the worst cases, this work is accomplished through slave labor.

  Various toxins and other greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere, where workers and even nearby communities are potentially affected. Landscape is tarnished and various animal habitats are shrinking and/or experiencing stress. The massive amount of land occupied by both wind and solar may never be recoverable.

  China dominates the green energy supply chains, but their environmental standards are subpar. CO2 emissions associated with refineries in China are 1.5 times greater than those in the EU or U.S.

  All three energy sources are also creating a huge waste problem. Since any kind of recycling is very limited on a large scale, more than 90% wind turbine blades, solar panels, and EV batteries end up in landfills. By 2050 it is predicted that used turbine blades will exceed 43 million tons of waste worldwide. Solar waste is predicted to be close to 80 million tons. And with the U.S. projecting 33 million EVs on the road by 2030, that is a lot of batteries to end up in landfills.

  Ironically, the same folks who want to charge customers for every plastic bag they use at the grocery store, out of fear of single-use plastics ending up in landfills, don’t seem to have a problem with potentially toxic machinery filling that space instead.

  In a penchant for trying to solve one crisis, we are creating others.

  Some of the environmental impacts and hazards posed by green energy are far more detrimental than fossil fuels, and yet the latter is often dismissed. Such risks associated with green technologies should actually be an argument against vigorous pursuit of them. 

  Each energy source, including fossil fuels, should be considered as part of an all-of-the-above strategy for supplying the necessary energy to power homes, businesses, and the U.S. economy at large. All of them come with some degree of environmental concerns, and each should be weighed and measured—along with costs, logistics, reliability, and geopolitical factors—when developing public policy. Instead of completely trying to phase out fossil fuels, a robust and healthy energy mix ought to be established; we need a balanced approach that does not breed additional problems.

  It is past time to come clean on so-called clean energy. The real-life consequences and detrimental effects of it demand more honest conversations and a thoughtful course of action.

  Kristen Walker is a policy analyst for the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. For more information about the Institute, visit www.theamericanconsumer.org or follow us on Twitter @ConsumerPal

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/07/2024 – 20:55

• Copper Slumps As China Dumps Base Metal Into Asian Warehouses
  Copper Slumps As China Dumps Base Metal Into Asian Warehouses

  Copper inventories in Asian warehouses are swelling at an incredibly fast pace as the base metal that led the ‘Next AI Trade’ is under pressure once again, hitting the lowest levels in four months. The refined metal is flowing out of China into neighboring warehouses in South Korea and Taiwan, indicating that more downside for prices is ahead. 

  This chart is probably not what Taiwan wants to see pic.twitter.com/OCbAdWeCrz

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 24, 2024

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  Goldman’s Adam Gillard told clients this AM that the copper “surplus continues to build; think price grinds lower despite the recent positioning cleanse until the State Grid return.” 

  

  Gillard highlighted that copper stockpiles at the London Metal Exchange in Asia have surged to their highest levels since mid-2018. Since peaking at $10,889 in mid-May, LME 3-month rolling forward copper prices have declined by over 18%, currently hovering around $8,928.

  Although Asian inventory builds from legacy Chinese tolling exports are not new, today’s 40k MT delivery was a surprise basis July Chinese exports (because we thought most of what China exported had become visible already). The bull stock-out thesis was in part predicated on a tight supply chain given negative carry and high rates. Said another way, there shouldn’t be this much metal left in the woodwork to become visible.

  Asian LME inventory is the highest since mid-2018. 

  

  Gillard observed that the surge in stockpiles at warehouses is now showing up in global inventory levels: 

  Global visible inventory: Taking 40k MT from July US imports (difference vs trend) and adding to CMX inventories results in total visible copper inventory of 794k MT vs 262k MT a/o January 1.

  An abrupt surge… 

  

  “Whilst we concede it’s sketchy data BBG are reporting July US imports at 76k MT, an ATH (in response to May CMX / LME arb blowout),” Gillard noted about US imports of the base metal. 

  

  Rising warehouse inventories indicate a continued slowdown in China. Bloomberg reported that the world’s second-largest economy has started “exporting in unusually high volumes in recent months,” effectively exporting deflation. Additionally, concerns about a slowdown in the US have surfaced in recent days. 

  However, Chinese smelter production is still running above average.

  

  Gillard also noted, “LME spec length has dropped to $4bn vs $19bn at the highs during the recent sell off.” 

  

  And he said CTAs are still shot. 

  

  In mid-May, around the time copper prices peaked, Jeff Currie, who led commodities research at Goldman Sachs for nearly three decades and now serves as the chief strategy officer of the energy pathways team at Carlyle Group, stated that the copper trade was the “most compelling trade” he has seen in his “30 plus years of doing this” because it’s “got green CapEx, it’s got AI, remember AI can’t happen without the energy demand and the constraint on the electricity grid is going to be copper.”

  

  On May 15, The Market Ear penned a note to subs about an “overheated” copper market. 

  

  On June 8, Trafigura Chief Economist Saad Rahim said, “Prices of non-ferrous metals have moved much higher than fundamentals in the physical spot market might indicate or justify, especially for copper.” 

  

  Hmm. 

  Hey Grok, why is China stockpiling copper as if it is preparing for war pic.twitter.com/gKXEmDweCE

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 7, 2024

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  What’s clear is that the AI theme has run its course for now, overshadowed by China exporting deflation to the world.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/07/2024 – 20:30

• National Security In A Second Trump Administration
  National Security In A Second Trump Administration

  Authored by Dan Greenwood via RealClearPolitics,

  After a tumultuous and nearly life-ending July, Donald Trump narrowly retains his lead in the polls. Business leaders would be wise to prepare for a second Trump administration. 

  

  As someone detailed to serve in the White House during my time in the Marine Corps, I know firsthand what national security policy means to President Trump. The 2017 National Security Strategy, Trump’s first-term policies, and his words in and out of office are the best indicators of what a second Trump administration agenda would entail. This amounts to a more expansive view of national security, one that stresses U.S. economic and technological primacy. Great power competition with China would dominate.

  A Trump administration would no longer permit China to steal U.S. intellectual property or undercut our industries. Rather, the U.S. would aim to blunt Chinese control of critical minerals and commodities, and end exports here at fire sale prices. Pervasive Chinese misconduct would be met with a vigilant response. Protecting our technological advantages and economic interests would become paramount.  

  The threat posed by China is already a bipartisan concern. This is one area where Republicans and Democrats have previously cooperated across the aisle.

  Trump will prioritize sustaining and growing America’s technological and innovative edge. Expect him to leverage the power of government to the advantage of U.S. workers and industry, especially in manufacturing. Here, a second Trump term will likely build upon first-term tariffs and export controls.

  The past stands as a prelude. In March 2018, President Trump exercised his authority under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act. He set a 25% tariff on steel imports and a 10% tariff on imported aluminum. His administration also imposed Section 301 tariffs on more than $300 billion worth of goods from China.

  A Trump second term would likely double down on these actions. Many observers project increased tariffs on Chinese goods. A second Trump administration would also likely pressure our European and Indo-Pacific allies to mirror our export control and sanctions regimes vis-à-vis China. President Trump understands that technological supremacy is key to national security.

  During his first term, he made a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) a strategic imperative. In 2018, he signed into law the expansive Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA), the most comprehensive CFIUS reform since 2007. Among many CFIUS actions, in early March 2020, he directed a Beijing company and its Hong Kong-based subsidiary to divest their interests in StayNTouch, Inc., a U.S. mobile technology and property-management systems company.

  Looking forward, a second Trump Administration would increase CFIUS investigations and declarations while expanding CFIUS oversight to include real estate near military bases and installations. As Trump sees things, China cannot be permitted to endanger national security through seemingly innocuous transactions.

  Beyond that, Trump 2.0 will likely focus on Chinese efforts at intellectual espionage and influence at American universities. In 2020, Trump issued his Proclamation on the Suspension of Entry as Nonimmigrants of Certain Students and Researchers from the People’s Republic of China, aiming to prevent U.S. campuses from becoming incubators for the next generation of our adversaries. Future actions will seek to secure our national laboratories and national security-related research programs. 

  Trump’s America First vision isn’t isolationism. Rather, it is a rational course of action for advancing U.S. interests while securing the country’s economic and national security priorities, and those of our allies.

  If reelected, Trump will likely demand that NATO’s members increase their defense spending. But directing Europeans to take a greater role in defending themselves is different than abandoning a historic alliance, something Trump won’t do.

  A Trump administration would look to build on the 2021 Trilateral agreement between Australia, the U.K., and the U.S. (AUKUS). This would bolster U.S. interests in the Pacific as we seek to stand toe-to-toe with China across a broad range of issues. The Pacific is not a Chinese lake. Expanding AUKUS to include Japan and South Korea, even if through bilateral agreements, would be likely.  

  AUKUS illustrates Trump’s focus on foreign military sales (FMS) and their positive impact on the economy, the defense industrial base, and allied interoperability.

  President Trump will likely demand record defense spending. Restoring America’s strength comes first; deficit hawks must take a backseat.

  During his first term, President Trump stabilized and added predictability to defense spending with the 2018 Bipartisan Budget Act. Subsequent years saw ever-increasing defense funding, and this would continue in a second Trump term with particular emphasis on shipbuilding, aircraft, autonomous systems, and long-range weapons.

  During his final year in office, Trump sought $34.7 billion to grow and modernize the Navy’s fleet, the largest request of its kind in more than 20 years. Trump’s America First philosophy will both continue to expand our naval capacity and reinvigorate our shipyards for defense and commercial purposes.

  Trump’s defense budgets will also include robust investments in artificial intelligence and quantum sciences, areas vital for both U.S. economic and national security. A new Trump administration will invest heavily in funding critical technology research and development at the Pentagon, national laboratories, and private industry. Losing the AI and quantum races to China carries grave national security implications.

  Hyperbole and rhetoric will dominate the airwaves for the final three months of the presidential campaign. But business leaders who anticipate the policy-rich national security landscape a second Trump administration promises will be well-positioned to reap the benefits. 

  Dan Greenwood served as deputy assistant to President Trump and deputy director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs from 2017-2019. He previously served as the senior director for Legislative Affairs at the National Security Council. He is a principal at the BGR Group, a Washington, D.C.–based lobbying and communications firm where he leads the Defense and Critical Technologies practice. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/07/2024 – 20:05

• FBI Raids NY Home Of Ex-UN Weapons Inspector & Anti-War Pundit Scott Ritter
  FBI Raids NY Home Of Ex-UN Weapons Inspector & Anti-War Pundit Scott Ritter

  On Wednesday the upstate New York home of Scott Ritter was raided by the FBI and state police. The FBI has since confirmed in a statement that this is part of an ongoing federal investigation into Ritter.

  Agents were seen entering his house in Delmar, NY in widely shared photographs and local media footage in the afternoon. It was unclear if Ritter was at home at the time and the allegations at the center of the investigation remain unknown.

  

  “I can confirm FBI personnel are at a home on Dover [Drive] conducting law enforcement activity in connection with an ongoing federal investigation,” a statement from the FBI’s Albany office confirmed. “As the investigation is ongoing, [Department of Justice] policy prevents me from commenting further.” 

  Ritter became a prominent figure as the chief UN weapons inspector in the 1990s in Iraq and ex-intelligence official (Marine Corp intelligence) who publicly opposed the George W. Bush administration’s drive to take the United States into war with Iraq.

  He subsequently became a popular anti-war pundit and leading critic of US foreign policy. For an example of his ongoing criticisms of the US government and foreign policy, he wrote in 2019, “I love my country, but the collective ignorance of the American people empowers so-called public servants who abuse their positions of trust to push policies that further individual agendas at the expense of the nation they ostensibly serve. Fact-based logic no longer matters.”

  More recently he has been a fierce critic of US policy related to the war in Ukraine, having also made several trips to Russia during the course of the war which began in February 2022. 

  Interestingly, just the day prior to the FBI’s raid on his home, Ritter posted a photo of himself eating a burger with independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “Burgers with Bobby!” the caption reads…

  Burgers with Bobby! pic.twitter.com/J5fF2MepKd

  — Scott Ritter (@RealScottRitter) August 7, 2024

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  Ritter recently explained during a series of podcast appearances that US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had seized his passport when he was about to board a flight for Russia on June 3rd. This was first revealed by him days later, and he said the State Dept. had no warrant, nor did it offer an explanation upon taking the passport. A report at the time stated:

  Scott Ritter, a retired intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector best known for his correct assertion ahead of the Iraq War that Iraq lacked weapons of mass destruction, as well as for his conviction for sex offenses in 2011 and the lengthy subsequent appeal, has asserted that his passport was seized on the orders of the State Department. 

  The American Conservative subsequently approached the State Department for comment, and it responded: “We cannot comment on the status of the passport of a private U.S. citizen.”

  Ritter has offered the following comment in the wake of the Wednesday FBI raid…

  Scott Ritter @RealScottRitter explains what he knows about the FBI raid on his home

  “This has a chilling effect on freedom of speech” pic.twitter.com/gPcWoESFQk

  — Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) August 7, 2024

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  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/07/2024 – 19:40

• Kentucky Governor Plans To Collect Sales Tax On Gold And Silver Despite New Law
  Kentucky Governor Plans To Collect Sales Tax On Gold And Silver Despite New Law

  Authored by Mike Maharrey via Money Metals,

  Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear has decided he’s going to continue collecting sales tax on the sale of gold and silver despite a new law repealing the levy and an attorney general opinion calling his line-item veto of the provision unconstitutional.

  

  Only five other states levy a sales tax on gold and silver.

  Initially, Rep. Steven Doan and Rep. John Hodgson introduced a standalone bill to repeal the sales and use tax on gold and silver bullion. The provisions were later inserted into House Bill 8 (HB8), an omnibus revenue and tax bill. 

  The provisions in HB8 define “bullion” as “bars, ingots, or coins, which are made of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, or a combination of these metals, valued based on the content of the metal and not its form and used, or have been used, as a medium of exchange, security, or commodity by any state, the United States government, or a foreign nation.” Currency is defined as “a coin or currency made of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, or other metal or paper money that is or has been used as legal tender and is sold based on its value as a collectible item rather than the value as a medium of exchange.”

  The House passed the bill 87-9 and the Senate approved the measure 34-0.

  Gov. Beshear signed the bill but used a line-item veto to strike out the sales tax exemption for gold and silver. 

  “If you own gold, you can afford to pay sales tax,” Beshear wrote in his veto message. “Tangible goods are the primary basis of the sales tax.”

  Unconstitutional Veto?

  House and Senate leadership deemed the veto unconstitutional. Under Sec. 88 of the Kentucky Constitution, “The Governor shall have the power to disapprove any part or parts of appropriation bills embracing distinct items, and the part or parts disapproved shall not become a law unless reconsidered and passed, as in case of a bill.”

  In other words, the governor only has line-item veto power on appropriation (spending) bills.  A line-item veto power does not exist for revenue bills.

  Instead of simply overriding the veto, Republican leadership decided to make a political statement and try to give Beshear a black eye. It asked Attorney General Russell Coleman to issue an opinion on the constitutionality of the veto, and he agreed with the legislature’s assessment.

  “Because the Governor’s veto power must be strictly construed, and because House Bill 8 is not an ‘appropriation bill,’ Section 88 does not empower the Governor to use his line-item veto on it. The Governor’s attempted line-item vetoes of House Bill 8 were nullities, as they exceeded his constitutional authority.”

  Based on the AG’s (non-binding) opinion, the legislature directed the secretary of state to ignore the veto and enroll the statute. It went into effect on August 1.

  Beshear Begs to Differ

  Gov. Beshear rejected the AG’s opinion and has directed the Department of Revenue to collect the sales tax despite the law technically being on the books.

  Beshear spokesman James Hatchett called the AG’s opinion “incorrect.”

  “The very title of the bill at issue says it makes an appropriation. The governor properly exercised his constitutional authority to veto parts of the bill, and previous legal opinions have upheld similar line-item vetoes.”

  Hatchett was referring to the first line of HB8:  “AN ACT relating to fiscal matters, making an appropriation therefor, and declaring an emergency.” [Emphasis added]

  The legal question boils down to whether or not a single appropriation in a revenue bill makes the bill an “appropriation bill.”

  The National Coin and Bullion Association issued a statement highlighting the dilemma for gold and silver dealers and buyers in Kentucky.

  “Retailers are now faced with a challenging decision. Collecting sales tax could result in consumer backlash and potential class action lawsuits for overcharging, while not collecting it might lead to penalties or interest from the Kentucky Department of Revenue. Given the rapidly evolving situation, each dealer must decide whether to charge sales tax on transactions involving bullion and currency starting August 1.”

  Until there is a legal resolution, which will likely require a lawsuit, Money Metals plans to charge sales tax to Kentucky customers. 

  Here is the official position from Money Metals:

  “Despite the new tax exemption in state law, the Democrat Kentucky governor and his Department of Revenue are threatening dealers and citizens with legal action if they refuse to pay/remit sales taxes on gold and silver purchases. However, you can avoid taxes if your order is delivered to a state without sales taxes OR when you store your precious metals in your secure account at the Idaho-based Money Metals Depository.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/07/2024 – 19:15

• NASA Head Considers Elon Musk's SpaceX To Save Stranded Boeing Starliner Crew At ISS 
  NASA Head Considers Elon Musk’s SpaceX To Save Stranded Boeing Starliner Crew At ISS 

  On Wednesday, Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, informed reporters that mission control still needs to confirm a return date for the crew of the stranded Boeing Starliner spacecraft at the International Space Station. He mentioned that officials are carefully considering their options, including using SpaceX’s Crew-9 Dragon to rescue the two astronauts. 

  “Our primary option is to return Butch and Sunny on Starliner. However, we have done the requisite planning to ensure we have other options open. We have been working with SpaceX to ensure they are ready to respond with Crew-9 as a contingency,” Stich told reporters. 

  

  The two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, were initially supposed to spend just a few days on the ISS. That has since turned to two months and could stretch to eight months, with a possible return date in February 2025, according to News Week. 

  Stich pointed out, “We have not formally committed to this path, but we wanted to ensure we had all that flexibility in place.”

  The big story here is that, after two months, Boeing has yet to publicly ask Elon Musk’s SpaceX for help. Optically, this would be a significant blow to Boeing’s image, especially considering the series of mid-air mishaps involving its 737Max commercial jets. Additionally, it’s an election year for the Biden administration, which has been on a crusade against Trump and his supporters, but also is very anti-Musk. Any rescue mission by SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft is undesirable news flow for Democrats.

  

  Last Saturday, we cited a report from Ars Technica, which said there was a “greater than a 50-50 chance that the crew would come back on Dragon.” 

  Meanwhile, the stranded Starliner spacecraft has created a logjam on the ISS, delaying SpaceX’s planned Crew-9 mission, which has been pushed from Aug. 18 to no earlier than Sept. 24, “allows more time for mission managers to finalize return planning for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test,” NASA wrote in a blog update. 

  Imagine that… Trump’s wealthiest supporter could save the day on the ISS. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/07/2024 – 18:50

• Words, Words, Words
  Words, Words, Words

  Authored by John Maxwell Hamilton via RealClearPolitics,

  Words everywhere. Words in laws passed by Congress, words in instructions for the devices that make our lives easier, words in novels and newspapers that edify us, words we use to convey our heartfelt sympathies, words we use to debate what course of action is good for our families and our country.

  

  We rely on words all of the time. Rarely, however, do we consider their intrinsic importance in holding our society together. Rarely do we recognize the ways we corrupt words.

  We live in a time of fuzzy, destructively inaccurate, and phony words. This chips away at political and economic democracy and trivializes the most basic human interactions, such as love.

  One of the great celebrations of words came from Stephen Vincent Benet in his poem “American Names.” It begins:

  I have fallen in love with American names,
  The sharp names that never get fat,
  The snakeskin-titles of mining-claims,
  The plumed war-bonnet of Medicine Hat,
  Tucson and Deadwood and Lost Mule Flat.

  Benet’s poem was a reminder that authentic words are loaded with meaning.

  Sadly, piles of synthetic words litter American landscapes. All day long, cable television runs ads for medicines whose names cannot be found in dictionaries, such as Rinvoq, Jardiance, Caplyta, Xgeva, and Xanax. Their pronunciation is equally elusive.

  Names like these are the inspiration of marketing experts – let’s call them corporate crooners – who want you to swoon over their medicine. The feeling usually is vertigo. Viagra and Levitra, for erectile dysfunction, are onomatopoeic. But what feeling does Jardiance convey? It sounds like a synonym for yellowing of the skin.

  Corporate crooners also dream up names for banks – Citibank, Flagstar Bank, Synchrony Financial, and Synovus Financial – that are neither real words nor always grammatical. Amusingly, bank executives keep telling me their fondest wish is for a more literate workforce.

  A good word for errant naming is gobbledygook. When Texas congressman Maury Maverick ran the Smaller War Plants Corporation during World War II, he directed his staff to “use plain English” instead of vague, pompous words that sounded like a strutting Turkey gobbling nonsense.

  Public philosopher Harry Frankfurt had another down-to-earth term: As he wrote in a pithy book titled “On Bullshit,” bullshitters want to evoke feelings about themselves – for instance, politicians want to appear patriotic – or about a product they are selling, like a pill to curb diarrhea. They are not necessarily liars, Frankfurt wrote. They are simply “indifferent to how things really are.”

  The devaluation of words can be traced to many sources. One of them is Hallmark, the ubiquitous greeting card conglomerate. Once upon a time, people wrote their most genuine feelings on pieces of paper. This required time and thought. Now their deepest sentiments are mass-produced and stuffed in racks in CVS. Meanwhile, Hallmark has become “a portfolio of businesses.” One of its subsidiaries is Crayola, which makes crayons and markers that are good for primitive communication.

  Nothing is more primitive than emoticons, which lie on the top of the slippery slope where we reside today. The generally recognized inventor of this form of communication – which is less creative than the bison our ancestors painted on cave walls – is computer scientist Scott Fahlman. In 1982, he suggested that his Carnegie Mellon University students put a happy face on jocular email messages because people sometimes failed to understand they were supposed to be funny. How much better the world would be today if he had, instead, taught his students to better understand irony.

  In the 17th century, scientists, political philosophers, and other Enlightenment thinkers worried about the inadequacy of words to convey complicated thought. Members of the newly founded Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge toyed with the idea of creating a new, more precise language. This did not happen. But existing languages became standardized. Universal education cemented the rules by emphasizing disciplined writing.

  Today we are moving backward. A survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, carried out just before COVID struck, found that only 9% of 15-year-old students in industrialized countries were “able to successfully distinguish facts from opinions.” The pandemic, of course, only made matters worse.

  As for the United States, it currently ranks sixth in reading among industrialized countries in the OECD. But before any backslapping ensues, consider that by other measures, one-fifth of all American adults are illiterate or border on illiteracy.

  We can blame “digital distraction” for some of this. Young people spend their days emailing, twittering, and snapchatting. Communicating in tiny information bites is as intellectually nourishing as subsisting on marshmallows. Equally problematic, social media sites are a rule-free zone. They are ephemeral, not ink-on-paper, so what the heck. Don’t worry about complete sentences, with commas in the correct places, any more than you worry about producing a well-rounded thought.

  Automated writing will make matters worse. For some years, students have relied on auto-correct programs to cover up their ignorance of spelling and punctuation. The worry now is that artificial intelligence will ease them into Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World,” where people take happy pills and let someone else worry about gathering and communicating information.

  We also can blame traditional guardians of words for degrading them. Editors, for instance.

  Elite book publishing houses were famous for nurturing authors and their manuscripts. Editors helped make writers like Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner better than they already were. As the venerable publishers have morphed into corporate behemoths, however, editors have become “more managerial, less editorial,” says Dan Sinykin in his book “Big Fiction.” They focus on the “business and marketing side” of the enterprise. Agents often tell authors to hire an editor before submitting their book to a publisher. That might, indeed, help secure a contract, but, in any case, authors can’t count on the publisher to put much effort into simple line editing.

  Newspaper book reviewing is diminished, too. The number of stand-alone Sunday book reviews has dwindled. The New York Times’ review, which started in 1911, is the most influential. But it has squandered its power by using up valuable space on such trivialities as interviewing Bruce Springsteen about his favorite books. Publishers Weekly, which once was a good guide to forthcoming books, overlooks so many important ones I’ve given up my subscription.

  Up to this point, I have skirted around politics and the English language, which happens to be the title of one of George Orwell’s most famous essays. Written in 1946, it argued that we undermine democracy by letting politicians get away with “euphemism, question-begging, and sheer cloudy vagueness.”

  “If thought corrupts language,” Orwell wrote, “language can also corrupt thought.”

  In a later column, I will describe the origins of “fake news,” which is a peculiar kind of debasement of political communication.

  Suffice it to say here that former President Trump did not invent the term as he claims he did, or the concept. It was widespread in the 19th century. Trump’s contribution to this field of lexicography is that he has perfected use of the term to discredit accurate reports that he finds inconvenient. We can give him credit for naming his hotels after himself. At least they have a real name, although the name is not so majestic as Lost Mule Flat. But the political bad habit of fighting truth by calling it lies is the worm in the apple of democracy.

  “Words! Words! Words! – I’m so sick of words,” an exasperated Liza Doolittle cries in the popular 1960s Broadway musical “My Fair Lady.” “I get words all day through; first from him, now from you! Is that all you blighters can do?”

  But we would be more exasperated without all the words. Democracy, wrote John Dewey, one of the 20th century’s greatest public intellectuals, “implies tools for getting at the truth.” Sound words, soundly written are the most basic. These are the hammers and chisels that enlighten and move us.

  This gets us back to the example set by Stephen Vincent Benet’s poem. He used a common racial signifier that passed muster then and would not today. But at the end of the poem, he showed the genuine evocative power of words with a reference to the slaughter of some 300 Lakota people in 1890.

  You may bury my body in Sussex grass,
  You may bury my tongue at Champmedy.
  I shall not be there. I shall rise and pass.
  Bury my heart at Wounded Knee.

  John Maxwell Hamilton is an RCP columnist, a professor at the Manship School of Mass Communication, Louisiana State University, and an award-winning author of eight books, including The French 75.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/07/2024 – 18:25

• Kamala Harris Donated To 'Defund Police' Group Pushing For 'Permanent' DC Sanctuary City
  Kamala Harris Donated To ‘Defund Police’ Group Pushing For ‘Permanent’ DC Sanctuary City

  Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff donated to a progressive legal group last year that pushed to defund the police, and wants to make Washington DC a permanent “sanctuary city” for illegals, the Washington Examiner reports, citing a copy of their joint tax return.

  

  Harris and Emhoff donated $1,000 to Legal Aid DC, a nonprofit that works on housing law and represents low-income clients in multiple areas. The pair also donated $1,000 to the nonprofit in 2021, according to the report.

  News of the donations, which have not been reported on until now, comes as Harris faces scrutiny on the 2024 campaign trail over her support in 2020 for defunding the police and her handling of the border crisis. Harris has reversed course on a variety of her left-wing policy positions after becoming the Democratic presidential nominee. But the vice president’s willingness to fund Legal Aid DC as recently as 2023 could raise questions about her ties to controversial progressive activists — including after Harris selected Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), who has been widely criticized over his response to the 2020 riots in Minnesota, as her running mate. -Washington Examiner

  Legal Aid DC was founded in 1932, and brands itself as “the district’s oldest and largest civil legal services organization” helping to “make justice real in individual and systemic ways.”

  In 2020, Legal Aid DC published a statement in the wake of George Floyd’s death noting that it “stands in solidarity with those speaking out, demonstrating, and demanding a country and society that will treat every one of its residents with dignity and respect.”

  Days later, the group’s housing law attorney Amanda Korber was quoted in an article pushing for fewer police officers in DC. Legal Aid DC shared the article on social media, writing “As Legal Aid’s Amanda Korber noted in the article, we are concerned, especially given the ongoing protest movement, about any solution that involves more police and policing in DC public housing. #BlackLivesMatterDC.”

  As Legal Aid’s Amanda Korber noted in the article, we are concerned, especially given the ongoing protest movement, about any solution that involves more police and policing in DC public housing. #BlackLivesMatterDC https://t.co/EX73qgZGmM

  — Legal Aid DC (@LegalAidDC) June 10, 2020

  As the Examiner notes further, Legal Aid DC shared an article in 2021 glorifying BLM, and amplifying a quote by Minneapolis City Councilman Jeremiah Ellison declaring “I think the police will view a leftist protester with a gas mask as more dangerous than a right-wing protester with a semiautomatic rifle.”

  Of note, Ellison – the son of Minnesota AG Keith Ellison, helped lead the charge in 2020 to “dismantle” the Minneapolis Police Department.

  Legal Aid DC also supported a since-approved law in DC that to make it a “permanent” sanctuary city – legislation which restricts cooperation between US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and local agencies. Legal Aid’s Adam Jacobs said aat the time that the law “could lift some of the terror our immigrant neighbors and their families have faced for many years.”

  “It also restricts the city’s prisons from functioning as immigration detention centers and amends a loophole used by ICE and the U.S. Marshals to detain immigrants outside of D.C. Superior Court,” reported NBC4 Washington in 2020 upon the City Council’s approval of a permanent version of the then-temporary law.

  Meanwhile, Harris running mate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), has supported similar “sanctuary state” policies in the past, as well as a law allowing illegal immigrants to obtain a driver’s license.

  Dangerously liberal Kamala Harris and Tim Walz support “sanctuary” cities that protect criminal illegal aliens pic.twitter.com/isKk8pgbbk

  — GOP (@GOP) August 6, 2024

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

  Tim Walz 🤝 Driver’s Licenses For Illegals

  Weak. Failed. Dangerously Liberal. Just like Kamala. pic.twitter.com/kuPSGpfjVB

  — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 6, 2024

  Meanwhile, Legal Aid DC also submitted testimony in 2023 in support of a bill to “create a reparations task force and fund to address the impacts of slavery and institutional racism in Washington, D.C.,” according to documents.

  The organization’s policy counsel, Jen Jenkins, told the DC City Counsel that it’s essential for the district “to acknowledge that slavery, colonialism, and systemic racism have left deep scars in D.C. and to begin rectifying those impacts for black D.C. residents through enacting this bill.”

  Also, Walz’s wife is ‘weird’…

  Here is a bizarre clip from an interview with Gwen Walz stating that she left her windows open during the Minneapolis Riots so she could smell the burning tires.

  Her daughter also coordinated with rioters to let them know that the National Guard would not be activated one night. pic.twitter.com/ityW100Z4y

  — Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) August 6, 2024

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

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/07/2024 – 18:00

• Global Government Is No Conspiracy Theory
  Global Government Is No Conspiracy Theory

  Authored by Dr. David McGrogan via DailySceptic.org,

  We live in an age that is gesturing towards global government. This is not a conspiracy theory; it is something which perfectly respectable politicians, academics, policymakers and UN officials routinely talk about. What is crystallising is not exactly a single world Government, but rather a complicated mixture of aligned institutions, organisations, networks, systems and fora which has sometimes been given the fancy name of a ‘bricolage’ by international relations theorists. There is no centre, but rather a vast and nebulous conglomeration.

  

  This does not mean, though, that global government (or ‘global governance’, as it is more commonly known) is emerging organically. It is being purposively directed. Again, this is no conspiracy theory; it is something that the people involved openly discuss – they hide their plans in perfectly plain sight. And this has been going on for a long time. In the early 1990s, when the Cold War had drawn to a close, the UN convened something called the Commission on Global Governance, which released a final report – called ‘Our Global Neighbourhood‘ – in 1995. It makes for fascinating reading as a kind of ‘playbook’ for what has followed in the field in the 30 years since – establishing as it does a clear rhetorical and argumentative pattern in favour of the global governance project that is repeated to this day.

  The basic idea is as follows. In the olden days, when “faith in the ability of Governments to protect citizens and improve their lives was strong”, it was fine for the nation-state to be ‘dominant’. But now the world economy is integrated, the global capital market has vastly expanded, there has been extraordinary industrial and agricultural growth and there has been a huge population explosion. Ours is therefore a “more crowded, interdependent world with finite resources”. And this means we need “a new vision for humanity” which will “galvanise people everywhere to achieve higher levels of cooperation in areas of common concern and shared destiny” (these “areas of common concern” being “human rights, equity, democracy, meeting basic material needs, environmental protection, and demilitarisation”). We need, in short, “an agreed global framework for actions and policies to be carried out at appropriate levels” and a “multifaceted strategy for global governance”.

  This is not difficult reasoning to parse. The central argument can be summarised as follows: global governance is necessary because the world is globalising, and that brings with it global problems that need solving collectively. And the logic must be impeccable in the minds of those who are engaged in the global governance project, because what they say has remained essentially the same ever since. Hence, if we fast forward from 1995 to 2024, we find world leaders finalising a revised draft of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s proposed ‘Pact for the Future’, a memorandum of guiding principles for global governance which will be the culmination of his ‘Our Common Agenda‘ project, launched in 2021. While there is a bit more meat on the bone in this document than there may have been in Our Global Neighbourhood in terms of policy, we see a more-or-less identical argument playing out.

  So, once again, we are reminded in this document that we live in “a time of profound global transformation” in which we face challenges that are “deeply interconnected” and “far exceed the capacity of any single state alone”. Since our problems can “only be addressed collectively” we therefore need “strong and sustained international cooperation guided by trust and solidarity” – stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before. Even the substantive concerns at the heart of the ‘Pact for the Future’ are largely unchanged from those cited in ‘Our Global Neighbourhood’: human rights, equity, poverty and sustainable development, the environment, peace and security – the familiar litany. The only thing that has really changed is that in 2024 there has been layered on top a tone of alarmism: “we are confronted by a growing range of catastrophic and existential risks”, the reader is told, “and if we do not change course, we risk tipping irreversibly into a future of persistent crisis and breakdown”. Better get the washing in, then.

  To return to my summary from earlier on, the picture being painted by ‘Our Common Agenda’ and the ‘Pact for the Future’ is then just a slightly more elaborate copy of what was sketched out in ‘Our Global Neighbourhood’: globalisation causes certain problems to emerge that have to be governed globally, and therefore we need, so to speak, to be globally governed. And this is presented as a fait accompli; it is indeed “common sense”, as the Secretary-General calls it in ‘Our Common Agenda’. Governing globally is necessary because there are global problems, and that is that – how could one imagine things could be otherwise?

  This all brings to mind Michel Foucault’s account of the emergence of the state in early modernity. Foucault describes that emergence as being, in essence, an epistemological or metaphysical phenomenon rather than a political or social one. For the medieval mind, the world’s significance was spiritual – it was a staging post before Rapture, and what mattered was salvation. The world was therefore not so much an empirical phenomenon as a theological one – it was governed not by physics but by “signs, prodigies, marvels and monstrosities that were so many threats of chastisement, promises of salvation, or marks of election”. It was not something to be altered, but was rather a “system of obedience” to God’s will.

  However, beginning in the early modern period, there began a great epistemological rupture: it became possible to understand the world as having an existence independent of God, and being organised therefore by what we would nowadays call science. Now, all of a sudden (though obviously the story played out over many generations) the world became something that had temporal rather than spiritual significance, and the people in it began to be seen as not merely souls awaiting the Second Coming, but populations whose material and moral conditions could be improved by action in the world itself. And this meant that people began to imagine that a ruler’s duty was not just to be a sovereign but to ‘govern’ in the sense of making things better in this life rather than the next.

  The state as we understand it today, according to Foucault, emerged within these reflections – the apparatus of armies, taxation, courts and so on all existed before this period, but it was only once government was imagined as having the role of governing that it became possible to think about and speak of the state as such; it was only then that it became a “reflective practice”. It thus became:

  An object of knowledge (connaissance) and analysis… part of a reflected and concerted strategy, and… began to be called for, desired, coveted, feared, rejected, loved and hated.

  The point that Foucault was keen to emphasise, though, was that while states undoubtedly existed and governed, the state was just an “episode” in government and would – the implication obviously follows – some day be superseded. To repeat: the epistemic break ushered in by early modernity, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment and so on transformed the world into an empirical phenomenon, not just particular chunks of territory, and it therefore contained within it the seed of a concept of global or world government: a future in which all of ‘creation’, so to speak, could be brought under the same shared project of material and moral improvement.

  Government, then, is not something which the State does per se, but rather something which at a particular period of time simply happened to utilise the state as its instrument. Government is in essence an epistemic phenomenon – it is that activity which conceives of the world as its field of action, as something to be known, understood, studied, manipulated and improved, in the absence or irrelevance of God. At one stage its ambition was limited territorially, chiefly because of technological constraint, but there is no inherent reason for that limit, and as technology has improved such that the globe can now be relatively easily traversed physically and communicatively, so that limitation has disappeared and government is free to imagine its project as genuinely global.

  That goes a long way to explaining the first part of the conceptual dynamic that plays out in respect of the global governance project: government can now imagine the world, in a very literal sense, to be something that human reason can know and act upon, and thereby improve. As the preamble to the ‘Pact for the Future’ has it, “advances in knowledge, science, technology and innovation, if properly and equitably managed, could deliver a breakthrough to a better and more sustainable future for all… a world that is safe, sustainable, peaceful, inclusive, just, equal, orderly and resilient”. To repeat: governing is that activity which conceives of the world as its field of action, as something to be known, understood, studied, manipulated and improved, in the absence or irrelevance of God.

  To understand the second part of the conceptual dynamic underlying global governance – the fact that that there are global problems that make it absolutely necessary for global governance to exist, and act – we only need to carefully read Machiavelli. Foucault puts Machiavelli at the centre of the story he tells in regard to government and the state, because Machiavelli brings the medieval or pre-modern way of thinking to a resounding end; he asks no theological questions but treats ruling as something that is done only in the name of temporal concerns. He is not interested in the next life; he is interested in this one.

  And in particular he is interested in providing advice to a ruler who is taking charge of something new, or afresh – not a ruler who is established but one who has founded, usurped or conquered his throne. Hence, at the very beginning of The Prince, Machiavelli tells us – these are more or less the first words out of his mouth, as it were:

  I say, then, that in hereditary states accustomed to the rule of their Prince’s family, there are far fewer difficulties in maintaining them than in new states, for it is sufficient simply not to break ancient customs, and then to suit one’s actions to unexpected events. In this way, if such a Prince is of ordinary ability he will always maintain his state… It is [only] in the new principality that difficulties arise.

  So Machiavelli was not interested in providing advice to rulers who were simply maintaining the status quo; his advice was going to be provided to those who set out to rule a new principality. And here the advice is absolutely clear – the new ruler, one who does not inherit his position but somehow comes to occupy it, needs to justify his position somehow; he needs a reason why he should be in charge in the first place, and why he should remain in place. Hence, very simply and straightforwardly:

  A wise ruler [in such a position] must think of a method by which his citizens will need the state and himself at all times and in every circumstance. Then they will always be loyal to him.

  Governing in modernity, then – in which ‘princes’ will no longer be able to simply point to hereditary or religious justifications for their existence, and are therefore always new in the Machiavellian sense – requires what I once called a “discourse of vulnerability“. It is imperative that it presents its own existence as indeed imperative, so that can maintain its status. It always needs to be making the citizens loyal, through having an account of itself as necessary. And this means discursively constructing the vulnerable population as always in need of government for succour.

  You will no doubt have joined the dots already. Since the state is a mere ‘episode’ of government, and since government will necessarily expand its ambition to the entire globe, the same logic underpinning Machiavelli’s discourse of vulnerability in the context of the modern state will also of course hold true in the global arena. It will in short be necessary for global governance to insist precisely on its own necessity at every turn: since we face all sorts of problems that are “deeply interconnected” and “far exceed the capacity of any single state alone”, and since especially we “risk tipping irreversibly into a future of persistent crisis and breakdown” if these problems are not solved, then a global governance framework simply has to come into existence and govern the globe on our behalf. And thus it retains our loyalty and legitimates itself. This is what it governs for: to present government as necessary – globally.

  Now that we understand the nature of this discourse, then, we are in a position to subject it to critique.

  And we can do this across three axes.

  First, we can ask: are the problems identified in global governance circles actually not in the capacity of any single state alone to manage on its own behalf? Or might it be the case that individual states, responsible to their electorates and engaged in the national interest, are better placed to deal with crises that arise than nebulous, unaccountable and opaque networks of global governance actors?

  I have on my bookshelf here a collection titled Legitimacy in Global Governance: Sources, Processes and Consequences, edited by Jonas Tallberg and put out by the University of Lund in 2018; its opening paragraph – absolutely standard in academic work of this kind – lists “climate change, internet communications, disease epidemics, financial markets, cultural heritage, military security, trade flows and human rights” as sources of global problems, and includes “uncoordinated climate policies, a fragmented internet, perennial financial crises, transcultural misunderstanding, arms proliferation, trade protectionism and human rights abuses” as the likely results of failing to set up appropriate institutions of global governance accordingly. Well, we might very well ask – are “trade flows” a “global challenge” requiring global coordination through the WTO, or something that individual elected governments should determine for themselves, acting perhaps through bilateral agreements? Is “transcultural misunderstanding” something that we really need global governance to manage on our behalf? Is “military security” not quintessentially a task which sovereign nation states pursue on behalf of their populations?

  Second, we can ask: is it true that the problems which purportedly necessitate global governance would lead to “permanent crisis and breakdown” without it? Or is it perhaps more plausible to say that an interconnected world (and it is doubtlessly true that the world is more interconnected than it has ever been in human history) is simply going to be characterised by insoluble problems that are best dealt with as contingencies by individual states? For example, is the likelihood of pandemic disease something that global governance needs to exist in order to control, or is it just a fact of life in the modern era which is best responded to through the plans of state governments based on their particular needs and resources, on an ad hoc basis?

  And third – and most importantly – we can ask: is global governance in itself a risk, or a factor which exacerbates existing risks rather than ameliorates them? On the one hand, there is no doubt that global governance, which has a tendency to crystallise groupthink among a relatively thin sliver of globalised political, academic, third sector and business circles, can lead to the worldwide, or near-worldwide, imposition of very foolish public policy. The Covid lockdowns are of course the paradigmatic example of this. To this extent global governance is inherently fragilising: it puts all of the policy eggs in one basket, and thus massively amplifies the threat of breakage.

  But on the other hand, the very project of global government brings with it particular, unique risks which global governance enthusiasts naturally tend to overlook. In a recent interview with the Triggernometry podcast, Peter Thiel makes something like this point, in his observation that the biggest risk of all which humanity faces is probably a totalitarian world government which, precisely because it covers the whole world, cannot be escaped. This is the real threat posed by government as such (remembering that it is the state which is the tool of government and not vice versa), and, in representing the extinction of human freedom, it would be far more damaging than any individual pathogen, trade war, environmental disaster or financial crisis.

  The question which we really need to ask, in other words, is not whether there are risks that come into existence as a result of the world becoming more interconnected, but rather what those risks really are. And sensible people would come to the conclusion that they are in fact political rather than genuinely ‘existential’ – they come not from the realm of the exogenous but rather emerge from the very project of managing existential risk through global governance itself. To put things very bluntly, a future of “permanent crisis and breakdown” is much more likely to emerge from authoritarian attempts to stave off such a future than the emergence of particular events (pandemics, financial crises, environmental disaster, etc.) in themselves. Our problem, in other words, is government – understood, at the risk of repeating myself, as that activity which conceives of the world as its field of action, as something to be known, understood, studied, manipulated and improved, in the absence or irrelevance of God – and that is precisely a problem that global governance is uniquely incapable of solving.

  *  *  *

  Dr. David McGrogan is an Associate Professor of Law at Northumbria Law School. You can subscribe to his Substack – News From Uncibal – here.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/07/2024 – 17:40

• Kansas Police Chief Who Led Raid Of Newspaper Violated Law: Prosecutors
  Kansas Police Chief Who Led Raid Of Newspaper Violated Law: Prosecutors

  Marion, Kansas – A recent investigation into a contentious raid on the Marion County Record newspaper has taken a surprising turn, as district attorneys from Sedgwick and Riley Counties have exonerated the newspaper’s staff from any criminal activity – and say the police chief who led the operation broke the law by obstructing their investigation.

  

  In August, Marion County officers, led by former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody, executed search warrants at the Marion County Record’s office, the home of editor Eric Meyer, and reporter Phyllis Zorn’s residence. The warrants were based on suspicions that the newspaper staff had illegally obtained the driving record of a local restaurant owner.

  The investigation revealed that the newspaper staff had not broken any laws. The district attorneys’ report highlighted that the driving record, initially provided by a source, was accessed legally through the Kansas Department of Revenue’s website with assistance from a department employee.

  “Phyllis Zorn committed no crime under Kansas law when she obtained the driving record of Kari Newell,” the prosecutors stated. They also confirmed that Meyer had committed no criminal acts.

  The report further clarified that the estranged husband of restaurant owner and Marion County Councilwoman Ruth Herbel, along with another local woman who passed the driving record to Zorn and Herbel, did not violate any laws. The driving record was publicly accessible, unaltered, and not used fraudulently.

  Prosecutors criticized the investigative process leading to the raid, pointing out that Marion County officers misunderstood how the Kansas Department of Revenue website worked. The officers did not wait for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation’s analysis before proceeding with the warrants.

  The warrants were the result of a rushed investigative process that hinged on an apparent misconception by Marion County officers about how the Kansas Department of Revenue website worked, the prosecutors determined. The process included not waiting for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, which had been consulted by Cody, to analyze the allegations before seeking and carrying out the warrants.

  Prosecutors said there was no evidence that Cody or the officers committed crimes in crafting and executing the warrants because they thought that the law had been broken. –Epoch Times

  “Put another way, it is not a crime under Kansas law for a law enforcement officer to conduct a poor investigation and reach erroneous conclusions,” prosecutors wrote.

  That said, they did conclude that Cody obstructed justice – for which he could be charged with either a felony or a misdemeanor.

  Seth Stern, director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, argued that Cody should face additional charges. “The raid itself was criminal,” Stern stated. “And Cody is far from the only one at fault here.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/07/2024 – 17:20

• The GOP Plan To Handle Tim Walz, 'Ideological Soul Mate' Of Harris
  The GOP Plan To Handle Tim Walz, ‘Ideological Soul Mate’ Of Harris

  Authored by Philip Wegmann via RealClearPolitics,

  Democrats are eager to introduce Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to the country. He is a veteran who used the GI Bill to get to college, a former public-school teacher who coached high school football, and a two-term governor of a midwestern state with a record of accomplishments on behalf of working-class families.

  

  Republicans are just as excited. Despite his Rust Belt resume, they say Vice President Harris has selected a radical as her running mate. In an interview with RealClearPolitics, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said, “Tim Walz is really, truly her ideological soulmate.”

  The emerging Republican plan to beat the Harris-Walz ticket? Just roll the tape, replied Whatley: “Our opposition research is going to be video clips of Tim Walz.”

  More specifically, Whatley said the GOP would point to Walz’s previous comments about wanting to invest in a “30-foot-ladder factory” to help migrants scale former President Trump’s border wall, his support for giving undocumented individuals healthcare and driver’s licenses in Minnesota, and his handling of the 2020 riots in Minneapolis that followed the death of George Floyd.

  Kamala Harris VP hopeful Tim Walz said he would invest in a “ladder company” to help people get over a border wall.

  I think he would make an excellent radical left VP pick for Harris. pic.twitter.com/75i3E1k3L2

  — Cryptid Politics (pro-DeSantis) 🇺🇸🐊 (@CryptidPolitics) August 6, 2024

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  Fun Fact: Kamala Harris’ VP pick Tim Walz signed a law to give driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, paving the way for them to unlawfully vote in electionspic.twitter.com/kWPlLg0vpd

  — Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) August 6, 2024

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  Republicans have already been hitting Harris over illegal immigration and the border, inflation and the economy, and crime. Walz just presents a new wrinkle and new video clips. One immediately began circulating online.

  Conservatives were quick to criticize Walz for not deploying the Minnesota National Guard sooner in the summer of 2020 as rioters looted and burned through Minneapolis. “I could smell the burning tires, and that was a very real thing,” Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz told a local news reporter in an interview making the rounds online Tuesday. “I kept the windows open as long as I could because I felt like that was such a touchstone of what was happening.”

  According to the GOP, this is more evidence of the weak-on-crime radicalism of Democrats.

  The race is now on for Democrats to introduce their new folksy anti-Trump champion while Republicans rush to define him as more of the same. For his part, Walz has a history of spoiling GOP plans. He punched his ticket to Congress in 2006 by flipping a Republican House seat. After more than a decade, Walz ran and won the governor’s mansion by more than 10 points in 2018, a post he easily held a second time four years later.

  Michael Tyler, a spokesman for the Harris campaign, said that by picking Walz, Harris has “cemented the fundamental contrast in this race between the Harris-Walz ticket which is fighting for working families and the Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda that would unleash harm on Americans across the country.” The pair will spend the coming months, he added, traveling the country talking about “building up the middle class instead of cutting taxes for the rich, and fighting for our fundamental freedoms, including reproductive freedom.”

  Walz may be an asset particularly in the Midwest. He talks plainly, and his small-town biography explains his appeal. When President Biden announced his retirement, Walz was quick to throw his support behind Harris as many others did. He emerged as a sort of pathfinder for Democrats with his broadsides against Sen. J.D. Vance as soon as Trump named the Ohio Republican his running mate.

  “The golden rule” in rural, small-town America, Walz said during a “Morning Joe” interview last month, was to “mind your own damn business.” And then the governor forged the talking point that the left has used with some immediate success to define the GOP ticket.

  “We do not like what has happened where we can’t even go to Thanksgiving dinner because you end up in some weird fight that is unnecessary,” he continued. “Well, it’s true. These guys are just weird.”

  And in this way, the word “weird” became the Democratic byword for the Republican ticket. Trump, Vance, and all their ideas, Democrats have said on repeat for weeks, aren’t just a threat to democracy, they are unusual and out of touch with America itself.

  The left now enjoys rare alignment. Everyone from New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to West Virginia independent Sen. Joe Manchin praised the Walz pick. All of it, replied Whatley, is more evidence that Democrats have “shifted so far to the left as a whole that candidates as extreme as Kamala Harris, as extreme as Tim Walz, are now considered mainstream.”

  While the party boss said that the GOP playbook remains the same now that Walz has joined the ticket, behind the scenes Republicans expressed giddiness that Walz, instead of a more moderate candidate like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, was selected. One prominent Republican operative accused Walz of “plagiarizing California’s failed far-left liberal agenda for Minnesota.”

  Republicans hope to compete in that state, despite Donald Trump’s two narrow losses there. The selection of Walz won’t do anything to change that strategy, Whatley told RCP. He said Republicans are looking forward to “a conversation in Minnesota about how, as the governor, Walz allowed riots to basically burn down Minneapolis, and then Kamala Harris came in and bailed out all those people out.”

  That will continue to be, he said, “a conversation we’re happy to have in Minnesota.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/07/2024 – 17:00

• 'State Of Emergency' Declared In Russia's Kursk Region After Ukraine Attack, Locals Angry At Security Failure
  ‘State Of Emergency’ Declared In Russia’s Kursk Region After Ukraine Attack, Locals Angry At Security Failure

  Update(1658ET): The governor of the Russian border region of Kursk on Wednesday declared a “state of emergency” – and also tightened security around a nearby nuclear plant – amid a major ground and cross-border incursion by Ukrainian forces, led by fast moving armored vehicles, all of which kicked off early the day prior.

  “To eliminate the consequences of enemy forces coming into the region, I took the decision to introduce a state of emergency in the Kursk region from 7 August,” Kursk’s acting Governor Alexei Smirnov said Wednesday evening.

  The Russian Defense Ministry has described that “the enemy’s movement further into Russian territory has been prevented” but that “the operation for the destruction of Ukrainian army units is continuing.”

  A lot of angry people in #Kursk‘s border villages.
  They feel abandoned and the rest of #Russia isn’t being told the truth.

  Many photos and videos started to appear of the alleged cross border attack by #Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/Ti4gJOsKzZ

  — Tim White (@TWMCLtd) August 6, 2024

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  The offensive has been ongoing since Tuesday morning, with Russian officials saying that up to 1,000 Ukrainian troops are involved. While few details have been able to be confirmed, some unverified reports have suggested Ukraine forces plunged as deep as 20km into Russia. Other regional reports say it was a few hundred Ukrainian soldiers leading the incursion.

  Damage and civilian casualties on the Russian side are significant enough for locals to be openly angry at the border security failure: 

  A Moscow Times reporter saw residents of border areas in the Kursk region accusing officials of not doing enough to help them on social media.

  “Nobody cared about us… the refugees from that ‘country’ [Ukraine] were given everything at once… and [local] people left for nowhere and with nothing,” wrote Lika Ivanova from Sudzha, a town in the Kursk region that came under massive shelling on Tuesday.

  “Why did our state allow this? If you can’t protect your people, do an evacuation. As a result, there are victims again,” Kursk resident Andrei Nezlobin posted on the VKontakte social media platform.

  Regional governor Smirnov has confirmed that at this point thousands of people have been successfully evacuated from dozens of towns and villages along the border.

  As we reported below, as of Wednesday evening Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Honcharenko announced that the Ukrainian army established control over the Sudzha gas hub, sending EU natural gas prices soaring.

  * * *

  The Kremlin has announced that its forces thwarted a major ground assault from Ukraine forces into Russia’s southwestern Kursk region. President Vladimir Putin called it a “large-scale provocation” which is being defended against for a second day. While the Ukrainian side has remained silent, that fighting in the area of the incursion has raged for two days straight does indeed suggest an attack which is large in scope.

  Putin further described the “indiscriminate shelling of civilian buildings, residential houses, ambulances with different types of weapons” amid the assault, and called an emergency meeting of his top defense and security officials. The military is further sending assistance to the Kursk region, which lies over 300 miles from Moscow.

  Russian state media has detailed that the cross-border assault began at 5:30am Tuesday morning and involved in initial wave of up to 1,000 militants. Kremlin sources further say that the Ukrainian side suffered at least 315 casualties, including at least 100 killed and 215 wounded.

  The chief of the Russian General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, in a briefing given to Putin said the goal of the Ukrainian operation was to take over the Sudzhinsky district of Kursk Region.

  There are meanwhile breaking reports the Ukrainian Armed Forces have captured the Sudzha gas measurement station, which is in the center of Sudzhinsky district, according to source RybarEU. European NatGas prices jumped on the news (to their highest since Dec 2023)…

  

  Throughout the war there have been at least two other significant cross-border ground raids involving Ukrainian paramilitaries, but if the numbers are confirmed, this one is by far the largest.

  …And clearly the operation had a specifically geopolitical goal related to Russia’s hold over European gas (and as evidenced by the following chart, European gas prices are surging relative to US gas)…

  

  In this case, the incursion appears to have been launched utilizing Ukrainian army regular forces and heavy equipment, with the possibility that West-supplied weapons systems were used.

  “Ukraine also lost 54 armored vehicles, including seven tanks,” Gen. Gerasimov’s briefing noted.

  

  There does appear to be significant damage and some civilian casualties in the Kursk Region as a result, as Associated Press reports:

  The head of the region urged residents to donate blood due to the intense fighting. “In the last 24 hours, our region has been heroically resisting attacks” by Ukrainian fighters, acting Gov. Alexei Smirnov said on Telegram, adding that all emergency services were on high alert.

  The same sources is reporting that the Ukrainian shelling has killed at least two people — a paramedic and an ambulance driver — and wounded 24, based on a Russian foreign ministry briefing.

  Ukraine attack on Russia’s #Kursk Region

  Fifteen people are taking refuge in the Svyato-Nikolaevsky Belogorsky Monastery in the Gornal district of Sudzha. The building is under constant shelling. pic.twitter.com/vSltZDrjqh

  — Russian Market (@runews) August 7, 2024

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  Thousands of Russians have reportedly fled the assault, and the region is still in chaos and under constant shelling.

  Ukraine forces have reportedly seized the gas measuring station “Sudzha” on the western outskirts of the city of the same name. Gas is pumped there for transit to Europe.

  

  developing…

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/07/2024 – 16:58

• 'Do Not Fly' Alert Over Iran Issued For Airlines During Oddly Specific Night Hours
  ‘Do Not Fly’ Alert Over Iran Issued For Airlines During Oddly Specific Night Hours

  Egypt has just issued a rare and oddly specific NOTAM, or Notice to Air Missions alert, instructing all of its airlines to avoid Iranian airspace for a 3-hour period in the overnight and early morning hours of Thursday. Some other countries have since followed in issuing similar do not fly alerts, including the UK.

  “All Egyptian carriers shall avoid overflying Tehran. No flight plan will be accepted overflying such territory,” the notice says. Specifically the instructions are valid from 01:00 to 04:00GMT (or 9pm to 12am US Eastern). Will the big expected Iranian retaliation be tonight? Zero hour may be approaching fast.

  

  NOTAMS alert aircraft pilots to potential hazards along flight paths, and are internationally recognized among aviation authorities.

  Reuters has picked up on and reported the NOTAM as well, saying based on Egyptian government sources that Cairo was notified by Iranian authorities that airlines should avoid traversing Iranian airspace due to overnight “military exercises”. 

  According to the citation in Reuters:

  “Based on a report from Iranian authorities to all civil aviation companies, flights over Iranian airspace are to be avoided,” the unnamed official was quoted as saying.

  Many airlines are revising their schedules to avoid Iranian and Lebanese airspace while also calling off flights to Israel and Lebanon as many fear a possible broader conflict after the killing of senior members of militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

  A flight risk monitor identified as OPSGROUP has further told the same publication that “Such a NOTAM from Egypt is very unusual.”

  The aviation industry group explained further that “It is possible that this is an indicator of an Iranian response to Israel, and in turn a potentially large set of air space disruptions – at the same time, there may be another reason.”

  BREAKING: IRAN TO ATTACK ISRAEL TONIGHT?

  Iran warns all commercial air carriers to avoid its airspace, signaling a possible attack on Israel in the coming hours.

  The overflight restriction is effective from 9pm-12am ET

  Egypt issued a NOTAM earlier for the exact same time. pic.twitter.com/NX7xC15UnX

  — Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) August 7, 2024

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  Iran on Wednesday had called an emergency meeting of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which met in the Saudi city of Jeddah. 

  An OIC statement said the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil on July 31st risks sparking a wider war. “This heinous act serves only to escalate the existing tensions potentially leading to a wider conflict that could involve the entire region,” the OIC chair said. Haniyeh’s killing “will not quell the Palestinian cause but rather it amplifies it, underscoring the urgency for justice and human rights for the Palestinian people,” it added.

  Amid several days of an anticipated major Iranian response against Israel, once it was known earlier in the week that the Islamic Cooperation council meeting had been called for Wednesday, most analysts took that as a sign that ballistic missiles wouldn’t be flying at least until then. But with the meeting now concluded, tonight could be the night.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/07/2024 – 16:40

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• The Day After A Nuke Goes Off In Space
  The Day After A Nuke Goes Off In Space

  Authored by Luke Widenhouse via RealClearDefense,

  In February, it was revealed that Russia has been developing a nuclear-armed anti-satellite weapon. The Biden administration’s response has focused mainly on arms control efforts aimed at preventing Russia from acquiring a space-based nuclear weapon in the first place. These efforts are important, but they are also insufficient. Steps must be taken now to prepare for the possibility that diplomacy fails. Nuclear anti-satellite weapons have the potential to fundamentally alter existing nuclear paradigms, creating a much more destabilizing environment than exists today. The U.S. must take action now to ensure it is ready to deal with the challenges posed by nuclear weapons in space. By preparing now, before nukes are put in orbit, the U.S. can better work to prevent such a day from ever happening at all.

  

  U.S. deterrence strategy has long centered on its ability to tailor both conventional and nuclear response options to a wide range of different contingencies, as well as deliberate ambiguity surrounding when it would use nuclear weapons. Both these concepts would be thrown out the window if a nuclear anti-satellite weapon were detonated today. While the exact capabilities of Russia’s space weapon are unknown, it is likely to pose as much a threat to its own satellites as it is those of the United States.

  In May, then-Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb testified that Russia’s weapon would be “indiscriminate,” and “pose a threat to all satellites operated by countries and companies around the globe.” The U.S. would therefore likely be left without the ability to retaliate against Russia in space if it detonated its weapon. The only option would be to strike targets on the ground. At present, conventional U.S. forces rely heavily on access to satellite-provided GPS, intelligence, and communications. A conventional strike in this environment would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to carry out. A nuclear strike would be more feasible (though also challenging). A serious conversation should address whether a surface nuclear strike would be an appropriate response to a nuclear attack that does not directly kill people on Earth.

  However, it is still critical that the president retain a variety of options to respond to the use of such a weapon. Thus, central to deterrence in a world of nuclear anti-satellite weapons will be the ability of conventional military forces to operate without access to satellites.

  If satellites went down in the aftermath of the detonation of a nuclear space weapon, the ability of long-range strike fighter aircraft and bombers to carry out non-nuclear surface attacks against enemy targets would be crucial to maintaining the option of a conventional response to such an action. There have been some efforts to improve the ability of U.S. forces to fight in an environment without access to space, but these have been limited compared to activities aimed at maintaining such access. The latter efforts are important, but they will likely not be options once a nuclear anti-satellite weapon goes off.

  The Navy and Air Force, with support from the Space Force, should wargame different “denied space” contingencies aimed at learning how to operate in an environment without access to satellites. The lessons from these wargames should then be applied and continued in actual live military exercises. These exercises would be aimed both at training pilots, aircrews, and commanders to conduct operations in a denied space environment but would also demonstrate to Russia and other potential U.S. adversaries that it will always have the option of retaliating with varying degrees of force to any type of nuclear aggression.

  The U.S. should continue pursuing arms control efforts aimed at preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons in space. However, it must also be prepared for the possibility that these efforts fail. By preparing conventional strike fighter assets to conduct operations in a denied space environment, the U.S. will be adequately ready for a world where nuclear weapons are orbiting the Earth.

  Luke Widenhouse is a research assistant at the Yorktown Institute and rising senior at St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 23:25

• These Are The Most Dangerous Jobs In The US
  These Are The Most Dangerous Jobs In The US

  Some jobs inherently carry significant risks due to factors such as hazardous working conditions, exposure to harmful substances, and the physical demands of the tasks.

  Unfortunately, work injuries can sometimes be fatal, with the the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recording 5,486 fatal work injuries in 2022.

  2022 saw a 5.7% increase from the 5,190 fatal work injuries in 2021, and meant that a worker died every 96 minutes from a work-related injury that year.

  This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Kayla Zhu, visualizes the six occupations in the U.S. with the highest rates of fatal work injuries per 100,000 full-time workers, and their number of fatal work injuries in 2022.

  

  The figures come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and are updated as of December 2023.

  What are the Most Dangerous Jobs in the United States?

  Some of the most dangerous jobs in the U.S. involve significant physical labor and working in hazardous environments, like loggers, roofers, and fishing and hunting workers.

  Many of these jobs also are usually done in isolated areas, like logging and fishing, where access to emergency medical attention is limited.

  

  While logging workers saw the highest fatal work injury rate, over 1,000 truck drivers died due to work injuries in 2022—the most fatalities out of any occupation.

  Operating extremely large vehicles for many hours, often in remote and unfamiliar areas, are some factors that contribute to the dangerous nature of truck driving as an occupation.

  Transportation incidents remained the most frequent type of fatal event accounting for 38% of all occupational fatalities. In 2022, there were 2,066 fatal injuries from transportation incidents, a 4.2% increase from 1,982 in 2021.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 23:00

• Capitulation: Yen Plunges, Nikkei Soars After BOJ's Uchida Says "Will Not Raise Rates When Markets Are Unstable"
  Capitulation: Yen Plunges, Nikkei Soars After BOJ’s Uchida Says “Will Not Raise Rates When Markets Are Unstable”

  It hasn’t been even a full week since the BOJ’s catastrophic decision to hike rates by 25bps in a slowing, deflating economy, a decision which we said the BOJ would make for purely political reasons, yet which touched on in our preview last week….

  BOJ preview: whatever is the dumbest possible thing that can happen, is what will happen. 100% guaranteed

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 30, 2024

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  … a decision which we also said would be reversed on very short notice…

  Who will cut first: BOJ or Fed

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 2, 2024

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  … once the Japanese stock markets crashed after the weekend, just as expected…

  There it is

  *JAPAN’S TOPIX INDEX EXTENDS DROP TO MORE THAN 6% https://t.co/xh4zeBXpZa

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 5, 2024

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  … and not just any crash but the biggest point crash in Nikkei and Topix history, surpassing even Black Monday and guaranteeing that whatever political considerations were prevalent when the BOJ decided to throw away its own rulebook and follow political pressure to spike the yen in order to contain inflation – while also crashing the stock market by 20% in 3 days – would be promptly overruled and the BOJ would capitulate in due course, as we explained just last night in “After A “Perfect Storm In The Vol Market”, Goldman Says “We Are About To Enter The Central Bank Response Phase“, in which we wrote that “we are not going down because of recession but because of an unwind of circa 20trilion carry trades” adding that “only BOJ can stop this.”

  And while we were correct in predicting that “the BOJ has no choice and is merely prolonging the inevitable”…

  Why the BOJ has no choice and is merely prolonging the inevitable: “at a gross balance sheet value of around 500% GDP or $20 trillion, the Japanese government’s balance sheet is, simply put, one giant carry trade.” – DB pic.twitter.com/gAtt4eu0HO

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 5, 2024

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  … little did we know just how soon the BOJ would stop prolonging the inevitable – and admit it has no choice – because less than a day later, the Japanese central bank confirmed everything we said in the past 72 hours when BOJ Deputy Governor Shinichi Uchida capitulated shortly after 10am local time, when, pressed for answers to the ongoing market collapse, he sent a strong dovish signal in the wake of historic financial market volatility in Japan by pledging to refrain from hiking interest rates when the markets are unstable.

  Uchida tried to save face, but in the end the only thing the market heard is that rate hikes are basically over after last week’s teeny, tiny 10-25bps rate increase unleashed a global deflationary tsunami and crashed Japan’s market.

  “I believe that the bank needs to maintain monetary easing with the current policy interest rate for the time being, with developments in financial and capital markets at home and abroad being extremely volatile,” Uchida said in a speech Wednesday to local business leaders in Hakodate, northern Japan, where apparently he did not make a Freudian slip confusing “tightening” with “easing” because he actually did mean easing!

  Uchida spoke after Japanese stocks crashed in predictable reaction to the BOJ crushing the yen carry trade… or rather predictable to anyone but the erudite policymakers at the BOJ.

  

  More importantly, the deputy chief suggested that the bank will carefully consider the state of financial markets in future decisions on rate policy, and as noted above, will refrain from any more rate hikes when markets are unstable.

  “In contrast to the process of policy interest rate hikes in Europe and the United States, Japan’s economy is not in a situation where the bank may fall behind the curve if it does not raise the policy interest rate at a certain pace,” Uchida said. “Therefore, the bank will not raise its policy interest rate when financial and capital markets are unstable.”

  Well, dear central banker, a quick primer: this is called passive aggressive forward guidance. The Japanese market will now NEVER become “stable”, in doing so preventing any more rate hikes, and in fact will become so unstable the BOJ will have to cut again.

  According to Bloomberg, Uchida, a dovish veteran policy architect, who was heavily involved with designing the BOJ’s massive monetary easing program that ran for more than a decade, is widely known for playing a prominent role in mapping out Governor Ueda’s journey toward normalizing policy. The BOJ ended the ultraeasy policy in March with its first hike in 17 years. And it now appears that the BOJ’s attempts to renormalize policy ended with a thud on the morning of August 7.

  For confirmation one has to look no further than the yen which immediately tumbled by more than 2% against the dollar…

  

  …. and Japanese stocks soared immediately after his comments…

  

  … which were not only the first public remarks by a BOJ board member since the bank hiked interest rates on July 31, but also the first remarks to admit that last week’s rate hike had been a catastrophic policy error.

  And now, we sit back and watch as the carry trade is put back on, and the BOJ desperately tries to refloat the $20 trillion carry trade titanic which as we reported on Sunday night, is now in the process of sinking. The good news, at least for the Kamala administration, is that the BOJ’s panicked concession will enable US stocks to surge once again as the carry trade is promptly re-established.

  The sellside brigades, especially those who were predicting a 130 USDJPY in the very near future, were quick to jump on the realization that the BOJ just capitulated:

  • According to Credit Agricole CIB, Uchida comment confirms the BOJ will likely be gun-shy about hiking rates again soon (or ever) which will weigh on the the yen.
    • “The 3-way meeting between the FSA, MOF and BOJ left the BoJ substantially chastized with new Vice Minister for International Affairs, Mimura, saying the BoJ will pay attention to the volatility in financial markets,” said the bank’s FX strategist David Forrester.
  • The Bank of Singapore also chimed in, writing that “the outsized yen rally is making policymakers uncomfortable”, which is evident from BOJ Deputy Governor Shinichi Uchida’s comments on interest rates.
  • And the punchline comes from UBS trader Alex Limwho writes that “the last thing the BoJ wants is to be blamed for triggering one of the sharpest market selloffs that coincidentally followed its hawkish July 31 policy decision.” 
    • “Press reports [Bloomberg paywall] have earlier suggested that political pressure may have been a factor behind the BoJ’s decision to hike the key rate and taper JGBs at the same meeting.”
    • “Now the BoJ is clearly under pressure to respond to the market selloff and possibly to justify its previous hawkish policy decision.”

  Unfortunately for the BOJ, by admitting defeat it has just dug its own grave for the last time, and having capitulated on further tightening just because of a modest bear market in stocks, the full court press to short the yen is now back on and we expect it won’t stop until the currency hits new record lows in the very near future, with the BOJ now completely powerless to do anything as Japan’s hyperinflation finally kicks in.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 22:56

• The Trump Assassination Attempt & The Kennedy Connection
  The Trump Assassination Attempt & The Kennedy Connection

  Authored by Richard Truesdell and Keith Lehmann via American Greatness,

  It’s amazing. The attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump happened a little more than three weeks ago. But if you follow the current coverage in the mainstream media, it’s like it never happened. The mainstream media has moved on. Of course, we’ve had a sitting president end his reelection bid and Kamala Harris ascend to the top spot without getting a single vote. This is the same as with her doomed 2020 bid when she exited the nominating race after getting eviscerated by Tulsi Gabbard in a pre-Iowa Democrat debate.

  

  All that Harris and her campaign surrogates can talk about is how “weird” JD Vance is. This coming from a candidate who made a pre-taped campaign announcement on RuPaul’s Drag Race. It’s these Democrat parrots like Donny Deutsch and other droids on MSNBC that have ZERO self-awareness. Their narratives have effectively been debunked.

  With that being said, you won’t see this on MSNBC, CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, or just about any MSM broadcast, online outlet, or in print. Those outlets will continue with their Trump-as-Hitler narrative every day up to November 5.

  The circumstances surrounding the attempted assassination of Trump and the successful assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 23, 1963, are shockingly similar.

  We are still waiting for information on all of the serial failures to protect Trump as well as the actions taken by the shooter in the days leading to the attack, but the motivations of our government seem to be very similar.

  It is historically known that Kennedy tried to reduce U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War after the Cuban Missile Crisis and his worry that a nuclear exchange with the Soviets would result in catastrophic loss of life. This compelled him to strongly resist a military-industrial complex comprised of government institutions and wealthy corporate interests that were invested in escalating the Vietnam War effort and keeping the weapons and hardware flowing.

  Kennedy made a lot of enemies in government, trying to reform systems that were in place for decades and angering a lot of powerful groups that were heavily invested in America’s war machine. Starting right after the end of World War II, through the establishment of the CIA 76 years ago in 1947, the CIA has been the central linchpin of the U.S. Intelligence community (IC), the so-called Deep State that is accountable to no one (not the president, either House of Congress, or any other serious oversight organization.)

  Kennedy pledged to reform the intelligence community (IC) after the Bay of Pigs fiasco that took place under the lead of the IC as a way to depose Fidel Castro. Kennedy was appalled at the usurpation of his authority and made it clear that change was going to come.

  We know how this ended. Kennedy’s hurriedly planned visit to Dallas, driven through an unsecured area, in an unprotected, open-air limousine, with very little Secret Service protection, and in line of sight of buildings with multiple opportunities for snipers to hide. If our government did not intend for this assassination to happen, it certainly laid out a very workable plan to fatally ambush Kennedy that could not have been more perfect.

  Which brings us to Trump’s brush with death on July 13. In his first term, Trump made efforts to reform the Deep State to at least slow down the expansion of government size and the intrusion into the lives of American citizens. He put the Pentagon on notice to stop warmongering in foreign lands.

  He ordered NATO countries to start paying their fair share of America’s commitment to protect them. He slowed the influx of illegal aliens, infuriating a welfare bureaucracy counting on an ever-growing underclass of immigrants to justify their existence.

  Trump made a lot of enemies in government just as Kennedy had by trying to reform many of the same systems and angering many of the same moneyed interests. With four years of experience in dealing with these Deep State operators and now knowing how to really reform the administrative state, Trump has a lot of career bureaucrats worried about their jobs, perks, and power. And now Trump looks to be unbeatable in the coming election, even with the soft coup with Democrat power brokers—Obama, Pelosi, Schumer, Jeffries, and others—despite the current media infatuation and love fest with Cackling Kamala.

  It is not unreasonable to assume that the organized left operation that runs the federal government from the shadows of Washington, D.C.—which sought to remove Trump from state ballots, drive him into bankruptcy, imprison him, frame him as an asset of Russia, compare him to Hitler, portray him as an existential threat to democracy, and accuse him of an insurrection—would be desperate enough to recruit an Oswald-like patsy to kill him and make sure he had the opportunity to do it.

  Let’s remember that these are the same reprehensible people who have spent the last eight years telling us that Trump is a unique threat to all Americans and will imprison his rivals and act as a dictator.

  Are they capable of murder? Of course they are. That is why they are demanding that all discussion of the assassination attempt be stopped and that the serial failures of the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) not be explored by anyone. Three sessions before Congress have shown us the game of CYA (cover your ass) going on by the members of the Deep State who have already testified, including disgraced former Unites States Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle, current FBI director Chris Wray, and Cheatle’s replacement, acting USSS Director Ronald Rowe.

  • Serial failures such as:

  • Why repeated requests for additional USSS resources were denied by the Biden White House,

  • Why Trump’s regular USSS team was replaced by a veritable B-team of ill-trained and equipped agents, including three short females who could not holster their weapons, with one cowering behind Trump as shots were being fired at him,

  • How an obvious high-elevation perch only 450 feet away from the rally podium with unobstructed line-of-sight was left unguarded,

  • How a 20-year-old with a long rifle and a ladder could enter a secured perimeter,

  • How the shooter was seen by rally attendees over an hour before the attack, all the while shouting to law enforcement that milled around but did nothing to confront the shooter,

  • How the shooter was identified by police snipers at 5:51 PM, before Donald Trump, the most famous person in the world and the most targeted by his enemies, took the stage at 6:02 PM, without telling him or preventing him from taking the podium,

  • How the police snipers had the shooter in their scopes for minutes but waited until after the attack at 6:11 PM, after eight shots were made, before finally neutralizing him,

  • Why the USSS chose not to record their radio communications on this particular day at this particular rally, and,

  • Why Congressional investigators cannot get any straight answers from either USSS or DHS leadership on how this could have happened.

  Only after the assassination attempt failed were Democrats power brokers like Obama, Pelosi, Schumer, and Jeffries successful in forcing Biden out of the presidential race at the behest of the Democrat donor class. Now the question is: will Biden actually serve out his term until January 20, 2025? Biden looked confused when meeting the released Russian hostages at Joint Base Andrews last week, ceding lead at the event to Vice President Harris.

  We can surmise that the Secret Service is either completely inept or that it cooperated in a conspiracy to allow for the assassination of a man that the Biden administration wanted stopped after everything else had failed and after he became inevitable as the next elected president.

  The entire scenario stinks of conspiracy and cover-up. This is not something we say lightly.

  There is no excuse for such a blatant failure to protect the most famous and targeted person in the world. The USSS operates under a $3 billion yearly budget. There is no shortage of resources, human or otherwise, that can justify such incompetence and dereliction of duty. What the testimony found was that the USSS is plagued by management ineptitude. As a place to work in the Federal government, it ranks 319 out of 320 government agencies.

  How do we move forward from here? Well, we don’t need a Warren Commission to whitewash this stunning attempt to neutralize the Republican front-runner. We don’t need a compliant legacy media to call this a “Republicans pounce” moment or to minimize their role in ratcheting up the Trump hate on their platforms. We don’t need a sorely compromised FBI to investigate this horrific attempt on Trump’s life—the same FBI that is also known for calling Hunter Biden’s laptop “Russian disinformation” and raiding Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home for FBI-doctored evidence of classified documents.

  Will a House of Representatives probe get to the truth? It might but we’re not holding our breath for that to happen.

  What we need here is for someone to come clean. And that someone, interestingly enough, could be Kimberly Cheatle. Yes, the former director of the USSS herself.

  Why did she resign as director if there was no malfeasance or conspiracy to kill Trump? As director of the USSS, she reported to the head of DHS, Alejandro Mayorkas. All USSS plans for events, such as the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, would have been signed off by Mayorkas or someone within his direct management. By resigning her post and, assumingly, receiving some form of immunity from prosecution, she could expose the entire plot. A lot of heads could roll.

  Or not. As we’ve seen, it’s hard for anyone in government—and Democrat administrations in particular—to face accountability for failure. Even a failed attempt to murder the most famous person in the world live on television. If not for a turn of his head, history would have been far different. As a nation, we literally dodged a bullet.

  A bullet that would have resulted in a civil war that would have generated untold acrimony and violence among otherwise peace-seeking patriots. A bullet that would have changed the entire world order. A bullet that would have pulled the mask away from the ridiculous notion that we are being led by a responsible and accountable government that everyone would have finally realized was a fraud.

  Is this what our so-called leaders have wanted all along?

  One has to wonder. What interesting times we live in.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 22:35

• The Post-Coup Political Violence In Bangladesh Bodes Ill For Its Future Direction
  The Post-Coup Political Violence In Bangladesh Bodes Ill For Its Future Direction

  Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,

  The resignation of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday and her government’s replacement with a military-led interim administration was followed by a spree of political violence. The parliament was taken over, Hasina’s palace was stormed, some of the former ruling party’s offices and the homes of its members were looted, and minority Hindus were attacked. Despite being regrettable, retributive political violence and the targeting of minorities are predictable in “revolutionary” situations.

  

  What few could have foreseen though was that symbols of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who’s known as “Bangabandhu” and is revered as the Father of the Nation, were also attacked. This included vandalism against his statues and murals as well as the burning of his memorial museum in the capital, which used to be his home and from where he declared Bangladesh’s independence.  Even though he was Hasina’s father, he’s not guilty of the crimes that the so-called “peaceful pro-democracy protesters” accuse her of.

  Some hated him at the time for his secularism as well as his non-Western alignment, thus explaining his assassination in 1975 and the military coup that followed, but much of that anger has passed since most of the population wasn’t even born by then and therefore has no personal memory of him. Regardless of whatever any Bangladeshi’s views might be about his policies, Bangabandhu is still the Father of the Nation, and targeting his symbols during the latest unrest bodes ill for Bangladesh’s future direction.

  Only religious and political extremists would attack his symbols, which discredits the participants’ claims that they’re “peaceful pro-democracy protesters” and lends credence to Hasina’s that they’re actually radical anti-state forces. What happened bears all the hallmarks of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and their allies. They’ve been accused of cavorting with religious extremists and being political radicals, the claims of which aren’t unfounded.

  The party’s founder Ziaur Rahman implemented Islamist policies upon coming to power two years after Bangabandhu’s assassination and then pivoted towards the West (including its then-Arab and -Chinese partners at the time). The rivalry between the BNP and Bangabandhu’s Awami League (AL) has remained a constant since then, as has the threat posed by the legally contentious Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) movement, which is comprised of Pakistani loyalists who later allied with the BNP due to its Islamist policies.

  Nevertheless, attacking Bangabandhu’s symbols in such a high-profile way at this crucial moment in national history sends the message that political violence will continue, with none of the AL’s supporters being safe. Unless the military can restore order, and it’s too early to tell even though everything appears to be moving in that direction, then the BNP-JEI might go on a killing spree against the AL. A huge exodus to India could then follow, which risks destabilizing already demographically tense border regions.

  Even if that dark scenario doesn’t materialize, it’s clear that the BNP’s JEI foot soldiers won’t be pleased until their country erases the AL’s legacy of secularism and alignment with India. After all, that’s precisely what Bangabandhu represents, so targeting his symbols conveys their hatred of those policies and implies that some level of unrest might continue so long as they remain in force. Bangladesh has the sovereign right to promulgate whatever policies it wants, but this mustn’t be done under pressure.

  It’s too early to predict whether the BNP-JEI will get all of what it wants, but the parliament in which the BNP didn’t participate due to boycotting January’s elections was just dissolved and its jailed leader was released right after, so it’s likely poised to play a role in the interim administration before new elections. In that event, the BNP and its JEI foot soldiers would stand a much greater chance of pressuring the authorities into distancing Bangladesh from India in some way, which could worsen regional tensions.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 22:10

• Why Your Job Is More At Risk If You're Working Remote
  Why Your Job Is More At Risk If You’re Working Remote

  Authored by Mark Gilman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  No longer just a by-product of the pandemic, remote work has become a prevalent option for most workforces, with the expectation that nearly a quarter of all workers will be fully remote by 2025, according to a Forbes Advisor report.

  

  However, remote workers are also being laid off at a higher rate than in-house workers, according to data firm Live Data Technologies.

  In response, many workers have changed their work habits in an effort to stay relevant.

  Leslie Dunbar, a project manager for a national accounting practice based on the West Coast, told The Epoch Times that she has a specific daily ritual to ensure she’s viewed as a vital part of the team, though she’s based in the East Coast.

  “I work Pacific time hours by my own choice because that is when my boss and the rest of the team work,” she said.

  “No one asked me to do this. I was proactive in thinking through the adjustments I could make for myself that would help my success and the team’s success.”

  Terri Kurtzberg, professor of management and global business at Rutgers Business School, said that Ms. Dunbar’s strategy is “spot on,” but also says some burden for effective employee communication needs to be placed on the employer.

  “The out-of-sight, out-of-mind problem is very real. But it’s not realistic to say it didn’t work and just come back to the office,” Kurtzberg told The Epoch Times.

  “The billion-dollar question is, how do employers manage work without the intangibles that make employees comfortable and how do you know that the work is being done at the levels you expect?”

  Another area of concern for remote employees, according to analysis from Live Data Technologies, is that remote workers were promoted 31 percent less often than employees working an in-office or hybrid schedule in 2023.

  Live Data Technologies said it looked at a sample size of 2 million white-collar workers split evenly between remote workers and in-office workers.

  In 2023, 599,000 people changed jobs within the sample size. Of those, 168,000 individuals left a company and didn’t start a new job within 60 days, which Live Data Technologies classified as involuntary or a “layoff.”

  

  Remote Workers Need to Be More Visible

  Dell CEO Michael Dell made that clear in an employee memo released earlier this year that “for remote team members, it is important to understand the trade-offs: Career advancement, including applying to new roles in the company, will require a team member to reclassify as hybrid onsite.”

  Rachelle Klozik holds two remote hats as a team supervisor and employee at a Michigan IT company while living in Florida.

  She told The Epoch Times that remote employees and supervisors need to engage with co-workers about more than work to remain consistently visible.

  “I meet with my team online frequently, and we talk about what’s going on in their lives and how I can work with them better,” she said.

  “We have things … like after-hours Zoom calls and parties and you have to show your face and be involved, showing the company you’re engaged. But there’s more than work to discuss.”

  Klozik said the onus to show a human side to remote employee interactions is her responsibility as a supervisor. “I manage people, and if I don’t give them something relatable, people won’t like working for me.”

  Not everyone is enamored with remote employees.

  Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey in a recent speech trying to share why working downtown in Minneapolis was beneficial to companies, called those who choose to work remotely “losers,” according to a video released by Fox 9.

  “I don’t know if you saw this study the other day, but what this study clearly showed is that when people who have the ability to come downtown but don’t. When they stay home, sitting on their couch with their nasty cat blanket, fiddling on their laptop. If they do that for a few months, you become a loser. It’s a study. We’re not losers, are we?” he said.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 21:45

• Uninsured Americans Now More Than 27 Million: CDC Report
  Uninsured Americans Now More Than 27 Million: CDC Report

  Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

  The percentage of uninsured Americans rose to 8.2 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to survey findings published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Aug. 6.

  

  The report estimated that 27.1 million Americans of all ages were without health insurance as of March this year, up from 25.5 million or 7.7 percent at the end of the previous year.

  The percentage of uninsured people earning below the federal poverty level increased from 13.9 percent last year to 15.7 percent in the first quarter of 2024, the highest percentage among income levels.

  Almost two-thirds (64.9 percent) of people under age 65 were covered by private health insurance and more than a quarter (27.7 percent) were covered by public health insurance in the first three months of 2023.

  The number of people of all ages who enrolled in public health insurance plans decreased from 39.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023 to 39.2 percent this year, according to the CDC.

  A report released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in June projected that the rate of uninsured Americans will increase to 8.9 percent over the next 10 years due to immigration, among other factors.

  “The surge in immigration that began in 2021 (and that CBO projects will continue through 2026) will contribute to the increase as well, as those newly arrived immigrants will, the agency expects, be substantially less likely to have health insurance coverage than the overall population,” the report stated.

  The CBO also attributed the rise in the uninsured rate to the end of a COVID-19 pandemic-era policy extending Medicaid eligibility and the expiration of enhanced marketplace subsidies.

  The number of uninsured Americans aged between 18 and 44 is projected to see the largest increase over the next decade, according to the CBO report.

  In March, President Joe Biden rolled back a Trump-era policy that expanded the availability of limited health insurance policies that are exempt from coverage requirements under the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as “Obamacare.”

  These limited health insurance policies, commonly described as “short-term” policies and referred to by Biden as “junk health insurance,” provide a limited range of coverage for lower premiums.

  Under President Barack Obama, individuals could be covered through these limited insurance plans for only three months.

  In 2018, however, the Trump administration approved a new rule allowing people to obtain coverage under these limited policies for an initial period of 12 months, with the ability to extend the coverage for up to 36 months.

  The Biden administration announced a rule that largely reverts to the Obama-era constraints, capping the duration of these limited insurance policies to three months with the ability to extend the policies for one additional month.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 21:20

• Pakistani National With Alleged Iranian Ties Charged In Plot To Assassinate US Officials
  Pakistani National With Alleged Iranian Ties Charged In Plot To Assassinate US Officials

  Authored by Chase Smith via The Epoch Times,

  A Pakistani national with alleged ties to Iran has been charged in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate a politician or U.S. government officials on U.S. soil, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release and indictment unsealed on Tuesday.

  

  Asif Merchant, also known as “Asif Raza Merchant,” 46, was charged with murder-for-hire as part of a scheme targeting public figures within the United States. He was apprehended and is currently in federal custody in New York.

  The arrest underscores what the DOJ said is its commitment to thwarting Iran’s ongoing efforts to retaliate against American officials, particularly in response to the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.

  Soleimani was killed in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Jan. 3, 2020, under the Trump administration.

  “For years, the Justice Department has been working aggressively to counter Iran’s brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General Soleimani,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.

  “The Justice Department will spare no resource to disrupt and hold accountable those who would seek to carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against American citizens and will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to target American public officials and endanger America’s national security.”

  The plot was uncovered through a coordinated effort involving multiple FBI field offices and the New York City Police Department, among other agencies, DOJ said.

  According to court documents, Merchant arrived in the United States from Pakistan in April, following a period in Iran.

  He is described as a citizen of Pakistan, born in Karachi, with a wife and children in both Pakistan and Iran, and he traveled frequently to Iran, Syria, and Iraq.

  Merchant allegedly sought to hire hitmen to carry out assassinations on American soil, believing he was working with a trusted contact who reported his activities to law enforcement and became a confidential source.

  He used operational security measures, such as multiple cellular phones and removing them during sensitive discussions, to avoid surveillance, the court documents claim.

  During meetings in New York, Merchant outlined a plan involving multiple criminal schemes, including the theft of documents, organizing protests as distractions, and the assassination plot. These activities were discussed using coded language; for instance, “tee-shirt” referred to protests, “flannel shirt” to stealing, and “fleece jacket” to murder.

  In June, Merchant met with individuals he believed to be hitmen, who were actually undercover FBI agents, to arrange the logistics of the plot.

  He provided an advance payment of $5,000 and indicated that instructions for the assassination would be issued after his planned departure from the United States in mid-July, the DOJ said.

  However, law enforcement intervened and arrested Merchant on July 12, before he could leave the country, DOJ said.

  “Fortunately, the assassins Merchant tried to hire were undercover FBI Agents,” said Acting Assistant Director Christie Curtis of the FBI New York Field Office.

  “This case underscores the dedication and formidable efforts of our agents, analysts and prosecutors in New York, Houston and Dallas. Their success in neutralizing this threat not only prevented a tragic outcome but also reaffirms the FBI’s commitment to protecting our nation and its citizens from both domestic and international threats.”

  The complaint also highlighted Merchant’s intent to recruit trusted individuals for various roles in his scheme, including reconnaissance and organizing a protest, with further instructions to be conveyed in coded language.

  The DOJ emphasized at the time of filing in mid-July that premature disclosure of the complaint’s contents could have jeopardized the investigation, with risks including fleeing suspects and tampering with evidence before it was ultimately unsealed this week.

  [ZH: We have one question:]

  Amazing how the FBI was able to catch this fake Pakistani assassin they ran as an entrapment op right when they are having trouble answering questions about Thomas Matthew Crooks and J13

  Guess we should just let that one go, ya think!

  — Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) August 6, 2024

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

  Of course this is not the first Iranian-linked assassin on the loose in America.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 20:55

• Homeowners Increasingly Tap Home Equity Lines As Savings Rate Plummets
  Homeowners Increasingly Tap Home Equity Lines As Savings Rate Plummets

  With home values at or near record highs nationwide, and savings rates plunging, Americans are increasingly tapping into home equity.

  

  While some are using it for home renovations, others likely need extra cash amid the Bidenomics blowback, which has created an environment of elevated inflation and high interest rates.

  A new report released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit on Tuesday shows originations of both home equity loans and home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) balances increased by $4 billion, representing the ninth consecutive quarterly increase since the first quarter in 2022. The total stood at $380 billion, a $63 billion increase from the low of $317 billion reached in the third quarter of 2021. 

  

  “Homeowners continued to increase HELOC balances as an alternative way to extract home equity,” Andrew Haughwout, Director of Household and Public Policy Research at the New York Fed, wrote in the report. 

  Besides home renovations, other considerations that drive homeowners into taking out a HELOC include debt consolidation and emergency cash management as credit card debt hits record highs and the cost of living increasingly becomes unaffordable for the working poor and middle class under Biden’s first term. 

  

  Home equity products are the most viable option for homeowners in these challenging economic times.

  While tapping home equity has many benefits, it also has many risks, including putting the property at risk by accruing significant debt and diluting the valuable asset when home prices reverse.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 20:30

• Undeterred, CCP To Ignore Risks Of AI Weapons, Experts Say
  Undeterred, CCP To Ignore Risks Of AI Weapons, Experts Say

  Authored by Petr Svab via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Cutting-edge weapons powered by artificial intelligence are emerging as a global security hazard, especially in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to several experts.

  

  Eager to militarily surpass the United States, the CCP is unlikely to heed safeguards around lethal AI technologies, which are increasingly dangerous in their own right, the experts have argued. The nature of the technology is prone to feeding some of the worst tendencies of the regime and the human psyche in general, they warned.

  “The implications are quite dramatic. And they may be the equal of the nuclear revolution,” said Bradley Thayer, a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy, an expert on a strategic assessment of China, and a contributor to The Epoch Times.

  Killer Robots

  The development of AI-powered autonomous weapons unfortunately is rapidly progressing, according to Alexander De Ridder, an AI developer and co-founder of Ink, an AI marketing firm.

  “They’re becoming quickly more efficient and quickly more effective,” he told The Epoch Times, adding that “they’re not at the point where they can replace humans.”

  Autonomous drones, tanks, ships, and submarines have become a reality along with more exotic modalities, such as the quadruped robot dogs, already armed with machine guns in China.

  Even AI-powered humanoid robots, the stuff of sci-fi horrors, are in production. Granted, they’re still rather clumsy in the real world, but they won’t be for long, De Ridder suggested.

  “The capabilities for such robots are quickly advancing,” he said.

  Once they reach marketable usefulness and reliability, China is likely to turn its manufacturing might to their mass production, according to De Ridder.

  “The market will be flooded with humanoid robots, and then it’s up to the programming how they’re used.”

  That would mean military use, too.

  “It’s kind of inevitable,” he said.

  Such AI-powered machines are very effective at processing images to discern objects—to detect a human with their optical sensors, for example, explained James Qiu, an AI expert, founder of GIT Research Institute, and former CTO at FileMaker.

  That makes AI robots very good at targeting.

  “It’s a very effective killing machine,” he said.

  AI Generals

  On a broader level, multiple nations are working on an AI capable of informing and coordinating battlefield decisions—an electronic general, according to Jason Ma, an AI expert and data research lead at a multinational Fortune 500 company. He didn’t want the company’s name mentioned to prevent any impression he was speaking on its behalf.

  The People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the CCP military, recently conducted battle exercises in which an AI was directly put in command.

  The U.S. military also has projects in this area, Ma noted.

  “It’s a very active research and development topic.”

  The need is obvious, he explained. Battlefield decisions are informed by a staggering amount of data from historical context and past intelligence to near-real time satellite data, all the way to millisecond-by-millisecond input from every camera, microphone, and whatever sensor on the battlefield.

  It’s “very hard” for humans to process such disparate and voluminous data streams, he said.

  “The more complex the warfare, the more important part it becomes how can you quickly integrate, summarize all this information to make the right decision, within seconds, or within even sub-second,” he said.

  

  Destabilization

  AI weapons are already redefining warfare, the experts agreed. But the consequences are much broader. The technology is making the world increasingly volatile, Thayer said.

  On the most rudimentary level, AI-powered weapon targeting will likely make it much easier to shoot down intercontinental ballistic missiles, detect and destroy submarines, and shoot down long-range bombers. That could neutralize the U.S. nuclear triad capabilities, allowing adversaries to “escalate beyond the nuclear level” with impunity, he suggested.

  “AI would affect each of those components, which we developed and understood during the Cold War as being absolutely essential for a stable nuclear deterrent relationship,” he said.

  “During the Cold War, there was a broad understanding that conventional war between nuclear powers wasn’t feasible. … AI is undermining that, because it introduces the possibility of conventional conflict between two nuclear states.”

  If people continue developing AI-powered weapon systems without restrictions, the volatility will only worsen, he predicted.

  “AI is greatly affecting the battlefield, but it’s not yet determinative,” he said.

  If AI capabilities reach “the effect of nuclear war without using nuclear weapons,” that would sit the world on a powder keg, he said.

  “If that’s possible, and it’s quite likely that it is possible, then that’s an extremely dangerous situation and incredibly destabilizing situation because it compels somebody who’s on the receiving end of an attack to go first, not to endure the attack, but to aggress.”

  In warfare lexicon, the concept is called “damage limitation,” he said.

  “You don’t want the guy to go first, because you’re going to get badly hurt. So you go first. And that’s going to be enormously destabilizing in international politics.”

  The concern is not just about killer robots or drones but also various unconventional AI weapons. An AI, for example, could be developed to find vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure such as the electric grid or water supply systems.

  Controlling the proliferation of such technologies appears particularly daunting. AI is just a piece of software. Even the largest models fit on a regular hard drive and can run on a small server farm. Simple but increasingly lethal AI weapons, such as killer drones, can be shipped in parts without raising alarm.

  “Both vertical and horizontal proliferation incentives are enormous, and it’s easily done,” Thayer said.

  De Ridder pointed out that the Chinese state wants to be seen as responsible on the world stage.

  But that hasn’t stopped the CCP from supplying weapons or aiding weapon programs of other regimes and groups that aren’t so reputationally constrained, other experts have noted.

  It wouldn’t be a surprise if the CCP were to supply autonomous weapons to terrorist groups that would then tie up the U.S. military in endless asymmetrical conflicts. The CCP could even keep its distance and merely supply the parts, letting proxies assemble the drones, much like Chinese suppliers provide fentanyl precursors to Mexican cartels and let them manufacture, ship, and sell the drugs.

  The CCP, for example, has a long history of aiding Iranian weapon programs. Iran, in turn, supplies weapons to a panopticon of terrorist groups in the region.

  “There would be little disincentive for Iran to do this,” Mr. Thayer said.

  

  Human in the Loop

  It’s generally accepted, at least in the United States and among its allies, that the most crucial safeguard against AI weapons wreaking unforeseen havoc is keeping a human in control of important decisions, particularly the use of deadly force.

  “Under no circumstances should any machines autonomously independently be allowed to take a human life ever,” De Ridder said.

  The principle is commonly summarized in the phrase “human in the loop.”

  “A human has a conscience and needs to wake up in the morning with remorse and the consequences of what they’ve done, so that they can learn from it and not repeat atrocities,” said De Ridder.

  Some of the experts pointed out, however, that the principle is already being eroded by the nature of combat transformed by AI capabilities.

  In the Ukraine war, for example, the Ukrainian military had to equip its drones with some measure of autonomy to guide themselves to their targets because their communication with human operators was being jammed by the Russian military.

  Such drones only run simpler AI, Ma said, given the limited power of the drone’s onboard computer. But that may soon change as both AI models and computers are getting faster and more efficient.

  Apple is already working on an AI that could run on a phone, says Ma.

  “It’s highly likely it will be in the future put into a small chip.”

  Moreover, in a major conflict where hundreds or perhaps thousands of drones are deployed at once, they can share computational power to perform much more complex autonomous tasks.

  “It’s all possible,” he said. “It’s gotten to the point where it’s not science fiction; it’s just [a matter of] if there is a group of people who want to devote the time to work on that. It’s tangible technology.”

  Removing human control out of necessity isn’t a new concept, according to James Fanell, former naval intelligence officer and an expert on China.

  He gave the example of the Aegis Combat System deployed on U.S.-guided missile cruisers and destroyers. It automatically detects and tracks aerial targets and launches missiles to shoot them down. Normally, a human operator controls the missile launches, but there’s also a way to switch it to automatic mode, such as when there’s too many targets for the human operator to track. The system then identifies and destroys targets on its own, Fanell said.

  In mass drone warfare, where an AI coordinates thousands of drones in a systematic attack, the side that gives its AI autonomy to shoot will gain a major speed advantage over the side where humans must approve each shot.

  “On the individual shooting level, people have to give up control because they can’t really make all the decisions so quickly,” Ma said.

  De Ridder pointed out that a drone shooting another drone on its own would be morally acceptable. But that could unleash a lot of autonomous shooting on a battlefield where there may be humans too, opening the door to untold collateral casualties.

  No Rules

  Whatever AI safeguards may be practicable, the CCP is unlikely to abide by them anyway, most of the experts agreed.

  “I don’t really see there will be any boundaries for China to be cautious about,” Ma said. “Whatever is possible, they will do it.”

  “The idea that China would constrain themselves in the use of it, I don’t see that,” Fanell said.

  “They’re going to try to take advantage of it and be able to exploit it faster than we can.”

  

  The human-in-the-loop principle could simply be reinterpreted to apply to “a bigger, whole battle level” rather than “the individual shooting level,” Ma said.

  But once one accepts that AI can start shooting on its own in some circumstances, the principle of human control becomes malleable, Fanell said.

  “If you’re willing to accept that in a tactical sense, who’s to say you won’t take it all the way up to the highest level of warfare?” he said.

  “It’s the natural evolution of a technology like this, and I’m not sure what we can do to stop it. It’s not like you’re going to have a code of ethics that says in warfare [let’s abide by] the Marquess of Queensberry Rules of boxing. It’s not going to happen.”

  Even if humans are kept in control of macro decisions, such as whether to launch a particular mission, AI can easily dominate the decision-making process, multiple experts agreed.

  The danger wouldn’t be a poorly performing AI but rather one that works so well that it instills trust in the human operators.

  De Ridder was skeptical of prognostications about superintelligent AI that vastly exceeds humans. He acknowledged, though, that AI obviously exceeds humans in some regards, particularly speed. It can crunch mountains of data and spit out a conclusion almost immediately.

  It’s virtually impossible to figure out how exactly an AI comes to its conclusions, according to  Ma and Qiu.

  De Ridder said that he and others are working on ways to restrict AI to a human-like workflow, so the individual steps of its reasoning are more transparent.

  But given the incredible amount of data involved, it would be impossible for the AI to explain how each piece of information factored into its reasoning without overwhelming the operator, Ma acknowledged.

  “If the human operator clearly knows this is a decision [produced] after the AI processed terabytes of data, he won’t really have the courage to overrule that in most cases. So I guess yes, it will be formality,” he said.

  “Human in the loop is a comfortable kind of phrase, but in reality, humans will give up control quickly.”

  Public Pressure

  Even if humans are kept in the loop only nominally, it’s still important, De Ridder said.

  “As long as we keep humans in the loop, we can keep humans accountable,” he said.

  Indeed, all the experts agreed that public pressure is likely to constrain AI weapon development and use, at least in the United States.

  Ma gave the example of Google terminating a defense contract over the objections of its staff.

  He couldn’t envision an analogous situation in China, though.

  Qiu agrees.

  “Anything inside China is a resource the CCP can leverage,” he said. “You cannot say, ‘Oh, this is a private company.’  There is no private company per se [in China].”

  Even the CCP cannot dispose of public sentiment altogether, De Ridder said.

  “The government can only survive if the population wants to collaborate.”

  But there’s no indication that the Chinese populace sees AI military use as an urgent concern.

  On the contrary, companies and universities in China appear to be eager to pick up military contracts,  Ma said.

  De Ridder called for “an international regulatory framework that can be enforced.”

  It’s not clear how such regulations could be enforced against China, which has a long history of refusing any limits on its military development. The United States has long vainly attempted to bring China to the table on nuclear disarmament. Recently, China refused a U.S. request to guarantee that it wouldn’t use AI for nuclear strike decisions.

  If the United States regulates its own AI development, it could create a strategic vulnerability, multiple experts suggested.

  “Those regulations will be very well studied by the CCP and used as an attack tool,” Qiu said.

  Even if some kind of agreement is reached, the CCP has a poor track record of keeping promises, according to Thayer.

  “Any agreement is a pie crust made to be broken.”

  Solutions

  De Ridder says he hopes that perhaps nations would settle for using AI in less destructive ways.

  “There’s a lot of ways that you can use AI to achieve your objectives that does not involve sending a swarm of killer drones to each other,” he said.

  “When push comes to shove, nobody wants these conflicts to happen.”

  The other experts believed, however, that the CCP wouldn’t mind starting such a conflict—as long as it would see a clear path to victory.

  “The Chinese are not going to be constrained by our ruleset,” Fanell said. “They’re going to do whatever it takes to win.”

  Reliance on the whispers of an AI military advisor, one that instills confidence by processing mountains of data and producing convincing battle plans, could be particularly dangerous as it may create a vision of victory where there previously wasn’t one, according to Thayer.

  “You can see how that might be very attractive to a decision maker, especially one that is hyper aggressive, as is the CCP,”  Thayer said. “It may make aggression more likely.”

  “There’s only one way to stop it, which is to be able to defeat it,” Fanell said.

  

  Chuck de Caro, former consultant for the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment, recently called for the United States to develop electromagnetic weapons that could disable computer chips. It may even be possible to develop energy weapons that could disable a particular kind of chips, he wrote in a Blaze op-ed.

  “Obviously, without functioning chips, AI doesn’t work.”

  Another option might be to develop an AI superweapon that could serve as a deterrent.

  “Is there an AI Manhattan Project that the U.S. is doing that can create the effect that Nagasaki and Hiroshima would have on the PRC and the Chinese Communist Party, which is to bring them to the realization that, ‘Okay, maybe we don’t want to go there. This is mutually assured destruction?’ I don’t know. But that’s what I would be [doing],” Fanell said.

  That could leave the world in a Cold War-like stand-off—hardly an ideal state, but one likely seen as preferable to abnegating military advantage to the CCP.

  “Every country knows it’s dangerous, but nobody can stop because they are afraid they will be left behind,” Ma said.

  De Ridder’s says it might take a profound shock to halt the AI arms race.

  “We might need like a world war, with immense human tragedy, to ban the use of autonomous AI killing machines,” he said.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 20:05

• Middle East On The Brink: Goldman Heads Discuss 'Interconnected Realities' Of Markets & Geopolitics Amid Looming Iran Strike 
  Middle East On The Brink: Goldman Heads Discuss ‘Interconnected Realities’ Of Markets & Geopolitics Amid Looming Iran Strike 

  The war drums in the Middle East are getting louder by the hour as the world braces for an imminent Iranian (or Iranian proxy forces) strike on Israel. The US faces the daunting task of defending Israel from Iranian strikes if deterrence missile defense shields fail, which could potentially ignite a regional conflict. 

  Jared Cohen, President of Global Affairs and Co-Head of the Goldman Sachs Global Institute, and Sam Morgan, Global Head of FICC Sales and Co-Head of One Goldman Sachs, discussed Tuesday the latest developments in the Middle East, structural changes across the region, and how markets are responding to the overseas crisis as war risks soar. 

  

  Here’s the complete transcript of the conversation between Cohen and Morgan released for clients on Tuesday:

  MORGAN:

  Last month we witnessed a series of shocks and escalations in the Middle East, and tensions are only increasing. How have these developments changed the post-October 7 conflict in the Middle East?

  COHEN:

  A wider war has been possible since the beginning. In particular, a war between Israel and Hezbollah has been possible since October 8, when Hezbollah fired its first rockets after Hamas’s attack. More than 80,000 Israelis have evacuated their homes in northern Israel since, and most remain displaced. The killing of 12 Druze children playing on a soccer field on July 27 made a larger war between the two sides much more likely.

  An all-out war with Hezbollah could be more violent, for both Lebanon and Israel, than the conflict with Hamas has been to date. Hezbollah has an arsenal of 120,000 to 200,000 rockets and missiles, including hundreds of precision guided missiles and 65,000 short-range rockets. These munitions could strike cities throughout Israel, as well critical infrastructure, such as electricity grids.

  Israel has also reshaped the war in the last few weeks. Despite ten months of conflict, Israel’s longest since its War of Independence from 1948 – 1949, the Israel Defense Forces and intelligence services have shown themselves to still be tremendously capable. In retaliation for the Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv, Israel’s air force struck the Houthi-controlled Hudaydah port in faraway Yemen, refueling mid-air during the long-distance mission. The bomb that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was reportedly planted in an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) guesthouse months ago. This was a shock for the Supreme Leader, who is aging and now never leaves the country. Combined with the elimination of Hamas leader Mohammed Deif and Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr, who played a role in the 1983 Marine Corps Barracks bombing in Beirut, and other targeted assassinations, Israel may be trying to retake the initiative and show Iran the unexpected and high costs of escalation.

  MORGAN:

  Many observers are expecting retaliation by Iran, possibly including a direct assault against Israel. Is such an attack likely, and are Israel, the US and their partners prepared for such an escalation?

  COHEN:

  We don’t know the timing of a potential Iranian retaliation, and it’s impossible to predict the scale with certainty. But a direct Iranian-led assault against Israel looks increasingly likely, and Israelis and their partners are preparing.

  This is a very precarious moment for the region, and the risks are high. In April, Iran broke the geopolitical seal on direct confrontation, when it fired 170 drones, more than 30 cruise missiles, and more than 120 ballistic missiles against Israel. Israel reportedly struck back. After the killing of Haniyeh, on August 1 in Tehran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met in Tehran with proxy groups from Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon to discuss retaliation against Israel.

  What could make this potential attack different from April’s? There is an increased level of coordination among Iran and its proxies across seven fronts. In addition, it’s possible that Iran could use more munitions, attack different targets, and engage in prolonged assaults that could overwhelm Israel’s defense systems, or even use its proxies to simultaneously attack US forces in Syria or Iraq, where several servicemembers were injured earlier this week. Iran or its proxies could also attack Israel or Jewish targets abroad, such when Hezbollah attacked a Jewish community center in Argentina in 1994 or attempted to execute a plot in Brazil at the beginning of the current war. And the closer we get to the US election, the more uncertainty there will likely be about US politics and engagement in the region.

  The preparations to defend against Iranian attacks are extensive. Israel and its partners intercepted almost all Iran’s missiles and drones four months ago, and Jerusalem and its allies and partners are working together again. Countries are urging their citizens to leave Lebanon. The US and Arab countries have in recent days sent envoys and messages to Tehran to work to deescalate the situation, so far without success. The commander of US Central Command arrived in Israel earlier this week. The US is moving more defensive assets to the region, including the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group, which will replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Israel is likely closely coordinating with its Sunni Arab neighbors – what Prime Minister Netanyahu now refers to as the “Abraham Alliance” – to defend against their shared rival in Iran. And, depending on the scale of the attack, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said the military is ready for a “swift transition to offense.”

  MORGAN:

  How do the events of the last month fit into Iran’s broader regional strategy, and do you expect any change in Iran’s calculus?

  COHEN:

  In my view, Iran relies on proxies to achieve its objectives to attack Israel, push the US out of Iraq and Syria, and become the dominant power in the Middle East. Those objectives likely have not changed. But, as April’s Iranian attack against Israel showed, Tehran is now more prepared than it was before to engage in direct confrontation, rather than relying exclusively on proxies and covert action. If Iran directly attacks Israel, the US, or their allies and partners in the next few days or weeks, we will be able to better calculate if Tehran is seeking a wider, all-out regional war, with all the costs that would bring, or if its strategy is to save face and continue the conflict at its current levels. An attack is increasingly likely, but as Israel’s actions over the last few weeks have shown, escalation presents enormous risks to the regime in Iran as well.

  MORGAN:

  How do you think about the broader geopolitical setup in the Middle East and the incentives and positioning of each of the key regional actors?

  COHEN:

  There have been two key strategic questions since October 7. First, can Iran and its proxies create a new normal in the Middle East, with constant conflict and attrition that wears down Israel, the US and their allies and partners, without imposing unacceptable direct costs on Tehran? And second, can they break apart an emerging Israel-Sunni Arab bloc and become the dominant power in the region?

  On the former, Iran has so far succeeded. The damage that Iran and its proxies have done to Israel, Palestinians, and populations throughout the region is enormous. The costs to Iran – including attacks on Iranian soil and the targeting of IRGC commanders – have so far not been high enough to change Tehran’s overall strategy.

  But Iran has not yet succeeded in breaking apart the Israel-Sunni bloc. We saw that in April, when Israel coordinated its defense with countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The Abraham Accords between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and even Sudan continue to hold. The incentives for this bloc – as diverse as the actors are – to not let Iran dominate the Middle East are clear. And if anything, this geopolitical test has reinforced the direction of travel for wealthy Gulf countries, who have been pushing for economic integration and diversification and for greater influence on the global stage. To succeed, however, Israel and Washington’s partners in the Gulf will likely need US support.

  COHEN:

  How have markets reacted to the rise in geopolitical tensions?

  MORGAN:

  There has been a significant re-pricing of regional assets (e.g. Israel CDS, USDILS FX, ILS interest rate swaps) since mid-July, but the impact on commodities has been limited (and the oil price is down on the month). Equity markets (SPX in particular, but notably Nasdaq and Topix as well) and bond markets (such as short dated UST) have re-priced meaningfully in recent weeks, and Middle Eastern escalations have contributed to a sense of market nervousness, but the primary drivers of market moves have been a changing market perception around US recession risk, US tech earnings reports, questions about the timing and magnitude of the impact of developments in Gen(AI), and de-risking of crowded trades.

  COHEN:

  If the market reactions to the events in the Middle East have (so far) been limited, what escalations in the region could shift how the markets view the current crisis and its effects on global growth? What lessons have we learned that could be useful for future geopolitical shocks?

  MORGAN:

  The primary market nexus through which Middle Eastern tensions could have global growth impact would be via the oil market (as was the case in the 1970s). To date, the oil market has largely shrugged off geopolitical concerns and focused on the impact on demand of US and China slowdowns (and the potential impact of the US election on supply). A further escalation could impact oil markets to the upside if critical oil infrastructure were endangered. The broader lesson remains that the markets focus first and foremost on the economy and policy. Geopolitical tensions have major impacts on specific companies, sectors (e.g. defense), and countries, but for global impacts there needs to be a direct knock-on to growth, inflation (e.g. via oil prices), or monetary and fiscal policy. The focus for now will remain on the US economy and areas of potential concern (such as low-end consumers, and housing), the extent of the Fed’ put’ and their willingness to ease rates fast (e.g. the possibility of 50bp increment cuts), and big tech AI expenditure and earnings.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 19:40

• Harvard To Offer Class Examining Medieval Texts Through Lens Of 'Queer Theory'
  Harvard To Offer Class Examining Medieval Texts Through Lens Of ‘Queer Theory’

  Via Campus Reform,

  Harvard University will be offering a course examining medieval texts by using “queer theory.”

  

  Harvard’s English department will be featuring a “Queer/Medieval” class in the upcoming spring 2025 semester. The course will be an “introduction to queer theory as an intellectual tool with which to read texts far removed from the political, cultural, and social discourses from which queer theory emerged,” specifically, in this case, medieval texts. 

  “We will ask: what can queer theory offer readers of medieval literature in its explorations of gender, sexuality, race, power, narrative, trauma, and time?” the course description states.

  The course will use the lens of “queer theory” to examine classic medieval texts such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

  Though the course is listed on Harvard’s website as taking place in the spring 2025 semester, a Harvard official told Campus Reform that it will actually take place in the fall of 2024.

  The course will be taught by Assistant Professor of English Anna Wilson, Harvard’s “Medieval Studies Faculty Liaison for Equity and Diversity,” whose faculty profile lists “BGLTQ Studies” as one of her academic specialties. Her research interests include “medieval Christian visionary writing,” “women’s writing,” “fanfiction and fan communities,” “queer theory,” “gender and sexuality studies,” and “race in medieval literature,” among others.

  “I am delighted to mentor all Harvard students,” her page reads.

  “As a queer woman, I am particularly happy to support students who identify as LGBTQAII+.”

  Harvard offers a wide array of services catered to LGBTQ-identifying students, including its “Office of BGLTQ Student Life” which hosts a number of events each year, including “a National Coming Out Day open mic, a vigil for Trans Day of Remembrance, and Lavender Graduation in honor of graduating members of the BGLTQ community.”

  “The Office of BGLTQ Student Life serves as a central resource for bisexual, gay, lesbian, transgender, queer, and questioning (BGLTQ) students at Harvard College,” the office’s website reads.

  “Through our work, we foster the inclusion, affirmation, and celebration of all BGLTQ identities and expressions. We strive to create a community where BGLTQ students can thrive and where all students are well-equipped to engage knowledgeably and compassionately with regard to gender and sexuality.”

  Campus Reform has reached out to Anna Wilson for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 19:15

• Elon Musk Revives Lawsuit Against OpenAI And Co-Founders
  Elon Musk Revives Lawsuit Against OpenAI And Co-Founders

  Authored by Chase Smith via The Epoch Times,

  Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, X, and SpaceX, has reignited a legal battle against OpenAI and its co-founders, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, months after initially dropping his lawsuit.

  

  The revived complaint, filed Aug. 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accuses the defendants of multiple counts, including fraud, breach of contract, and violations of federal civil racketeering laws.

  Musk had originally sued in February before dropping the suit in June with no explanation given at the time.

  Musk’s revived lawsuit includes several allegations against OpenAI, Altman, and Brockman—at the heart of which is a claim that Altman and Brockman “intentionally courted and deceived” Musk into co-founding OpenAI under false pretenses.

  Musk asserted in the 81-page suit that he was misled into believing that OpenAI would be a nonprofit organization focused on developing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies “for the benefit of humanity,” operating as a counterbalance to for-profit tech giants.

  According to the lawsuit, OpenAI’s co-founders allegedly manipulated Musk by making repeated promises and assurances that the organization would remain open-source and not driven by profit.

  The suit defines “open source” as the practice of making AI technology and research freely accessible to the public, allowing for transparency and collaboration.

  “Altman assured Musk that the non-profit structure guaranteed neutrality and a focus on safety and openness for the benefit of humanity, not shareholder value,” the suit claimed. “But as it turns out, this was all hot-air philanthropy—the hook for Altman’s long con.”

  Musk claims that these representations were part of a scheme to attract significant funding and expertise, which he provided, including “tens of millions of dollars” and the recruitment of top AI scientists.

  The complaint further accuses Altman and Brockman of engaging in “rampant self-dealing” and transforming OpenAI into a for-profit entity in partnership with Microsoft, thereby abandoning its original mission.

  Musk argued that OpenAI’s pivot to a for-profit model has resulted in substantial unjust enrichment for the defendants, which he contends was at the expense of the nonprofit’s mission.

  Company Responds to Lawsuit

  OpenAI responded to the latest legal filing in a statement.

  “As we said about Elon’s initial legal filing, which was subsequently withdrawn, Elon’s prior emails continue to speak for themselves,” a spokesperson for the company told The Associated Press in an emailed statement.

  In March, OpenAI released emails purportedly written by Musk showing initial support for making the company for-profit to secure the necessary funding to compete with Google DeepMind. Musk also supported the idea of merging OpenAI with Tesla.

  “We may wish it otherwise, but, in my and [redacted]’s opinion, Tesla is the only path that could even hope to hold a candle to Google. Even then, the probability of being a counterweight to Google is small. It just isn’t zero,” Musk wrote in an email dated Feb. 1, 2018.

  Musk’s legal team has outlined several demands for relief, including compensatory and punitive damages, restitution, and surrendering ill-gained profits.

  The lawsuit seeks to impose a “constructive trust” on the alleged ill-gotten gains of the defendants, demands an accounting of all profits derived from the purported misconduct, and requests a judicial declaration that the licensing agreement between OpenAI and Microsoft is “null and void” or that certain OpenAI technologies fall outside the scope of this license.

  Additionally, the complaint seeks an injunction to prevent further harm, alleging that the defendants’ actions have caused substantial injury to Musk’s reputation and commercial interests, impacting his ability to recruit leading scientists.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 18:50

• World War 3's Decisive Battle
  World War 3’s Decisive Battle

  Authored by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,

  As I’ve discussed recently, I believe proxy wars will determine who wins WW3 and gets to shape the new world order.

  There are numerous ongoing proxy wars in World War 3.

  However, the ones I believe will prove decisive will be in Taiwan, Ukraine, and the Middle East. The others are peripheral in comparison.

  I think it’s clear the proxy wars in Ukraine and Taiwan are likely to end in favor of BRICS+.

  That’s why I expect NATO & Friends will make their last stand to scuttle the emergence of a multipolar world order and preserve the US-led world order in the Middle East.

  The Middle East is on the precipice of its largest war in generations.

  The region is roughly divided into two different geopolitical groups.

  The first is the US and its allies—Israel, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and others.

  (Though Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are members of BRICS+, their true allegiance is with the agenda of NATO & Friends).

  

  The second group describes itself as the Axis of Resistance. It consists of Iran, Syria, the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, several Palestinian groups (including Hamas), and an assortment of militias in Iraq. Russia and China are standing behind the Axis of Resistance.

  If there is a regional war in the Middle East, it will undoubtedly be between these two groups.

  In the context of World War 3, the US and its allies represent NATO & Friends, and the Axis of Resistance represents BRICS+.

  Here is a geopolitical map of the Middle East as I see it (click to enlarge).

  

  Iran is the main sponsor of the Axis of Resistance, and it does not have nuclear weapons.

  Unlike in Europe (Russia) or East Asia (China), there is no sophisticated nuclear power to deter NATO & Friends from more aggressive military action in the Middle East. Iran is, therefore, the weak link in the BRICS+ alliance to push for a multipolar world order.

  That’s why I expect NATO & Friends will make their last stand to scuttle the emergence of a multipolar world order in the Middle East by trying to neutralize the Axis of Resistance.

  Here is a brief overview of where things stand now in various areas of the Middle East. It will help us zoom out and put together the pieces to see the big picture.

  Gaza

  While Israel has caused widespread destruction in Gaza, they are nowhere close to their goal of totally destroying Hamas.

  Even the US government acknowledges that Israeli military action will be unable to totally destroy Hamas. The Israeli military has also come to reluctantly admit that Hamas cannot be defeated by military force alone.

  That’s because Hamas is waging a classic guerrilla warfare campaign against the far superior Israeli military on the ground in Gaza.

  Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare that relies on unconventional tactics such as hit-and-run attacks, sabotage, and ambushes to harass and exhaust a much stronger, better-equipped enemy force.

  The main objective is not to achieve a decisive victory through conventional means but rather to undermine the enemy’s morale and force them to expend resources in a war of attrition.

  The emphasis on survival and persistence allows guerrilla fighters to maintain their presence in the conflict, inspire more people to join their cause, and create a sense of frustration and demoralization among the enemy troops.

  This strategy has been employed successfully by various groups throughout history—the Taliban, the Viet Cong, etc.—demonstrating the effectiveness of guerrilla warfare to challenge much more powerful adversaries.

  Simply put, in a guerrilla war, to survive is to win.

  That’s because merely surviving allows guerrillas to continue exhausting their enemies. By surviving, they undermine attempts to destroy their movement and demonstrate their resilience and determination to continue fighting.

  Moreover, their enemy’s inability to completely eliminate the guerrilla fighters can lead to the perception that they are losing the war, as they cannot achieve a decisive victory despite their superior resources and technology.

  Here’s the bottom line.

  Israel has been trapped in a no-win situation with two unappealing choices:

  1. Negotiate a ceasefire and an exchange of prisoners on unfavorable terms. The region will likely view it as a victory for the Axis of Resistance because Hamas will have forced the much stronger Israel to accept some of its terms.

  2. Engage in a fruitless protracted guerrilla war that drains its military, economy, and diplomatic capital. Such a scenario will also risk sparking a much larger full-scale regional war against the Axis of Resistance—with Russia and China standing behind them—that Israel, the US, and its allies aren’t guaranteed to win.

  No matter how the Gaza war ultimately ends, the events of October 7 and afterward have likely shattered the aura of invincibility of the Israeli military. In other words, Israel has lost its deterrence, and it will not easily or quickly regain it.

  In short, Israel’s regional position is deteriorating. That weakens the geopolitical position of NATO & Friends in the Middle East.

  Syria

  Since 2011, NATO & Friends have tried to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and replace him with someone more pliable. However, that effort failed thanks to the intervention of Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah.

  Syria will remain a crucial member of the Axis of Resistance and sympathetic to BRICS+.

  Iraq

  After the US overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003, they hoped to mold Iraq in the shape of Jordan, one of its most reliable allies in the Middle East.

  Though, it didn’t work out the way they had hoped.

  Instead, the removal of Sunni Saddam empowered Iraq’s Shia majority, which is much more sympathetic to Iran than the US agenda for the region.

  Numerous powerful Iraqi militia groups are members of the Axis of Resistance. The Iraqi central government cannot challenge them and is more or less on the same geopolitical page anyway.

  However, there are still a couple of thousand US soldiers in Iraq, which the Iraqi central government recently asked Washington to withdraw. Negotiations are ongoing.

  Regardless of whether the relatively small number of US troops stays or leaves, Iraq’s geopolitical orientation has tilted towards the Axis of Resistance and BRICS+.

  Yemen

  Yemen has sometimes been called “the Afghanistan of the Middle East” because it is an impoverished tribal society that is well-armed, situated on mountainous terrain, and generally inhospitable to foreign invaders.

  The Houthis, an Iran-backed group that controls most of Yemen, frustrated a military coalition of Saudi Arabia and its allies. Despite waging war since 2015, the Saudis have not been able to defeat the Houthis.

  However, most people are unaware of this war or its details. It’s remarkable that the Saudis, who are among the wealthiest in the Middle East and backed by the military and political support of the US, could not defeat the Middle East’s most impoverished people in Yemen.

  The Houthis—and thus the Axis of Resistance—remain firmly in control of most of Yemen.

  Amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza, the Houthis have demonstrated an ability to disrupt global shipping in the Red Sea—some of the most important sea lanes in the world. They have targeted ships associated with the US and Israel with missiles and drones and have also hit Israeli cities.

  However, there is little appetite for anyone to take on the Houthis. The Saudis’ poor performance against them is still fresh in everyone’s minds.

  Here’s the bottom line with Yemen.

  The Houthis will likely remain in power and sympathetic to the BRICS+ agenda for a multipolar world order.

  Iran

  Unlike most other nation states in the Middle East, Iran (known as Persia before 1935) is not an artificial construct. By race, religion, and social history, it is a nation. European bureaucrats didn’t dream up Iran by drawing zigzags on a map. The map reflects the geographic reality of a country with natural, fortress-like mountain borders. In the east, the Roman Empire generally ended where the Persian Empire began.

  Iran leads the Axis of Resistance in the Middle East and is the main power pushing for the BRICS+ goal of a multipolar order in the region.

  The US and its allies have not been successful in limiting Iran’s power. They’ve tried pretty much everything short of a full-scale invasion.

  Instead, the opposite happened: Iran’s influence grew.

  Iran’s economy has strengthened thanks to expanding relations with China, and its military has strengthened thanks to expanding ties with Russia and a well-developed domestic military-industrial complex.

  In short, NATO & Friends have few cards to play against Iran.

  If the US really wants to decapitate the BRICS+ agenda in the Middle East, it would need to overthrow the Iranian government. That would require waging a full-scale regional war against all members of the Axis of Resistance and launching a ground invasion of Iran.

  Remember, during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)—back when Saddam was a “good guy”—he threw over 500,000 Iraqi soldiers at the Iranian meat grinder, had the backing of the US AND the Soviet Union, and used chemical weapons on a scale not seen since WW1… and he barely made a dent in Iran.

  The reality is that if the US is serious about invading Iran, it would likely require total mobilization and bringing back the draft. That is not likely to happen, but even if it did, it would not guarantee US victory.

  If Iran thought the US was going to invade, it could also develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent within a matter of weeks or less. It might also already have a couple of secretly obtained nukes.

  Given those unfavorable prospects, NATO & Friends could decide to use nuclear weapons on Iran preemptively.

  Iran is well aware that the US or Israel could use nuclear weapons against it. It has contingency plans for that outcome to ensure the survival of its government. Iran’s plans also likely include making a dash for developing its own nuclear arsenal to be able to respond in kind.

  Further, it’s doubtful that Russia and China would just sit back and do nothing if NATO & Friends looked like they might nuke Iran. For example, Russia could decide to station nuclear weapons and Russian soldiers on Iranian soil as a deterrent.

  In short, NATO & Friends using nukes on Iran could lead to an unpredictable series of events that could quickly spiral out of control, so I don’t view it as a likely outcome.

  Here’s the bottom line.

  NATO & Friends don’t have any attractive options when it comes to dealing with Iran.

  Conclusion

  NATO & Friends are not in a weak position in the Middle East. They have nuclear weapons, advanced militaries, and some of the largest regional armies—notably Egypt, Israel, and Turkey—at their disposal.

  That being said, when you take a step back and put it all together, it is clear that the geopolitical momentum is with the Axis of Resistance, which is eroding the power and influence of NATO & Friends in the Middle East.

  The situation is trending in favor of the Axis of Resistance and BRICS+. If those trends continue—and I think they will—sooner or later, NATO & Friends must make a fateful decision.

  They can either cede the region to BRICS+, which would seal the creation of a multipolar world order, or launch a full-scale war with the Axis of Resistance as a last-ditch Hail Mary attempt to scuttle the emergence of a multipolar world order.

  There is no guarantee that NATO & Friends would win such a war. I think it’s likely it would end in disaster for them. That’s probably a big reason it hasn’t happened yet, despite no shortage of hostile intentions.

  However, if NATO & Friends feel the sun is about to set on the US-led unipolar world order, they may go for it anyway. That would require them to take a bad hand and double down in a desperate attempt to get even. They may do so if they have nothing to lose, but I doubt it will change the ultimate outcome.

  The situation is fluid and volatile. It’s impossible to quantify the conflict precisely.

  That being said, when you put everything together, I think there is a good chance that BRICS+ will prevail in the three key proxy wars of WW3—Ukraine, Taiwan, and the Middle East.

  The main implication is that we’re likely to see the end of the unipolar world order and the emergence of a multipolar world order.

  Many people will be unprepared for that change of historical significance. However, when you look at the Big Picture, that is where I think we’re headed.

  Unfortunately, most people have no idea what really happens when the world order changes, let alone how to prepare…

  The coming crisis will likely be much worse, much longer, and very different than what we’ve seen since World War 2.

  We’ll likely see entirely new political, social, and economic structures established to replace the crumbling ones from the post-WW2 era.

  Countless millions throughout history were wiped out financially—or worse—during the previous world wars because they failed to see the correct Big Picture and take appropriate action.

  Don’t be one of them.

  But what if you get the Big Picture right?

  The wealth-creating opportunities for those who correctly see what is happening and act upon it could be enormous.

  That’s the difference between being on the right and wrong side of these changes of historical proportion.

  It’s a rare fortune-building opportunity for those who see the investment implications of WW3 before others figure out what is really happening and how it’s likely to end.

  That’s why I just released an urgent new report with all the details, including what you must do to prepare. It’s called The Most Dangerous Economic Crisis in 100 Years… the Top 3 Strategies You Need Right Now. Click here to download the PDF now.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 18:25

• Harvard Loses Bid To Toss Lawsuit Over Campus Anti-Semitism
  Harvard Loses Bid To Toss Lawsuit Over Campus Anti-Semitism

  Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

  Harvard University on Aug. 6 lost its bid to throw out a lawsuit that accuses university officials of ignoring discrimination against Jewish students and breaching university policies with their handling of pro-Palestinian protests.

  

  Facts outlined in the suit, brought by a Jewish student and a nonprofit with students who stand against anti-Semitism, “show that Harvard failed its Jewish students,” U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns said in a 25-page decision.

  Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars universities that receive federal funds, including Harvard, from intentionally discriminating against students on the ground of national origin. Violations of the law occur when a university exhibits deliberate indifference, or “affirmatively choosing to do the wrong thing, or doing nothing, despite knowing what the law requires,” according to court precedent.

  Harvard argued that it did respond to the campus protests and acts of anti-Semitism. Even if the response was less than ideal, it was not clearly unreasonable, lawyers for the university told the court.

  Stearns disagreed, calling Harvard’s response “at best, indecisive, vacillating, and at times internally contradictory.”

  As an example, he pointed to how Harvard Dean of Students Stephen Ball informed all students that a lounge on campus was only for “personal or small group study and conversation.” After Ball’s email, though, demonstrators hosted a pro-Palestinian vigil in the lounge. Administrators not only did not seek to respond, but the dean himself attended the vigil.

  “To conclude that the [complaint] has not plausibly alleged deliberate indifference would reward Harvard for virtuous public declarations that for the most part, according to the allegations of the [lawsuit], proved hollow when it came to taking disciplinary measures against offending students and faculty,” Stearns wrote.

  The lawsuit was originally filed by Alexander Kestenbaum, a Jewish student, and Students Against Antisemitism Inc. in January, shortly after Harvard President Claudine Gay stepped down over criticism of her handling of the pro-Palestinian protests and unearthed plagiarism in her scholarly work.

  Brown University and New York University faced similar lawsuits but settled them in July. Brown University agreed to conduct annual nondiscrimination training for employees and students while New York University said it would create a new position of Title VI coordinator.

  Columbia University in June said in its settlement announcement that officials would start providing security escorts upon request.

  Harvard could choose to settle its case since its motion to dismiss was largely rejected. Stearns said plaintiffs’ claims of contract breach could also move forward, while the plaintiffs did not provide sufficient evidence to advance a claim that Harvard enforced its policies inconsistently.

  He directed Harvard to file a response to the lawsuit by Aug. 27 and set other deadlines as the case heads toward trial absent a settlement.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 18:00

• Supermicro Craters On Shocking Margin Collapse Despite Euphoric Revenue Guidance, 10-For-1 Stock Split
  Supermicro Craters On Shocking Margin Collapse Despite Euphoric Revenue Guidance, 10-For-1 Stock Split

  More bad news for the slowly bursting AI bubble.

  Shares of server-maker Super Micro Computer, which have been among the biggest beneficiaries of the AI euphoria over the past two years as it emerged as a proxy for AI demand (and server installs), soared as much as 16% before crashing more than 10%, after the company reported Q2 revenue and profit that missed estimates, but it was the company’s plunging profit margins that which outweighed the company’s ecstatic sales outlook that was billions above Wall Street projections as well as the 10-1 reverse stock split announcement.

  For Q2, SMCI reported revenues of $5.31 billion, which missed the average estimate of $5.32 billion; while Adjusted EPS dropped to $6.25, well short of Super Micro’s own previous forecast and the $8.25 average analyst estimate.

  

  But what truly spooked Wall Street was the incineration in margin which collapsed 580bps YoY (and 430bps QoQ) to just 11.3%, amid a fierce price cutting war with competitors such as Dell and Hewlett Packard.

  

  Also, the $635 million in cash burn – the 3rd straight quarter of negative cash from operations – did not help.

  

  While the company tried to blame the collapse in margins on “customer and product mix and investments in Talent and Research & Development, Wall Street did not buy it, and in fact it sold it aggressively, sending the stock collapsing to the lowest level of the year.

  

  Not even the company’s blowout outlook, which has 2025 full-year revenue between $26 and $30BN on Wall Street estimates of $23.6BN, nor the company’s announcement of a 10-for-1 stock split after Oct 1, did anything to inspire buying, but judging by the afterhours action, certainly inspired selling as investors are suddenly worried about the longer-term profitability of AI-optimized servers sold by companies like Super Micro, Dell Technologies, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise if the company’s margins are already cratering this fast.

  A jump in demand for the equipment that powers artificial intelligence training and applications has helped drive sales at San Jose, California-based Super Micro, which makes data center servers. “We are well-positioned to become the largest IT infrastructure company,” CEO Charles Liang said in the statement. Alas, judging by the epic plunge in SMCI stock after hours, nobody believed him.

  While the shares had more than doubled in value this year and been added to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indexes following increased demand for servers. Still, the stock has declined about 48% from a peak in March.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 17:37

• WTI Dips Back Toward Six-Month Lows After API Reports Across-The-Board Inventory Builds
  WTI Dips Back Toward Six-Month Lows After API Reports Across-The-Board Inventory Builds

  Today saw some respite in the recent rout for oil prices as WTI stalled its decline around $73 (just off six-month lows) as stocks bounced and lifted Treasury yields, supporting crude for now.

  Concerns remain about the outlook for crude demand in China and the U.S. A run of softer-than-expected economic data late last week set in motion the stock-market selloff and weighed on oil futures, analysts said.

  Downside appeared to be limited, however, by expectations that Iran would launch retaliatory strikes after it blamed the assassination of a top Hamas official visiting Tehran last week on Israel. U.S. officials have been pressing Tehran not to escalate the conflict, news reports said.

  “Oil prices have fallen in the last few days in lockstep” with equities, with limited reaction to developments in the Middle East, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts including Daan Struyven wrote in a note.

  The big question is – will the streak of crude draws continue…

  API

  • Crude +0.18mm

  • Cushing +1.07mm

  • Gasoline +3.31mm

  • Distillates +1.22mm

  The five-week streak of crude inventory draws is over as API reports builds across the entire energy complex…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  WTI was trading around $73 ahead of the API print and faded modestly lower, back towards six-month lows, after the across-the-board builds…

  

  The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts that crude oil prices will recover from recent losses as draws on global inventories accelerate in the second half of the year.

  “Although crude oil prices have fallen recently, we continue to expect crude oil prices will rise in the second half of 2024,” the EIA said Tuesday in its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook. The agency expects international benchmark Brent to return to between $85 and $90 a barrel by the end of the year.

  The EIA anticipates withdrawals from global oil inventories will double to 800,000 barrels a day in the second half of the year from an estimated 400,000 barrels a day in the first half. A return to moderate inventory builds is predicted in mid-2025.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 17:20

• Convention Visitors, Here's The True Impact Of Progressive Government On Illinois And Chicago
  Convention Visitors, Here’s The True Impact Of Progressive Government On Illinois And Chicago

  Via Wirepoints.org,

  Led by Gov. JB Pritzker in national TV appearances, the political establishment in Illinois and Chicago is listing its triumphs as the Democratic National Convention in Chicago nears. Mayor Brandon Johnson, too, is “looking to spread his vision for progressive governance on everything from raising wages for workers in Chicago to achieving a ceasefire in Gaza,” as The Nation recently put it.

  Through a progressive’s lens, successes are real: a higher minimum wage, establishment of the state as an abortion haven, a major capital budget, aggressive green energy mandates, welcoming and sanctuary policies for migrants and more. We publish those claims as they are made. Illinois may indeed be “the most progressive state in the nation and damn proud of it,” as Gov. Pritzker says.

  But there’s another side to the story, thousands of pages long, of severely crippling results of progressive policies.

  

  What follows is a summary of the other consequences of progressive policies for Illinois and Chicago. Each point is documented by facts and data. Links are to original sources or to Wirepoints reports that cite the original sources.

  • Fleeing population and tax base

  • Stagnant economy and job market

  • Expensive and broken education system

  • Rampant crime

  • Suffocating taxes

  • Pension crisis ignored

  • Massive spending on illegal immigrants

  • No equity – a failure by their own standards

  • Economic policy centered on statism and doomed focus on renewable energy

  • Free speech under assault and autocracy reigns

  • Disastrous pandemic management yet no accountability

  • Still more

  For still more details, see our page linked here collecting all our pertinent articles and research grouped by topic.

  *  *  *

  Fleeing population and tax base

  • The Census Bureau’s decennial count (2010-2020) showed Illinois was one of only three states to lose population over the decade. The bureau’s latest estimates show Illinois has lost another 240,000 in population since 2020.

  • More than 1.5 million people on net have moved out of Illinois since 2000 according to IRS migration data. Illinois would have taken in an estimated $3.6 billion more in income tax revenue in 2022 alone were it not for that exodus.

  • IRS migration data shows Illinois netted a loss of 87,000 residents and $9.8 billion in adjusted gross income in tax year 2022. Illinois’ losses were the nation’s 3rd-worst, behind only New York and California.

  • Illinois had 24 U.S. House Representatives after the 1970 Census. Today it has just 17.

  Stagnant economy and job market

  • Illinois’ current unemployment rate of 5.0% is 3rd-worst in the nation.Chicago is ranked dead last among major cities for creating new millionaires.

  • Illinois ranks 45th through 47th in the country in economic metrics used by the state’s own Commission on Government Accountability and Forecasting to compare itself to other states: GDP, employment and personal income.

  • Illinois is a “net taker” from the federal government and has been since around 2019.

  • Illinois’ credit rating and budgets were greatly assisted by the nearly $200 billion in covid funds distributed by the federal government to the state’s public and private sectors.

  • Illinois has created no net new employment in five years – the nation’s 3rd-worst performance. Fewer people are on Illinois’ employment rolls today than when Gov. Pritzker took office.

  • Annual state claims to “balanced budgets” aren’t true because, among other reasons, Illinois consistently underfunds its pension contributions by about $5 billion every year.

  Expensive and broken education system

  • Illinois has dismal student outcomes. Just 35% of students statewide can read at grade level and only 27% are proficient in math. It’s worse for minorities: Just 16% of black students and just 22% of Hispanics can read at grade level. In all, 1.2 million Illinois students can’t read at grade level.

  • Illinois is spending nearly $24,000 per student in 2024, up more than 30% compared to 2019.

  • Only 25% of Chicago Public School students can read at grade level and just 18% can do math. Yet CPS graduates 83% of its students. Chicago Public Schools spent nearly $30,000 per student in 2024, up 39% compared to 2019.

  • Not a single child tested proficient in math in 67 Illinois schools. For reading, it’s 32 schools.

  • The state’s accountability metrics are broken. Ninety-seven percent of teachers statewide are rated “excellent or proficient” and 83% of schools are rated “exemplary” or “commendable.”

  • Based on Census Bureau data, Illinois spends the most per student of any state in the Midwest. Illinois’ total per student spend grew 98% between 2022 and 2007, the 3rd-largest increase of the nation’s 50 states.

  • Illinois’ “evidence-based” school funding formula has failed. After seven years and $8.5 billion in dedicated funding to the formula, the number of students reading at grade level has not improved.

  • While 19 states have adopted some form of school choice since 2023, Illinois politicians last year killed off the state’s only choice program: a small tax-credit scholarship.

  Rampant Crime

  • Chicago has led the nation in total homicides for 12 years in a row.

  • Pritzker has said “violent crime in the City of Chicago … has been coming down for three years, in particular, over the last year” and frequently made similar claims. In truth, Chicagoans are suffering under a six-year high in violent crimes.

  • Thanks to crime levels and overwhelmed police, if you’re shot, robbed or assaulted in Chicago, there’s a 50/50 chance there will be no police to respond to your 911 call.

  • Since the implementation of the controversial SAFE-T Act which eliminated cash bail, Cook County’s jail population has fallen to its lowest levels in 40 years.

  • Prosecuting criminals in Chicago and all of Cook County is in the hands of Kim Foxx, widely regarded as among the most pro-criminal prosecutor in the nation and notorious for dropping charges against actor Jussie Smollett. She was endorsed in both her election and reelection to Cook County State’s Attorney by the entire Illinois ruling progressive establishment.

  Suffocating taxes

  • Illinoisans pay the nation’s highest property taxes, the country’s 2nd-highest gas taxes and the 2nd-highest corporate income tax rate. Property taxes in Chicago are particularly staggering, with the highest effective commercial property tax rate (5.37%) among the nation’s biggest cities.

  • All told, Illinois’ total tax burden ranking ranges from worst to 11th worst, though Illinois ranking probably has worsened since the last studies were done. At least 26 states have recently cut taxes while Illinois raised its by over a billion dollars.

  • Pritzker’s 2025 budget disregarded kitchen table issues that actually matter, such as gasoline prices, property taxes, quality of education, inflation and jobs.

  • Kiplinger has ranked Illinois the “least friendly state” for middle-class families.

  • The south and southwest suburbs of Chicago were hit particularly hard by residential tax bills sent in July, sparking fears of a tax revolt. The median residential bill jumped by 19.9%, to $6,117. Most stunning of all, in 15 south suburbs median tax bills jumped by anywhere from 26% to 122%.

  Pension crisis ignored

  • Illinois has the worst pension crisis in the nation under most metrics.

  • The unfunded liability for Illinois state pensions grew from $137 billion in 2019 (when Pritzker took office) to $142 billion in its most recent report.

  • Chicago’s worst-in-nation pension crisis is worsening. Chicago’s pension shortfall across the city’s four major retirement funds rose to $37.2 billion in 2023. Add in the teachers fund, and Chicagoans are on the hook for $53 billion in unfunded pension liabilities – over $45,000 per Chicago household.

  • The number of Illinois public sector workers or retirees with pension benefits or salaries exceeding $100,000 per year has jumped by 50% since 2018, now at 140,000.

  • Illinois and Chicago have the nation’s worst credit ratings, largely due to the pension crisis.

  • Pritzker and other Illinois officeholders refuse to consider an amendment to the state’s constitutional pension protection clause, dishonestly claiming that the federal Constitution would be an impediment. Other states prove it’s not so.

   Massive spending on illegal immigrants

  • The true number of illegal immigrants in Illinois is likely 500,000 to 680,000, imposing a total taxpayer cost of about $6 billion per year.

  • The City of Chicago has spent about $200 million of its own money on migrant care since 2022.

  • In addition, Chicago schools are expected to spend up to $410 million extra this year for migrants.

  No Equity – Failure by Their Own Standard

  • By their own primary measure of success – “equity” – Illinois and Chicago have failed miserably. Study after study, looking at equity from many angles, says progressive equity efforts in Illinois and Chicago have flopped miserably.

  • The biggest pension in the state, for teachers and school administrators, is structurally set up to shift money to the richest school districts. Lawmakers could easily fix that but don’t.

  Economic policy centered on statism and doomed focus on renewable energy

  • Virtually all major, recent Illinois announcements of new or expanding Illinois employment centers were induced through taxpayer subsidies. Most new major projects subsidized by the state are renewable energy projects, which are the centerpiece of Illinois central planning. They include subsidized facilities for Stellantis, Rivian, Lion Electric and Gotion.

  • The Gotion project is particularly controversial. The Chinese company with multiple ties to the Chinese Communist party is scheduled to receive over $8 billion in state and federal subsidies for a plant that will cost the company less than $2 billion. The project is widely opposed by the public and is for manufacturing batteries for electric vehicles, demand for which is languishing. Full reporting on those facts and the rest of the Gotion controversy is collected in our special section here. Pritzker has expressly refused to answer any questions whatsoever about the project.

  • Illinois is aggressively pursuing a goal of having one million EVs on the road by 2030, but Illinois would have to quadruple its current adoption rate for EVs to meet the state’s goals.

  • In 2021, Illinois passed legislation to push 50% of its electricity production to renewable sources by 2040 and 100% from clean energy sources by 2050, which became law last year and was called by one of its sponsors “the most aggressive, most progressive climate bill in the nation.”

  • Partly as a result of those policies, electricity costs have already risen 50% in much of the state with high risks of brownouts. As in most of the nation, many planned renewable electricity projects are now on hold because grid connections don’t exist, which may be prohibitively expensive to fix.

  • Last month the state announced a major bet on quantum computing. Illinois will provide $200 million to PsiQuantum for a Chicago projected to create just 154 jobs. The state is also contributing another $500 million to the industrial park for quantum computing in which the facility will be located, which the state says will result in “thousands” of jobs. However, those additional jobs are entirely speculative at this point.

  • Most recently, Lion Electric, an electric school bus maker that last year built a new Illinois plant with state incentives is struggling for survival. The project was highly touted by Pritzker, who projected 1,200 jobs by 2028. Lion also benefits from the $5 billion subsidy program for electric school buses championed by Vice President Kamala Harris, which is also failing.

  Free speech under assault and autocracy

  • Illinois has established itself as the state most hostile to First Amendment free speech rights. A list of examples is linked here. In one instance, a federal judge labeled a law the state was trying to defend as “stupid and likely unconstitutional,” so Attorney General Kwame Raoul gave up on the case.

  • Illinois’ highly touted “ban on book bans”  is an empty, dangerous and hypocritical stunt. It delegates censorship powers to libraries and to an unelected national association headed by a self-described Marxist. It conflates questions of age appropriateness with censorship, and is a transparent attempt by the leaders of the cancel culture to wrap themselves in the flag of free speech.

  • Pritzker has expressed views particularly hostile to established First Amendment law, saying on CNN that what the government deems to be lies should be subject to criminal prosecution.

  • The University of Illinois maintains one of the most onerous “loyalty oaths” for faculty, demanding proof of their active commitment to wokeness.

  • Illinois Congressmen have implored social media to do more censorship in at least five separate hearings where tech platform CEOs were grilled.

  • During the covid pandemic, Illinois was ruled under 45 consecutive monthly emergency orders giving unparalleled power to the executive.

  • For illegal immigrants, Illinois was ruled under 24 monthly emergency orders. The proclamations broadcast inducements for illegals to come, including “transport, emergency shelter and housing, food, health screenings, medical assessments, treatments, and other necessary care and services.”

  • Illinois this year retroactively changed the rules on candidate slating for General Assembly elections, which targeted Republicans only. A lower court ruled against the law, which is now on appeal.

  • Most recently Illinois passed a ban on employers from discussing “religious or political matters” at meetings where worker attendance is mandatory. Violations will be punishable with fines up to $1,000 per employee. It’s patently unconstitutional and absurdly overbroad.

  Disastrous pandemic management yet no accountability

  • A full list of covid response failures by the State of Illinois and City of Chicago is here, many of which were obvious errors even as they were being made. No remorse has been shown or accountability imposed.

  • That list includes massive fraud in pandemic relief, suppression of dissent and conflicting data, unfounded projections portrayed as “science” and willful indifference to the rule of law.

  • Most importantly, Illinois kept schools closed long after prevailing opinion and the CDC advised otherwise, among the greatest policy errors in healthcare history. 

  Still more

  • “After years of Republican failure, Pritzker says, Illinois Democrats have turned the state around.” In truth, Democrats have held the majorities in both houses of the Illinois General Assembly for 21 years and super majorities in both houses for 11 years. A Democrat has been governor for 17 of the last 21 years. Chicago has not had a Republican mayor for 93 years.

  • A catalog of deceitful or dishonest claims by Pritzker and the state is here. 

  • For voting, Illinois maintains aggressive mail-in voting rules, no requirement for picture IDs and the probably the most gerrymandered maps in the nation.

  • Antisemitism has been the predictable result of DEI preached by JB Pritzker and his sister, Penny Pritzker. Like Penny Pritzker at Harvard, JB Pritzker’s tenure on Northwestern University’s board of trustees contributed to the current wave of antisemitism at the school.

  • Illinois is in fact a moderate state not properly represented by its progressive political establishment. On virtually every major issue, Illinoisans are centrists.

  • Mayor Johnson and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle are among the nation’s strongest supporters of Universal Basic Income. Cook County claims its UBI program is the biggest in the nation. But neither Chicago nor the county have any way to pay for continuation of the programs, most of which have been paid for with temporary covid relief money.

  • The commercial property “Doom Loop” is a growing concern. Chicago, like many cities, faces a frightening, downward spiral from declining office building valuations. Though the problem may derive primarily from the work-from-home trend, it’s worsened by Chicago crime. Actual, daily occupancy of downtown offices hovers around 55% of pre-pandemic levels. Lower valuations will force massive residential property tax increases or severe budget cutbacks.

  • Johnson was elected mayor of Chicago despite his calls for defunding the police and justifying violent protests.

  • Mayor Johnson routinely places blame for Chicago’s problems on racism, disinvestment and even Richard Nixon.

  • Illinois progressives celebrate December 4 as Fred Hampton Day. Hampton was a member of the Black Panthers and advocated for violent, Marxist revolution.

  • Pritzker’s approval rating is 41% according to the most recent poll by a major pollster. Mayor Johnson’s is 28%.

  • “Social justice” principles guide investment of state cash. Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs remains an unapologetic champion of ESG (environmental, social, governance) investing. He manages an average balance of well over $100 billion of state money which he subjects to his social justice goals.

  • A 2018 Cook County inspector general’s report concluded that more than $330,000 in property tax breaks and refunds that Pritzker received on a property he owned — in part by removing toilets to render the property uninhabitable — constituted a “scheme to defraud.” Pritzker repaid the county treasurer’s office, and said the repayment was not an acknowledgment of anything improper. A federal criminal investigation of Pritzker, his wife and brother-in-law was reported to have begun on the matter in October 2018, though nothing further has been reported on that.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 17:00

• Hezbollah Commander Warns Retaliation Strikes Will Target New Sites Deeper Into Israel
  Hezbollah Commander Warns Retaliation Strikes Will Target New Sites Deeper Into Israel

  As the world awaits an Iranian retaliation strike against Israel, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah warned Tuesday of ‘strong and effective’ attacks on Israel.

  The leader of the Lebanese militant group spoke on national television earlier Tuesday at the one-week memorial of Fuad Shukr, the group’s top military commander, who was killed in Israeli air strikes in Beirut. 

  

  Iran “finds itself obliged to respond, and the enemy is waiting in a great state of dread,” Nasrallah said, adding that Hezbollah will respond “alone or in the context of a unified response from all the axis” of Iran-backed proxy groups “whatever the consequences.”

  He added that “Israel is no longer as strong it was in the past and neither are its defensive capabilities. Israel is asking for help from the US, from the West, from Europe and from Arab regimes – this is evidence of Israel’s decline in prestige. The command and control centers, Iron Dome, ‘David’s Sling,’ and the Israeli and US satellites are on high alert – while today a missile fell east of Acre.”

  “The entire region today is in the face of a real danger,” Nasrallah noted. He said, “Everyone needs to understand the risks in the current situation regarding Palestine, because if the Israeli government wins in the struggle over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – then there is no Palestinian people, there won’t even be Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

  Nasrallah also said the militant group will be targeting new Israeli high-value asset targets much deeper in the country than ever before. 

  Listen here… 

  ⚡️⭕️[ENGLISH] 2024-08-06 Hezbollah secretary general Sayed Hassan Nasrallah speech live streamhttps://t.co/kbYAM5VJrf

  — Middle East Observer (@ME_Observer_) August 6, 2024

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  Stay updated on the latest developments in the Middle East crisis:

  • Iraq Base Housing American Forces Comes Under Brief Rocket Attack

  • Putin’s Top Defense Officials Are In Tehran Amid Countdown To Zero Hour

  • The Trigger For WWIII Just Arrived – What Are The Implications For Americans?

  • Jittery Israel Braces For ‘Five Front’ War

  Meanwhile, President Biden was briefed on Monday about preparations to support Israel should all hell break out in the Middle East.

  Secretary of State Antony Blinken said officials are working “around the clock” to prevent a broadening conflict. 

  Axios reported that Monday’s Middle East briefing with Biden and officials provided little details about the timing and nature of an Iranian attack. 

  Biden said:

  “We received updates on threats posed by Iran and its proxies, diplomatic efforts to de-escalate regional tensions, and preparations to support Israel should it be attacked again.”

  Both U.S. and Israeli leaders have continued to ready their forces to respond to a heightened level of attacks across the Middle East.

  “Israel is in a state of very high readiness for any scenario—on both defense and offense. We will exact a very high price for any act of aggression against us from any quarter whatsoever,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in an Aug. 1 press statement.

  Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh also announced that additional U.S. missile defense capabilities were deploying to the region on Aug. 2.

  Singh said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had ordered additional ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers and destroyers to deploy to the CENTCOM area of operations, which covers Israel and the broader Middle East.

  She said Austin also ordered another fighter squadron to the Middle East to bolster regional air defense capabilities and was readying to deploy additional land-based ballistic missile defense systems.

  What remains a mystery is the timing of the potential Iranian retaliation – and really it’s impossible to know the scale of the attack. But what’s very likely is a direct assault on Israel by Iran or proxy forces that could very well drag in Western nations, such as the US. 

  In markets, an exploding regional conflict could have major implications on the oil market.

  

  So far, energy traders have shrugged off geopolitical concerns and instead focused on the demand woes of slowing economies in China and the US. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 16:40

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• These Are The World's Biggest Submarine Fleets
  These Are The World’s Biggest Submarine Fleets

  Submarines are crucial for navies because they provide stealthy, strategic capabilities for surveillance, deterrence, and offensive operations in underwater environments.

  This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, shows the top 12 countries by their number of military submarines as of July 2024, based on data from GlobalFirepower.com.

  

  Russia Has the Biggest Fleet

  Russia ranks first with 65 submarines, followed by the U.S. (64) and China (61).

  Combined, the three countries account for 40% of the global fleet.

  

  When it comes to technology, however, the U.S. is ahead.

  According to Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, U.S. submarine technology is one generation, or 10 to 20 years, ahead of  counterparts like China.

  The latest addition to the U.S. Navy, the Columbia-class nuclear submarine, is the most sophisticated vessel of its kind. It is stealthy and equipped with 16 missile tubes.

  The American fleet also has the Seawolf class, designed to address the threat of Soviet ballistic missile submarines and replace the aging Los Angeles class of submarines.

  During the 1980s, a fleet of 29 submarines was to be built, which was reduced to 12. With the end of the Cold War and each submarine costing about $3 billion, the program was reduced to only three units.

  Among the Russian fleet, the Sierra II Class, also known as Project 945A Kondor Class, remains one of the most expensive and deep-diving submarines. These vessels were explicitly developed for search and destroy missions against U.S. nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines.

  If you liked this post, check out Mapped: The World’s Largest Armies in 2024. This graphic shows the top 10 countries by military personnel as of May 2024.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 02:45

• Why Is The EU Upping The Pressure On Meloni In Italy?
  Why Is The EU Upping The Pressure On Meloni In Italy?

  Authored by Conor Gallagher via NakedCapitalism.com,

  On July 24 the European Commission announced it is putting Italy on notice for alleged “rule of law” deficiencies, which could put in jeopardy EU cohesion and recovery funds earmarked for Rome.

  In theory, the warning is supposed to be about democratic standards, corruption, the independence of the judicial system and the safety of journalists. In reality, the threat to cut off some EU funds is used as a form of financial blackmail to keep bloc countries from straying from neoliberal orthodoxy and NATO priorities.

  European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made this clear when she issued her thinly veiled “tools” threat ahead of Italy’s 2022 election that brought Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy (FdI) party to power:

  NEW – EU Commission President on the upcoming elections in Italy, where a right-wing victory is expected:

  “We will see. If things go in a ‘difficult direction’ – I have spoken about Hungary and Poland – we have tools.” pic.twitter.com/PxtvpXyCua

  — Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) September 23, 2022

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  The use of these rule and law tools for purposes other than their intended purpose is also apparent in the case of Hungary and Poland. The Commission used billions in withheld funds earlier this year to bribe Orbán into relenting on money he was holding up for Project Ukraine.

  Poland’s rule of law problems with Brussels magically disappeared once loyal EU/NATO soldier Donald Tusk was elected prime minister last year — despite nearly identical issues with the media, for example, as under his predecessor.

  The Meloni government is now being charged with dragging its feet on reform of strict defamation laws and, ironically from the austerity-loving EU, budget cuts to public media. In an additional irony, the Banderite-supporting Commission mentions the fact that Italy’s public broadcaster censored an anti-fascist monologue on one of its shows.As the reprimand is merely a tool for political pressure from Brussels, the particulars likely aren’t all that important.

  The real question is why is the European Commission coming after Italy now?

  While there might not be a clear answer, we can look at the Meloni government’s economic and foreign policy moves for clues.

  Neoliberal Nation 

  The Meloni government has been overseeing a wave of privatizations, including critical communications infrastructure to CIA-connected private equity, and plans for more of the state rail company Ferrovie dello Stato, Poste Italiane, Monte dei Paschi bank and energy giant Eni.

  Last year, Meloni chose May Day to announce her government’s promotion of short-term worker contracts, as well as the abolition of Italy’s basic income program, which provided the unemployed with an average of 567 euros a month. Despite the program providing a mild stimulus to the economy, Meloni said its elimination will force people back to work. “Where is the slump in the economy and employment?” she asked.

  She failed to mention that roughly 40 percent of Italian workers earn less than 10 euros an hour in the country where average wages have fallen 2.9 percent since 1990. Millions of Italians emigrate looking for better opportunities while Meloni backtracked on her strict immigration stance in order to bring in more workers and keep the country’s wage-suppression model on track.

  The government in Rome has also been pushing through a series of “reforms” as part of deals to keep money flowing from the EU’s Covid recovery fund. This neoliberal overhaul was initiated under Meloni’s predecessor, unelected former European Central Bank (ECB) President and Goldman Sachs executive Mario Draghi, with an assist from McKinsey and includes privatizing local public services and transfering power from elected officials to bureaucrats at the Italian Competition Authority which is overseen from Brussels.

  It’s common knowledge that the billions in disbursements from the EU Covid recovery fund would be put on hold if Meloni deviated from the path of Draghi. So Meloni, willingly or not, has gone along.

  Italy is the largest recipient (208 billion euros) of the EU’s Covid recovery fund, but the spigot will be turned off at the end of next year. In the absence of the threat to pull that money, the Commission could be looking for other ways to maintain leverage over Meloni or any future Italian government by placing the country on the rule of law watchlist.

  Any public spat with Brussels over funds always has the potential to topple the government in Rome if it leads to a “confidence crisis” in the bond markets and the ECB doesn’t step in to keep Italian borrowing costs from going through the roof.

  So it’s the same old story for Italy, which has actually been a top performer in liberalizing reforms over the past decades compared with other advanced economies, and Rome has followed the EU’s reform policy rulebook much more closely than Berlin or Paris.

  Yet the cure for Italy’s ills is always more wage suppression, more market-friendly reforms, more social spending cuts, and more privatization. And when that inevitably doesn’t work, the answer is always to double down. Meloni has done nothing to change this, and hasn’t shown much of any sign that she and the FdI have any problem with this arrangement.

  Problems with “The Most Powerful and Successful Alliance in History?”

  Meloni obviously isn’t much of a fan of having to wait around for the NATO royalty to show up to start a meeting:

  Giorgia Meloni on top eye-rolling form as leaders at the @Nato summit wait for Stoltenberg and Biden to arrive for today’s first session pic.twitter.com/0lczOywwav

  — Henry Foy (@HenryJFoy) July 11, 2024

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  But are there other signs that there’s more significance behind the eye roll? Has the Meloni-led coalition shown any signs of getting wobbly on Project Ukraine? Not really.

  Some in government like Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini are often critical, specifically of how the economic war against Russia harms Italian interests. Italian officials were also among some of the louder voices in opposition to French President Emmanuel Macron’s dalliances with officially sending European forces into Ukraine.

  But Meloni has been a major backer of Ukraine. After all the hysteria over her election back in 2022, a year and a half later, the New York Times was able to declare that Meloni solidified her credentials and “has put the European establishment at ease. She has proved to be rock-ribbed on the question of Ukraine…”

  And she has made clear her coalition partners like Salvini can say whatever they want as long as their votes don’t get in the way of supporting the West’s proxy war in Ukraine.

  Split on Syria?

  Last week, the foreign ministers of Italy, Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece, Slovenia and Slovakia said they are willing to thaw ties with Syria in a step they hope will lead to the return of Syrian refugees.

  In a joint letter, the above countries are calling for the creation of an EU-Syria envoy who would be tasked with reinstalling a Syrian ambassador to Brussels and designating 10 so-called “safe zones” within Syria’s government-held regions to which Syrian migrants in Europe could be returned.

  On July 26, Rome also announced its intentions to return an ambassador to Damascus after a decade-long absence during the West’s efforts to topple the government.

  Washington and Brussels will not be in favor of such a move, especially considering that the European Commission just unveiled its own plan to throw a billion euros at Lebanon to host Syrian refugees there (who knows where they’ll go when Israel gets its war with Hezbollah) and the simple fact that Syria is an ally of Russia.

  Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met with Putin on July 24 and likely discussed a restoration of ties with Turkiye and possibly “Russian military assistance to Syria in the context of the present Israeli rampage in the neighborhood and most specifically with a view to improving Syria’s ineffective air defenses.”

  China?

  Much has been made about the rule of law news coming out right as Meloni embarked on a trip to China. Could the European Commission have thrown together a rule of law case against Italy in the month since Meloni mentioned she was planning on visiting China during Italy’s hosting of the G7 in June? Sure, but Meloni’s trip was also nothing out of ordinary for a European head of state. In fact, it was very similar to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit in April.

  Italy and China signed some minor agreements, and Meloni mostly pleaded for more Chinese investment and a balancing of trade during her five-day visit. She also performed the obligatory lectures on China’s “support” for Russia and Chinese “overcapacity.”

  Meloni also said Italy adheres to the one-China policy and opposes “decoupling” and protectionism — although Rome did recently back the EU tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.

  The Chinese were polite and talked up the relationship, but they’re mostly always that way (as long as it’s not German FM Annalena Baerbock), still patiently prodding the EU to act in its own interests rather than those of the US. Chinese President Xi Jinping said China is willing to import more high-quality Italian products and that he hopes Italy will in return provide a fair business environment for Chinese companies investing in Italy.

  Meloni had previously taken a hawkish tone against China and even torpedoed Italy’s involvement in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) last year. Her about face helps highlight the disconnect between instructions to US imperial outposts and reality — one that China hopes to take advantage of:

  This is the chronic delusions that many EU leaders has about China. They think they can just decouple, cancel BRI and antagonize China without consequences and then reality hits them hard and they have to go to Beijing to kiss Xi’s ring 🤭 if they…🧵https://t.co/VCBBoDnVFL

  — Miss Li (@MissQuanyi18) July 31, 2024

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  Indeed, on Meloni’s trip Italy and China signed a three-year action plan on Sunday to implement past agreements and experiment with new forms of cooperation, including collaboration on electric vehicles and renewable energy. Some Chinese commentators said that the plan is more like a “compensatory” deal for Italy following Rome’s withdrawal from BRI last year:

  “The action plan serves to minimize the negative impact on Italy after it pulled out of BRI; signing the plan also signals Italy has vast demand for cooperation with China, as it used a alternative plan to focus on areas where there is demand from both countries,” [said] ui Hongjian, a professor with the Academy of Regional and Global Governance with Beijing Foreign Studies University.

  It’s important to note that the BRI is not a membership organization like BRICS, the EU, the Eurasian Economic Union, etc. It’s more of an umbrella term for infrastructure and investment deals that foster more interconnectivity to Beijing’s and typically the partner country’s advantage. Rome and Beijing never progressed much on deals after Italy joined the BRI. Will this latest “action plan” be any different?

  Some China watchers celebrated the trip as a sign that Italy and Europe are beginning to get wobbly on its hawkish China stance:

  #Italian PM Giorgia Meloni signs three-year action plan to strengthen🇨🇳China-🇮🇹#Italy economic & trade ties through her China visit. @GiorgiaMeloni debunks the “de-risking” narrative.
  “🇮🇹Italy is likely to play a more active role in improving🇨🇳China-#Europe relations at the🇪🇺#EU… pic.twitter.com/AacjLdG2Ww

  — Shen Shiwei 沈诗伟 (@shen_shiwei) July 29, 2024

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  But that ignores the fact that Meloni and Italy, despite having the third-largest economy in the EU, do not have that type of clout in the bloc — as evidenced by rule of law slap down that serves as a reminder for Italy to remember its place. Could more cooperation between Rome and Beijing provide an example of the benefits of such collaboration to other EU countries? The Global Times thinks so:

  Meloni’s visit will have a demonstration effect among European countries, as the trend of “decoupling with China” becomes more prevalent on the continent. Substantial cooperation between China and Italy will demonstrate the benefits of collaborating with Beijing, leading Europe to realize the advantages of such partnerships.

  The problem is that wishful thinking ignores the fact that if Meloni were to lead Italy down that path, Brussels and Washington would work to quickly install a new government in Rome. Still, Beijing is betting that this current arrangement cannot last, maybe best summed up by Zhou Bo, a retired PLA colonel and current senior fellow of the Centre for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University, who wrote the following last year in the South China Morning Post:

  The battleground won’t be in the Global South, where the US has very much lost to China, especially in Africa and Latin America. It won’t be in the Indo-Pacific either, where few countries want to take sides. It will be in Europe, where the US has most of its allies and where China is the largest trading partner.

  Gradually, the transatlantic alliance will relax. Even if America’s decline is gradual, it cannot afford a global military presence. It will have to retreat from around the world, including from the Middle East and Europe, to focus on the Indo-Pacific, where the US sees China as a long-term threat. Successive US presidents, Republican and Democrat alike, have asked Europeans to take greater ownership of their security. In other words, Europe has to have strategic autonomy, even if it doesn’t want to. That Europe takes China as a partner, competitor and systemic rival at the same time says more about Europe’s confusion about China, than what China really is.

  Meloni Flailing About Unable to Change the One Fact that Really Matters

  Meloni’s doubling back to China after confidently bailing on the BRI last year is one of her many headscratchers. Another recent example is her recent bungling of talks in Brussels.

  Meloni is the president of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party, which her FdI party belongs to. It consolidated its position as Italy’s strongest one in the EU elections, and Meloni had an opportunity to grab a top European Commission post for Italy. Instead, despite cozying up to von der Leyen over the past few years, Meloni and the FdI voted against her in her confirmation for another term.

  Maybe the rule of law notice from Ursula’s Commission is simply out of spite to remind Meloni who’s really in charge. Von der Leyen is nothing if not vengeful. Recall that after a wolf killed her cherished pony Dolly, she began working to reduce wolves’ legal protection so hunters could again go after them to the point of extinction in Europe. EU diplomats describe von der Leyen’s focus on wolves as “strange,” “bizarre,” “puzzling,” and definitely “pushy.”

  So if von der Leyen feels like Meloni failed a loyalty test, a rule of law slapdown wouldn’t be all that surprising. This thread gets into how Meloni badly misplayed her hand in the horse trading at the European Parliament:

  Her strength in 2022 – which allowed her to scoop up the support of right wing voters – was to appear coherent and consistent, avoiding compromises. Having been in opposition since the foundation of her party, including to Draghi’s “all-in” govt, had clearly helped in this sense.

  — Daniele Albertazzi (@DrAlbertazziUK) July 19, 2024

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  In short: she could have come across as coherently radical right. She does not, as it is apparent that she’s been negotiating until the last minute & failed to get what she wanted out of VdL, who decided she did not need her.

  — Daniele Albertazzi (@DrAlbertazziUK) July 19, 2024

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  Politico, in an Aug. 2 piece that reads like high school gossip, details how von der Leyen was gradually inviting Meloni to the cool kids’ table only for the latter to show her ungratefulness and throw it all away. Meloni’s waywardness is depicted as not driven by any grand vision for a more sovereign Italy but simply frustration over still not having a seat at the table when von der Leyen’s centrist conservatives, the liberals of French President Emmanuel Macron and the socialists of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz were cutting deals recently in Brussels. That’s all likely true.

  Regardless, the Politico piece makes clear that Meloni’s tantrum better end yesterday: 

  Others stressed that the relationship is at a turning point, and Meloni will have to decide which way it will go.

  “We will see which Meloni will rise from this: the hard-right one we always feared or the pragmatic one which we have gotten to know?” said one EU diplomat, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

  Even if Meloni bends the knee again to the Commission, it likely won’t make a difference for her political future due a series of approaching problems that not even von der Leyen can help with. Meloni swallowing her pride and going hat in hand to Beijing after championing her withdrawal from the BRI is an acknowledgement of the economic trouble on the horizon for Italy, as well as much of the eurozone.

  Firstly, there is no end in sight to the energy crisis in Italy.

  Rome had grand plans, initiated under Draghi, to make the country into a gas hub for Europe. It has a pipeline to Algeria and rammed through expansions of LNG storage facilities over local concerns in order to try to take advantage of its Mediterraean position.

  None of it is working as planned.

  The Red Sea remains a no-go zone, which doesn’t look to change anytime soon. The planned increase in supplies from Algeria hasn’t worked out. This left Italy turning back to Russia for pipeline gas while it was still possible before further bans go into effect, but there are problems even there now.

  So not only has Italy not become a hub, but its own supply outlook is bleak. The country has already spent well over 100 billion euros trying to weather the energy crisis, but it is going to be increasingly difficult to continue at that pace.

  That’s because EU austerity enforcement is on the horizon. On July 26 Italy, France, and five other EU countries were placed in the bloc’s dreaded  excessive deficit procedure for violating sacred budget rules: a state’s debt must be no higher than 60 percent of national output, with a public deficit of no more than three percent.

  Italy must now present a plan to Brussels and will have no choice but to lean heavily on extreme austerity that could well be worse than during the spending cuts of the 2011-2014 Euro Crisis — brutal budgetary tightening that leads to life expectancy drops for poorer citizens.

  So even if the European Commission doesn’t torpedo Meloni’s government over perceived violations of NATO/EU dogma, the coming economic implosion will almost certainly end her time as prime minister. She doesn’t have the type of public support that can weather such a storm nor does she have a level of control over financial institutions in the country with its own currency like in Hungary with Orban, which has allowed him to withstand endless pressure campaigns from Brussels. 

  ***

  Focusing on Meloni’s political future risks missing the forest for the trees, however. The bigger story here is that this is another reminder that EU countries are not in charge of their economies and foreign policies. That would be Brussels above them and above Brussels, Washington. Until that hierarchy changes, the only change Europeans are likely to see is continual decline.

  The fact that the EU needs to rely more and more on these types of threats and financial blackmail in order to force member states to go against the interests of a majority of their citizens is not a recipe for long term success.

  In the meantime, the question becomes: what’s an elected leader of an EU nation to do if they want to do what’s best for their country and stay in power? Is the best route to try to limit the damage with other parts of the world, a la Orban, in preparation to quickly pick up the pieces when the EU and NATO begin to crack apart?

  As the Global Times wrote after Meloni’s trip:

  In the future, as long as both countries continue to solidify the position of economic and trade relations as the cornerstone of their bilateral relations, enhance the complementarity of their economic and trade relations, explore new paths for cooperation and foster friendships through cultural exchanges, a mature and stable China-Italy relationship is certainly within reach.

  Now Rome would just need to figure out a way to start repairing its once-strong relationship with Moscow.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/06/2024 – 02:00

• How Trump Can Win (Or Lose) The Election
  How Trump Can Win (Or Lose) The Election

  Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

  The Good News

  The good news for the Trump campaign is that the sure Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is a lifelong California hard leftist at a time when the state is emblematic of progressive nihilism. Her extremist advocacies as a San Francisco county and city attorney, state Attorney General, and senator are on record. And they are consistent with what has virtually destroyed the state.

  Harris was also a driving force as vice president for Joe Biden’s unpopular and unworkable progressive policies—whether open borders, massive illegal immigration, hyperinflation, fanning woke divisiveness, arguing for lax criminal prosecution, or defunding the police. She was far closer to the mindset of the unhinged Squad than Joe Biden himself.

  None of the Biden-Harris administration’s main policy initiatives ever polled 50 percent approval. Abroad, the world blew up under their tenure with an unbridled Putin invading Ukraine, an unbound Iran brazenly using its proxies to attack Israel, and China all but warning the West of its impending absorption of Taiwan—now not a question of if but only when.

  So, it should be easy for Trump to win the key midwestern swing states. All he needs to do is repeatedly remind voters that Harris is the most far-left presidential candidate in modern history. He can drive home that she is not only on record endorsing these extreme positions but has been doing so emphatically for years to energize her exclusively left-wing constituents and audiences.

  If Trump heeds the lessons of late Lee Atwater, then he need only follow the 1988 Republican campaign script, when hard-left Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis’s 17-point lead in late July melted through nonstop reminders that Dukakis was and always would be far to the left of the American voter.

  Dukakis’s efforts to claim that the election was only about his “competence,” not his liberal ideology, evaporated after a devastating series of ads—exposing the “technocrat” Dukakis as an extremist and a hypocrite desperate to disown and hide his prior unapologetically left-wing record from the voters. And Dukakis was a far better candidate than Harris.

  

  The Bad News

  However, the bad news for Trump is that there are only roughly 90 days left to expose Harris’s extremist record. And like cognitively challenged Joe Biden in 2020, her handlers will not allow her to speak extemporaneously or to give interviews to real journalists.

  She will hide her innate silliness and her extreme record and instead teleprompt a scripted persona and pseudo-centrist agenda to the nation.

  There is, then, almost no time to redefine the reclusive Harris, given she was never a candidate for 2024 nomination. She stuck by the hard lie that Joe Biden was “fit as a fiddle” until he wasn’t and was selected by party bosses and billionaires at a historically late stage of the campaign. That was not a drawback given her hard-left vulnerabilities, but an advantage given that it was always much easier to hide the real Harris in three months than for over two years.

  In addition, she will vastly outspend the Trump campaign—given that her youth, gender, and race contrast positively with the admittedly enfeebled octogenarian Biden and his increasing snark, crankiness, and off-putting incoherence.

  And finally, she is a tempting personal target that naturally irks Trump. So, he has risen to the bait to respond in kind to the sort of personal vitriol that has long been directed at him and now running mate J.D. Vance. When politicos, like the governor of Illinois, stoop to lie that Vance had sexual intercourse with a couch, then there are now no limits on anything.

  Harris is certainly a “DEI” candidate. In the hysteria following the death of George Floyd and the months-long riots of 2020, Joe Biden pandered to his hard-left base that had orchestrated his nomination by forcing the withdrawal of his non-electable primary rivals by promising that he would select a black vice president who would likely be a woman.

  Those racial and gender fixations explained why Biden selected Harris, who otherwise had a dismal and brief senate career. As a candidate herself, she had failed to win a single primary or a single delegate and withdrew in humiliation from the 2019-20 race without even entering a primary or caucus.

  During the violent days of the summer of 2020’s rioting, arson, and looting, Harris virtue signaled her eagerness to get on the presidential ticket in ways that would have proved impossible on her own merits, apparently by pandering to the hard-left BLM/Antifa base.

  So, she loudly helped to raise money to bail out Minnesota rioters and looters. She bragged on CBS that protests (that had long proved violent and had led to deaths and hundreds of injured law enforcement officers) would and should not cease. And thus, we, the American people, she boasted, should “beware” that the unrest would continue up to and beyond Election Day. That warning is about as provocatively left-wing as it gets in American politics and was far more reckless than anything Trump said on January 6. Yet apparently her radical incitement either helped, or was excused, in her appointment as Biden’s running mate

  Moreover, Harris has indeed played the race card, sometimes presenting herself as the “first” California Indian-American senator, sometimes altering her accent to a black patois to emphasize her supposedly authentic black credentials—as the child of an immigrant, Jamaican, and Stanford professor father.

  There are other tempting but dead-end Trump targets.

  Given that his lead over Biden had been growing weekly and given the president’s exponential rate of cognitive decline, it was natural to keep harping on Biden as the “worst” president in U.S. history. As Trump put it, the entire Biden tenure really was a “disaster”—and thus, logically and by extension, so was Harris’s role in that calamity of an administration.

  So, all these ad hominem, name-calling targets are naturally attractive. But in the few weeks left (early voting in some states is scheduled to begin in mere days), they remain dead-ends, distractions, and time-wasters.

  Proving Harris is a DEI selection, a woke opportunist, a hypocrite, an utter incompetent, childlike, and indistinguishable from Joe Biden won’t win Trump a single additional MAGA vote in the swing states or one new Trump-hating Democrat.

  But these ad hominem distractions will bore or even bother independent voters as they hear endless media-ginned-up controversies and psychodramas that Trump is “cruel,” “mean,” and “racist.” At best, Trump will achieve a draw with the Trump-hating media and, at worst, sacrifice precious time and opportunities better spent warning Americans of the Harris record.

  Trump, again, must force Harris to come clean by either reemphasizing her lifelong extreme positions or be exposed as a flip-flopping opportunist, scrambling to reinvent herself in the fashion of a losing George McGovern, Mike Dukakis, or Jimmy Carter.

  Getting tangled up in Harris’s woke and racial contortions, her opportunistically amorous past, and her bouts of cacklerhea will only suggest that Trump is desperate and playing into the hands of the woke victimization narratives.

  Trump must instead hammer away that Biden-Harris has left us with a $1.2 trillion yearly interest bill on the debt, higher interest rates, 10 million unaudited illegal and often dangerous aliens, a nonexistent border, and prices on staples essential to life—key foods, fuels, power, housing, insurance, and health care—20 to 30 percent higher than when Biden took office.

  He should ask Harris, “You own these policies, so why are you suddenly ashamed rather than proud of what you did?” Harris bragged that she was “proud” to have been the last person in the room with Biden on the decision to flee in disgrace from Afghanistan.

  So, Trump should ask, “Then why did both of you abandon to the Taliban terrorists over 70,000 American trucks, armored vehicles, and Humvees, as well over a half-million heavy machine guns, automatic pistols, and assault weapons, along with over 100 planes and helicopters and nearly 200,000 assorted night-vision goggles, sophisticated radios, and artillery pieces?”

  In our dangerous world, with an explosive Middle East, a belligerent Russia, and an oil-thirsty China, the best way to protect American energy interests and independence is not to ban fracking and horizontal drilling, stop the development of natural gas production, or mandate electric vehicles and implement the Green New Deal.

  Once upon a time, the Republicans revealed to the country just how far left a nice enough George McGovern was, just how out of touch and hard leftist gentleman Mike Dukakis was, and just how unstable and unsustainable the world was that an upright Jimmy Carter had left America. Landslide rejections of those leftist agendas followed.

  So, show all the clips of a word salad Harris struggling to achieve minimum coherence—but always in the context of her espousal of agendas that no one today wants.

  Let the left talk of her “diversity” and being “the first female and black vice president” and the pathbreaking “black and Indian nominee” until the American people are weary of cheap woke pandering.

  And let Trump simply answer, “She is the diversity candidate; I am the unity candidate. I want to help all Americans recover from the recent nightmare by offering them policies that improve their livelihoods, their freedoms, their security, and their unity with one another.”

  A final note. As long as Joe Biden selfishly deceived the American people about his mental decline, as long as the president barked and snarked out his divisive Phantom-of-the-Opera, semi-fascist, and anti-MAGA speeches, as long as he demagogued to win a midterm or reelection by draining the strategic petroleum reserve, cancelling student debt, or offering amnesties, the more the people were sick of him and wanted him out.

  But Biden now?

  Our president is an isolated, crushed figure. He was cruelly ambushed by the very forces that had fixed his nomination in 2020 by forcing out his rivals and employing him as a ceremonial veneer for their otherwise unpalatable hard-left agendas. So just as Joe lived by the 2020 coup, so his career perished by the 2024 sequel.

  Thus, Trump need not constantly pound a now impotent and increasingly irrelevant Biden with the self-evident and obvious: that he was a “horrible “president” and a “disaster.”

  America knows that. It is relieved that Biden has only six months left to endanger us.

  But given Biden’s diminished capacity, his visible frailty, and his seclusion, how does Trump beat Harris by beating a proverbial dead horse?

  For the first time in his life, the now-neutered Biden may even gain public sympathy for his feebleness—especially as the Orwellian left narrative factory churns out new pretexts that a “courageous” Joe Biden “voluntarily” stepped down “for the good of the country” and is now a “George Washington figure.”

  A Way Forward?

  Again, focus on the disastrous Biden governance of the last four years. Make Harris own it. And contrast it with 2017-21 and what will follow in 2025.

  But cease with the invective that he was demented, his already old debate as the worst in history, and his tenure an utter disaster.

  Trump is no longer running against a has-been caretaker, whose implosion appeals to the innate sympathy of the swing voter (but not to the extent of wanting another four years of him).

  Finally, in the next debate(s), Trump must not only use characteristic broad adjectives for Biden and Harris, such as “disaster,” “terrible,” or “horrible,” but simply pepper Harris with what Biden actually did and her role in it. Don’t describe Harris as a disaster, but communicate in exactly what way and precisely how in her own words. And there are 30 years of her extreme advocacies to make that case.

  Do all that, and Trump will win decisively in the fashion that Republicans did in 1972, 1980, and 1988 by avoiding the personal and simply demonstrating why McGovern, Carter, and Dukakis were not what they professed to be but entirely at odds with the majority of Americans.

  The left wants Trump to spend the next three months harping on Biden’s dementia, the farce of its coverup, the Democrat coup to remove him, and the off-putting record of Kamala Harris.

  Yet if Trump falls for all that, he will allow the hardest-left candidate in American history to do to the United States what she and her fellow leftists did to California.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/05/2024 – 23:10

• DOJ Should Investigate China's United Front Groups Over Violence In San Francisco: Report
  DOJ Should Investigate China’s United Front Groups Over Violence In San Francisco: Report

  Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Two U.S.-based advocacy groups are calling on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the activities of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “united front” foreign influence organizations in the United States, after identifying groups responsible for street violence in San Francisco during Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit in 2023.

  

  The Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC) and Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) used open-source research and facial recognition technology to identify CCP-aligned actors allegedly assaulting peaceful pro-democracy protesters during Xi’s four-day visit, according to their newly-released report.

  The groups found that 19 leaders of the CCP’s united front groups were in San Francisco during Xi’s visit and 12 of them allegedly participated in attacks against protesters. These leaders came from all over the United States, including New York, California, Portland, Seattle, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Philadelphia.

  “Investigate whether united front groups in the U.S. are acting as unregistered foreign agents of the PRC in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act,” the two groups urged the DOJ, referring to China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

  The report also urged the DOJ to “explore the potential criminal liabilities of individuals and groups engaged in” transnational repression.

  Xi arrived in San Francisco on Nov. 14 last year for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

  Many decided to use his visit as a platform to peacefully protest against the CCP’s human rights violations, holding demonstrations at the San Francisco International Airport; on the streets near the Moscone Center, where APEC meetings were held; in areas outside of the St. Regis Hotel where Xi stayed; and in other locations around the city.

  However, the peaceful protests were marred by violence allegedly committed by Xi’s supporters and pro-CCP demonstrators. The report documents 34 cases of harassment, intimidation, and assault.

  Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, said in a July 31 statement that the CCP-directed attacks “were an outrageous violation of American sovereignty and the values we all hold dear.” He called on the FBI and the San Francisco Police Department to hold the perpetrators accountable.

  “This thuggery—also known as transnational repression—has no place in America,” Moolenaar said. “The CCP cannot be allowed to bring its Orwellian model of totalitarian control to American soil.”

  United Front Groups

  The CCP leverages a network of groups, some directly under the control of the United Front Work Department within its Central Committee, to carry out its “united front” strategy to advance the regime’s interests overseas. A big part of the strategy involves exerting influence and control over Chinese diaspora communities and promoting favorable narratives about China under the CCP’s rule.

  One united front leader identified in the report is Li Huahong, the head of the Chinese Anti-Cult World Alliance (CACWA). According to the report, Li, who was wearing a CACWA jacket at the time, allegedly attacked Chinese activist Jia Junwei outside of St. Regis on Nov. 14 last year. Jia had traveled to San Francisco seeking justice for her deceased father, a victim of the regime’s land expropriation policies who died in Chinese detention in 2017.

  Jia said that Li “snatched her banner, dragged her into an area surrounded by other CCP supporters who held up their large PRC flags so that no one could see what was happening, pulled her hair, and hit her in the head,” the report states, adding that an ambulance later arrived at the scene and first responders treated Jia.

  Li was “alleged to be involved” in more attacks the next day, alongside a dinner reception for Xi at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, according to the report. Inside a parking garage across from the hotel, an unidentified man wearing a CACWA jacket was among a group of 15 masked CCP supporters allegedly attacking Tibetan protesters, after the latter unfurled a banner with the words “Dictator Xi, Your Time Is Up.”

  In 2013, Li was convicted in New York on charges of attacking Falun Gong practitioners. The faith group is persecuted by the CCP in China.

  Also on Nov. 14 last year, Li Huanjun, a victim of forced demotion in China, said that she was hit in the head with a flagpole and pinched on the arms, waist, and other places several times during encounters with CCP supporters.

  One of the individuals who allegedly participated in the harassment and intimidation of Li Huanjun was Jing Dongsheng, the report stated, identifying him as the president of the Oregon Association for the Promotion of the Peaceful Unification of China.

  Four other united front leaders were allegedly responsible for attacks against Chinese activist Wang Wei on Nov. 15 last year. According to the report, their names are Wengxi Zhuoma, president of the Sichuan Association of Washington State; Guo Jianwei, president of the Henan Association of Washington State; Fang Weixia, chair of the Association of China’s Peaceful Reunification of Washington State; and Chen Wenshen, vice president of the Seattle-area Fujian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Washington State.

  In a video, Fang can be seen “punching … and kicking” activist Wang, according to the report.

  Wang explained in the report that he was wearing a “Free China” sticker on his arm, which could be the reason he became a target of the CCP supporters.

  “A question which the U.S. government, local governments, and federal and local law enforcement authorities may need to confront is whether the CCP united front groups and individuals are essentially acting as unregistered foreign agents, in which case they may be in breach of the law,” the two groups wrote.

  Transnational Repression

  HKDC and SFT said that local authorities in San Francisco did not do enough to protect protesters.

  “Despite strong awareness of CCP [transnational repression] at the federal level and a general commitment to countering it, agencies were unprepared to do so in San Francisco,” the two groups wrote.

  “Local law enforcement authorities exhibited a lack of awareness of [transnational repression], were often unresponsive when alerted to the attacks, and took little and inadequate action in response to the attacks.”

  The report explained that protesters had to change their protest plans several times “due to safety concerns.”

  For example, Tibetan and Uyghur groups canceled their plan to march to the Hyatt Regency on Nov. 15, 2023.

  “When they saw the large numbers of CCP supporters gathered outside the hotel and an absence of separate protest zones, they decided against this course of action as they feared it could lead to a potentially violent confrontation,” the report reads.

  Standing Up for Liberty

  The report offered recommendations to the White House, the Department of State, the DOJ, the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Congress, and state and local authorities to address the CCP’s acts of transnational repression.

  It urges the State Department to impose targeted sanctions against foreign individuals who “direct or engage” in acts of transnational repression. It also asks the Department of Homeland Security to offer transnational repression-related training to state and local law enforcement.

  Congress is also urged to pass legislation such as the Transnational Repression Policy Act, the Stop Transnational Repression Act (H.R.5907), the Combating Transnational Repression Act of 2024 (H.R. 7443), the Law Enforcement Support and Transnational Repression Hotline Act (H.R. 7433), and the Strengthening State and Local Efforts to Combat Transnational Repression Act (H.R. 7439).

  Introduced by Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.) in February and co-sponsored by Reps. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.), August Pfluger (R-Texas), and Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.), H.R. 7439 would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish a “transnational repression threat training program” for state, local, tribal, campus, and territorial law enforcement, according to a press release.

  “Silence and lack of action will surely signal to the CCP that it has ‘gotten away with it’ and simply encourage it to continue to pursue its objectives to silence, intimidate, and inflict violence on those it perceives as its enemies abroad,” the report reads.

  “At best, it leaves those who live in the United States and advocate for freedom and human rights in East Turkestan, Hong Kong, the PRC, and Tibet uncertain and skeptical that U.S. authorities will protect them when the CCP seeks to come after them, and, at worst, fearful and intimidated in the ‘land of the free.’”

  The Epoch Times has reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/05/2024 – 22:45

• Excessive Internet Use Disrupts Key Parts Of The Teenage Brain
  Excessive Internet Use Disrupts Key Parts Of The Teenage Brain

  Authored by George Citroner via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The internet drives news cycles and touches practically every aspect of our lives—from communicating with friends and family to finding a job. The current crop of teens is unique from any previous generation in that they are immersed in a virtual world that can present very differently from reality. Many teens have become addicted to it.

  A 2023 Statista survey found that U.S. teenagers spent an average of 4.8 hours on social media platforms every day, with girls spending an average of 5.3 hours compared to 4.4 hours for boys.

  “Being as excessive and addictive screen use is routinely listed as one of parents’ biggest concerns for children, I think it’s overdue that we start educating children as early as possible about the dangers of unhealthy and mindless screen use,” Anthony Anzalone, a clinical psychologist at Stony Brook Medicine, told The Epoch Times.

  

  Teen Brain Development Affected

  Scientists have begun investigating the consequences of living one’s life online, and what they’ve discovered is discouraging.

  A systematic review from the University College London, published in June in PLOS Mental Health, looked at 12 studies involving 237 youths aged 10 to 19 who had a formal diagnosis of internet addiction between 2013 and 2023. All the studies were conducted in Asian countries.

  Researchers defined internet addiction as an inability to resist the urge to use the internet, which negatively affects mental well-being, as well as aspects of social, educational, and work life.

  All studies reviewed used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine how areas of the brain interact with each other (functional connectivity) in participants living with internet addiction while at rest and while completing a task. The effects were seen throughout multiple regions of the adolescent brain.

  The studies showed a mixture of increased and decreased activity in parts of the brain that are activated during rest, along with an overall decrease in functional connectivity in parts of the brain used in active thinking.

  The findings indicate these changes lead to addictive behaviors and tendencies in adolescents and behavioral changes associated with intellectual ability, physical coordination, and mental health and development.

  Functional Changes in the Brain

  Another study, published in 2023 in JAMA Pediatrics, investigated a group of 169 sixth- and seventh-grade students from a middle school in rural North Carolina. Researchers split the students into smaller groups according to how often they reported checking their Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat feeds.

  The habitual user group members checked their feeds 15 or more times daily, moderate users between one and 14 times, and nonhabitual users less than once daily.

  The children received three brain scans at roughly one-year intervals while they played a computer game that offered rewards and punishment in the form of smiling or scowling faces.

  While playing the game, frequent checkers demonstrated changes in brain regions linked to reward processing, which typically responds to experiences like winning money or risk-taking. They also had difficulty controlling impulsive or habitual behaviors.

  The findings indicate that teens who grow up checking social media more often become hypersensitive to feedback from other kids. They also experience fewer or less intense positive feelings from previously rewarding stimuli, which could drive them to pursue more potent feelings through increased reward-seeking behavior.

  However, the effects of habitual checking may depend on the individual, according to the authors.

  In some children, checking could become “compulsive and problematic” while others engage in “an adaptive behavior that allows them to better navigate their increasingly digital environment,” the authors suggested.

  Signs of Disruption

  Anzalone said that much like with other addictions, people addicted to the internet tend to exhibit a pattern of behaviors that impede daily functioning, such as excessive preoccupation with screen use and withdrawal symptoms when screen use is not possible.

  Other notable features of internet addiction include the following:

  • Inability to reduce time spent online
  • Lack of interest in other activities
  • Continued screen use despite real-world problems
  • Use of gaming to remove negative moods
  • Jeopardizing jobs, school, or relationships due to screen use

  Treatment

  According to Anzalone, treating teen internet addiction requires strong family involvement.

  He pointed out that most of the evidence regarding the treatment of internet addiction revolves around a combination of family therapy “to help promote effective communication and collaboration between caregivers and children,” promoting other activities to replace “hazardous media use,” and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to address distortions that patients may have about themselves or their screen usage.

  CBT is based on the idea that how people think about situations can affect their feelings and behaviors. Family therapy is a type of talk therapy focused on improving relationships between family members, which can help treat specific mental health or behavioral issues.

  A systematic review and meta-analysis of 57 randomized controlled trials found that CBT, in combination with other treatments, was among the therapies that ranked best to treat internet addiction effectively.

  “In many cases, the internet addiction is the symptom and not the cause of the problem, so it’s essential that we address any underlying mental health conditions that may be exacerbating the issues, such as depression, anxiety, or ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder),” Anzalone added.

  However, he emphasized that in severe cases, a “digital detox” may be needed. In this detox, exposure to nonessential screen use is gradually reduced, and mindful habits and better-quality activities replace constant digital stimulation. Only after this detox can children be safely reintroduced to technology.

  Prevention

  Anzalone suggested that parents be educated about how harmful excessive screen use is for children and provided with tools to help them raise children with healthy screen habits, the most important of which is parental support and interaction.

  “For young children, nothing will ever replace the quality time a caregiver spends with their child,” he said.

  He added that the more parents help their children explore their environment, encourage play outside, and provide children with emotional, social, and persistence coaching to help them better connect with the world and build resiliency to handle life’s stressors, “the less we will see them engage in various negative and maladaptive behaviors.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/05/2024 – 22:20

• "No Forgiveness": Maduro Arrests 2,000 Venezuelan Protesters, Vows 'Maximum Punishment'
  “No Forgiveness”: Maduro Arrests 2,000 Venezuelan Protesters, Vows ‘Maximum Punishment’

  Authored by Autumn Spredemann via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Post-election demonstrations in Venezuela continue as pressure mounts against disputed President Nicolás Maduro, who has firmly stood his ground amid ongoing calls to release voting details from the July 28 general election. In the streets, clashes between Venezuelan security forces and protesters have resulted in at least 20 deaths, according to Human Rights Watch.

  

  On Aug. 3, Maduro announced that 2,000 civilian arrests have been made and denounced those who contest his administration.

  “This time, there will be no forgiveness,” Maduro said during a Saturday rally of his supporters in Caracas. “We have 2,000 prisoners captured and from there, they will go to Tocorón and Tocuyito [prisons], maximum punishment, justice.”

  During what Maduro supporters called a “grand national march for the defense of peace,” allies of the disputed head of state gathered outside the presidential palace of Miraflores while Maduro delivered a fiery address that condemned the opposition-led protests.

  Maduro called for the arrest of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez for “electoral fraud,” and demanded a criminal sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison. Court authorities in Caracas reportedly issued an arrest warrant for Machado on July 31 for challenging the accuracy of the election results and encouraging protesters.

  Regardless, demonstrators are standing their ground after a week of protests, saying they believe there is evidence showing Gonzalez won the July 28 general election.

  Standing on a truck surrounded by other members of the nation’s largest anti-Chavez coalition, the Democratic Unitary Platform, Machado appeared before a crowd of opposition supporters on Saturday to encourage Venezuelans to fight for election integrity in the country.

  “After 6 days of brutal repression, they thought they were going to silence us, stop us, or intimidate us … look at the response,” Machado posted alongside a video of the opposition rally on the social media platform X.

  “Today, the presence of each citizen on the streets of Venezuela demonstrates the magnitude of the civic strength we have and the determination to go to the end,” Machado said.

  Presidential candidate Gonzalez also took to social media to show his support for the protesters and the calls for transparent election results.

  “Today, united Venezuela came out, without fear, in peace and with family, to demand respect for its decision at the polls. We will ensure that your decision is respected and we will begin the re-institutionalization of Venezuela,” Gonzalez stated on his X account.

  Venezuela’s post election demonstrations come at a time when “Chavismo” advocacy, named after former socialist President Hugo Chavez, has hit an all time low. In the months leading up to the presidential election, Maduro lost key support among voters that have historically been loyal to the country’s entrenched socialist party.

  Much of this is due to the unprecedented economic crisis that has come to a head since Maduro became president in 2013. Venezuela’s GDP contracted by more than 75 percent between 2013 and 2021, according to the International Monetary Fund. It represents the single largest economic collapse for a nation not at war in nearly five decades.

  This, in turn, has ignited an exodus of more than 7 million Venezuelans since 2014, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.

  The United States is among the growing pool of international voices, which includes Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom, that are pressuring Maduro to release election vote details.

  On Aug. 1, U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) introduced a resolution for the United States to recognize Gonzalez as the president-elect of Venezuela.

  “The Venezuelan people’s desire for freedom and democracy is admirable. The recent electoral process, which narco-dictator Maduro fraudulently claims he won, has been a testament to the tenacity of the Venezuelan spirit,” Rubio stated in a press release.

  The following day, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Gonzalez and Machado to congratulate the opposition candidate for “receiving the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election as documented by the democratic opposition’s extensive efforts to ensure a transparent accounting of the votes.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/05/2024 – 21:30

• Seattle Considers 'Catching And Releasing' From Des Moines Facility After King County Jail Runs Out Of Space
  Seattle Considers ‘Catching And Releasing’ From Des Moines Facility After King County Jail Runs Out Of Space

  Talk about eating your own tail…

  Seattle is infested with so much crime, its jails are running out of space. And, because King County Jail is running out of space, the city is now considering a program that “would pay for jail beds at the SCORE jail facility in Des Moines,” according to KIRO 7. 

  Its a move that the report says “would cost Seattle millions”. And, unsurprisingly, it isn’t winning any fans in Des Moines, as the SCORE facility would be used for offenders who are locked up only for 24-48 hours, before being released. 

  The report says that the Seattle City Council Public Safety Committee met Wednesday to discuss a pilot plan, with public comments varying from full support to calling it “theatre.” The proposal would fund at least 20 beds, costing $1.5 to $3 million annually, depending on usage.

  

  “It’s scary. It’s scary. Currently things are quiet, but if they start releasing them into our neighborhood, things could change,” said Joan Longnecker, who lives near the SCORE facility in Des Moines.

  Another neighbor says he doesn’t mind the program “as long as they are not released directly from that facility.”

  Under the proposal, Seattle officers would escort offenders to the facility and court dates, but the handoff process post-release is still being finalized. The City Council may vote on the pilot on August 6. A similar program with King County jails and SCORE was tried last year but ended after a few months due to cost and sustainability issues.

  Seattle does know they can use these very same tax dollars to pay the salaries of tough-on-crime DAs whose policies on crimes aren’t ‘let them back on the streets no matter what they do’, right? 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/05/2024 – 21:05

• What Is The Relationship Between Tech Innovation And Investor Euphoria
  What Is The Relationship Between Tech Innovation And Investor Euphoria

  Submitted by Brent Johnson of Santiago Capital.

  Executive Summary

  This report delves into the profound investment implications of innovation eras, specifically examining the 1920s and the 2000s.

  These periods have significantly influenced economic growth, stock market behavior, and investment strategies. They demonstrate how genuine technological advancements can drive economic booms, yet also underscore the risks of speculative bubbles when investor expectations exceed realistic outcomes, leading to market volatility and economic challenges.

  

  The 1920s marked a transformative era for the automobile industry, transitioning cars from luxury items to mass-market products. Henry Ford’s production innovations drastically reduced costs, making the Model T affordable for the average American family. The success of the Model T catalyzed economic growth in related sectors, including steel, rubber, and oil, due to the increased demand for raw materials. Major auto manufacturers like Ford, General Motors (GM), and Chrysler became industry titans. GM’s strategy of offering diverse models at different price points and Chrysler’s aggressive expansion through acquisitions and innovative engineering attracted significant investor interest.

  However, the euphoria surrounding the auto industry led to speculative investments, not only in manufacturers but also in companies producing auto parts, tires, and infrastructure related to automobiles. Smaller, often financially unstable car manufacturers like Durant Motors and Marmon Motor Car Company attracted substantial investments, driven by the hope of finding the next big success. The practice of buying stocks on margin exacerbated the speculative bubble. This method allowed investors to purchase stocks with borrowed money, increasing both potential gains and risks. When stock prices declined, it triggered a wave of selling to cover margin calls, contributing to market instability.

  By the late 1920s, production capacity outpaced consumer demand, leading to financial strain on smaller manufacturers. The realization that the extraordinary growth rates were unsustainable culminated in the stock market crash of 1929. The crash wiped out billions in wealth and precipitated the Great Depression, highlighting the fragile nature of speculative-driven markets.

  The 2000s introduced the digital age, characterized by the proliferation of the internet, mobile technologies, and social media platforms. Companies like Nvidia, Apple, Google, Meta, Tesla, Microsoft, and Amazon, collectively known as the “Magnificent 7,” became central to market valuations. These companies drove significant technological innovation and societal disruption, leading to immense market concentration. At peak valuations, the three largest of these (Microsoft, Nvidia, and Apple) collectively represented around a third of US GDP, a concentration unparalleled since the 1920s.

  Extreme valuations of today’s tech giants are driven by assumptions of continued exponential growth, invulnerability to competition, and resistance to future technological disruptions. These assumptions mirror the speculative optimism of the 1920s. The lessons from historical manias indicate that high
  valuations based on overly optimistic projections often lead to speculative bubbles and market corrections.

  Both the 1920s and the 2000s experienced rapid market adoption of new technologies, transforming daily life and driving economic growth. However, both periods also faced significant speculative excesses, leading to financial instability. Innovations in the 1920s, such as the automobile and household appliances, fundamentally changed how people lived and worked. Similarly, digital advancements in the 2000s, including smartphones and social media, redefined communication, media consumption, and social interactions.

  The historical parallels between the 1920s and the 2000s provide valuable insights into the relationship between technological innovation and investor behavior. While technological advancements can drive substantial economic growth, they also tend to lead to speculative bubbles and financial instability.  

  These two eras also caused much bigger investor manias due to the multitude of simultaneous technological breakthroughs.

  In isolation, each has had a profound impact on society and financial markets.

  Collectively, even more so.

  In both instances, the same common flawed thinking prevailed: There would be limited or no competition, the existing technology would not be surpassed, and estimations of future market saturation points were grossly exaggerated.

  We know the 1920s ended very badly. Expectations of future investment returns were predicated on nonsensical forecasts, market share and no future disruption. While we don’t yet know the ending of our current boom, we believe it is helpful to understand the relationship between innovation and investment manias of the past

  As new technological advancements continue to emerge, and tales of riches are presented, investors must remain vigilant about the risks that are sure to accompany these opportunities. The examples of past manias suggest the stretched valuations of tech giants today will eventually, and undoubtedly, also face challenges.

  The report seeks to emphasize the dual nature of technological progress—driving economic growth while also posing risks of speculative bubbles. Investors should balance their enthusiasm for new technologies with realistic assessments of market dynamics and potential risks, drawing lessons from historical innovation eras to navigate the current landscape.

  Background

  Why are these two eras so important and unique in financial history? What makes them so distinctly different from other innovation manias?

  How do technology revolutions lead to investment manias? Why do new inventions stir up animal spirits within investors? What makes them take leave of their senses, where genuine innovation breakthroughs lead them to suspend rational behavior?

  These two eras are unique for the multitude of innovations that took place within them.

  Most other innovation eras were centralized around a single innovation, whereas these two eras had many innovations colliding with each other all at once. As a result, these were turbo-charged.

  Conversely, the Canal Mania of the early 19th century in Britain was driven by the enthusiasm for constructing canals to improve transportation and stimulate economic growth. The success of earlier canal projects, such as the Bridgewater Canal, fueled speculative investment in new canal schemes.

  Promoters of canal projects issued shares and attracted significant investments, often based on exaggerated claims of profitability and future traffic. The bubble led to the construction of numerous canals, many of which were unprofitable due to overbuilding and competition. By the mid-1820s, the canal industry faced financial difficulties, and many investors suffered losses as canal stock prices fell and several projects failed.

  The Railway Mania in Britain in the 1840s was one of the first major technology-driven investment bubbles. As railways began to revolutionize transportation, promising faster, more efficient movement of goods and people, investors poured money into railway companies. The promise of huge returns fueled speculative investments, driving up stock prices.

  At its peak, Parliament authorized nearly 9,500 miles of railways – way beyond excess capacity. However, by 1846, the bubble burst, and investors lost fortunes as overvalued shares plummeted and numerous railway companies went bankrupt.

  The introduction of steamships in the early 19th century transformed maritime transportation, leading to a surge in investment in steamship companies. The potential for faster and more efficient trans-oceanic travel attracted speculative investments in new steamship lines and related infrastructure. Companies were often promoted with grand claims about their capabilities and potential profits.

  However, the overestimation of demand, competition, and technical difficulties led to a financial collapse in the steamship sector. Many companies failed, and stock prices plummeted, reflecting the overhyped expectations and eventual disillusionment with the steamship industry.

  The development of the electric telegraph in the mid-19th century revolutionized communication by enabling near-instantaneous transmission of messages over long distances. The success of Samuel Morse’s telegraph system inspired a wave of investment in telegraph companies and related technologies.

  Speculators were drawn to the rapid expansion of telegraph networks and the promise of lucrative returns from international communications. Companies such as the Atlantic Telegraph Company, which aimed to lay an undersea cable between Europe and North America, saw their stock prices soar. However, technical challenges and financial difficulties, including the failure of early transatlantic cables, led to a collapse in telegraph stock values and substantial investor losses.

  In the early 20th century, the electric power industry saw rapid technological advances and widespread adoption. Companies that promised to deliver electricity to homes and businesses attracted massive investment. The advent of electric lighting, along with the development of electrical appliances, drove speculative enthusiasm. Accordingly, investors flocked to electric utility companies and electric equipment manufacturers.

  However, the market soon became oversaturated with numerous competing companies, many of which were financially unstable. When the bubble burst, many electric companies failed, and investors faced substantial losses. This period highlighted the risks of overinvesting in emerging technologies without solid business fundamentals.

  In each of these singular innovation examples, the same common the same flawed thinking prevailed:

  • There would be limited or no competition
  • The existing technology would not be surpassed
  • Estimations of future market saturation points were grossly exaggerated.

  What happens when many innovations happen at once?

  If one singular innovation can lead to crazy investor behavior, what happens to investor behavior when many innovations occur at once?

  In the case of 1929, it took 25 years for the Dow Jones Industrial Average to surpass the peak of 1929.

  Let’s look at how today’s innovation euphoria compares to then.

  Continue reading at the Macro Alchemist.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/05/2024 – 20:40

• These Are The Richest Suburbs In America
  These Are The Richest Suburbs In America

  New York, California, and Texas are home to most of the wealthiest suburbs in the United States.

  This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Marcu Lu, ranks the top 10 wealthiest suburbs in America based on data compiled by GoBankingRates.

  

  Methodology

  GoBankingRates examined communities with 5,000 households or more, isolating those with the highest average household income according to the 2022 American Community Survey. The average home value for each city was sourced from Zillow.

  All data was collected and is current as of June 18, 2024.

  Scarsdale, NY: Leading the List

  The wealthiest suburb in the U.S. is Scarsdale, New York, where the average household income is $568,942 and typical home values exceed $1.4 million. Located 11 miles from Manhattan, Scarsdale has a population of around 20,000 and a significant Japanese community.

  Less than 15 minutes by car from Scarsdale is the second suburb on our list, Rye. It boasts an average household income of $405,074, and typical home values can exceed $2 million.

  

  Next on our list is West University Place, Texas. Located within the Greater Houston area, it has a population of around 15,000 and is nicknamed “The Neighborhood City” for serving mainly as a bedroom community for upper-class families.

  The fourth suburb on our list is Los Altos, California. Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, it has a population of 32,000. Once an agricultural town with summer cottages and apricot orchards, Los Altos is now a residential suburb on the western edge of Silicon Valley, providing a major commuting base for the region.

  In terms of coast comparisons, the East Coast has the wealthiest suburbs, with 23 making the top 50, including five from New York and five from New Jersey. The West Coast follows with 19 wealthy suburbs.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/05/2024 – 20:15

• Bangladesh Leader Flees Country In Helicopter As Protesters Storm Parliament
  Bangladesh Leader Flees Country In Helicopter As Protesters Storm Parliament

  Via Middle East Eye

  Bangladesh’s long-serving Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, resigned and fled the country on Monday, after protesters defied a military curfew and stormed her official residence.

  Hasina, who had been in power for 15 years, fled the capital Dhaka along with her sister by a helicopter to India, the daily newspaper Prothom Alo reported, after weeks of violent crack downs on protesters left nearly 300 people dead.

  

  Reuters reported that the two had left to seek “safe shelter” away from Hasina’s official residence.

  There was no immediate public statement from Hasina’s office, but army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman said in a televised address that the prime minister had resigned and the army was in talks with the president to form an interim government.

  Her resignation came a day after at least 95 people were killed and hundreds more wounded after a violent crackdown on protesters.

  Nationwide protests began a month ago, after a Bangladesh High Court verdict that was set to reintroduce a quota system in the country, reserving 30 percent of government jobs for the descendants of veterans who fought in the country’s independence war in 1971. 

  #Bangladesh: Full video of protestors storming PM’s palace in Dhaka. Protestors can be seen inside the office of Sheikh Hasina.pic.twitter.com/I0F0vPJYpY

  — Ahmer Khan (@ahmermkhan) August 5, 2024

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  Mass protests against the quota system, led by students who believed the move to be anti-meritocratic, were violently cracked down on by authorities for several weeks. More than 200 protesters were killed last month. 

  The deaths triggered further protests demanding accountability and the removal of Hasina, who has led the country since 2009. She had a previous stint as premier, between 1996 and 2001.

  Hasina’s party Awami League, which was born out of Bangladesh’s independence movement, has strengthened its grip on power over the past decade and a half. The party won four successive general elections, the most recent of which, in January, was boycotted by the opposition and had a markedly low turnout.

  The 76-year-old’s rule was marred by mass arrests of political opponents, the silencing of dissenting voices and accusations of human rights abuses. 

  Bangladesh Parliament now. pic.twitter.com/4Kp7qrBP6d

  — Dr Shajul Islam | Humanitarian Aid Worker (@DrShajulIslam) August 5, 2024

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  Hasina is the daughter of Shiekh Mujibur Rahman, leader of Bangladesh’s independence movement in the 1970s and ‘father of the nation’.

  Video footage on Monday showed protesters in Dhaka climbing on top of a large statue of the founding father and chizelling away at the head with an axe. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/05/2024 – 19:50

• Report Finds Biden-Harris Released 99 Illegal Aliens On FBI Terror Watchlist Into American Communities 
  Report Finds Biden-Harris Released 99 Illegal Aliens On FBI Terror Watchlist Into American Communities 

  A new interim staff report from the House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, published on Monday, highlights how the Biden administration, with ‘Border Czar’ VP Kamala Harris, facilitated the greatest illegal alien invasion ever on the United States.

  The report titled “Terror At Our Door: How The Biden-Harris Administration’s Open-Borders Policies Undermine National Security And Endanger Americans” revealed that the failed southern border policies of President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris have flooded the nation with more than 5.4 million illegal aliens. Additionally, at least 1.9 million known “gotaways” also entered, bringing the total to 7.3 million illegal entries.

  

  Fox News’ Bill Melugin, who also reviewed the report, said the border data that dates back between 2021-23 shows “at least 99 illegal aliens on the FBI terror watchlist were released into the US after being arrested by Border Patrol at the southern border, and another 34 watchlisted aliens are still in DHS custody.” 

  BREAKING: Per new DHS data provided to @JudiciaryGOP, between fiscal years 2021-2023, at least 99 illegal aliens on the FBI terror watchlist were released into the US after being arrested by Border Patrol at the southern border, and another 34 watchlisted aliens are still in DHS…

  — Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) August 5, 2024

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  And this. 

  More significant findings from the report: pic.twitter.com/K9OkRlJaQc

  — Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) August 5, 2024

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  “With the border in chaos under the Biden-Harris Administration, the terrorist threat to the homeland has skyrocketed. This border insecurity has been the Administration’s choice, and it is a mistake,” the report stated. 

  The report noted that 375 illegal aliens on the US Gov’ts terrorist watchlist have been apprehended by Border Patrol agents under Biden’s first term with VP Harris as Border Czar. 

  The report continued, “That is a more than 3,000 percent increase of watchlisted alien encounters compared to all four years of the Trump Administration.” 

  At the end of last month, leftist MSM spent days in an all-out propaganda media blitz to convince voters that VP Harris was never border Czar – that’s because the nation killing open southern borders pushed by Biden & Harris is such a disastrous topic during the election cycle.

  

  Meanwhile, national security ‘experts’ have warned countless times that the Biden-Harris Administration’s open-border policies can only suggest it’s only a matter of time before a terror event unfolds in the US.  

  Just last week, we reported…

  • Three Palestinian Terror Suspects Detained At Southern Border As Agents Lament Lack Of Resources

  In June.

  • 8 Suspected Illegal Alien Terrorists Arrested In New York, Philadelphia & LA

  In April.

  • Afghan Migrant On Terror List Released By Immigration Judge, Free To Roam USA

  And in March.

  • Iranian Assassin On The Loose In America, Targeting Trump-era Officials

  This aged well. 

  Bill, I find this very difficult to understand given that the Border Czar said that terrorists were not crossing over the southern border. pic.twitter.com/INz9hG4lUq

  — Ian McKelvey (@ian_mckelvey) August 5, 2024

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  A majority of Americans care about two things ahead of the elections: 1) inflation and 2) the border. 

  For Harris and Obama’s Democrat party, there’s no escaping that disastrous border issue.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/05/2024 – 19:25

• Weird: Dems Use 16 Year Old Photo Of Kamala Surrounded By 'Michelle' Signs To Promote DNC
  Weird: Dems Use 16 Year Old Photo Of Kamala Surrounded By ‘Michelle’ Signs To Promote DNC

  Authored by Steve Watson via modernity.news,

  In a strange move, the official X account of the Democratic Party chose to upload an image of Kamala Harris that is 16 years old, surrounded by signs that say ‘Michelle’ as a way of promoting the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

  This is the image:

  

  Weird.

  It’s an image from the 2008 DNC, where Harris was watching Michelle Obama speak.

  For those wondering, this picture is from DNC 08, during Michelle Obama’s speech. It’s their way of telling you who is really in charge, as has been the case since 2008: the Obamas. pic.twitter.com/ASOH7uYJ79

  — Raheem. (@RaheemKassam) August 4, 2024

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  It’s not even a good image. It’s all blurred and has a massive lens flare.

  Why was this image used when there are thousands of images of the DNC and Kamala Harris that are in focus and more recent?

  Is this picture supposed telling us you’re dropping Harris for Michelle Obama? 😂

  — Sp4rks A Flying (@Sp4rksaflyin) August 4, 2024

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  That doesn’t say Kamala. Weird. pic.twitter.com/vSUf0DVuCc

  — Profitable Sloth (@profitabl3sloth) August 4, 2024

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  Big Mike swings the Big hammer of power.

  — Tacticool surrection (@tactictwitorist) August 4, 2024

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  Your signs and candidate don’t have the same name…

  — Arizona Libertarian Party (@Arizona_LP) August 4, 2024

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  Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/05/2024 – 19:00

• "Chip Wars" Will Soon Be "Data Center Wars", As Our "Next AI Trade" Develops
  “Chip Wars” Will Soon Be “Data Center Wars”, As Our “Next AI Trade” Develops

  As we have alluded to numerous times when talking about the next “AI” trade, data centers will be the “factories of the future” when it comes to the age of AI.

  That’s the contention of Chris Miller, the author of Chip War, who penned a recent opinion column for Financial Times noting that ‘chip wars’ could very soon become ‘cloud wars’.

  He points out that the strategic use of high-powered computing dates back to the Cold War when the US allowed the USSR limited access to supercomputers for weather forecasting, not nuclear simulations.

  AI systems today, like supercomputers, have dual civilian and military applications, making control over AI data centers politically and economically significant.

  He tells FT readers that many countries are investing heavily in AI data centers. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kazakhstan, and Malaysia are expanding their AI infrastructure, attracting investments from US and Chinese companies. US cloud companies, eyeing lucrative contracts, argue they must compete in these markets to prevent China from dominating.

  

  American diplomats are also focused on data centers to block Chinese tech influence, , according to his FT piece. 

  As an example, Chris points out that Microsoft’s new data center in Kenya, announced during President Biden’s meeting with President Ruto, will be developed with G42, a UAE-owned company with ties to Chinese firms like Huawei. This partnership raises security concerns in Washington, prompting calls for strict compliance measures.

  He concludes:

  Chips, clouds and data centres are intrinsically interlinked, so long as high-end, export-controlled chips give cloud computing companies the ability to deploy AI efficiently. The tech competition that started with silicon is now intruding into a new layer of the computing stack.

  Recall, for those that missed it, in April of this year we introduced our subscribers to what we thought would be the “Next AI Trade“, which – if it had be summarized in one word – was basically this: the “electrification” of the current AI trade, which includes everything from massive tech giants needed gigawatts of power to operate their operations, to Matrix-like battalions of data centers spread across the country and likewise needing a staggering amount of electricity.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/05/2024 – 18:40

• Federal Court Orders California College To Drop Censorship Policy
  Federal Court Orders California College To Drop Censorship Policy

  Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,

  A federal judge ordered a California community college on Aug. 2 not to enforce a poster policy that was used against three students whose anti-communist posters were taken down.

  

  U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston found that the poster policy of Fresno-based Clovis Community College violated the students’ First Amendment and 14th Amendment rights.

  The policy forbade students from displaying material at the taxpayer-funded school containing language or themes deemed “inappropriate” or “offensive.”

  The new order also applies to the State Center Community College District (SCCCD), the state district where the college is located. The district is home to four community colleges, including Clovis.

  The judge issued a permanent injunction preventing the school and the district “from enforcing, by policy or practice, any unlawful viewpoint—discriminatory, overbroad, or vague regulation, or prior restraint, on the content of the speech of recognized student clubs, including but not limited to bans on ‘inappropriate’ or ‘offensive’ language.”

  All the parties in the lawsuit, including Clovis and the district, consented to the order.

  The college and the district agreed in a separate settlement to cover $250,000 of the students’ legal expenses and pay the three students each $20,000 in damages. The settlement also requires a $20,000 payment to their group, the campus chapter of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF).

  In addition, the settlement requires the district to conduct annual First Amendment training sessions for all administrators going forward.

  The new order came after the judge issued a preliminary injunction against the school in October 2022 blocking the poster policy.

  “The mere threat of enforcement of an unconstitutional restriction on speech may create a chilling effect sufficient to show irreparable harm,” Thurston wrote at the time.

  The policy “undermines the school’s own interest in fostering a diversity of viewpoints on campus, thus frustrating, rather than promoting, the College’s basic educational mission.”

  The case goes back to November 2021, when the students wanted to criticize authoritarianism.

  Alejandro Flores, Daniel Flores, and Juliette Colunga said they secured permission from campus administrators to hang three posters on bulletin boards inside the academic buildings at Clovis, as required by the college’s policy at the time.

  The posters promoted freedom and listed the death tolls of communist regimes, associating communism with the “blind arrogance of the left.”

  

  Juliette Colunga, a member of Young Americans for Freedom, at Clovis Community College in California, in a file photo. (Courtesy of Alvarez Photography Studio)

  But the school later banned the public display of the posters and withheld permission for the club members to display pro-life posters, the students said.

  The students sued and in October 2022 were granted the order temporarily blocking the poster policy. The other side appealed, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the lower court’s order in August 2023, finding the policy was unconstitutional because it gave administrators unlimited discretion to suppress speech that they didn’t approve.

  The Ninth Circuit upheld Thurston’s finding that the policy was too broad and vague to survive constitutional scrutiny. The circuit court also said it rejected an argument by Clovis that because the college later “rescinded the original Flyer Policy,” the court was deprived of the legal authority to hear the case.

  “We won. We showed the school they were wrong,” YAF-Clovis founder Alejandro Flores said in a statement provided by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which represented the students in the lawsuit.

  “If you think your speech is being stifled, don’t stay quiet, because when you stay quiet, nothing changes.”

  FIRE attorney Daniel Ortner told The Epoch Times the judge’s new ruling was an “enormous victory for over 50,000 community college students in California and for the First Amendment.”

  “You can’t take down posters because they’re offensive,” he said.

  Jill Wagner, spokesperson for the district, and Stephanie Babb, spokesperson for the college, confirmed that administrators had made changes to their poster policies following the case.

  “The court determined that a few words in the prior Clovis Community College flyer posting procedure needed to be changed. In response, SCCCD updated its policy to apply to all campuses,” they told The Epoch Times by email.

  “A settlement was reached to avoid the cost, uncertainty, and distractions that come with any litigation,” they said.

  “SCCCD is committed to upholding the values of the First Amendment and we look forward to ensuring that all members of our community recognize the virtues and benefits of free speech.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/05/2024 – 18:20

• Plot Twist: RFK Jr Says He Put A Dead Bear In Central Park, Staged Accident Scene
  Plot Twist: RFK Jr Says He Put A Dead Bear In Central Park, Staged Accident Scene

  With wild plot twists and high intrigue, the 2024 election has been playing out like a TV miniseries. Straining to keep the ratings high, Sunday’s episode just served up a bizarre admission from secondary character Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. You’ve heard of “jumping the shark”? Call this “jumping the bear.” 

  Apparently racing to beat an upcoming report from The New Yorker, Kennedy has confessed that he dumped a dead bear in Central Park in 2014, and staged the scene to make it look like the cub had been killed in a collision with a bicycle. In a video he posted to social media, Kennedy is shown kicking back in a kitchen, sharing the colorful anecdote with actress Rosanne Barr.  

  

  Kennedy said he was driving up to the Hudson Valley for a falconing hunt when a van in front of him struck and killed the bear cub. “I pulled over and I picked up the bear and put him in the back of my van because I was going to skin the bear. It was very good condition and I was going to put the meat in my refrigerator,” he said, noting that New York state allows people to get a “bear tag for a roadkill bear.” 

  However, he and his hunting party had such a productive and enjoyable hunt that they ended up staying late. That precluded a trip back to his home in Westchester, because he had a dinner at Peter Luger Steak House in New York in New York City. The dinner went long too, and he had a flight to catch, again barring a trip to his refrigerator. 

  Kristi Noem: No one will top my bizarre animal killing stories.

  RFK Jr.: Hold my bear.

  — Josh Gondelman (@joshgondelman) August 4, 2024

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  Not wanting to leave the bear to rot in his car, the then-60-year-old Kennedy opted to turn his conundrum into a sophomoric prank that would capitalize on a controversy that was ongoing in New York City at the time, as multiple people had been killed and badly injured using recently-installed bike lanes. Conveniently, Kennedy had an old bicycle in his car that someone had given him to dispose of.

  “I wasn’t drinking, of course, but people were drinking with me who thought this was a good idea,” said Kennedy. “I said, ‘Let’s go put this bear in Central Park and we’ll make it look like he got hit by a bike.” The independent candidate said he and his unnamed companions thought it would be “amusing for whoever found it.” 

  RFK Jr.: I should drive past that dead bear

  The worm in RFK Jr’s brain: Stage a bike accident pic.twitter.com/lsuzpcHH96

  — Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) August 4, 2024

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  Kennedy then related his shock and anxiety when he woke the next morning to see his stunt had not only caused a huge media sensation, but intense police scrutiny:

  The next day, it was on every television station. It was the front page of every paper, and I turned on the TV and there was a mile of yellow tape and there were 20 cop cars. There were helicopters flying over it. And I was like, ‘Oh my God, what did I do?’ 

  There were some people on TV in Tyvek suits with gloves on, lifting up the bike, and they’re saying they’re going to take this up to Albany to get it fingerprinted. I was worried because my prints were all over that bike.” 

  Kennedy was recently contacted by The New Yorker’s  fact-checkers to confirm the tale was true. “You know, it’s going to be a bad story,” said Kennedy, with Barr and someone else in the room erupting in laughter as the video ends.  

  Looking forward to seeing how you spin this one, @NewYorker… pic.twitter.com/G13taEGzba

  — Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) August 4, 2024

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  In an odd coincidence, some of the New York Times’ 2014 reporting on the discovery of the 44-pound, approximately 6-month-old bear was handled by Tatiana Schlossberg, daughter of RFK Jr’s first cousin, Caroline Kennedy. New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation later concluded the bear was killed by a collision with a motor vehicle. 

  According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, Kennedy is the top choice of 8% of voters. Last week, his campaign said that, in working to secure ballot access, it had crossed over one million signatures collected, saying that was more than any presidential candidate in American history.” The campaign says it has now hit the signature requirement in 42 states representing 480 electoral votes. 

  Meanwhile, watch for Democratic talking heads to decry the bear story as an indicator of Kennedy’s un-fitness for high office, while most normal people will find it just plain old funny. 

  Trump just absolutely champing at the bit trying to get the news cycle back on him and then RFK jr. pops out of a cake screaming, “A DECADE AGO I STAGED THE MURDER OF A BEAR CUB IN CENTRAL PARK!!!”

  — Hank Green (@hankgreen) August 5, 2024

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  Every detail of the RFK bear cub story makes me think that having generational wealth must be truly awesome

  — kang (@jaycaspiankang) August 4, 2024

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  I put that bear in Central Park and can’t believe RFK jr is taking credit.

  — John Lurie (@lurie_john) August 4, 2024

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  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/05/2024 – 18:00

• Is Kamala Harris Going To Make The Entire Country As Lawless As Her Hometown?
  Is Kamala Harris Going To Make The Entire Country As Lawless As Her Hometown?

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

  Kamala Harris is being touted as the solution to all of America’s problems.  Since she didn’t do much as vice-president, and since she didn’t really accomplish much while she was in the U.S. Senate, many Americans feel like they don’t really know her too well.  So a lot of them are buying into the carefully crafted image that is now being projected by the Democratic Party.  But is that image accurate?  Harris spent many years ascending through the ranks of the Democratic Party in California, and of course the Democratic Party has been systematically transforming that state into a hellhole. 

  

  There is a reason why millions of people have been moving out of California in recent years.  But Harris isn’t just from California. 

  Her hometown is literally one of the worst places in the entire country…

  In January 2019, Kamala Harris launched her 2020 presidential campaign in Oakland. On Friday, Kamala Harris secured enough votes to become the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee, hours after her supporters rallied in her hometown of Oakland.

  As some put it, “Oakland is all in for Kamala.”

  The last time Oakland had a Republican mayor was in 1977.

  This is a city that is completely and utterly dominated by the Democrats.

  Under their rule, it has become a cesspool of drugs, homelessness, violence and theft.  Here is just one example of how incredibly lawless Oakland has become…

  In early July, a mob of 80 to 100 looters barged into an Oakland gas station and convenience store and stripped the business bare.

  According to the New York Post, the mob originated nearby at a so-called sideshow, which is essentially lawless street racing that’s become common in Oakland.

  It was bad enough that the store was hit by looters, but what made it worse is that the police took nine hours to respond, according to the owner.

  It took nine hours for the police to show up.

  Nine hours.

  A few years ago, Kamala Harris was one of the politicians that was publicly calling for police budgets to be reduced.

  When you do that, this is what happens.

  At this point, Oakland is so lawless that it even has a “major problem” with pirates…

  Oh, and pirates—yes, pirates—are a major problem in the waters around Oakland. The pirates reportedly come from the city’s myriad homeless encampments. Police have made a few arrests, but the problem now seems endemic in Oakland’s harbors.

  California liberalism has transformed Oakland into one of the worst cities in North America.

  And if she is given the opportunity, Kamala Harris will impose California liberalism on the whole nation.

  Other cities that have been ruled by Democrats for decades are experiencing similar results.

  Just look at what is happening to Seattle.  One man recently ventured into downtown Seattle in the middle of the night, and the footage that he captured looks like something out of a horror show.

  At one point in my life, I spent some time in the Seattle area.

  I can hardly believe what has happened to that once great city.

  Of course the entire country is going downhill really fast.  According to a new report that was just released, shoplifting in the United States increased by 24 percent during the first half of this year…

  Shoplifting increased by 24 percent in the first half of 2024, according to the Council on Criminal Justice’s mid-year report, even as other crime levels decreased.

  In many cases, shoplifting is seen as a “crime of necessity” for low-income Americans. As inflation continues to impact both businesses and families, shoplifting rates have surged even higher.

  “Shoplifting as such a widespread crime during a time of high inflation is actually quite common when you look at similar times from other countries in the past,” Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek. “The one-two punch that consumers face is not just higher prices, but also a drawback of additional financial resources they would normally qualify for because of their current employment and income outlook.”

  Shoplifting was already at record levels coming into this year.

  And now it has jumped another 24 percent?

  That is insane.

  In some of our major cities, shoplifting is wildly out of control.  Recently, one reporter spoke to a woman that works at a CVS location in Washington D.C. where there is constant theft…

  The Center Square spoke with a 38-year-old woman who goes by “Jones” who works at a CVS within eyeshot of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

  Jones told The Center Square that shoplifters take from her store daily.

  When Jones does see customers steal something, she doesn’t stop them.

  “We don’t get paid for that,” she said.

  This is happening right in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol building.

  When something is stolen, this woman says that employees are not even supposed to contact the police.  Instead, they are just supposed to write down what was stolen on a clipboard…

  She said procedure is not to notify police but to write a description of the thief and what was stolen down on a form on a clipboard. Jones’ clipboard has seemingly a hundred pages stacked, at least one for each day, many of them filled with reported incidents.

  By 11:15 am Thursday morning when Jones spoke with The Center Square, the store had already been stolen from four times that day, at least as far as she knew.

  This is what anarchy looks like.

  And the chaos in our major cities is constantly getting worse, because the Biden administration refuses to secure the border.

  It is being reported that the most violent gang in Venezuela has decided to move its headquarters to a city in Mexico that is directly across the border from El Paso, Texas…

  Venezuela’s most violent gang, which has already sparked chaos across the US, has moved its headquarters to the outskirts of a major American city, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.

  Dubbed the ‘epitome of evil’, the notorious criminal organization Tren de Aragua, or TdA as it is known by federal agents, previously operated out of an infamous South American prison so completely under gang leaders’ control that it had its own zoo, swimming pool and nightclub.

  But after kingpin Hector Guerrero Flores escaped last year, the mafia moved its command center to Ciudad Juarez in Mexico on the US border – directly across from El Paso, Texas, local officials told DailyMail.com.

  Since the border is wide open, this new location gives this gang the perfect staging ground for conducting operations inside the United States.

  In fact, this gang has already become extremely active in major cities far from the border such as Denver and New York…

  A memo by the Department of Homeland Security recently revealed that the TDA members in Denver have been given a ‘green light’ to shoot or attack police officers, reported Fox News.

  The gang is also thought to have joined forces with other criminal networks in New York, unleashing violent schemes including brazen moped phone thefts.

  According to NBC News, Joe Biden “tapped Kamala Harris to tackle the daunting issue of immigration in March 2021”.

  Obviously that didn’t work out too well.

  But now we are just supposed to ignore all that.

  And we are just supposed to ignore the endless chaos in our major cities.

  They are telling us that we should vote for Kamala Harris because she will bring “change” to America.

  Based on the “change” that we have witnessed in her hometown, I don’t know why anyone would ever want that.

  *  *  *

  Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/05/2024 – 17:40

• Monday Massacre Brought To You By Kazuo's Carry-Chaos, Kamalanomics, & Jump's Crypto Dump
  Monday Massacre Brought To You By Kazuo’s Carry-Chaos, Kamalanomics, & Jump’s Crypto Dump

  Well it started with a Japanic… but really Asian markets were just playing catch down to Friday’s moves. Yen strength (carry trade unwind accelerates post-BoJ) weighed on stocks and TOPIC had its worst day since the 1987 collapse…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  How much more pain will Kazuo Ueda unleash on the Japanese public before he pivots dovish once again

  “You can’t unwind the biggest carry trade the world has ever seen without breaking a few heads. That is the impression markets give us this morning,” Kit Juckes, chief foreign exchange strategist at Societe Generale, said in a research note published Monday.

  In the US, the narrative transition from ‘soft landing’ to ‘hard landing’ stoked the flames of the sell-off and some pointed to Kamala Harris overtaking Trump in the prediction markets as exacerbating equity weakness.

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Trump predicted several years ago, “If Biden gets in [office], the market will crash.” And only a couple of days ago, Trump stated, “If Harris wins this election, you will quickly have a Kamala economic crash, you’re going to have a crash.” He told his Georgia rally audience. “You could also have a crash like in 1929, more specifically, ‘cause that’s where we’re heading.”

  Unfortunately for many Americans, it seems the stock market crash didn’t wait for Harris’s potential election.

  “KAMALA KRASH”

  Donald Trump Truth Social 02:53 PM EST 08/05/24 @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/QBqqS7HtxM

  — Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) August 5, 2024

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

  At their worst, Small Caps and Nasdaq were down 6% today, before dip-buyers stepped in and lipstick’d this pig of a day. By the close, all the majors were down around 3-3.5% on the day…

  

  Goldman Sachs trading desk noted tht overall activity levels are surging up +63% vs. the trailing 2 weeks in line with market volumes up +99% vs the 10dma. Our floor tilts +6% better to buy, driven by HFs while LOs just flipped from net seller to net buyer.

  • HFs are +11% better to buy and shockingly are better to buy in every sector ex-REITs.  Demand heaviest in Tech, Cons Disc, Comm Svcs & Fins which are all +$100mm net better to buy

  • LOs are now flat on the day after starting out -10% better for sale.  A bit more dispersion in their sector skews, buying Comm Svcs, Cons Disc, HCare & Fins while selling Tech, Staples, Mats & Macro Products

  The S&P closed below its critical CTA pivot threshold…

  

  The S&P 500 broke below its 100DMA…

  

  Nasdaq broke below its 200DMA but found a supportive bid there…

  

  “Most Shorted” stocks were slammed again at the open

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Mag7 stocks are now down a stunning $3 trillion from their record highs…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  NVDA is now down 35% from its record highs…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The ‘Ai trade’ is rapidly unwinding, breaking below its 200DMA…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  VIX surged to 65 intraday – its highest since COVID lockdown chaos – before vol-sellers stepped in (but it ended up around 35 still!)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  VVIX exploded higher – near all-time record highs…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The Treasury market was chaotic today (but you’d barely notice if you were checking close to close). Yields collapsed by almost 20bps intraday… twice… before squeezing back higher and ending pratically unchanged. The long-end ended up outperforming on the day (30Y -4bps, 2Y +1bps)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The yield curve (2s10s) briefly dis-inverted today for the first time since June 2022…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The dollar dropped again, testing the mid-May lows…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Crude oil plunged back to test its lows since February today ($71 handle for WTI)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Gold was monkeyhammered lower today too, breaking below $2400 before finding support…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Crypto markets were clubbed like a baby seal overnight amid reports that Jump Trading was liquidating its holdings. Bitcoin crashed below $50,000 for the first time since February (basically erasing all the post-ETF gains), then bounced notably off those lows…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Finally, the market appears to be testing The Fed – demanding almost 140bps of cuts in 2024 at the peak today (as 2025 cuts are brought forward)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Now, don’t forget that this is the third time the market has gone to the limit on Fed rate cuts in the last year. Will Powell fold and unleash the Put?

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/05/2024 – 17:25

• Two Chinese Nationals In U.S. Illegally Stopped With $250,000 In Gold Bars On Them In Texas
  Two Chinese Nationals In U.S. Illegally Stopped With $250,000 In Gold Bars On Them In Texas

  Just a normal everyday traffic stop: pulling over a couple of Chinese nationals, driving through Texas, with $250,000 worth of gold bars on their person.

  That was the scene last week in Van Zandt County, according to KETK NBC.

  Sgt. Charlie Hughes of the Wills Point Police Department was monitoring traffic on I-20 near the 533-mile marker when he saw a White Chevy Malibu with Michigan plates committing a traffic violation.

  He then stopped the vehicle and identified the driver as 25-year-old Weijian Chen.

  KETK writes that due to a language barrier, Hughes asked Chen to use a translator app in his patrol vehicle to communicate.

  The officer said that during the interview he “observed multiple factors that lead [him] to believe there was criminal activity afoot.” 

  The driver said that he was heading to Dallas and had also been in Florida to “play”. 

  The vehicle was rented under the name of the passenger, 46-year-old Wenqiang Lin, who consented to a search but appeared uncertain. A K9 unit alerted to the front passenger door.

  

  Inside, officials found a Spirit Airlines boarding pass indicating that Weijian Chen had flown from Los Angeles to Atlanta on July 30-31 without any bags. The rental agreement showed the car was rented in College Park, Georgia, on July 31 and was due in Los Angeles by August 3, the report continued. 

  A bag behind the driver’s seat contained gold bullion bars worth an estimated $200,000 to $250,000, including:

  • Seven 1-ounce 999.9 gold bars
  • Three 5-gram 999.9 gold bars
  • One 1-gram 999.9 gold bar marked with 20 squares
  • Eight 10-ounce 999.9 gold bars

  After arresting Chen and Lin, Sgt. Hughes contacted U.S. Homeland Security, which revealed both men had entered the country illegally. Lin entered on September 15, 2023, and was awaiting immigration processing in Los Angeles. Chen entered on December 17, 2023, and is also pending immigration judicial action.

  “Based on my training, I know that it is very unlikely that Lin or Chen could have transported the gold bullion through airport Transportation Security Administration security checkpoint with[out] filing a United States Currency Transaction Report,” the officer said.

  KETK wrote:

  During an interview at the Van Zandt County Jail, Chen allegedly stated that the gold bars had been given to him by someone to transport to Dallas however he declined to give any further information.

  Both suspects have been charged with money laundering and are being held on $100,000 bond.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/05/2024 – 17:20

• The Upside Of Adversity
  The Upside Of Adversity

  Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

  A steady diet of adversity prepares one for both the low-level adversities of daily life but also for the metaphorical droughts and floods that push us to our limits of endurance and adaptability.

  We all know the downside of adversity: it’s tiresome, and if it pushes us up against our limits long enough, it can break us.

  If my life is any indication, some of our adversity is outside our choosing and control, while other instances of adversity result from our own decisions and/or traits. We may take risks with the goal of advancing, and end up with adversity. We may choose a difficult path and find it far more arduous than we could possibly have imagined. Or we may have experienced success from the start, and be unprepared for the adversity that inevitably follows easy success.

  Longtime correspondent Matthew W. recently observed that humans share a core trait with other forms of life:

  “Just like animals and crops, if you give too much up front, they grow weak, and being unable to stand any hardship, eventually succumb to simple problems that any normal living thing could tolerate. I see the same application in work. The one who must struggle ceaselessly during training flourishes when placed into a space that requires typical prowess, whereas those who are constantly led by the hand, require massive support systems to do even simple tasks, until their ineptitude ultimately bankrupts the company, leading to their loss of work.”

  This is the upside of adversity: a steady diet of adversity prepares one for both the low-level adversities of daily life (Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, etc.) but also for the metaphorical droughts and floods that push us to our limits of endurance and adaptability.

  As the famed stoic emperor Marcus Aurelius observed, “You have power over your mind–not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” In other words, we don’t control everything going on around us, we only control our response to the circumstances we find ourselves in.

  Where we find strength to endure adversity depends on our experience and personality. In the modern era, the Existentialists perceived the world as devoid of absolutes, and so we make our lives by our actions. Ralph Waldo Emerson said as much: “Do the thing and you shall have the power.”

  My summary is: never mind what you think or feel, just do the work: persevere above all else. Marcus said much the same: “Begin–to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.”

  It is noteworthy that Marcus spent the entire first chapter of his Meditations expressing gratitude to all those who taught him and aided his advance in skills and wisdom. Gratitude for what we have and have learned helps us orient ourselves to the task at hand, enduring adversity and emerging stronger as a result. Here is Marcus: “Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already.”

  There is also the strength found in faith, something philosopher Soren Kierkegaard addressed in the 19th century. To have faith that the adversity we must endure is as it should be, despite the difficulties and suffering: “And when one knows the frightful truth that there is no evasion or excuse, then one does what one shall.” (page 15, The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air)

  For Kierkegaard, faith is not only seeking God’s aid, it is a life-changing experience: “The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”

  Marcus expressed similar notions of fate and faith:

  “Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.”

  “Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, ‘This is a misfortune’ but ‘To bear this worthily is good fortune.'”

  “Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.”

  The Taoists viewed the world as constant change, and our adversities arise from seeking the impossible: to lock in a situation that suits us. As Lao Tzu wrote in the Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing), “Reversal is the movement of Tao.” For the Taoists, the highest skills flow from constant practice until the skills summon themselves.

  Marcus possessed the same wisdom:

  “Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.”

  And so how to we proceed in the face of adversity? By moving forward: As Lao Tzu wrote: “The journey of a thousand li begins with a single step.”

  Here is Marcus: “Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it… Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.”

  For Kierkegaard, the ultimate purpose of life is to acquire oneself, to become true to oneself: “The most common form of despair is not being who you are.”

  “The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly.”

  If we can remain true to ourselves, then we’ll discover what Marcus knew: “Where a man can live, he can also live well.”

  It is wise to focus on what we can do in the present moment, but also wise to explore our past for insights and strengths we can apply to the present:

  Marcus: “Confine yourself to the present.”

  Kierkegaard: “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

  

  *  *  *

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  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/05/2024 – 17:00