Jul 06

Today’s News 6th July 2024

  • The Hidden History Of Robert Mueller's Right-Wing Terror Factory, Part 2
    The Hidden History Of Robert Mueller’s Right-Wing Terror Factory, Part 2

    Authored by Ken Silva via Headline USA,

    The first article of this series chronicled the FBI’s mid-2000s program to stage neo-Nazi rallies around the country as a means to conduct surveillance and recruit potential informants.

    FBI motorcycle group. PHOTO: ChatGPT

    Those rallies were just the beginning of a sweeping multi-state investigation, Headline USA can reveal.

    Indeed, after an FBI informant was exposed in 2007 for organizing a Nazi rally in Orlando the year before, the bureau launched another operation in the same area. Dubbed “Primitive Affliction,” the FBI set up a neo-Nazi motorcycle front group to infiltrate Florida’s right-wing underground.

    Federal agencies are known to have used motorcycle front groups cases against targets such as the Hells Angels for drug- and gun-trafficking investigations. However, Headline USA is unaware of such a tactic being employed in a politically charged domestic terrorism case until Primitive Affliction.

    This publication has also found that then-FBI Director Robert Mueller had a personal interest in Primitive Affliction, which ran from about 2007 to 2012. Indeed, Mueller was briefed daily on the operation during its final stages, according to a newly unearthed performance review of one undercover cop on the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.

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    Because Primitive Affliction collapsed with no terrorism convictions, the case never grabbed the national spotlight. However, a deeper look at the case reveals infiltration and entrapment techniques used by the FBI in 1990s investigations against the Aryan Nations, as well as more recent cases such as the 2020 militia conspiracy to kidnap Michigan’s governor.

    Mueller did not respond to an email about Primitive Affliction. The FBI declined to comment.

    Reviving the Aryan Nations

    In the 1980s and 90s, the Aryan Nations rivaled the Ku Klux Klan as the face of “white hate” in America—and for good reason, having been linked to numerous bank robberies, the assassination of a Jewish radio host and the Oklahoma City bombing, along with other crimes.

    But by the mid-2000s, the Aryan Nations was largely decimated by numerous arrests and civil litigation. The group had splintered into various factions around the country. One of its remaining leaders, August Kreis, was desperate to consolidate power.

    Working out of a South Carolina mobile home with a man named Joshua Caleb Sutter—who was a known FBI informant since 2003—Kreis attempted several publicity stunts to put his name on the map.

    For example, at one point Kreis pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and claimed to seek an alliance with Muslim jihadists. Sutter, who was Kreis’s “minister for Islamic liaison,”  also reportedly posted a “message of solidarity and support” to Saddam Hussein on the Aryan Nations Web site. (If Sutter’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he made headlines in 2021, when it was revealed that he earned more than $100,000 from the FBI while running a Satanic publishing house.)

    When that didn’t work in attracting new members or donations, Kreis began plotting with another Aryan Nations member, Robert Killian. Like Sutter, Killian turned out to be undercover law enforcement—Killian an undercover cop on the FBI’s JTTF.

    An avid motorcyclist living in Orlando, Killian had been hanging out at a local Outlaw biker bar while posing online as a member of the Aryan Nations. Using the name “Doc,” by 2007 he had risen to become the Aryan Nations Florida state administrator—which, ironically, gave him power to vet applicants. The Orlando Sentinel later described Killian as the Aryan Nations’ “top recruiter.”

    Apparently, someone in the FBI had the idea of merging a domestic terrorism case with a biker case. Killian planted the idea in Kreis’s head to start a neo-Nazi motorcycle club, the 1st SS Kavallerie Brigade Motorcycle Division—named after a horse-mounted unit of Nazi Germany’s Waffen-SS.

    For Kreis, a biker gang posed the opportunity to attract publicity, gain members and increase revenue for the Aryan Nations.

    But first, they needed bikers. To that end, Killian convinced an Outlaw biker named Brian Klose to become the leader of the 1st SS Kavallerie. According to people familiar with the matter, Killian was able to convince Klose to leave the Outlaws by playing to his ego. Keeping with the neo-Nazi theme, Klose was named “Fuhrer” of the new group.

    Klose would come to regret his decision to leave the Outlaws for what turned out to be an FBI front group.

    With Klose surrounded by a gaggle of informants and undercover cops, the 1st SS Kavallerie clubhouse was open for business. According to internal law enforcement records, there were at least four undercover employees and an untold number of informants who infiltrated the group, along with numerous wiretaps and other “sophisticated techniques.”

    Kelly Boaz a.k.a. ‘Kevin Post’

    One of the key undercover agents from Primitive Affliction was Kelly Boaz, a local Orange County cop who, like Killian, had earned a spot on the FBI’s JTTF—receiving specialized training from the ADL and SPLC, according to their personnel records.

    Boaz earned a JTTF assignment despite a scandal-plagued career with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, where he was the subject of more than a dozen internal investigations since joining in 1989, several involving allegations of excessive force.

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    In December 1999, for example, Boaz was involved in a predawn raid where another officer shot a suspect. Months later in August 2000, Boaz was at the center of another controversy when he shot and killed an unarmed thief at a shopping center.

    He was cleared of wrongdoing in both incidents, but his supervisor was reportedly demoted and his racketeering squad was disbanded. A civil lawsuit was filed against him and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office over the December 1999 incident, but the case was eventually dismissed.

    Despite Boaz’s controversial past, the FBI relied on him to build a complex case against a supposed network of white supremacist terrorists.

    Boaz, who declined an interview request, entered Florida’s neo-Nazi scene sometime after the Orlando neo-Nazi rally organizer, FBI undercover operative David Gletty, had his cover blown in the media—as detailed in Part 1 of this series.

    According to court records, Boaz was introduced to the Outlaw bikers and the 1st SS Kavallerie in 2009 by his colleague, Killian. By then, Boaz had already infiltrated the Black Pistons biker gang and was posing as one of its members, a renegade bomb maker named “Kevin Post.”

    For nearly the next three years, Boaz and the FBI built their case.

    During his investigation, one of his informants purportedly learned about another right-wing group in the area called the American Front. Operation Primitive Affliction eventually expanded to the Russia-linked American Front, which will be the subject of Part 3 of this series.

    In both cases, Boaz made extravagant claims of the drug deals and terroristic plots he witnessed in his roughly three years as an undercover biker/bomber. He also claimed that his life was threatened when an Outlaw biker put a firearm to his head and accused him of being law enforcement.

    Mueller likely heard similar reports. A glowing performance review for Boaz said the case “was briefed to the FBI Director daily during the executions of the disruptions.”

    But a deeper look at the evidence produced in court casts doubt on Boaz’s claims, as well as the FBI’s entire case.
    Kavallerie Collapse

    “Biker Gangsters Busted after Three-Year Probe,” the Orlando Sentinel reported on March 31, 2012.

    Two nights earlier, Boaz and the FBI had rounded up the targets of Primitive Affliction. One of those arrested was a woman named Deborah Plowman, who was at her home near Chicago when more than a dozen armed agents swarmed her on March 29, 2012. According to Boaz, he saw Plowman take pills at an Outlaw bikers party several years earlier.

    After spending the night in jail, Plowman was told she needed to travel to Florida to face drug-trafficking charges—or else, she’d face extradition. Baffled, Plowman professed her innocence.

    She was telling the truth.

    On April 19, 2012, Plowman turned herself into law enforcement in Florida to be interviewed by Boaz. It didn’t take long before Boaz realized that he had the wrong person arrested.

    “Boaz asked [Plowman] if she has ever used the nickname or has ever been called ‘Sin,’ to which she replied with a ‘no,’” Plowman said in a lawsuit she filed later over the wrongful arrest.

    “Defendant Boaz immediately began to break out into a sweat upon viewing and questioning [Plowman], realizing he caused the wrong person, [Plowman], to be arrested in his undercover operation, instead of ‘Sin’ [Kristy Pryzbylla].”

    It turned out, Plowman was married to someone Boaz had been investigating, and the undercover agent somehow confused her with Pryzbylla. Plowman quickly hired a lawyer, who blasted Boaz in the Orlando Sentinel for his carelessness.

    “Had Boaz pulled her drivers license, he would have known it wasn’t her, and he’d made a huge mistake,” Plowman’s then-attorney, Jerry Theophilopoulos, said at the time. “In all my 20 years of practice, I’ve never seen anything like what they did to Deborah Plowman.”

    Plowman had her charges dropped in May 2012, and she eventually won $30,000 from Boaz in a civil lawsuit.

    Boaz’s sloppy police work would continue to rear its ugly head as the fruits of Primitive Affliction moved through the courts.

    The other defendants—including the “Fuehrer” Klose, Ronald Cusack, Carlos Eugene Dubose and Harold Johnson Kinlaw—were initially charged with violent crimes, such as bomb-making and soliciting murder. However, prosecutors later dropped most of the charges related to violence, instead reaching deals with the defendants to plead guilty to drug charges.

    Assistant State Attorney Steven Foster reportedly said at the time that prosecutors were willing to strike plea deals with alleged white supremacist extremists because they were following the “Al Capone theory of prosecution”—referencing how federal authorities jailed the notorious mobster for tax evasion instead of his countless violent crimes.

    “We decided to strike against the Kavallerie Brigade by bringing these heavy-duty drug charges to shut the active members down,” Foster reportedly said, bragging about shutting down an FBI front group.

    However, one of the Outlaw biker defendants, Dubose, fought his charges.

    It was a good thing he did.

    A retired U.S. Marine, Dubose’s crime stemmed from when he cracked his skull in a motorcycle accident. Down and out on his luck and looking for cash, Dubose took another blow in life when an FBI informant arranged for him to sell his prescription painkillers to an undercover officer.

    Outlaw biker Carlos Dubose was originally charged with trafficking enough pills to land him in prison for the rest of his life, but an FBI 302 shows he only sold a misdemeanor amount. Had Dubose not noticed this, he might still be in prison.

    Initially charged with selling more than 28 grams of Oxycodone pills, Dubose could have spent the rest of his life in prison. But when he started receiving pre-trial discovery, he noticed something: An FBI report showed he only gave the undercover officer 9 grams of pills—a crime that carried the far lesser max sentence of seven years imprisonment.

    After successfully diminishing the severity of his drug charge, Dubose decided to plead guilty to that lone count. But he continued to vociferously deny any involvement in a bomb plot—a charge that stemmed from a conversation he had with Boaz, aka renegade bomb maker “Kevin Post,” nearly three years earlier in 2009.

    To Dubose’s point, the Feb. 27, 2009, conversation he had with Boaz/Post never developed any further over the next three years. And a transcript of the conversation shows Dubose choosing his words carefully when talking about “hypothetically” building a pipe bomb: “We’re not lookin’ to do anything. It’s just a matter if we start to go to war with somebody,” Dubose told Post/Boaz at the end of the discussion.

    Florida prosecutors admitted that Boaz’s one recorded conversation didn’t contain smoking-gun evidence of bomb plots, but they claimed there were other discussions where Dubose made such plans.

    Even though there were no recordings of those other purported conversations—and even though Dubose never possessed or attempt to build a bomb—the judge accepted the narrative of Boaz and the government. He tossed the motion to dismiss, and Dubose took a plea deal soon thereafter.

    Gun to the Head?

    Boaz’s credibility would be challenged once more at Dubose’s April 21, 2014, sentencing hearing, where the undercover agent claimed to have had a weapon pointed at his head.

    During the hearing, defense attorney Harold Uhrig asked Boaz the obvious question: If Dubose pointed a gun at him, why didn’t the government mention that before?

    “I’ve gone through about 600 pages of transcripts, reports, supplemental reports, I don’t find it anywhere mentioned in there. Are you telling me that there’s some information that y’all did not disclose to us?” Uhrig asked Boaz.

    Boaz insisted that he did report the gun-pointing incident to the FBI for “intelligence gathering,” but he didn’t tell the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. Boaz also admitted that he didn’t have any documentation proving that he reported the alleged incident to the FBI.

    After Boaz’s dubious testimony, the judge still sentenced Dubose to five years imprisonment for both the drug trafficking and bomb solicitation charges.

    The judge did admit that the available evidence “somewhat” supported Dubose’s version of events.

    However, the judge noted that Dubose did talk about having a bomb “in the event of a war.” Therefore, “the Court finds, viewing the evidence in its totality, that [Dubose intended] to obtain a destructive device for the purpose of injuring or causing damage to persons or property,” the judge said, allowing the government to somewhat save face after a disastrous case.

    The judge sentenced Dubose to five-year concurrent sentences for the drug and bomb charges.

    While prosecutors were able to secure some convictions from the 1st SS Kavallerie investigation—Klose is still in prison on felony drug trafficking charges—they fared even worse in the American Front case, thanks in part to more Boaz blunders.

    Bizarre developments would continue to occur outside the courtroom, too. As they prepped for trial around 2013, Boaz and several other government officials would begin receiving strange threats, purportedly from a neo-Nazi fugitive on the run in Mexico—the subject of Part 3 of this series.

    Stay tuned…

    Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 23:10

  • Visualizing The Growth Of (Legal) US Sports Betting
    Visualizing The Growth Of (Legal) US Sports Betting

    The global sports betting industry has grown exponentially over the last few years, with a significant share of that growth coming from the United States.

    This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu, shows annual gross gaming revenue (GGR) from sports betting in the U.S., with data coming from the American Gaming Association.

    What is GGR?

    GGR is the total amount of money wagered minus winnings. For example, if a player wagers $1,000,000 at a casino and wins $900,000, GGR would be $100,000.

    Sports Betting Still a Young Industry

    Sports betting in the U.S. was first legalized in May 2018, after the Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) of 1992. PASPA had effectively outlawed sports betting nationwide.

    Since 2018, gross gaming revenue has jumped from $400 million to $11 billion in 2023.

    Betting is particularly big in Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania due to early legalization, robust regulatory frameworks, and strong sports cultures.

    Nevada, boosted by Las Vegas, generated over $5 billion in commercial gaming revenue (including other casino revenue streams) over the first four months of 2024, while New Jersey and Pennsylvania each generated over $2 billion.

    According to the American Gaming Association, 38 states (and DC) have legalized sports betting to date.

    If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out this graphic, which shows the top NFL teams by revenue.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 22:45

  • HuffPo Encourages Biden Campaign To Openly Push Disinformation Using AI
    HuffPo Encourages Biden Campaign To Openly Push Disinformation Using AI

    Authored by Jacob Bruns via Headline USA,

    In a bizarre op-ed, Huffington Post writer Kaivan Shroff suggested that the President Joe Biden and his campaign should consider using artificial intelligence to dupe the American people into voting for him.

    Joe Biden does his daily workout. / IMAGE: Fotor AI (Editor’s note: this photo has been generated using artificial intelligence and is not actually Joe Biden.)

    Shroff began by noting that “the stakes” of the election “cannot be overstated” because the future of democracy “hangs in the balance,” rhetoric which, he assured the reader, “is not hyperbolic.”

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    It is “the greatest moral and ethical imperative for those who care about American democracy” to defeat former President Donald Trump, he opined.

    As a result, the ends justified the means, even if that entailed continuing the campaign’s ongoing efforts to gaslight low-information voters into thinking Biden is fitter and healthier than he is, but with additional assistance from AI to more “effectively reach the voting public.”

    It is not entirely clear that the campaign hasn’t already been relying on this tactic in what have appeared to be the president’s more lucid moments on camera.

    While admitting that using AI to present a smoother, more well-spoken Biden could be deceptive, Shroff ultimately concluded that such deception would be worthwhile if it led to a Biden victory.

    “We must ask the question, are augmented AI videos that present Biden in his best form―while sharing honest and accurate information―really more socially damaging than our information ecosystem’s current realities?” Shroff wrote. “I think not.”

    Such conversations seem to be inevitable for the left after Biden’s disastrous debate performance last month, for which his defenders have thrown out every excuse in the book as Trump surges in swing state polls.

    On Wednesday, for instance, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blamed Biden’s jet lag from a flight weeks before the debate, along with a cold that he allegedly had.

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    “It’s the jet lag and also the cold–it is the two things that occurred,” Jean-Pierre told reporters at a Tuesday press conference.

    Biden cronies have also used AI as an excuse in the past—but for the opposite end, to accuse Republicans of the threat of spreading disinformation by altering the audio in Biden’s special counsel interview with Robert Hur.

    It was the basis of that interview that prompted Hur not to pursue charges, concluding Biden was unfit to stand trial for the felonies.

    However, Attorney General Merrick Garland cited executive privilege in insisting that he was under no obligation to release the audio file. House Republicans held him in contempt of Congress and subsequently filed a lawsuit that could result in legal consequences for Garland under the next administration.

    Leftists afflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome have become increasingly unhinged when faced with the prospect of a Biden candidacy, proposing ever more drastic, dangerous and anti-democratic courses of action to counter the will of the people.

    A Pennsylvania lawmaker named Matthew Croyle went viral for all the wrong reasons on Wednesday after authoring a post on X that suggested leftists with Trump-supporting relatives kill them now before they have the chance to strike first.

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    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 22:20

  • "Self-Created Hole": Education Reforms Push Maryland Toward Financial Cliff
    “Self-Created Hole”: Education Reforms Push Maryland Toward Financial Cliff

    Fitch, Moody’s Ratings, and S&P Global Ratings recently reaffirmed Maryland’s coveted triple-A credit rating. However, Moody’s downgraded the state’s outlook from stable to “negative,” citing significant concerns about looming structural deficits due to Annapolis’ out-of-control education spending. And while education spending soars, test scores are going in the wrong direction.

    “The negative outlook incorporates difficulties Maryland will face to achieve balanced financial operations in coming years without sacrificing service delivery goals or adding to the weight of the state government’s burden on individual and corporate taxpayers,” Moody’s wrote in the report last month. This is the first time the credit rating agency has issued a negative outlook for the state since 2011, several years after the GFC meltdown. 

    A looming fiscal cliff is primarily driven by edu programs, including the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reforms. When the reform was passed, the genius progressive lawmakers in Annapolis did not pass a funding mechanism. 

    “It’s a self-created hole,” Republican State Senator Justin Ready told investigative journalist Chris Papst of Fox45 News’ Project Baltimore late last month, adding, “I’m disappointed but not surprised that we were downgraded to negative.”

    Senator Ready’s district includes Carroll and Frederick Counties, located west of Baltimore. Several years ago, he attempted to warn leftist lawmakers in Annapolis that education spending would spark fiscal turmoil. However, his warnings were ignored while progressives were more focused on pushing woke policies. 

    “We have a very high-taxed state and local governments, and so we were concerned. We saw this as being unsustainable, an unsustainable increase,” said Ready.

    He continued, “Education spending was always increasing. This is just putting a rocket ship on it without the kind of accountability that’s needed.” 

    Maryland’s fiscal projections show an expected $1 billion budget deficit by 2025, $1.3 by 2027, and more than $3 billion by 2028. Soaring deficits are a function of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, also called the Kirwan Plan, which pumps $30 billion in taxpayer funds into public education over ten years and then adds $4 billion per year after that.

    Papst offers some very troubling news for residents:

    “In order to pay for it, according to those statistics, the state would have to either increase the personal income tax rate by 39% or raise the sales tax by 89% or increase property taxes by 535%.” 

    For years, Democrats in the state have advocated for increased education spending but rarely address test score performances that are heading in the wrong direction, an issue even the Washington Post could no longer ignore: 

    Over the years, Papst’s team has led an effort to uncover fraud and corruption in the state’s public school systems. 

    Fox News picked up on Papst’s reporting last year.

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    Some folks on X have called soaring education expenses a grift by the Democratic Party that loots taxpayers and enriches teachers’ unions that only fund progressive causes.

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    Why more Marylanders aren’t demanding accountability from progressives in Annapolis transforming the state into what could soon be the next Illinois is troubling. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 21:55

  • Philippines Says US Will Pull Out Controversial Mid-Range Missile System
    Philippines Says US Will Pull Out Controversial Mid-Range Missile System

    Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

    On Thursday, the Philippines said the US was pulling out a new missile system it deployed to the Southeast Asian country for annual military exercises.

    The US sent the Typhon missile system for the Balikatan exercises, which were held in April and May. The Typhon is a controversial launcher since it would have been banned by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a treaty between the US and Russia that the Trump administration withdrew from in 2019.

    Image: US Army

    The INF prohibited land-based missile systems with a range between 310 and 3,400 miles. The Typhon can launch nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles, which have a range of about 1,000 miles. It can also fire SM-6 missiles, which can hit targets up to 290 miles away.

    Philippine Col. Louie Dema-ala told AFP that the US planned to withdraw the Typhon from the Philippines following the military exercises.

    “As per plan… it will be shipped out of the country in September or even earlier,” he said. “The US Army is currently shipping out their equipment that we used during Balikatan and Salaknib (exercises).”

    China strongly condemned the deployment of the Typhon system, which US officials have acknowledged was developed to prepare for a future conflict with Beijing over Taiwan or the South China Sea.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin also recently mentioned the deployment. He made the comments when calling for Moscow to follow the US and develop missile systems previously banned by the INF.

    “We need to start production of these strike systems and then, based on the actual situation, make decisions about where — if necessary to ensure our safety — to place them,” Putin said last week.

    “Today it is known that the United States not only produces these missile systems, but has already brought them to Europe for exercises, to Denmark. Quite recently it was announced that they are in the Philippines,” the Russian leader added.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 21:30

  • Rivian's Amazon Delivery Vans Keep Mysteriously Catching Fire
    Rivian’s Amazon Delivery Vans Keep Mysteriously Catching Fire

    Amazon delivery vans, manufactured by Rivian, keep catching fire.

    That was the topic of a new report from Quartz.com this week which highlighted that the blue Prime vans seen all over the country keep catching fire at Amazon distribution centers.

    “One starts to wonder why,” QZ.com asked. 

    The report notes that footage from Third Coast Drone reveals Rivian vans ablaze outside an Amazon facility in Houston.

    While the video doesn’t show how the fire started, it captures firefighters working to control the flames. Importantly, the footage also reveals that each van was parked at a charging station.

    This isn’t the first time Rivian vans have caught fire at an Amazon location, the report notes.

    Last August, a similar incident occurred in Salt Lake City, where vans burned in a distribution center parking lot. Posts in Amazon worker subreddits revealed that drivers have reported issues with the vans charging in high heat and suspected the chargers as the cause of the blaze.

    Chargers have been blamed for fires before, either due to improper home wiring or inadequate cooling.

    What’s still unclear is whether professionally-installed chargers, like these Rivian units, are prone to the same issues as Level 2 chargers plugged into home dryer outlets.

    Heat-related issues with electric vehicles are likely to become more common as global temperatures rise.

    The transition to EVs still remains worthwhile according to QZ—just, maybe consider charging in the shade until these issues are resolved.

    Sure thing. We’ll be back to diesel powered delivery trucks in no time!

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 21:05

  • Sex, Lies, & Racial Hysteria: The Quiet J6 Killing Of Rosanne Boyland
    Sex, Lies, & Racial Hysteria: The Quiet J6 Killing Of Rosanne Boyland

    Authored by Jack Kashill via American Greatness,

    One wonders what thoughts passed through the fevered mind of Officer Lila Morris as she struck the seemingly lifeless Rosanne Boyland over the head with a branch, then struck her again, and then struck her a third time so hard that the branch snapped in half.

    If Morris thought Boyland a hateful white supremacist who deserved her fate, one could, if not forgive her, at least understand how she came to think that way. For the last two years, Morris had heard little else about these MAGA minions and the monster who led them.

    President-elect Joe Biden had set the tone when he launched his presidential campaign in April 2019, implying President Donald Trump had called the neo-Nazis involved in the Charlottesville dust-up “very fine people.” No major candidate has ever begun a presidential campaign with a more divisive and slanderous opening gambit (one that Snopes conceded was false just this past week).

    Biden continued the slander throughout the campaign. Just four weeks before the 2020 election, he weighed in on the well-timed bust of an FBI-massaged plot to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. “There is a through line from President Trump’s dog whistles and tolerance of hate, vengeance, and lawlessness to plots such as this one,” fumed Biden. “He is giving oxygen to the bigotry and hate we see on the march in our country.”

    If Morris feared the depredations of these Hun-like hordes, she was in good company.

    “Just remember, we’re on the right side of history,” Rep. Val Demings told a colleague as they huddled fearfully in the House gallery on January 6.

    “If we all die today, another group will come in and certify those ballots.”

    “White supremacy and patriarchy are very linked in a lot of ways,” congressional drama queen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told CNN’s Dana Bash.

    “There’s a lot of sexualizing of that violence. And I didn’t think that I was just going to be killed. I thought other things were going to happen to me as well.”

    When Bash asked AOC if she thought she was going to be raped, AOC answered, “Yeah, yeah. I thought I was.”

    The left has been feeding its base a steady diet of racial fear and loathing for generations.

    Ocasio-Cortez is Puerto Rican. Demings and Morris black. Also black is Michael Byrd, the Capitol Police lieutenant (now captain) who shot and killed January 6 protestor and Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt.

    Babbitt and Boyland were both white.

    The phrase “had the races been reversed” is such a manifest truism that pundits on the right no longer bother to complete the thought

    If the shooting death of the attractive 35-year-old Babbitt was too public to ignore, the death of the obscure 34-year-old Boyland was not.

    Biden’s incoming Department of Justice preferred to keep it that way. The nature of that death raised troubling questions not only about race but also about sex.

    In the cause of equity, the DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) saw fit to put a small, slight woman at the front of a contested police line. In the DEI-drenched precincts of Washington, no one dared protest this madness either before January 6 or after.

    In the days following Morris’s meltdown, all parties fell in line to preserve both the myth of heroic police resistance and the imagined role women played in that resistance. Consider this tweet from WUSA news anchor Lesli Foster on February 7, 2021:

    “You MUST hear about Ofc. Lila Morris. MPD Acting Chief Contee says Morris ‘fought like hell’ in the tunnel of death…. Morris was injured, then got back in the melee. Women, too, fought hard to reclaim the #Capitol.”

    Foster’s tweet included a photo of Morris being feted for her heroism at the Super Bowl, one of just three officers so honored.

    A high percentage of the selected video footage that entertained Democrats for the last three years was shot in and around this “tunnel of death.” While protestors were freely walking into the Capitol through multiple other entrances, the police defended the tunnel as though it were the Alamo.

    Caught in a scrum, Boyland found herself unwillingly pushed to the tunnel entrance. At this point, the MPD, now in riot gear, made a concerted surge to drive back the scrum. The chemical irritant sprayed by the MPD displaced the oxygen in the tunnel, causing people to feel faint. Rosanne collapsed, and as many as 30 people were shoved on top of her.

    Once the others were pulled off, Rosanne lay momentarily lifeless and exposed at the tunnel entrance. That’s when Morris went after her. “I was horrified,” said use-of-force expert Stan Kephart upon seeing the video. “We don’t train officers to hit people in the head with a blunt object.” Added Kephart, “It was definitely a crime.”

    To protect Rosanne from both the crowd and the police, Texan protestor Luke Coffee stood over the dying woman, holding a crutch horizontally above his head. For his efforts to save Rosanne, he was charged with a felony for striking Morris. Not until Coffee’s January 2024 trial was Morris forced to testify about January 6.

    Under oath, Morris conceded that Coffee never hit her. She also admitted that a baton or stick, was only to be used with a hand on either end as a way to push crowds back. “Are you ever trained to hold it like a bat and strike over somebody’s head?” asked Coffee’s attorney, Carol Stewart. “No,” said Morris.

    To preserve the narrative of heroic police resistance, the DC medical examiner’s office sat on Boyland’s autopsy report for the maximum 90 days and then attributed her death to “acute amphetamine intoxication.” Amphetamine was the active ingredient in the Adderall that Boyland had been taking by prescription for ten years to deal with her ADHD.

    The Boyland family was stunned. Boyland’s brother-in-law Justin Cave had reached out to childhood friend and MSNBC anchor Ayman Mohyeldin to help the family get to the bottom of Boyland’s death, but Mohyeldin was stonewalled by the medical examiner at every turn. “All our requests were denied,” admitted the surprised MSNBC anchor. “The trampling, the riot, the video evidence, none of this was even mentioned in the official autopsy report.”

    Morris remained an unquestioned hero until September 2021, when that damning video surfaced of her striking Rosanne. Disturbed by what he saw, J6 video expert Gary McBride filed a police brutality complaint with the DC Metropolitan Police Department. McBride believes Rosanne was still alive when Morris struck her. “When she takes that second hit to the head, watch her left arm, her left arm straightens up and lifts off the ground,” he told the Epoch Times.

    Morris need not have worried. Two months after McBride filed his complaint, he was informed via email, “The use of force within this investigation was determined to be objectively reasonable.” Morris would remain on the force and would face no criminal charges. The DOJ never investigated.

    If the Boyland family had any hope of clearing Rosanne’s name, that hope lay with the House Select Committee. Before finishing its work, the committee would interview more than a thousand witnesses but none who witnessed Boyland’s death, not even Lila Morris. The eight-hundred-page final report, released in December 2022, goes into great detail about the two-hour battle at the “tunnel of death” but does not mention the name of the woman who died there, not even in the footnotes.

    *  *  *

    Jack Cashill’s new book, Ashli: The Untold Story of the Women of January 6, is now available in all formats.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 20:40

  • Disney World Stealthily Reduces July 4 Flags As Theme Park Attendance Remains Low
    Disney World Stealthily Reduces July 4 Flags As Theme Park Attendance Remains Low

    The Walt Disney Company has become one of America’s wokest companies, injecting left-wing diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI agenda into nearly every aspect of its business, from theme parks to video content. Consequently, Disney is no longer the babysitter for American parents, with families increasingly avoiding theme parks and movies. Bob Iger’s recent return as CEO sent wokeism into warp speed. 

    The website blogmickey shares an interesting account of Walt Disney World Resort, located about 20 miles southwest of Orlando, Florida, on July 4, indicating that “Disney may have forecasted as much—shortening typical holiday period park hours and not decorating as much as they have in the past.” 

    Blogmickey previously “covered some of the cutbacks in hours” at the theme park but also “noticed that Disney has scaled back on some of the patriotic decors.” 

    Let’s take a view of what Main Street USA looked like on the Fourth of July in 2023 versus this Thursday: 

    Source: Blogmickey

    Notice how Disney stealthily removed patriotic flags. 

    Source: Blogmickey

    Source: Blogmickey

    Source: Blogmickey

    “This year, it is only installed in Town Square. Not groundbreaking by any means, but when details matter, details should matter,” Blogmickey said. Considering DEI is rooted in Marxism, as per Real Clear Education’s findings, it should make sense why US flags are being scaled down at the theme park during the holiday. Clearly, Disney has not received the memo like the rest of corporate America (read: “Backlash Is Real”: DEI Exodus Gains Steam Across Corporate America)… 

    A 1989 video shows that on July 4, there was a lot of ‘America’ throughout the theme park.

    Let’s not forget that wait time ride tracking website Thrill Data shows that this year’s July 4 recorded wait time averages at Walt Disney World to be underwhelming, with some of the lowest times over the past decade.

    Putting woke ideology ahead of entertainment has destroyed an American institution. Iger’s long list of failures is piling up. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 20:15

  • The Absurdity Of "Open Borders"
    The Absurdity Of “Open Borders”

    Authored by Llewellyn Rockwell via The Mises Institute,

    Some libertarians argue that libertarianism requires support for “open borders,” but this is a mistake. “Open borders” is the view in the existing world of states, the state ought to admit as many people who want to come to the United States as possible. Of course, you don’t have the right to occupy property that is privately owned. But much of the property in the United States is “public,” which means that it is up to those who run the state to decide what to do with it. Of course, this is an unsatisfactory situation and we should do what we can to bring about a world with no “public” property and no state, but for now the question is what to do: open borders or not?

    The answer is quite clear. “Open borders” would be a. disastrous mistake. The policy would subject the United States to hordes of people with alien ideologies and cultures. As the great Ludwig von Mises pointed out, it would have made no sense to allow immigration from Germany and Japan during World War II. “Neither does it mean that there can be any question of appeasing aggressors by removing migration barriers. As conditions are today, the Americas and Australia in admitting German, Italian, and Japanese immigrants merely open their doors to the vanguards of hostile armies.” We face exactly the same situation today. We have a hard enough problem coping with the alien ideologies and cultures that are already here. Why compound our problem?

    The situation is even worse than we have so far portrayed. Because of the “woke” control that now prevails, members of “protected” groups such as racial minorities are immediately eligible for reparations, “set-asides,” affirmative action, and other schemes to mulct the American people. Why should our hard-earned tax money go to support people who have no ties to our country? As I said in 2015, “In other words, it’s bad enough we have to be looted, spied on, and kicked around by the state. Should we also have to pay for the privilege of cultural destructionism, an outcome the vast majority of the state’s taxpaying subjects do not want and would actively prevent if they lived in a free society and were allowed to do so?”

    Aside from the “woke” problem, there is something else. Those who come here because of “open borders” can immediately benefit from the welfare state. A massive number of people could come here just to live from welfare payments. Why bankrupt our economy? The well-known free market economist Milton Friedman, hardly an extremist, said, “You cannot simultaneously have a free market and a welfare state.”

    You might counter this by pointing out that welfare benefits aren’t very lavish. But this is true only if you are thinking of the standards of living of the American upper and middle classes. (Actually, though, these benefits are quite substantial and give the lie to claims that America has been marked by rising “inequality” in recent decades.) Because America is much more prosperous than the places the immigrants are coming from, living from American welfare payments would be a good deal for millions of potential immigrants.

    Some fanatical libertarian supporters of “open borders” have come up with a response to this point that has to be characterized as one of the worst arguments in the past few decades.

    Robert Rector mentions this argument here:

    “The grant of citizenship is a transfer of political power. Access to the U.S. ballot box also provides access to the American taxpayer’s bank account. This is particularly problematic with regard to low-skill immigrants. Within an active redistributionist state, as Friedman understood, unlimited immigration can threaten limited government.

    “Many libertarians respond to this dilemma by asserting that the real problem is not open borders but the welfare state itself. The answer: dismantle the welfare state. The libertarian Cato Institute pursues a variant of this policy under the slogan, ‘build a wall around the welfare state, not around the nation.’. . . Borders should be open, but immigrants should be barred from accessing welfare and other benefits. , , . In a recent debate with Dan Griswold of the Cato Institute, I pointed out this paradox. Griswold replied that the key was to grant amnesty and open borders now and work on ‘building a wall around welfare’ at some point in the future.”

    See this.

    It has to be said that this is utterly stupid. It would be like saying that you need to take two medications. If you take only one, you’ll die. Therefore, you should take one of them and worry about getting the other one later.

    There is yet another problem with “open borders,” that gets to the root of why we support the free market. As Mises again and again pointed out, the free market replaces the Darwinian struggle of the natural world, in which some animals survive at the expense of others. In the free market, people can benefit without harming others. There is a harmony of long term interests among people.

    But with open borders this is no longer true.

    Immigrants will take jobs by undercutting American workers, because even very low paying American jobs are better than what they are getting in their home countries. This process will take place until wages reach a common level, and given the vast number of potential immigrants compared with American workers, the wage that results will be close to the immigrants’ standard.

    American workers could rightly say, “What about us? Your “free market” makes our condition worse.” But of course it isn’t the “free market” that does this. It’s “open borders,” which is an anti-market principle, that does this. Insisting that “open borders” makes everybody better off makes libertarianism seem ridiculous, because a great many people are hurt by the policy.

    Some “left libertarians” will object that the free market does indeed mandate “open borders”. But it doesn’t.

    The libertarian non-aggression principle leaves it up to us to determine what to do in a society with so-called “public” property.

    We need to confront another objection.

    Wouldn’t an attempt to close the border require that we lock up illegal immigrants in concentration camps? Wouldn’t this be a drastic infringement on their liberty? But a closed border doesn’t require this. All that we need to do is to build a wall and prevent immigrants from entering. We don’t have to jail them. All we need to do is to turn them away.

    Also, building a wall would be easier if states can build walls around their own territory. This greatly reduces the cost of building a wall. Closing the border gives the people in each state or local community a choice about accepting immigrants. Closed borders and secession go hand-in hand

    Let’s do everything we can to end the hoax of “open borders.” Doing so is a step in the preservation of Western civilization and the American heritage.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 19:50

  • These Are The 10 Highest Paid CEOs In America
    These Are The 10 Highest Paid CEOs In America

    The median pay for S&P 500 CEOs soared to an all-time high of $15.7 million in 2023, as a strong stock market boosted executive compensation.

    Some of the highest paid CEOs in America earned nine-figure pay packages, with the vast majority of CEO compensation tied to stock awards. Overall, executives in the index earned on average 196 times more than the median S&P 500 employee, up from 185 in 2022.

    This graphic, via Visual Capitalist, shows the top 10 highest paid CEOs of S&P 500 companies, based on analysis from The Wall Street Journal and MyLogIQ.

    The Highest-Earning S&P 500 CEOs in 2023

    Here are the S&P 500 chief executives who received the highest compensation packages last year:

    Total pay includes equity awards and cash pay.

    Hock Tan, CEO of chipmaker Broadcom, tops the list, with an annual compensation of $161.8 million in 2023.

    Like Nvidia, the company has benefited from surging demand for AI technologies. Broadcom supplies the networking chips used in data centers for big tech companies, including Microsoft. Between 2022 and 2023, Tan’s salary doubled, earning 510 times the median pay of employees.

    Ranking in third is Stephen Schwarzman, who runs the biggest private equity firm in the world, Blackstone. The executive’s $119.8 million pay package was bolstered by a 83% rise in its share price last year. The firm is the world’s largest owner of commercial property, with approximately 12,500 real estate assets overall.

    Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook received $63.2 million in 2023—a sharp decline from the $99.4 million earned in the prior year. This rare pay cut was the result of shareholder pushback and requests from Cook himself.

    Overall, four of the top 10 highest paid CEOs in America are in the tech sector, with each experiencing double-digit share price gains over 2023.

    CEO Pay Has Doubled Over the Last Decade

    Below, we show the increasing magnitude of executive earnings since 2013:

    Total pay includes equity awards and cash pay.

    As we can see, the median total compensation of S&P 500 CEOs jumped over 8% between 2022 and 2023.

    Going further, this figure has grown by twofold over the last 10 years as the U.S. stock market surged during a period of low interest rates. Overall, CEO pay is rising faster than median employee pay and this gap between CEOs and workers has continued to widen over many years. For perspective, the median pay of S&P 500 employees stood at $81,476 in 2023.

    Often, CEO compensation is linked to the company’s financial performance, which is measured through share price movements and dividend payouts. In addition, the rise in CEO pay can be largely driven by stock awards granted to CEOs.

    A separate analysis from Equilar found that on average, 70% of S&P 500 CEO compensation stemmed from stock awards, averaging a striking $9.4 million in 2023.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 19:25

  • Pfizer Infringed On Moderna Patent With COVID-19 Vaccine: Court
    Pfizer Infringed On Moderna Patent With COVID-19 Vaccine: Court

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

    Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine infringed on a patent held by rival Moderna, the High Court in London, England, found in a decision released on July 2.

    The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines both utilize messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology.

    Moderna patented mRNA processes that replace the nucleoside uridine with N1-methylpseudouridine, a modified RNA. The patent is titled, “ribonucleic acids containing n1-methyl-pseudouracils and uses thereof.”

    The patent “is valid,” the court stated, adding that it was infringed “given that Pfizer/BioNTech conceded that it would be infringed if valid.”

    The court rejected arguments made by Pfizer and BioNTech, including the argument that Moderna’s patent was not novel. It said parts of the patent were novel, from a method developed by the University of Pennsylvania.

    The District Court of the Hague in 2023 found the patent to be invalid due to lack of novelty versus the method, but the London court said it weighed other evidence and found some factors persuasive that the Hague did not.

    Moderna in 2020 said it would not enforce patents related to COVID-19 against rival manufacturers. However, in 2022, it revoked the declaration, meaning Pfizer and BioNTech came into violation of the patent, the high court said in a related decision.

    Justice Jonathan Richards wrote in the ruling, that “Even if the pledge was an express waiver of rights, it was validly retracted by the March 2022 statement since Pfizer/BioNTech had not by that date materially changed its position in reliance on the pledge.”

    The court also ruled that a second patent held by Moderna was invalid.

    Possible Appeals

    All three companies said they disagreed with the parts of the court’s decision on which they lost, and it is expected that all parties will seek permission to appeal.

    Pfizer and BioNTech said in a statement:

    “These proceedings have no bearing on the safety and efficacy profile of our vaccine, as established by regulators worldwide.

    “Irrespective of the outcome of this legal matter, we will continue to manufacture and supply the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in line with our agreements and established supply schedules.”

    A spokesperson for Moderna said the company was pleased the court “recognized the innovation of Moderna scientists by confirming the validity and infringement” of one of its patents.

    Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna are also involved in parallel proceedings in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the United States, much of which has been put on hold, as well as at the European Patent Office.

    The London ruling comes at a time of financial strain for Moderna, whose shares have plummeted by more than 70 percent since the peak of the pandemic as demand and sales for Spikevax have fallen. Shares of Pfizer, meanwhile, are down about 29 percent since mid-2021.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 19:00

  • Texas Beach Terrorized By Shark: 4 People Attacked Within Two-Hour Span
    Texas Beach Terrorized By Shark: 4 People Attacked Within Two-Hour Span

    It’s a nightmarish scenario which seems straight out of Jaws and which has never happened before at a Texas beach: four people were attacked by a shark within a mere two hour period in waters off South Padre Island.

    South Padre is a hugely popular vacation destination in south Texas, and it happened as beaches were packed for the Independence Day holiday. A horrific video showed people screaming and bawling as one woman is pulled from the ocean with a large gash in her leg, and apparently in a state of shock, and with blood filling the water…

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

    “Details at this time indicate that two people were bitten and two people encountered the shark but were not seriously injured,” the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said in a statement. Two victims were taken to Valley Regional Medical Center in Brownsville, with one being in more serious condition.

    A third victim was injured, but not seriously, while trying to save another victim. A fourth person reportedly fought off a potential attack by kicking and punching the shark. “One [victim] was grazed and another injured fending off the shark,” according to local news station KRGV.

    One eyewitness said, “We never saw the shark ‘til he was right there with them” and described that “It wasn’t choppy water, and the seas were calm. He showed up out of nowhere.”

    “How is this actually happening right now? It was very surreal,” another said. One person was actually pulled under by the shark but survived the ordeal:

    Rayner Cardenas told KRGV his son-in-law was pulled underwater by the shark.

    “Started swimming towards him, and he jumped out of the water and started saying, ‘Shark! Shark!’ And that’s when adrenaline kicked in, and I went right after him.”

    The bite to the man’s leg was described as “severe”. Texas Game Warden Captain Chris Dowdy said that authorities at this point believe all of the attacks were the result of the same shark, which lingered in the area of the last attack for some 20 to 30 minutes, and was caught on film. The woman in the above footage also appears to have suffered extensive injuries to her leg.

    One account was particularly harrowing:

    Nereyda Bazaldua told CNN her daughter was one of those bitten Thursday. Bazaldua said her two teenage daughters were in shallow, knee-deep water near the shore playing on boogie boards when they began screaming, “Shark!”

    When her 18-year-old daughter Victoria came out of the water, Bazaldua said she “could see some blood coming down her leg,” Bazaldua said. Thankfully, she said, Victoria’s injuries were minor.

    “The shark pushed into her, five to six of his teeth scratched her leg,” Bazaldua said. “The wounds aren’t deep.” She said the shark lingered in the water for 20 to 30 minutes before moving along.

    Swimmers had been evacuated from the ocean, with DPS buzzing the waters with helicopters and providing a lookout, until the shark was reportedly observed swimming out to deeper waters.

    Footage of the shark believed to have been behind the July 4th attacks:

    “Local game wardens and members of the Texas Game Warden Marine Tactical Operations Group assisted in patrolling the beach by boat and land patrol while DPS patrolled the area by helicopter and SPI PD and Cameron County rangers assisted with crowd control on the beach,” a statement said.

    “Shark encounters of this nature are not a common occurrence in Texas,” Texas officials said in a statement. “When bites from sharks do occur, they are usually a case of mistaken identity by sharks looking for food.”

    This incident is unprecedented and ultra-rare, given that in all of recorded history fewer than 50 total documented shark attacks have occurred in Texas since 1911.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 18:40

  • World's Largest Fusion Reactor Is Finally Completed, But…
    World’s Largest Fusion Reactor Is Finally Completed, But…

    Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

    Scientists have done some amazing things but not all of them have practical application, at least yet. Fusion is a great example.

    Live Science reports the World’s Largest Nuclear Fusion Reactor is Finally Completed.

    The International Fusion Energy Project (ITER) fusion reactor, consisting of 19 massive coils looped into multiple toroidal magnets, was originally slated to begin its first full test in 2020. Now scientists say it will fire in 2039 at the earliest.

    ITER contains the world’s most powerful magnet, making it capable of producing a magnetic field 280,000 times as strong as the one shielding Earth.

    The reactor’s impressive design comes with an equally hefty price-tag. Originally slated to cost around $5 billion and fire up in 2020, it has now suffered multiple delays and its budget swelled beyond $22 billion, with an additional $5 billion proposed to cover additional costs. These unforeseen expenses and delays are behind the most recent, 15-year delay.

    Scientists have been trying to harness the power of nuclear fusion — the process by which stars burn — for more than 70 years. By fusing hydrogen atoms to make helium under extremely high pressures and temperatures, main-sequence stars convert matter into light and heat, generating enormous amounts of energy without producing greenhouse gases or long-lasting radioactive waste.

    But replicating the conditions found inside the hearts of stars is no simple task. The most common design for fusion reactors, the tokamak, works by superheating plasma (one of the four states of matter, consisting of positive ions and negatively charged free electrons) before trapping it inside a donut-shaped reactor chamber with powerful magnetic fields.

    Impressive But …

    Assuming the reactor originally scheduled for 2020 is finally operable by 2039, I will be impressed.

    Heck, I am impressed at what we have already scientifically achieved. But I wonder what is the practical application of this.

    Keeping the turbulent and superheated coils of plasma in place long enough for nuclear fusion to happen, however, has been challenging. Soviet scientist Natan Yavlinsky designed the first tokamak in 1958, but no one has since managed to create a reactor that is able to put out more energy than it takes in.

    One of the main stumbling blocks is handling a plasma that’s hot enough to fuse. Fusion reactors require very high temperatures (many times hotter than the sun) because they have to operate at much lower pressures than is found inside the cores of stars.

    The core of the actual sun, for example, reaches temperatures of around 27 million Fahrenheit (15 million Celsius) but has pressures roughly equal to 340 billion times the air pressure at sea level on Earth.

    Cooking plasma to these temperatures is the relatively easy part, but finding a way to corral it so that it doesn’t burn through the reactor or derail the fusion reaction is technically tricky. This is usually done either with lasers or magnetic fields.

    Question and Answer on Temperatures

    How a reactor could produce temperatures of 27 million degrees without the operation melting is likely a puzzle to anyone who has been thinking clearly.

    The article provides an answer. But what is the cost and how long can the reaction be sustained without a meltdown? Are there any other issues?

    For those questions, let’s turn to a 2022 article. also from Live Science.

    A Step Closer to a New Source of Power

    Please consider A Step Closer to a New Source of Power

    In the new experiments, the Joint European Torus (JET) in Culham near Oxford, England, produced blazingly hot plasmas that released a record-setting 59 megajoules of energy — about the same amount of energy unleashed by the explosion of 31 pounds (14 kilograms) of TNT.

    Nuclear fusion — the same reaction that occurs in the heart of stars — merges atomic nuclei to form heavier nuclei. Nuclear physicists have long sought to produce nuclear fusion in reactors on Earth because it generates far more energy than burning fossil fuels does. For example, a pineapple-size amount of hydrogen atoms offers as much energy as 10,000 tons (9,000 metric tons) of coal, according to a statement from the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project.

    “It took us years to prepare these experiments. And in the end we have managed to confirm our predictions and models,” Athina Kappatou, a physicist at the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics in Garching near Munich, Germany, told Live Science. “That’s good news on the way to ITER.”

    JET, which began operating in 1983, now uses the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium as fuel. Whereas a normal hydrogen atom has no neutrons in its core, a deuterium atom has one neutron and a tritium atom has two. Currently, it is the only power plant in the world capable of operating with deuterium-tritium fuel — although ITER will also use it when it comes online.

    However, deuterium-tritium fusion poses a number of challenges. For example, deuterium-tritium fusion can generate dangerous amounts of high-energy neutrons, each moving at about 116 million mph (187 million km/h), or 17.3% the speed of light — so fast they could reach the moon in under 8 seconds. As such, special shielding is needed in these experiments.

    For the new experiments, the previous carbon lining in the JET reactor was replaced between 2009 and 2011 with a mixture of beryllium and tungsten, which will also be installed in ITER. This new metallic wall is more resistant to the stresses of nuclear fusion than carbon, and also clings onto less hydrogen than carbon does, explained Kappatou, who prepared, coordinated and led key parts of the recent experiments at JET.

    Another challenge with deuterium-tritium fusion experiments is the fact that tritium is radioactive, and so it requires special handling. However, JET was capable of handling tritium back in 1997, Kappatou noted.

    Also, whereas deuterium is abundantly available in seawater, tritium is extremely rare. For now, tritium is produced in nuclear fission reactors, although future fusion power plants will be able to emit neutrons to generate their own tritium fuel.

    In January, scientists at the National Ignition Facility in California revealed that their laser-powered nuclear fusion experiment generated 1.3 megajoules of energy for 100 trillionths of a second — a sign the fusion reaction generated more energy from nuclear activity than went into it from the outside.

    The copper electromagnets that JET used could only operate for about 5 seconds due to the heat from the experiments. “JET simply wasn’t designed to deliver more,” Kappatou said. In contrast, ITER will use cryogenically cooled superconducting magnets that are designed to operate indefinitely, the researchers noted.

    Questions Beget Questions

    These are amazing achievements. But we must do much better than sustain a reaction for a world-breaking 100 trillionths of a second.

    Something in this story is missing, like why does it take at least 15 years to do a test of something that is already built?

    Also, the proposed process seems so much like a perpetual motion machine.

    The reactor will use fusion to produce the deuterium-tritium that it needs to produce the fusion and also the energy to cryogenically cool the magnets the system needs to protect itself from itself, otherwise the whole thing melts down at 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.

    It that’s not the basic proposal, then someone please explain the proposal to me. If that is the proposal, additional questions surface.

    Assuming the theory works to perfection, how long can the process be sustained? How much of the energy produced is needed to protect the system from the heat produced?

    Tests of ITER were scheduled for 2020 but have been rescheduled for 2039 with no explanation why.

    However, I am pleased to report we have made progress on target dates. By that I mean targets that forever always seemed just a few years away are now a more reasonable 15 years minimum away, and that’s only for a test.

    Fusion will not save the planet anytime soon, if ever.

    A Rebuttal

    One person commented that I don’t understanding how science works. False. I know full well how science works.

    Do I expect useful ideas out of this whether or not it solves our alleged existential threat?

    Yes I do. But that has little to do with the point I was making.

    We have a test in 2039 and alleged existential threat underway that supposedly is too late to fix by 2050.

    Today, we have practical, believable, information that fusion will not be the holy grail that many hoped for. That fact does not imply I think nothing useful will come out of this.

    The Futility of Wind and Solar Power in One Easy to Understand Picture

    Meanwhile, let’s discuss where we are staring with The Futility of Wind and Solar Power in One Easy to Understand Picture

    Morocco is the ideal place for both wind power and solar power. It is sunny and windy. But how do we get energy from Morocco to where it’s needed? At what cost?

    Net Zero Is a Very Unlikely Outcome

    More importantly, please consider Sorry Green Energy Fans, Net Zero Is a Very Unlikely Outcome

    Let’s discuss the Kyoto Protocol climate objectives and dozens of reasons why a net zero by the 2050 target has virtually no chance.

    If you disagree, or even if you don’t, please read the above article and tell me what we are supposed to do, how we are going to do it, and who will bear the costs.

    Realistically, what should we expect other than total failure of existing goals?

    I suggest we are better off pursuing that line of thought than focusing on the mythical unobtanium.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 18:20

  • New York Beats California In List Of 50 Most Affluent U.S. Suburbs
    New York Beats California In List Of 50 Most Affluent U.S. Suburbs

    A new study from GoBankingRates.com revealed the most affluent suburbs in the United States for June 2024.

    The key finding was that New York suburbs beat out California. The No. 1 and No. 2 wealthiest suburbs in America are both just outside New York City: Scarsdale, NY (average income of $569K) and Rye, NY (average income of $405K).

    Additionally, the study found:

    • Outside of NYC, just one northeastern suburb cracks the top 10. Wellesley, MA ranked No. 10 overall with an average household income of approximately $368,000.
    • Texas ranks higher than Florida. Two Texas suburbs ranked among the 10 wealthiest in America (West University Place and University Park), while the highest ranking Florida suburb was Palm Beach, at No. 11.

    The study’s methodology included GOBankingRates looking at all cities with 5,000 households or more. They then isolated the 50 cities with the highest average household income as sourced from the 2022 American Community Survey. ‘

    Then, they were able to find which metro area they were a suburb of as well as the 2024 typical home value for the city as sourced from Zillow. All data was collected and is up to date as of June 18, 2024.

    Moving to the southern regions, West University Place in Texas, a suburb of Houston, stands out with an average household income of $403,845 and home values around $1.6 million. This area exemplifies the economic growth and the appeal of Texan suburbs, blending high-income living with relatively more affordable housing compared to some northeastern counterparts.

    Similarly, University Park in the Dallas-Fort Worth area shows the economic dynamism of Texas, with average incomes of $381,235 and home values of $2.3 million, highlighting the state’s burgeoning affluence.

    On the West Coast, Los Altos, California, within the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara region, showcases extreme wealth with average household incomes at $400,817 and home values reaching a staggering $4.5 million, the report says. The Silicon Valley effect is palpable here, as tech-driven prosperity pushes real estate prices to astronomical heights.

    Another Californian suburb, Paradise Valley in Arizona, part of the Phoenix metropolitan area, combines high incomes averaging $385,643 with home values of $3.4 million, marking it as a premier destination for the wealthy seeking luxurious living with scenic desert landscapes.

    The suburbs around the nation’s capital also feature prominently on this list. Great Falls and McLean in Virginia, part of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro area, both boast average household incomes well above $360,000, with home values hovering around $1.5 million.

    These suburbs are notable for their proximity to the political power center of Washington D.C., providing a residential haven for high-income professionals and government officials.

    From the Midwest to the Southeast, affluent suburbs like Hinsdale, Illinois, and Palm Beach, Florida, also make the list. Hinsdale, part of the Chicago metro area, reflects the blend of historical charm and modern wealth, with average incomes of $380,479 and home values over $1 million.

    Palm Beach, a renowned enclave within the Miami metropolitan area, tops the charts with home values averaging an astonishing $11.5 million, fueled by its status as a playground for the ultra-rich. This diversity in geographic locations among the wealthiest suburbs illustrates the widespread nature of wealth across different regions of the United States.

    The full study and full list of top 50 suburbs from GoBankingRates can be found here.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 18:00

  • The Paradigm Shift Of The New Populism
    The Paradigm Shift Of The New Populism

    Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

    The Supreme Court last week reversed a decision from 1984 that was responsible for a dramatic turn in American life. The precedent was called Chevron deference. It said that judges should allow executive-department agencies to make rules that affect commercial and civil life, effectively giving them broad discretionary authority that displaced Congressional and judicial oversight.

    The previous rule was designed to unclog the courts from endless litigation over legislative interpretations that was making life difficult for business. The unintended consequence of the shift in 1984 was to increase interventions but not from Congress or judges but from agencies, which blew up in size and authority over the course of 40 years. This was ripe for a hard challenge, and the Supreme Court certainly stepped up.

    The new rule (from Loper Bright v. Secretary of Commerce) is that agencies cannot interpret laws as they wish but rather are restrained by the words of legislation from the people’s representatives.

    The implications are profound.

    Above all else, it means transferring responsibility back to the people and their representatives. It is part of a new form of populism that has come about in response to obvious calamities.

    Think back to four years ago when agency deference was riding high, imposing an astonishing number of instant laws about medical matters, social distancing, business closures, masking, and even mail-in voting. It was all pushed through by agency authority having nothing to do with Congressional mandate.

    Americans suddenly found themselves ruled by a system of government they did not know they had. Consider the declaration that essential workers could work but nonessential workers would need to stay home. Was that a law? Not really. It was more like an edict. No one knew who would enforce it or what the penalties were for noncompliance.

    We know now that the declaration came from the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency, a division within the Department of Homeland Security created in 2018. Its declaration was even more powerful and decisive over national life than the Department of Labor, which was never even consulted.

    Again, this was not law and not legislation. It was edict and no one really knew how it came to be that this agency, about which no one knew anything, possessed this kind of power. The offending legal basis was precisely this Chevron deference, which tempted every agency just to go rogue and test out its powers whenever it wanted to.

    In those months and years, we came to be ruled by credentialed experts, not all and not even most but those experts who had close access to powerful agencies. They overrode scientific consensus, popular will, and even settled law. It all happened so suddenly. The goal of crushing the virus through force was never plausible and neither was the notion that we could vaccinate our way out of a fast-moving respiratory infection.

    For those still suffering from those days, and that includes nearly everyone, the Supreme Court’s decision in Loper (reversing Chevron) should provide some sense of relief. It will take time for the court decision to have a practical impact but the reality is that if the new rule had been in force four years ago, the nation would have been spared the pain of lockdowns and closures, and probably even the forced vaccination campaign.

    The new rule is also consistent with a new governing ethos that is sweeping the world today, against arbitrary rule by powerful elites and toward more democratic accountability. That one idea is now unsettling political systems in the United States, UK, and EU, and beyond. It provides no light to describe this movement as “far-right,” as the New York Times says daily. It is something different.

    We might call the ethos the new populism. It is neither left nor right, but it borrows themes from both in the past. From the so-called “right,” it derives the confidence that people in their own lives and communities have a better capacity for wise decision-making than trusting the authorities at the top. From the old left, the new populism takes the demand for free speech, fundamental rights, and deep suspicion of corporate and government power.

    The theme of being skeptical of empowered and entrenched elites is the salient point. This applies across the board. It is not only about politics. It hits media, medicine, courts, academia, and every other high-end sector. And this is in every country.

    This really does amount to a paradigmatic shift. It seems not temporary but substantial and likely lasting. What happened over four years unleashed this mass wave of incredulity that had been building for decades before. The final straw was the coercive pandemic response in which governments in the world issued stay-at-home orders, closed small businesses, restricted travel, forced masks on the population, and then mandated shots of an experimental technology.

    All of this was generally celebrated by most large media outlets, endorsed by academia, and cheered by all respectable opinion. But this was not actually “common-sense public health.” It was radical and far-reaching, and there never was a clear statement of the end goal. Many jurisdictions locked us down until vaccination became available, and then made an effort to innoculate most everyone in the population.

    That’s a big plan and it all turned on one key assumption, namely that the shot would work to end the pandemic. It did not work particularly well. It stopped neither infection nor transmission. Nor did the experts anticipate the levels of injury that would result from repeated uses of the same shot, even though the existing literature warned against that exact strategy.

    Here’s the problem with blaming all experts for this fiasco. Many people with high credentials were warning against this approach the entire time. They were shouted down and censored. Many others believed that this was the wrong approach but they were prevented for career reasons from telling the truth.

    This is the reason why the new populism is strongly committed to free speech. Without the opportunity to discuss and consider the evidence, we miss important truths and find ourselves blindly following the opinions of the most powerful.

    To be sure, the word populism has something of a sordid history in the 20th century, mostly due to the political upheavals in the interwar period that profoundly affected industrialized economies. FDR spoke like a populist but so did emergent leaders in fascist Europe. This form of populism was very different from that in our own time. It rallied around the ability of experts to plan the economy and manage the culture.

    For example, FDR’s first inaugural address struck populist notes by denouncing “the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods” and “the unscrupulous money changers” who “stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.” In practice, he drew on credentialed expertise and agency power to remake many features of the U.S. economy, imposing price controls, industrial subsidies, tight rules on all commercial transactions, all with the goal of lifting prices under the mistaken belief that low prices were causing the depression.

    The grand theory that drove the response to the Great Depression was rooted in the emergent thoughts of John Maynard Keynes, who flipped many features of classical economics on their head. In essence, his theory was that government itself should be empowered to manage the whole through careful manipulation of aggregate supply and demand, a dream that was never realizable or desirable.

    In many ways, the New Deal ended up not as a populist effort but one that empowered an elite class of social and economic managers. The pattern grew worse and worse through the decades. The Chevron decision of 1984 codified it into law. But we saw the same patterns in the UK and in European countries. The movements were called populist but they all drew on scientistic schemes for improved economic and social management by imposition from the top.

    We’ve been told to “trust the science” for the better part of a century. The push back against that paradigm had to wait until the apotheosis of central planning with the pandemic lockdowns, which were followed very quickly by efforts to use government power to control the climate. Together with that, and all over the world, the mass migration crisis unfolded as governments shifted from their core duties to aspirations of virus and climate control.

    Now we find ourselves in the midst of a dramatic paradigm shift, a new populism that rejects the idea that a powerful elite knows what is better for societies than the people themselves. In this view, the new populism is not a return to the interwar variety but something much earlier.

    What comes to mind in the American context is the movement by President Andrew Jackson in the 1830s. He stood against the National Bank, fought for the rights of the states against the federal government (except on the tariff), and generally sided with the people over elites. In other words, he embraced the original idea of democracy. If you want to understand what’s happening in the world today in light of American history, that’s a great place to begin.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 17:40

  • Netanyahu, Biden 'Likely' To Meet As Progressives Plan Boycott Of Congressional Speech
    Netanyahu, Biden ‘Likely’ To Meet As Progressives Plan Boycott Of Congressional Speech

    The White House has announced that President Joe Biden will ‘likely’ meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later this month, when he’ll be in Washington to address a joint session of Congress on July 24.

    His invitation to address Congress by Republicans has already proven divisive, given a number of Democrats have declared they intend to boycott it. Likely dozens will not be in attendance, similar to what happened when the Israeli premier addressed Congress nearly a decade ago.

    Flash90/Reuters

    On Wednesday a White House official told The Times of Israel that “The president has known Prime Minister Netanyahu for three decades. They will likely see each other when the prime minister is here over the course of that week, but we have nothing to announce at this time.”

    But tensions have been soaring, given just last month the White House canceled a meeting with an Israeli national security delegation after Netanyahu issued a video chastising the US for withholding some weapons shipments. The White House was left furious.

    At the time, Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called into question the Israeli leader’s narrative. “We genuinely do not know what he’s talking about. We just don’t,“ she told reporters.

    She had noted that “there was one particular shipment of munitions that was paused, and you’ve heard us talk about that many times.” Jean-Pierre then emphasized, “There are no other pauses — none — no other pauses or holds in place.”

    Biden has over the last months on various occasions gone negative against the ‘far right’ Netanyahu government, despite Israel having long been a very close US ally, over human rights abuses and mass killings in Gaza.

    The US administration has on the one hand continued to approve of major weapons and aid packages to Israel, but on the other has highlighted the soaring civilian death toll due to the IDF offensive. Progressive Democrats have made their anger known, with many vowing to not vote for Biden in November.

    Newsweek has recently highlighted Congressional Democrat discontent with Biden’s Gaza policy in the following: 

    The AP reported that interviews with more than a dozen Democrats revealed the discontent over Netanyahu’s upcoming speech, and how some feel it is a Republican ploy to divide Democrats.

    Some Democrats have said they will attend Netanyahu’s speech to show support for Israel, but others are clear that they won’t be attending.

    Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a deputy whip for the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has stated that Netanyahu “needs to be staying in Israel and working for the peace that he has been unwilling to support in the past.”

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

    The “indiscriminate bombing that he has encouraged… has led to loss of lives that should never have happened. He has not prioritized the hostages; he ought to be doing that instead of coming here,” he told The Hill days ago.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 17:20

  • Nashville Trans Shooter Left Over 100 GB Of Evidence, All To Be Kept Secret
    Nashville Trans Shooter Left Over 100 GB Of Evidence, All To Be Kept Secret

    Authored by Ken Silva via Headline USA,

    Nashville Judge I’Ashea Myles has decided that none of Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale’s writings should be made public, accepting the dubious argument that Hale’s victims have copyrights to the material—even though the victims haven’t registered with the federal copyright office.

    “The materials created by Hale are exempted from disclosure based on the federal Copyright Act,” Myles said.

    “Whether or not an original work of authorship has been registered with the federal copyright office is germane to the amount of recoverable damages in a copyright infringement action, but it has no bearing on whether or not this state law is preempted by federal copyright law,” she said.

    The judge also ruled that disclosing Hale’s writings could inspire copycat killers, disregarding the testimony of an expert psychologist who said that there’s no evidence to support that copycat theory.

    Myles is the same judge to trample on the First Amendment by threatening a newspaper that’s already published some of Hale’s writings. According to Myles’s Thursday ruling, the evidence held by law enforcement includes more than 100 gigabytes of data.

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

    Police have said the writings that they collected as part of their investigation into the March 27, 2023, shooting at the Covenant School that killed three 9-year-old children and three adult staff members are public records. However, they have said they cannot be released until their investigation is concluded.

    Despite law enforcement’s attempts to keep the manifesto secret, the first three pages the purported manifesto were leaked to conservative broadcaster Steven Crowder last November. The Nashville Police Department reportedly suspended seven detectives over the leak.

    The portion of the manifesto that was leaked purportedly revealed Hale, who identified a transgender, had been planning the school shooting for years, and that she deliberately targeted “white privileged” “cr*****s” and “f****ts.”

    “Can’t believe I’m doing this but I’m ready… I hope my victims aren’t,” Hale wrote. “My only fear is if anything goes wrong. I’ll do my best to prevent any of the sort. God let my wrath take over my anxiety. It might be 10 minutes tops. It might be 3-7. It’s gonna go quick. I hope I have a high death count. Ready to die.”

    The more recent excerpts published by The Star reveal Hale’s transgender ideation.

    “2007 was the birth of puberty blockers and a newfound discovery for treatment of non-conforming transgender children,” Hale reportedly wrote. “I’d kill to have those resources.”

    It appears that the vast majority of Hale’s writings have yet to be released.

    Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 17:00

  • US Bank Deposits Fell Ahead Of Stress Tests; Fed Bailout Facility Stuck At Massive $107BN
    US Bank Deposits Fell Ahead Of Stress Tests; Fed Bailout Facility Stuck At Massive $107BN

    Heading into the bank stress tests, money-market fund total assets rose by a de minimus $5BN while seasonally-adjusted bank deposits fell $18BN to $17.594 TN…

    Source: Bloomberg

    And, on a non-seasonally-adjusted basis, deposits also fell (for the second straight week) by $14.8BN

    Source: Bloomberg

    Excluding foreign deposits, total domestic deposits fell on both an SA and NSA basis (-$15BN and -$5BN respectively)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Small banks and Large banks both saw $7.5BN outflows (SA) each, while on an NSA basis, Small banks saw $5.9BN outflows as Large banks saw around $1BN of deposits inflows.

    Usage of The Fed’s bank bailout facility shrank a tiny amount – but still remains at an extremely high $107BN that the banks do not want to repay any time soon…

    Source: Bloomberg

    On the other side of the ledger, loan volumes shrank overall with a $630MN increase at large banks offset by a $3.7BN loan volume shrink at small banks…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Finally, US equity market capitalization remains drastically decoupled from its historically tight relationship with bank reserves at The Fed…

    Source: Bloomberg

    But globally, central bank balance sheet shrinkage continues as stocks soar…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Now that would be quite recoupling…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 16:40

  • Who Turned Off The Gaslight?
    Who Turned Off The Gaslight?

    Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

    “Things were bad, and they knew things were bad, and they knew others must also know things were bad, and yet they would need to pretend, outwardly, that things were fine. The president was fine. The election would be fine.”

    – Olivia Nuzzi, NY Magazine

    There’s a reason that the fable of The Emperor’s New Clothes is so potent: it describes a mentally ill society that retreats into abject unreality, to avoid contending with truth.

    Alas, this archetypal human quandary shoves such a society towards nemesis: downfall and punishment.

    And that is exactly the consequence of our news media’s craven, dishonorable, degenerate behavior the past decade.

    They have disordered our nation’s consensus about reality with peremptory lying about everything, in service to a political party that lies to its citizens about everything. The big question is: who or what recruited them into serving the Party of Chaos, and why did they go along?

    You can explain the media’s initial repugnance to Donald Trump going back to his 2015 debut in politics. Much about him had a low-class odor, despite all the gold-plating — his origins in tawdry Queens, his career as a builder in Manhattan where the trades are mob-controlled, the Atlantic City casino debacle, bankruptcy, ditching Ivana and his mid-life playboy reputation, the tacky TV show, the increasingly mystifying hair-doo, his rough, jumbly manner of speech. Everything about him repelled the Ivy Leaguers who increasingly filled the ranks of national-level journalism.

    Despite all that, Mr. Trump raised five kids successfully. The grown ones had careers and they all visibly loved him. With that and his overt masculinity, he assumed the lineaments of the archetypal Daddy, which enflamed the enormous cohort of feminists who had taken over the Democratic Party behind their avatar Hillary Clinton. And when he squeaked out an electoral victory over her in 2016, they were sure it was a cheat. The menace of Daddy in da (White) house pushed them over the edge psychologically.

    Daddy was all about setting boundaries, which was the antithesis to the “progressive” (and transgressive) agenda of the Dems, and was probably the reason that his talk of “building the wall” along the Mexican border drove them nuts. It signaled patriarchal control of a whole lot of other things, too. Boundaries galore!

    Now, it happened that the Democratic Party was also the favored party of the DC permanent bureaucracy, which had been growing and growing for decades and had become overtly politicized during the eight years of Barack Obama. Mr. Trump threatened to downsize this leviathan government, meaning many patronage jobs might be lost. (Boundaries would be imposed!) The warrior branch of this Deep State was the Intel community. The FBI, the DOJ, the CIA, the State Dept, and elements of the military were commissioned by the Democratic Party to destroy Mr. Trump.

    They used the machinery of the law to lay one trip after another on the president and effectively hog-tied him — RussiaGate, the Ukraine phone call impeachment, the George Floyd anarchy — and when those operations failed to oust him, they ran the Covid-19 caper (with enormous collateral damage to the people and their economy), which enabled rigging the 2020 election with mail-in ballots. Once Mr. Trump was squeezed out-of-office, the FBI turned the J-6 protest at the Capitol into a riot, which Nancy Pelosi then converted into an “insurrection” using the House J-6 committee. The J-6 incident, they dearly hoped, would rid them of Mr. Trump once and for all.

    The news media went along with every bit of that, year after year, converting each mendacious act of the party and the bureaucracy into consumable narrative, and lying either overtly about all the ops, or just omitting to report on the dark truth behind it all. Any reality-based thread that happened to leak into public view from independent alt-news reporters was branded by CNN, The New York Times, the WashPo, and many others as “misinformation” — a newish concept produced by a cadre of language Stasi skilled at inverting the meaning of anything to bamboozle the public. It appears that the news media became so invested psychologically in its own dishonest product that it began to believe its own bullshit.

    Or, at least, they wanted to pretend to believe it. One of the big problems was that absolutely everything they labeled “misinformation” or “conspiracy theory” turned out to be truthful, and that was becoming an inescapable embarrassment. And then the biggest blunder they made was going along with the Deep State’s selection of “Joe Biden” in the very sketchy Super Tuesday primary of 2020. The old grifter had next-to-zero support in all the preceding preliminaries and somehow (abracadabra !) he swept the field.

    By then, the Democratic Party, and its public relations arm in the mainstream media, had descended into florid mental illness. Everything they stood for post-World War Two flipped to its opposite. Suddenly, they were against free speech. They weren’t coy about it. They just made-up some new bullshit about free speech being “hate speech.” Similarly, they were against a free press. They went along with all the misinfo / disinfo bullshit the government cooked up and supported its role in suppressing the news. They were no longer anti-war, the party-of-peace. They were now pro-segregation and pro-discrimination (white people need not apply) according to Critical Race Theory (a childishly sketchy doctrine). Most of all, they were no longer skeptical of anything that the leviathan establishment wanted to do, including abridging the liberties of American citizens.

    Then there was the campaign to use the most powerful human instinct, sexuality, as a weapon to disorder the minds of American children, leading even to the mutilation of their bodies — a program that unmistakably tipped toward genuine evil, suggesting that actual psychosis lay behind the Cluster-B crypto-Marxism used to justify it.

    “Joe Biden” was fine with all of that, and the news media was fine with “Joe Biden” and whoever was using him as a front. Of course, it was evident during the 2020 campaign that “Joe Biden” was not up to a job as demanding as Chief Executive of the US government — and that was even apart from the dense criminal web of influence peddling discovered around him and his family, which the news media ignominiously ignored. But now the years have gone by and there’s no hiding “Joe Biden’s” rather gravely diminished mental abilities.

    Last week’s debate gave away the game. It had the effect of finally turning off the gaslight that the news media has been shining over the republic lo these many years.

    They can no longer pretend that this president is anything close to okay in body and mind. They can’t annul the gaslighted public’s delayed realization that they’ve been subject to a concerted program of deliberate lying for a long long time.

    So now, inveterate pretenders and liars, such as Jake Tapper of CNN and Maggie Haberman of The New York Times — and many others — have to pretend that they were innocently duped into supporting all the turpitudes of the Democratic Party / Deep State axis-of-evil. It is really hard to imagine that they can successfully rehabilitate their reputations. They have done immense harm to our country. It’s hard to see how the Democratic Party might survive, too, no matter who they finally put up for election this year. Of course, there’s still plenty of time left for them to destroy the country altogether. Just keep giving American missiles to Ukraine to fire into Russia and see what happens.

    *  *  *

    Support his blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page or Substack

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 16:20

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Jul 05

Today’s News 5th July 2024

  • NATO Expected To Tell Ukraine It's Too Corrupt To Join
    NATO Expected To Tell Ukraine It’s Too Corrupt To Join

    Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

    Ukraine will be told that it is too corrupt to join NATO at the alliance’s summit in Washington next week, The Telegraph reported on Tuesday.

    The report cited a US State Department official who said Ukraine needed to take “additional steps” before talks on its NATO membership could progress. “We have to step back and applaud everything that Ukraine has done in the name of reforms over the last two-plus years,” the official said.

    Source: NY Times

    “As they continue to make those reforms, we want to commend them, we want to talk about additional steps that need to be taken, particularly in the area of anti-corruption. It is a priority for many of us around the table,” the official added.

    President Biden has frequently cited corruption as a reason for not admitting Ukraine into NATO, but that has not stopped him from spending over $100 billion on military and economic aid for the Ukrainian government with virtually no oversight.

    The position is expected to be outlined in a NATO communique issued during the summit. During last year’s NATO summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was looking for a clear roadmap to membership, but the alliance’s communique only offered a vague statement that it would invite Ukraine to join “when Allies agree and conditions are met.”

    NATO is poised to make some gestures to show support for Ukraine, including the stationing of a senior civilian official in Kyiv, according to The Wall Street Journal. The idea is to show support for future Ukrainian NATO membership without actually offering an invitation.

    The Journal also reported that the alliance will announce the establishment of a new command in Wiesbaden, Germany, to oversee military aid and training for the Ukrainian military. The idea is to have the alliance take over duties currently overseen by the US so they could continue in the event that a future US president wants to reduce US involvement in the proxy war.

    The report said the steps to “Trump proof” the Ukraine proxy war have taken on a new urgency after President Biden’s poor performance in the first presidential debate. Former President Donald Trump has expressed skepticism about the war and said he would work out a deal to end it but hasn’t articulated a plan. He also backed House Speaker Mike Johnson as he moved forward an additional $61 billion in spending on the proxy war.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/05/2024 – 02:00

  • Some Thoughts On America For Her 248th Birthday
    Some Thoughts On America For Her 248th Birthday

    Authored by James Hickman via SchiffSovereign.com,

    When the 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress ratified the Declaration of Independence 248 years ago tomorrow, they were creating much more than a nation. They were giving birth to an idea.

    America, at its core, is an idea.

    And it’s one that ranks as one of the greatest innovations in the history of human civilization, right up there with the wheel, the steam engine, the printing press, and the Internet.

    The idea of America wasn’t born in 1776, however. By then it had already evolved over thousands of years.

    The ancient Greeks embraced individual liberty, direct democracy, and a respect for the rule of law.

    The Roman republic further refined Greek democracy and developed a more professional legal code. The early Roman Empire embodied peace through strength, ushering in nearly two centuries of geopolitical stability and economic prosperity under the Pax Romana.

    The later Byzantine Empire fused Greek and Roman ideas with Judeo-Christian values. And by 1000 AD, the Republic of Venice– borrowing from Rome’s republican form of government– infused an early form of capitalism to this model.

    The Dutch republic of the 1600s refined the concept of a powerful, free, capitalist society even further, as did philosophers like Rousseau, Montesquieu, John Locke, and Adam Smith.

    So, when the Founding Fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence (and subsequently the US Constitution), they didn’t have to start from scratch; they drew from a rich, 2,000-year intellectual heritage of the giants who came before them.

    This means that America is ultimately a composite of the very best ideas that human civilization ever had to offer – and the combined concept was then elevated to unprecedented heights.

    Nothing is perfect, and America wasn’t either.

    But based on this idea, the United States became the world’s largest economy in less than a century and the dominant global superpower about 80 years later. That is an unparalleled achievement which no other superpower in human history has come close to matching.

    It’s also worth pointing out that the majority of the world’s most important innovations, from airplanes and air conditioning to cell phones and chocolate chip cookies, were either born or perfected in America.

    Again, none of this is an accident. America’s success is the deliberate outcome from combining the best ideas from 2,000+ years of human civilization… plus some disciplined execution and a little bit of luck.

    Obviously, America has weathered challenges as well. The Civil War. The Great Depression. The turmoil of the 1960s.

    But its foundation of economic potential, plus a baseline of social cohesion and shared values, have always allowed the nation to overcome… and for the idea of America to persist.

    The country is now at an undeniable crossroads, and it’s not just about a single election.

    There are obvious signs of national decline: rising inflation, mounting debt, diminished global standing, a loss of government dignity, and stinging embarrassments like the shameful withdrawal from Afghanistan.

    Even the idea of America itself is on the ropes; there are powerful forces within government, media, and the education system who seek to redefine America’s core principles.

    Capitalism has been demonized and reinvented. Individual liberty has given way to a radical woke ideology. And the concept of limited government is almost a punchline at this point.

    Still, there is a plausible scenario in which America’s best days are ahead.

    If politicians embrace the principles that originally fueled the country’s prosperity—such as capitalism and laissez-faire productivity—America could experience an economic boom not seen since the Industrial Revolution.

    By cutting taxes, slashing anti-capitalist regulation, and embracing the free market, the increase in productivity could be staggering.

    This boom would lead to increased tax revenue, i.e. funds which could rebuild the military, secure the southern border, save Social Security, curb inflation, balance the budget, and chip away at the national debt.

    As China buckles under the consequences of its central planning and upside-down demographic pyramid (brought on by its idiotic “One Child policy”), the United States could easily reassert its global primacy.

    The dollar’s status as the global reserve currency would be unquestioned, and the world could see a new era of global peace and prosperity.

    This is not a pipe dream. It’s a genuine possibility.

    The other possibility is that the government does nothing to arrest America’s decline.

    The debt continues to spiral further out of control. Rising deficits trigger painful inflation. Excessive regulation stifles economic growth, leaving the economy stagnant and performing far below its full potential.

    Individuals are constrained by politicians’ incessant and debilitating rules about how to live, what to buy, and what to drive. The social fabric continues to tear apart with idiotic mandates, censorship, wokeness, gaslighting, and a hatred for capitalism.

    Unfortunately, that is the road the country is presently on. Yes, it can be fixed. They can change directions. And we certainly hope that happens.

    But as we used to say in the military, hope is not a course of action. That’s why we have a Plan B.

    Having a Plan B is not being negative or pessimistic. It’s certainly not irrational. And it’s not unpatriotic.

    The fierce individuality to NOT bow down to circumstances is exactly what has allowed America to persevere so many times before.

    And taking sensible steps to preserve, protect, and defend what you have worked so hard to achieve in life is about as core of an American value as it gets.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/04/2024 – 23:00

  • June Payrolls Preview: Another Big Drop
    June Payrolls Preview: Another Big Drop

    US payrolls is expected to once again in June to 190k from 272k in May and after a cycle low 165K in April. Most economic indicators in the past month indicated labor market deterioration: jobless claims that corresponded with the BLS’ survey window for the jobs report worsened. ADP’s gauge of payrolls came in blow consensus, as wage metrics fell and analysts noted that forward looking gauges of pay compensation suggest wage growth will slow even more ahead. Challenger job cuts jumped in June YoY relative to a decline in May. Business surveys were also downbeat, with the ISM manufacturing report seeing its employment sub-index fall back into contractionary territory, while the ISM services employment component dipped further into contractionary territory.

    The June jobs report will help shape expectations for near-term Fed rate cuts; currently, markets see a decent chance of two rate cuts this year (in contrast to the Fed’s median forecast for just one reduction in 2024), with the first fully discounted cut seen at the November meeting, and around a 80% chance that the cut could be seen in September – the June report may help to define that pricing. A huge miss tomorrow and the odds of a July rate cut or a double rate cut in September will spike.

    EXPECTATIONS:

    • The rate of headline payrolls growth is expected to cool to +190k in June, down from +272k in May, and down from a 3 month average 249k, 6 month average 255k, and 12 month average 230k. Wall Street estimates range from a high of 237K at RBC Capital Markets, all the way down to 140K at Goldman Sachs, which for once has lost its Panglossian optimism and expects a downright ugly number.

    • To justify its bearish outlier estimate, Goldman expects payrolls to rise only 140k in June, as “Big Data measures continue to indicate a below-normal pace of job creation during the spring hiring season, and our layoff tracker  continues to edge higher from low levels. We also assume a 50k drag from payback effects, because we believe the longer-than-usual survey window in last month’s report pulled forward reported job growth from June into May. While the seasonal factors in principle adjust for these effects, it appears they may have been distorted by the weak payrolls reading in May 2019, which was also 5 weeks long.”
    • The unemployment rate is expected to be unchanged at 4.0% (NOTE: the Fed’s June SEP has pencilled in a rate of 4.0% for this year, rising to 4.2% next year).
    • The rate of average hourly earnings growth is seen paring to +0.3% M/M (vs +0.4% in May), while the annual rate is likely to ease to 3.9% Y/Y from 4.1%.

    MAY’S DATA:

    The May jobs data surprised to the upside, with the headline and wage metrics rising above expectations (as we reported, it was the “most ridiculous jobs report in years“). Other analysts also noted that this strong number seemed at odds with other labor market indicators, like initial jobless claims and Challenger layoffs data. Some of the upside has been chalked up to stronger government payrolls, but Capital Economics said that “with balanced budget requirements forcing state and local governments to rein in spending and hiring to eliminate growing deficits, there is scope for a smaller gain, or even outright decline, in government payrolls in June,” and “given the widespread announcements of education sector layoffs, we are worried that will become a drag.” It adds, however, that most of the impact of this will likely be seen in the July data. May’s JOLTs data (a key barometer monitored by Fed officials, and was released after the May BLS jobs data), saw headline job openings rise to 8.14mln (exp. 7.91mln) from a revised down 7.92mln April reading – driven entirely by an increase in government job openings…

    …   with the vacancy rate ticking up to 4.9% from 4.8%; some Fed officials see the vacancy rate as one of the best representations of excess labor demand; Fed Governor Waller has said that if the vacancy rate continued to fall below 4.5%, it would likely suggest that excess labour demand has been worked off, and the unemployment rate could start to rise. The May JOLTs data also saw the Quits Rate unchanged at 2.2% for the 7th consecutive month; Oxford Economics notes that it stands a little below pre-pandemic levels, and is consistent with ongoing moderation in wage growth, but it is not sending any signals about significant weakness in the labor market. Note, at the June 12th FOMC, Fed Chair Powell was quizzed about the different pictures the household and establishment surveys are showing within the BLS report. Powell acknowledged that sometimes you can’t reconcile the differences, but that is why it makes sense to look at the 3, 6 and 12-months series, rather than just one report. But nonetheless, the overall picture is one of a strong and gradually cooling-gradually rebalancing labor market.

    JOBLESS CLAIMS:

    In the week that corresponds to the BLS survey window for the June jobs report, weekly initial jobless claims data were at 239k vs 216k heading into the May jobs report, while continuing claims were up at 1.839mln vs 1.79mln going into the prior jobs report. Oxford Economics said that “initial claims suggest that the gain in non-farm employment in May won’t be duplicated in June, and the risks to the labour market should be garnering attention by the Fed.” It points out that the softening in the job growth has been primarily driven by a deceleration in hiring via reduced labour demand, with the job openings rate having declined noticeably, but that still has not translated into a significant rise in the unemployment rate. On continuing claims, it notes that in the week that coincides with the BLS jobs report survey window, it rose to the highest since late 2021; “the rise in continued claims on the surface points to a moderation in job growth,” but adds that “increases in claims in California and Minnesota – which accounted for more than half the total rise in continued claims – are likely due more to noise than any underlying softening in the labour market.”

    ADP EMPLOYMENT & WAGES:

    While analysts offer their usual caveats about how the data series offers low predictive power for the more widely followed BLS jobs report, ADP’s gauge of national employment printed 150k in June (exp. 160k, prior 157k). The median change in annual pay for job-stayers fell to the slowest since August 2021 at 4.9% Y/Y (prev. 5.0%), and it eased to 7.7% Y/Y (prev. 7.8%) for job-changers. The payrolls provider said that while job growth has been solid, it was not broad based, adding that had it not been for a rebound in hiring in leisure and hospitality, June would have been a downbeat month. Despite Average Hourly Earnings moving higher in May, Capital Economics notes that forward-looking indicators, like job quit rates, still point to wage growth declining to nearer 3.5% Y/Y. CapEco is below consensus, expecting average hourly earnings to rise +0.2% M/M (consensus looks for +0.3%), owing to favourable base effects; that may be enough to bring the annual rate of AHE down to 3.8% Y/Y (consensus: 3.9%).

    BUSINESS SURVEYS:

    Within ISM’s manufacturing PMI for June, the employment index fell to 49.3 from 51.1 in May, beneath the 50.0 mark that separates expansion and contraction. The report said that many respondents’ are continuing to reduce headcounts through layoffs, attrition and hiring freezes, though commentary in June indicated a marginal decline in staff reductions vs May, supported by the approximately 1.3-to-1 ratio of hiring versus head-count reduction comments. The ISM Services PMI saw the employment component dip further into contractionary territory at 46.1 from 47.1 in May. Elsewhere, Challenger reported US job cuts were -19.8% Y/Y at 48,786 in June (vs 63,816 in May). So far this year, 434,645 job cuts have been announced (-5.1% vs the 458,209 in H1 of 2023). Most job cuts were seen in consumer products manufacturers, followed by technology, and then construction. Challenger said “June is typically a low month for job cut announcements, as most companies are midyear or at the end of their fiscal years,” and that “the months following fiscal year ends tend to have a spike in cuts, as those plans are implemented.”

    CONSUMER CONFIDENCE:

    The Conference Board’s data showed consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions increased to 141.5 (prev. 140.8), while the expectations on consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and the labor market fell to 73.0 (prev. 74.9); the CB notes that the Expectations Index has been below 80, a threshold which usually signals a recession ahead, for five consecutive months. That said, the appraisal of the labor market improved in June, with 38.1 saying that jobs were “plentiful” (prev. 37.0 in May), while 14.1 said jobs were “hard to get” (prev. 14.3%). The short-term outlook was also less negative in the month, with 12.6 expecting more jobs to be available (down from 13.1 in May), while 17.3% anticipated fewer jobs ahead (vs prev. 18.8). The CB’s economists said “confidence pulled back in June, but remained within the same narrow range that’s held throughout the past two years, as strength in current labour market views continued to outweigh concerns about the future,” but warned that if material weaknesses in the labour market were to appear, confidence could weaken ahead. The report also said that consumers’ feelings were mixed; their view of the present situation improved slightly overall, driven by an uptick in sentiment about the current labour market, but their assessment of current business conditions cooled. And for a second consecutive month, consumers were slightly less pessimistic about future labour market conditions despite  expectations for both future income and business conditions weakening.

    ARGUING FOR A WEAKER-THAN-EXPECTED REPORT

    • Big Data. Alternative measures of employment growth generally indicate a softer pace of hiring in June, with a median pace of +150k across the five indicators Goldman tracks (vs. +150k in May and compared to reported May job growth of +272k). An even slower pace of job gains is implied by the Homebase employer panel (+100k). Withheld income and employment taxes also decelerated further (-1% yoy in June compared to +2% in May and +6% on average in January-April, nominal basis).

    • Payback from the long May payroll month. Goldman assumes a 50k drag from a pull-forward of reported jobs into May related to a longer BLS survey window—5 weeks from the April survey week to the May survey week, compared to 4 weeks in a typical May. Additionally, the seasonal factor for last month’s report was unusually favorable, providing a 12k boost to monthly payroll gains relative to May 2019 and a 64k boost relative to May 2014, the last two Mays that also had five weeks. While the seasonal factors in principle adjust for the 5-week effect, it appears they may have been distorted by a weak payrolls reading in May 2019, which was also 5 weeks long.

    ARGUING FOR A STRONGER-THAN-EXPECTED REPORT

    • Job availability. JOLTS job openings rebounded 0.2mn to 8.1mn in May, but online measures have trended lower. While labor demand has fallen meaningfully over the last year, it remains elevated by 1mn relative to 2019 and represents a positive factor for job growth. The Conference Board labor differential—the difference between the percent of respondents saying jobs are plentiful and those saying jobs are hard to get—edged up by 1.3pt to +24.0 in June but remains below the +30.4 average level of Q1.

    NEUTRAL/MIXED FACTORS

    • Immigration. Elevated illegal immigration boosted labor supply growth by roughly 80k per month last year, relative to normal, and Goldman expects a continued tailwind averaging 50k per month this year. While the pace of immigration has slowed sharply in 2024 and foreign-born unemployment pulled back in May, the absolute number of jobseekers in that labor supply segment still remained roughly 200k above 2022-23 levels to start the June payroll month.

    • Layoffs. Layoff activity increased from low levels in June, with the GS layoff tracker edging up to to 1.24mn from 1.20mn in May and compared to the recent low of 1.1mn in December and January. Initial jobless claims also increased, to an average of 233k in the June payroll month from 218k in May and above the 223k average of 2023 (though some of the increase reflects expanded eligibility). The JOLTS layoff rate was unchanged at 1.0% in May. Announced layoffs reported by Challenger, Gray & Christmas decreased by 6k in June to 50k (SA by GS), compared to 54k on average in the second half of 2023.

    • Employer surveys. The employment components of business surveys increased but remained at contractionary levels in June. The employment component of the GS manufacturing survey tracker increased 0.2pt to 48.4 while the employment component of the GS services survey tracker decreased 1.8pt to 49.8. However, the signal from soft data has been less useful—and at times misleading—during the post-pandemic period.

    POLICY IMPLICATIONS:

    Fed officials generally agree that inflation would need to continue cooling, and the labor market would need to continue its gradual rebalancing for rate cut conditions to be met. That said, as Newsquawk notes, their policy reaction could be tilted back towards ‘higher for longer’ if inflation were to misbehave again; although the plan to cut rates could be accelerated if there were unexpected weakness in the labor market. Speaking this week, Fed Chair Powell said that while the labor market was cooling-off, it was still strong. This has also been a theme among other policymakers too. Officials have generally been arguing that they are trying to tame inflation without causing any stress in the labor market; Powell did repeat however that any unexpected weakness in the jobs market could trigger the Fed to react with looser policy. Previously, however, he has indicated that a small movement in the unemployment rate, of a couple of tenths, would not constitute this unexpected weakness.

    For reference, and perhaps providing some context to Powell’s caveats, the Fed’s latest economic projections see the jobless rate at 4.0% at the end of this year, where it currently stands (the Fed’s broad range of forecasts for 2024 is between 3.8-4.5%); it is then seen picking up to 4.1% next year (broad range: 3.7-4.3%), and at 4.1% in the long-run (long-run range of forecasts is between 3.8–4.3%). Fed Governor Cook recently said that it would take monthly job gains of around 200k to keep the unemployment rate steady. In aggregate, the deceleration in inflation, combined with the decent labor market conditions gives the Fed scope to be patient before acting on rates, analysts at Oxford Economics argue; that way they can ensure inflation is on its way to target in a sustainable manner.

    More in the full preview folder available to pro subscribers.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/04/2024 – 22:26

  • Labour Set For Crushing 170 Seat Majority In UK General Election, As Conservative Party Suffers Worst Result In Its History
    Labour Set For Crushing 170 Seat Majority In UK General Election, As Conservative Party Suffers Worst Result In Its History

    The year of record elections continues to serve up dramatic results, and on Thursday, a national exit poll in the UK general election indicated that Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives will crash out of office after 14 years after Keir Starmer’s Labour party was heading for a massive majority of about 170 seats. The poll on Thursday night suggested Starmer will become prime minister with 410 seats out of 650 in the House of Commons, while Sunak’s party is facing the worst result in its history, with just 131 seats.

    The result, according to the FT, is “momentous for Britain and will resonate around the world” because at a time when right-wing populists are advancing in many countries, political power in the UK has swung back to a liberal, internationalist, centre-left party. 

    But Labour’s victory was projected to be delivered on a smaller share of the vote than the 40% secured by leftwing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in his 2017 general election defeat — suggesting the public remains sceptical.

    Labour’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy warned: “If we do not deliver for working people, we will be out and nationalists will be on our tails.” He added: “That’s the lesson we have seen around the world.” Meanwhile, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK was projected to do better than expected with 13 seats, a result that would be a big breakthrough for his right-wing populist party.

    The first two constituencies to report results on Thursday evening, both in the north of England, showed Labour wins with Reform in second place.

    Labour’s victory is a personal triumph for Starmer, who took over the party’s leadership in 2020 after the party’s worst election defeat in almost a century. His projected victory is similar in scale to Sir Tony Blair’s 1997 Labour landslide.

    That said, while the Ipsos exit poll is usually a reliable predictor of overall results, the final result may still differ. Vote counts from individual constituencies will trickle in through the night, with Labour, if the polls are correct, likely to have a clear majority by 5am.

    According to the exit survey, the centrist Liberal Democrats was on course to win 61 seats, close to the 62-seat record set by the party in 2005. The Lib Dems are forecast to make big gains in the Tory “blue wall” of rich constituencies in the south of England. The Scottish National party was set to come behind Labour in Scotland with just 10 seats, according to the exit poll, putting a serious dent in the party’s dream of securing independence.

    The survey exposed the overwhelming sentiment reported by candidates from all parties that Britain wanted “change”, with many senior Tories admitting during the campaign that the party looked exhausted. The UK has been under Conservative rule for 14 years, during which time there have been five prime ministers, with a near catastrophic banking and bond market crisis erupting during the brief reign of Liz Truss. The period was marked by economic austerity, Brexit, the coronavirus pandemic and an energy price shock.

    Former Tory minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said it was “clearly a terrible night” and added that the Conservatives had taken votes for granted.

    Starmer is set to become only the seventh Labour prime minister in the party’s history, and his victory is the first since 2005 for the center-left party. Labour last ousted the Tories from power in 1997, when Tony Blair became prime minister in a crushing victory over John Major’s Tories. He will move into 10 Downing Street on Friday and immediately form his cabinet, with an instruction to ministers to quickly deliver policies to jolt Britain out of its low-growth torpor.

    The exit poll indicated that Starmer’s avowedly pro-growth, pro-business agenda has paid off, as Labour bucked international political trends. Far-right parties have performed strongly in recent elections for the European and French parliaments, while in the US, Donald Trump is leading in polls for the presidential race.

    Labour’s chancellor-in-waiting Rachel Reeves has said she hopes investors will now see the UK as a “safe haven” although once the UK unleashes the next spending spree to fund all the various welfare projects, we fully expect another quick funding crisis and even more QE. 

    Starmer has promised to work with business to stimulate growth, with an agenda that includes planning reform and state investment in green technology. Labour will also pursue a traditional agenda of reforms to worker rights.

    As for outgoing PM Sunak, the result is a personal disaster. He chose to hold an early election on July 4 — against the advice of his campaign chief Isaac Levido — and ran an error-strewn six-week attempt to turn around his party’s fortunes.

    The party’s projected total of 131 seats is lower than the party’s worst-ever result of 156 in 1906. Starmer’s expected seat haul is close to the 418 seats won by Tony Blair in his 1997 landslide victory.

    A number of senior Tory figures are expected to lose their seats on a night of devastation, reducing the cast list of potential contenders for the party leadership if, as expected, Sunak stands down. Among the cabinet ministers deemed to be at risk by the exit poll are Penny Mordaunt, Jeremy Hunt, James Cleverly, Kemi Badenoch and Grant Shapps, with results due in their seats in the early hours.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/04/2024 – 21:42

  • Americans Warned To Stop Shopping Via Chinese App Temu
    Americans Warned To Stop Shopping Via Chinese App Temu

    Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The top prosecutor in Arkansas warned on July 2 that Americans should be wary of using the Temu marketplace app because it’s effectively a “data theft business.”

    “The threat from China is not new, and it is real,” Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin told Fox Business on July 2, a week after his office filed a lawsuit against the company. “Temu is not an online marketplace like Amazon or Walmart. It’s a data theft business that sells goods as a means to an end.”

    He said that it’s “common for an online marketplace like Amazon, like Walmart, to collect certain consumer data as part of the normal course of business. I think we all know that that’s not what’s going on here.”

    The Temu logo is displayed on a laptop in San Anselmo, Calif., on Feb. 26, 2024. (Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

    Instead, the company is using malware and spyware to “get into your phone, your device, and to collect your data,” Mr. Griffin told the outlet.

    “Not just traditional consumer data, but using malware, spyware to have complete access to your information. And [taking it] one step further, their code is written in such a way to evade detection,” he said.

    Temu is operated by Shanghai, China-based parent company Pinduoduo Inc., which includes “former Chinese communist officials” in its ranks, Mr. Griffin said.

    The lawsuit, filed against the firm’s parent company, is seeking a jury trial as well as a permanent block against Temu’s data-collection activities. It also seeks a $10,000 fine for each violation of an Arkansas state law known as the Deceptive Practices Act.

    The suit primarily cites research from Grizzly Research, which analyzes publicly traded firms, and alleges that Temu can “purposely … gain unrestricted access to a user’s phone operating system, including, but not limited to, a user’s camera, specific location, contacts, text messages, documents, and other applications.”

    In its report, Grizzly Research said that it suspects that Temu is “already, or intends to, illegally sell stolen data from Western country customers to sustain a business model that is otherwise doomed for failure.”

    “Temu is estimated to be losing $30 per order. Its ad spending and shipping costs (1 to 2 weeks from China, expedited to U.S. delivery) are astronomical,” the report states.

    “One is left wondering how this business could ever be profitable. Temu is a notoriously bad actor in its industry. We see rampant user manipulation, chain-letter-like affinity scams to drive signups, and overall, the most aggressive and questionable techniques to manipulate large numbers of people to install the app.”

    In a statement to The Epoch Times on Tuesday evening, a Temu spokesperson that it was “disappointed” and said the Arkansas lawsuit doesn’t cite “any independent fact-finding.”

    “The allegations in the lawsuit are based on misinformation circulated online, primarily from a short-seller, and are totally unfounded. We categorically deny the allegations and will vigorously defend ourselves,” the firm stated. “We understand that as a new company with an innovative supply chain model, some may misunderstand us at first glance and not welcome us.”

    The spokesperson continued, “We are committed to the long-term and believe that scrutiny will ultimately benefit our development. We are confident that our actions and contributions to the community will speak for themselves over time.”

    According to analytics website Backlinko, Temu was the most downloaded shopping app around the world in 2023, with more than 330 million downloads—about 1.8 times more than the Amazon Shopping app.

    On July 1, the Texas Public Policy Foundation issued a similar warning about the app, saying that it “can access almost anything on your phone,” which means that Chinese Communist Party officials “could theoretically install applications and spyware files on an individual’s smart device to use for complete surveillance of all user activity on a phone.

    “This would allow China to monitor keystrokes and logs to have direct insight into login credentials for other social media, emails, and bank accounts,” the foundation warned.

    Temu officials didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/04/2024 – 21:30

  • Big Mexican Cartels Ramp Up Operations In Hawaii As America's Fentanyl Crisis Broadens
    Big Mexican Cartels Ramp Up Operations In Hawaii As America’s Fentanyl Crisis Broadens

    Mexican drug cartels, including Sinaloa and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), are aggressively expanding into Hawaii, flooding the islands with methamphetamines and fentanyl. 

    Local authorities told media outlet KHON2 that Sinaloa and CJNG are expanding business in the island state by sending drugs via passengers’ luggage, mailed packages, and body carriers flying into Honolulu International Airport. 

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

    “Violent cartels, primarily the Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco New Generation cartels, and they’re killing each other,” explained Gary Yabuta, executive director of the Hawaii High-Density Drug Trafficking Area. 

    Yabuta said, “They’re competing for territory and turf to make sure that their drugs get across the border and sent throughout the nation, including Hawaii.”

    US Attorney Clare Connors told the local media outlet that Sinaloa and CJNG are primarily behind the new push in flooding Hawaii with drugs. 

    “Largely, however, it is cartel interaction with local drug trafficking organizations,” Connors said. 

    Yabuta said, “Methamphetamine is still our greatest drug threat here in Hawaii, and that has risen, too throughout the years, including 2023 drug-related deaths,” adding, “However, fentanyl drug-related deaths are catching up. It’s rising at a faster rate.”

    One of the main reasons cartels expand across the islands is the lack of competition and law enforcement. 

    NewsNation noted, “An oxycodone pill selling for $2 in Los Angeles can fetch $16 or more in Hawaii.” 

    According to Families Against Fentanyl, the surge in fentanyl overdose deaths placed Hawaii number seven nationally on a list with a 27% increase in fentanyl-related deaths in 2023. 

    Meanwhile, these same cartels are fueling the fentanyl epidemic across the Lower 48, resulting in a US drug death catastrophe that eclipses the Vietnam War every six months.

    Last week, a new report from the Financial Times revealed details about a dark Chinese money-laundering network partnering with Mexican drug cartels. 

    In mid-April, the House Select Committee on China revealed that the Chinese Communist Party used tax rebates to subsidize the manufacturing and exporting of fentanyl chemicals to overseas customers. 

    “The West Coast Coalition is comprised of law enforcement agencies from California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and Alaska,” Peace Officers Research Assoc. of CA recently wrote on X.

    They continued, “We can’t sit here and continue to let our communities suffer.” 

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    The biggest mystery here is why the Biden administration hasn’t taken a tougher stance on China while America’s fentanyl epidemic is killing a generation of youth. This should be a national security threat, yet elderly Joe Biden is likely too busy eating ice cream. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/04/2024 – 20:45

  • 16 Things Individuals Can Do To Help Bring America Together
    16 Things Individuals Can Do To Help Bring America Together

    Authored by Lawrence Reed via The Foundation for Economic Education,

    Americans are angry and divided – perhaps more than at any time since the Civil War.

    Holding strong opinions, especially in defense of truth, is no vice.

    But failing to bridge our differences and resolve them peacefully is no virtue, either.

    Here’s my “to do” list if you want to be part of the solution instead of the problem.

    1. Choose someone you disagree with and start a dialogue. Make friends, even if neither of you changes your mind.

    2. Find common ground, avoid epithets, and presume goodwill on the part of others unless and until their actions suggest otherwise.

    3. Embrace America as an imperfect, unfinished product—and one whose future depends on a respect for those principles that made it largely free and exceptional in the first place. No country is without flaws, and few countries in world history have accomplished as much for life and liberty as America.

    4. Think twice before using political connections and influence to get something you can’t secure voluntarily from others in the marketplace. Cronyism diminishes respect for both you and for the free enterprise system it corrupts.

    5. Judge every individual by “the content of his character” and the merit of his actions, not by the group to which he was assigned by birth, origin, faith, color, or politics.

    6. Elevate the importance of personal character in your life. No society can flourish if it denigrates virtues such as honesty, humility, patience, responsibility, tolerance, courage, gratitude, self-discipline, and respect for the lives, rights, property, and choices of others.

    7. Choose liberty over power and persuasion over force. Find ways in which you can leave the world not only a better place, but a freer one as well, for life without liberty is both unthinkable and unlivable.

    8. Live your life as though politics is but a corner of it, not consumed by it. Recognize the incalculable value of intact families, vibrant and voluntary associations, community engagement, loving relationships, and institutions created and sustained outside the divisive realm of politics.

    9. Ask yourself every day, “Am I good enough for liberty?” Then dedicate yourself to self-improvement if you can’t honestly answer “yes.” Reforming the world starts with reforming oneself.

    10. Defend the free speech of all people. If you catch yourself attempting to intimidate, shut down, or frighten others into submission, shake it off before the impulse turns you into an antisocial monster. “Cancel” nobody except those who insist on canceling others.

    11. Revere truth and the honest search for it. Never let truth be obscured or destroyed by claims that it doesn’t matter or that it is nothing more than a subjective whim of the moment. There is no such thing as “his truth” or “her truth,” only “the truth.”

    12. Seek diversity of opinion. Minds that try to stigmatize or close the minds of others or that pretend that color, sex, and religion are all that matter are enemies of the “diversity” that matters most.

    13. Love peace more than you love force, conflict, compulsion, and intolerance. Work toward a society in which individuals choose to do right because they want to, not because they’re forced to.

    14. Reject nihilism, cynicism, and pessimism. People of goodwill and character can shape the future for the better. It’s never too soon or too late to start.

    15. Learn from history; don’t rewrite it. Lessons from the past can make us better people in the future. Don’t twist your underwear into a knot over an old statue. Never allow the poison of “presentism” to corrupt your perspective.

    16. Celebrate the “uncommon.” It is the uncommon to whom we owe the greatest debt—those who speak truth to power, invent and innovate, turn failure into success, and add value to society. No one should encourage a child, for example, to aspire to nothing more than “commonness.” Respect and encourage the exceptional.

    Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine) once said:

    “I believe there’s no such thing as a conflict that can’t be ended. They’re created and sustained by human beings. They can be ended by human beings. No matter how ancient the conflict, no matter how hateful, no matter how hurtful, peace can prevail.”

    I hope he’s right. But in any event, no peace of any kind can prevail so long as we nurture conflict within and between ourselves. No peace of any kind can long be imposed from the outside in. It must begin on the inside, as a matter of conscience, one conscientious individual at a time, and then grow outward into a course of action.

    These 16 suggestions constitute a course of action for each reader to consider.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/04/2024 – 20:00

  • Dior, Armani Under Investigation For "Made In Italy" Handbags Produced By Migrants
    Dior, Armani Under Investigation For “Made In Italy” Handbags Produced By Migrants

    Italian prosecutors investigated the local supply chains of two major Italian fashion houses. Their investigation found that some designer handbags are manufactured by exploited foreign labor. This revelation, while shocking to some, comes as no surprise to readers who already understand the agenda of the Western elites: flood Europe and the US with illegal aliens to capitalize off cheap labor (also votes). 

    The Wall Street Journal cited court documents showing LVMH subsidiary Dior paid a supplier about $57 to assemble luxury handbags that sell for $2,780 in brick-and-mortar retail shops. Meanwhile, Giorgio Armani bags were sold to local suppliers for around $100, then resold to Armani for $270, and ultimately placed on retail store shelves for $1945 or more.

    WSJ noted, “The cost prices don’t include leather or other raw materials. The companies separately cover the costs of design, distribution, and marketing.” 

    “Why does it cost so little to manufacture the product?” said Fabio Roia, president of Milan’s court system, adding, “The brands need to ask themselves this question.”

    Prosecutors allege that some of the luxury handbags made by the fashion houses’ suppliers with the “Made in Italy” stamp are actually made in sweatshops within the European country, employing low-cost Chinese labor. They say many of the sweatshops fall extremely short of legal workshop codes.

    As a result of the Italian investigation, judges in June placed Manufactures Dior SRL—a unit of Dior—under so-called court administration after ruling that its supply chain included Chinese-owned firms in Italy that mistreated migrant workers. The same measure was taken against Armani in April and Alviero Martini, known for its map-print bags and other items, in January. -WSJ

    In a 34-page court order, the court wrote that Italian police in March and April found migrant workers in “hygiene and health conditions that are below the minimum required by an ethical approach” at Milan-area companies in Dior’s supply chain. 

    Investigators interviewed workers from one of Armani’s subsidiaries, GA Operations, which hired a number of Chinese-owned subcontractors across Italy. These subcontractors paid migrant workers a few euros per hour.

    A partially redacted photo from Italy’s Carabinieri police shows a workshop in northern Italy where Armani products were made. Source: WSJ

    “The main problem is obviously people being mistreated: applying labor laws, so health and safety, hours, pay,” Roia told Reuters earlier this year.

    A partially redacted photo from Italy’s Carabinieri police shows a bedroom at a workshop near Milan that supplied Armani. Source: WSJ

    Customers who expect the highest quality from the “Made in Italy” label are just now discovering that some of these luxury products are tainted with exploited migrant labor. The grim reality of open borders is revealed: it’s about diluting domestic workers for cheap migrants. For this, we can thank the Western elites. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/04/2024 – 19:15

  • 5 Things You May Not Know About Independence Day
    5 Things You May Not Know About Independence Day

    Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    On July 4, Americans will observe the 248th birthday of the United States.

    The U.S. Declaration of Independence is on display at Sotheby’s in New York City, N.Y., on June 25, 2024. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

    In 1776, members of the Second Continental Congress gathered in Philadelphia had already made a decision the impact of which would be felt around the world for centuries to come: the collective colonies agreed to declare their independence from Great Britain, at the time the most powerful nation on the planet.

    Many people know what happened next.

    The document, written by a young and upstart Thomas Jefferson, was officially approved by the Continental Congress.

    News of its adoption traveled the breadth of the eastern seaboard, the news slowly and painstakingly making its way to the frontiers.

    It reignited the political tensions felt everywhere at the time between loyalists and the patriots clamoring for independence.

    Fewer people know about the personal intrigues, motives, and political aspirations of the 56 men who ultimately affixed their name to the document, pledging: “Our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor” to a cause that, at the time, may have seemed nearly hopeless.

    July 4, 1776, changed the trajectory of world history forever.

    On that day the Continental Congress voted to adopt Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence.

    But at the time, it was far from obvious that July 4 would become Independence Day.

    July 2 seemed the obvious day for celebration to John Adams.

    On that day, the Continental Congress adopted Virginian Richard Henry Lee’s motion officially declaring that the colonies “are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.”

    Writing to his wife, Abigail Adams, Adams famously declared that July 2: “Will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival.

    “It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other.”

    Of course, it was ultimately the adoption of the Declaration on July 4, and not the July 2 adoption of the resolution that paved its way, that became the United States’ formal Independence Day.

    When people think about the Declaration of Independence, they may think of a room of elder statesmen, as depicted in the famous work of artist John Trumbull.

    John Trumbull painted “Declaration of Independence” in 1819, and it depicts a crucial moment in the American quest for independence. (Public Domain)

    In point of fact, the 56 delegates gathered in Philadelphia in 1776 were younger than this image may suggest, on average clocking in at just 44 years old.

    That included a broad range of ages, from 20-somethings to a septuagenarian.

    The youngest signatory of the document was South Carolina’s Edward Rutledge, who was just 26 years and 8 months old.

    Another South Carolina signatory, Thomas Lynch Jr., was three days shy of his 27th birthday.

    A plurality of the signatories, meanwhile, were in their 30s with many others in their early 40s.

    Only seven of them, including 70-year-old Benjamin Franklin, the oldest signatory of the declaration, were 60 years of age or older.

    While independence may seem in retrospect to be a foregone conclusion, that wasn’t necessarily the case.

    Several members of the Continental Congress were skeptical of independence.

    Many founders initially took a more moderate stance toward grievances with the home island.

    That’s not to say that nobody was thinking about it—the idea was already stirring in coffeehouses and taverns across the colonies, and revolutionary leaders like Adams were outspoken in favor of independence as early as 1774.

    By 1775, particularly following the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the idea had been adopted by most congressional leaders.

    But some moderates—led by John Dickinson, famous for his “Letters From a Pennsylvania Farmer”—remained skeptical about independence until the eleventh hour.

    These included Robert Livingston, one of the most powerful and renowned names in New York who later served a variety of diplomatic roles for the fledgling U.S. government, and John Jay, who later became the first chief justice of the Supreme Court.

    The divides were even more pronounced among the people: After the war, Mr. Adams was famously quoted as saying: “One-third of the [American] people were for the Revolution, one-third were against it, and one-third were neutral.”

    Of all the signatures attached to the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock’s is perhaps the most famous.

    Mr. Hancock was famously unfazed by the risk of being hanged for treason, affixed his name—now the most recognizable signature in American political history—in large characters to the bottom of the Declaration.

    A copy of the Declaration of Independence. (Public Domain)

    What fewer people know are the personal motives that may have influenced this decision.

    Prior to the Revolutionary War, Mr. Hancock was one of the most successful smugglers in North America.

    His business flourished, in large part, thanks to the phenomenon of “salutary neglect,” during which British agents were lax in their enforcement of customs laws.

    But after the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, British coffers were empty.

    To refill them, Britain ended the unofficial policy of salutary neglect, coming down hard on smugglers and others trying to evade British customs laws.

    Mr. Hancock, as the most successful smuggler in North America, was especially adversely affected by this crackdown, even having his ship—the Liberty—seized by British officials for legal violations.

    Thus, for Mr. Hancock, the Revolution represented not only an ideological imperative but a financial one as well.

    The Declaration of Independence is today viewed by Americans as a near-sacrosanct document, a founding justification of the core ideals of the new nation founded in 1776.

    Today, its words—with their message of “inalienable rights” and “self-evident” truths—are deeply entangled in Americans’ political sense of self and are regularly repeated from presidential stump speeches to the halls of Capitol Hill.

    But for all that, it took time for the declaration to become such an important fixture of American life and history.

    At the time, it simply made official a revolt against the Crown that was already effectively underway.

    After the last signature was affixed in August 1776, the document itself remained in the custody of Congress in Philadelphia, only one of several important documents at the time.

    It wasn’t until Jefferson became President Jefferson in 1800—the “Revolution of 1800”—that the document, written by him, began to take pride of place in Americans’ hearts and minds.

    That year, the document was moved to the new seat of government in Washington.

    Until 1952, it was moved often within the capital, sometimes being held in the Library of Congress, sometimes in the State Department; it was moved twice, during the War of 1812 and again during World War II, for safekeeping.

    But since 1952, the document has been prominently displayed in the National Archives, where it remains one of the capital’s most famous attractions.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/04/2024 – 18:30

  • Orwell Hits The Highway: Starting This Month Cars In Britain Will Have "Speed Limiters"
    Orwell Hits The Highway: Starting This Month Cars In Britain Will Have “Speed Limiters”

    t’s bad enough cars are all basically equipped with GPS homing devices – and some now even with driver-facing cameras that can monitor you while you drive – but now some vehicles in Britain are being equipped with “speed limiters”. 

    Starting Sunday, July 7, 2024, all new vehicles in the EU must be equipped with Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) systems due to a new safety regulation, according to the Daily Mail. 

    Although this law doesn’t apply in Britain, most vehicles sold in the UK will still have the speed-limiting technology installed by manufacturers.

    As the Daily Mail explains, Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) technology can automatically restrict a vehicle’s speed using GPS, satellite navigation, and speed-sign recognition cameras. If the vehicle exceeds the speed limit, ISA reduces engine power to comply with the legal limit. For example, on the M1, ISA can limit the car to 70 mph.

    Before ISA reduces a car’s speed, it warns drivers through visual, audible, or haptic alerts, such as vibrations in the steering wheel. If ignored, the system restricts engine power to slow the car but never applies the brakes. Manufacturers may use any or all of these warning methods.

    And of course chalk this brilliant idea up to big government.

    In 2019, the European Parliament mandated ISA technology to reduce traffic collisions and injuries. Recommended by the European Transport Safety Council, ISA aims to cut collisions by 30% and casualties by 20%, contributing to a goal of zero road deaths by 2050.

    The Daily Mail states that since July 6, 2022, all new models must have ISA, and from July 7, 2024, it must be retrofitted to all new vehicles in showrooms, including older models like the VW Touran.

    Although ISA isn’t required for UK models, many new cars sold there will likely have it. Volvo has included speed limiters since 2020, capping speeds at 112 mph. Since 2022, Renault and Dacia have also implemented ISA, and brands like Citroen, Ford, and Jaguar are following suit.

    The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) states that fitting ISA in UK cars is up to individual manufacturers. However, experts like the AA’s Jack Cousens and RAC’s Rod Dennis expect many new cars in the UK to come equipped with ISA. Safety advocates urge the UK government to adopt EU safety regulations to avoid confusion and provide certainty for car makers.

    ISA can be overridden temporarily by pressing the accelerator hard or turned off before each journey, though it reactivates each time the engine starts. Benefits include fewer crashes, reduced traffic jams, and better fuel efficiency. However, there are concerns about driver reliance on ISA, the accuracy of traffic sign recognition, and potential issues in areas with poor GPS signals. 

    Isn’t the government running out of things in our lives they can assert control over?

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/04/2024 – 17:45

  • Alaska's Strategic Importance To U.S. Security
    Alaska’s Strategic Importance To U.S. Security

    Authored by Seth Cropsey via RealClearDefense,

    From grave deficiencies in strategic lift and defense industrial base to submarine repair inadequacies, Yorktown Institute continues to highlight shortfalls in the enabling elements on which the continued global supremacy of the U.S. military depends. This article is another in that series.

    China’s pressure on Taiwan and Russia’s assault on Ukraine demonstrate the deterioration of the Eurasian security. In turn, Congress and the military have at least recognized the implications of the threats the U.S. faces. But budgetary constraints, Congressional gridlock, and a poor sense of precise threat have limited America’s ability to build up its military forces and confront its enemies. It is thus crucial to invest in the long-term enabling capabilities that ensure U.S. strategic superiority. A real Alaskan communications network that circumvallated the state and connected to its outlying islands in the Bering Strait and Northern Pacific, would enhance deterrence in the long run at only limited cost.

    Despite over two years of war in Ukraine, the threat from Russia has not diminished. In some respects, it has grown, particularly in the Indo-Pacific. The Russian Army may have been savaged in Ukraine and will be largely incapable of matching NATO forces for the coming half-decade at least, if not longer. But the Russian air force and navy maintain robust conventional and nuclear strike capabilities. Of notable relevance – as American strategists understood in the Cold War – is Russia’s nuclear submarine bastion in the northern Pacific’s Sea of Okhotsk. Russian submarines secure Moscow’s second-strike from here, supported by heavy bombers. Russia has also conducted several naval exercises in the Arctic and Bering Strait, including last autumn, when Russian warships conducted missile tests near the U.S.-Russia maritime boundary line. With a new European Cold War threatening to turn hot, Alaskan territorial defense is now more critical than at any time since the 1980s.

    The China challenge, moreover, increases the strategic importance of Alaska to U.S. policy. While Beijing is unlikely to assault Taiwan soon, owing to a combination of military unpreparedness, economic disruption, and a broader pressure strategy against the island-republic, a confrontation between China and the U.S. over the Indo-Pacific’s future is nearly guaranteed in the next decade. China may prefer to absorb Taiwan absent a full-scale war with the U.S., but if it begins to apply pressure to Taiwan, it will be willing to climb the escalation ladder to major combat, particularly since – unlike the Soviets in 1962 – China has a chance to win a war with the U.S..  In turn, during any major conflict, critical U.S. bases will be on the Chinese target list, namely Okinawa, Yokosuka, and Guam, and perhaps even Pearl Harbor. By destroying U.S. regional logistical infrastructure, China can buy the time it needs to overwhelm Taiwan, and even pressure Japan and the Philippines into submission.

    The only other way to sustain U.S. forces in the Indo-Pacific is through Alaskan bases and depots. They were crucial during the Second World War’s early days, when Imperial Japan captured part of the Aleutian Islands to secure the Japanese Navy’s northern flank, delay U.S. counterattacks, and prevent an expected U.S.-Soviet joint attack from the Kuril Islands. Since this point, the U.S. has maintained significant Alaskan military infrastructure, including Elmendorf and Eielson Air Force Bases. Historically speaking, the U.S. Navy maintained air bases in the Aleutians, most critically Dutch Harbor, which could be used for patrol and reconnaissance during wartime.

    U.S. policy has a nominal focus on the High North – including the White House’s National Arctic Strategy, the Pentagon’s Arctic Policy, the Navy’s Strategic Outlook for the Arctic, the Army’s Arctic Strategy, and the Air Force’s Arctic Strategy. Indeed, this focus has existed since the Trump administration, and has continued in the Biden administration despite their obvious strategic distinctions. In turn, the Department of Homeland Security and multiple members of the intelligence community have an obvious interest in the High North. Because Alaska is the only part of the United States with physical territory in the High North, robust infrastructure in Alaska should be a clear policy priority.

    There has been some movement on actual material improvements to the U.S.’ strategic position in Alaska. As of early 2024, all services have adopted some form of “Arctic Pay,” covering equipment purchases and often increasing salaries given the harsh conditions of the Alaskan environment. The U.S. military has begun to prepare to expand the Port of Nome – the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has a nearly $550 million budget for the project. Late last year, Congress also approved $200 million of funding for military installations in Alaska.

    However, none of these cover the basic connectivity and communications improvements that are needed to establish situational awareness and leverage Alaska’s geography for strategic benefit. A large-scale communications system that connects Alaska’s outlying islands and locations along the coast together could immediately be leveraged to create a variety of surveillance sites—including much needed acoustic sensing capacity for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard—that can be expanded in wartime.

    The Pentagon and Services are largely unwilling to fund these, seeing them as a civilian responsibility, despite the fact that locations like St Lawrence Island, under 100 kilometres from Russia’s Chukchi Peninsula, are obvious areas for military forward deployment. However, the scale of a simple communications cable project – which would cost around $50 million – is beyond that of the State government and other relevant Federal agencies, both because of the cost involved and the need to coordinate development across multiple departments. Additionally, the Pentagon shies away from concluding contracts directly with individual medium-sized vendors that could actually do the job of communications infrastructure development.

    The solution is for Congress to mandate in the next NDAA a major communications infrastructure project with a short timeline – ideally completed within two years – and absent spools of red tape. Combined with short-term federal investment in civilian networks that could be installed in such locations as St. Lawrence Island, DoD could leverage its increased connectivity the better to patrol the Arctic and protect the U.S. homeland. The only way to ensure the U.S. military has a competitive advantage in the High North, and leverages Alaska properly, is through construction of these enablers.

    Seth Cropsey is president of Yorktown Institute. He served as a naval officer and as deputy Undersecretary of the Navy and is the author of “Mayday” and “Seablindness“.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/04/2024 – 17:00

  • Inflation Hits The Grill: The Price Of A July 4th Cookout Keeps Soaring Under Biden
    Inflation Hits The Grill: The Price Of A July 4th Cookout Keeps Soaring Under Biden

    As memories of COVID restrictions are quickly fading, Americans are looking forward to proper, carefree Fourth of July celebrations this year.

    According to AAA, more than 70 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles this Independence Day week in order to celebrate with their friends and families – a new record.

    Aside from the obligatory fireworks, a proper cookout is the key ingredient for a real Independence Day celebration in many households. Speaking of ingredients: how much will a typical Fourth of July menu set you back these days?

    Well, there’s the catch: Bidenflation makes no exception for national holidays, so expect your feast to be more expensive than ever this year.

    Infographic: Inflation Hits the Grill: The Price of a July 4th Cookout | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    According to the American Farm Bureau’s annual Fourth of July market basket survey, a 10-person cookout involving cheeseburgers, chicken breasts, pork chops and several sides and dessert options will cost $71.22 this year.

    That’s up “just” 5 percent from last, but 30 percent from 2019.

    “No matter which state or city you call home, Americans everywhere are still feeling the heat at the grocery checkout,” Datasembly said in a statement to Axios.

    “Consumers will see — once again — that prices are still climbing compared to pre-pandemic times,” the company told Axios.

    Which is odd since Biden and his lackeys keep telling us that ‘inflation is coming down’, in an attempt to gaslight Americans into believing that prices are coming down… they’re not!

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/04/2024 – 16:15

  • Reporters Blame "Right-Wing Media" For Their Failure To Disclose Biden's Infirmity
    Reporters Blame “Right-Wing Media” For Their Failure To Disclose Biden’s Infirmity

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    The media is sorry . . . sort of. After the shocking appearance of President Joe Biden in the presidential debate, the public has turned its attention to the press which has, again, buried a major scandal for years. According to CNN, the reporters at the White House are really, really sorry but explained that it was the “right-wing media” that prompted them to avoid the story. It is a telling admission that, yet again, reporters chose not to report on a story because they wanted to frame the news for political purposes. It is precisely the pattern that I discuss in my new book The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage where the media now rejects objectivity and neutrality as core values in journalism.

    For years, there have been questions about President Joe Biden’s mental and physical decline. Those concerns reached their apex when Special Counsel Robert Hur issued his report. While finding that Biden had unlawfully retained and mishandled classified material for decades, he concluded that prosecution would be difficult because a jury would be swayed by the appearance of an elderly man with declining memory.

    The media pounced and attacked Hur while media figures attested to the President’s acuity and ability. Then, as videos repeatedly surfaced showing the President confused and fragile, the media declared them “cheap fakes” and attacked Fox News and other outlets for airing them even though Fox noted that the clips were unedited. (For full disclosure, I am a Fox News analyst). Virtually every news outlet aired the attack with politicians, pundits, and celebrities attesting that the President was sharp and engaged.

    On MSNBC, Joe Scarborough stated

    “start your tape right now because I’m about to tell you the truth. And F— you if you can’t handle the truth. This version of Biden intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever. Not a close second. And I have known him for years…If it weren’t the truth I wouldn’t say it.”

    Then the presidential debate happened and, after years of being protected by staff, tens of millions of people watched the president struggle to stay focused and responsive.

    So, as an embarrassed press struggled to explain the most recent belated disclosure, the reason is the “right-wing press” and the need to counter their narratives.

    While saying that reporters “are now expressing regret,” CNN explains that “some members of the White House press corps who have regular exposure to President Biden are now admitting they were “turned off” from exposing his mental decline before last week’s debate in part because of the attention it has got from ‘right-wing media.’”

    It was just part of shaping the news, which is now the priority in journalism.

    A recent series of interviews with over 75 media leaders by Leonard Downie Jr., former Washington Post executive editor, and Andrew Heyward, former CBS News president, reaffirmed this shift. As Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief at the San Francisco Chronicle, stated: “Objectivity has got to go.”

    But that objectivity seems to depend heavily upon what ideology you are advocating.

    We have been discussing the rise of advocacy journalism and the rejection of objectivity in journalism schools. Writers, editors, commentators, and academics have embraced rising calls for censorship and speech controls, including President-elect Joe Biden and his key advisers. This movement includes academics rejecting the very concept of objectivity in journalism in favor of open advocacy.

    In an interview with The Stanford Daily, Stanford journalism professor, Ted Glasser, insisted that journalism needed to “free itself from this notion of objectivity to develop a sense of social justice.” He rejected the notion that journalism is based on objectivity and said that he views “journalists as activists because journalism at its best — and indeed history at its best — is all about morality.”  Thus, “Journalists need to be overt and candid advocates for social justice, and it’s hard to do that under the constraints of objectivity.”

    Lauren Wolfe, the fired freelance editor for the New York Times, has not only gone public to defend her pro-Biden tweet but published a piece titled “I’m a Biased Journalist and I’m Okay With That.” 

    Former New York Times writer (and now Howard University Journalism Professor) Nikole Hannah-Jones is a leading voice for advocacy journalism.

    Indeed, Hannah-Jones has declared “all journalism is activism.”

    The problem comes with these little embarrassing moments when the public suddenly sees that prior coverage was false. Whether it is the Russian collusion story (for which reporters received Pulitzer Prizes) or the Hunter Biden laptop or the Lafayette Park photo shoot or the migrant whipping controversy, there is an inescapable pattern of omission and misdirection. This is why media outlets are collapsing as the public seeks other sources for information.

    As I previously wrote, the mantra “Let’s Go Brandon!” was embraced by millions as a criticism as much of the media as President Biden.  It derives from an Oct. 2 interview with race-car driver Brandon Brown after he won his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race. During the interview, NBC reporter Kelli Stavast’s questions were drowned out by loud-and-clear chants of “F*** Joe Biden.” Stavast quickly and inexplicably declared, “You can hear the chants from the crowd, ‘Let’s go, Brandon!’”

    So, in expressing guilt for not pursuing the President’s mental and physical decline, the media is left with explaining that they are just doing what they are trained to do in the new J Schools. They were countering conservatives and framing the news.

    This is why Washington Post publisher and CEO William Lewis is under attack for dropping a truth bomb on the staff of the Post when he told them:

    “We are going to turn this thing around, but let’s not sugarcoat it. It needs turning around,” Lewis said.

    “We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”

    Staff is now trying to get him fired.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/04/2024 – 15:30

  • Putin & Erdogan Discuss Syria Rapprochement To Squeeze Out Pentagon Occupation
    Putin & Erdogan Discuss Syria Rapprochement To Squeeze Out Pentagon Occupation

    During the ongoing Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) annual summit which is being held in Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana, Russia’s Putin and Turkey’s Erdogan publicly broached the subject of a potential Turkey rapprochement with the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.

    The two have been in a de facto state of war for over a decade, with Turkish troops still occupying parts of northern Syrian territory, and after relations were cut in 2011 upon the start of the war. Turkey was foremost among NATO allies pushing regime change in Damascus, which involved covert support to ISIS, al-Qaeda, and other jihadist insurgents.

    AP photo of Presidents Assad and Erdogan meeting in Syria in 2010, just one year before the war began.

    But more recently Ankara’s priorities have shifted as it seeks to root out Syrian Kurdish paramilitary groups in north Syria, as well as squeeze out the US troop presence there. The Pentagon has long backed the Kurds and their aspirations for an autonomous region, but both Assad and Erdogan agree that the US occupation must end immediately.

    “We couldn’t meet with my dear friend for a long time,” Erdogan had told Putin at the SCO during introductory remarks. And the Russian leader in turn told a press briefing, “We continue to work actively on a number of the most important lines of international policy. We are in constant contact with you. Our ministries and agencies are constantly exchanging information and coordinating positions on key areas.”

    Regarding Syria, a Turkish readout of the Putin-Erdogan meeting said, “He [Erdogan] stressed the importance of taking concrete steps to end the instabilities that create fertile ground for terrorist organizations, especially in the Syrian civil war… Turkey is ready to cooperate for a solution.”

    This comes one week after Erdogan shocked his own population and officials by saying there’s currently no obstacle which would prevent the restoration of official ties with Syria. According to the Associated Press:

    His comments came just days after Syrian President Bashar Assad made similar remarks, indicating a willingness among the two neighboring countries to end tensions and normalize relations.

    “There is no reason why (diplomatic ties) should not be established,” Erdogan told reporters.

    “In the same way that we kept our relations with Syria alive in the past — we had these meetings with Mr Assad that included family meetings — we cannot say that it will not happen again,” Erdogan said. He was referring to a vacation that the Erdogan and Assad families took in southern Turkey in 2008, before their relationship soured.

    Currently, there’s talk of a future meeting between Syrian and Turkish delegations in Baghdad, but the date has yet to be announced.

    At the SCO meeting Putin and Erdogan also discussed the possibility of peaceful settlement in Ukraine…

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

    Major issues which remain, however, is Turkey’s ongoing support for proxies in Syria, including the “Syrian National Army” (SNA) and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The latter still controls Idlib and is Syrian al-Qaeda.

    If a final deal and restoration of relations is eventually achieved between Assad and Erdogan, it could be the death knell for the Pentagon occupation of northeast Syria. This has long been openly stated as a goal of Erdogan, amid increased tensions with Washington, despite both being in the NATO alliance. Putin certainly wants to see that happen too.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/04/2024 – 14:45

  • Americans Share What Patriotism Means To Them
    Americans Share What Patriotism Means To Them

    Authored by Lawrence Wilson, Dan M. Berger, Janice Hisle, Natasha Holt, Jackson Richman, Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times,

    Independence Day is the nation’s most patriotic holiday, and Americans celebrate it with abandon.

    (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock, Public Domain)

    On this day of parades, baseball games, hot dogs, and sparklers, even the stodgiest old uncle may arrive at the family cookout wearing a red-white-and-blue top hat and suspenders.

    By day’s end, some 260 million pounds of commercial fireworks will be lit, filling city skies with splendor and leaving the air in suburban neighborhoods thick with the smell of smoke and sulfur.

    Americans love to display their patriotism.

    Yet there is little agreement on what that means. The majority—some 55 percent—of Americans think the United States has become a less patriotic nation in recent years, according to a Marist poll released on July 1. Only 14 percent think Americans have become more patriotic.

    That could be because Americans display patriotism in a variety of ways and may not recognize it in others, says Ken Kollman, director of the Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan.

    “Definitions of patriotism, and behavioral standards for what counts as patriotic, are both folded into our current political divisions and reflect them,” Mr. Kollman told The Epoch Times. “Who counts as a patriot and what counts as patriotism are in the eyes of the beholders.”

    Just ahead of the 248th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, The Epoch Times asked Americans to define patriotism.

    “What does patriotism mean to you?” we wanted to know, “And how do you display it?”

    Most answers were rooted in a deep appreciation for sacrifices that were made to create and defend the country, and a desire to continue to do the same. That desire manifests itself in different ways.

    Honoring the Symbols

    Pride in America and its symbols was the most common way people said they expressed patriotism. We heard frequent references to standing for the national anthem, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, and wearing star-spangled clothing. Voting was mentioned often.

    These simple expressions of national pride can also be used by some—though not by everyone—to emphasize divisions within the country, according to John Bodnar, an emeritus professor of history at Indiana University.

    Locals take part in the annual Fourth of July Bicycle Cruise in Huntington Beach, Calif., on July 1, 2023. A majority of Americans (55 percent) think the United States has become a less patriotic nation than a few years ago. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    “Some people express their patriotic loyalty to show they are superior to other citizens within the nation,” Mr. Bodnar told The Epoch Times. “On the other hand, some patriots see in the flag or in the nation they love the promise of equal rights for all, regardless of one’s political views or race or religion.”

    The latter seemed to describe most of the people we encountered.

    Bailey, 31, of Las Vegas, said that standing for the national anthem is one way he shows patriotism. Another was his recent visit to the nation’s capital. He believes that a patriot should respect the office of the president regardless of which party is in power.

    “You love America? You’ve got to love who’s running it,” he said.

    Healing Divisions

    Brothers Peter and Rory Corrigan, whose parents met while serving their country during World War II, are driven both to honor the past and to ensure that America lives up to its promise.

    Their father, a lieutenant in the Marine Corps SeaBees Battalion, met their mother on Guam, where she served with the Red Cross.

    “[Our father] rarely talked about the war. Both parents had acquaintances who were killed or seriously wounded in the Pacific,” Peter Corrigan, 76, of Delmar, New York, told The Epoch Times.

    Yet the war symbolized something more than bloodshed to the elder Corrigan.

    “One night in the mid-1950s, while tucking me into bed, I was probably 7 or 8, [my father] asked if I could think of one good thing about the war,” Peter Corrigan recalled. “I tried, but I couldn’t.”

    What his father said next made a lasting impression on the boy.

    “It’s where I met your mother,” he said simply.

    Peter Corrigan now honors the sacrifices of the Greatest Generation by wearing a SeaBees cap and holding an American flag as veterans pass by in the Memorial Day parade.

    “And I think how grateful I am to live in this country,” he said.

    Brother Rory Corrigan, 74, of Richmond Hill, Georgia, said his sense of patriotism took on a more profound meaning after the 9/11 attacks.

    “I lost 37 friends that day,” Rory Corrigan said. “My sense of America’s unique promise and necessary leadership was deepened as the face of evil confronted me in a new and profound manner.

    “I have never been prouder of our country than in the period closely following those attacks,“ he said, citing pride in the nation’s struggles ”to overcome our demanding history and divisions.”

    A parachutist brings in the U.S. flag before the start of the 101st annual Black Hills Roundup rodeo in Belle Fourche, S.D., on July 4, 2020. The town celebrated Independence Day with the rodeo, a parade, a street dance and a carnival.

    Connecting America to the World

    Peter McCormick, 69, of Dunedin, Florida, found a sense of patriotism as a foreign correspondent in Central America during the 1980s.

    “It was our backyard, and as a reporter I realized U.S. readers needed, as citizens, to know what was going on,” he told The Epoch Times. His reporting on Marxist versus right-wing factions shattered preconceived notions held by friends on both the left and the right, he said.

    Mr. McCormick later worked as a USAID contractor in Rwanda, where he wrote checks to charities that supplied wells, food, and medical attention to that war-stricken nation. He considered it an expression of patriotism.

    “The operation was an example of American largesse being put to efficient use,” he said.

    Political Activism

    Shelley Freeman, 58, of Clements, California, is part of a four-generation military family and has a son now on deployment with the Army. She has served her country as a civilian by sitting on local government committees, volunteering for Senate and presidential campaigns, and hosting political discussions on social media.

    She sees political discourse as unifying rather than divisive.

    Ms. Freeman recalled a discussion she had about presidential candidates that provoked strong disagreement from another woman. Though the debate was intense, it ended with a hug.

    “It’s OK. We’re going to get through this, and we’re all going to be alright,” Ms. Freeman said she told the debater.

    “Our Constitution gives us our First Amendment right, and to have our own opinions,” she said. “That’s why it’s important to agree to disagree … no matter who you are.”

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/04/2024 – 14:00

  • New Fires Erupt In Israel After Hezbollah Sends 200 Rockets, Drone Swarms
    New Fires Erupt In Israel After Hezbollah Sends 200 Rockets, Drone Swarms

    Large wildfires are once again raging in northern Israel’s Galilee region after on Thursday Hezbollah launched a particularly intense barrage of 200 rockets as well as drone swarms.

    Some of the fires are believed the result of burning fragments from interceptor shrapnel which fell as anti-air defenses are heavily at work. Soon after, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sent a stern warning and message to all of Lebanon, sending jets over Beirut which broke the sound barrier. This happened in other parts of the country as well.

    Emergency crews work to extinguish fires in Israel, Flash90/TOI

    The IDF further said the Air Force “struck Hezbollah military structures” in south Lebanon’s Ramyeh and Houla areas. Casualties – whether among militants or civilians – were not immediately known.

    Throughout Thursday fires have raged in at least ten locations in the Galilee and Golan Heights areas due to the ramped up Hezbollah attacks.

    Israeli emergency and civic services have reported that at least one highway in the area has been blocked as a result of the fast encroaching fires.

    Just the day prior, on Wednesday, Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon, Muhammad Nimah Nasser, and Thursday’s huge rocket barrage is seen as retaliation for that.

    Via Reuters

    Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine warned while speaking at Nasser’s funeral, “The series of responses continues in succession, and this series will continue to target new sites that the enemy did not imagine would be hit.”

    These ‘new sites’ could include strikes as deep into Israel as Haifa, which would mark a much bigger escalation in attacks. Last month Hezbollah published drone surveillance footage taken over Israel’s port city of Haifa in an effort to spook Tel Aviv leaders.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/04/2024 – 13:15

  • Watch: Leaked Video Shows Trump Call Biden "Broken Down Pile Of Crap", Kamala Is "So F**king Bad"
    Watch: Leaked Video Shows Trump Call Biden “Broken Down Pile Of Crap”, Kamala Is “So F**king Bad”

    Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,

    A leaked video features Donald Trump calling Joe Biden a “broken-down pile of crap” who is “quitting the race,” with Trump predicting he’ll now face off against Kamala Harris, who is “so fucking bad.”

    It’s unknown when the exchange happened, but it was some time after last week’s debate.

    Sitting in a golf cart, Trump responds to one of his supporters who told him he did “fantastic” during the debate.

    “Look at that old, broken down pile of crap,” Trump says, referring to Biden, adding, “He’s a bad guy, he just quit you know, he’s quitting the race…and that means we have Kamala.”

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

    “I think she’s gonna be better, she’s so bad, she’s so pathetic, she’s so fucking bad,” he says of Harris.

    Switching back to Biden, Trump asserts, “Can you imagine that guy dealing with Putin? And the president of China – who’s a fierce person. He’s a fierce man, very tough guy. And they see him.”

    “They just announced he’s probably quitting,” Trump concludes before driving away and saying, “Keep knocking ’em out, right?”

    As we highlighted yesterday, Biden took part in a closed doors meeting with Democratic governors last night in an effort to convince them that he is capable of continuing as the Party nominee.

    A report by Reuters also claimed that 25 House Democrats are preparing to band together and call for Joe Biden to step down.

    A report published by Axios citing insiders with the Biden campaign also explained how Biden’s top aides are telling everyone to carry on as normal, despite the fact that “everyone is freaking the fuck out over his mental decline.”

    The Biden campaign, after claiming his dreadful debate performance was due to a “cold,” later pivoted to Biden’s personal explanation that he was tired from jet lag, despite Biden having been in the United States for nearly two weeks before the debate.

    *  *  *

    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
    Thu, 07/04/2024 – 12:30

  • 'Sharp And Focused But Sometimes Confused': AP Gaslights With New 'Fiery But Mostly Peaceful' Propaganda
    ‘Sharp And Focused But Sometimes Confused’: AP Gaslights With New ‘Fiery But Mostly Peaceful’ Propaganda

    While Democrats scramble to perform triage on the Joe Biden situation following last week’s disastrous debate against Donald Trump, which has included multiple calls for him to exit the race from his own party – and the editorial boards of several major newspapers, the Associated Press just dropped the most propagandistic damage control headline since CNN‘s ‘fiery but mostly peaceful‘ khyron during a 2020 BLM riot over a police shooting.

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

    This is the same outlet that laundered a Biden State Department hit-piece against ZeroHedge, accusing us of ‘spreading Russian propaganda’ in early 2022.

    Remember when Biden was sharp and focused as he bit his wife Jill’s finger during a 2019 campaign event?

    The headline, an IQ test for idiots, was rightly mocked:

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    This comes on the heels of Axios reporting that Biden ‘maintains a schedule that tires younger aides.‘

    As much as you hate corporate media, it’s truly not enough. 

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

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/04/2024 – 11:45

  • The Sociology And Psychology Of The Backyard Grill
    The Sociology And Psychology Of The Backyard Grill

    Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

    Across America, the backyard grills are out and fired up, along with the rich and complicated culture they unleash. Watching this unfold, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is this feature of the experience more than the culinary results that provides the main attraction to grilling.

    I’ll put the most provocative point up front so you don’t have to dig through and find it. The backyard grill allows men a space of control in a society and culture in which such settings have otherwise dwindled to nearly none. Before you get angry and cite a thousand exceptions and qualifications, and I’m sure they are all valid, hear me out.

    When I was growing up in Texas, my grandmother did all the cooking and the kitchen was her domain, no question. There was a sense that the men weren’t even allowed in there. I never once saw my grandfather open a cabinet or the refrigerator. His job was to provide the material blessings of the house for his wonderful wife and children to enjoy. And enjoy them they did.

    She was a kind and generous cook. As I was very interested in the kitchen goings-on, she took me in as her protege, teaching me baking and so on. I love it but that was unusual. My cousins were never part of that experience.

    And yet once a year, around the fourth of July, that house hosted an extended family event in which the barbecue came out. My grandfather donned a chef’s coat and hat, and held high his huge cooking tools. The fire was built and the smoke from the cooking meat, wood, and coals lifted high in the air and drifted to all the neighbors.

    Despite all the theater, he was only making burgers and hot dogs but that didn’t stop the waves of adulation he would receive for his fine skills. There was always a round of applause after and he took bows.

    As a kid, I wondered at the time how that made my grandmother feel, who cooked 1,000 meals for his one. And yet the embedded ethos of the table in those days was always to praise her mastery at every meal without exception. Looking back, she must have felt great pride that her beloved husband had one day to bask in the warmth of a grateful clan that had been fed by the work of his own hands.

    It’s obvious that the sheer physicality of the grilling experience taps into a primordial longing in the human personality in general but it seems particularly appealing to men.

    The clinical and anodyne experience of modern kitchens, particularly with electric this and that, does not satisfy that evolved desire to build a real fire and sear meat on it.

    It’s there in all of us, just waiting for the right season and setting.

    Men are never more in their element than when poking around on a fire in the backyard and hurling large pieces of meat this way and that. It’s beautiful to watch. The experience is undeniably gendered too. Even when I was young, the women would be in the kitchen preparing the rolls and salads, while the men would be in the backyard building the fire for the grill.

    The conversations were different too: Men spoke of practical and even gritty things as the women spoke of impractical and idealistic dreams. The men would speak in sharper, less decorous, and blunter ways than they would otherwise talk in mixed company, and the women (I’m told) would be more revealing of thoughts and speculations they would not otherwise share with men present.

    To be clear, this separation was not about “power,” as the post-structuralists would have it; it was never about force or exclusion. It was to the advantage of both, each group with its own space, however temporary, so that when the two came to dinner as the meal was served, they could meet on common ground, each group shaving off the gendered eccentricities in deference to the other.

    The outdoor grill enables this in ways that cooking indoors simply does not. Consistent with my childhood experience, and probably with experience dating back to prehistoric times, the kitchen space was always the primary domain of the women in the household, probably because in prehistoric times the division of labor meant that men would hunt and women would prepare the food.

    But with hunting (mostly) gone and the experience of food acquisition itself now nothing more than a shopping experience, men have lost their usefulness. The outdoor grill offers something of an outlet.

    All that aside, the outdoor grill offers a respite from the tedium of kitchen duty and the luxury of restaurants. It’s something we can do ourselves, close to the roots of our species.

    If you are reading this as an apartment dweller, you might be feeling a bit of pain right now. For the most part, you cannot grill. There is either no space or your lease does not allow it. Perhaps you can get by with an electric grill on your tiny porch but, honestly, is there any point to that overcooking in the kitchen? Not really. Not much, in my view.

    The choice between owning and renting is a financial one but there are practical implications, among which is this one. Your home and backyard enable the grill. Maybe you use it just a few weeks a year or maybe for months but most apartment dwellers never have that option. In other words, people could be paying tens of thousands of dollars a year for the grill, but for many this is entirely worth it.

    Again, I long ago concluded that nearly every seeming advantage of outdoor grilling can be recreated with the skilled use of ovens and stoves in the kitchen. Even the smoke flavor has an authentic answer with liquid smoke that can be added to iron skillets and dutch ovens. In any case, the culinary advantages of grilling are not the primary point. The point is to build a real fire and recreate in a safe way the days of yore as a means of working out something deep within us.

    The choice of grill itself is a fascinating one. They range from the most primitive to the most elaborate. I recently witnessed two neighbors grilling at the same time. One had a small/medium aluminum circle cut in half with a top and bottom filled with coals and wood, with no controls, switches, dials, hoses, starters, hooks or cabinets or anything else. It was probably $40.

    The other neighbor had an apparatus that was likely fancier and with more technological sophistication than existed inside. Its stainless steel exterior gleamed like a fine treasure. It was a marvel and it probably costs up to $4,000 (I’m seeing online prices for these up to $15,000).

    But which one does a better job? Which one speaks most to the primal need? I don’t need to give you my answer. It seems obvious to me that the closer you get to the essence of the thing, the better off you are, so I would certainly go for the simple model, with no propane and only the coals. The more technology you add, the less it seems to achieve the goal, unless the main point is a Veblenian one of creating an ostentatious display for others.

    There are other advantages to a simple round grill (called a Weber). People can stand around it instead of only in front of it. That provides a better and more adaptable social environment.

    There are other options at some public parks, which provide grills for the public to use. Bring your own coals, tools, and meat and you have all you need. Of course that doesn’t quite achieve that sense of having a “cave of one’s own” but it’s something in any case.

    The reason we drag all these out at this time of the year is not just that the weather is nice and everything is green and pretty in the United States. It’s also about recalling our past: the Revolutionary War, the Founding era, and generally remembering who we are and what kinds of things we did before all the innovations, good and bad, interrupted our sense of rooted meaning and memory.

    The outdoor grill offers the hope that we can find our way back to fundamentals again.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/04/2024 – 11:00

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Jul 04

Today’s News 4th July 2024

  • Gingrich: The Key 'Lessons In Liberty'
    Gingrich: The Key ‘Lessons In Liberty’

    Authored by Newt Gingrich via RealClearPolicy,

    Historic leaders often share something important in common. They are not born great. Their greatness is a result of a lifetime of difficulty and consequential choices.

    As Jeremy S. Adams discussed in his book, “Lessons in Liberty,” this is especially true for remarkable Americans. In the book, Adams details the inspiring lives of extraordinary Americans and what we can learn from them today.

    George Washington, for example, struggled his entire life to keep his temper under control. This lifelong effort made him a model for discipline and restraint. Clara Barton nursed her badly injured brother back to health when she was only 11 years old. This harrowing experience later equipped her with the skills and bravery to serve as a nurse in the Civil War. U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye was a 17-year-old Japanese American who lived in Hawaii when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The sneak attack angered him so much he joined the U.S. Army to fight in World War II.  Despite discrimination and hardship from the U.S. government, Inouye became a highly decorated soldier and longtime U.S. Senator.

    I spoke with Adams about his book on a recent episode of Newt’s World. He is a serious scholar and educator. He teaches social studies and political science to highschoolers and students at the University of California at Bakersfield. He was the Daughters of the American Revolution 2014 California Teacher of the Year and a finalist for the Carlston Family Foundation Outstanding Teachers of America Award.

    We talked about the personal wisdom of Washington, Barton, Inouye, and other extraordinary Americans. Adams said in his book that Americans need to “honor what is honorable, praise what is praiseworthy, and most of all, emulate which is highest and best, so we can take advantage of the miracle of human freedom.” While no historic figure is perfect, their fallibility makes them so worthy of our study.

    Unfortunately, many young students in America are not learning about our great historical figures. Forty percent of Gen-Z members characterize the founding fathers as villains. Fifty percent of high schoolers say that their lives have little to no meaning, and only 52 percent of Americans would be willing to fight to defend the country.

    Something disturbing is happening in classrooms across our country. Our nation’s young people are being influenced by viewpoints, values, and behaviors of people who hate America and the principles on which it was founded. As President Ronald Reagan said, “freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” Each generation has a duty to renew and protect America and its values.

    As we discussed on the podcast, America is also bigger than a singular party. It is bigger than any ideology. We are more than just Republicans or Democrats. We were more than federalists or anti-federalists. We are all Americans. The 10 men and women Adams discussed in his book were from different time periods and backgrounds. Some were liberal and some were conservative. But they all worked to make America great.

    Importantly, none of them were personally born great. Their greatness was a choice. That is the key lesson of liberty.

    For more commentary from Newt Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com. Also, subscribe to the Newt’s World podcast.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 23:25

  • Inside The Chinese Money-Laundering Network Fueling America's Fentanyl Crisis
    Inside The Chinese Money-Laundering Network Fueling America’s Fentanyl Crisis

    It’s worth noting that 100,000 Americans die in drug-related deaths per year, the vast majority from pills cooked with fentanyl, an opioid analog 50 times more potent than heroin. Every six months, the US drug death catastrophe eclipses the Vietnam War.

    Fueling the fentanyl epidemic across the US are Chinese money launderers helping international drug traffickers, like Mexican cartels. Capital flight from China is not a new phenomenon, but in recent years, the scale of these transfers, washed through the drug trade, has become very alarming.

    Paul Murphy from the Financial Times has provided the most straightforward explanation yet of the new Chinese money laundering network fueling America’s fentanyl crisis: 

    First, understand that Chinese nationals are barred from transferring more than $50,000 out of China each year. And yet, as you are surely aware, there are many many Chinese nationals living very comfortable lives in the west, as students perhaps, or tourists, or simply not working.

    Now understand that Mexican drug cartels are harvesting untold billions of dollars, in cash, selling drugs in North America — and that the pill of the moment is fentanyl, which kills about 70,000 people a year in the US.

    The chemicals to make fentanyl come from China. These are shipped to Mexico by otherwise legit Chinese chemical manufacturers.

    In Mexico, the cartels turn the chemicals into pills and smuggle these north across the border, where they are sold for cash — dollar bills that then need to be cleaned.

    Murphy continued:

    Meanwhile, in New York for instance, there will be a Chinese student attending an educational establishment, where the fees will be circa $66,000 a year, books and extras another $10,000, food and lodging costs of maybe $5,000 a month, or a lot more.

    The $50,000 Chinese transfer cap doesn’t cover these things, so she will go on WeChat and broadcast a message to her network of friends saying: “I need dollars in New York to meet my outgoings. Can anyone help?”

    In due course, someone associated with what is a very efficient Chinese underground banking system will get in touch and tell the student to meet a courier at a preordained time and place, typically a park in Brooklyn. There, the student will be handed a bundle of cash.

    Back in China, the parents of the student will then be asked to transfer the same amount of money (plus commission) to an account that will eventually make its way to the chemical company that produced the precursor ingredients for fentanyl, settling the outstanding bill for the Mexican drug cartel.

    Murphy explained, “Drug addicts in the US are facilitating the Western education of Chinese youth, as well as helping to fund the lifestyles of other Chinese nations living outside China.” 

    He provided a flow chart showing how the complex laundering system works. 

    Source: FT 

    In a separate report last week, FT’s Joe Miller and James Kynge published an in-depth analysis of the Chinese-Mexican laundering network in a report titled “The new money laundering network fuelling the fentanyl crisis.”

    The report sheds light on the less understood part of the money laundering operation — the demand for dollars from wealthy Chinese individuals. While capital flight from China is not new, the methods have become increasingly creative, involving chemical companies that, in turn, have fueled America’s opioid epidemic.

    “The levels of capital flight in the past three years have been quite alarming,” one senior Chinese official told FT, adding, “Some wealthy private entrepreneurs are losing confidence in China’s future. They feel unsafe, so they find ways to get their money out.”

    Brad Setser, a former US Treasury official and an expert on global capital flows at the Council on Foreign Relations, estimated that capital flight from China is running at an annualized rate of about $516 billion as of 1Q24. This figure was even higher in the 3Q22, reaching almost $738 billion. 

    “The whole system of drug trafficking is being sustained by a network of clandestine [Chinese] money brokers,” said Giovanni Melillo, the chief prosecutor for Italy’s National Anti-Mafia and Terrorism Directorate. His office has been coordinating laundering probes across Italy this past year.  

    Previous cases of money laundering in the US involving Chinese nationals have raised serious questions about how much Beijing knows about these dark laundering networks. For instance, a recent Wall Street Journal report revealed that Chinese crime groups and drug traffickers used the Toronto-Dominion Bank to launder money from US fentanyl sales. 

    In mid-April, the House Select Committee on China revealed that the Chinese Communist Party used tax rebates to subsidize the manufacturing and exporting of fentanyl chemicals to overseas customers. 

    The biggest mystery here is why the Biden administration hasn’t taken a tougher stance on China while America’s fentanyl epidemic kills as many citizens each year as two Vietnam Wars.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 22:50

  • Crime Trends Have Been Tough To Track. Breaking Down The 10 Biggest Cities
    Crime Trends Have Been Tough To Track. Breaking Down The 10 Biggest Cities

    Authored by Petr Svab via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Is crime rising or falling across the United States? National crime trends have been difficult to track in recent years because of changes in the way that police departments report their statistics to the FBI.

    (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock)

    But by examining crime data from large police departments individually, a clearer pattern emerges.

    The Epoch Times’ analysis of data going back several years shows that while the major crime spike that plagued the United States’ largest cities has ebbed, crime rates are still exceeding numbers from before the 2020 summer of protests and riots.

    Car theft, in particular, has remained high. Robbery, on the other hand, has declined significantly in some large cities.

    The analysis has focused on the top 10 most populous cities and the four offenses of murder, robbery, aggravated assault, and car theft, which tend to be the most reliably reported to the police, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey conducted by the Census Bureau.

    New York City, Pop. 8.2 Million

    The country’s largest city suffered a surge in violence starting in mid-2020 as a wave of protests and riots hit the country following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.

    Shootings doubled that year, with more than 1,850 wounded or killed. Car theft, after dwindling for decades, shot up by 66 percent, NYPD data show.

    Crime continued to rise in 2021, with 488 people murdered—the most in a decade.

    In 2022, murder declined by about 10 percent, but instances of other serious crimes kept increasing. Car theft was up by more than 150 percent from 2019. Major theft (of items worth more than $1,000 in value) and felony assaults reached numbers unseen since the 1990s.

    Violent crime subsided a step further in 2023. Murder dropped by another 11 percent but was still more than 20 percent above the pre-2020 numbers. Meanwhile, car thefts and felony assaults went up again.

    This year, so far, murder appears to be further receding, though still holding stubbornly 20 percent above 2019 numbers for the same period. Robberies and felony assaults, however, are both up from last year and more than 40 percent above 2019 levels. Car theft has eased up, yet the rate is still double that of 2019.

    Los Angeles, Pop. 3.8 Million

    Los Angeles is following a similar trajectory to New York City. Crime surged in 2020 and continued to rise until 2022, aside from murder, which peaked in 2021 with 401 fatalities—the worst since 2006.

    Based on incomplete data, crime seems to have declined a bit in 2023, although murder is still 30 percent above the 2019 level, felony assault is up by about 17 percent, and car theft is up by more than 70 percent.

    Officials stand next to a barrel where a body was discovered in Malibu Lagoon State Beach, Calif., on July 31, 2023. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

    This year, it appears that the LAPD hasn’t been releasing its weekly crime reports. A spokesman reached by phone said the department is switching to a new system so the reports aren’t available.

    The department provided some figures for this year up to June 22: Violent crime had been up by 3.5 percent from the same period in 2023, and so was murder. Robberies were up by 18.5 percent, and burglaries up by 4.2 percent. Property crime dropped by 3.1 percent.

    Chicago, Pop. 2.7 Million

    Chicago experienced a giant spike in murder in 2016. But by 2019, it had just about managed to get it under control. Then 2020 hit and, just as with other cities, violence exploded anew and continued upward in 2021, which resulted in 811 murders—the most since 1995.

    Since 2022, murders have decreased, but other crime has continued to rise. So far this year, murder is up by 20 percent compared with the same period in 2019, robbery is up by 40 percent, aggravated battery is up by 4 percent, and car theft is up by 150 percent. Last year, nearly 30,000 cars were stolen in Chicago—the most since at least the year 2000.

    Houston, Pop. 2.3 Million

    Houston was still trying to contain a wave of violence that started in 2015 when another wave hit in 2020. The following year, in 2021, the city recorded 471 murders, making for its highest homicide rate since 1994.

    The violence has eased since then, but last year’s murders still outpaced 2019 by more than 20 percent.

    In the first four months of this year, murders seem to have further abated, although aggravated assaults are still nearly 20 percent above the same period in 2019 and car theft is almost 50 percent higher.

    Robberies, on the other hand, have been on a steady decline since 2019—down by 25 percent in 2023.

    Police line up on Vermont Avenue as people protest over the death of George Floyd, in Washington on June 23, 2020. (Brendan Smialowski /AFP via Getty Images)

    Phoenix, Pop. 1.6 Million

    Phoenix followed much the same trajectory, with a spike in violence in 2016, another increase in 2020, and a peak in 2022 when 217 people were killed, making for the city’s highest murder rate since 2007.

    In 2023, violence somewhat declined, but car theft jumped by 22 percent.

    In the first quarter of this year, the city managed another reduction in murders because of a particularly calm March, with five murders. Car thefts and aggravated assaults barely budged, though, and robberies are up by 17 percent compared with the first quarter of 2023.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 22:15

  • Bidenomics: Man Sparks Internet Outrage After Paying $9.35 For A Diet Coke At Six Flags
    Bidenomics: Man Sparks Internet Outrage After Paying $9.35 For A Diet Coke At Six Flags

    Just when you’ve thought you’ve seen the worst, most egregious examples of inflation rearing its head, we give you: Six Flags.

    The theme park was in the news this week after a customer went viral for spending $9 for a single Diet Coke at the park’s concessions, as was reported by DailyDot. 

    Guyset (@theguyset) posted a viral video on TikTok expressing shock over paying $9.35 for a Diet Coke at Six Flags, showing his receipt as proof. Despite the high price, he bought it. He noted in the caption that both he and the cashier were stunned by the cost.

    Other TikTokers shared similar experiences of high prices at amusement parks, concerts, and airports. One user recalled paying $12 for M&Ms at a concert, while another mentioned spending $15 on a small bag of jerky at an airport.

    Many users shared their outrage over Six Flags’ prices. One mentioned paying $10 for a bottle of water, while another noted that at Kings Dominion, a slice of pizza and a breadstick cost $17.

    A TikToker highlighted similar issues at other parks, citing an $85 bill for 2 hotdogs, 2 slices of pizza, and 3 drinks at Sesame Place for a family of four.

    To emphasize the price difference, one user pointed out spending just $4.48 for three 2-liter bottles at a grocery store. Another suggested a hack for staying hydrated at theme parks: buy refillable cups or get a membership that includes refills.

    In the comments section, people also lamented the price of items at places like airports. Recall last week we just wrote that Philadelphia’s airport had caused an “outrage” after slapping a hidden 3% surcharge on all concession items. 

    According to the report the surcharge is  “to offset the employee wages and benefits” that must be paid to airport workers, but none of the money actually goes to employees. 

    View From The Wing then asks the astute question: “You might ask, why allow vendors to charge people more than the marked prices, instead of just raising prices?”

    And you already know the answer, right? It’s because the airport doesn’t let them raise prices, stating that “operators are only permitted to charge up to 15% more than a comparable street-side unit”.

    What’s Six Flags’ excuse?

     

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 21:40

  • From Milk-Runs To MAD To Madness
    From Milk-Runs To MAD To Madness

    Authored by George Ford Smith via The Mises Institute,

    There are no secrets about the world of nature. There are secrets about the thoughts and intentions of men.

    – J. Robert Oppenheimer

    No big deal, it was just “a milk run.”

    So remarked Paul Tibbets Jr., pilot of the Enola Gay, a United States B-29 Superfortress, describing his trip to Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. His cargo that early morning was an atomic bomb called “Little Boy,” which bombardier Major Thomas Ferebee released when the plane was directly over the city. Forty-three seconds later and with pilot and crew watching, “Little Boy” exploded above ground. Their job finished, the Enola Gay returned to base on Tinian Island.

    Yes, just a milk run.

    Others saw it differently. War correspondent John Hersey published a long article in the New Yorker on August 23, 1946, detailing the experience of those far enough from the center of the explosion to have recollections. No milk runs here:

    As Mrs. Nakamura stood watching her neighbor, everything flashed whiter than any white she had ever seen. She did not notice what happened to the man next door; the reflex of a mother set her in motion toward her children. She had taken a single step (the house was 1,350 yards, or three-quarters of a mile, from the center of the explosion) when something picked her up and she seemed to fly into the next room over the raised sleeping platform, pursued by parts of her house.

    In case you’re a visitor from another galaxy and find this disturbing, most earth dwellers believe the “Little Boy” mission was an act of mercy. According to the accepted math, the instantaneous mass murder saved lives. So strong was this belief that the plutonium “Fat Man” bomb followed up on August 9 in Nagasaki, marking the last time a nuclear weapon was used in war. Meanwhile, on August 8, the Soviet Union had declared war on Japan, storming Japanese-held Manchuria with 1.6 million troops.

    The Japanese fight-to-the-death attitude weakened. Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender on August 15, followed by the formal surrender aboard the USS Missouri on September 2.

    As the first to inaugurate nuclear war, the Enola Gay crew had done their job—as ordered. Most of them agreed they were saving lives, but incinerating a city full of people as a life-saving exercise desperately needed context. Galactic visitors would be confused, but here on earth it was plainly necessary to put a quick end to a bloody engagement humans call war. Radar operator Joe Stiborik recalled the stunned silence on the flight back to Tinian, pierced by one outburst: “My God, what have we done!”

    If you have a superweapon, it does you no good if you lack the nerve to use it. And the US was driven to develop one out of fear Germany might already be working on one of its own.

    How it should be used varied among those at the top of the food chain. As Ralph Raico has written, “The bombings were condemned as barbaric and unnecessary by high American military officers, including Eisenhower and MacArthur.”

    Dwight D. Eisenhower, in fact, believed “Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary. . . . Japan was, at that very moment [prior to Hiroshima], seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of ‘face.’” But Truman ruled. It was his call. A half million or more American lives would be spared if a planned US invasion could be avoided. Yet, as Raico points out, that estimate was “nearly twice the total of US dead in all theaters in the Second World War.” Who was checking the math?

    Attempts to Avoid a Nuclear Strike

    At the Potsdam Conference in Germany (July 17 to August 2, 1945), Truman issued a Declaration, supported by Great Britain and China, demanding the Japanese surrender unconditionally or else he would order the “prompt and utter devastation” of their homeland. But he didn’t mention the horrific twenty-one kiloton Trinity Test on July 16 or the Soviet Union’s plans to invade Manchuria. Nor did he tell the Japanese their emperor would be safe from prosecution as a war criminal. Full disclosure might well have prompted Japan to surrender without an American invasion and without dropping the bombs.

    The scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project varied sharply in their views about attacking Japan. The Franck Committee, headed by Nobel Prize–winning physicist James Franck, opposed a surprise attack on Japan and recommended instead a demonstration in an uninhabited area. They also raised the issue of trust. How does the benevolent ethics of the West align with nuclear mass murder? Was it possible the US would get the “reputation of outdoing Hitler in atrocities,” as Secretary of War Henry Stimson asked Truman.

    Director of the Manhattan Project’s Los Alamos Laboratory J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team agreed that regarding the bomb, “We see no acceptable alternative to direct military use.”

    But Oppenheimer’s feelings of elation following Trinity and the bombing of Hiroshima three weeks later changed after the bombing of Nagasaki, which he found unnecessary from a military perspective. On the contrary, he was a “nervous wreck” after the second attack on August 9, 1945, and distressed by the growing reports of casualties.

    On the morning of October 25, 1945, the “father of the atomic bomb” met with President Harry Truman in the Oval Office. “Mr. President, I have blood on my hands,” Oppenheimer blurted, to which Truman in one version of the story (and in the 2023 movie) mockingly offered him a handkerchief.

    Oppenheimer, who admitted to being a fellow traveler with the Communist Party and was often accused of being a member, saw a future dominated by superweapons a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb. Above all, he wanted to control nuclear weapons’ development and avoid an arms race with the Soviets.

    But the race was already well underway. “After scientists in Germany experimentally split the uranium atom in 1938, [Hungarian-German physicist Leo] Szilard became deeply concerned about idea of Hitler obtaining an atomic bomb first and began raising alarm bells among his personal connections.”

    Szilard and Albert Einstein both became so disturbed that they composed a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, urging him to start a program in the US among physicists working on chain reactions. Szilard, according to his biographer, had “worked frantically to start the very arms race he had feared.”

    But with states, an arms race is one of their most conspicuous features.

    Truman had never heard of the Manhattan Project until he was sworn into office and thought the Soviets would never catch up. Stalin, though, with his Manhattan Project spies, was far ahead of him.

    At Potsdam, after hearing of the success of Trinity, Truman sauntered over to Stalin after a meeting and said, the “United States had a new weapon of unusual destructive force.” Stalin kept a poker face and replied, in effect, good for you. According to Truman’s Russian interpreter Charles E. Bohlen, “Years later, [Soviet] Marshal Georgi K. Zhukov, in his memoirs, disclosed that that night Stalin ordered a telegram sent to those working on the atomic bomb in Russia to hurry with the job.”

    The Reign of Absolute Madness

    How much destructive force the superpowers need to maintain deterrence has varied over the decades, though according to a 2012 study by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, “Just 100 nuclear detonations of the size that struck Hiroshima and Nagasaki would usher in a planetary nuclear winter, which would drop temperatures lower than they were in the Little Ice Age (1300–1850).” The Little Ice Age was characterized by widespread famine.

    According to the Nuclear Notebook of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Department of Defense in 2023 had 3,708 nuclear warheads, whereas Russia, as of early 2022, had 4,477 nuclear warheads.

    Today’s doomsday weapons far out-annihilate “Little Boy” that killed an estimated seventy thousand people, most of them civilians. The world has lived with increasingly powerful nuclear weapons for so long they no longer arouse the attention they deserve. A handful of state overlords of questionable conscience will decide whether you will be alive in the next second or drift away like chimney soot.

    During an informal gathering in 1950, Enrico Fermi, a leading physicist and member of the Manhattan Project in Chicago, posed a question that puzzled his fellow scientists: Where is everybody?

    He was referring to the “contradiction between the seemingly high likelihood for the emergence of extraterrestrial intelligence and the lack of evidence for its existence.” Specifically, “Given that our solar system is quite young compared to the rest of the universe—roughly 4.5 billion years old, compared to 13.8 billion—and that interstellar travel might be fairly easy to achieve given enough time, Earth should have been visited by aliens already.”

    Since then, almost everyone has kicked in a reply. One I find chilling is this: Given enough time, intelligent life self-destructs.

    It’s a hypothesis that by its nature precludes validation.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 21:05

  • Watch: Dramatic Video Shows Russia Repelling Drone Boat Attack On Key Port
    Watch: Dramatic Video Shows Russia Repelling Drone Boat Attack On Key Port

    Russia’s defense ministry (MoD) on Wednesday published some rare and intense footage of a Ukrainian naval suicide drones which got close to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

    The speedboat-type drones were approaching the coast in the darkness of the early morning hours when Russian Navy assets opened up heavy machine gun and rocket fire on the vessels. Watch the footage released by the MoD:

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    “Two unmanned boats travelling in the direction of Novorossiysk were destroyed in the waters of the Black Sea,” the defense ministry stated on Telegram.

    The inbound drones didn’t cause any damage to the port or naval assets docked there, the statement confirmed, and at least one suffered direct hit from the hail of Russian fire, having caught fire and exploded, according to the released footage.

    The return automatic weapons fire from the military port was so intense that it may have damaged buildings in the area, as Russian media notes that—

    “City officials closed the area close to the embankment in response to the incident. Mayor Andrey Kravchenko reported in the morning that minor damage was caused to an apartment and two commercial properties, but nobody was hurt in the incident.”

    This isn’t the first time Novorossiysk has been targeted, as it came under major drone attack also in May.

    It is likely a focal point for Ukraine’s military given its role as a major export route for Russian oil, as well as coal, fertilizer, grain, and timber.

    The oil harbour in Novorossiysk, via AFP

    Ukraine has been ramping up cross-border drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure as conflict spillover risks soar. Kiev and its Western backers aim to paralyze one of Russia’s most important industries: oil refining.

    Last month, Ukrainian drone attacks damaged several oil storage facilities. Shortly before that in May, two other refineries in southern Russia, including Rosneft’s large Tuapse facility on the Black Sea, were targeted.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 20:30

  • Anti-Slavery California Ballot Measure Would Ban Forced Prison Labor
    Anti-Slavery California Ballot Measure Would Ban Forced Prison Labor

    Authored by Summer Lane via The Epoch Times,

    A measure seeking to ban forced prison labor and formally prohibit slavery in California will be on the November ballot.

    Assembly Constitutional Amendment No. 8 would change the California Constitution to prohibit the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from disciplining any incarcerated person for refusing a work assignment. It would also prohibit “slavery in any form.”

    “Forced labor has no redeeming qualities and is inconsistent with California’s respect for human dignity,” the amendment reads.

    The measure was introduced by Democratic Assemblymember Lori Wilson in February 2023. It passed June 27 in the Senate with only three opposition votes from Republican Sens. Brian Dahle, Roger Niello, and Kelly Seyarto.

    Their offices were not available for comment.

    The measure passed the same day 68–0 in the Assembly.

    “This historic measure will now be presented to the voters of California, giving them the power to decide on ending slavery and involuntary servitude in our state Constitution,” Ms. Wilson said in a statement Thursday after the two votes.

    ACLU California Action argued in a position statement, in favor of the amendment, that the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution failed in abolishing slavery.

    “Hundreds of thousands of people are still living in involuntary servitude due to an ‘exception clause’ that allows free labor for punishment of a crime,” they wrote.

    The possible amendment of the California Constitution is part of the “Reparations Priority Bill Package” introduced by the California Legislative Black Caucus in January.

    The package includes 14 bills centered on civil rights, criminal justice reform, and health and business matters for black Californians written in response to a 2023 report from the state’s Reparations Task Force, tasked by the Legislature to survey “ongoing and compounding harms experienced by African Americans as a result of slavery.”

    The report offered statewide reparations recommendations.

    Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, an advocacy group working to end what it calls structural racism in the justice system, has also supported ACA 8.

    “For the first time in California’s tarnished history around slavery, Black Americans and Indigenous people will be able to vote against slavery,” the organization wrote in a statement.

    Although the bill had broad support among lawmakers, there are some criticisms.

    Brian James, a former California state prison inmate who spent 29 years behind bars after being convicted of second-degree murder, said he disagrees with the measure.

    “I believe work should be enforced,” he told The Epoch Times July 2.

    Released in 2022, Mr. James, who also recently appeared on EpochTV’s “California Insider” on the topic of prison life, said working was an integral part of being incarcerated and said inmates are needed to do tasks like yard maintenance, plumbing work, electrical work, and cooking.

    “Inmates run the entire facility,” he said.

    Most convicted persons enter prison and are assigned jobs based on their education and experience, he said.

    “If you don’t have a high school diploma, they will put you in school,” he said.

    He described prison labor as “a point of dignity” rather than slavery. He also highlighted the “value of work” and said prisoners were “supposed to [be] gaining the skills to go back into society.”

    The ballot measure needs more than a 50 percent yes vote to pass.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 19:55

  • Egypt Teeters On Brink Of Economic Ruin As Public Debt Mounts, Poverty Rate Soars
    Egypt Teeters On Brink Of Economic Ruin As Public Debt Mounts, Poverty Rate Soars

    Via Middle East Eye

    Last autumn, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi gave a speech in the New Administrative Capital in Cairo, the $300bn project that will ultimately define his presidency. 

    He said hunger was a small price to pay for progress: “If progress, prosperity and development come at the price of hunger and deprivation, Egyptians, do not shy away from progress! Don’t dare say: ‘It is better to eat.'” This horrifying vision of hunger and deprivation is what awaits millions of Egyptians in the coming years. 

    Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi attends a summit in Jeddah in May 2023, SPA/AFP

    A decade after ascending to the presidency, Sisi has pushed the economy to the brink of collapse. The symptoms are everywhere. A severe debt crisis is strangling the state budget, the economy is heavily militarized, billions have been invested in white elephants with dubious economic benefits, and the crown jewels of the Egyptian public sector are up for sale to meet mounting debt obligations. 

    This all stems from the military’s desire to consolidate power and wealth in its own hands at any cost. This will have dire consequences that will be felt for generations – and recovery will take a mammoth effort.

    Millions more people have been pushed into poverty in recent years, a trend that is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. In 2022, the poverty rate reached 33 percent, up from 26 percent in 2012/13, as the regime continues its policy of shifting the costs of the debt crisis onto the poor and middle classes. 

    The most obvious manifestation of this is the regime’s austerity measures – most crucially, the 300 percent increase in the price of subsided bread, the staple food for the most vulnerable people, which was announced in May. 

    Transferring wealth

    This comes on the heels of price hikes for basic commodities, announced by the government in January. These measures are part of a comprehensive policy designed to transfer wealth from the poor and middle classes to the regime elites and their creditors. 

    The logic is simple: increased spending on mega-projects, financed by high-interest debt, has allowed the military to rapidly expand its economic footprint, while the repayment of debt is financed through the appropriation of public resources, which is in turn financed by a regressive taxation system. 

    This creates a diabolical cycle of structural poverty that is very difficult to escape. A cursory look at the current budget highlights this trend, with the main source of tax revenue deriving from a regressive consumption tax, yielding 828 billion Egyptian pounds ($17bn); in second position comes the tax collected from corporate profits, standing at a mere 239 billion pounds ($5bn). It is worth noting that 62 percent of budgetary expenditures will be consumed by debt obligations.

    The increase in poverty will be accompanied by another structural transformation, namely the increased peripheralization of the Egyptian economy, which will become even more vulnerable to external shocks and to the goodwill of the regime’s allies. 

    The figures from the past decade are a testament to this. Despite a spending spree that has consumed hundreds of billions of dollars, the competitiveness of the Egyptian economy has not improved, nor has its industrial base. The contribution of the industrial sector to the GDP fell from around 40 percent in 2013 to 33 percent in 2022, a dramatic drop. 

    In terms of export performance, Egypt’s current account balance remains firmly in negative territory, deteriorating from minus two percent in 2013, to an expected minus six percent in 2024, based on data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This negative trend is expected to continue until at least 2029, based on the IMF’s available forecast. 

    Financing gap

    This means that in the medium term, pressure will continue on the country’s foreign reserves, which in turn will apply pressure on the deteriorating value of the pound. The situation is compounded by the debt crisis, which is consuming much of the state budget, making public investments to increase economic competitiveness very unlikely. 

    Indeed, the debt burden is so large that even after receiving more than $50bn in recent loans and investment, the financing gap is still estimated to stand at $28.5bn. This means that in the foreseeable future, the Egyptian economy will require continued external support, in the form of loans and investments, in order to maintain a semblance of stability. 

    The national debt in Egypt was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029.

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    The most notable example is the $35bn investment by the UAE, announced in February, which was critical for avoiding a possible default or debt restructuring – that is, assuming the regime will be able to rein in public spending and put the brakes on its cronyism. Unfortunately, there are signs that this is not the case. 

    In May, the Egyptian army’s Engineering Authority announced its intention to continue with the third phase of the South Valley development project, which aims to reclaim around 40,000 to 60,000 acres by 2025. It is worth noting that in spite of several large reclamation projects of this kind, the contribution of agriculture to the country’s GDP dropped from around 11.3 percent in 2013 to 11 percent in 2022.  

    Thus, in all likelihood, the Egyptian economy’s dependence on external capital flows is set to deepen, leaving it susceptible to external shocks, the fickleness of regional politics, and the whims of international financial markets.

    Grave consequences

    The increased influence of Gulf capital in the Egyptian economy comes with grave economic consequences. Last September, an Emirati firm acquired a 30 percent stake in the government-owned Eastern Company, which controls 70 percent of the country’s tobacco market. The deal was valued $625m. The UAE has also financed the sale of a number of historic hotels for $800m. 

    This trend will only deepen the structural dependence of the Egyptian economy by depriving the government of important sources of pubic revenue, further straining public finances. This will continue to erode living standards, weaken the pound and send inflation soaring, while also strengthening the political alliance between the regime and its Gulf backers, creating further obstacles for the prospects of democratisation or improvements to workers’ rights.

    The future of the Egyptian economy seems grim. Even if the prospect of debt default has subsided for now, the consequences of a decade of foolish economic policy have not. 

    The ongoing process of peripheralization will enrich a number of local elites, who will align themselves with these new realities. This is not limited to military elites, who will continue to benefit from the inflow of loans and capital, but it will also include civilian elites – the most notable example being Hisham Talaat Moustafa, an Egyptian real-estate tycoon and convicted murderer with close connections to the UAE. A partner in the historic hotels deals, his company’s profits reportedly jumped in the first quarter of 2024 by 220 percent.  

    Egypt is now undergoing a mass structural transformation, with millions of people plunged into poverty and wealth accumulating in the hands of a few, namely the military elites and their cronies. This transformation will have long-term consequences that are extremely difficult to predict. What is clear, however, is that the economic damage done by the regime goes beyond the debt crisis – and it will take years to reverse.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 19:20

  • Explosion Rocks General Dynamics' Hellfire & Javelin Missile Factory In Arkansas
    Explosion Rocks General Dynamics’ Hellfire & Javelin Missile Factory In Arkansas

    An early Wednesday morning explosion rocked the General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems facility in Camden, Arkansas, injuring at least two people and leaving one person missing.

    Local media outlet Camden News quoted General Dynamics in a statement as saying: 

    “Today at 8:15 am CDT, an incident involving pyrotechnics occurred at the General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems facility in Camden, Arkansas. At this time, we are working with first responders and can confirm the incident resulted in at least two injuries and one missing individual.”

    The 880,000-square-foot weapons factory, located about 86 miles south of Little Rock, is a “leader in the high-rate production” of weapons, including “Hydra-70 2.75-inch rocket, Hellfire and Javelin missiles, the Modular Artillery Charge System and various mortar munitions,” according to the defense firm’s website. 

    Berkley Whaley, General Dynamics’ spokesperson, told local media outlet Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the incident was related to “pyrotechnics” and clarified that it indicated explosives.

    Alleged video of the incident surfaced on X this afternoon. 

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    Whaley declined to answer questions about whether the facility had been damaged, citing an ongoing investigation. 

    Meanwhile, US defense companies have been ramping up weapons production (read: here) to arm Ukraine and Israel and replenish depleted Pentagon stocks. There is no word yet on how the disruption in Camden will affect overall US supplies of Hellfire and Javelin missiles. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 18:45

  • Putin & Xi Meet Again, Plot Countering US, While White House Consumed With Crisis Of Biden's Decline
    Putin & Xi Meet Again, Plot Countering US, While White House Consumed With Crisis Of Biden’s Decline

    In their second face-to-face meeting in as many months, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that “Russian-Chinese relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation are in the best period of their history.” Russian state media subsequently likened it to a golden age in relations.

    The two are meeting once again at the annual session of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which runs Wednesday through Thursday in the Kazakh capital of Astana. “Russia-China relations are on the highest level in history, and they are not aimed against anyone, we do not create blocs or unions, we just act in the interests of our nations,” Putin stressed.

    Via Reuters

    And Xi told Putin in brief opening remarks, “In the face of the turbulent international situation and external environment, the two sides should continue to uphold the original aspiration of friendship for generations to come.”

    Still, the reality is that the two are coming closer based ultimately on countering the US, while also vying for influence among other Central Asian SCO bloc countries, which includes the ex-Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Those are among the founding members alongside Russian and China, while India and Pakistan joined in 2017, and Iran was welcomed as the newest member last year.

    Collectively the SCO countries account for some 20% of global GDP, and importantly many of them have remained uncooperative with US-led sanctions related to punishing Moscow over the war in Ukraine.

    “I would like to recall that our countries were behind the creation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,” Putin continued in his remarks to Xi. He said the SCO has “strengthened its role as one of the key pillars of a fair multipolar world order.”

    The bloc is looking to expand in the coming years and decades, as currently over a dozen countries hold SCO dialogue-partner status, allowing them also to be observers at the summit. Belarus is a notable close ally of Russia’s which is soon set to join. It too is under US and EU sanctions related to the war in Ukraine, given its close defense cooperation with Moscow.

    Some social media commenters have underscored that the world is laughing at the US amid the chaos and controversy over Biden’s physical and mental capabilities…

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    Meanwhile there are reports that Xi told the conference that China is on the “right side of history” in Ukraine. This is not the first time he’s said this phrase (for example, he also said it back in March of 2023), but it comes at a moment Ukraine’s President Zelensky has been urging that China take a lead role in achieving ceasefire and peace.

    Zelensky’s office has reiterated this week, however, that the “value of any plan lies in the nuances and in taking into account the real state of affairs on the ground.” China has long had its own Ukraine peace formula published, yet it has maintained that any legitimate international peace summit must include Russian representation to be impactful (the recent Swiss-hosted summit did not).

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 18:10

  • From Big Cities To Small Town Main Streets, America To Celebrate July 4 In Record Style
    From Big Cities To Small Town Main Streets, America To Celebrate July 4 In Record Style

    Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times,

    Americans are projected to travel in record numbers, spend more than ever, and endure searing temperatures and violent thunderstorms in many areas when they commemorate the nation’s 248th Independence Day on Thursday.

    Heat and storms aside, they will, nevertheless, celebrate.

    From Boston’s Harborfest to San Diego’s Big Bay Boom, from Seattle’s Seafair to Miami’s Celebration in Peacock Park, on small town Main Streets and in neighborhood backyards between, there will be patriots on parade, grills blazing, music in the air, and fire in the sky on July 4.

    The red, white, and blue festivities will range from the traditional, such as Philadelphia’s Fourth of July Jam—“the largest free concert in America”—to the quirky, including “Best Tail Wag” in Bryson Creek, North Carolina.

    There will be rodeos—the Cody (Wyoming) Stampede—muskets and cannon in historic reenactments in places like Put-In-Bay, Ohio, a full slate of Major League Baseball games on tap, and, of course barbecues where, according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, more than 150 million hot dogs nationwide will be consumed.

    But Joey Chestnut won’t be eating any, at least not competitively. For the first time in 19 years, the 16-time champion won’t be woofing down dogs—he ate 62 in 10 minutes in 2023—in the annual July 4 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York.

    Mr. Chestnut was banned from defending his title after signing a sponsorship deal with Impossible Foods, a rival brand that sells plant-based hot dogs.

    There should be no such controversy to digest, however, at the July 4 World Famous Key Lime Pie Eating World Championship in Key West, Florida.

    WalletHub’s annual ranking of “best and worst places for 4th of July celebrations” cites Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle, Las Vegas, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, as the top five places to enjoy July 4 festivities.

    But for a less urban, more Main Street USA perspective, American Flags, Inc., based in West Bay Shore, New York, offers the 20 Best Small Town Fourth of July Celebrations where “quaint and quirky” festivities in Flagstaff, Arizona; Lambertville, New Jersey; Homer, Alaska; Virginia City, Nevada; Bristol, Rhode Island; and Washington, Georgia, are among those highlighted.

    More than 11,000 people will officially become Americans on July 4 in 195 naturalization ceremonies between June 28 and July 5 with many symbolically scheduled for July 4, according to the United States Citizenship & Immigration Service.

    Citizens will take the oath on July 4 from Misawa Air Base, Japan, to Mesa, Arizona, to Des Moines, Iowa, to Sturbridge, Massachusetts, to Apopka, Florida.

    Fireworks shoot from the Hatch Shell during rehearsal for the annual Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular on the Esplanade in Boston on July 3, 2016. (Michael Dwyer/AP Photo)

    Record Hitting The Road

    According to the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) Independence Day Data Center, 87 percent of American consumers plan to celebrate the Fourth of July in 2024 and will spend an average of $90.42 each on food items.

    NRF estimates Americans will spend a record $9.4 billion just on food to be eaten on July 4, with 66 percent eating in barbecues and cookouts, 44 percent saying they plan to attend fireworks/community celebrations, 13 percent going to parades, and 12 percent looking forward to getting away from it all for a four-day weekend vacation.

    Another 31 percent of NRF respondents said they would buy “patriotic items” to decorate homes or wear on July 4.

    The American Pyrotechnics Association projected in late June that Americans would spend $2.4 billion during “fireworks season,” which peaks in the days before July 4, nearly $100 million more than last year.

    The average cost of fireworks is down between 5 and 10 percent this year compared to last year, the association said, attributing the decline to lower ocean shipping rates.

    According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, only Massachusetts bans all fireworks use by private citizens, meaning the only legal public fireworks displays must be sanctioned and supervised by state or local officials.

    The American Automobile Association (AAA) estimates “more people than ever will be taking to the highways” this July 4th weekend, with 60.6 million traveling by car and 5.74 million flying to destinations.

    That’s up from 57.8 million who traveled by car in 2023 and above the pre-pandemic 55.3 million who traveled via car over the July 4th holiday period in 2019, AAA estimates.

    “With summer vacations in full swing and the flexibility of remote work, more Americans are taking extended trips around Independence Day,” AAA Senior Vice President Paula Twidale said in a statement. “We anticipate this July 4th week will be the busiest ever.”

    The AAA notes that gas prices are slightly lower nationwide this year than last, when the national average was $3.56 a gallon. That average this year was $3,50 a gallon as of June 27, it said.

    AccuWeather forecasts“storms for some, hot as a firecracker for others” across much of the Lower 48 states on July 4.

    California’s Central Valley will see highs between 100 and 110 degrees. Sacramento, California, projects it could top its July 4 record of 107 degrees.

    Southern California, Nevada, and Arizona desert high temperatures could top 115 degrees. Las Vegas could come within a couple degrees of its hottest-ever Independence Day, with temps topping 112 degrees.

    AccuWeather also forecasts the South will “bake,” with parts of Texas and Oklahoma set to reach into the low 100s and temperatures in Atlanta expected to reach the mid-90s.

    Thunderstorms bulling up the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys could bring late-afternoon and evening relief—but potentially spawn tornadoes—in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, it warns, while storms could disrupt fireworks displays in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and New York City that evening.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 17:35

  • Houthi Attacks On Ships Soar Most This Year In June As Critical Maritime Chokepoint Ablaze In Conflict
    Houthi Attacks On Ships Soar Most This Year In June As Critical Maritime Chokepoint Ablaze In Conflict

    About eight months after Iran-backed Houthi rebels began seriously disrupting maritime traffic in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, June recorded the highest number of missile and drone attacks on commercial vessels this year and the second-largest since December. As instability in the Middle East intensifies, Houthi rebels have sunk one commercial vessel in recent weeks and have introduced kamikaze drone boats to their arsenal. 

    Despite efforts of the US, British, and European navies sailing in the critical maritime chokepoint, attempting to ensure freedom of navigation, the Houthis managed to conduct 16 confirmed attacks on commercial vessels in June, according to Bloomberg, citing new data from naval forces operating in the Middle East.

    The surge in attacks is alarming, considering President Biden’s Operation Prosperity Guardian, launched at the start of this year to ensure freedom of navigation, has been without success in neutralizing threats and restoring security for commercial shipping. Instead, the consequence of failure has been emerging supply chain snarls and supply shocks, resulting in soaring containerized shipping rates. 

    “The Houthis have proven to be quite the formidable force. This is a nonstate actor that fields a larger arsenal and is really able to give a headache to the Western coalition,” said Sebastian Bruns, a naval expert at the Center for Maritime Strategy and Security and the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University in Germany, who was quoted by Foreign Policy. 

    Bruns said, “This is as high-end as it gets for now, and when navies are having a problem with sustainment at this level, it is really worrisome.”

    So, eight months on, the disruption to the critical shipping lane is getting a lot worse as rebels have expanded their use of uncrewed service vessels to attack commercial vessels. These are much harder to track than anti-ship missiles. 

    And the Houthis aren’t the only problem.

    A European naval commander told Bloomberg that criminal groups have reinvigorated piracy networks off the Somalia coast.

    Pirates “think there is a window of opportunity due to the Houthis’ presence,” with increased maritime traffic along Somalia’s coast due to commercial vessels re-reouting from the Red Sea to Cape of Good Hope, said Vice Admiral Ignacio Villanueva, who commands a European Union operation tasked with curbing piracy, adding, “They are really trying to stretch the Western, international operations’ limits and capabilities.”

    The world is dangerously ablaze as Biden’s foreign policy decisions backfire. Even before Biden, the world was fracturing into a multipolar state, one full of conflict. Now, Biden faces calls from within his own party to step down amidst speculation over his cognitive decline. This is not a great look for America. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 17:00

  • The Green New Scam Is Dying
    The Green New Scam Is Dying

    Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com,

    It’s no secret that the vast majority of the so-called elites are advocates of climate alarmism and are taken in by the Green New Scam.

    Whether this preference is based on ignorance of the science, ideological zeal, a willful desire to hurt American growth or simple greed because of their investments in Green New Scam infrastructure varies case by case.

    The typical upper-income supporter of the climate cult including academics, media figures and celebrities is probably ignorant of the fact that there is no evidence that CO2 emissions cause climate change and that the real causes are solar cycles, volcanoes, ocean currents and atmospheric moisture not caused by humans.

    Climate Alarmists Have It Backward

    The historical record actually demonstrates that warming periods produce higher CO2 levels — not the other way around. CO2 doesn’t cause warming. It’s caused by natural warming.

    In other words, climate alarmists have causation completely backward.

    Climate alarmism is based almost entirely on computer models, which depend on the inputs the modelers themselves build into them. A model is only as good as the inputs and assumptions programmed into it.

    Virtually every one of these models has overestimated warming, sometimes by orders of magnitude, because it’s based on faulty assumptions that overestimate the impact of CO2 on climate.

    In other words, it’s junk science. But they keep relying on these models because their political agenda requires it.

    Climate: The New Communism

    There’s no doubt that a fair number of neo-Marxists embrace the climate scam because they know it damages U.S. industry, raises costs to U.S. consumers and helps to undermine the U.S. economy.

    Following the end of the Cold War and the collapse of communism, anti-capitalistic collectivists admitted that they needed to promote the climate agenda because the only way to combat global warming is through collective action. It requires a coordinated global effort that limits national sovereignty.

    The neo-Marxists are impervious to evidence; they just want to hurt America and wasting money on windmills instead of building new refineries is a good way to do it. That leaves the greed crowd.

    The Real “Green” in the Green Agenda

    They’re early investors in windmills, solar modules, lithium car batteries, EVs, charging stations, carbon credits and other infrastructure of the climate scam. They stand to make billions of dollars off the narrative with help from extravagant government subsidies.

    They don’t really care if it all collapses in the end (which it will) as long as they get rich at taxpayer expense in the meantime. All of this behavior is clear as far as it goes. What is not clear is the extent to which the Green New Scammers are doing this with your money.

    The best example is multibillionaire Larry Fink, who runs the giant BlackRock investment fund. Fink has been aggressive in promoting the climate scam along with racial quotas, DEI and defunding police.

    He’s entitled to his opinions. But is he entitled to pursue his radical agenda with pension fund money from conservative states and institutions? Fortunately, a backlash has begun against Fink and his fellow wokesters.

    More state pension fund managers are beginning to pull their funds from BlackRock and other investment managers that pursue far-left policies not in the best interests of their beneficiaries. This backlash may not change Larry Fink’s lifestyle. But over time, it might change the world for the better.

    The EV Sham

    A major part of the climate agenda includes electric vehicles (EVs). I’ve been warning for years that EVs aren’t feasible as a transportation solution for more than relatively few Americans and that they are little more than glorified golf carts despite the $70,000-and-up price tags.

    In the first place, EVs don’t cut carbon emissions. The car itself does not have emissions, but it’s charged with electricity from power plants that do.

    The batteries are made with poisonous chemicals and metals including lithium, cobalt, copper and nickel that come from mining operations that use enormous amounts of water and electricity to extract the needed materials.

    It takes thousands of tons of ore to extract enough critical minerals to make one battery. EVs don’t take a charge in extreme cold, and the batteries can’t hold a charge. Travel range is grossly overstated for many reasons, including the fact that EV car heaters drain the batteries (with internal-combustion engines, ICEs, the engine makes heat which can easily be directed into the car to keep passengers comfortable with no additional energy required).

    Resale values of EVs are close to zero because buyers of used EVs have to shell out $25,000 or more for new batteries after the vehicle is about seven years old. The list of drawbacks goes on.

    Most Americans have resisted EVs because they understand the disadvantages. But many Americans were drawn to the false promise of emission-free transportation and other ridiculous claims by the Green New Scammers. Now even the most committed EV buyers are waking up.

    I Want My ICE Car Back

    A new survey by consulting firm McKinsey and Co. shows that 29% of EV owners in nine major economies want to return to ICE vehicles. When the sample is narrowed to just the U.S., 46% of those surveyed want to return to ICEs.

    The McKinsey officials who conducted the survey claim to be “surprised” by those results. That probably says something about the fact that McKinsey experts are just as deluded about EVs as the buyers surveyed.

    When breaking down the results, 45% say EVs are too expensive, 33% say they have charging concerns and 29% are concerned about the limited driving range.

    The truth is that the EV was invented in 1837 and reached the peak of its popularity in 1910 just before the mass production of internal-combustion cars by Henry Ford. The American public got it right when they flocked to the Model T.

    It sounds like they’re getting it right again after a brief infatuation with the false promise of the EV. The bottom line is that the Green New Scam is falling apart.

    It can’t happen soon enough.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 16:30

  • Cat 4 Hurricane Beryl Heads Towards Texas, Threatening Major Oil Refineries 
    Cat 4 Hurricane Beryl Heads Towards Texas, Threatening Major Oil Refineries 

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Hurricane Center (NHC) downgraded Hurricane Beryl to a Category 4 storm from a Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale on Wednesday morning. Beryl is the earliest hurricane on record to strengthen into a Category 5 as it churns across the southeastern Caribbean Sea. It is forecasted to hit the Yucatán Peninsula on Friday and afterward poses a threat to US oil and energy critical infrastructure on the Gulf Coast.

    NHC said Beryl’s winds peaked at about 157 mph before weakening to 145 mph on Wednesday morning. Government weather forecasters expect “some weakening” of the storm over the “next day or two,” however, it will still be a “major hurricane” as it impacts “Jamaica on Wednesday and the Cayman Islands.”

    On Wednesday, Mexico’s Meteorological Service posted a hurricane warning for the coast of the Yucatán peninsula from Puerto Costa Maya to Cancún, with forecasted landfall on Friday. 

    After the Yucatán Peninsula, Beryl’s forecasted path heads directly to the Texas coast and is expected to move up towards Louisiana. This area is home to major US oil and gas refineries.

    Ahead of the storm, Shell announced Wednesday that it paused some drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Here’s more from Bloomberg:

    • Company also began evacuating non-essential personnel as precautionary measure

    • Shell is also evacuating non-essential staff from the Whale asset, which is not scheduled to begin operations until later this year

    • Production from the Shell-operated Perdido platform feeds into the HOOPS Blend, a medium sour oil with 29.2 API and 1.55% sulfur

    • Oil from Perdido is delivered by the Hoover Offshore Oil Pipeline System (HOOPS) to the Quintana terminal, south of Freeport, Texas; from Quintana oil flows into the Houston refining hub but mainly to the Texas City area

    “There remains uncertainty in the track and intensity forecast of Beryl over the western Gulf of Mexico this weekend. Interests in the western Gulf of Mexico, including southern Texas, should monitor the progress of Beryl,” NHC wrote in the most recent update. 

    Computer models show the storm’s future path along the Texas coast, which is home to 32 oil refineries. Refineries are critical for processing crude into products such as gasoline and diesel.  

    “We have to wait and see where it lands,” Mark Schieldrop, a spokesperson for the travel club AAA Northeast, told newspaper The Record. 

    Schieldrop said, “But if the storm makes a direct hit to oil and gas infrastructure, it could cause prices to go up here if refineries down there are knocked offline for more than a few days.” 

    At the start of hurricane season, we penned a note titled “La Nina Will Complicate Things For Biden Ahead Of Elections As Hurricanes Threaten Oil Refineries,” and that’s exactly what could happen next week. 

    All it takes is one major hurricane to disrupt major US Gulf Coast refineries, which could drive average gasoline prices at the pump to the politically sensitive level of $4 a gallon. 

    Currently, AAA average prices of gas at the pump stand at… 

    If Beryl causes refinery closures on the US Gulf Coast, the Biden team will have a whole lot more issues to deal with (currently, it’s just chaos in Washington: “”No One Is Pushing Me Out” Biden Tells Staff As New NYT Poll Shows Trump Lead Widening”).

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 16:00

  • How Much Are State And Local Government Workers Overpaid?
    How Much Are State And Local Government Workers Overpaid?

    Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

    Let’s discuss the latest BLS report on employer costs with a special focus on teachers.

    Employer costs from the BLS, chart by Mish

    Employer Cost Synopsis

    • Government Wages Plus Benefits: $61.27

    • Private Wages and Benefits: $43.78

    • Government Wages: $37.90

    • Private Wages: $30.76

    Government hourly wages are 23.2 percent more than private workers on average.

    Benefits are the real killer.

    Government total compensation is 39.9 percent more than private workers.

    What About Teachers?

    Employer costs from the BLS, chart by Mish

    Teachers make $37.90 per hour in direct wages. But they make a whopping $79.38 per hour in total benefits.

    Benefits for teachers are a mere 109 percent of wages.

    Economic Fairness

    Education Week reports Biden Calls for Teacher Pay Raises, Expanded Pre-K in State of the Union

    Biden called on lawmakers Thursday to “give every child a good start by providing access to pre-school for 3- and 4-year-olds,” but he did not detail a specific plan to pay for universal pre-kindergarten, which he has called for in the past and included in his Build Back Better proposal that never passed the Senate.

    Biden’s call for giving public school teachers a raise also included no specifics. It was included in a portion of the address focused on economic fairness, which included a push to raise taxes on the highest income earners to help cover the costs of domestic policy priorities.

    There’s no better place to start when it comes to deserving teachers than the city of Chicago.

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    And Who Will Pay?

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    Chicago Teachers’ Union Seeks $50 Billion Despite $700 Million City Deficit

    On March 13, I commented Chicago Teachers’ Union Seeks $50 Billion Despite $700 Million City Deficit

    “Stop asking that question,” she said. “Ask another question.”

    This is in a city, mind you, that already spends an astonishing $29,000 per student, including all sources and money for the capital budget. And Chicago Public Schools already faces a $391 million deficit for next and nearly $700 million for the following year when “Covid relief” money will have run out.

    The only way to stop this behavior is to eliminate the public unions, totally.

    Unfortunately, a corrupt Chicago mayor is in bed with the corrupt CTU. And the state is the most gerrymandered state in the nation. Springfield is in on the act.

    What Are the Odds Police Show Up?

    On July 2, I noted In Chicago There’s Under a 50 Percent Chance Police Show Up If You are Shot

    Good luck in Chicago getting the police to show up if you are shot, stabbed, a victim of domestic violence, or any number of other serious crimes.

    Don’t worry. Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson will fix the problem by hiking property taxes to give money to the Teachers’ Union.

    And instead of going anything about crime, Johnson Seeks Slave Reparations.

    Public Unions Have No Business Existing: Even FDR Admitted That

    To understand why public unions should never exist, please see Public Unions Have No Business Existing: Even FDR Admitted That

    Chicago has an amazing propensity to keep electing mayors worse than the last one. Brandon Johnson is the worst Chicago mayor ever.

    In Illinois, as in California, there is really only one thing sensible you can do about this setup. Leave.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 15:30

  • Israel Takes Out 2nd Senior Hezbollah Commander In Less Than Two Weeks
    Israel Takes Out 2nd Senior Hezbollah Commander In Less Than Two Weeks

    Another senior Hezbollah commander has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. He was killed in a daytime strike on the coastal city of Tyre, in what appears a neighborhood or city area (according to widely circulating video).

    Hezbollah in a statement confirmed the death Muhammad Nimah Nasser, also known as Abu Nimah. Regional reports say that he commanded Hezbollah’s Aziz regional division in southern Lebanon (one of three divisions operating there).

    Hezbollah senior official Muhammad Nimah Nasser, who was killed on July 3, 2024. via TOI

    His high rank within the organization is confirmed in the fact that the Hezbollah statement referred to him as a “commander” – which it reserves for only the most senior level operatives.

    With the situation already on edge, given both sides are warning that ‘all-out war’ could be imminent, the marks the second high commander that Israeli has killed in less than two weeks.

    Last month a commander named Taleb Abdulla, who headed the Nasr regional division, was taken out in an Israeli strike. Before that, in January the deputy head of the elite Radwan unit Wissam al-Tawil was killed.

    The Associated Press reports that “In a video circulated by local media, residents rushed toward a charred vehicle with a large plume of smoke. Civil Defense said its first responders transported an unnamed wounded person to a hospital.”

    Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has told troops during a visit Gaza border that tanks currently completing their tasks in Rafah and now being pulled from the theater can be deployed in the north where they “can reach as far as the Litani” river. The Lebanon river lies 10 miles north of Israel’s border. 

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    “We are striking Hezbollah very hard every day and we will also reach a state of full readiness to take any action required in Lebanon, or to reach an arrangement from a position of strength,” Gallant said.

    “We prefer an arrangement, but if reality forces us we will know how to fight,” the IDF chief continued. Israeli leaders have been under immense pressure to act more decisively against Hezbollah, given its daily rocket and drone attacks have meant some 80,000 to 100,000 Israeli residents of the north have been forced out of their homes for months, since near the beginning of the war last October.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 15:05

  • Fact-Checking The 'Fact-Checking' New York Times
    Fact-Checking The ‘Fact-Checking’ New York Times

    Authored by Daniel Oliver via American Greatness,

    “They” just can’t let Donald Trump go. For them, Donald Trump is Evil personified.

    But not for the rest of the world.

    Here are some of the New York Times’s fact-check charges against Trump; here is why people no longer trust the New York Times.

    Social Security

    Trump said: “But Social Security, he’s [Biden’s] destroying it because millions of people are pouring into our country and they are putting them onto Social Security.”

    The Times: “Mr. Trump has this backward. Undocumented workers often pay taxes that help fund Social Security. But, as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office once noted, ‘Most unauthorized immigrants are prohibited from receiving many of the benefits that the federal government provides through Social Security and such need-based programs as food stamps, Medicaid (other than emergency services) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.’

    The facts: Biden has repeatedly pushed for giving illegal immigrants pathways to citizenship, including a plan and proposed legislation to provide up to 11 million illegal immigrants with U.S. citizenship and an executive order providing a pathway to citizenship for more than half a million undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens. Biden has specifically claimed that illegal immigrants have “increased the life span of Social Security because they have a job, they’re paying a Social Security tax.”

    According to the Center for Immigration Studies, “Illegal immigration unambiguously benefits the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. However, amnesty (legalization) would reverse those gains and add extra costs.”

    They note that “illegal immigrants tend to earn less and work fewer years in the U.S. than the average participant” and “if 10 million illegal immigrants receive amnesty, the total cost to Social Security and Medicare would be roughly $1.3 trillion, equivalent to a one-time transfer of 6 percent of GDP.”

    In addition, a November 2023 report from the House Committee on Homeland Security found that “the annual cost just to care for and house the known gotaways and illegal aliens who have been released into the country under Mayorkas’ leadership could cost as much as an astounding $451 billion.”

    How should Trump be graded on his assertion? Surely a B-, perhaps even a B. He raised the obvious issue, which is that the Biden administration, or any successor Democrat administration, will surely grant citizenship to all the illegals if it has the votes. The cost will be huge.

    Nancy Pelosi’s responsibility for January 6

    Trump: “Nancy Pelosi, if you just watched the news from two days ago on tape to her daughter, who’s a documentary filmmaker, or they say—what she’s saying, ‘Oh, no, it’s my responsibility. I was responsible for this.’ Because I offered her 10,000 soldiers who are National Guard. And she turned them down.”

    The Times: “Mr. Trump is distorting what Representative Nancy Pelosi, then the House speaker, said. Ms. Pelosi did not admit to turning down National Guard troops. She does not have such authority.”

    The facts: In a video filmed by Pelosi’s daughter, Pelosi, responding to someone who said “they (the Capitol Police) thought they had sufficient resources,” says, “They clearly didn’t know, and I take responsibility for not having them prepare for me, because it’s stupid because we’re in a situation like this.”

    The former Republican Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, has claimed that Pelosi was influential in rejecting a proposal to send National Guardsmen to the Capitol. And what evidence there is suggests that Pelosi seems to hold herself responsible for the National Guard’s not being present to deal with the rioters sooner.

    What grade should Trump receive? At least a B. Perhaps even an A.

    The Paris Climate Accord

    Trump: “The Paris Accord was going to cost us $1 trillion, and China nothing, and Russia nothing, and India nothing.”

    The Times: “This is misleading. . . . Under President Biden, the United States has pledged $11.4 billion annually by 2024 to assist vulnerable countries in developing clean energy and preparing for the consequences of climate change.”

    The facts: The Heritage Foundation has estimated that staying in the Paris agreement would cost the U.S. over $2.5 trillion in aggregate GDP loss by 2035.

    An analysis by McKinsey looking into the cost of reaching “net zero” emissions found that global spending by governments, businesses, and individuals would need to rise by $3.5 trillion a year, every year, in order to get to net zero by 2050.

    China is no longer accepting international pressure through the Paris Climate Accord with respect to its own carbon emissions. And Putin has joked that 2 to 3 degrees of global warming would be “not so bad in such a cold country as ours.”

    Trump’s grade? Obviously, a B. His basic point is correct: the costs are staggering, whether that cost is a trillion dollars or only half a trillion (and of course it depends on the length of time under discussion). He was also obviously correct about China and Russia—the point being that in the end, it would be the U.S. sacrificing economic progress to benefit the rest of the world, which has no plans whatsoever to sacrifice a penny of progress to appease the climate lobby’s dire predictions.

    Iran

    Trump: “Iran was broke with me. I wouldn’t let anybody do business with them. They ran out of money. They were broke, they had no money for Hamas. They had no money for anything, no money for terror.”

    The Times: “Even under sanctions that were imposed by the Trump administration, Iran’s economy plugged along. It wasn’t strong, but it wasn’t broke, and it kept trading with many nations. Mr. Trump made no mention of the fact that his withdrawal from an Obama-era nuclear deal freed Iran to resume nuclear production.”

    The facts: Trump is obviously exaggerating slightly here, but it is entirely factual that his actions to leave the Iranian nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions crippled the Iranian economy. Iran’s GDP contracted sharply in 2018 and 2019 (after Trump reimposed sanctions). Iranian oil exports dropped from 3.8 million barrels per day (early 2018) to 2.1 million barrels per day (October 2019). The Iranian currency, the rial, lost 50 percent of its value between early 2018 and December 2019. And inflation rose to an estimated 30.5 percent in Iran in 2018.

    Trump’s grade. Probably a B. Definitely better than the grade of Iran’s economy.

    Inflation

    Trump: “He [Biden] caused this inflation.” (Fact: For 42 consecutive months of Biden’s presidency, inflation has remained above the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2 percent.)

    The Times: “This is misleading. Independent economic research has found that government stimulus spending approved by both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden contributed to the soaring inflation the nation experienced in the first two years of Mr. Biden’s presidency. But no evidence blames government spending, by Mr. Biden or Mr. Trump, for the majority of the inflation the country experienced.”

    The Facts: Even Democrat-friendly economists blasted Biden’s “American Rescue Plan” before he signed it. Jason Furman (chair of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors) said: “It’s definitely too big for the moment. I don’t know any economist that was recommending something the size of what was done.”

    Larry Summers, Obama’s National Economic Council director, said: “We’re taking very substantial risks on the inflation side. . . . We are printing money, we are creating government bonds, we are borrowing on unprecedented scales. Those are things that surely create more of a risk of a sharp dollar decline than we had before. And sharp dollar declines are much more likely to translate themselves into inflation than they were historically.”

    Reading Trump’s blue book as a whole, we’d have to give him a grade of B. That’s about as good as it gets for a campaigning politician. Scored on a curve for politicking, he probably gets an A.

    Be embarrassed New York Times. You flunked. If you were working for Trump, you’d be fired!

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 14:30

  • FOMC Minutes Show "Vast Majority" Expect Economy To Cool, See Deflationary Effects Of AI
    FOMC Minutes Show “Vast Majority” Expect Economy To Cool, See Deflationary Effects Of AI

    Since the last FOMC statement on June 12, oil, gold, stocks, the dollar, and even some of the bond market are higher (in price)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    The shorter-end of the curve is now lower in yield since the last FOMC, but the long-end still higher (even with today’s yield tumble)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    The US macro picture has deteriorated even more significantly relative to expectations, now at its weakest since Dec 2015…

    Source: Bloomberg

    And thanks to today’s macro weakness, rate-cut expectations have risen back to the same levels they were immediately after Powell’s press conference…

    Source: Bloomberg

    So, given the hawkish shift in the DOTS, what does The Fed want us to know from today’s Minutes.

    Here are the key takeaways from minutes of the Federal Reserve’s June 11-12 meeting, released Wednesday (via Bloomberg):

    Willing to wait…

    Officials did not expect it would appropriate to lower borrowing costs until “additional information had emerged to give them greater confidence” that inflation was moving toward their 2% goal

    Economic expectations…

    The “vast majority” of Fed officials assessed that economic growth “appeared to be gradually cooling…

    …and most participants remarked that they viewed the current policy stance as restrictive”

    Officials said inflation progress was evident in smaller monthly gains in the core personal consumption expenditures price index and supported by May consumer price data that were released hours before the rate decision

    They appear set of the narrative that AI will save the world too (through deflation)…

    Participants highlighted a variety of factors that were likely to help contribute to continued disinflation in the period ahead. The factors included continued easing of demand–supply pressures in product and labor markets, lagged effects on wages and prices of past monetary policy tightening, the delayed response of measured shelter prices to rental market developments, or the prospect of additional supply-side improvements.

    The latter prospect included the possibility of a boost to productivity associated with businesses’ deployment of artificial intelligence–related technology. Participants observed that longer-term inflation expectations had remained well anchored and viewed this anchoring as underpinning the disinflation process. Participants affirmed that additional favorable data were required to give them greater confidence that inflation was moving sustainably toward 2 percent

    But The Fed seems divided on how to ‘react’ to data (markets or macro)…

    Some officials emphasized the need for patience in allowing high rates to continue to restrain demand…

    …while others noted that if inflation were to remain elevated or increase further, rates “might need to be raised”

    A “number” of officials said the Fed needs to stand ready to respond to unexpected weakness, and several flagged that a further drop in demand may push up unemployment rather than just reduce job openings

    WSJ Fed-Watcher Nick Timiraos chimes in to confirm the more dovish bias of the Minutes…

    Read the full Minutes below:

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 14:09

  • "I Almost Fell Asleep Onstage" – Biden Blames Debate-Debacle On Jet-Lag, But…
    “I Almost Fell Asleep Onstage” – Biden Blames Debate-Debacle On Jet-Lag, But…

    Desperately trying to outrace a growing wave of pleas to abandon his reelection campaign, President Biden on Tuesday dubiously blamed his terrible debate performance on exhaustion from a busy June travel schedule. However, as he was speaking, the New York Times was firing yet another torpedo at his presidency, publishing an article in which various US and foreign officials said his mental lapses have grown more frequent and pronounced in recent months.    

    Speaking at a campaign fundraiser in McLean, Virginia, Biden struck an apologetic tone as he acknowledged widespread Democratic disappointment in his Thursday debate with Donald Trump. He also tried to blame his performance — characterized by long pauses, garbled answers, a weak, raspy voice and slack-jawed staring when it wasn’t his turn to speak — on his June travel schedule. 

    “I decided to travel around the world a couple of times…shortly before the debate. I didn’t listen to my staff … and then I almost fell asleep onstage. It’s not an excuse but an explanation.”

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    However, the timing of Biden’s international travel undermines his claim. He traveled to France for D-Day commemoration festivities from June 5 to 9. After returning to the United States, he went to Italy for a G-7 Summit on June 13 and 14. From there, he headed directly to a Los Angeles fundraiser on June 15. That was the end of it — the debate was 12 days after the travel whirlwind ended.  

    Keep in mind, too, it’s not like Biden was schlepping a roller-bag through airports. It’s hard to imagine a more luxurious and rest-accommodating mode of international travel than what a US president experiences on Air Force One, to say nothing of the traffic-clearing motorcades that whisk him from point to point upon his arrival.

    On top of that, Biden capped his travel with a restful stay at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware home before spending the next week at Camp David preparing for the debate. There, his daily schedule reportedly started at 11 am with time allocated for daily afternoon naps. The travel excuse is all so implausible, even the fellow travelers at CNN can’t bring themselves to endorse it: 

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    Around the same time Biden was trying to convince donors that his obvious dementia is really jet lag, the Times delivered another broadside to the 81-year-old’s campaign, relating damning accounts from several US and foreign officials and others who say they’ve observed Biden in private and have seen a notable decline in recent months.

    Here’s just a sampling from the lengthy Times report:  

    • “People in the room with him more recently said that the lapses seemed to be growing more frequent, more pronounced and more worrisome.”
    • “The recent moments of disorientation generated concern among advisers and allies alike. He seemed confused at points during a D-Day anniversary ceremony in France on June 6. The next day, he misstated the purpose of a new tranche of military aid to Ukraine when meeting with its president.”
    • “On June 10, he appeared to freeze up at an early celebration of the Juneteenth holiday.”
    • “On June 18, his soft-spoken tone and brief struggle to summon the name of his homeland security secretary at an immigration event unnerved some of his allies at the event, who traded alarmed looks and later described themselves as ‘shaken up‘.”
    • “By many accounts, as evidenced by video footage, observation and interviews, Mr. Biden is not the same today as he was even when he took office 3½ years ago. The White House regularly releases corrected transcripts of his remarks, in which he frequently mixes up places, people or dates.“
    • “He often confuses names and details and makes statements that are incoherent.”
    • “During a meeting…with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, Mr. Biden spoke so softly it was almost impossible to hear.”
    • “[Italian Prime Minister] Meloni and the other leaders were acutely sensitive to Mr. Biden’s physical condition, discussing it privately among themselves.”
    • “Asked if one could imagine putting Mr. Biden into the same room with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia today, a former U.S. official who had helped prepare for the trip went silent for a while, then said, ‘I just don’t know.‘ A former senior European official answered the same question by saying flatly, ‘No’.”

    As we’ve seen in recent days, others in Biden’s circle stepped forward to avow that he’s sharp and energetic behind closed doors. However, having seen Biden’s debate performance for themselves — and as more and more officials provide disturbing accounts of his decline — only the most self-deluding Democrats are willing to credit these reassuring accounts, or Biden’s jet lag excuse:   

    Look for the Times report to accelerate the pace of demands for Biden to withdraw from the 2024 race. We’ve already seen the editorial board of the Times urge him to call it quits, along with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a variety of columnists and pundits. In a major milestone, the first federal elected official joined the growing chorus on Tuesday: Texas Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett issued a statement saying “I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw.” 

    Other Democratic officeholders, while stopping just short of urging Biden to quit, are striking him with daggers of their own. In an op-ed, Maine Rep. Jared Golden wrote, “While I don’t plan to vote for him, Donald Trump is going to win.” Similarly, Washington Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez told KATU, “We all saw what we saw. You can’t undo that, and the truth, I think, is that Biden is going to lose to Trump…the damage has been done.” 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 13:50

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Jul 03

Today’s News 3rd July 2024

  • Nine Ukrainian Jets Destroyed In 24 Hours, Russia's Military Says
    Nine Ukrainian Jets Destroyed In 24 Hours, Russia’s Military Says

    The Kremlin has continued to signal to the West that the dozens of US F-16 fighter jets currently being prepped to transfer to Ukraine are as good as dead on arrival. Past weeks of media reports have indicated that a handful of European countries will begin sending F-16s by some point this summer, when Ukrainian pilots complete their training on the advanced fighter.

    Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday it launched a major attack on an airfield in central Ukraine, which destroyed and damaged seven Ukrainian fighter jets. The location was identified as the Myrhorod airbase in the country’s Poltava region. Two more were reported shot down in a separate operation.

    Illustrative image of prior jet shootdown.

    “As a result of the Russian army’s strike, five active Su-27 multi-purpose fighters were destroyed and two under repair were damaged,” the military announced on Telegram.

    The statement was accompanied by aerial footage, and the whole attack was also confirmed by a Ukrainian official who described that the strike happened, but the extent of destruction was exaggerated by the Russian side.

    “There are losses, but not at all like the enemy claims because they always do this since the beginning of the invasion,” Ukraine’s former Air Force speaker Yuriy Ihnat stated.

    He additionally said to Reuters that Russian reconnaissance drones provided a key role in the attack on Myrhorod and present a “very serious threat” – as they were able to spot the Ukrainian aircraft parked on the ground. “It flies and reports everything in real-time, and then Iskander arrives in a couple of minutes. It is obvious,” Ihnat explained.

    In total Russia’s defense ministry (MoD) said its forces had taken out nine Ukrainian fighter jets on Tuesday over a 24 hour period, as two had reportedly been shot down while in flight. According to statements in TASS: 

    Russian forces struck nine Ukrainian Su-27 and MiG-29 fighter jets over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday.

    “Also, nine Ukrainian Air Force aircraft were hit over the past 24 hours. A combined strike by precision weapons against an airfield destroyed five and damaged two Su-27 planes of the enemy’s Air Force. Another two Ukrainian MiG-29 and Su-27 aircraft were shot down by Russian air defenses,” the ministry said in a statement.

    Last Thursday the Russian military had announced that it struck airbases in Ukraine which were set up to eventually house Western-supplied jets.

    Below is a reconnaissance clip of Myrhorod airfield featured by state media:

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

    The MoD said it used long-range sea-based weapons to attack “airfield infrastructure of Ukraine, planned to accommodate aircraft from Western countries,” according to state media. This included the use of Kinzhal hypersonic missiles alongside drones, the statement indicated.

    TASS has also issued the following battlefield data on Tuesday: “In all, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 625 Ukrainian warplanes, 276 helicopters, 27,121 unmanned aerial vehicles, 535 surface-to-air missile systems, 16,478 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,362 multiple rocket launchers, 11,215 field artillery guns and mortars and 23,238 special military motor vehicles since the start of the special military operation, the ministry reported.” These huge losses on the Ukrainian side have resulted in Ukrainian officials essentially begging for more arms and equipment from NATO countries at a faster rate.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 02:45

  • Macron's Loss Isn't An End, It's A Beginning
    Macron’s Loss Isn’t An End, It’s A Beginning

    Authored by Tom Luongo via Gold, Goats, ‘n Guns blog,

    To say that I’ve been waiting on pins and needles for the past year or so is putting it mildly. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

    This fake World Davos Made in which fat is beautiful, sloth is a virtue, and pedophilia the pinnacle of human love, should have you just a teensy bit anxious.

    When we look up and see everything beautiful being systematically subverted, cheapened, or just plain vandalized it’s hard to maintain your compassion, even if it was warranted…. which it isn’t.

    Today I come back to write my first public essay in more than a month and we’re a couple of days away from arch-Globalist Emmanuel Macron of France getting trounced by both Marine Le Pen and a fractious left-wing coalition.

    Heading into this weekend’s run-offs it’s pretty obvious that Macron’s party, En Marche, will be relegated to the ashbin of history. Macron was a fake populist sold to us by Davos nearly a decade ago to blunt the rise of Le Pen then.

    And it really doesn’t matter this time what political ring-fencing the various commies in France do to freeze out a National Front majority in the French Parliament. The tide has turned against them.

    It’s not coming back. Just like it has in the UK, the US, the Netherlands, Italy and the rest of the so-called post-Enlightenment West.

    That idea right there, “post-Enlightenment,” where we began to reject God for modernity and the supremacy of human reason over the vastness of our ignorance about how the Universe worked, is the key to what’s happening.

    And the minute I began writing about Macron I was hit with the memory of Notre Dame burning.

    The library was on fire. And the jackals brayed about how great it was.

    This happened on Macron’s watch. And he cried crocodile tears for it, as all true Marxist scumbags like him do.

    Because they can only have the facsimile of emotions since we all live in a simulation anyway.

    At the time I called it a “Symbol of Failing Culture.” But it’s far more than that. Notre Dame’s burning, deliberate or otherwise, was emblematic of how careless our caretakers were about preserving our past.

    So obsessed with their pathetic modernity they expropriated nearly all the wealth of France for decades to elevate sloth and neglect beauty while becoming openly hostile to their own history. Their contempt for history was on full display as their rage at religion overwhelmed their basic humanity.

    What’s worse to me is descendants of those that built Notre Dame cheering this event because they’ve been inculcated to hate religion of all forms by their Marxist education.

    They’ve been effectively immunized against feeling anything but contempt for themselves and their history.

    History is history. It doesn’t have an agenda. It exists, for better or worse, to remind us that who we are today is the sum total of who we were then.

    Marxists fundamentally believe in creating a man without a history, without connection to his past to mold him into the New Soviet Man.

    Argue with me about this all you want Bernie Bros, Corbynites and Richard Wolff acolytes, this is the point of this French post-modernist “life is an absurd simulation” nonsense. It’s simply an excuse to justify the inherent envy at the core of all Marxist thought.

    It meant something to millions of people, if not billions.

    Its burning was truly a moment of them destroying something beautiful even if the fire was an accident.

    Notre Dame was a thing to be envied, for sure. A place of stunning beauty and achievement. A thing worth preserving through the centuries. Of course it had to be destroyed.

    The contempt of Macron and his history-challenged fellow travelers at anyone not down with the Commintern was on full display back then.

    While they think we shouldn’t have histories, they forget that we have memories.

    So, there should be zero surprise today about what has happened at the French ballot box.

    Macron and Davos will do everything they can to extend and pretend that they are still in control in France. They may even succeed in saving Macron. In doing so they may even destroy what’s left of France, sacrificing it on the altar of the European Union, but for what?

    A meta-stable alliance held together by the scolding of a bloodless German vampire like Ursula Von der Leyen? How long do you think the French go from Yellow Vests to the guillotine?

    Because, last I checked, that’s a part of their history Macron is also trying to deny.

    *  *  *

    Join my Patreon if you are long hemp farmers

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/03/2024 – 02:00

  • How Financial Surveillance Threatens Our Democracies: Part 1
    How Financial Surveillance Threatens Our Democracies: Part 1

    Authored by Alexandre Stachtchenko via Bitcoin Magazine,

    When they descended into coal mines, miners would take a caged canary with them.

    The toxic gasses, notably carbon monoxide, that accumulate in these places and pose a deadly risk to miners, would kill the canaries before the miners.

    This information made them aware of the danger, enabling them to evacuate before it was too late.

    On May 14, 2024, Alexey Pertsev, a software developer who built an open-source tool to preserve online privacy, was found guilty of money laundering and sentenced to more than 5 years in prison by a Dutch court.

    In the court’s decision, the following can be read:

    “The tool developed by the suspect and his co-authors combines maximum anonymity and optimal concealment techniques with a serious lack of identification functionalities. Therefore, the tool cannot be characterized as a legitimate tool that has been inadvertently used by criminals. By its nature and operation, the tool is specifically intended for criminals.”

    Seeking to preserve one’s privacy is thus at worst proof of criminality, at best complicity in a crime. A threshold has been crossed.

    Unfortunately, it is likely that this case will generate little empathy and interest, as the person involved worked in the crypto industry, and the tool developed, Tornado Cash, was intended to preserve transaction confidentiality.

    However, it would be a grave mistake to consider this an isolated incident limited to a fledgling industry for which the public has little affection.

    This is our canary in the coal mine.

    It has stopped singing and is dying. If we do not react, all the miners will perish. Cryptos are an early and glaring revealer of an insidious phenomenon that has been eroding our liberal democracies for about thirty years and is reaching a point of no return.

    Despite the lack of evidence of their effectiveness, financial surveillance measures continue to be regularly reinforced, defying all democratic rules and requirements: the primacy of secrecy, freedom as a norm, the principle of proportionality of rights limitations, technological neutrality, presumption of innocence… Preemptive control prior to any offense becomes the norm, the enforcement of law becomes selective and arbitrary, bank account closures take on the appearance of censorship and financial suffocation, and property rights are reduced to a mere shadow.

    The fight against money laundering and terrorist financing has degenerated into collective hysteria worthy of authoritarian or even totalitarian regimes, to the point of criminalizing a fundamental and constitutional right: privacy. The famous American computer engineer Phil Zimmermann warned us in 1991: “if privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy.”

    Far from being a “crypto” issue, this shift away from liberal democracy concerns everyone. There are numerous examples in regimes known for their democracy, spanning from India to the United Kingdom, and from Canada to France.

    Note: If the crypto part does not interest you, you can proceed directly to part II.

    I. LESSONS FROM THE CANARY

    1. THE UNITED STATES INVOLVES ITSELF

    Less than a year ago, the arrest of the Tornado Cash developers had already legitimately caused quite a stir. But the scope of the case, limited to the crypto world, perceived as a den of terrorists and money launderers, had quickly confined the indignation to a small group of insiders.

    In April 2024, American and European public authorities, emboldened by this success, continued to move forward in a worrying direction.

    Several events occurred almost simultaneously. The arrest of the developers of the Bitcoin wallet developers of Samourai Wallet, by the FBI in cooperation with the IRS (the American tax authority), with the guilty cooperation of European authorities, kicked things off. Their crime would be to have “conspired to launder money” and to have “operated an unlicensed money transfer business”. They face 20 years’ imprisonment for the first charge and 5 years for the second. By comparison, the maximum irreducible life sentence in France is 30 years.

    Following this was an FBI notice urging all Americans not to use “money transmitting businesses” that do not collect their identity and are not registered. And the Federal Bureau continued by threatening to freeze all funds that had been mixed with funds obtained through illegal means.

    To better understand the absurdity of such an announcement by the FBI, let us transpose the reasoning into the physical world, and highlight two major issues.

    The first concerns the accusation of operating an unlicensed money transfer business.

    Samourai Wallet is a company that provides Bitcoin wallets with enhanced transaction privacy. It does not operate transactions on behalf of its clients; it provides the wallet software. In the physical world, their equivalent would be a leather craftsman who crafts leather wallets enabling their users to store cash. He facilitates cash management but has no say in how the wallet owners spend their cash.

    Here, the U.S. federal services conflate and lump together a large bank that operates transactions on behalf of its clients and a leather craftsman, holding the latter responsible for how his clients use their cash.

    How far can we go with this line of reasoning? To ATMs? To the people at the Central Bank who print these bills? To the lumberjacks who produce the wood used for the paper of the bills?

    Similarly, should we hold a carpenter responsible for what his clients decide to put in the furniture they make? Or an architect if the house they build ends up being used for drug trafficking?

    It quickly becomes apparent that this conflation is completely absurd. A wallet creator is not responsible for what the wallet owner decides to do with the money stored in it. Being part of the cash or cash storage value chain should in no way imply responsibility for its final use, as there is no limit to this reasoning.

    This question was actually raised 20 years ago regarding peer-to-peer exchanges, which allow multiple people to exchange information directly in a decentralized manner. This communication protocol and the software that enable it are sometimes used to commit offenses, particularly against intellectual property rights. However, despite attempts to criminalize the tool itself4, European5 and American6 courts have ruled in favor of technological neutrality, stating that the software in question allows both legal and illegal exchanges and that their providers are not responsible for the use made by third parties. The case law then focused on the responsibility of each individual involved in a potentially illegal activity, acquitting some individuals due to lack of evidence of their criminal intent7. These judicial solutions are obviously in line with the normal exercise of fundamental rights.

    The second issue lies in the threat of fund blocking.

    Freezing any money mixed with funds obtained through illegal means would be equivalent to arresting anyone whose bills, whether in their leather wallet or pocket, have passed through the wrong hands.

    In 2009, a university study covered by CNN showed that 90% of American dollar bills carry traces of cocaine, and up to 100% in some major cities. This helps us better understand the absurdity of the FBI’s threat: almost all the cash in the world has already passed through the wrong hands. Should all cash holders be imprisoned? Of course not.

    Following these absurd coercive actions, on 26 April 2024, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York published the government’s rationale against Roman Storm, the lead developer of the privacy software Tornado Cash. The author insists, considering Tornado Cash as a “money transmitting business.”

    According to this argument, “the definition of “money transmitting” in Section 1960 does not require the money transmitter to have ‘control’ of the funds being transferred. […] For instance, a USB cable transfers data from one device to another […].”

    A very broad definition of a “money transmitting business” that would even include USB cables, according to their own admission. At this rate, the question will soon become “who is not a money transmitter?”

    Here, the DOJ (Department of Justice) is so ambitious that it goes against the guidelines provided by FinCen (Financial Crime Enforcement Network, a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department). In other words, the U.S. government does not agree with itself, which indicates a certain uneasiness.

    In 2013, FinCen explained that software developers were not “money transmitters” (“The production and distribution of software, in and of itself, does not constitute acceptance and transmission of value, even if the purpose of the software is to facilitate the sale of virtual currency.”).

    In 2019, following an inquiry regarding certain programmable features on Bitcoin (Time-locked and multi-signature), FinCen reiterated that the partial control that could be exercised by wallet developers was not sufficient to qualify them as “money transmitters” (“the person participating in the transaction to provide additional validation at the request of the owner does not have totally independent control over the value.”).

    2. EUROPE AT THE FOREFRONT OF AN ILLIBERAL SHIFT

    Beyond the opportunistic qualifications of various parties and to return more simply to the way the law should be applied in a liberal democracy, let’s recall that cryptocurrency transfers are transfers of electronic communications according to the definition provided by European Union law.

    Moreover, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum allow for the exchange of communications that can be qualified as correspondences (the possibilities of exchange are not limited to monetary units). Electronic communications are protected by the right to privacy and personal data protection, and a limitation such as lifting confidentiality or blocking can only be justified if it is necessary for the effective pursuit of a defined objective, in a strictly proportionate manner, particularly in the case of a proven offense and personally committed by the individual whose communication is limited.

    The Court of Justice of the European Union has also ruled in this sense, considering that the systematic analysis of communications, even when possible, infringes on the fundamental right to the protection of users’ personal data, in violation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The Court specifies that an injunction to block communications that does not distinguish “between illegal and legal content […] could result in the blocking of communications with legal content” and thus infringe on the freedom of expression and communication. Regarding cryptocurrency transfers, we can also invoke an infringement on the right to property.

    It is therefore inconceivable, in a liberal democracy, to ask a private actor to block transactions or other types of communications without being certain of their illegality.

    We can note another convenient schizophrenia on the part of the American authorities, which Lyn Alden aptly summarizes by referring to “Schrödinger’s Currency”: Bitcoin is considered as a currency only when it allows for the prosecution of individuals. The rest of the time, it is a speculative tool to which this qualification is denied. Indeed, to apply the definition of “money transmitter,” it is necessary to consider that what is being transmitted (bitcoins) is indeed money. To the point that the government argues that “Bitcoin clearly qualifies as money” in order to prosecute Roman Storm.

    Europe regularly engages in this distortion as well, as I had already shown in the justification invoked to include “crypto-assets” in the TFR regulation. Cryptos have indeed appeared in a text that previously targeted exclusively “banknotes and coins, scriptural money, and electronic money.” But to say that Bitcoin is a currency…

    Moreover, in Europe, coincidentally, a new regulation was voted on April 25 imposing new financial constraints, still with the laudable objective of combating money laundering.

    Among the constraints, we can particularly note a €10,000 cash payment limit across Europe, but also the requirement for digital asset service providers (DASPs) to collect even more information about their clients, including for transactions under €1,000, and for personal wallets, known as “self-custodial,” “self-hosted,” or “un-hosted,” i.e., not managed by a financial intermediary on behalf of third parties. The leather wallets of the digital world.

    A small digression into Newspeak here: by imposing the terminology “self-hosted” or “un-hosted,” regulators and legislators are trying to enforce the view that third-party custody is the norm, and self-custody is the exception. This is obviously a dangerous and insidious view, suggesting that wanting to keep one’s own money is suspicious, even though it is part of the normal exercise of freedoms. There are no “un-hosted” or “self-hosted” wallets. There are just wallets, period. And there are third parties who hold wallets on behalf of others.

    Returning to the text, let’s casually note that it is particularly precise and imposes know-your-customer (KYC) requirements for transactions under €1,000 only on DASPs, exempting banks and other financial institutions, which handle far larger volumes than DASPs. The proportionality of this amount and this discrimination is not justified.

    In addition, there is a ban on supporting enhanced privacy cryptocurrencies. Let us recall here that historical commodity monies (gold, silver, copper, bones, etc.) are anonymous, as is still cash today. The ban is therefore inequitable and strikes under the pretext of its electronic nature. It is again unjustified, although it unacceptably hinders the normal exercise of a freedom since we are talking about its outright extinction (such a disproportion is not admitted by the European Court of Human Rights).

    As previously mentioned, all these actions are extremely problematic in several respects.

    First, because these constraints are based on no rational reasoning or relevant justification and are simply the result of paranoia related to cryptos, coupled with a KYC model (Know Your Customer, the customer identification processes imposed on financial institutions) that has been elevated to a religion despite the lack of convincing results over several decades. Second, because they disregard the requirements for the protection of fundamental freedoms on which the European Union was built and to which it is subject. Third, because they are counterproductive, meaning they create new threats, the consequences of which are increasingly severe.

    3. AN UNFOUNDED PARANOIA

    Nearly all texts dealing with the “necessary” regulation of “crypto-assets” have abandoned scientific and legal rigor to the point of never proving the initial assertion from which their reasoning starts: “cryptos are a good means to facilitate money laundering.”

    To appreciate this, one only needs to analyze all the texts on the subject issued in recent years. This is an exercise I have already done for the TFR text. Indeed, in the “proportionality” paragraph of the proposed amendment to the regulation, there is a small phrase indicating that, according to the opinion of EU surveillance authorities, “specific” risk-increasing factors have been identified concerning cryptos.

    Why is proportionality an extremely important principle in a state governed by the rule of law?

    Because the adequacy of a legislative standard or instrument to the pursued objective, i.e., the balance between the infringement on a right and the general interest, is absolutely crucial to avoid authoritarian and liberty-infringing drifts. One cannot hide behind an objective, however commendable, to impose disproportionate restrictions on rights.

    For example, one might think that by installing a policeman in everyone’s home, crime would be reduced. The objective may be considered laudable, but the individual rights that would be compromised in the process represent an unacceptable reduction in freedoms. Thus, society decides to tolerate potentially higher crime rates (subject to the risks to freedoms generated by surveillance itself) in order to preserve the rule of law and fundamental freedoms, without which democracy cannot exist.

    Conversely, the prohibition of alcohol while driving is a restriction that can be considered proportionate: alcohol consumption is not prohibited, but it is prohibited in situations where its consumption is systematically dangerous for oneself and others. The impacts of such legislation can be monitored by observing the number of accidents, for example. A right has been restricted, certainly, but the general interest prevails since the effectiveness of the measure in relation to an important objective (the preservation of life) can be demonstrated, and the infringement on rights is minimized by limiting the restrictions as much as possible.

    In a liberal democracy, freedom is the norm and constraints the exception. It is up to the state, when it wishes to restrict a freedom, to demonstrate that it does not go further than necessary to achieve its objective and that this objective is effectively achieved. Furthermore, the state is obliged to adopt norms to ensure that all persons and institutions, both public and private, respect this rule.

    In the case at hand (money laundering and terrorist financing), and despite the assertion that “supervisory authorities have identified specific risk factors,” when one plays the detective wishing to trace back to the source, one realizes that the opinion in question, dating from 2019, itself admits that the so-called “competent authorities” do not have the “knowledge and understanding of these products and assets, which prevents them from carrying out a proper impact assessment.”

    It also deflects by referring to another opinion (sic) from the European Banking Authority, which dates back to… 2014. In this “original” opinion, we find a rather laconic analysis: “the phenomenon of Virtual Currencies being assessed has not existed for a sufficient amount of time for there to be quantitative evidence available of the existing risks, nor is this of the quality required for a robust ranking.”

    In other words, the TFR regulation, imposing monitoring of all crypto transfers from one provider to another, was built on the basis of two reports. One report stated that there was no evidence to qualify or quantify the risks, while the other admitted that competent authorities lacked the knowledge and understanding to conduct an analysis.

    Therefore, concluding the paragraph on the “proportionality” of the TFR regulation by stating that “In accordance with the principle of Proportionality as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), this regulation does not exceed what is necessary to achieve its objectives” is questionable at best. Since the risks are not assessed, it seems difficult to characterize the restriction of rights as “proportionate.”

    In his fight against FINMA, Alexis Roussel made the same observation for Switzerland. The Swiss National Risk Assessment (NRA) of 201822 regarding money laundering risks in crypto indicates, from its very first sentence, that no cases of terrorism financing related to crypto have been identified, and only rare cases of money laundering. However, the subsequent statement recommends classifying these assets as “high-risk” by their very nature. Specifically, this means that a crypto transaction, even of €10, carries the same level of risk as a €100,000 transfer to an account in Russia. This equivalence is established without democratic processes in Switzerland and without any evidence.

    The 2024 NRA23 does not seem to have made much progress and still admits to lacking data to assess risks.

    We can clearly see a pattern emerge: anti-money laundering regulations and increasingly stringent data collection requirements are imposed without legitimate basis or factual data to justify their implementation.

    A more comprehensive overview has been provided by L0la L33tz in Bitcoin Magazine24, allowing us to supplement this inventory of breaches of the most basic rigor in Europe, as well as by sister institutions of Bretton-Woods, the IMF, and the World Bank, which are true compasses for global decision-makers.

    For example, in 2023, the annual report for 2021 from the European Union’s FSRB (the European branch of the Financial Action Task Force, FATF)25, an intergovernmental group established in 1989 to combat money laundering and terrorism financing, was released.

    The report begins with the following quote: “It is well known that money launderers have abused cryptocurrencies, initially to transfer and conceal profits generated from drug trafficking. Nowadays, their methods are becoming increasingly sophisticated and on a larger scale.”

    Unfortunately, starting an argument with “it is well known” reads the same as an essay that begins with “Throughout history, mankind”: it does not exude the rigor of thorough research.

    The report itself admits that a study will be dedicated in 2022 to analyzing money laundering trends in cryptocurrencies, suggesting that it did not exist at the time of writing the report, asserting as an obvious truth what had never been studied.

    This report dedicated to the study of money laundering trends in cryptocurrencies has indeed been published26, but it focuses not on the phenomenon itself but rather on the analysis of the implementation of regulations. Regulations that, it is worth noting, are based on unproven money laundering.

    Regarding the study of facts and the field, the report interestingly notes that the risk assessment “lacks depth.” It also observes that the majority of regulators lack the tools and expertise necessary to effectively analyze and investigate cases of money laundering and terrorism financing related to “virtual assets.”

    The study also takes the same shortcut as the aforementioned Swiss analysis: finding very few cases of money laundering involving virtual assets, it prefers to conclude that it is because more regulation is needed, rather than considering that money laundering is not overrepresented in these assets.

    As for the IMF, it’s no better: the latest report on public policies related to crypto-assets (September 2023)27 points out the lack of data on money laundering and terrorism financing risks, stating that “such impacts have not been specifically studied in relation to crypto-assets.”

    The IMF’s Global Financial Stability Report for 202428 relies on Chainalysis figures and proposes the figure of $1.1 billion received in cryptocurrencies for ransomware globally, which is less than 0.07% of the crypto market capitalization.

    The IMF’s twin institution, the World Bank, does not significantly differ from the aforementioned views. In a 2023 report the institution indicates that the issue of “Virtual Assets” was not addressed in the Risk Assessment and calls on public authorities and companies to provide more data regarding these assets.

    In its money laundering-related publications for 2020 and 2022 the World Bank simply makes no mention of cryptocurrencies. In its articles  on crypto adoption, the World Bank merely sidesteps the issue by redirecting to FATF papers.

    We have come full circle: reports cite each other, asking for more clarity on the figures, but nobody ever conducts the study itself. We rely on FATF, an unelected body, not subject to the rules of a respectable democracy, especially regarding proportionality, as I mentioned earlier.

    The objective is no longer to allow a proportionate fight against money laundering but to raise the standards of controls every year, forgetting the reason why these controls were implemented in the first place.

    Moreover, financial institutions use the term “compliance” to emphasize the fact that they comply with the expected control standards. The objectives of efficiency and proportionality are no longer at stake. There is no doubt that if FATF recommended putting a policeman behind every computer, legislators would rush to transpose this “best practice” into law…

    It’s not even hidden. In the regulation voted on April 24 by the European Union34, the justification for imposing new standards on crypto companies is absolutely not focused on combating money laundering and its effectiveness. Indeed, since MiCA has not even entered into force yet, and the adaptation of the TFR text to cryptos is very recent, how could we conduct a posteriori analysis of the effectiveness of measures that have not yet had an effect and possibly judge that they need to be strengthened?

    The reasoning behind the strengthening of controls is in fact much simpler: “Due to rapid technological developments and the advancement in FATF standards, it is necessary to review that approach.”

    It is not the evolution of the threat, its assessment, the means used by criminals, or the results of a study, etc., but rather the advancement in FATF standards that leads Europe to align itself.

    And the next steps are already laid out: “At the same time, advances in innovation, such as the development of the metaverse, provide new avenues for the perpetration of crimes and for the laundering of their proceeds.”

    While the most popular metaverses are still in the experimental stage and barely see a few hundred people connecting simultaneously, and as the hype subsides, they are already being talked about as nothing less than “avenues” for money laundering.

    If you’re looking for numbers and analyses, look elsewhere. The imposition of additional surveillance standards relies more on beliefs and perceptions than on facts because no one dares to oppose as a policymaker, risking being equated with a supporter of terrorism or money laundering. It’s therefore a genuine religion, one that becomes almost impossible to question at its core.

    The digital transition has been greatly beneficial for states: with the need to be banked to take advantage of financial globalization, leading to the omnipresence of banks, the number of potential targets to monitor has drastically diminished, until it ended up concerning only a handful of banks. The transition from a world in which everyone held their cash at home to one where, at least in the OECD, banking is the norm, entails an inevitable financial intermediation.

    In this regard, Bitcoin was a huge wake-up call because it signifies that the entire financial regulation of the past 30 years is obsolete, as it is based on an assumption that is no longer valid, namely the need for a financial intermediary to conduct transactions in the digital world.

    In tomorrow’s world where companies will make wallet-to-wallet payments, who will perform KYC? Will we only realize the absurdity of the model when half the planet is working to monitor the other half?

    Bitcoin shakes the very foundations of anti-money laundering efforts. And rather than questioning the regulation and its relevance, both in terms of effectiveness and in terms of respect for fundamental freedoms, we prefer the path of blindness, which leads to restricting the use of a technologically neutral tool by arbitrarily impeding innovation, the right to property, and the protection of exchange confidentiality, the importance of which for democracy, notably through encryption of exchanges, has recently been reaffirmed by the European Court of Human Rights35.

    Bitcoin is a canary in the mine. A signal that something is slipping away from us, not concerning cryptocurrencies, but concerning the fundamental freedoms of all citizens, threatened by financial surveillance.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/02/2024 – 23:00

  • Black Americans Still Feel Systematically Held Back
    Black Americans Still Feel Systematically Held Back

    On July 2, 1964, Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law.

    To this day, the landmark bill is considered one of the most significant legislative achievements in American history, marking a key milestone in the country’s pursuit of racial equality. The bill outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin and mandated the end of racial segregation and discrimination in public accommodations, education and employment.

    “We have talked long enough in this country about equal rights. We have talked for one hundred years or more. It is time now to write the next chapter, and to write it in the books of law,” President Lyndon B. Johnson said to members of Congress at the time, urging them to take action and pass the civil rights bill proposed by his predecessor John F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated the year before.

    60 years later, Black Americans face a situation that is vastly improved compared to the systematic discrimination of the past, and yet, many racial disparities persist to this day.

    As Statista’s Felix Richter reports, whether it’s in terms of income, wealth, education, imprisonment or health outcomes – statistically, Black Americans fare significantly worse than Americans of other races and ethnicities. And while a recent Pew Research survey showed that 52 percent of U.S. adults think that the country has made a great deal or a fair amount of progress in ensuring equal rights for all people over the past 60 years, an equally high share of Americans agree that these efforts haven’t gone far enough.

    Infographic: Black Americans Still Feel Systematically Held Back | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Among Black Americans, the view on progress is much more negative with just 30 percent of respondents saying that significant progress has been made and 83 percent thinking that efforts to ensure equal rights have been insufficient.

    Further highlighting the degree to which Black Americans feel discriminated against until this day, another Pew survey shows that the majority of Black adults don’t just feel treated unfairly out of negligence, they feel held back systematically across various U.S. institutions.

    According to the September 2023 survey of 4,736 Black U.S. adults, 74 percent of respondents think that the U.S. prison system was designed to hold Black people back.

    70 percent of respondents think the same of U.S. courts and the judicial system, while more than 60 percent think that policing, the political system and the economic system were designed to disadvantage Black Americans.

    “Black Americans’ mistrust of U.S. institutions is informed by history, from slavery to the implementation of Jim Crow laws in the South, to the rise of mass incarceration and more,” the Pew Research Center writes, but it is also informed by personal experience. 75 percent of Black adults say that they’ve personally experienced discrimination or unfair treatment because of their race or ethnicity, and among the victims of discrimination 73 percent say that it made them feel like the system was designed to keep them down.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/02/2024 – 22:40

  • US Marshals Find 200 Missing Children In Nationwide Operation
    US Marshals Find 200 Missing Children In Nationwide Operation

    Authored by Mary Lou Lang via The Epoch Times,

    The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) found 200 missing children, including sex trafficking victims, abused children and runaways in a six-week nationwide operation, the Department of Justice announced July 1.

    “One of the most sacred missions of U.S. Marshals Service is locating and recovering our nation’s critically missing children,” said USMS Director Ronald Davis.

    “This is one of our top priorities as there remain thousands of children still missing and at risk.”

    Of the children found, 173 were endangered runaways, one was a family abduction, another was a non-family abduction and 25 were considered otherwise missing. The youngest was a 5-month-old baby.

    The USMS carried out Operation We Will Find You 2 along with federal, state and local agencies from May 20 to June 24.

    The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) offered technical assistance in the operation.

    Operation We Will Find You 2, the second such nationwide missing child operation, focused on geographical areas with large clusters of critically missing children, according to the DOJ.

    It was conducted in the District of Arizona, the Eastern District of California, the Southern District of Florida, the Western District of Michigan, the Eastern District of North Carolina, the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and the District of Oregon.

    One case in the Eastern District of North Carolina involved a one-year-old who was reported missing in Raleigh after the child’s mother failed to surrender her to the Department of Social Services, according to the release. The mother, who had been convicted of strangling her four-year-old son to death, was arrested and U.S. Marshals safely recovered the child.

    Another case involved a 12-year-old girl who went missing from her family home in Portland, Oregon, on May 21 after she reported being sexually abused by family members.

    Police officers contacted the child on her cell phone and she agreed to meet them at a grocery store. The child and a friend then called the police back, telling them her father was trying to force her into his car. USMC was able to intervene.

    The child told law enforcement she had been raped by two males and that her father had touched her inappropriately. She was placed in a foster home then in a state-run shelter after the foster home placement did not work out.

    Another case involved a 16-year-old girl reported missing after she ran away from a group home in Phoenix. The girl had been a victim of sex trafficking.

    An investigation showed the child was possibly being sex trafficked in Los Angeles, and her suspected trafficker was murdered on May 25. The girl had told a family member she was going on vacation to Miami, and when she arrived a new sex trafficker took her to the beach and told her to make money.

    Marshals found the girl in Flint, Michigan, on June 11, and she was taken into custody for a probation violation. A man she was found with was arrested for driving without a license and insurance. The Homeland Security Investigations is investigating the suspected trafficking case.

    In New York, a 16-year-old girl who was a prior victim of human trafficking was reported missing in November of last year. The NYC Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit requested the USMS’s assistance in the case.

    Two arrest warrants were executed for a 27-year-old man who was the prime subject in the case. On June 3, the girl was found in the man’s bedroom and evidence of sexual exploitation was discovered. The girl was placed in the care of the Administration for Children’s Services.

    “Operation We Will Find You is a shining example of the results we can achieve when we unite in our mission to find missing children,” said President and CEO Michelle DeLaune of NCMEC in a press release.

    “We are grateful that vulnerable children have been recovered as part of this operation, and we commend the U.S. Marshals Service and all the agencies involved for their commitment to protect youth and ensure these children are not forgotten.

    “Behind every statistic, there is a child who deserves to grow up safe from harm.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/02/2024 – 22:20

  • When Bitcoin $100,000? It Depends On Biden's Next Move
    When Bitcoin $100,000? It Depends On Biden’s Next Move

    For much of the past year, Standard Chartered’s Geoffrey Kendrick has had a nice, round number in mind for his 2024 year-end price target: after (somewhat accurately) predicting in late 2022 that Bitcoin could tumble as low as $5000 in the aftermath of the FTX collapse, Kendrick flipped in mid-2023 at which point – and ever since – he has argued that due to the “seismic changes in the institutional approach to Bitcoin in the United States”, the cryptocurrency would hit all time highs in 2024 (it did) and rise as high as $100,000 (it has yet to do that).

    Then, at the start of 2024 and after the SEC approved bitcoin ETFs, Kendrick doubled down on the nice round numbers, and said that based on his ETF inflow assumptions, while he still thinks that an end-2024 Bitcoin price target of $100,000 is realistic, looking further out, the Standard Chartered strategist predicted that an end-2025 level closer to $200,000 is possible. This assumes that between 437,000 and 1.32 million new bitcoins will be held in spot US ETFs by end-2024. In USD terms, this should be roughly USD 50-100Bn.

    Then, at the start of May, once it became increasingly realistic that not only did Trump have a fighting chance of defeating Biden but that Gary Gensler’s days are likely numbered – with the SEC’s relentless pushback against Ethereum ETFs unexpectedly collapsing – Kendrick made a follow up observation in which he once again returned to his nice, round number prediction, forecasting that bitcoin will surge above $100,000 “when we get closer to Trump election victory we can rally hard from say Sept. to year-end.”

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

    So here we are, two months later and not only is bitcoin not anywhere closer to the nice, round number but it has in fact dropped somewhat notably from where it traded in late May.

    What gives?

    As Kendrick explains in his latest note published this morning, “frustrated BTC bulls have come up with a number of theories as to why we are stuck in a range. The most popular (the one I have heard the most which also makes sense) is that longer term holders continue to sell to nearer term buyers. Hence rallies are sold into and dips are bought.”

    The question then is what macro driver will be enough to make this stop? Kendrick thinks there will be a combination of Treasury yield movement which coalesces with a constructive US political backdrop, both of which he believes “will happen soon.”

    Starting with the first, on Treasury yields the strategist previously identified 3 drivers that should be constructive BTC in the attached note:

    • A steeper nominal 2Y/10Y curve
    • A greater increase in breakevens than real yields
    • An increase in term premium

    And while far from perfect, Kendrick believes that there is a “reasonable correlation” between each of these and BTC prices, shown here as 3 month changes. Interestingly, in recent weeks the UST movements have started to improve for BTC direction (or have at least started to go sideways) whereas BTC prices have been weak, which suggests that there is something else holding back the prices.

    But if the increasingly favorable moves in rates are not having an impact on bitcoin prices, then what is it: “why have BTC prices been weaker than the UST drivers would suggest?”

    Here, Kendrick thinks it has to do with the current state of the US Presidential election.

    Recall the previously discussed positive relationship between Trump’s electoral odds (shown here as the % probability of victory as reflected in betting markets) and BTC prices. The logic here is that both regulation and mining would be looked at more favorably under Trump:

    Looking at the above chart, it is safe to say that BTC prices got ahead of Trump probabilities on ETF inflows, but BTC prices are now lagging. Why the lag?

    Kendrick believes that this time BTC prices are lagging Trump probabilities because the probability of Biden stepping down/being replaced has been increasing. Specifically, the combined odds of Trump and Biden have now fallen to as low as 90% this week, the lowest level since March. That is, betting markets are saying there is a 10% chance someone other that Trump or Biden will win the Whitehouse.

    Indeed, today’s story sources by the CIA’s favorite mouthpiece that Democrats are now in disarray and that Hunter Biden is effectively in charge of the country…

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

    … has sent Kamala Harris’ odds of becoming the Democrat nominee soaring.

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

    In a probability sense, this means the market is now saying Trump is most likely to win (BTC positive), followed by Biden (BTC negative) but with a reasonable non-zero chance Biden is replaced and someone else – Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris or Gavin Newsom – wins (BTC negative). From a bell-curve perspective this is the equivalent of a fat left tail event.

    From here Kendrick sees 2 possible outcomes:

    1. Biden stays in the race and, given market pricing, will be expected to lose to Trump (BTC positive)
    2. Biden exits the race and the newcomer will be perceived to have more chance to beat Trump than Biden had (BTC negative)

    The good news is that we won’t have long to wait to find out the answer: the key date is 4 August, that’s when Ohio law requires Presidential candidates to be registered. So, if Biden is still the Democratic nominee on 4 August he will still be so in the first week of November.

    Going forward what the Standard Chartered analysts expects to see is the following:

    1. Most likely (90%) – in late July we conclude that Biden will run, Trump probabilities increase further, the fat left tail is removed. BTC moves higher, vol and skew moves higher. A fresh all-time in August is likely, then $100k by US election day
    2. Least likely (10%) – in late July Biden steps aside, BTC prices dip to $50-55k. If the new Democratic candidate is very credible (Michelle Obama) BTC prices stay soft. If not, it is a fantastic buying opportunity. BTC prices bounce back to $100k by US election day

    Watch this space for early moves in BTC vol and skew.

    More in the full note from Kendrick available to pro subscribers.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/02/2024 – 22:03

  • US Completes Hypersonic Missile Flight Test In Bid To Keep Up With China
    US Completes Hypersonic Missile Flight Test In Bid To Keep Up With China

    Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

    The U.S. Army and Navy have recently completed a flight test of a hypersonic missile as the United States seeks to keep pace with its geopolitical rivals—China and Russia—in developing hypersonic capabilities.

    The military performed the flight test from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, to gather data on the overall performance of the long-range hypersonic weapon (LRHW), the Pentagon said on June 28.

    The LRHW is equipped with the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) All-Up-Round missile—which consists of a two-stage solid rocket motor booster and a hypersonic glide body—and the Army’s canister.

    CPS is a hypersonic missile development and test program that “provides longer range, shorter flight times, and high survivability against enemy defenses,” according to Lockheed Martin.

    Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch Jr., director of the U.S. Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, said that the missile development was intended to help the U.S. military “maintain superiority over any potential adversaries.”

    The Pentagon did not elaborate on the data obtained from the flight test or provide additional details about the hypersonic missile.

    The test comes about a month after the U.S. Army awarded Lockheed Martin a $756 million contract to supply the additional equipment and support for the nation’s ground-based hypersonic weapon system, the LRHW.

    Under the contract, the aerospace and defense company will provide the U.S. Army with LRHW battery equipment, systems, and software engineering support, as well as logistics solutions.

    Dark Eagle

    A recent report by the Congressional Research Service stated that the U.S. Army’s LRHW, dubbed the Dark Eagle, can travel at more than 3,800 miles per hour and is capable of reaching “the top of the Earth’s atmosphere.”

    The weapon system can maintain a position “just beyond the range of air and missile defense systems” until it is ready to strike, according to the report.

    It provides the U.S. Army with a weapon system for strategic attacks to counter anti-access/area denial capabilities—weapons used to keep an enemy out of a certain area— suppress adversary long-range fire, and engage other important targets.

    Lockheed Martin delivered the first LRHW battery to the U.S. military in 2021. The U.S. Army has been collaborating with the U.S. Navy to develop the weapon system, according to the report.

    The United States has been testing its hypersonic missile capabilities amid growing concern that Russia and China have been more successful in developing such weapons.

    Rick Fisher, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, a security-focused think tank, said last year that the United States trails China in the development of hypersonic weapons.

    “China has effectively taken the lead in the hypersonic weapons race due to the breadth and depth of its technology investments,” Mr. Fisher said.

    “We are only seeing the beginning of their weapons developments in this field.”

    The Pentagon, in its annual report to Congress last year, warned that China already “has the world’s leading hypersonic arsenal,” which includes the DF-17 medium-range ballistic missiles that can be armed with hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs). An HGV, fitted to a ballistic missile, enables it to maneuver and glide at hypersonic speeds and alter trajectories after launch.

    According to the report, the DF-17 HGV-armed medium-range ballistic missile system is “possibly intended to replace some older SRBM [short-range ballistic missile] units and is intended to strike foreign military bases and fleets in the Western Pacific, according to a PRC-based military expert.” PRC is the acronym for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/02/2024 – 21:40

  • These Are The Most Expensive States To Maintain A Home
    These Are The Most Expensive States To Maintain A Home

    Buying a house is the American dream, but maintaining that property in good shape can be challenging for homeowners.

    This map, via Visual Capitalist, shows the 15 most expensive states in the U.S. to maintain a single-family home.

    Methodology: Bankrate aggregated the average costs of property taxes, homeowners insurance, and home maintenance costs (estimated at 2% per year of the value of a single-family home). Calculations also included energy, internet, and cable bills. All figures adjusted for inflation as of June 2024.

    Hawaii is the Most Expensive State to Maintain a Home

    The average annual cost of owning and maintaining a single-family home in the U.S. is more than $18,000 yearly, a 26% increase compared to 2020.

    With an average annual cost of $29,015, Hawaii is the most expensive state to maintain a home.

    California comes in second with an average annual ownership cost of $28,790, followed by Massachusetts with $26,313.

    Property taxes in New Jersey average $10,026 annually, the highest in the nation.

    States with the Least Expensive Homeownership Costs

    Kentucky is the least expensive place to own a home, with an average annual cost of $11,559, followed by Arkansas ($11,692) and Mississippi ($11,881).

    If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out this graphic, which shows what you need to earn to own a home in 50 American cities.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/02/2024 – 21:20

  • Jury Awards $687,000 To BlueCross BlueShield Scientist Fired For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine
    Jury Awards $687,000 To BlueCross BlueShield Scientist Fired For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

    A federal jury has awarded $687,000 to a research scientist who was fired from BlueCross BlueShield in Tennessee for refusing to comply with the company’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

    Tanja Benton, who had worked 16 years at the firm when she was fired, was awarded $177,240 in back pay, $10,000 in compensation, and $500,000 in punitive damages, according to a document made public by the federal court in eastern Tennessee on June 30.

    Company officials told Ms. Benton in August of 2021 that she would need to be “fully vaccinated” to keep her position, according to her lawsuit. Ms. Benton refused, saying aborted fetal cell lines were involved in the development of the COVID-19 vaccines and she could not “in good conscience consume the vaccine, which would not only defile her body but also anger and dishonor God.”

    BlueCross BlueShield said her position involved “regular external public-facing interactions” so she couldn’t keep it. Ms. Benton said her position became fully remote in 2020 but BlueCross BlueShield said it would have involved some in-person interaction with clients.

    Ms. Benton was told to pursue other positions within the company and applied for two. But she was fired on Nov. 4, 2021, and told five days later that, “Unfortunately, all positions require the vax now,” according to an email entered in the case.

    Her lawsuit charged that BlueCross BlueShield violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which says an employer may not “discharge any individual, or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment” because of that person’s religion. Employers can disregard religious exemption requests if they can prove accommodating them would create undue hardship.

    BlueCross BlueShield “cannot prove that allowing Plaintiff to continue her employment as a Bio Statistical Research Scientist without being vaccinated for COVID-19 constitutes an undue hardship,” the suit stated. The company “also cannot show that it made any good-faith efforts to accommodate plaintiff’s sincerely held religious beliefs.”

    BlueCross BlueShield was also accused of violating the Tennessee Human Rights Act, which bars discrimination by employers at the state level.

    “We’re disappointed by the decision,” Dalya Qualls White, chief communications officer for BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, told The Epoch Times in an email.

    “We believe our vaccine requirement was the best decision for our employees and members, and we believe our accommodation to the requirement complied with the law. We appreciate our former employees’ service to our members and communities throughout their time with our company.”

    A lawyer representing Ms. Benton did not respond to a request for comment.

    The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, presented with the case, cleared Ms. Benton to sue her former employer.

    Company lawyers had argued the firm would be unduly burdened by providing Ms. Benton an indefinite exception despite her role as a “public-facing employee.” The lawyers said she could not have continued working remotely indefinitely.

    The company also asserted that Ms. Benton did not hold a sincerely held religious belief and “denies that the COVID-19 vaccine was derived from aborted fetus cell lines, which is verifiably false,” according to the company’s filing.

    Johnson & Johnson used cells derived from an aborted fetus in the design, production, and testing of its COVID-19 vaccine. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines also utilized the cells in early testing. The companies have said the final products do not contain aborted fetal cells.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/02/2024 – 21:00

  • US Airports Are Busier Than Ever This Year
    US Airports Are Busier Than Ever This Year

    As the summer holiday travel season is in full swing, U.S. airports are getting quite busy these days.

    In fact, as Statista’s Felix Richter reports, according to figures released by the Transport Security Administration (TSA), they’re busier than ever.

    Sunday, June 23 even broke the all-time record for most people screened at U.S. airports, with 2.99 million people passing through TSA safety checks. That’s only the tip of the iceberg, tough. According the TSA, 8 of the 10 busiest travel days ever at U.S. airports have occurred in the past month and more records are expected for the Independence Day travel period.

    “We expect this summer to be our busiest ever and summer travel usually peaks over the Independence Day holiday,” TSA administrator David Pekoske said in a statement.

    As Felix shows in the chart below, daily passenger throughput at U.S. airports has consistently exceeded pre-pandemic levels this year after roughly matching 2019 traffic in 2023. With an average of 2.73 million passengers per day passing through TSA checkpoints, June 2024 was the busiest month ever at U.S. airports and there are no signs of Americans’ appetite for air travel waning in July.

    Infographic: U.S. Airports Are Busier Than Ever This Year | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Following an abysmal 2020, when airport throughput fell below one million passengers per day, flight traffic picked up noticeably in the second quarter of 2021, as the vaccine rollout proceeded rapidly.

    Passenger throughput started climbing steadily, with TSA safety checks exceeding two million in a single day for the first time in the Covid era on June 11, 2021. Throughout the busy summer season, the daily average hovered around the two million mark, trailing 2019 passenger numbers by roughly 500,000 a day on average. By the end of 2021, the gap had narrowed to 350,000-400,000 before gradually climbing closer to pre-pandemic levels throughout 2022.

    Prior to the pandemic, daily passenger volumes of 2+ million were the norm rather than the exception. At the onset of the pandemic, daily passenger throughput fell as low as 100,000 in April 2020, before slowly climbing back to its current level. In 2023, the TSA performed an average of 2.35 million safety checks per day, compared to 925,000 in 2020 and 2.32 million in 2019. Through June 29 of this year, average daily passenger traffic stands at 2.43 million for this year.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/02/2024 – 20:40

  • Biden Announces Five Actions To Address Extreme Weather In US
    Biden Announces Five Actions To Address Extreme Weather In US

    Authored by T J Muscaro via The Epoch Times,

    President Joe Biden spoke to the nation from the Emergency Operations Center in Washington, on July 2, and announced five new actions to “address extreme weather, including heat and other hazards.”

    “Extreme weather events don’t just affect people’s lives, they also cost money,” he said. “They hurt the economy, and they have a significant negative psychological effect on people.

    “Last year, the largest weather related disasters cost over—get this—$90 billion in damages in America.”

    Calling attention to the “nearly 2.5 million people” displaced in 2023 due to weather-related disasters, the president emphasized the threat extreme weather poses to transportation systems, power grids, farms, fisheries, and forests.

    Extreme Heat

    President Biden said the Department of Labor is proposing a new rule that, once finalized, will “establish the nation’s first-ever federal safety standard for excessive heat in the workplace.”

    He said it would reduce heat injuries, illnesses, and deaths for more than 36 million in the workforce, including workers in the construction, postal, and manufacturing sectors.

    The proposed rule would require employers to identify heat hazards, develop emergency response plans related to conditions affecting the head, and provide training to employees and supervisors on the signs and symptoms of heat-related illnesses. Employers would also be required to create rest breaks, provide shade and water, and allow new workers to acclimatize themselves to the heat.

    According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), “serious occupational heat-related illnesses and injuries become more frequent, especially in workplaces where unacclimatized workers are performing strenuous work” when the heat index is as low as 80°F. According to the NWS heat index calculator, that heat index could be when the air temperature is as low as 78.6°F with 60 percent relative humidity.

    The Department of Health and Human Services and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that approximately 2,302 heat-related deaths occurred in the United States in 2023.

    “Already, tens of millions of Americans are under heat warnings from record shattering temperatures,” President Biden said.

    “Last month here in DC, the temperature went to 100 degrees; In Phoenix, Arizona, 112 degrees; In Las Vegas, 111 degrees. Above normal temperatures also are expected for much of the country in July, especially in central and eastern United States.”

    He said his administration would convene the first ever “White House Summer on extreme heat” to bring together state, local, tribal, and territorial leaders, as well as international partners in an effort to protect communities and workers from extreme weather.

    New FEMA, EPA Actions

    Aside from the heat, the president called out other types of extreme weather, such as Hurricane Beryl, currently in the southern Caribbean, saying it was “the earliest time ever a dangerous category five hurricane has been recorded in American history.”

    He announced two new actions involving FEMA.

    Once finalized, a new rule will require FEMA to factor the effects of future flooding into every federally funded construction project.

    FEMA is also announcing nearly $1 billion in grants for more than 650 projects nationwide intended to help communities protect against natural disasters such as extreme heat, storms, and flooding.

    President Biden emphasized these grants would advance his “Justice 40 Initiative,” which aims to deliver 40 percent of overall benefits, such as clean transit, clean energy, and climate investments, to “the poor communities always left behind.”

    In addition, he announced that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would be releasing a new report showing continued impacts of climate change on the environment and the health of the American people.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/02/2024 – 20:20

  • Apple's 'Sell-Through' Market Share Erodes, UBS says
    Apple’s ‘Sell-Through’ Market Share Erodes, UBS says

    The world’s most valuable company saw its smartphone market share in China shrink in May, even after “deep” discounting, according to UBS analysts citing Counterpoint Research. Apple is also struggling in the US market. 

    UBS analyst David Vogt wrote that Apple’s iPhone sales have lost market share despite heavy discounting in China. In May, iPhone “sell-through” declined by 2% year-over-year (YoY), marking the fifth consecutive monthly decline.

    The sell-through market share in China fell to 15.3% from 16.9% YoY.

    The sell-through market share in the US also fell. 

    Europe was unchanged. 

    “Importantly, heavy discounting by Apple in China tied to the “618” e-commerce festival was not enough to mitigate share loss in the region,” Vogt said. 

    He estimated that “iPhone sell-through in China was largely flat YoY during May-24 in a market that grew 11% YoY.”

    “While Apple bulls may note the data is backward-looking and is not likely indicative of Apple’s AI smartphone opportunity next year, we note that iPhone share loss to Huawei and other Chinese OEMs acts as a material governor on iPhone unit growth,” the analyst continued. 

    Vogt warned: “Given Huawei’s refreshed product line-up, this tailwind for Apple is unlikely going forward.” 

    What’s troubling for Apple is that iPhone market share across major markets is sliding, except for India.  

    Vogt noted that he had a Neutral rating and a $190 price target on Apple:

    Our Apple $190 price target is 27x our CY25/CY26e EPS reflecting a challenging growth backdrop, higher rates, and undefined AI strategy. At 27x, Apple would be trading at a 30% premium to the market, roughly in-line with the trailing 5 year average.

    In the markets, Apple shares soared to new highs of $220 per share, pushing its market cap to nearly $3.34 trillion, making it the most valuable company in the world, surpassing even Nvidia. Stock buybacks have played a significant role in driving equity prices to these new heights. 

    Meanwhile, Jefferies analysts said iPhone discounts have helped the company reverse its underperformance in the Chinese smartphone market. The bank, which raised its price target to $215 from $200, said that Apple recorded robust numbers during 618.

    Apple shares trade at a slight premium to the 12-month average price target of Wall Street analysts tracked by Bloomberg.

    Apple’s recent introduction of Apple Intelligence “will position the company as the leader in the consumer AI experience,” Oppenheimer analyst Martin Yang wrote in a note.

    However, Goldman’s chief equity strategist David Kostin warned in a note this week that AI companies face a brutal earnings day of reckoning in this upcoming earnings season.  

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/02/2024 – 20:00

  • Robert Reich's Blind Spots: The Elephant In The Progressive Left's Room
    Robert Reich’s Blind Spots: The Elephant In The Progressive Left’s Room

    Authored by Jonathan Newman via The Mises Institute,

    Robert Reich is on his fifth myth, but so far, he has just been recycling the same progressive talking points in each one. The overall message is that big corporations and the super wealthy wield too much political power and that they shape the law in their own favor, contributing to terrible economic inequality. For Reich, the U.S. economy is a zero-sum game and the people at the top have rigged it so they win and everybody else loses.

    His solution is strong labor unions, high taxes on the rich, a high minimum wage, more trust-busting, and government wealth redistribution. He sees the economy through the lens of political power, and so the only solutions he can think of are ones that exploit the power of government to channel more of the fixed pie of wealth to a different group of people. Of course, many of his policy proposals would not even do that but would instead backfire and have unintended consequences that outweigh and confound the intended consequences.

    Instead of going through all that, I just want to point out two blind spots.

    Reich, along with other progressives like Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, never address the root cause of what they correctly diagnose as excessive corporate power over politics. They also don’t see the elephant in the room: the Federal Reserve.

    As I mentioned in my response to his second myth, the only reason big businesses reach for state power is because they know that state power can help them. If the government were constrained in such a way that no economic benefit could be gained by some special interest, then businesses wouldn’t seek it. The fact that businesses put millions of dollars into political candidates’ campaigns and into lobbying is explained by the fact that there are billions of dollars to be gained by having a politician in your pocket and laws crafted in your favor.

    In Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow, Ludwig von Mises explained what these “pressure groups” seek:

    A pressure group is a group of people who want to attain for themselves a special privilege at the expense of the rest of the nation. This privilege may consist in a tariff on competing imports, it may consist in a subsidy, it may consist in laws that prevent other people from competing with the members of the pressure group. At any rate, it gives to the members of the pressure group a special position.

    According to Mises, what gave rise to these special interest groups and their successes was interventionism. Interventionism is the idea that the government can and should control the market economy. It is the rejection of liberty and limited government.

    Even without special interests, interventionism spirals into ever larger governments. For example, one price control is implemented, and not only does it not accomplish the intended goal, but it also brings about many unintended consequences. The government, acting under the framework of interventionism, then seeks to regulate and control those side effects. Those measures similarly fail, and before long the government has committed itself to a host of interventions and all the bureaucratic mess required to enforce them.

    When interventionism is combined with pressure group politics, it inevitably leads to inflationism. Special interests vie for ever increasing government expenditures, but they also understand the unpopularity of taxation:

    This system leads also to a constant increase of public expenditures, on the one hand, and makes it more difficult, on the other, to levy taxes. These pressure group representatives want many special privileges for their pressure groups, but they do not want to burden their supporters with a too-heavy tax load. … 

    Pressure group politics explains why it is almost impossible for all governments to stop inflation. (Mises, Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow)

    Enter the Federal Reserve. The government cannot fund all the special projects with taxes alone, but inflation is a subtle way to spread the costs around.

    The unevenness of the effects of monetary expansion (called “Cantillon effects”) explains why it is such a successful tool for a system based on interventionism and pressure group politics. Newly created dollars are spent on some special interest program, and this pulls resources away from where they would have been used in an undistorted market economy. The new money ripples out from its origin, from buyer to seller, causing prices to rise with each step. This process results in a permanent change in wealth and incomes, rewarding those closest to the money spigot.

    Thus, instead of getting a tax bill for all the things special interest groups acquire from the government, ordinary citizens just see higher prices at the grocery store, the gas pump, and everywhere else. As we have seen, it’s easy for politicians to blame “corporate greed” or supply-chain factors for these higher prices. Not only does the blame-shifting parry citizens’ anger, but it also lays a foundation for future government interventions to address those “problems.”

    The Fed, then, is a progressive blind spot for two reasons:

    (1) it enables the government to give big corporations what they want, and

    (2) it exacerbates the very economic inequality progressives claim they hate.

    If the progressive left really wanted to curtail corporate influence over politics, ending the Fed would starve the corporate lobbyists out.

    No corporation would spend millions of dollars lobbying for a subsidy or government contract that the government couldn’t afford. If you don’t like evil corporations eating at the government trough, then take away the trough.

    And if the progressive left really wanted to moderate income and wealth inequality, the answer is the same: end the Fed.

    The Cantillon effects of inflation may be summarized in progressive terms as “the rich get richer while the poor get poorer.”

    The fact that progressives turn a blind eye to the Fed reveals either economic ignorance or political deceit. Maybe they don’t understand the economic effects of inflation.

    If they do, then their whole program is an evil scheme to help themselves and their cronies get rich at the expense of the classes they purport to champion.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/02/2024 – 19:40

  • "Major Victory For American Energy": Judge Blocks Biden's Pause On LNG Export Licenses
    “Major Victory For American Energy”: Judge Blocks Biden’s Pause On LNG Export Licenses

    A federal court halted President Biden’s war on America’s energy independence by reversing a temporary moratorium on permitting new licenses for liquified natural gas (LNG) exports. This is a major blow to radical climate warriors in the White House ahead of the November presidential elections. 

    Late Monday, US District Judge James D. Cain Jr. in Louisiana ruled in favor of Louisiana and 15 other red states that had challenged the “temporary pause” on new LNG export licenses. Donald Trump appointed Judge Cain, who wrote that the pause “is completely without reason or logic and is perhaps the epiphany of ideocracy.” 

    The White House announced in January that the Energy Department would temporarily stop approving new LNG export licenses to assess the impact of shipments on global warming.  

    Patrick Morrisey, the attorney general of West Virginia, called Cain’s ruling “a big win for the country’s energy industry and the millions of jobs it supports.”

    Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said the DoE’s halt on new licenses sparked a lot of uncertainty in her state, with tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure in question. She called yesterday’s decision “a major victory for American energy.”

    The ruling means DoE must restart its permit approval process soon. However, it’s unclear when this will happen.

    In a note in early February, Matt Egan and Brent Bennett of RealClear Wire wrote that the president’s politically motivated actions mainly targeted “Texas and Louisiana, red states that account for the bulk of US LNG exports.” Some have speculated that Biden’s action could have been a move to retaliate against red states that opposed open southern borders. 

    A separate report from the Washington Free Beacon said Biden’s Climate Czar, John Podesta, ultimately pushed the decision. 

    Here’s more from RealClear Wire’s Larry Behrens about Podesta’s LNG attack:

    As a well-known climate warrior, it makes sense Podesta would be pushing for policies against American energy interests. Yet at the same time, Podesta’s brother, Tony, one of DC’s most well-connected mega lobbyists, has financial connections to foreign LNG companies, including one with links to a Russian oligarch. It is concerning to see the Podesta family standing to profit from a policy priority of the White House who employs another Podesta. Foreign companies, including Russia, are clear beneficiaries Biden’s LNG attack. It should be raising questions about potential conflicts of interest and profit motives at the White House.

    Meanwhile, Angelo Fernández Hernández, a White House spokesman, told the Washington Post, “We are disappointed in today’s ruling. We remain committed to informing our decisions with the best available economic and environmental analysis, underpinned by sound science.”

    The move by radical climate warriors in the White House to dent America’s energy independence comes as US LNG exports have doubled over the last four years.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/02/2024 – 19:20

  • Scammers Are Impersonating Water, Electric, And Gas Companies; BBB Warns
    Scammers Are Impersonating Water, Electric, And Gas Companies; BBB Warns

    Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Scammers are impersonating utility company representatives to defraud people by threatening the deactivation of service, the nonprofit Better Business Bureau (BBB) is warning.

    Utility workers make repairs to electrical wires in Guerneville, Calif., on Jan. 9, 2023. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

    In utility scams, the criminals “may impersonate water, electric, and gas company representatives, threatening residents and business owners with deactivation of service if they don’t pay up immediately,” an alert issued on June 20 reads.

    Typically, the scammers create an environment of false urgency by claiming that customers need to make an overdue payment within the hour or risk having their essential utilities shut down. The frequency of scams increases during certain times of the year, however, according to the nonprofit.

    “Utility scams happen any time of year, but will typically pop up during extreme cold or heat events when many people are more likely to need their heat or air conditioning,” the BBB website states.

    In some instances, a fake representative may visit a home wearing a lookalike uniform and claim that the electric meter isn’t working properly and should immediately be replaced, according to the BBB’s alert.

    Scammers seek entry to homes to perform repairs or energy audits, but with the intent to steal valuables and siphon off “personally identifiable information that just happens to be out in plain sight,” according to the website.

    Offering energy discounts is another tactic.

    In certain cases, the criminals may attempt to access the homeowner’s electricity account information to switch the service to another utility provider without consent in an illegal practice called “slamming.”

    The BBB report detailed an incident in the report: “A lady claimed to be from [company name redacted] and told us our power would be shut off in 45 minutes and we were to call the billing department. [My] husband called the number and they asked for a credit card. He didn’t feel right about it and called [company name redacted] and they said it was a scam.”

    The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) advises people who have been defrauded in a utility scam to report the matter to the utility company, the state attorney general, and the agency via reportfraud.ftc.gov.

    Red Flags and Recovery

    If a person has already made payments to the scammer through a debit or credit card, they can contact the card-issuing company, notify it of the fraudulent charge, and request a payment reversal, according to the FTC.

    The same process can be repeated in the case of a bank transfer, wire transfer, or money transfer; contact the relevant firm and seek a reversal of the transaction.

    If the customer paid via cash, the individual must get in touch with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 877-876-2455 to have the package intercepted.

    Any payments made via cryptocurrency are irreversible, the FTC warns.

    “Once you pay with cryptocurrency, you can only get your money back if the person you paid sends it back. But contact the company you used to send the money and tell them it was a fraudulent transaction. Ask them to reverse the transaction, if possible.”

    Fraudsters can conduct the utility scam in person, via text, or through a call. The BBB warned that if a caller specifically asks someone to make payment via a prepaid debit card, gift card, wire transfer, or a digital wallet app, this is considered a “huge warning sign.” Legitimate utility firms typically accept a check or a credit card, it said.

    Another red flag is if the so-called utility representative puts pressure to make immediate payments, typically within the hour, and engages in intimidation tactics to gain personal and banking information.

    In March, Monica Martinez, executive director of Utilities United Against Scams, warned about a new scam trend targeting customers.

    “A more recent scam uses fraudulent websites that are identical to a utility payment page and that are promoted on search engines to trick customers into clicking the page and making a payment,” she said.

    In April, the FTC charged bill payment company Doxo for allegedly impersonating billers such as utility companies and misleading consumers, while collecting millions of dollars in junk fees.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/02/2024 – 19:00

  • Major Brands Push 'Upflation' Gimmick To Drive Up Sales 
    Major Brands Push ‘Upflation’ Gimmick To Drive Up Sales 

    US consumers have been well aware of the ‘shrinkflation’ phenomenon in recent years, but now there’s a new emerging trend: Some of the world’s largest packaged goods makers are getting very creative by rebranding existing products for expanding uses, then marked up substantially, and marketed in a way to trick consumers about some new blockbuster innovation. This is happening at a time when consumers are pulling back spending, and the goal of the new sales tactic is to drive more revenue with less. 

    Bloomberg’s Leslie Patton and Deena Shanker penned a note explaining how packaged goods giants are quickly adopting a new strategy after years of ‘shrinkflation’ – called ‘upflation’ – an attempt to create new applications with existing products. 

    What’s clear is that while the consumer in aggregate appears healthy, under the surface, low/mid-tier consumers are struggling and have entered an ultra-thrift phase. This means working poor consumers are pulling back on essential items that P&G, Unilever, and Edgewell sell. These companies have recorded declining sales volumes in recent quarters. 

    Source: Bloomberg

    In many cases, consumers are trading down products for more affordable private-label brands. Even more wealthy consumers are trading down high-end retailers for Walmart. Now, top brands are attempting to convince consumers to ditch private-label brands for their new innovative products. 

    Companies have pointed out that upflation is working, and these existing products with expanded use are performing much better than previous forecasts. 

    “P&G’s most recent earnings report highlighted an almost two-year trend where revenue growth came from people buying fewer things at higher prices. The consumer-goods giant did, however, post higher than expected sales in its grooming division, which it partly attributed to its total body shaving and intimate hair removal products. In an interview, the company said the total body deodorants are growing, too,” the journalists noted. 

    However, not everyone is convinced about upflation. 

    Maia James, who runs a product review site Gimme the Good Stuff, told Bloomberg, “Is this really something new or are they just marketing this as something different?”

    One example of upflation is grooming startup Manscaped, which describes its shavers like a toothbrush: “Everyone needs it, no one wants to share it.” 

    Another is all-over-body deodorants, who Aleta Simmons, a dermatologist in Nashville, said,  “I don’t think most people need them.” She added that anyone with severe body odor should seek a doctor. 

    With expanded use and new marketing, these all-over-body deodorants are sold for double the price by major brands. 

    Source: Bloomberg

    The emergence of upflation appears to be only a North American phenomenon at the moment. It comes as companies attempt to boost sliding sales.

    “I think a lot of people are craving simplicity,” said Kathryn Kellogg, who runs a lifestyle brand called Going Zero Waste. She said more consumers are shifting towards a low-consumption lifestyle. 

    And we wonder why…

    Andrea Wilkerson, vice president of P&G’s skin and personal care analytics and insights, said consumers are willing to pay for innovation. 

    The question remains whether upflation—or essentially just rebranding an existing item for new applications—is enough to spur consumer demand for top brands amid sliding sales. 

    A slew of companies have warned about a challenging macroeconomic backdrop, including General Mills Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Harmening last week, who said the current operating environment is becoming more complex.

    Godman told clients in recent weeks that it’s time to short the ‘middle-income consumer‘… 

    Earlier this year, “volume” cast a dark cloud over the annual Consumer Analyst Group of New York conference, where the major packaged food makers gathered to discuss industry trends. 

    According to General Mills CEO Harmening, ice cream isn’t just a dessert anymore—it’s a snack for between meals with Haagen-Dazs Bites. Food companies are also getting creative to take old products and excite consumers about new applications. 

    However, the outlook for upflation in the medium term remains uncertain, as consumers are grappling with elevated inflation, depleted personal savings, and insurmountable credit card debt. People will likely see through the upflation gimmick, opting instead to purchase cheaper private label brands and use them for multiple purposes.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/02/2024 – 18:40

  • Biden Admin Deliberately Flying Previously-Deported Illegal Aliens Back Into The US
    Biden Admin Deliberately Flying Previously-Deported Illegal Aliens Back Into The US

    Authored by Eric Lundrum via American Greatness,

    A new report claims that the Biden Administration has deliberately been flying illegal aliens into the United States after they had already been deported during the Trump Administration.

    According to the Washington Free Beacon, internal memos and interviews with staff at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) suggest that the Biden Administration has been running a secret program to fly previously-deported Cameroonians back into the country, after their asylum claims were previously denied.

    The Cameroonian program was initiated in response to a report by Human Rights Watch in February of 2022, complaining about roughly 80 to 90 Cameroonians who had been deported between 2019 and 2021, when Donald Trump was President.

    Despite their asylum claims all being rejected as invalid, many of them have since been transported back into the country in an unprecedented effort to purposefully bring more illegals onto American soil.

    “Gutting deportations isn’t enough for the Biden administration, so now they’re apparently bringing back previously deported illegal aliens,” said Jon Feere, a former ICE official and director of investigations at the Center for Immigration Studies.

    “These are people who have already had their cases closed, one way or another, and they’ve been returned home.”

    The agency memos reveal that ICE officials have been working with nonprofit organizations to locate the deported Cameroonians so they can be brought back to the U.S. One example includes an email correspondence from Fatma Marouf, director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Texas A&M University, who informed ICE officials of the impending arrival of one such illegal, who flew into Dulles Airport in Virginia, near Washington D.C

    “These individuals were deported by the order of a court after they were afforded all due process rights,” said Tom Blank, former chief of staff for ICE.

    “For DHS to arbitrarily reverse court orders to satisfy complaints from an activist group makes a joke out of the entire legal immigration process. It looks like outside activist groups now run the DHS immigration process instead of the courts.”

    These revelations further prove the extent to which the Biden Administration is willing to go in order to completely reverse the immigration policies of the Trump Administration. From his first day in office, Biden rescinded numerous immigration policies that secured the border, including a halt to construction of the border wall and ending Title 42 and the “Remain in Mexico” policy. Biden pledged on the campaign trail in 2020 that he would open the border and give free, taxpayer-funded benefits to illegals, including health care, housing, and education. New concerns have arisen over illegals being registered to vote shortly after arriving, which will most likely lead to an increase in voter fraud in key swing states in the upcoming presidential election.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/02/2024 – 18:20

  • Post-Roe V. Wade: Where Americans Stand On Abortion
    Post-Roe V. Wade: Where Americans Stand On Abortion

    Last week saw the second anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion that had been established by the original ruling in 1973.

    Having always been a controversial topic, the reversal of Roe v. Wade has reignited and intensified the debate around abortion in the United States, as it shifted the battleground to the state level, highlighting stark contrasts in public opinion across different regions.

    As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz shows in the map below, the abortion access map has been dramatically redrawn since the landmark decision was announced on June 24, 2022, creating a patchwork of different rules across the United States.

    Infographic: State-by-State Abortion Laws in the U.S. | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    While many view abortion as a fundamental issue of women’s rights and bodily autonomy, others consider it moral issue concerning the sanctity of life.

    This clash of seemingly irreconcilable values has made abortion a contentious and polarizing issue for decades but even more so in today’s political landscape.

    Statista’s Felix Richter highlights this division in the chart below, based on a June 2024 survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of The Economist.

    Infographic: Post-Roe v. Wade: Where Americans Stand on Abortion | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    While 59 percent of respondents think that abortion should be legal, either with or without restrictions on gestational age, 31 percent of respondents think it should only be legal in special circumstances, for example when the life of the mother is in danger.

    Another 10 percent even oppose such exceptions, saying that abortions should never be allowed.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/02/2024 – 18:00

  • What In The World Happened In 1971?
    What In The World Happened In 1971?

    Authored by Mike Maharrey via Money Metals,

    A colleague recently discovered a website called “WTF Happened in 1971?”

    The entire main page is filled with charts and graphs. All of them show some kind of significant shift beginning in 1971. There are over 75 of them!

    Here are just a few examples:

    Here is some more data from graphs on the website:

    • African-American incomes virtually stopped catching up to white incomes in 1971.
    • Median male income has flatlined compared to real GDP per capita since 1971.
    • The number of 2-income families has surged since 1971.
    • Price inflation has surged since 1971.
    • A can of Campbell’s tomato soup has undergone significant shrinkflation since 1971. 
    • Housing prices have skyrocketed since 1971.

    What in the World Happened in 1971?

    Clearly, something significant happened in 1971 causing a tremendous economic shift. 

    What was it?

    President Richard Nixon severed the dollar’s last connection with the gold standard, making it a purely free-floating fiat currency.

    Nixon ordered Treasury Secretary John Connally to uncouple gold from its fixed $35 price and suspended the ability of foreign banks to directly exchange dollars for gold. During a national television address, Nixon promised the action would be temporary to “defend the dollar against the speculators.”

    Nixon’s order was the end of a path off the gold standard that started during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration. June 5, 1933, marked the beginning of a slow death of the dollar when Congress enacted a joint resolution erasing the right of private creditors in the United States to demand payment in gold. The move was the culmination of other actions taken by Roosevelt that year, including his infamous “gold confiscation” order.

    While American citizens were legally prohibited from redeeming dollars for gold after Roosevelt’s policy changes, foreign governments maintained that privilege. In the 1960s, the Federal Reserve initiated an inflationary monetary policy to help monetize massive government spending for the Vietnam War and Pres. Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society.” With the dollar losing value due to these inflationary policies, foreign governments began to redeem dollars for gold.

    This is exactly how a gold standard is supposed to work. It puts limits on the amount the money supply can grow and constrains the government’s ability to spend. If the government “prints” too much money, other countries will begin to redeem the devaluing currency for gold. This is what was happening in the 1960s. As gold flowed out of the U.S. Treasury, concern grew that the country’s gold holdings could be completely depleted.

    Instead of insisting on fiscal and monetary discipline, Nixon simply severed the dollar from its last ties to gold, allowing the central bank to inflate the money supply without restraint.

    When he announced the closing of the gold window, Nixon said, “Let me lay to rest the bugaboo of what is called devaluation,” and promised, “Your dollar will be worth just as much as it is today.”

    This was clearly a lie. That’s what all the charts on WTF Happened in 1971 reveal. 

    According to the Consumer Price Index data released by the Bureau Labor of Statistics, the dollar has lost well over 80 percent of its value since Nixon’s fateful decision. Meanwhile, the dollar value of gold has gone from $35 an ounce to about $2,300.

    And it decimated the middle class, creating significant socio-economic shifts.

    You’ll only find one blurb of text on the WTF Happened in 1971 website. It’s a quote by economist F.A. Hayek.

    “I don’t believe we shall ever have a good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government, that is, we can’t take it violently out of the hands of government, all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something that they can’t stop.”

    Check out the work of the Sound Money Defense League to see what’s happening at the state level to do just that.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/02/2024 – 17:40

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Today’s News 2nd July 2024

  • Hungary's Orbán Announces New 'Patriots For Europe' Alliance With Austrian & Czech Nationalists
    Hungary’s Orbán Announces New ‘Patriots For Europe’ Alliance With Austrian & Czech Nationalists

    Authored by Dénes Albert via rmx.news,

    Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ), Czechia’s ANO, and Hungary’s Fidesz have formed a new right-wing coalition, the parties’ respective leaders announced at a joint press conference in Vienna on Sunday.

    Herbert Kickl (FPÖ), Andrej Babis (ANO) and Viktor Orbán (Fidesz) announce new right-wing coalition in Vienna. (Facebook)

    Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, and Austrian opposition leader Herbert Kickl said the new alliance would hopefully entice others to join and become the largest nationalist political group in the European Parliament.

    “Today we are creating a political formation that will ‘forge ahead’ and very quickly become the strongest grouping and largest faction of the European right,” Orbán said.

    The Hungarian prime minister expects this to happen within days, and then the “sky will be the limit.”

    Orbán pointed out that the situation in Europe is clear, that European politics must change and change is needed in Europe.

    He underlined that in 20 of the 27 EU member states, parties that promised change to the citizens won the European Parliament elections.

    The Hungarian leader revealed the parties had adopted the Patriots’ manifesto, which summarizes the ideals and goals around which they are organizing their work.

    According to Orbán, the European economy is in crisis, its weight is diminishing and the threat of terrorism and migration is constant. He warned of the ongoing war in Europe’s backyard that the European liberal elite had not been able to prevent from breaking out or from stopping.

    “Today is a historic day, as we will present the group of three parties and their representatives, which aims to bring about a political change in Europe at the inaugural session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on July 16. It will be an era of freedom, sovereignty, peace, prosperity, and values,” said Herbert Kickl.

    “We will not stand idly by and watch the emergence of a European superstate in which the parliaments of the member states degenerate into a kind of folklore, where sovereignty and the self-determination of individual states are empty phrases. We want a Europe that once again shows itself and develops with pride, values, traditions, and diversity,” said the FPÖ President. He added that “Europe does not want to be left to Macron, Von der Leyen or some left-wing experiment.”

    At the press conference, Andrej Babiš stressed that EU environmental policy should take more account of economic development in order not to jeopardize the competitiveness of the Community. Technically sound, economically viable, and socially just solutions must be found.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/02/2024 – 02:00

  • The Long Sordid Career Of Creepy Joe Biden
    The Long Sordid Career Of Creepy Joe Biden

    Authored by Donald Jeffries via substack,

    I get complaints from people that I concentrate too much on Donald Trump. Basically, the message is, “But what about Biden?” I do write more about Trump, because he’s the face of the perceived opposition. The only Emmanuel Goldstein in town. I assume everyone reading me understands just who and what Joe Biden is.

    But people might not remember quite everything about Joe Biden’s lengthy career as a beloved resident of the Washington, D.C. swamp that Trump promised to drain. Biden was first elected as a U.S. Senator from Delaware in 1973. Even I was very young then. In 1981, the great “liberal” senator strongly supported the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, passed in the wake of CIA whistleblower Philip Agee’s disclosures about the Agency is his best-selling book Inside the Company. Biden declared that “I do not think anybody has any doubt about Mr. Agee. We should lock him away in my opinion.” The good senator really liked locking people up, it seems. As a strong supporter of the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, he took credit for a draconian provision that mandated a five year sentence for possessing small amounts of crack cocaine.

    Little did Biden know that, decades later his own troubled son Hunter would be caught with enough crack cocaine to garner a long prison sentence under the original 1986 Act, which was softened a bit in 2010. With every ounce of “liberal” ardor that he could muster, Biden bragged at the time, “If you have a piece of crack cocaine no bigger than this quarter that I’m holding in my hand, one quarter of one dollar, we passed a law — with leadership of Sen. Thurmond and myself and others — a law that says: you’re caught with that, you go to jail for five years. You get no probation, you get nothing, other than five years in jail. Judge doesn’t have a choice.” Senator Biden also authored the horrendous 1994 crime bill which featured “three strike you’re out” and mandatory sentencing, significantly increasing the prison population.

    A JFK assassination researcher attended a Joe Biden seminar in 2005. He was able to briefly question Biden about the assassination. As recounted on a discussion forum, this was the short conversation: “Senator Biden, do you believe JFK was killed as a result of a conspiracy?” Answer:  “No.” “So do you believe that Lee Harvey Oswald, alone and unaided, killed President Kennedy?” Answer:  “Yes.” This is hardly surprising, of course, but reflects Biden’s ironclad establishment mindset. In 2019, the American Prospect published a piece headlined, “Joe Biden’s Love Affair With the CIA.” Biden was very helpful to Reagan’s CIA Director William Casey, who praised him in a classified early 1980s memo to his intelligence staff. Biden would state, in a speech at Stanford, that the intelligence community had been compromised by leaks.

    So Joe Biden was never one of the Democratic Party politicians I admired back in my misguided youth. He wasn’t going to expose the abuses of the intelligence agencies, like a Frank Church. He wasn’t interested in any “sunshine” laws that would make it easier for the People to be informed about their government. His concern then about “leaks” would evolve into concern over whistleblowers like Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. In a January, 2023 tweet, Snowden would comment on Biden’s classified documents scandal, accusing the Department of Justice of suppressing the story until after the election, and declared, “Worth noting that the President seems to have absconded with more classified documents than many whistleblowers.” Biden is on the record as saying that Snowden should “face the consequences of his actions.”

    Following Julian Assange’s release from exile last week, some assumed that the Biden administration had been responsible for it, given Biden’s recent statements that he was “considering” dropping the charges against the Wikileaks founder. However, the White House would issue a statement maintaining that they had not played a role in Assange’s plea deal. A deal which, incidentally, made the disappearance of all those troubling DNC emails a prerequisite for his release. So if you’re tempted to think that perhaps, after over fifty years of serving the interests of the corrupt Deep State, Joe Biden finally did something good, you’d be wrong. Why spoil a perfect record? Even Barack Obama commuted Bradley/Chelsea Manning’s sentence.

    So we get to the Joe Biden we’ve come to know and love.

    Apparently beset with relatively early dementia, he has bumbled, mumbled, and stumbled his way through an embarrassing series of verbal and physical gaffes. He has also avoided being held accountable for some pretty blatant criminality. As far back as when Hunter and his late brother Beau were little boys, Daddy Joe had a disturbing habit of “crashing” into vacant mansions that were on the market. They literally sometimes entered through unlocked windows. As a long time realtor, I can tell you that it’s pretty simple to make a call and schedule an appointment to see a property, especially a vacant one. It is unknown why the then United States Senator engaged in such bizarre behavior, but it speaks to some kind of odd personality flaw.

    Hunter wasn’t the only Biden offspring to become addicted to the drugs the young senator wanted to crack down on (pun intended). Biden’s daughter Ashley wrote openly about the “inappropriate” showers her father took with her when she was a young girl in her journal. This triggered an unfortunate promiscuity in her, as well as an addiction to illegal drugs. We only know about this journal, because Ashley left it behind at a drug rehab center, and the woman who found it sold it to Truth Veritas. Being as we are living in America 2.0, and not some vaunted “democracy,” the woman was prosecuted and served thirty days in jail. Joe Biden remains unscathed by what should be a very serious scandal. It’s not like he bounced his daughter on his knee, like Donald Trump and every other father has.

    Left free to his own devices, Creepy Joe resumed his long history of inappropriately touching little girls, much of it documented on videotape. Our beloved president has a rarely known perverse kink for sniffing their hair. Again, this is all clearly shown on film. If only the Washington Generals were an actual opposition party, they might want to use those damning film clips in their campaign ads. I don’t know what kind of evidence existed against any pedophiles who were given long prison sentences, but how much more incriminating can you get than an adult grabbing the undeveloped chests of minor girls, while their facial expressions register their discomfort? Sure, there is supposedly the filmed rape of a ten year old girl by Hunter Biden on his laptop, but that’s been sent down the memory hole along with those DNC emails.

    Men have been prosecuted and given lengthy prison sentences for less clear evidence of child abuse than what can be seen freely online, in numerous past instances, from our current president. Either this is the heinous crime most of us think it is, or it’s no big deal. So release all the pedophiles. Unless you have video of them actually raping children. Like the alleged rape of a child on Hunter Biden’s laptop. Or the still never seen videos of our glorious troops raping Iraqi boys while their mothers scream. Seymour Hersh claims to have seen them. Some pedophiles are more equal than others. Just keep repeating, “grab ‘em by the pussy” and click your heels three times. Creepy Joe’s rather sensual kissing of his own granddaughter was also notable. Maybe he forgot it was his granddaughter. Or he was hoping to shower with her.

    Biden was caught, again, on videotape, boasting about getting a Ukrainian prosecutor fired. Who was looking into his son’s (and his) financial improprieties in that wonderful democracy presided over by a former actor, who has a legendary proficiency for penis piano playing. That’s pretty damning evidence. But no, it was Donald Trump instead, who was impeached because of a “perfect” telephone conversation to the very same crisis actor/comedian Volodymyr Zelenskyy. For asking the astute pianist to look into any possible corruption by the Bidens. I think there’s an obvious message there. But that’s what happens when you play for the Washington Generals. It’s a Harlem Globetrotters thing, you wouldn’t understand.

    I have written many articles over the years for the American Free Press, detailing Hunter Biden’s financial shenanigans in Ukraine. They are intermingled with the “Big Guy,” the same timeless statesman who has sniffed more girlish hair than any other political leader in the history of the formerly free world. Hunter Biden’s emails reveal that the “Big Guy”- his loving father- always got a cut of the booty, no matter what. Just like court historian hero William Sherman, who always got a cut of all the personal property his Union troops stole from southern civilians. As my new book American Memory Hole will show, this theft is a grand American tradition going back at least to the Mexican-American War. The Bidens obviously know their history.

    Joe Biden, when he has been comprehensible, has said some remarkable things during his terrifying presidency. How many times has he claimed that “White Supremacy” represents “the greatest danger to democracy?” Now, keep in mind this is the corrupt elite’s definition of democracy, not any form of government the ancient Greeks would recognize. That speech he made, with the bright red backdrop and sinister lighting, was perhaps the worst speech any U.S. president has ever made, when factoring in the background. All that was missing was the hammer and sickle, or a Lenin-style goatee on Creepy Joe’s chin. The Stupid Party objected a bit to that speech, in their weak, customary manner, but it should have offended every American. If only the sane remaining among us were allowed to be offended in America 2.0.

    On occasion, Creepy Joe’s attention is distracted from the hair and undeveloped chests of little girls, onto adult women. Dr. Jill was an adult (I think) after all, when she started babysitting the Biden children. Maybe he loved her shampoo. But then there was Tara Reade. Reade accused then Senator Biden of doing something remarkably similar to what E. Jean Carroll would accuse Donald Trump of. Only Tara could recall the year it happened, unlike Carroll. And she has never been videotaped writhing around on the floor like a lunatic, unlike Carroll. I seriously doubt she has a dog named Tits or paints her trees blue, like Carroll does. Reade was ridiculed by the same state controlled press and feminists who believed Carroll. A ridiculous jury awarded Carroll millions of dollars. Reade fled to Russia for her own safety.

    Hollywood and the kept media make fun of Trump’s sons. There are inferences about Eric being “special.” Riding the short bus. Those distasteful remarks are just fine, as long as they’re made against the “right” people. They are free to joke all they want about young Barron Trump, for instance, regarding whether he’s on the autistic spectrum. You know, the spectrum that didn’t exist until about thirty years ago. You’ll lose your medical license if you suggest there’s a connection there to all the massive increases in vaccines doled out to our children. But no comedian jokes about Ashley Biden’s numerous brushes with the law. Or the unmentioned Biden, Creepy Joe’s brother Frank, who has a crime record the sainted George Floyd would have envied. The “Big Guy” has a niece, Caroline, who also has had several run-ins with the law.

    Have you heard anyone, including Fox News, Breitbart, or other conservative outlets, talk about the Biden crime family? Remember poor Billy Carter? He was ridiculed and considered a real embarrassment to the still living former peanut farmer. He never wracked up all the DUIs that Frank Biden has. But Billy Beer was pretty putrid, for those of you old enough to remember it. Even young Amy Carter and young Chelsea Clinton had their looks cruelly mocked by comedians. No comedian is about to mock Hunter Biden, famously photographed asleep with a crack pipe in his mouth, let alone Ashley Biden. Can you imagine what the hysterical shrews on The View would say if Ivanka Trump had written about inappropriate showers with her father?

    Now, all Biden’s greatest crimes appear to have been committed before he developed dementia, Alzheimer’s, or whatever it is that he has. I doubt if Hunter or anyone else is even giving him his ten percent cut nowadays. Over the course of his presidency, Biden has been caught on film uttering inanities that often sound alien in nature. Maybe it’s the Reptile in him coming out. How many times have we seen him wandering off, like a misguided toddler. He did this recently at an international gathering, and despite the fact that the president of Italy was captured on film grabbing him by the arm, and leading him back to safety, Biden’s ridiculous DEI press secretary insisted that the video had been altered. His doddering was termed a “cheap fake,” or “deep fake,” depending on the source. Who can argue with that?

    Joe Biden, in fact, has been so absurd in his role as president that many suggest he is a cheap or deep fake. Some say the real Biden died a while back, and has been replaced by a clone or robot. Boy, you’d think they could make a more realistic and competent clone or robot than that. It makes one cringe to watch him try to express himself. He reminds me very much of the Peter Sellers character in the film Being There. Although Biden is not known to have been mentally challenged during his life, and nothing he’s said as president could ever be mistaken for profundity, as was the case with the Sellers’ character. He is also prone to making his key points in a menacing whisper. No, his stutter isn’t a lifelong thing, as his old filmed speeches demonstrate. It is unknown at what age he began inappropriately touching little girls.

    Biden has issued more racist comments than Donald Trump could ever dream up. He has stated that those Blacks who don’t vote for him are not really Black. He called inner city schools “jungles.” He compared poor students to White students. Senator Joe Biden helped put untold numbers of nonviolent Black crack cocaine addicts in prison. He simply makes up stories about his past, depending on his audience. He obviously didn’t go to a historically Black college, as he told a Black audience. He wasn’t practically raised in a synagogue, as he bragged to a Jewish audience. At least the “Corn Pop was a bad dude” story was funny. Fictional, but funny. Funnier than the millions of illegals he has opened the border to, flown around the country, and deposited in five star hotels. While our own homeless citizens crap in the streets.

    Joe Biden’s “performance” in the presidential debate the other night exposed the serious problems he has with his faculties at this point. He was filmed after the debate, struggling, with the help of someone on each side, to navigate one step down off the stage. Dr. Jill, who is essentially his handler, was recorded congratulating him for “answering all the questions,” in the manner a mother would praise a preschooler for using the potty by himself. It is unclear if Joe Biden is potty trained now. Rumors persist that he has publicly pooped his pants, with the latest incident being at a Normandy commemoration ceremony. Those with TDS insist that Trump has done this as well, and wears adult diapers. Maybe neither of them is potty trained. No one can say that the American people aren’t offered the best and the brightest choices.

    Exactly what record would Joe Biden run on? The billions given to Ukraine? Anyone who buys gas or shops at a grocery store knows that inflation is now worse than it has ever been in our lives. And yet Creepy Joe just cites phony statistics to claim otherwise. His administration is peopled with politically correct, sideshow circus freaks. While there is no known sword swallower, there was the bald, red dressed high ranking official who kept stealing women’s luggage at airports. And then there is our health czar Rachel Levine, who I suppose somehow “identifies” as a healthy person. The other day, the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy gender fluids visited the White House. Vice presidential cackler Kamala Harris actually answered the door. You know George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would be proud.

    I don’t know what they’re planning to do with Biden.

    The day after the debate, he sounded suspiciously more lucid. He’s done that before. Dementia doesn’t usually work that way. Maybe presidential dementia is different.

    Perhaps we’ll get Gruesome Newsom. Or Hillary could stage a Brett Favre-like comeback. The sensational rumors about Michelle Obama actually being Big Mike, would cover all the DEI bases. It would represent a national “Woke” orgasm. They could have the “big reveal” in the Rose Garden. Or they could just opt to install Biden again. It’s not like he could be much less capable of the job than he’s been since his initial selection. He’ll have all the fawning press coverage he needs. His absurd persona will be off-limits to the late night comedians. No one better epitomizes the America 2.0 version of “democracy.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/01/2024 – 23:40

  • Cruise Ship Stocks Slide As Powerful Hurricane Beryl Churns In Caribbean
    Cruise Ship Stocks Slide As Powerful Hurricane Beryl Churns In Caribbean

    Shares of Carnival Corp, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian Cruise Line fell in New York on Monday after reports of a record-breaking hurricane sweeping through the Caribbean.

    Earlier, Hurricane Beryl made landfall on Carriacou Island, a Caribbean island part of Grenada. The powerful Category 4 storm was just seven mph below the threshold for becoming a Category 5 (157 mph) on the Saffir-Simpson scale. 

    “Residents in Grenada, the Grenadine Islands, and Carriacou Island should not leave their shelter as winds will rapidly increase within the eyewall of Beryl,” Brad Reinhart, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center, wrote in a note.

    Reinhart said, “Remain in place through the passage of these life-threatening conditions and do not venture out in the eye of the storm.”

    The Caribbean is heavily trafficked by cruise ships, resulting in traders selling Carnival Corp. (-5%), Royal Caribbean Cruises (-2.3%), and Norwegian Cruises (-6%). 

    According to Philip Klotzbach, a Colorado State University hurricane researcher, Beryl strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane Sunday morning. It became the first major hurricane east of the Lesser Antilles on record for June. The reason is due to the extremely warm water in the Atlantic Basin. 

    “Beryl is an extremely dangerous and rare hurricane for this time of year in this area,” hurricane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry told CBS News. 

    Looking ahead, Beryl has set its crosshairs for the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Belize, and Honduras. The storm could make landfall in Mexico or Belize on Friday. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/01/2024 – 23:20

  • Federal Government To Pause Student Loan Payments, Interest For 3 Million Borrowers
    Federal Government To Pause Student Loan Payments, Interest For 3 Million Borrowers

    Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times,

    In response to court rulings blocking key elements of the federal government’s new student loan repayment program, the Biden administration will be giving about 3 million borrowers a reprieve from their monthly payments.

    The 3 million borrowers eligible for the pause are enrolled in the income-driven repayment program dubbed SAVE and have a monthly payment that is more than zero, according to the U.S. Department of Education. About 4.5 million SAVE enrollees who qualify for zero-dollar payments because of low incomes will not be included in the pause.

    The payment pause is similar to the COVID-19 student loan relief that lasted for 3 1/2 years, from March 2020 through September 2023, during which borrowers didn’t have to pay monthly bills and interest didn’t accrue.

    Borrowers who are eligible for the new pause will be informed directly in the coming days, a spokesperson for the Education Department told The Epoch Times.

    The announcement was made days after a federal judge in Kansas, siding with attorneys general of three Republican-led states, blocked the implementation of the final segment of the SAVE plan but declined to unwind the portions of it that are already in place.

    The blocked segment is a calculation formula update scheduled to take effect on July 1. It would have allowed borrowers with undergraduate loans to have their monthly payments capped at 5 percent of their discretionary income, down from the current 10 percent limit.

    Borrowers with undergraduate and graduate school loans would also have seen a reduction in repayments, with the amount depending on the proportion of their graduate and undergraduate loan debt.

    A separate ruling by a federal court in Missouri put SAVE’s debt discharge provisions on hold while litigation challenging the program moves forward. The SAVE plan offered debt cancellations for those who originally took out $12,000 or less in loans and have made at least 10 years of monthly payments.

    Both of the judges presiding over the twin cases agreed that the SAVE plan, which uses the Higher Education Act to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in loan debt, goes beyond what the statute authorizes.

    In his opinion, Judge John Ross of the Eastern District of Missouri said Congress did not intend to make debt forgiveness under the law as economically far-reaching as President Biden’s program.

    “The court is not free to replace the language of the statute with unenacted legislative intent,” Judge Ross wrote.

    “Congress has made it clear under what circumstances loan forgiveness is permitted, and the [income-contingent repayment] plan is not one of those circumstances.”

    A Congressional Budget Office estimate said SAVE could cost $230 billion over the next decade, while researchers at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania placed the price tag at $475 billion over the same 10-year period.

    The pair of rulings prompted some Democrat lawmakers to urge the Education Department to place affected borrowers on forbearance, citing the confusion that could result from the injunctions.

    “This damning and harmful lawsuit will only throw struggling borrowers further into chaos, deny them the student debt cancellation they demand and deserve, and prevent them from purchasing homes, growing their families, and so much more,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said in a statement.

    “The Biden Administration must continue to take immediate action to ensure borrowers receive the student debt cancellation they were promised.”

    The federal government has promised a continued push for student loan forgiveness.

    “President Biden, Vice President [Kamala] Harris, and Secretary [Miguel] Cardona remain committed to fixing a broken student loan system and making college more affordable for more Americans,” an Education Department spokesperson said in a statement to The Epoch Times.

    “They will not stop vigorously defending the SAVE Plan, the most affordable repayment plan in history, and will continue to fight for this long-overdue relief.”

    Some 414,000 borrowers have had their federal student loan debts erased under SAVE, according to the department.

    The injunctions will not affect any forgiveness that has already been granted.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/01/2024 – 23:00

  • Tennessee Law Allowing Death Penalty For Pedophiles Goes Into Effect – Only Democrats Oppose It
    Tennessee Law Allowing Death Penalty For Pedophiles Goes Into Effect – Only Democrats Oppose It

    Tennessee has joined states like Florida, Arizona, Idaho, Oklahoma and South Carolina in making the death penalty a possibility for criminals convicted of child sex abuse. 

    The law went into effect this week with Governor Bill Lee’s approval and with the approval of all Republican legislators. 

    Strangely, only Democrats and progressive activists have opposed the decision.

    Democrats have a number of arguments against the death penalty for pedophiles, including claims that seeking the punishment is “more expensive” than keeping prisoners locked up, and claims that victims would be “traumatized” by multiple appeals “drudging up memories of assault.” 

    However, as Republicans note, it doesn’t matter what it costs, the punishment should fit the crime.  And, there is no reason why child victims need to be dragged back into appeals court to relive their trauma unless new evidence directly concerning the victim comes to light.

    In other words, these excuses don’t hold water.  All 19 Tennessee legislators who opposed the law are Democrats.  The consistent leftist opposition to stricter prosecution and punishment for child sex abuse is concerning as it leads to questions over what is truly motivating their resolve.  Blue states like California have been pushing for less punishment for similar crimes; Democrat lawmakers thwarted multiple attempts last year to increase penalties for child sex trafficking.

    Leftist activists have consistently asserted that the death penalty as a punishment for pedophiles is a threat to the LGBT community and the Trans community in particular.  But why?  

    Perhaps they are worried about the growing trend of trans indoctrination taking place against children in American public schools, largely supported by Democrat groups?  Often referred to as “grooming”, trans propaganda invariably wanders into the realm of sexualization and even pedophilia.  One cannot discuss LGBT activism with children without also broaching topics of fetish and sex.  This form of indoctrination is tailor made for luring minors into abusive environments where they can be taken advantage of.  The lesser the penalty, the more emboldened such predators will be.    

    The solution is an easy one to figure out:  Stay away from the kids and everything will be alright.  Unfortunately, Democrats refuse to get the message. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/01/2024 – 22:40

  • China Stops Reporting Renewable Energy Utilization Data
    China Stops Reporting Renewable Energy Utilization Data

    By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

    China didn’t include figures on utilization rates at power plants by source in its May monthly data series, following the previous month’s data that showed utilization at renewable energy generators had dropped, Reuters reported on Monday, citing China’s latest data release.

    In the data series through April 2024, China had given a breakdown of utilization rates at thermal, hydro, nuclear, solar, and wind power plants.

    The last such data has found that the average operating hours of wind and solar power generators fell, while utilization rates at hydropower and thermal coal-fired power plants increased, according to the January-April data.

    Now the latest data for January to May doesn’t give separate utilization rates at plants by power source, Reuters notes, adding that the publisher of the data series, China’s energy administration, didn’t give any explanation about what has prompted the change in the way the country reports power plant operations.

    Before May, China had a limit on curtailment of renewable energy at 5%, referring to the curtailment issue when excess clean energy has to be curtailed to balance the grid between supply and demand.

    But at the end of May, the Chinese authorities raised that limit of curtailment of renewable energy to 10% from 5%, a change that was bound to further lower utilization rates at renewable power plants.

    Analysts expect the higher limit on curtailment to lead to more renewable energy installations, but solar and wind plants operating at lower utilization, according to Reuters.

    Earlier this year, Fitch Ratings said that while China is set to reach its 2030 wind and solar capacity target of 1.2 terawatts (TW) six years early, this could bring challenges to utilization and the grid’s ability to maintain stable power supply.

    “Grid construction takes time and power storage capacity as a percentage of renewable capacity remains low,” Fitch said in a report in February.

    “This means that thermal power will play an important role in stabilising the power system in the transition period.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/01/2024 – 22:20

  • Democrats Hint At Assassination In Response To Supreme Court Immunity Decision
    Democrats Hint At Assassination In Response To Supreme Court Immunity Decision

    Nobody likes to lose but leftists take indignant defeat to a whole new level.  Though they claim to “defend democracy” in their spare time, Democrats also have a tendency to abandon the democratic process when that process interferes with their intentions to remain in power.  

    Case in point: The Supreme Court’s recent decision to give immunity from prosecution to Donald Trump in the case of “some official acts” taken during his tenure in office.  Leftists have responded with outrage at the 6-3 decision with much of their political hopes resting on the strategy of burying Trump in as many legal battles as possible to keep him from running for president again.  Democrats are now flooding social media and the news feeds with suggestions that the SC decision makes it possible for Joe Biden as president to eliminate the conservative competition “as a part of his official duties.”

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    The tools for legally punishing presidents already exist, including impeachment and charges of treason.  And, keep in mind, if Trump does not have immunity for previous actions as president, then neither does any other president.  How many skeletons are in the closets of men like Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama?

    Beyond this, assassination of a political opponent or the conservative members of the Supreme Court is not recognized as an official duty of the presidency.  Democrats, as usual, take their conclusions to the dramatic extreme in order to provoke public fear through emotionally energized disinformation.  Leftists have been fantasizing publicly about murdering Trump for some time now.  However, these “theories” on how Biden could respond to the Supreme Court are not simple hypotheticals for the sake of argument, there is an element of desperation and bloodlust. 

      

    What they are really upset about is the fact that Trump is free and clear to finish his election race against a mentally deficient Joe Biden.  They’re also terrified that Trump might return the favor and seek revenge if he goes back to the Oval Office.

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    Three out of the four criminal cases brought against Trump last year will now become irrelevant, likely preventing a trial in the federal election subversion case before November.  The fourth case, the hush money trial which led to his conviction this year, is considered the weakest of the efforts because it sought to turn misdemeanor charges into felony charges using an obscure statute.  

    It should be noted that Presidents already have immunity from civil liability while in office and must be impeached for a violation before lawsuits can proceed.  The Supreme Court has simply extended that immunity to cover criminal prosecution.

    Regardless of how you might feel about Donald Trump it’s clear that Democrats have been engaging in a strategy of “lawfare” – The weaponization of the courts as a means to destroy a political opponent instead of facing him head-on in the election arena.  The majority of charges made against Trump have been farcical at best, with little to no evidence to support the commission of an actual crime. 

    The SC is likely responding to this lawfare by limiting it to criminal cases outside of presidential acts, of which there are none.  Otherwise, the chicanery on the part of Democrats would cripple the presidency for years to come and every party and president from now on would have to engage in the same lawfare in order to compete.   

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/01/2024 – 22:00

  • House Republicans Sue Garland For Tapes Of Hur Interview With Biden
    House Republicans Sue Garland For Tapes Of Hur Interview With Biden

    Authored by Jackson Richman via The Epoch Times,

    House Republicans filed a lawsuit on July 1 against Attorney General Merrick Garland, seeking to force the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release the audiotapes of special counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Joe Biden in his classified documents probe.

    The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, also asks the court to require the DOJ to hand over the audio of Mr. Hur’s interview with President Biden’s ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, who wrote two memoirs for him.

    The legal action came after the House Republicans last month voted to hold Mr. Garland in contempt for failing to comply with a subpoena for tapes of Mr. Hur’s interview with the president. The White House has asserted executive privilege.

    The Justice Department declined to prosecute the attorney general, citing the department’s “longstanding position” not to pursue criminal action against those who refuse to comply with subpoenas over which executive privilege has been claimed.

    House Republicans sought material relating to Mr. Hur’s investigation into the president’s handling of classified material after the special counsel declined to recommend charges against President Biden.

    Mr. Hur’s report, in reaching its conclusion not to go forward with charges, cited an assessment that President Biden would present to a jury as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

    The Justice Department has handed over transcripts and notes on the interview and argues that it is not necessary to provide the tapes. Doing so would deter future presidents from cooperating with similar investigations, the DOJ said.

    House Republicans have insisted that they need the tapes to verify the transcript’s accuracy and to confirm that Mr. Hur’s observation was justified.

    The Justice Department and Democrats pushed back, contending that Republicans wanted the tapes solely for partisan reasons.

    “The absence of a legitimate need for the audio recordings lays bare your likely goal—to chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes,” Ed Siskel, President Biden’s counsel, wrote to House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in a May letter.

    In its 56-page suit, the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee contends that the Biden administration’s executive privilege claim is “frivolous.” The committee also argues that the president had waived privilege when it released a transcript of the interview to Congress.

    The Epoch Times has reached out to the Justice Department for Mr. Garland’s response to the lawsuit.

    Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) this past week said that she would force a vote on an obscure measure, known as an inherent contempt resolution, which would direct the House sergeant at arms to arrest Mr. Garland for failing to comply with the subpoena.

    The resolution is privileged, so the House will be forced to vote on it within two legislative days once she brings it to the floor. Ms. Luna had said she would bring it to the floor on June 28 but did not.

    The Epoch Times has reached out to Ms. Luna’s office to ask when she will put it on the floor and why she did not do so on June 28.

    According to Mr. Hur’s report, classified materials from 2009 about the war in Afghanistan were found at a Virginia home that President Biden rented and where he met with Mr. Zwonitzer to work on the two books.

    The classified documents were eventually sent to Delaware.

    The Epoch Times has reached out to Mr. Zwonitzer’s attorney, Louis Freeman, for comment.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/01/2024 – 21:40

  • These Were The Best And Worst Performing Assets Of June, Q2 And The First Half
    These Were The Best And Worst Performing Assets Of June, Q2 And The First Half

    Today was the start of the second half of the year, and Deutsche Bank’s thematic research team published its usual monthly performance review with this one covering June, Q2, and H1. We will go present the full version below, but first let’s take a look at some brief highlights (all USD) and additional comments:

    • It may surprise some that silver led the way (+22.5%) in the first half, with other metals like gold (+12.8%) and copper (+12.9%) also high up the list. WTI oil (+13.8%) ensured that hard commodities packed out the top end of the sample in H1.

    • The NASDAQ (+18.6% total return) and S&P 500 (+15.3%) had very good H1s powered by a +37.0% advance for the Mag-7 and a stunning +149.5% return for Nvidia. But the small-cap Russell 2000 only returned +1.7% in H1, and was down -3.3% in Q2.

    • French assets slumped in Q2 following the snap election announcement. For instance, the Franco-German 10yr spread widened by +29bps over Q2, the biggest quarterly jump since Q4 2011 during the sovereign debt crisis. OATs were the worst performer in H1 in this sample (-6.8% in USD terms). French spreads have tightened a handful of basis points this morning though, as the chance of an overall majority for Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National have been reduced (according to markets) by a slight under-performance vs. polls, and news that other candidates may drop out in areas where they can help keep the RN out. The slight under-performance for the RN might be skewed by record turnout in urban areas which are traditionally liberal bastions. Additionally, the probability of an RN government has slightly increased after yesterday which is contrary to the current market narrative.

    • As an interesting snippet on global inflation, agricultural commodities are continuing to fall back. Corn (-10.1%) was down for a 6th consecutive quarter in Q2, alongside declines for soybeans (-3.4%) and wheat (-1.2%). So potentially some relief on food prices ahead after a big increase over recent years.

    • The weakness in the Japanese Yen showed no sign of letting up, and it’s now been the worst-performing G10 currency in both Q1 and Q2.

    With the summary out of the way, here is a more extended look into the best and worst performing assets of the month, quarter and half.

    Quarter in Review – The high-level macro overview

    Markets got Q2 off to a pretty weak start. In April, there was growing concern about inflation, particularly after the US CPI report showed that core CPI was still running at +0.4% in March. That marked a third consecutive month when core CPI had been at +0.4%, raising fears that inflation was proving persistent. Moreover, geopolitical tensions were also heightened in the Middle East, and Iran launched a drone and missile attack on Israel on April 13, marking the first time there’d been a direct attack on Israel from Iran. Reports about a potential attack had already led to a selloff beforehand and on April 12, Brent crude oil prices peaked at their highs for the year above $92/bbl intraday. But as tensions eased and a further escalation didn’t occur, oil prices fell back again.

    In May, markets put in a stronger performance, and the S&P 500 and the STOXX 600 both climbed to new records. That was supported by comments from Fed Chair Powell, who said that “I think it’s unlikely that the next policy rate move will be a hike.” So that eased concerns that monetary policy could be tightened further. US inflation also showed signs of easing, with core CPI slowing to +0.3% in the April data that was released in May. Alongside that, the geopolitical situation became calmer, and Brent crude oil prices fell back in May, after gains in the first four months of the year.

    By June, rate cuts were increasingly in focus, and the ECB delivered their first rate cut since the pandemic, lowering their deposit rate by 25bps to 3.75%. The Bank of Canada also delivered their first rate cut of this cycle, meaning that 4 of the central banks with a G10 currency have now cut rates this year. Meanwhile in the US, the Fed didn’t cut rates in Q2, but the CPI release for May that was released in June showed the slowest monthly core CPI since August 2021. That helped to cement expectations that rate cuts were still on the horizon from the Federal Reserve, and at the June FOMC meeting, the median dot still pointed to one rate cut by the end of the year.

    But despite the growing move towards rate cuts, sovereign bonds still struggled over Q2 as a whole, in part because investors were pricing in a more gradual cycle of rate cuts. For instance, at the end of Q1, 67bps of cuts were priced in by the Fed’s December meeting. But that was down to 44bps by the end of Q2. So sovereign bonds struggled to get much momentum, and the 10yr Treasury yield was up +20bps over the quarter to 4.40%.

    Political developments were also back in focus from June, as the European Parliamentary elections took place at the start of the month. Significantly for markets, that then saw French President Macron announce that there would be a snap legislative election, with the first round taking place on June 30. That led to a notable selloff among French assets, and the Franco-German 10yr spread widened by +29bps in the week after the election announcement. That was the biggest weekly widening in the spread since the sovereign debt crisis in 2011. Moreover, the CAC 40 saw its worst weekly performance since March 2022. Over Q2 as a whole, the CAC 40 (-6.6%) saw its worst quarterly performance in two years, and the Franco-German 10yr spread widened by +29bps to 80bps. That is the biggest quarterly widening in the Franco-German 10yr spread since Q4 2011, when the Euro sovereign crisis was still ongoing.

    Another theme of the quarter was the ongoing divergence between megacap stocks and the rest. For example, the Magnificent 7 was up by another +16.9% in Q2, which helped the S&P 500 to post a third consecutive quarterly gain of +4.3%. But there was weakness elsewhere, as the equal-weighted S&P 500 fell by -2.6%, and the small-cap Russell 2000 was down -3.3%. Meanwhile in Europe, the STOXX 600 was only up +1.6%, and in Japan, the Nikkei was also down -1.9%, after a very strong +21.6% gain in Q1.

    Which assets saw the biggest gains in Q2?

    • The Magnificent 7 : It was a very strong quarter for the Magnificent 7, which rose +16.9% in total return terms. Nvidia (+36.7%) advanced for a 7th consecutive quarter.

    • Metals : It was generally a positive quarter for metals, with silver (+16.7%), platinum (+9.3%) and copper (+9.6%) all having their best performance in 6 quarters. Gold was also up +4.3% in its third consecutive quarterly gain.

    Which assets saw the biggest losses in Q2?

    • French assets : The announcement of a snap election by Emmanuel Macron led to a selloff for French assets. For example, the CAC 40 fell -6.6% in total return terms, while French OATs fell -2.6%.

    • European sovereign bonds : Even though the ECB cut rates in June, investors moved to price in a more gradual pace of rate cuts over the months ahead, and sovereign bonds lost ground, including German bunds (-0.7%) and Italian BTPs (-1.5%).

    • Japanese Yen : The Japanese Yen was the worst-performing G10 currency in Q2, which was the second consecutive quarter that’s happened. It weakened by -5.9% to 161 per US Dollar.

    • Agricultural Commodities : The prices of several agricultural commodities continued to decline in Q2. That included corn (-10.1%), which fell for a 6th consecutive quarter, along with soybeans (-3.4%) and wheat (-1.2%).

    Finally hereare the best and worst performing assets in local currency and USD terms, in June…

    … in Q2…

    … and in the first half.

    Source: DB, full note available to professional subscribers.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/01/2024 – 21:20

  • Even Nigeria Plans To Bring Gold Reserves Home To Minimize Risk
    Even Nigeria Plans To Bring Gold Reserves Home To Minimize Risk

    Authored by Mike Maharrey via Money Metals Exchange,

    Nigeria is bringing its gold reserves home to keep it safe.

    According to a report by The Star, Nigerian officials decided to repatriate the country’s gold in April “to mitigate risks associated with the weakening U.S. economy.”

    “Economic indicators such as rising inflation, escalating debt levels, and geopolitical tensions have raised apprehensions among Nigerian policymakers about the stability of the U.S. financial system.”

    Nigeria holds about 21 tons of gold in its reserves.

    Economist Fatima Abubakar called the gold repatriation plan “a strategic decision,” and that the country was taking “proactive measures to safeguard its wealth and strengthen its financial resilience.”

    Nigerian officials also said bringing gold home would reflect the country’s self-reliance.

    “By bringing its gold reserves back within its borders, Nigeria not only asserts greater control over its financial assets but also demonstrates prudence in managing economic risks amidst global uncertainties.”

    Nigeria isn’t alone in wanting to control its gold reserves and bring them home. India recently repatriated 100 tons of gold from vaults in the U.K.

    Many countries have expressed concern about the U.S. and Western powers using gold and dollar reserves as a foreign policy weapon.

    According to a World Gold Council survey in 2023, a “substantial share” of central banks expressed concern about potential sanctions after the U.S. and other Western countries froze almost half of Russia’s $650 billion gold and forex reserves in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. According to the WGC, 68 percent of the banks surveyed said they plan to keep their gold reserves within their country’s borders. That was up from 50 percent in 2020.

    One anonymously quoted central bank official told Reuters, “We did have it [gold] held in London… but now we’ve transferred it back to our country to hold as a safe haven asset and to keep it safe.”

    Invesco head of official institutions Rod Ringrow told Reuters this reflects a widely held view.

    “‘If it’s my gold then I want it in my country,’ has been the mantra we have seen in the last year or so.”

    There has been speculation that countries have been moving gold and other assets out of the U.S. in the wake of economic sanctions on Russia, but it has been difficult to confirm because the Federal Reserve refuses to release information about the amount of gold in its vaults.

    In March, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell dodged Rep. Alex Mooney’s (R-W.Va) questions about the central bank’s foreign gold holdings. Fed officials also refused to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request for records about such holdings.

    As investigative reporter Ken Silva wrote, Headline USA filed a FOIA request with the Fed for records reflecting how much gold the Federal Reserve Bank of New York currently holds in its vault, as well as records reflecting the ownership stake that each of FRBNY’s central bank/government clients have in that gold following Powell’s evasive response. The FOIA request also sought records about the Fed’s gold holdings prior to Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

    The Fed denied the request.

    The gold repatriation trend started long before the West slapped sanctions on Russia. In 2019, Poland brought home 100 tons of gold. Hungary and Romania also repatriated some of their gold reserves around that same time. In the summer of 2017, Germany completed a project returning roughly half of its gold reserves back inside its borders. In 2015, Australia launched efforts to bring half of its reserves home. The Netherlands and Belgium have also initiated repatriation programs.

    This gold repatriation trend underscores the importance of holding physical gold free from counterparty risk.

    If you store your gold and silver with a third party, you could lose your metal through theft, fraud, or an act of God. Of course, you could lose silver and gold stored in your home the same way (except for fraud), so you have to weigh the risk of using third-party storage and keeping large amounts of silver and gold at home.

    If you opt for third-party vaulting, it is important to choose a trusted company.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/01/2024 – 21:00

  • These Are The Countries Sending The Most Remittances Abroad
    These Are The Countries Sending The Most Remittances Abroad

    Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao charts the top 10 countries by the most remittances sent, in current U.S. dollars, based on 2022 data from Knomad.

    Specifically, these transfer totals shown represent personal remittances, or money sent between residents in one country to another, including personal transfers and compensation for work done abroad. It does not include, and is separate from, foreign investment.

    Top 10 Countries by Personal Remittances Sent (2000-2022)

    The U.S. has consistently been home to the world’s largest immigrant population (45 million people in 2022), a key reason for topping the ranks of sending money abroad over the last two decades.

    As a result, countries with largest diasporas in the U.S. – including Indian, the Philippines, and Mexico – tend to be the biggest recipients of these flows.

    Note: Figures rounded.

    Similarly, immigrants make up nearly 80% of the population in the UAE (ranked #2 with $80 billion sent), the highest proportion of any country in the world.

    Setting the countries sending the most money abroad side-by-side with those receiving money from abroad, reveals broad geographic patterns. Advanced economies (in North America and Europe) are the biggest senders to developing economies in Asia and Africa.

    Finally, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Luxembourg are considered offshore financial centers and can be used as intermediary stops in the movement of money through the world.

    Why are personal remittances important anyway? To start, a staggering one billion people (roughly one out of eight people in the world) depend on money sent back home. In 2022, 200 million migrant workers sent $800 billion to their families in home countries. Three-quarters of the money received is spent on basic necessities like food, medical, and housing expenses.

    Thus, personal remittances represent, perhaps, one of the biggest informal engines of social transformation.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/01/2024 – 20:40

  • US Energy Production Chalks Up Another Record
    US Energy Production Chalks Up Another Record

    Authored by Alex Kimani via OilPrice.com,

    • EIA: U.S. Energy production rose 4% to nearly 103 quadrillion British thermal units (quads) in 2023.

    • Dry natural gas production increased 4% in 2023 and 58% since 2013 while crude oil production has grown 9% since 2022 and 69% since 2013.

    • On the flip side, U.S. energy consumption fell 1% largely driven by a 17% decline in coal consumption.

    For decades, the United States has been a net consumer of energy, using up more energy than it produces. However, a sharp increase in oil and gas production following the shale boom as well as the ongoing renewable energy revolution has helped change the energy trajectory over the past 15 years. And now the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has reported that U.S. energy production exceeded consumption by record amounts in 2023. 

    According to the EIA, U.S. Energy production rose 4% to nearly 103 quadrillion British thermal units (quads) in 2023, a record for the country. On the other hand, energy consumption fell 1% to 94 quads during the same period, implying production exceeded consumption by 9 quads, the widest margin since 1949.  

    Dry natural gas production increased 4% in 2023 and 58% since 2013 while crude oil production has grown 9% since 2022 and 69% since 2013. Meanwhile, renewable energy production rose 1% compared to the previous year and a 28% increase since 2013, hitting eight quads of energy. Solar energy production recorded an impressive 15% Y/Y growth in 2023 while wind production fell 2%.

    On the flip side, U.S. energy consumption fell 1% largely driven by a 17% decline in coal consumption. Coal demand has been on a tailspin for years to its lowest level in more than a century thanks in large part to its shrinking role in electricity generation due to a high carbon footprint.

    “Natural gas production has continued to increase despite lower prices because natural gas is produced as a byproduct of crude oil production. That’s especially true in the Permian Basin, which accounts for almost half of U.S. crude oil production,” said Chris Higginbotham, an EIA spokesperson.

    Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration

    Oil Price Rally Resumes

    The oil price rally that had reversed course in recent weeks on demand concerns is now back on track. Brent crude price has increased to $86.60 per barrel at today’s close from $77.52 on June 4 while WTI has increased from $73.25 per barrel to $83.41 with oil demand exceeding expectations.

    According to commodity analysts at Standard Chartered, global oil demand in April averaged 101.77 million barrels per day (mb/d), 470 thousand barrels per day (kb/d) higher than earlier forecasts. StanChart has reiterated its forecast that oil demand will hit an all-time high in June, with May demand projection revised 0.2 mb/d higher to 103.3 mb/d while the June projection has been revised 0.3 mb/d higher to 104.1 mb/d. 

    Meanwhile, the big natural gas rally that kicked off in late April has now taken a breather. 

    European natural gas futures have been trading in a narrow range around €35 per megawatt-hour as traders weigh ample storage levels against supply concerns. The long run of sub-par EU gas inventory builds continues, with inventories having lost ground relative to the five-year average on 57 of the past 62 days. According to the latest Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) data, inventories stood at 85.25 billion cubic meters (bcm) on 16 June, a y/y decrease of 0.06 bcm and 12.93 bcm above the five-year average. The w/w build was 1.75 bcm, which is 1 bcm less than the five-year average. The move away from extreme surplus has combined with concerns over the viability of the remaining Russian flows into the EU to help support front-month Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) prices. Europe’s gas prices have settled in the EUR 33-36 per megawatt hour (MWh) range on 19 of the past 20 trading days. 

     U.S. natural gas futures fell below $2.61/MMBtu in Friday’s intraday session after the EIA’s storage build report. According to the report,  U.S. utilities injected 52 billion cubic feet of natural gas into storage last week, slightly below the expected 53 bcf build. U.S. gas inventories are now 20.6% above the seasonal norm. Natural gas prices are headed for a third consecutive week of declines due to increased output, as higher prices in recent weeks encouraged producers like EQT Corp. (NYSE:EQT) and Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:CHK) to resume drilling. Gas output in the Lower 48 states averaged 98.6 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in June, up from a 25-month low of 98.1 bcfd in May. On the demand side, hotter-than-normal weather is projected through at least July 12, maintaining high gas consumption for cooling purposes.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/01/2024 – 20:20

  • "The American People Should Dissent, I Dissent" – President Biden Blasts Supreme Court's "Dangerous Precedent"
    “The American People Should Dissent, I Dissent” – President Biden Blasts Supreme Court’s “Dangerous Precedent”

    Update (2000ET): Despite the Supreme Court’s direct ruling that “the President is not above the law”, President Biden delivered lying remarks to the American people this evening about the “terrible disservice to the people of this nation” that SCOTUS delivered today.

    President Biden directly attacked SCOTUS (and the ‘far-right’ justices that Trump appointed) for “gutting voting rights and civil rights, taking away a woman’s right to choose, and today’s decision that undermines the rule of law of this nation.”

    Then he lied some more, telling Americans that “my predecessor sent a violent mob to the US Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power…”

    Biden quoted directly from Justice Sotomayor’s dissent (which was remarkably political and perfectly bite-sized for today’s social media-consuming listener) where she said, “…with fear for our democracy, I dissent”, to which Biden added “so should the American people dissent, I dissent.”

    As Mollie further noted on X:

    “Biden was only able to speak for 3-4 minutes and refused questions from even his most reliably allies in the press, as per usual. He is apparently unwilling or unable to speak without the teleprompter.”

    This is what the leader of the free world has been reduced to…

    We strongly suggest putting down all sharp objects and emptying your mouth of food before watching…

    * * *

    The Supreme Court on Monday ruled in a 6-3 vote that former presidents, including Trump, enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct involving official acts during tenure in office, but he’s not immune from unofficial acts.

    As Bloomberg notes, the decision – which kicks the ball back to the lower court –  ‘all but ensures’ that a trial won’t happen in Trump’s classified documents case before the November election.

    The justices, voting 6-3 along ideological lines, said a federal appeals court was too categorical in rejecting Trump’s immunity arguments, ruling for the first time that former presidents are shielded from prosecution for some official acts taken while in office. The majority ordered the lower courts to revisit the case to decide the extent of the allegations that are off limits to prosecution.

    “Just as former presidents have immunity from civil liability for official acts, they have immunity from criminal prosecution unless they are impeached and removed from office for the crime alleged. This decision is supported by the writings of the framers of the Constitution, the text of the Constitution and Supreme Court precedent,” wrote X user Martin Harry.

    As constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley notes, now “the issue is whether what constitutes official acts,” adding that the ruling will “further delay the lower court proceedings, but Trump will have to argue that his actions fall within these navigational beacons.”

    “The lower court judge has been highly favorable for Jack Smith in the past.  Yet the court is arguing that there is a presumption of immunity for their official acts beyond the absolute immunity on core constitutional powers.”

    Meanwhile, Justice Thomas called into question the legality of Smith’s office:

    In a blistering dissent, Justice Sotomayor writes that the ruling “makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our constitution and system of government, that no man is above the law.”

    “Relying on little more than its own misguided wisdom… the court gives former President trump all the immunity he asked for and more.“

    Special counsel Jack Smith is leading two federal probes against Trump, both of which led to criminal charges. In Washington, Trump has been targeted over alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, while a Florida case revolves around the mishandling of classified documents – for which Trump has claimed presidential immunity.

    In response to the ruling, Trump said on Truth Social that it was a “”BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY.”

     

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/01/2024 – 20:20

  • DNC Weighs Early Nomination For Biden To Quash Internal Party Dissent
    DNC Weighs Early Nomination For Biden To Quash Internal Party Dissent

    Update (1615ET): Democrat strategists are throwing many things against walls and hoping some stick as the gaslighting continues.

    Bloomberg reports that the Democratic National Committee is considering formally nominating Joe Biden as early as mid-July to ensure that the president is on November ballots, while helping to stamp out intra-party chatter of replacing him after last week’s poor debate performance.

    Democrats had already planned to nominate Biden, 81, before the convention in order to ensure he appears on the ballot in Ohio, which had an Aug. 7 deadline for candidates to be certified.

    A potential date for Biden’s nomination is July 21, when the Democratic convention’s credentials committee meets virtually, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

    The panel is meeting to finalize procedures before the party’s convention in Chicago starts on Aug. 19.

    Interestingly, former President Trump’s sentencing hearing is set for July 11th, so he may well be in prison by then given the amount of pressure we assume is being placed on Judge Merchan’s shoulders to “lock him up”.

    Additionally, July 21 is just three days after Trump is scheduled to accept his party’s nomination at the Republican convention in Milwaukee.

    The desperate attempted message from all this narrative-shaping is simple – …nothing to see here, move along.

    Except we all saw the fireworks factory exploding with our own eyes.

    *  *  *

    At a Camp David gathering on Sunday, President Biden’s extended family urged him to ignore the growing number of voices asking him to quit the race — and many of his loved ones blamed his disastrous debate on his advisors. According to Politico, the two who most forcefully encouraged the 81-year-old Biden to continue were his wife Jill and his son Hunter — the two people whose opinion he reportedly values most.

    En route to Camp David from the Hamptons, Joe and Jill Biden exit Marine One on Saturday with granddaughters Natalie (19) and Finnegan (23)  

    The reports will strengthen a growing sense that Jill Biden is putting her own interests above that of her humiliated and failing husband. As one Democratic advisor told the New York Post over the weekend, “Jill Biden likes being First Lady…she doesn’t want to give that up.”

    Meanwhile, Hunter, who doesn’t exactly have strong reputation for sound judgment, is said to long for Americans to see a version of his father that — as paraphrased by the Times — is “scrappy and in command of the facts.” Much as he once was in denial about his drug problem, Hunter now seems incapable of admitting that that version of his father is gone forever: 

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

    Biden family members are said to have blamed the debate debacle on three advisors: Anita Dunn, her husband Bob Bauer — who played the role of Trump in practice sessions — and Biden’s former chief of staff Ron Klain, who was in charge of the debate training. Aides to Biden denied these reports from multiple outlets. 

    With Biden having spent a full week at Camp David gearing up for the debate, his family members and others are claiming the team worked the 81-year-old too hard, and tried to pack him full of too many statistics. They even fault advisors for a debate-night makeup job that transformed his summer-tanned face to one that was pale and unhealthy-looking. Relatives also blamed debate-host CNN for not “fact-checking” Donald Trump and not telling Biden which camera would be on him as he blankly stared a thousand miles into space with his mouth agape.   

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    John Morgan, a top donor and friend of Biden’s brother Frank, was not at the family meeting, but joined the delusional pile-up on Biden’s advisers, telling the Times that the week-long debate prep — which involved rehearsals at various times of the day — was excessive:

    “It would be like if you took a prizefighter who was going to have a title fight and put him in a sauna for 15 hours then said, ‘Go fight.’ I believe that the debate is solely on Ron Klain, Bob Bauer and Anita Dunn.”

    Unlike his family, the president is said to still hold confidence in the trio. Klain assured the Times that Biden will see the race through, saying, “He is the choice of the Democratic voters…We had a bad debate night. But you win campaigns by fighting — not quitting — in the face of adversity.” 

    Husband-and-wife Biden adviser team Anita Dunn and Bob Bauer (via ABC News)

    Of course, Biden is “the choice of Democratic voters” largely because the Democratic National Committee made sure he was the only choice available. A post-debate CBS News poll found that just 54% of registered Democrats think Biden should be in the race. The poll found 41% of Democrats think Biden lacks has the requisite mental and cognitive health. More importantly, 72% of all voters give him a failing grade on mental health.   

    The family gathering at Camp David was reportedly scheduled before the debate, with the expectation that it would be a celebration of his performance and an opportunity for the extended Biden family — including his children and grandchildren — to be photographed by famed celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. 

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

    In the wake of a historically-horrendous performance that’s prompted many liberal pundits and the New York Times and Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial boards to urge Biden to quit, the gathering morphed into a summit meeting in which Biden and his family discussed the future of his campaign.  

    In one of the more pathetic vignettes illustrating the Biden family’s failure to grasp the depth of Biden’s political woes, the Times reports that “at least one of the president’s grandchildren has expressed interest in getting more involved with the campaign, perhaps by talking with influencers on social media.” 

    That should do it! 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/01/2024 – 20:10

  • Americans Set To Travel In Record Numbers For July 4th
    Americans Set To Travel In Record Numbers For July 4th

    Fourth of July holiday travel is expected to reach a new record high in 2024, as more than 70 million Americans are forecast to hit the road or the skies to travel more than 50 miles for this year’s celebrations.

    That’s according to projections from AAA who are predicting that 60.6 million Americans will take to the nation’s roads, while 5.7 million will take a plane and 4.6 million will travel by train or other means for Independence Day.

    Infographic: Americans Set to Travel in Record Numbers for July 4th | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    As Statista’s Felix Richter notes, that represents an increase of 5 percent from last year and 8 percent from 2019, as low air fares and gas prices are fueling Americans’ appetite for travel.

    “With summer vacations in full swing and the flexibility of remote work, more Americans are taking extended trips around Independence Day,” Paula Twidale, Senior Vice President of AAA Travel said in a statement.

    “We anticipate this July 4th week will be the busiest ever with an additional 5.7 million people traveling compared to 2019.”

    All modes of transport are set to see a noticeable increase this year and road trips will continue to dominate Fourth of July travel.

    85 percent of travelers are expected to drive to their holiday destination as gas prices have eased from the historic highs of the past two years.

    Even though air travel is far less common for Independence Day celebrations, airports are expected to be busier than ever these days.

    In the weeks leading up to July 4, the TSA reported several new records for performed safety checks at U.S. airports.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/01/2024 – 20:00

  • The Modern Myth Of "Wage Slavery"
    The Modern Myth Of “Wage Slavery”

    Via SchiffGold.com,

    The idea of ‘wage slavery’ unfairly compares today’s suffering job market to historical chattel slavery, using outdated 19th-century arguments to criticize modern work. This oversimplification overlooks the significant improvements in workers’ freedom and their right to work.  Some will choose to work at a lower wage than accept a worse alternative.

    The following article was originally published by the Mises Institute. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold.

    Unless you work for a bank or the government, you may not have noticed that June 19th was a federal holiday – Juneteenth – commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.

    This is a perfectly good thing to celebrate, of course, but alas, as Connor O’Keeffe has recently noted, since the day was declared a federal holiday in 2021, it has largely been used by leftwing groups to push ever larger amounts of government intervention in favor of the Left’s favorite interest groups.

    For example, among the “property is theft” crowd, the end of chattel slavery is framed as merely a small part of the larger “ongoing struggle“ to abolish so-called “wage slavery.”

    The Origins of “Wage Slavery”

    The idea that wage earners are “slaves” of one sort or another is certainly not new. Consider, for example, this paragraph from communist Mikhail Bakunin, writing in the late 1860s:

    Slavery can change its form and its name—its basis remains the same. This basis is expressed by the words: being a slave is being forced to work for other people—as being a master is to live on the labour of other people. In ancient times, as to-day in Asia and Africa, slaves were simply called slaves. … to-day they are called “wage-earners”. The position of these latter is much more honourable and less hard than that of slaves, but they are none the less forced by hunger as well as by the political and social institutions, to maintain by very hard work the absolute or relative idleness of others. Consequently, they are slaves.

    When Bakunin wrote these words, however, the concept of the “wage slave” was already decades old. It is likely that the first anti-capitalists to use the term were conservatives, and not socialists like Bakunin.

    This was true in both Britain and in the United States.

    When it came to wage labor, many British conservatives aggressively opposed the rise of the industrial workforce, condemning factory work as a form of slavery and tying the industrialists to the supporters of chattel slavery in the West Indies and the American South where slavery remained legal. In efforts to make these comparisons stick, conservative critics of industrialization invented new terms like “wage slavery,” “factory slaves,” and “white slavery.” Much of the conservatives’ terminology and their arguments would later be adopted by socialists. These terms were valuable in that time period because at the time opposition to chattel slavery within the British public had enjoyed considerable success, culminating with the 1834 Slavery Abolition Act.

    In the antebellum United States, slave-owning conservatives used similar tactics in an effort to portray chattel slavery as a system that was more moral than free labor. Although advocates for slavery often fancied themselves the defenders of civilization against “socialists, communists, red republicans, [and] Jacobins“ they often agreed with Marxists and other socialists when it came to critiquing the capitalist wage system. While slavery advocates naturally rejected the supposed egalitarian aspects of various groups of socialists and communists, all could agree that capitalist employers exploited their workers and reduced them to a pitiable state of scratching out a subsistence while the employer pocketed all the surplus.

    On both sides of the Atlantic, conservatives argued—without any factual basis—that wages are repeatedly pushed down to subsistence levels by conspiracies among employers. The conservatives also often repeated the old canard that workers are never really free to leave their jobs because the choice workers face is between doing anything and everything employers demand on the one hand, and starvation on the other hand.

    Why Wage Slaves Don’t Exist

    The conservative ideologies of old, of course, are now politically irrelevant, and the modern threat to markets comes from the Left. In terms of theory, however, remarkably little has changed since the days of Bakunin, even if the standard of living of workers has obviously grown far beyond what nineteenth-century critics could possibly comprehend.

    At the core of the claim, whether made by slavedrivers or communists, is the idea that workers are “forced by hunger” to work ceaselessly without an opportunity to bid up wages.

    Or, as Mises summarizes the argument in Human Action:

    It has been asserted that a job-seeker must sell his labor at any price, however low, as he depends exclusively on his capacity to work and has no other source of income. He cannot wait [because he faces starvation if there is any delay in employment] and is forced to content himself with any reward the employers are kind enough to offer him. This inherent weakness makes it easy for the concerted action of the masters to lower wage rates. They can, if need be, wait longer, as their demand for labor is not so urgent as the worker’s demand for subsistence.

    Mises goes on to explain a variety of problems with this claim, including this:

    It has been shown that it is not true that the job-seekers cannot wait and are therefore under the necessity of accepting any wage rates, however low, offered to them by the employers. It is not true that every unemployed worker is faced with starvation; the workers too have reserves and can wait; the proof is that they really do wait. On the other hand waiting can be financially ruinous to the entrepreneurs and capitalists too. If they cannot employ their capital, they suffer losses. Thus all the disquisitions about an alleged “employers’ advantage” and “workers’ disadvantage” in bargaining are without substance.

    That latter point is certainly key. It is not the case that employers are able to casually “outwait” workers. Rather, there is great pressure on employers to employ their capital—which requires workers—quickly.

    When Mises notes that “it has not been shown” that workers will always take whatever wages are offered—this is not wishful thinking on Mises’s part. Were it true that employers could constantly force down wages, then we would not find that workers’ real wages have increased immensely since the eighteenth century. Economic historians have shown this again and again. The “immiseration of the workers” thesis is simply wrong.

    We can further demonstrate Mises’s claim with the fact that so many American workers choose to simply not work at all. Recent research estimates that as many as seven million men of prime age (i.e, 25-54 years old) have left the workforce altogether. How can they afford to live? While it’s true that some are on government benefits, the vast majority do not collect benefits in amounts that could even come close to rivaling the income that could be had from ordinary employment. Nor are such amounts sufficient to maintain even a lower-middle-class lifestyle. The fact is these potential workers chose to not work at all and instead primarily live off the incomes of parents, spouses and girlfriends. Yet, if all workers were on the edge of starvation and subsistence living, it would not be possible for them to also support do-nothing male housemates. The workers themselves would barely be making enough to feed themselves, and these male non-workers would be living in a constant state of near-starvation. This clearly is not the case.

    If it were impossible for workers to miss even a few days of employment, lest they face starvation, there would be virtually zero openings in minimum-wage jobs. Even casual observation, however, shows that the local burger joint often has open positions.

    Another reason the wage-slave argument fails is the fact that—assuming there is even a moderate amount of market competition among firms—employers are motivated to expand production so as to increase market share. Employers are thus incentivized to increase worker productivity. To increase productivity, workers then seek the best workers and “poach” them from other businesses. This process bids up wages.

    Historical experience points to many examples. In The Rise and Fall of American Growth, historian Robert Gordon writes:

    By 1914 [compared to 1906] the average nominal manufacturing wage had increased by 30 percent from seventeen cents per hour to twenty-two cents per hour, which translated to $2.04 per day. Consider the sensation created when Henry Ford announced early in 1914 that henceforth the base wage in his Highland Park factory would be $5 per day. His ulterior motive was to reduce labor turnover combined with a bit of altruism. Labor turnover was an endemic problem at the time, due in part to the reliance of manufacturing plants on immigration workers who were not yet married and planned to move on to another town whenever news came of better wages of working conditions. For instance, the superintendent of a mine in western Pennsylvania alleged that he had hired 5,000 workers in a single year to sustain his desired work force of 1,000. The fact that unskilled work in manufacturing plants required little or no training made it easy for immigrant workers who were dissatisfied with one type of work to quit and move to another town and try something different.

    Clearly, workers are not “forced” to remain with any particular employer or face starvation. Wage workers have options. Free labor—unlike slaves—is free to employ their freedom-to-leave in ways designed to reduce their reliance on any single source of income. Workers are free to start their own businesses—and many do. Although many point to the decline of “mom and pop” retail outlets as evidence of a lack of entrepreneurial activities, the fact is that self-employment in the service economy is very robust. There is no lack of small-time service-oriented businesses in industries ranging from accounting to auto repair to construction, and beyond.

    Moreover, workers are free to pool their resources to cope with rising costs of living. Workers are free to create communes or simply live in multi-generation households—thus reducing per-capita rent costs—as many of our ancestors did before the twentieth century. Actual slaves are not free to do any of these things.

    Another key point is an obvious moral distinction. The true reality of actual slavery is suggested by the fact that it has always been morally permissible for a chattel slave to kill his own master at any time. Given that chattel slavery is a form of kidnapping and false imprisonment, it is simply an act of self-defense when a slave responds with deadly force against his kidnappers. (Whether or not it is prudent to kill one’s master in a place where slavery is protected by law is another matter.)

    It should strike us as absurd, on the other hand, to claim that the owner of the local Taco Bell has “kidnapped” the workers who staff the drive-thru. Moreover, it is clear that countless workers who have worked in these minimum wage jobs at one time or another have moved on to other jobs with much, much higher wages. Are these former fast-food workers runaway slaves? Clearly not.

    Now, one might point out that we everywhere find a variety of laws and regulations that hamper the ability of workers to start their own businesses, reduce their cost of living, and otherwise assert independence from existing employers. In such cases, however, one cannot say that it is the market that has produced such handicaps for workers. Rather, it is the state that imposed these limitations on workers. If the realities of wage work under this interventionist system produce some sort of “slavery” at all, then we can only accurately describe the victims as something akin to “regime slaves” quite separate from any concept of wage slavery.

    And yet, the idea of the “wage slave” persists as the perennial refrain of the anti-capitalist.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/01/2024 – 19:40

  • Seattle Woman Charged After Trying To Bribe Juror With $120,000 Cash To "Inject Racism" For Non-Guilty Verdict
    Seattle Woman Charged After Trying To Bribe Juror With $120,000 Cash To “Inject Racism” For Non-Guilty Verdict

    A woman from Seattle has now officially been charged with trying to influence the outcome of a Federal trial by dropping off $120,000 in cash at the home of a juror. 

    31 year old Ladan Mohamed Ali left the cash along with instructions to convince others to acquit the defendants, according to a report from KOMO.

    KOMO reported that “the bribe also included a set of instructions to the juror to ‘inject racism into the case’ and to use the Feeding Our Future defendants’ status as immigrants to gain sympathy from other jurors.”

    Now, she, along with her co-conspirators Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, 35, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, 23, Said Shafii Farah, 42, and 24-year-old Abdulkarim Shafii Farah, will be defendants themselves.

    U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Andrew M. Luger commented: “These defendants engaged in a chilling attack on our justice system. They sought to buy a juror and use her to infiltrate the jury with their own false arguments – arguments that had nothing to do with the evidence or the law.”

    Prosecutors added: “As part of the scheme, the conspirators decided to target Juror 52 because she was the youngest juror and they believed her to be the only juror of color. The conspirators conducted online research to obtain Juror 52’s personal information, including her home address and information about her background and family members.” 

    “They conducted surveillance of Juror 52 to confirm her home address and obtain information about Juror 52’s daily habits,” they said.

    The indictment read: “Ladan Ali handed the gift bag to a relative of juror 52 and explained there would be more money if juror 52 voted to acquit the defendants.”

    “Fortunately for all of us, juror 52 could not be bought and she terminated their scheme. It is an obvious and blatant attempt to enflame the jury so they disregard their duty to render justice based on the evidence. Through this blueprint for acquittal, the defendants made it clear they wanted to infiltrate the jury not only with a bribe, but with a well-thought out plan to corrupt our system and undermine the rule of law.”

    On June 2, the night before closing arguments in the trial, Ali and Farah drove to a juror’s house with bribe money in gift bags, according to the indictment.

    The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota told KOMO News that Ladan Ali is not in custody and is expected to self-surrender for an initial federal court appearance later this week.

    ABC News reported that this trial was the first in the Feeding Our Future fraud case, where dozens are accused of misusing federal child nutrition funds during the COVID-19 pandemic to buy luxury items.

    The DOJ has charged 47 defendants in the $250-million fraud scheme involving misappropriated and laundered funds from the Federal Child Nutrition Program.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/01/2024 – 19:20

  • VDH: The Lies We Have Lived Through
    VDH: The Lies We Have Lived Through

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

    “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” 

    – Often attributed to Abraham Lincoln

    After last Thursday’s debate, Biden himself laid to rest the Democratic lie that he was robust and in control of his faculties. In truth, he demonstrated to the nation that he is a sad, failing octogenarian who could not perform any job in America other than apparently the easy task of President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief in charge of our nuclear codes.

    In 2019, Democratic primary candidates often hit rival Joe Biden for his apparent senior moments and incoherence.

    During the 2020 campaign, Biden often became in bizarre fashion animated and nasty (“you ain’t black”/“fat”/“lying dog-faced pony soldier”/“junkie”).

    His “corn pop” stories were grotesque and had a senile accentuation of his earlier “super-predator” and “clean” black riffs.

    As president, his mental decline progressed geometrically, in the sense that every three months, Biden became far, far worse than during the prior 90 days. His handlers long ago had determined that masking his feebleness at the expense of the security and safety of the nation was a small price to pay to retain power.

    What followed was the most comprehensive deceit in presidential history, analogous to insisting that frail and dying FDR in 1944 was just fine as the November election approached or that Woodrow Wilson was expertly running the country as he lay bedridden and near comatose.

    Any who questioned the vigorous Biden narrative was trashed as “ageist.”

    Special counsel Robert Hur was dubbed a “hack” for accurately describing Biden as so amnesiac he would win nullification acquittal from a sympathetic jury.

    An array of court sycophants periodically gave interviews, insisting that the robust Biden was smarter and wiser than ever. His press secretary, Karin Jean-Pierre, helped coin a new slur, “cheap fake,” for any who collated video and audio clips demonstrating that Biden was obviously non compos mentis. Would she say the same today after the about-face CNN panelists reviewed Biden’s serial debate lapses to support their now-opportune advocacy that he not run for reelection? Would she wish to be a passenger in a car driven by Biden?

    In sum, the “dynamic Biden” farce was finally laid to rest by a debate, but not before it had served the original leftist Faustian bargain. Under the guise of COVID, an enfeebled and stationary Biden outsourced his entire 2020 campaign to toady journalists and surrogate politicians.

    His task was to pose from his basement as the uniter, ‘good ol’ Joe from Scranton,’ serving as the pseudo-moderate veneer for the most far left agenda in recent history. In the bargain, Joe and Jill enjoyed the privileges of power and status, while they farmed out the presidency to an array of former Obama subordinates and the hard left of what is left of the old Democratic Party.

    The useful lie continued throughout his presidency, escalating in direct proportion to Joe’s mounting stumbles, brain freezes, rambling, and incomprehensible speech. When our president said something either outrageous or unfathomable, the public was to assume that it was intemperate to attribute his failures to senility.

    So, the nation became acculturated to deciphering about 60 percent of what he said and writing off the rest to his never-to-be-spoken-of disability. It was the cognitive bookend to the ruse that FDR was able to stand and walk—although far worse because being wheel-chair bound is not a limitation for a president, whereas cognitive incapacity of Biden’s magnitude most certainly is.

    The Biden lie was the crown jewel of a number of other left-wing/media fabrications. The more they spread, the more they seemed absurd, and the more they were refuted—so all the more others took their place and the more their promulgators never apologized but simply moved on to their next one. The common denominator was that all the lies, during their existence, were useful to the progressive project.

    The Russian collusion hoax helped lose Trump the 2016 popular vote. Its resumption during his presidency ate up 22 months of his administration during the Special Counsel Robert Mueller farce.

    The October surprise laptop disinformation lie may have cost Trump the 2020 election. But it was concocted so that Joe Biden could stare at the debate camera and swear to the American people that Trump was a liar, citing “51 intelligence authorities” who insisted Hunter Biden’s laptop was a likely hallmark of Russian disinformation.

    We were asked to believe that clever Russian disinformationists fabricated all the sick photos and selfies of poor Hunter, knew the Biden family’s intimate tensions and fault lines as evidenced in the computer’s texts and emails, and were able to package and deposit the computer to either a Russian operative masquerading as a computer repairment or have it delivered to the supposedly useful idiot. The truth was, the FBI had the laptop during the debate and had long verified its authenticity—and thus kept mum as its brethren intelligence apparatchiks lied to the nation.

    What the untruth did not fully reveal was that Biden’s campaign foreign policy guru, Anthony Blinken (the current Secretary of State), cooked up the entire ruse. He enlisted former CIA grandee Mike Morell, who then rounded up on spec the confessed lying duo of John Brennan and James Clapper, who in turn drafted still more deceivers, among them the once esteemed Leon Panetta.

    And the lie worked perfectly as envisioned, far better than even Russian “collusion.” The nation was deceived into believing that the “asset” Trump was reduced once again to colluding with Putin to enlist his former KGB soldiers to smear the upright Biden family and thus warp yet another election.

    Note that all these lies were never retracted. No one ever apologizes. No one is ever punished, even when the lie is given under oath. No one ever has any regrets. And no one ever has any hesitation to lie again, given the utility of the prior untruth.

    We were told by the deceitful Alejandro Mayorkas that the border was “secure” as he deliberately destroyed it and welcomed in over 10 million illegal aliens. That lie survived even the absurdity of years of nightly news clips (“cheap fakes?”) of thousands swarming an open border. And it died only when the 2024 election approached and the Biden administration read polls showing that a vast majority wanted the border closed and illegal entrants deported. Then suddenly, the lie that the border was secure transmogrified into the back-up lie that “Republicans would not help us close the now-insecure border.” Translated into Orwellian terms, the border that was crossed by 10 million was always secure but could have been made even more secure had Republicans joined Democrats to secure what was already “secure.”

    We live in an era of lies. Sometimes they are purely political, like the Charlottesville “both sides” yarn. And sometimes they change history, like the fabrications that bats and pangolins, not the communist Chinese Wuhan virology lab, birthed the COVID-19 virus, or the Anthony Fauci contortion that his offices did not fund and help out, stealthily and in circumvention of U.S. law, deadly gain-of-function virology research in communist China.

    Yet another lie was institutionalized: the January 6 riot was a full-fledged, carefully planned armed insurrection to overthrow the government. In contrast, the four months in 2020 of killing, assault, arson, and looting that saw over 35 dead, 1,500 injured law enforcement officers, $2 billion in damage, and a federal courthouse, a police precinct and a historic church torched were “cries of the heart” from the oppressed and victimized.

    Those untruths ensured that hundreds of mostly naïve protestors who showed up in the capitol soon became convicted felons serving long sentences, while the 14,000 arrested for the 2020 mayhem were mostly released as overzealous but otherwise sympathetic activists.

    These lies changed the course of the nation. They are birthed by the incestuous marriage of a Washington-New York political culture and a corrupt media.

    The purveyors are Juvenal’s “who will police the police.” They are the administrative overseers in the FBI, CIA, DOJ, and the various cabinets and agencies. They feel they are exempt from any consequences for the damage they do, given that in their day jobs they operate as judges, jury and executioners.

    Finally, while all governments lie, the left is far more adroit at it because, in their any-means-necessary/the-ends-justify-the-means credo, they spread supposedly good “lies” that stop the Hitlerian Trump, neuter the creepy deplorables/irredeemables/chumps/clingers or save the good people from the MAGA anti-vaxers and assorted yahoos.

    Will the lies continue?

    Indeed, they will thrive until the people slash the administrative state of its unaccountable and unelected “experts”; until they indict those in the future like Andrew McCabe, James Clapper, John Brennan and their brethren who lie under oath or to federal investigators; until they ostracize and utterly discredit those like Mayorkas, Fauci, and the Bidens whose deceptions took hostage an entire nation; and until they tune out a bankrupt media, the power cord of the entire Pravda enterprise.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/01/2024 – 19:00

  • Visualizing US Wealth By Generation
    Visualizing US Wealth By Generation

    In 2023, American Baby Boomers owned 52% of the country’s net wealth despite comprising only 20% of the population.

    Based on Federal Reserve data, this graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, illustrates the distribution of wealth in the United States from 1990 to 2023 by generation.

    Generations are defined by birth year:

    • Silent Generation (born before 1946)

    • Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964)

    • Gen Xers (born 1965-1980)

    • Millennials (born 1981-1996)

    Baby Boomers Own Over Half of the Wealth

    Baby Boomers are often considered one of the luckier generations in terms of timing.

    Most did not experience wars and benefited from strong economic growth driven by falling interest rates, a roaring stock market, global monetary expansion, and high earnings. Consequently, this group’s wealth grew from $4.5 trillion in 1990 to $76.2 trillion in 2023.

    Meanwhile, Gen X’s share of American wealth rose from 15% in 2013 to 26% in 2023. In contrast, with most of the cohort over 80 years old, the Silent Generation saw its share of the national wealth total drop from 79% in 1990 to 13% in 2024.

    Contrary to their ‘broke generation’ label, millennials have defied expectations. They saw their wealth reach historic highs after the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing more wealth by their 40s than previous generations. In a significant leap, millennials’ share of wealth in America increased from a modest 1.4% to a promising 9.2% between 1990 and 2023.

    If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out this graphic, which shows the retirement savings that Americans currently hold.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/01/2024 – 18:40

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Jul 01

Today’s News 1st July 2024

  • Keep An Eye On Ukraine's Military Buildup Along The Belarusian Border
    Keep An Eye On Ukraine’s Military Buildup Along The Belarusian Border

    Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,

    Belarusian and Russian media have been flooded with reports over the past few days about newfound tensions along the Ukrainian-Belarusian border caused by Ukraine’s alleged military buildup there:

    * “Drone flying from Ukraine deep into Belarus shot down by border service”

    * “Stash with improvised explosive device parts found at Belarusian-Ukrainian border”

    * “Belarusian army deploys MLRS Polonez squadron to cover sections of state border”

    * “Passages open to sabotage, reconnaissance forces in minefields on Ukraine side of Belarusian border”

    * “Defense Ministry on provocations at Ukraine border: Ready to use all forces to defend Belarus”

    * “Additional forces deployed to detect drones at Belarusian-Ukrainian border”

    * “Belarusian military warns of rising tensions on border with Ukraine”

    * “All kinds of measures taken to contain complicated situation at Belarus’ southern border”

    * “Belarusian air defenses register increased number of Ukrainian drones”

    These follow Belarus’ concerns over the past year since the start of Kiev’s ultimately failed counteroffensive that it might soon be directly attacked by Ukraine and/or NATO:

    * 25 May 2023: “NATO Might Consider Belarus To Be ‘Low-Hanging Fruit’ During Kiev’s Upcoming Counteroffensive”

    * 1 June 2023: “The Union State Expects That The NATO-Russian Proxy War Will Expand”

    * 14 June 2023: “Lukashenko Strongly Hinted That He Expects Belgorod-Like Proxy Incursions Against Belarus”

    * 14 December 2023: “Belarus Is Bracing For Belgorod-Like Terrorist Incursions From Poland”

    * 19 February 2024: “The Western-Backed Foreign-Based Belarusian Opposition Is Plotting Territorial Revisions”

    * 21 February 2024: “Is The West Plotting A False Flag Provocation In Poland To Blame On Russia & Belarus?”

    * 26 April 2024: “Analyzing Belarus’ Claim Of Recently Thwarting Drone Attacks From Lithuania”

    These aforementioned developments coincide with rising NATO-Russian tensions as the West intensifies their proxy war in Ukraine out of desperation to achieve some sort of strategic victory despite the odds:

    * 24 May: “The US Is Now More Openly Allowing Ukraine To Use Its Arms To Strike Inside Of Russia”

    * 26 May: “The US Is Playing A Dangerous Game Of Nuclear Chicken With Russia”

    * 30 May: “Putin Expects NATO, And Possibly Poland In Particular, To Escalate The Proxy War In Ukraine”

    * 31 May: “Is Ukraine Going Rogue Or Did It Attack Russia’s Early Warning Systems With American Approval?”

    * 11 June: “Kiev’s Plan To Store F-16s In NATO States Raises The Risk Of World War III”

    * 15 June: “The US’ Security Pact With Ukraine Is A Consolation For Not Approving Its NATO Membership”

    * 16 June: “Duda’s Call For ‘Decolonizing’ Russia Proved That Putin Was Right To Warn About This Plot”

    * 21 June: “More Air Defenses & Cross-Border Strikes Won’t Change The Ukrainian Conflict’s Dynamics”

    * 27 June: “The US’ Reported PMC Plan For Ukraine Amounts To A Partial Conventional Intervention”

    * 28 June: “The ‘EU Defense Line’ Is The Latest Euphemism For The New Iron Curtain”

    All the aforementioned insight will now be summarized for the reader’s convenience before analyzing the significance of Ukraine’s alleged military buildup along the Belarusian border.

    In brief, Russia has already won the “race of logistics”/“war of attrition” with NATO, being so far ahead that it’s now producing three times as many shells as that bloc at a quarter of the cost.

    Russia is therefore poised to achieve a military breakthrough across the front lines, which its fresh push into Ukraine’s Kharkov Region is expected to facilitate by stretching the defender’s forces even further. In that event, however, NATO might conventionally intervene in order to asymmetrically partition Ukraine.

    The reason why this escalation sequence is so dangerous is because Russia might fear that any large-scale NATO invasion force that potentially crosses the Dnieper could be preparing to attack its new regions. The NATO-Russian security dilemma is so serious right now as a result of the previously enumerated escalations that such intentions couldn’t confidently be ruled out if that happens. Russia might therefore resort to tactical nukes as a last resort out of self-defense, ergo its recent drills.

    President Putin would prefer for that dark scenario not to unfold, which his why he recently shared a generous ceasefire proposal in an attempt to avert it. Ukraine predictably refused to withdraw from the administrative borders of Russia’s new regions like he requested and is instead reportedly building up its forces along the Belarusian border in preparation of a possible offensive.

    While President Putin remains open to compromise, Zelensky clearly remains recalcitrant, likely due to fears about his political future.

    Ukraine’s potential Belarusian operation appears predicated on Kiev’s calculation that Russia might overreact in some way that prompts the conventional NATO intervention that Zelensky is hoping for or redirects troops from the existing front lines to this new one and thus creates an opening to exploit.

    The first could occur if it resorts to tactical nukes as a last resort in self-defense or launches another offensive from Belarus, the latter of which La Repubblica reported in early May would trigger a NATO intervention.

    As for the second dimension of Kiev’s risky calculation, policymakers might expect significant on-the-ground gains that could force Russia to prioritize this new front over the existing ones, thus relieving enormous pressure upon Ukraine. In that event, it could exploit whatever openings might emerge to go back on the offensive along the eastern and/or southern fronts, which could conveniently occur before the next NATO Summit from 9-11 July and thus provide a major boost to Western morale.

    This gamble could also fail and tremendously backfire on Ukraine, however, such as if Russia does indeed soon make a military breakthrough along the front lines and then steamrolls through the rest of its new regions precisely because Kiev misallocated so many of its forces to the Belarusian border. Furthermore, even though NATO might conventionally intervene in its support, Ukraine could lose a lot more land east of the Dnieper if the bloc stays on the western bank in order to manage its security dilemma with Russia.

    At the same time, it’s also possible that Western intelligence identified a serious weak point somewhere along the Belarusian border and told Ukraine to exploit it, in which case this gamble might at least partially pay off. It’s premature to predict its success or lack thereof either way, but in any case, observers would do well to keep a close eye on the Belarusian-Ukrainian border since Kiev’s military buildup appears to be something serious and not just a feint to “psyche-out” Russia.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/01/2024 – 02:00

  • The Hidden History Of Robert Mueller's Right-Wing Terror Factory, Part 1
    The Hidden History Of Robert Mueller’s Right-Wing Terror Factory, Part 1

    Authored by Ken Silva via Headline USA,

    In 2007, Orlando residents were furious to discover that an FBI informant had organized a neo-Nazi rally through one of the city’s mostly black neighborhoods a year earlier.

    “To come into a predominantly black community, which could have resulted in great harm to the black community? I would hate to be part of a game,” Orlando City Councilwoman Daisy Lynum said at the time, calling for a “full-scale investigation” into the matter.

    However, an FBI agent testified that his informant participated in the event, but didn’t organize it. The city’s uproar passed without a public investigation, full-scale or otherwise—until now.

    Thanks to a trove of previously unpublicized law enforcement records and interviews with several players involved, Headline USA can reveal that the Orlando neo-Nazi rally was indeed organized by the FBI. The Orlando event also seems to have been part of a larger program to hold Nazi rallies across the country. And according to FBI records, the bureau sponsored those events despite knowing they led to an increase in the number of card-carrying Nazis in America.

    Moreover, the FBI’s Nazi rallies led to a much larger operation to target right-wing groups. Dubbed “Primitive Affliction,” the operation featured a motorcycle front group, rogue undercover agents, Outlaw bikers, Satanists, bomb-makers and a fugitive on the lam in Mexico.

    To top it off, the FBI’s Nazi operation was briefed to the highest levels of the bureau, including to then-Director Robert Mueller, according to at least one record unearthed by this publication.

    Little has been written about Primitive Affliction outside of the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center—biased groups that trained agents in the case, according to the newly revealed records.

    But despite the lack of publicity, Primitive Affliction covers a crucial time in right-wing extremist history. It began where the FBI’s 1990s-era cases against the Aryan Nations trailed off, and it helped shape the neo-Nazi groups that would march at the 2017 deadly Charlottesville Unite the Right rally—an event that inspired Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential candidacy.

    Along with big-picture history, the records from Primitive Affliction reveal malfeasance by FBI agents and officers who today hold higher positions at the bureau.

    The FBI declined to comment. Mueller didn’t respond to an email about Primitive Affliction.

    Fabricating Fascists

    About a year after the 2006 Orlando neo-Nazi rally, the FBI source who organized the event, David Gletty, had his cover blown in open court. When the Orlando Sentinel reported that Gletty organized the march, his handler reportedly denied the accusation—saying that the informant marched, but didn’t lead the rally.

    But Gletty told this publication a different story. He said the FBI instructed him to organize the rally for two main purposes: to raise Gletty’s profile in the neo-Nazi movement, and to allow the FBI to conduct surveillance of the Nazis who attended the rally.

    In fact, Gletty told this publication the FBI was staging Nazi rallies across the country with the similar goals in mind: to raise the profiles of their own informants while building a database of Nazis to track.

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    “At the time, the FBI just before that was having me put on Nazi protests, and there were Nazi protests that were handled by the FBI, and operatives like myself,” he said.

    Gletty’s statement is a bold one, and shouldn’t be taken at face value. An undercover operative and private investigator, he said the FBI trained him to lie professionally.

    But in this case, Gletty’s allegation is borne out by the evidence.

    For starters, there’s the fact that the group that Gletty marched with in Orlando, the National Socialist Movement, or NSM, was founded in the 1970s by an FBI informant—a fact revealed by Headline USA last September. That FBI informant, Robert Brannen, was active during the bureau’s COINTELPRO era, and he chaired the NSM for nearly a decade.

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    Other former NSM members have also accused the FBI of staging the mid-2000s rallies. For instance, according to former NSM member and current prison inmate Bill White, the FBI sponsored the 2005 Toledo rally, which would be one of the most violent racial protests until 2017 Charlottesville.

    “In October 2005, FBI [confidential human source] Jeff Schoep asked me to go to Toledo, Ohio, to help organize a ‘March Against Black Crime’ by what were supposed to be ‘local residents,’ but were really federal CHSs,” White said in an October 2020 sworn declaration, referring to Schoep, who led the NSM from the 1990s until shortly after the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right rally.

    While there’s no smoking-gun evidence that Schoep was an FBI informant when he led the NSM, numerous other neo-Nazis have accused him of being one. There are also FBI records from the early 2000s showing he at least spoke to agents once, and perhaps the strongest evidence is that he now works openly as a “reformed Nazi” with groups sponsored by the DHS, FBI and other law enforcement organizations.

    Along with his accusations that Schoep was a fed, White also described the Toledo rally as being similar to what would happen in Charlottesville 12 years later—with the local cops and FBI allowing the neo-Nazis to clash with the left-wing counter-protestors.

    “On the day of the march, the Toledo Police and the FBI occupied [a nearby parking lot] and ordered myself and the NSM to use [another] parking lot. I and a small team from the NSM  arrived before the Communists to secure the location; no police were present at this time …,” White said.

    “About an hour later, police began to deploy, and, directed NSM members to enter [their parking lot] by driving through the mob. This started problems … After the police line formed, the mob then attacked the police, not us.”

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    A March 2006 FBI report about the Toledo rally largely matches White’s description of events—though it omitted the fact that law enforcement failed to keep the Nazis and counter-protestors separate.

    “Before the NSM could begin their march, local residents and counter-demonstrators began throwing rocks and bricks at vehicles, local residences and businesses. Toledo police responded by firing tear gas into the gathered counter-demonstrators and local residents. Toledo police advised the NSM to leave the area for their own protection and the NSM complied,” the report said.

    “Local residents and counter-demonstrators continued with the clash with the police, looting a store and setting fire to a local bar. This rally and riot, and the attendant media coverage for the NSM, was deemed a great success by the majority of the white supremacy movement,” the report added.

    “NSM reported increased fundraising and increased applications for membership immediately following these events,” the report concluded.

    That last sentence in the FBI report is particularly telling. It demonstrates that even if the FBI didn’t stage the Toledo event, it knew that neo-Nazi rallies increased the number of card-carrying Nazis in America—and it chose to stage one in Orlando via Gletty anyway.

    If all that evidence—Gletty and White’s statements, the evidence that Schoep was an informant, and the smoking-gun evidence that NSM was founded by an informant—weren’t enough, Headline USA also unearthed a document showing that yet another NSM Nazi rally was organized by an informant.

    That document, a 2006 FBI report, reveals that a November 2005 “rally against violence” in Kingston, New York was organized by the notorious white supremacist talk show host and former NSM affiliate Hal Turner (his name is redacted in the report, but his identity is corroborated by a separate ADL article).

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    The Kingston rally held by Turner—who outed himself as an informant in 2009 after he was charged with threatening public officials—was apparently uneventful. An ADL report from the event said it drew about 50 supporters and 100 counterprotestors. The low turnout may have been because Turner was already suspected in the neo-Nazi movement of being an informant due to his provocative calls for violence.

    “He has alienated some fellow racists in the past by making threats against them and because others consider him a liability for having urged violence against public figures,” the ADL’s 2005 article noted. “In fact, some white supremacists have said that they would only attend the event if Turner were not the one in charge.”

    Turner didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

    Setting the Stage

    In a vacuum, the FBI’s mid-2000s neo-Nazi events had little impact on national politics. However, as this series will show, they set the stage for an even larger, and arguably more sinister, FBI operation to target right-wing groups.

    Indeed, after Gletty staged the 2006 Orlando rally and had his cover blown nearly a year later, the FBI apparently decided to up the stakes by creating a neo-Nazi motorcycle FBI front group. That front group, the 1st SS Kavallerie Brigade Motorcycle Division—named after a horse-mounted unit of Nazi Germany’s Waffen-SS—will be the subject of the next article in this series.

    Also in the next article, Headline USA will reveal the document showing then-Director Mueller’s involvement in the operation, which was one of the first right-wing FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force operations in post-9/11 history.

    Stay tuned…

    Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 06/30/2024 – 23:55

  • DOJ To Offer Boeing "Sweetheart Plea Deal" For Criminal Fraud As Boeing Agrees To Buy Spirit Aero For $4.7BN
    DOJ To Offer Boeing “Sweetheart Plea Deal” For Criminal Fraud As Boeing Agrees To Buy Spirit Aero For $4.7BN

    Boeing has finally hit rock bottom.

    The US Department of Justice will charge Boeing with criminal fraud, Bloomberg reported, leaving the planemaker to choose between pleading guilty or taking the risk of going to trial, just as the company finalizes its acquisition of Spirit Aerosystems for $4.7 billion.

    Boeing has until the end of the week to decide whether to plead guilty to the charge, the department told the families of victims of two fatal 737 Max crashes and their attorneys in a meeting Sunday, Bloomberg reported citing “people who asked not to be named.”

    Yet contrary to speculation that the DOJ would seek a pound of flesh from the Chicago-based planemake, the department will only pursue a proverbial slap on the write as it informs Boeing it will have to pay an additional criminal fine of only $243.6 million on top of the $243.6 million already paid with a 2021 deferred-prosecution agreement, bringing the total amount of fine close to $500 million, or roughly the price of five of the giant paperweights better known as 737 MAX airplanes. The company will also have to hire a corporate monitor for three years, they said.

    Officials from the Justice Department’s fraud section and the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas attended the Sunday meeting, according to an email seen by Bloomberg. Paul Cassell, an attorney representing the crash victims’ families, called the offer the department plans to make to Boeing a “sweetheart plea deal.”

    “The deal will not acknowledge, in any way, that Boeing’s crime killed 346 people,” he said in an email. “The families will strenuously object to this plea deal.”

    The fine the department will seek falls far short of a nearly $25 billion fine the families requested — with the possibility of suspending $14 billion to $22 billion of that if Boeing devotes those funds to an independent corporate monitor and improvements to its safety programs. In fact, the total punishment is far less than the monetary damages slapped on Alex Jones, even though last time we checked nobody died as a result of Jones’ newscast.

    Sweetheart deal or not, a guilty plea to criminal charges would mark a low-point in Boeing’s century-long history and a stunning development for a company that was once renowned for its cautious, straight-laced culture which has since devolved into a DEI-driven, virtue signaling nightmare that has culminated with planes “designed by clowns…supervised by monkeys.”

    According to Bloomberg the plea deal “raises concerns over US government contracts for the company at a time when Boeing needs its defense division to counteract plunging revenue at its commercial airplane business.” Of course, that’s not even remotely true since the deep state is intimately involved in using taxpayer funds to pay off contractors such as Boeing for perpetuating the US war machine, while it collects its 10% commission in perpetuity.

    The meeting comes after the Justice Department determined the planemaker violated the 2021 deferred-prosecution agreement struck between Boeing and the government in the waning days of the Trump Administration. The deal allowed Boeing to avoid criminal prosecution as long as it met certain conditions. But in May, the department concluded the company had failed to meet a requirement to implement an effective compliance program to prevent and detect violations of US fraud laws. Boeing told the DOJ that it disagreed with the finding.

    At the same time, the planemaker is in the midst of a leadership shakeup as it searches for a new chief executive officer to take over for Dave Calhoun, who plans to step down from the role later this year but not before collecting a $33 million bonus for… it’s not exactly clear what.

    And just to make it even more difficult for outside observers to keep track of things, on Sunday, Boeing agreed to acquire Spirit AeroSystems for $4.7 billion, Reuters reported citing two people familiar with the matter said, ending months of talks over a deal the U.S. planemaker hopes will help ease a spiralling safety crisis (spoiler alert: it won’t).

    Boeing will pay $37.25 per share for Spirit Aero, in an all-stock deal, after the boards of Boeing and Spirit met on Sunday and agreed to terms, and an official announcement is likely early on Monday. The acquisition values Spirit at around $4.7 billion.

    The deal, which is subject to regulatory approvals, would result in the breakup of Spirit, with some of the Kansas-based supplier’s assets going to French planemaker Airbus.

    Boeing is trying to move past a year of difficulties sparked by a Jan. 5 mid-air blowout of a door plug on a new 737 MAX 9 jet that exposed myriad safety and quality problems. Those issues have led to a substantial slowdown in output at Boeing – rippling across the global commercial aviation industry.

    And because two wrongs can somehow make a plane that flies, Spirit – which was spun off from Boeing in 2005 in one of a series of moves that critics say were emblematic of a focus on cost-cutting over quality – is the manufacturer of the defective door plug. So instead of punshing it, Boeing is rewarding its supplier by acquiring it just to make sure its DEI-infused workforce can kill even more people.

    Boeing made the decision to buy back Spirit in the aftermath of the Jan. 5 incident, which took place on an Alaska Airlines-operated flight, as part of an effort to reform its safety problems and shore up its production line. Earlier, Boeing discussed paying $35.50 per share in cash for Spirit, but this was raised to $37.25 when the agreement shifted to stock. The terms of a parallel deal for Spirit to sell its Europe-focused operations to Airbus were not immediately clear.

    Buying Spirit Aero will not immediately resolve Boeing’s problems. Following the January door plug incident, the Federal Aviation Administration imposed a cap on production of Boeing’s best-selling MAX jets.

    And with faith in Boeing among the flying public at an all time low, the once iconic US company has been losing market share to Airbus for years, and it is still dealing with the aftermath of twin crashes that killed nearly 350 people and forced a grounding of the 737 MAX.

    Those crashes led to the appointment of current CEO Dave Calhoun, who was brought in to resolve the problems at the manufacturer, but who will leave later this year with the company under greater regulatory scrutiny and with a reputation that has taken a beating.

    U.S. senators on June 18 sharply criticized Calhoun for the planemaker’s safety issues and repeatedly questioned him about his salary. Some airlines have vented their frustration with Boeing publicly and privately due to delivery delays and the company’s ongoing issues.

    Boeing recently submitted a comprehensive plan to the FAA addressing “systemic quality-control issues” at the company. We just can’t wait to find out what percentage of its workforce will have to be women and minorities after the “quality control” overhaul.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 06/30/2024 – 23:20

  • Confidence In U.S. Universities Plunges To New Lows, As Young People, Women And Democrats Sour On Academia
    Confidence In U.S. Universities Plunges To New Lows, As Young People, Women And Democrats Sour On Academia

    Who could have guessed that after multiple Ivy League university presidents publicly humiliated themselves during congressional testimony – and then it broke that Harvard’s president, among others were likely involved in plagiarising key parts of their “academic” work – that confidence in U.S. universities has plunged to a new low?

    The data is according to two new national polls commissioned by FIRE and conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. Americans were asked “How much confidence, if any, do you have in U.S. colleges and universities?” 

    In FIRE’s May poll, 42% of Americans expressed “some” confidence in U.S. colleges and universities, similar to Gallup’s 40%. However, fewer Americans reported “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence (28% vs. 36% in Gallup), while more expressed “very little” or “none at all” (30% vs. 22% in Gallup).

    When compared to other institutions, confidence in higher education is on par with the U.S. Supreme Court (27%) and banks (26%). However, Americans have much higher confidence in small businesses (65%) and the military (60%), and much lower confidence in Congress (8%), television news (14%), and the criminal justice system (17%).

    Confidence in higher education varies by political affiliation. Over 40% of liberals and Democrats reported high confidence in colleges, a stark contrast to only 12% of conservatives, 12% of Republicans, and 28% of independents.

    Notably, significant drops in confidence are seen among young adults (18-34), Democrats, and women. Confidence among 18-34-year-olds fell from 42% to 22%, among Democrats from 59% to 42%, and among women from 39% to 29%. These declines suggest growing disillusionment in groups that previously held higher confidence in higher education.

    Confidence in colleges and universities has dropped sharply since last summer, with notable declines following encampment protests in April and May. In February, 31% of Americans had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in these institutions, which fell to 28% in May. The percentage reporting “very little” confidence remained at 30%, but those with “none at all” rose from 7% to 10%.

    Encampment protests, particularly those highlighting the war in Gaza, have coincided with these drops. Major subgroups, including liberals, Democrats, young adults (18-34), college graduates, Republicans, white Americans, and women, all showed reduced confidence since February. No subgroup in May reported a majority with high confidence.

    The protests and the responses to them likely influenced these declines. This erosion of trust mirrors broader skepticism towards science and perceptions of universities as politically biased and financially burdensome.

    And if you think these results are ugly, just wait until the public hears what’s being taught in economics courses…

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 06/30/2024 – 22:45

  • Autism Reversal In Twin Girls Through Lifestyle And Environmental Changes: New Study
    Autism Reversal In Twin Girls Through Lifestyle And Environmental Changes: New Study

    Authored by Emma Suttie, D.Ac, AP (emphasis ours),

    Findings from a recent case study show that personalized lifestyle and environmental changes successfully reversed autism symptoms in fraternal twin girls diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The study appeared in the Journal of Personalized Medicine.

    The study also reviewed existing literature on the impact of lifestyle and environmental modifications on ASD, supporting the findings with evidence from similar cases and studies.

    (Shavlovskiy/Shutterstock)

    The Study Details

    The case study involved 4-year-old dizygotic twins who were diagnosed with “level 3 severity” autism spectrum disorder, which the study describes as “requiring very substantial support.” The twins were diagnosed at approximately twenty months of age.

    Dizygotic twins, or fraternal twins, result from two separate eggs (ova) being fertilized by two separate sperm. These twins are genetically similar to typical siblings but can be as different from each other as siblings born at different times. They do not share the exact same genetic material and, therefore, can look different and have different characteristics.

    The case study shows that a non-drug, personalized approach by a team of multidisciplinary clinicians successfully reduced the number and severity of ASD symptoms using a variety of methods.

    Conception

    The twins were conceived through in vitro fertilization using an egg donor and carried by a surrogate. Their father was 51 years old at the time of conception. They were born two months premature and spent several weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit. The twins received routine vaccinations at three and six months, but no further vaccination until fourteen months. The girls were given acetaminophen before and after vaccination.

    Initial Symptoms

    The girls’ parents observed some initial symptoms. One twin had sensitivity to changes, eczema, and digestive issues, and the other had problems making eye contact, babbling communication, difficulty breastfeeding, and decreased muscle tone (hypotonia).

    Both twins received breast milk (from the surrogate and their biological mother) for twelve months and had no issues with eating or sleeping.

    At twelve months, the girls stopped drinking breast milk, and the introduction of cow’s milk caused digestive as well as behavior and language problems in both girls.

    In March of 2021, the girls received the series of vaccines that had been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After this round of vaccinations, their parents noticed a worsening of some symptoms, including “significant language loss” for one of the girls, who began communicating using only single words.

    ASD Diagnosis

    Due to the worsening symptoms, the twins were evaluated for autism spectrum disorder, and both subsequently met the criteria for DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition) autism spectrum disorder diagnosis.

    Lifestyle and Environmental Interventions

    After their diagnosis, the twins’ parents began a comprehensive, personalized approach to address their daughters’ condition. Their approach was holistic and non-pharmacological and considered a variety of potential environmental and biological factors influencing ASD.

    The interventions and support for both the twins and their parents began after the twins’ diagnosis at approximately twenty months of age and continued over the following two years. The following is a summary of their interventions and support:

    • The parents worked with a coach to help understand the twins’ diagnosis and gain confidence.
    • The parents learned about the “total allostatic load” concept, which links chronic stressors to disease, and used resources like webinars and forums through Epidemic Answers.
    • The parents completed the Child Health Inventory for Resilience and Prevention survey—“a comprehensive assessment of total allostatic load (cumulative effects of chronic stress on mental and physical health) among children.”
    • Made Dietary changes—They followed the Reduced Excitatory Inflammatory Diet, eliminating glutamate, gluten, casein, sugar, artificial colors, and processed foods, and focused on organic, fresh, home-cooked meals from local sources.
    • Incorporated dietary supplements—The girls took supplements that included omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, and homeopathic remedies.
    • Differentiated the twins’ needs—Genetic variants revealed that each twin had different needs, for example, one twin needed more vitamin D, while the other needed support for neuroinflammation and detoxification.
    • The twins received various therapies, including Applied Behavior Analysis, speech therapy, and occupational therapy focused on neuro-sensory motor reflex integration.
    • The family addressed toxins in their home, using an environmental consultant to evaluate air quality, moisture levels, and water damage.
    • One twin had osteopathic care on the recommendation of a developmental optometrist resulting in notable improvements in communication and overall disposition.

    Throughout the study, the children’s parents shared insights about their journey, “Conventional statistics have stacked the odds against the ability to recover a child from an ASD diagnosis. Our approach was therefore focused on following a nonconventional, holistic understanding of each daughter’s bio-individual needs, exploring root cause and designing customized support,” they said.

    “We chose practitioners who were aligned in our belief in our daughters’ intrinsic ability to heal given the right support.”

    Results

    Due primarily to the implementation of lifestyle and environmental changes over two years, the twins achieved a reversal of their diagnoses of level 3 autism spectrum disorder. Significant improvements were seen in their social interactions, communication skills, and behavioral patterns.

    There were also dramatic improvements in scores using the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist—a 77-question assessment tool used to evaluate the effectiveness of ASD treatment, with lower scores indicating improvement in symptoms.

    Both twins “improved dramatically,” with one going from a score of 76 to 36 in seven months, and the other from 43 to 4 over the same period.

    The study notes that the improvements were so profound the pediatrician exclaimed that one of the girls had undergone “a kind of miracle.”

    The combined interventions, along with the commitment of the children’s parents, led to a “dramatic improvement and reversal of ASD diagnoses” for the twins.

    Beth Lambert is founder and executive director of Epidemic Answers, a website made up of parents, clinicians, researchers, authors, and wellness experts dedicated to helping kids heal from health issues. She is also one of the study authors.

    Mrs. Lambert spoke with The Epoch Times and explained that there is hope for children with ASD and other conditions as well as resources for parents to support them through the process.

    “We’re doing research to try to gather evidence that many of these conditions are reversible. But also we’re trying to create a platform where we can give solutions to parents—we’re trying to educate them, and we have an online community [Healing Together] where we’re teaching them how to do this work themselves,” she said.

    Autism Prevalence

    According to the study, the prevalence of autism is growing with increasing speed. In the early 1990’s the number of children diagnosed with autism in the United States was 1 in 2000. Throughout the 1990s, the diagnostic criteria for autism were broadened to include a wider range of symptoms and behaviors. This expansion is reflected in updated editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

    For example, in the DSM-IV, published in 1994, the diagnostic criteria were expanded and broken into subtypes such as Asperger’s disorder, autistic disorder, and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified.

    There was a further expansion of the criteria in the DSM-5 released in 2013, which merged the previous subtypes into one unified diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, or ASD.

    These changes contributed to a significant increase in autism diagnoses in the subsequent years—however, some physicians believe that these factors alone are not enough to account for the dramatic rise in ASD diagnoses.

    According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, in 2000, 1 in 150 children had a diagnosis of ASD, but their most recent data state that in 2020, 1 in 36 children had a diagnosis of ASD, which represents more than a 300 percent increase in the last two decades.

    The study states that “Published projections estimate that even if the future prevalence of ASD remained unchanged over the next decade, there would be approximately 1 million new cases, thereby resulting in an additional $4 trillion of lifelong social costs in the United States. Furthermore, if the current rate of increase in prevalence continues, costs could reach nearly $15 trillion of lifelong costs by 2029.”

    Mrs. Lambert says, “Modern living is making our children sick, but it’s also making all of us sick—and our children are the canaries in the coal mine.”

    Final Thoughts

    The study findings suggest that environmental and lifestyle factors play a significant role in the manifestation of ASD symptoms and that targeted interventions in these areas can lead to substantial and lasting improvements—including a reversal of symptoms.

    The study authors note that the engagement of the parents or caregivers is vital to the process.

    “The commitment and leadership of well-informed parents or guardians is an essential component of the effective personalization that appears necessary for the feasibility of such improvements.”

    What the study clarifies is that treating ASD requires a personalized, multifaceted approach rather than a one-size-fits-all solution, as ASD diagnoses are as unique and complex as the individuals they affect.

    The twins’ parents agree, according to a section in the study containing their perspective.

    “Having fraternal twin daughters diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at 20 months has given us a profound appreciation of the highly individual presentation of Autism.”

    For families dealing with an ASD diagnosis, Mrs. Lambert says “You are not alone.”

    “I want people to know that there is support for them. We have a conference [Documenting Hope] so that we can invite parents in so that they can become part of our community. We can do this together, which is working to heal our kids together.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 06/30/2024 – 22:10

  • California To Help 1,700 First-Generation Homebuyers With Down Payments
    California To Help 1,700 First-Generation Homebuyers With Down Payments

    Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

    California will help 1,700 first-generation homebuyers with down payments in the second round of its Dream for All Shared Appreciation Loan program, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced June 28.

    The state program that debuted last year provides potential homebuyers with vouchers to pay up to 20 percent of a home’s value up to $150,000 to cover a down payment and closing costs. Eligible applicants need to be first-time homebuyers (haven’t owned a home in the last three years) and whose parents don’t currently own a home in the United States.

    “As part of the state’s comprehensive efforts to improve affordability, build generational wealth, and unlock access to housing, Dream for All is paving the way home for thousands of Californians,” Mr. Newsom said in a statement Friday.

    “This program is more than just financial assistance—it’s about providing a pathway for individuals to achieve their California dream.”

    The program allows low- to moderate-income families to apply for assistance.

    Due to the extremely high demand for the program, however, the California Housing Finance Agency uses a random selection process to ensure all applicants have an equal chance at receiving funding from the $255 million available for the second round of awards.

    A third-party audit is performed to certify that voucher recipients meet key program requirements, according to Mr. Newsom’s office.

    The housing finance agency plans to allocate funds across nine regions throughout the state—the Capital Region, Central Coast, Central Valley, Inland Empire, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, the San Francisco Bay Area, and rural areas.

    Those who receive assistance have 90 days to find a home.

    The state provides a portion of the down payment in exchange for a share in the property.

    If the recipient sells or refinances the home later, they will be required to repay the initial amount of assistance, plus up to 20 percent of any increase in the home’s value.

    Program proceeds will be used to fund the next round of homeowners, according to the governor’s office.

    When the program was launched on April 3, 2023, with the passage of a bill authored by Sen. President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, its $300 million budget was depleted within days.

    More than 2,400 first-time homebuyers qualified for the first round, according to Ms. Atkins.

    Only 2,200 families received first-round financing, the governor said Friday.

    The income limitation to qualify for the assistance is $159,000 for several counties throughout the state, including San Francisco, Santa Clara, and San Mateo.

    Los Angeles’s limit is $180,000. and Orange County has the highest income limit in Southern California at $230,000.

    The original legislation, written in 2021, proposed a $1 billion per year budget for the program for up to 10 years to assist an estimated 150,000 Californians.

    However, after some negotiations, the proposed amount dropped to $500 million in 2022 after the state faced a $25 billion budget deficit that year.

    Mr. Newsom again decreased the allocation to $300 million before the program debuted in 2023.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 06/30/2024 – 21:00

  • "Outrage": Philadelphia Airport Adds Hidden 3% Surcharge To All Vendor Items
    “Outrage”: Philadelphia Airport Adds Hidden 3% Surcharge To All Vendor Items

    With the idea of an unrealized gains tax being tossed around at the Federal level, and just when you thought we couldn’t possibly conjure up any more fees, taxes, surcharges or other burdensome cash grabs, the Philadelphia Airport is calling your bluff.

    The airport spurred “outrage” this week after it was revealed that they are adding a 3% surcharge to every purchase, according to View From The Wing. As if airports weren’t already adding 50% surcharge on everything they sell there to begin with…

    According to the report the surcharge is  “to offset the employee wages and benefits” that must be paid to airport workers, but none of the money actually goes to employees. 

    View From The Wing then asks the astute question: “You might ask, why allow vendors to charge people more than the marked prices, instead of just raising prices?”

    And you already know the answer, right? It’s because the airport doesn’t let them raise prices, stating that “operators are only permitted to charge up to 15% more than a comparable street-side unit”.

    Thus, the airport then pretends that a surcharge isn’t a price increase. And while we’re fuzzy on the innerworkings of the charge, it would seem to us that it puts another set of hands in between the customer and the vendor, so we’d be doubtful about vendors having access to all of the new cash they are bringing in. You’ll have to pardon our skepticism, but just remember, we’ve covered Wall Street for decades.

    Off-airport stores have increased prices due to 20% inflation over the past four years, and airport vendors have followed suit. With price caps based on a percentage over ‘street pricing,’ the dollar gap between outside and airport prices has grown, the report says. 

    Now as a result of the charge, menu prices appear lower than they are, with a $10 item actually costing $10.30, excluding tips. This 3% surcharge, not a service charge, is attributed to the high minimum wage at the airport, which is $15.06 plus benefits.

    Despite wages being a cost factor, not all airports have the same wage levels, with some, like St. Louis, paying more. Perhaps funds from paid water refill stations could cover these costs instead.

    Vendors must disclose the surcharge but only at the point-of-sale and on receipts, meaning customers learn of it after being charged. This likely leads to lower tips as customers try to keep their total bill as expected. The 3% surcharge diverts money from worker tips to concession owners, undermining the minimum wage increase benefits for workers.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 06/30/2024 – 20:25

  • Price Action Indicates Lack Of Any True Conviction Or Depth Of Liquidity
    Price Action Indicates Lack Of Any True Conviction Or Depth Of Liquidity

    By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

    Assume

    I think it was in the Bad News Bears, where I first saw that “Assume” can make an a** out of U and Me. I couldn’t get a good clip of that but did come across a scene from The Odd Couple where they went through the same dissection of the word (The Odd Couple, believe it or not, was before my time).

    I’ve chosen this word for today’s report as I think it is relevant on many fronts. I am also going back and trying to figure out how many things I “assume” that I should recheck. We will use presume as well, which seems like a less severe version of assume. Finally, we will discuss “mirroring” once again, as this could be very important in the coming weeks.

    Markets

    Last weekend we wrote about Fragility in a One Stock, Stock Market, and we followed up on Thursday with One Trick Pony. While much of the focus is on the difficulties and risks of interpreting broad market signals in a market that is led by a handful of stocks, we can probably rephrase it in terms of assumptions and presumptions. “Normally” we see X and can interpret Y. In some groups, there has been a lot of discussion of co-movement versus correlation. In this case, correlation is more persistent and there is an element of causation, as opposed to a few things that seem to move together from time to time. I’d lump Bitcoin and almost anything in this category, as somedays it seems very correlated to big tech, and others it beats completely to its own drum – a drum that is getting weaker, but more on that later this week.

    Then we can add “passive” to the mix. The large “passive” rebalancing in XLK is over, but in general, for the largest indices, every inflow and outflow is disproportionately (by historical standards) impacting a small percentage of the stocks in the index.

    For now, I’m sticking with the overall sentiment being one of “greedy, but less greedy than before.”

    Monday’s large sell-off in the Nasdaq 100 was completely reversed on Tuesday. The index moved higher Wednesday and Thursday, only to wind up fractionally down on the week, as stocks faded into the close on Friday. Maybe I’m alone in struggling with this price action, but it does seem indicative of a lack of any true conviction or depth of liquidity (in either direction).

    We “presumed” or concluded (or guessed) that the debate would highlight the deficit and the fact that neither candidate is particularly serious about getting it under control, let alone balancing the budget.

    In terms of being right for the wrong reasons, the 10-year Treasury yield closed at 4.4%, smack in the middle of our 4.3% to 4.5% range. But it had nothing to do with the debate (based on the trading during and after the debate). It had absolutely nothing to do with the economic data, as inflation data came in nicely (should have been priced in), and Michigan inflation expectations were surprisingly down (not priced in, but easily ignored). In any case, we were at 4.26% before the market rolled over.

    The Nasdaq 100 decided to follow Treasury prices and moved almost in lockstep with them. Whether there was causation or not remains to be seen. It was month-end and quarter-end, so that could have had an impact, though normally the “rebalancing” trades create both demand and supply for stocks/bonds. However, both were for sale. One “assumption” many use is that month-end is good for bonds, as index trackers “extend” duration into the close. That didn’t occur, again, making us wary of assumptions and rules of thumb. Adding to that, NVDA, which has been one of our main “tells” was higher for most of the day, before finishing the day lower.

    Do we bounce on Monday as we start the new quarter? Or has momentum lost enough steam that selling continues? Will asset managers slow their purchases or sell now that they have finalized what they show clients on their quarter-end statement? I remain focused on the 50-day moving averages for the broad indices, which would indicate more selling to come.

    Oil behaved differently. It traded strongly into the open, sold off with the economic data, and while finishing lower on the day, it had support into the close (unlike stocks or bonds). We will have more to come on oil as the best geopolitical risk trade.

    Elections and Debates

    European elections are nearing, and I’m leaning towards them causing some market hiccups in Europe. I’d avoid European risk here, and those elections could add pressure to U.S. markets.

    While we are non-partisan here at Academy, it is impossible to ignore the debate. While it didn’t seem to have any immediate market impact, it is difficult to know if it had any influence on markets over the course of the day (I’d like to claim I was right and the debate was why Treasuries sold off, but that is a stretch).

    There are two things that I think I can safely say about the debate:

    • Based on betting data, we saw President Biden’s odds decline, noticeably, but former President Trump’s odds increased marginally. Basically, the betters were taking chips off the Biden table, and spreading them around, not just throwing them all to Trump. I used RealClearPolling (the link seems ok, but I wouldn’t bother clicking it without a good VPN). It seemed comprehensive and in line with other reports I’ve seen. I do not know how easily manipulated the betting markets are (e.g., depth of liquidity). So, you can take this with a grain of salt, but I do think that we’ve seen a change in how people are thinking about the upcoming election.

    • We can now see why the media has been very careful to say “presumptive” nominee, as there was a lot of chatter, from sources I would consider pro-Biden, that some consideration should be given to rethinking the Democratic ticket (which seems supported by the betting odds).

    I don’t think this is what drove markets on Friday, as the day wore on, but I do think it is important from a geopolitical risk perspective.

    Assumptions and “Mirroring”

    We have discussed the concept of “mirroring” in many different reports. It is the “problem” that intelligence officers face when trying to extrapolate what an adversary might do. It is extremely difficult not to “mirror” your thoughts and perspectives when analyzing an adversary. It is one of the reasons why most military exercises have “red teams” – teams that play the role of opposition. Trying to gameplay things “properly” is important so that you are facing, in practice and simulation, the opponent that you will face on the battlefield.

    The concept of “mirroring” or making incorrect assumptions is likely part of why Academy, with our geopolitical insight, has not only been correct on our trajectory with China but was also predicting it well ahead of time. We cut through some of the “mirroring” issues many seem to face. It is certainly one element of our The Threat of Made By China 2025.

    But today, we are revisiting this concept, because it may prove important in understanding how our adversaries/competitors may take the debate.

    • China (Xi), Russia (Putin), Iran (Khamenei), and North Korea (Kim) are all autocrats. They are in charge. What they say goes. While they likely “understand” at some level, how our House of Representatives and Senate work and how the Supreme Court has influence, it may be difficult for them to comprehend that the president (with “Executive Powers”) doesn’t have the same freedom of action that they do. It seems like there is at least a potential that these actors (and some others across the globe) may view the criticism of Biden’s performance as something bigger than it is.
    • The U.S. media was (and is) completely domestically focused at the moment. U.S. media coverage always tends to be “parochial” (relatively small domestic events/human interest stories often take priority over potentially much more important events occurring globally). However, the U.S. media and social media are being dominated by the debate and the election.
      • To the extent any of these actors were planning on influencing U.S. elections, they probably already have some elements in place.
      • It seems plausible, that having watched the Ukraine funding debate and the relationship with Israel evolve since October 7th, any bad actor has potentially added some new influencing tools to their tool kit.

    A combination of misunderstanding how the U.S. works and overconfidence in their ability to win a misinformation campaign may give these bad actors the incentive to act sooner than later.

    In our recent Geopolitical Risks – Perception vs Reality we highlighted “wildcard risk.” The intensity and variety of geopolitical risks already seemed high (something we’ve mentioned in recent reports), and it seems that it is necessary to increase our estimate of geopolitical risk after Thursday.

    The concern is that some adversary, or competitor, will try to take advantage of what they perceive as an opportunity, with the president facing some new questions, even from supporters.

    The common denominators between these countries (and their likely actions) are commodities and trade.

    I want to own energy and commodity related assets now (the commodities, but also the stocks of companies in those industries). Since I’m worried about trade, in the event of some act, I’m leaning more towards energy than industrial commodities. I’ve been asked about gold and silver (and Bitcoin), but I don’t have a strong opinion (though, gold and silver would certainly seem to fit my geopolitical risk thesis).

    If you have time, re-reading The Game of Chicken in Today’s World seems like a good use of time, as all of the actors above are likely trying to figure out what, if anything, to do given the election news here and in Europe.

    Bottom Line

    Higher yields and less inverted curves. 4.3% to 4.5% is still our working range for 10s. The bias is now to break higher, but geopolitical risk, while not providing a “flight to safety” trade like it has done in the past, will support Treasuries (more at the front end).

    Lower stocks and the “catch-up” will only occur in a down market at this stage.

    With geopolitical risk rising, own commodities and commodity-related stocks (and bonds) with a bias towards energy.

    Apologies to anyone we may have offended regarding politics or the debate. We have tried to stick to the obvious things that have been happening since the debate. It would be easier to avoid discussing it at all, but since our adversaries and competitors are analyzing it, and it could influence their behavior in the coming weeks, we felt that it was important to go down this uncomfortable path. Given Academy’s expertise in Geopolitical Risk, and often being asked when and how to hedge it, it seems more timely than ever to put some trades on that will benefit from increased activity (while hoping, on a personal level, that nothing occurs, as we already have more than enough fighting happening in this world).

    In the meantime, we will continue to challenge our own assumptions and presumptions in this tricky market and world.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 06/30/2024 – 19:50

  • Retiring Wealthy Now Means More Than $3 Million In Many U.S. States
    Retiring Wealthy Now Means More Than $3 Million In Many U.S. States

    The cost of living in American cities has skyrocketed so much that retirees now need more than $3 million to be considered “wealthy” in them, according to a new study from GoBankingRates.

    In this study, a team of researchers first calculated the minimum savings needed to retire for 20, 25 and 30 years in America’s 50 largest cities.

    They analyzed each city’s annual cost of living and subtracted the annual Social Security income (as sourced from the Social Security Administration’s Monthly Statistical Snapshot as of May 2024).

    Then, to find the savings needed to be “rich”, the study took the minimum savings needed in each city and doubled those amounts. We ranked each city based on the smallest to largest amounts needed to be considered rich for 25 years of retirement.

    The study found:

    1. It takes more than $3,000,000 to be considered wealthy in 10 cities. The top three cities where you’ll need the most savings to be rich are all in California: San Francisco (~$6,000,000), San Jose (~$5.5M) and Oakland (~$4.5M).
    2. It takes significantly less savings to be wealthy in New York than it does in San Francisco. You’ll need roughly $3.8M to retire rich in New York, which is substantially less than the $5.95M needed in San Francisco.
    3. Austin is more expensive than many people realize. Austin was the 11th most expensive city on our list, ranking right next to Boston. In Austin, you’ll need more than $2.5M to be considered rich for 25 years of retirement.

    According to the data, the financial requirements for retirees looking to enjoy a rich lifestyle are particularly steep in cities such as San Francisco, San Jose, and New York City.

    For instance, in San Francisco, the savings needed for a 20-year retirement amount to a staggering $4,757,745. Extending this to a 25-year retirement pushes the savings requirement to $5,947,182, and for a 30-year retirement, retirees would need an eye-watering $7,143,762. The annual cost of living after Social Security in San Francisco is $118,944, reflecting the high cost of living in this iconic city.

    Similarly, San Jose demands equally substantial savings, with $4,422,401 needed for a 20-year retirement, rising to $6,640,241 for 30 years. The annual living cost post-Social Security here is $110,560, emphasizing the financial burden retirees face in the heart of Silicon Valley.

    New York City, another major metropolitan area, requires retirees to save $3,069,460 for 20 years of retirement, increasing to $4,608,798 for 30 years. The annual cost of living after factoring in Social Security stands at $76,736, making it one of the most expensive cities to retire in. This trend is mirrored in other high-cost cities like Los Angeles and Oakland, where retirees need upwards of $2.8 million and $3.6 million respectively for a 20-year retirement, and the costs only escalate with longer retirement periods.

    The study and data on all 50 states can be read in its entirety here. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 06/30/2024 – 19:15

  • California Has Seized Nearly 7 Million Fentanyl Pills Since January
    California Has Seized Nearly 7 Million Fentanyl Pills Since January

    Authored by Rudy Blalock via The Epoch Times,

    A California task force has seized nearly 7 million fentanyl pills since January thanks to efforts statewide and near ports of entry into the United States from Mexico, officials announced this week.

    The updated figures were issued in a June 26 press release from Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said the state will continue its crackdown on the drug.

    “We will continue to take fentanyl out of our neighborhoods, hold drug traffickers accountable, and expand access to life-saving medicine,” he said, referencing Narcan, an opiate blocker.

    In a May press release, Mr. Newsom announced that the same task force had assisted in the seizure of 5.8 million fentanyl pills since the start of the year.

    During a one week stretch in April more than 1 million pills and more than 500 pounds of methamphetamine were seized in San Diego County and at the border, according to the press release.

    Mr. Newsom increased the number of California National Guard officers near the state’s southern ports of entry last year by 50 percent to help stop drugs from being brought across the border, according to his office.

    The crackdown has resulted in over 62,000 pounds of fentanyl seized in 2023, 1,066 percent more than what was confiscated in 2021 and up 115 percent from 2022.

    A recently launched state website, opioids.ca.gov, also now offers a “one-stop-tool” for drug prevention, treatment resources, and updates on the state’s battle to hold pharmaceutical companies and drug traffickers accountable for the drug crisis, according to the governor’s most recent press release.

    Mr. Newsom also met with President Joe Biden in February to discuss border policy and immigration issues, and last October spoke with Chinese leader Xi Jinping about addressing the transnational shipping of precursor chemicals that are used to create fentanyl, according to the same announcement.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 06/30/2024 – 19:00

  • 'BI-DONE!' – Plane Trolls Biden's 'Joyless' Dud Of A Hamptons Mega-Donor Event
    ‘BI-DONE!’ – Plane Trolls Biden’s ‘Joyless’ Dud Of A Hamptons Mega-Donor Event

    In the wake of his historically disastrous presidential debate performance, President Biden set out to ease the worries of Democratic mega-donors gathered at a sprawling Hamptons oceanfront estate on Saturday afternoon.

    However, a powerful, competing message was in the air — literally — as an airplane flew by the event toting a sign with a message that concisely proclaimed that Biden’s 2024 re-election bid is already over: “BI-DONE!” According to the New York Post’s sources, the next-level aerial trolling was the work of an unnamed New York Republican donor.

    The truth is up there: This fly-by of Biden’s star-studded mega-donor event in the Hamptons sought to feed growing doubts (photo obtained by New York Post)

    The aerial rhetorical assault proved unnecessary — as donors who attended the event told the Wall Street Journal it was a “joyless” affair, and said Biden’s appearance only served to solidify their deep worries about his fitness. The event was tightly orchestrated, and Biden did his speaking with the aid of a teleprompter, reminding attendees of his inability to manage unscripted dialogue — even with a friendly audience. 

    The event was hosted by hedge fund billionaire Barry Rosenstein on his 18-acre beachfront property in East Hampton, NY. Rosenstein and his wife Lizanne set a then-US record for a home purchase price when they paid $137 million for the place in 2014. Attendees reportedly included celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick and Howard Stern, along with Michael J. Fox and his wife Tracy Pollan, all of whom paid upwards of $250,000 to see Biden’s hollowing husk in person. Loews Hotels CEO Jonathan Tisch attended too. 

    The aircraft flew a route that took it from Montauk to Sag Harbor via East Hampton. 

    Ahead of the event, anonymous mega-donors shaken by Biden’s Thursday-night disaster confided to the Post that they were gritting their teeth and following through on their planned attendance — which they’d already paid for. “We have no choice but to believe Biden will redeem himself. The alternative is so unthinkable,” said one of them. “I’m going and everyone I know is still going.” 

    Another longtime Democratic funder, who’d opted against attending, said the mood among the people who write the big checks is dark: “Everyone going [to the fundraiser] is extremely disappointed. Everyone paid in advance… so it could be an opportunity to encourage him to drop out.” The same donor pointed a finger of blame at Jill Biden: “Lots of people are blaming his wife … for not telling him [to step aside].”

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    Donors who spoke to the Journal said they’re waiting for the incoming round of post-debate polling results, anticipating that cratering support would greatly ease the challenge of ejecting Biden, who would be 86 years old if he defied all odds and managed to serve out a second term. 

    Meanwhile, as the editorial boards of major newspapers like the New York Times and Atlanta Journal-Constitution have begun urging Biden to quit the race, Democrats of a lesser station aren’t waiting for new polls before doing some urging of their own. These demonstrators, positioned alongside Biden’s motorcade route to Saturday’s Hamptons fundraiser, tried some gentle-but-firm messaging: 

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    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 06/30/2024 – 18:05

  • Iowa Utility Board Approves Eminent Domain For Controversial CO2 Pipeline
    Iowa Utility Board Approves Eminent Domain For Controversial CO2 Pipeline

    Authored by Beth Brelje via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    In a major project milestone, the Iowa Utility Board (IUB) this week approved a proposal by Summit Carbon Solutions to build the world’s largest carbon capture pipeline.

    Fourth-generation South Dakota farmer Ed Fishbach is leading the charge against a five-state carbon capture pipeline proposal by Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

    The total project spans five states: Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska. It will slice through 2,500 miles of land and connect with 57 ethanol plants, and affects thousands of private landowners, many of whom have fought against the project. The portion approved in Iowa is 680 miles, a Summit spokeswoman told The Epoch Times.

    Many landowners have said, in public hearings and official protest letters submitted to the IUB, that they object to allowing the company to have a right-of-way on their land.

    With this decision, 859 land parcels can be taken by the company through eminent domain.

    “After weighing numerous factors for and against Summit Carbon’s petition, the Board found that the service to be provided by Summit Carbon will promote the public convenience and necessity,” the IUB wrote in its decision. “The Board found Summit Carbon could be vested with the right of eminent domain.”

    Conditions of Approval

    It did put some conditions on the approval.

    Summit will be required to submit certain revised exhibits as compliance filings for IUB review before the board issues the construction permit. And Summit must obtain and maintain at least a $100 million insurance policy; comply with certain construction methods; and ensure that landowners and tenants are compensated for damages that may result during construction.

    Also, Summit needs approval in all the other states.

    “The momentum will continue as we prepare to file our South Dakota permit application in early July,” said Lee Blank, Summit CEO in a statement. “We look forward to engaging with the state throughout this process and are confident in a successful outcome.”

    The company reports that it has already signed easement agreements with 75 percent of Iowa landowners on the route.

    Landowners Protested Project

    Iowa land owners attend Iowa Utility Board hearing in Fort Dodge in August, 2023, on permitting of Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline project that would require easements on hundreds of private properties. (Courtesy of Jessica Mazour)

    Landowners have argued that the project is not for the public good, but instead, is an untested science that will only profit the company making use of the private lands.

    “There is a deep-rooted passion for our farm ground in many farmers, and to have something like this rip it apart for something so unnecessary is unimaginable,” said Austin Hayek, a Fort Dodge, Iowa, farmer whose land is to be affected if the project goes ahead. “Many have wanted to be able to allow their families to continue their legacy of farming as they want, and if this is allowed, it takes options off the table for them.”

    The project is encouraged with federal tax credits as an answer to climate change. It will capture carbon dioxide from ethanol plants, compress the captured CO2, and send it by pipeline to North Dakota where it will be permanently stored underground in deep geologic storage locations.

    “Doing so will drastically reduce the carbon footprint of ethanol production and enhance the long-term economic viability of the ethanol and agriculture industries,” Summit’s website explains.

    Large-scale carbon sequestration projects receive federal tax incentives like the federal Carbon Capture and Sequestration tax credit, also called the 45Q, which is worth up to $85 per ton of CO2 captured.

    Summit expects to store 16.7 million tons of CO2 per year. That amounts to $1.4 billion in tax incentives from taxpayers.

    Tax credits can be converted into cash. Companies that have more tax credits than they can use, sell them at a discount to other companies. This way, the seller makes a profit, and the company buying the credits gets a break on their taxes, paying less than face value for the credits.

    The decision came after the IUB reviewed nearly 4,200 written comments, 7,500 pages of hearing transcripts, testimony at hearings from more than 200 witnesses and landowners; and the IUB reported receiving some 50,000 pages of prefiled testimony and exhibits from hundreds of witnesses and landowners, accepting more than 150 intervenors into the docket, and conducting 33 public information meetings over 34 months. The IUB heard a range of viewpoints in these materials.

    The Sierra Club Iowa Chapter is one group that has partnered with landowners in opposition of the project.

    “This is far from over,” Sierra Club Iowa Chapter Conservation Coordinator Jess Mazour said in a statement. “We will appeal this decision and make our arguments in front of a fair decision maker.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 06/30/2024 – 17:30

  • Watch: Chinese Rocket Static-Fire Test Goes Horribly Wrong 
    Watch: Chinese Rocket Static-Fire Test Goes Horribly Wrong 

    Beijing Tianbing Technology Co., also known as Space Pioneer, suffered a catastrophic failure on Sunday during a static-fire test of the first stage of its Tianlong-3 launch vehicle at a testing facility in the Henan Province.

    “The first stage of its Tianlong-3 rocket under development had detached from its launch pad during a test due to structural failure and landed in a hilly area of the city of Gongyi in central China,” Reuters reported. 

    Space Pioneer’s two-stage Tianlong-3 (“Sky Dragon 3”) is a partly reusable rocket that is under development to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Tianlong-3 is comparable to SpaceX’s Falcon 9.

    Footage uploaded on X shows the Tianlong-3’s first stage detached from the test bench due to structural failure and soared into the sky, only to come back and crash down to Earth, igniting in a massive fireball about a mile away from the launch facility.  

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    “Space Pioneer was conducting its test as a buildup to an orbital launch of the Tianlong-3, which is benchmarked against the SpaceX Falcon 9, in the coming months,” according to Space News, adding, “The company announced earlier this month that it has secured $207 million in new funding.” 

    Meanwhile, SpaceX continues to dominate the industry with its reusable rockets.

    Data from BryceTech shows that Musk’s rocket company launched an impressive 525 spacecraft (mainly Starlink satellites) in the first quarter of 2024 – more than any other rocket company or nation.

    Musk is quite literally America’s rocket program: SpaceX launched about 429,125 kg of spacecraft upmass in the first quarter, significantly outpacing China’s rocket program (China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation), which launched a measly 29,426 kg. 

    It’s not just China struggling to compete with SpaceX’s reusable rockets (read: “SpaceX Leads Reusable Rocket Race, While China Continues Crashing Boosters To Earth”) . Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is also lagging behind. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 06/30/2024 – 16:55

  • Le Pen Is Mightier: Conservative National Rally Crushes Macron, Socialists In 1st Round Of French Election
    Le Pen Is Mightier: Conservative National Rally Crushes Macron, Socialists In 1st Round Of French Election

    As expected, Le Pen’s conservative (or in the world’s of the liberal media, “Far Right”) National Rally (RN) party won the first round of France’s parliamentary election on Sunday, exit polls showed, but the final result will depend on several days of horsetrading before next week’s run-off.

    The RN was seen winning around 34% of the vote, exit polls from Ipsos, Ifop, OpinionWay and Elabe showed. That was ahead of both far-left and centrist rivals, including President Emmanuel Macron’s Together alliance, whose bloc was seen winning a paltry 20.5%-23%, a far cry from his crushing victory several years ago. The New Popular Front (NFP), a hastily assembled left-wing coalition, was projected to win around 29% of the vote, the exit polls showed.

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    The exit polls were in line with opinion polls ahead of the election, but provided little clarity on whether the anti-immigrant, eurosceptic RN will be able to form a government to “cohabit” with the pro-EU Macron after next Sunday’s run-off.

    The RN’s chances of winning power next week will depend on the political dealmaking made by its rivals over the coming days. In the past, centre-right and centre-left parties have teamed up to keep the RN from power, but that dynamic, known as the “republican front,” is less certain than ever.

    If no candidate reaches 50% in the first round, the top two contenders automatically qualify for the second round, as well as all those with 12.5% of registered voters. In the run-off, whoever wins the most votes take the constituency.

    According to Reuters, the high turnout on Sunday suggests France is heading for a record number of three-way run-offs. These generally benefit the RN much more than two-way contests, experts say.

    Sure enough, the horsetrading began almost immediately on Sunday night. In a written statement to the press, Macron called on voters to rally behind candidates who are “clearly republican and democratic”, which, based on his recent declarations, would exclude candidates from the RN and from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party. The problem, of course, is that Macron’s party was crushed in the recent European parliamentary elections precisely because the people have had enough with “clearly republican and democratic” puppets of the World Economic Forum and want actual change.

    LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon said the second-placed NFP alliance will withdraw all its candidates who came third in the first round.”Our guideline is simple and clear: not a single more vote for the National Rally,” he said. It is, however, unlikely that many will care what the French socialists want: after all, last week the French socialist leftist alliance said it would raise the top marginal income tax rate to 90% if it were to take over the government.

    Meanwhile, Jordan Bardella, the 28-year-old RN party president, said he was ready to be prime minister – if his party wins an absolute majority. That’s right, a 28 year old kid may soon be a prime minister of the 2nd largest European economy. He has ruled out trying to form a minority government and neither Macron nor the NFP will form an alliance with him.

    “I will be a “cohabitation” Prime Minister, respectful of the constitution and of the office of President of the Republic, but uncompromising about the policies we will implement,” he said.

    While the RN is seen winning the most seats in the National Assembly, only one of the pollsters – Elabe – had the party winning an absolute majority of 289 seats in the run-off. Experts say that seat projections after first-round votes can be highly inaccurate, and especially so in this election.

    Voter participation was high compared with previous parliamentary elections, illustrating the political fervour Macron aroused with his stunning decision to call a parliamentary vote after the RN trounced his party in European Parliament elections earlier this month.

    His decision plunged France into political uncertainty, sent shockwaves around Europe and prompted a sell-off of French assets on financial markets.

    A longtime pariah, the RN is now closer to power than it has ever been. Le Pen has sought to clean up the image of a party known for racism and antisemitism, a tactic that has worked amid voter anger at Macron, the high cost of living and growing concerns over immigration.

    At 1500 GMT, turnout was nearly 60%, compared with 39.42% two years ago – the highest comparable turnout figures since the 1986 legislative vote, Ipsos France’s research director Mathieu Gallard said.

    In short, the people have had enough and they finally want to be heard.

     

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 06/30/2024 – 16:45

  • IRS, Treasury Announce New Crypto Tax Reporting Rule For Brokers
    IRS, Treasury Announce New Crypto Tax Reporting Rule For Brokers

    Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published a final rule on Friday that requires cryptocurrency brokers to report details of digital asset transactions to the tax agency.

    The Treasury Department in Washington on March 25, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

    “The final regulations announced today will require brokers to report gross proceeds on the sale of digital assets beginning in 2026 for all sales in 2025,” the Treasury said in a June 28 press release.

    “Brokers will be required to also report information on the tax basis for certain digital assets beginning in 2027 for sales in 2026.” Tax basis refers to the original purchase price of digital assets and is used to determine taxes owed following its sale.

    The new rule does not change tax requirements for taxpayers. It is only directed at brokers for reporting on crypto transactions.

    Normal taxpayers engaged in digital asset transactions have always owed taxes on the sale or exchange of digital assets. Earlier, they had to rely on expensive third-party services to calculate their gains or losses to pay taxes, the Treasury stated. But under the new rule, the brokers will send this information to taxpayers.

    “By implementing the law’s reporting requirements, these final regulations will help taxpayers more easily pay taxes owed under current law, while reducing tax evasion by wealthy investors,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy Aviva Aron-Dine in the press release.

    Various organizations had previously raised concerns about the rule when it was proposed last year. In comments submitted by Cboe Global Markets, the organization pointed out that while the rule requires “brokers” to file information returns and provide payee statements related to digital asset transactions done by customers, “we are concerned about the overly broad definition of broker.”

    The rule defined a broker as including certain digital asset trading platforms, payment processors, and hosted wallet providers.

    Cboe pointed out that the definition covers “entities that are not best positioned to provide information for tax reporting purposes.” And by requiring these entities to comply with the new reporting requirements, the rule creates complications, it said.

    For instance, “digital asset exchanges—like Cboe Digital—would have different and more onerous tax reporting obligations from those that exist for traditional securities exchanges.” The rule would also require exchanges “to report information that may be outright infeasible to provide.”

    Meanwhile, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce criticized the rule’s effective date which begins on Jan. 1, 2025. The chamber said the deadline does not provide enough time “for even the most sophisticated, well-resourced digital asset brokers” to develop and test systems required to implement the reporting rules.

    Boosting Tax Compliance

    IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel praised the reporting requirements, noting that the regulations were finalized after reviewing thousands of public comments. The final rule addresses concerns raised by the public, he said. The regulations will help close the “tax gap” related to digital assets.

    ‘These regulations are an important part of the larger effort on high-income individual tax compliance. We need to make sure digital assets are not used to hide taxable income, and these final regulations will improve detection of noncompliance in the high-risk space of digital assets,” Mr. Werfel stated.

    “Our work to address potential non-compliance in digital currency is another reason why it is so critical to fully fund IRS operations … These new assets expand the complexity of our tax system, and the technology and personnel necessary for the IRS to keep pace with these changes is resource intensive.”

    The IRS pointed out that the new regulations were not applicable to brokers who do not take possession of the digital assets being exchanged. These brokers are also called decentralized or non-custodial brokers. The IRS and the Treasury intend to provide rules for these brokers in the future.

    Meanwhile, current tax rules require Americans to report all cryptocurrency and digital asset incomes they made when filing taxes.

    The IRS has placed a question related to these transactions on tax forms. For tax year 2023, the question was: “At any time during 2023, did you: (a) receive (as a reward, award, or payment for property or services); or (b) sell, exchange, or otherwise dispose of a digital asset (or a financial interest in a digital asset)?”

    All taxpayers filing forms 1040, 1040-SR, 1040-NR, 1041, 1065, 1120, 1120 and 1120S must answer the question regardless of whether they conducted digital asset transactions or not.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 06/30/2024 – 16:20

  • Replace Biden With Gavin Newsom? Polls Show Democrats Would Still Lose
    Replace Biden With Gavin Newsom? Polls Show Democrats Would Still Lose

    Remember when it was “conspiracy theory” to question Joe Biden’s cognitive abilities? After Joe Biden’s dismal debate performance in Atlanta this week, the media-sphere is swirling with conjecture over a potential replacement for the doddering candidate.  The Biden team continues to insist that he won’t drop out of the race by the time the Democratic National Convention launches in Chicago this August.  That doesn’t mean the DNC won’t consider picking another candidate to run, though.

    Convention rules are not legal requirements, they are simply rules dictated by the DNC and by tradition.  Delegates that already voted for Biden are supposed to continue their support, but there are avenues by which they can change their minds and trigger an open nomination process on the convention floor.  It’s telling that far-left media outlets like Time Magazine and Politico are already war-gaming the possibility of Biden stepping down; that’s how poorly received his debate performance was.

    Following Thursday’s debate Johanna Maska, a Democratic consultant and former Barack Obama aide, posted a video on X urging her party to change its 2024 presidential candidate. She said: “We cannot do this, Democrats. Joe Biden can’t put a sentence together. We have to change our candidate, and we have so many good candidates who are sitting on the sidelines.”

    While some (like Maska) don’t like the idea, one name that is continually mentioned in this discourse is California Governor Gavin Newsom.  Many Democrats and some Republicans believe he would be the primary alternative if Biden is somehow removed from the running.  Their suspicions have merit – Last year Newsom was given ample attention by the establishment media and he did act as if he was running for president.     

    Newsom’s capacity for authoritarianism was made clear during his strict pandemic lockdowns, as was his hypocrisy when he was caught attending lavish parties while millions of other Californians were ordered to stay home and away from friends and family.  

    His one and only talent seems to be a capacity for twisting statistics to fit his false narratives; he has consistently misrepresented California’s increasing economic distress as “success” and downplayed growing homelessness and crime.  His advantage is that he’s able to do this with a completely straight face, and for those unfamiliar with such statistics and how they can be manipulated, Newsom appears knowledgeable and formidable. 

    Beyond that, he’s not very impressive as a candidate and the polls show this.

    A March Rasmussen Reports survey of 912 likely voters found that former President Trump would lead by 17 points (51 percent to 34) if Newsom were the 2024 Democratic nominee.

    In February 2024, an Emerson College Polling survey of 1,225 showed that Trump would win in a hypothetical White House race against Newsom by 10 points (46 percent to 36).

    A November 2023 Fox News poll of 1,001 registered voters found that Trump would win an election against Newsom by four points (49 percent to 45).

    Other candidates fare even worse.  Trump crushes Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (also a potential alternative to Biden) by 12 points in Emerson polls.  

    Kamala Harris loses by 6.6 points in Real Clear Politics polling.  Meanwhile, former first lady Michelle Obama also trailed behind Trump in a hypothetical matchup (50 to 43 percent) according to Rasmussen.

    Bottom line?  The Democrats might want to replace Biden, but they don’t have anyone that will win according to the current data.  A switch may occur simply as a way to avoid any irreparable disgrace to the party going into November, but it’s important to remember that Biden is simply a foil, a mouthpiece for a political ideology of socialist extremism that the majority of Americans now find dangerous and ugly.  Every candidate the Democrats put forward will espouse the same exact rhetoric and promote the same exact policies. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 06/30/2024 – 15:45

  • The Housing Tide Starts Turning: National Inventory Rose 4% In Q1 2024
    The Housing Tide Starts Turning: National Inventory Rose 4% In Q1 2024

    While the government may be able to fake BLS and CPI data to gloss over the fact that 5.5% rates have already likely driven the nation into a deep recession, independent data on the housing market is showing a decades-long shortage in inventory starting to rebound. 

    A new report from Construction Coverage has revealed where the largest increases in real estate inventory in the U.S. are taking place.

    The report notes that the current housing shortage—which is now estimated to be between four million and seven million homes—can trace its beginnings to long before the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 10 years following the Great Recession, the United States constructed fewer new homes than in any other decade since the 1960s.

    They write that the lack of housing affects certain areas more severely than others. Researchers ranked locations based on the percentage change in the average monthly housing inventory—the total number of active listings plus pending sales at the end of the month—between Q1 2023 and Q1 2024.

    Data from a national level showed that U.S. housing inventory decreased from more than two million in 2012 to a low of approximately 630,000 at the start of 2022.

    Over the same period, months’ supply—a measure of how long it would take existing inventory to sell if no new homes came on the market—plummeted from a national high of 7.5 months to a historic low of 1.1 months, the report adds.

    It also noted that inventory has rebounded slightly since early 2022: throughout the first quarter of 2024, the national inventory hovered around 970,000 homes for sale, marking a 4.0% year-over-year increase.

    Despite this uptick, existing inventory would sustain the current sales pace for just 2.9 months—a marginal increase from the 2.8 months’ supply recorded last year.

    The report broke down trends by cities and states, finding that as of the first quarter of 2024, states with the lowest levels of supply are concentrated in and around the Midwest (such as Kansas with 1.5 months of supply) and the Northeast (including Rhode Island with 1.8 months of supply).

    However, Washington also stands out for having some of the lowest levels of available housing nationally, with just 1.9 months of supply.

    In contrast, several states in the South, led by Florida (5.2 months of supply), along with Hawaii (5.2 months) and Montana (5.1 months), present notably more favorable conditions for buyers.

    Among the nation’s largest cities, Denver, El Paso, and Dallas recorded the largest year-over-year increases in housing inventory. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Las Vegas, Raleigh, and Chicago recorded the biggest declines.

    The data is hardly a 2008-style collapse, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t noteworthy. 

    While the ‘turning of the tide’ still remains muted, the housing market is so large it rarely corrects swiftly. It’s important to notice, however, that rising inventory ticking higher – combined with mortgage rates now over 7% – could easily be telegraphing a correction in prices heading into 2025.

    You can view the entire study here.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 06/30/2024 – 14:35

  • Judge Denies Alec Baldwin Motion To Dismiss Manslaughter Charge In 'Rust' Shooting
    Judge Denies Alec Baldwin Motion To Dismiss Manslaughter Charge In ‘Rust’ Shooting

    Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A New Mexico judge on June 28 denied actor Alec Baldwin’s request to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against him relating to the 2021 fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of his film “Rust.”

    Alec Baldwin attends the Roundabout Theatre Company’s annual gala at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City on March 6, 2023. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

    Previously, Mr. Baldwin’s lawyers requested that the court dismiss the charge, arguing that the firearm involved in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was damaged during FBI forensic testing before defense attorneys could examine it.

    Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer rejected the arguments, stating that Mr. Baldwin’s lawyers failed to establish that the firearm had “an exculpatory value that was apparent before the evidence was destroyed.”

    “Rather, a significant amount of evidence indicates that the unaltered firearm did not possess apparent exculpatory value,” she stated in an 18-page ruling.

    The judge referenced Mr. Baldwin’s statements to a New Mexico Occupational Health and Safety Bureau officer on Dec. 8, 2021, in which he claimed that “the problem didn’t have to do with the gun. It had to do with the bullet.”

    “Further, prior to the accidental discharge testing, [FBI forensic examiner Bryce Ziegler] found the firearm to be fully operative and without modification,” the judge added.

    Judge Sommer added that Mr. Baldwin’s lawyers also failed to establish that “the State acted in bad faith when destroying certain internal components of the firearm in the course of the accidental discharge testing.”

    “In other words, the evidence before the Court does not demonstrate that the State or its agents knew that the unaltered firearm possessed exculpatory value at the time of the accidental discharge testing, and nonetheless destroyed it, thereby indicating that the evidence may have exonerated the Defendant,” she stated.

    The judge also ruled that prosecutors must fully disclose to the jury “the destructive nature of the firearm testing, the resulting loss, and its relevance and import.”

    Mr. Baldwin is set to stand trial in July.

    Ms. Hutchins was killed after a gun Mr. Baldwin was handling discharged on set on Oct. 21, 2021. He has pleaded not guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison.

    Sheriff’s investigators initially sent the revolver to the FBI for routine testing, but when an FBI analyst heard Mr. Baldwin say in an ABC TV interview that he never pulled the trigger, the agency told local authorities they could conduct an accidental discharge test, though it might damage the gun.

    The FBI was told by a team of investigators to go ahead, and tested the revolver by striking it from several angles with a rawhide mallet. One of those strikes fractured the gun’s firing and safety mechanisms.

    Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted in March of involuntary manslaughter for her role in the shooting and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 06/30/2024 – 14:00

  • Watch: Just Another Night In Gavin Newsom's California 
    Watch: Just Another Night In Gavin Newsom’s California 

    President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate with former President Trump on Thursday has led leftist corporate media to publish headlines calling for the elderly president to step aside.

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    Although there is no evidence that Biden is willing to end his presidential campaign, some corporate media outlets have suggested replacements, such as California Governor Gavin Newsom.

    However, Gov. Newsom is probably one of the worst possible candidates. The entire nation has watched the radical leftist governor transform California into a socialist hellhole over the years characterized by rampant lawlessness, widespread homelessness, an affordability crisis, and a poor economic climate with high taxes. 

    The latest issue in the Golden State has been out-of-control youth reenacting scenes of the video game ‘Grand-Theft-Auto’ through wild street takeovers.

    According to the Los Angeles Police Department, at least 50 vehicles were involved in a street takeover in downtown Los Angeles early Saturday morning. 

    Videos of the chaos were uploaded on X. They show multiple cars engulfed in flames. 

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    Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de Leon told CBS News that street takeovers are unacceptable, adding, “It angers me, because it puts other people in danger.” 

    The lack of law and order in the state suggests Gov. Newsom has a very limited shot against Trump.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 06/30/2024 – 13:25

Digest powered by RSS Digest

Jun 30

Today’s News 30th June 2024

  • Don't Let The Elite Get Away With Gaslighting That They Didn't Know About Biden's Senility
    Don’t Let The Elite Get Away With Gaslighting That They Didn’t Know About Biden’s Senility

    Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,

    Biden’s disastrous debate performance last week made it impossible to deny his senility, yet the Western elite is gaslighting they were supposedly oblivious to this until now. Time Magazine published a piece titled “Inside Biden’s Debate Disaster and the Scramble to Quell Democratic Panic”, which was complemented by CNN’s about how “Foreign diplomats react with horror to Biden’s dismal debate performance”.

    Both make it seem like Biden’s senility is a surprise for everyone who knew him.

    The reality is that they knew about this all along but covered it up by lying that any claims to this effect were “Russian propaganda” and/or a “conspiracy theory”, all because they actually approved of the Democrats installing a literal placeholder in the White House who the liberal–globalist elite could control. It was a refreshing change of pace from Trump, who was much too independent for their liking despite his occasional capitulations to their demands, and it also reassured America’s allies who disliked him too.

    They both went along with the lie that Biden is in tip-top mental condition for reasons of political convenience, but now it’s impossible to keep up the charade any longer, hence why they’re all feigning surprise and shock. The elite shouldn’t be allowed to get away with their latest gaslighting and should be exposed for one of the greatest cover-ups in American history. The country is being ruled by a shadowy network of transnational and domestic elites that are united by their radical liberal-globalist ideology.

    Biden was chosen as the Democrats’ candidate in 2020 precisely because he was already senile and therefore completely controllable. That party, which functions as the public face of the abovementioned elite network, wanted someone who’d do whatever they demanded on the home and foreign policy fronts. In particular, they sought to turn America into a liberal-globalist hellhole while ramping up NATO’s containment of Russia in Ukraine, but the second policy backfired after the special operation began.

    Nevertheless, they’ll never have another chance to install someone like Biden since 2020 was an exceptional election year due to it being a referendum on Trump – who a significant share of the public was preconditioned to falsely believe is the new Hitler – and mail-in voting due to COVID-19. These conditions can never be replicated in the same way again no matter how hard the elite try, which is why they decided to keep Biden as their candidate instead of replace him early on.

    Although there’s now a push by some for him to be replaced during the party’s upcoming national convention, Politico and NBC News among others both pointed out that this would be a difficult process, so there’s no guarantee that they’ll seriously attempt it. That said, he might also suffer some sort of emergency that incapacitates him more than he already is, so the scenario can’t be ruled out. In that case, they’ll still do everything they can to gaslight that they had no idea that he was so unhealthy.

    Any acknowledgement that they were aware of this would expose their role in 2020’s de facto coup, which was the elite’s latest after the ones in 2001, 1974, and 1963. Back then, 9/11 was exploited as the pretext for taking the national security state to its next level, while Nixon’s resignation in the face of the CIA’s Watergate scandal was meant to remove a truly independent and popular visionary leader. As for Kennedy’s assassination, many believe that it was aimed to stop his planned withdrawal from Vietnam.

    The elite’s latest coup was meant to turbocharge the US’ preexisting liberal-globalist trajectory after Trump partially offset it with his comparatively more conservative-nationalist policies, which necessitated provoking a proxy war with Russia in order to unify the West around this ideological cause. The damage has already been dealt and a lot of it is irreparable, but Trump’s return to power would still be better for Americans and the rest of the world, which is why the elite are dead-set against it.  

    Irrespective of whether the decision is made to replace Biden, which has its pros such as putting a more publicly appealing candidate on the ballot but also its cons like stoking panic about the party’s electoral prospects, the elite will do everything to cover up for their knowledge of his senility. Acknowledging that they knew about this would leave little doubt in the minds of many that the 2020 election was actually the elite’s latest coup, which his why they’re going overboard gaslighting about how they’re surprised.  

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 23:20

  • Are MTA Subway Tracks In Queens Being Held Together By Zip Ties
    Are MTA Subway Tracks In Queens Being Held Together By Zip Ties

    Where is the boatload of tax money New York City takes in going?

    That’s likely the main question on the minds of Gotham’s citizens this week after the NY Post revealed in a report the latest “feature” of riding the prestigious MTA public transit: there appears to be zip ties holding together subway tracks.

    While illegal migrants are being treated to stays in four star hotels in Midtown, it appears NYC citizens riding the train at the Rockaway Boulevard A train station in Ozone Park are footing the bill. They have been left asking if the tracks of the subway they have been riding are barely holding on for dear life. 

    Nursing student Kayle Persaud asked the NY Post: “Should I be worried? If I cut one zip tie, does it start to fall?”

    Photos of the zip ties were first published by AMNY:

    Another subway rider told the Post: “The first time I saw it I thought, ‘Hmm… Is it holding the tracks together?’Even the screws look like they’re not all the way in.”

    A third rider added: “Even if it’s not actually holding the track together, it just looks awful. They could have cut it off or painted it the same color. I hope it’s not holding the tracks together for all the money we pay to travel on the subway.”

    Zip ties on wooden railroad ties are used to prevent splintering and falling debris, according to a track worker and the MTA. MTA officials stated they mark areas needing future repair and are not a safety concern. 

    However, the MTA’s announcement to halt capital projects following Governor Kathy Hochul’s delay of the congestion pricing plan has worried commuters. The congestion pricing was expected to generate $1 billion for $15 billion in improvements. Some commuters criticized the use of zip ties, calling them a “ridiculous” look. 

    “Hopefully, it’s just a sign of laziness,” said New Yorker Rose Mohammed. “We’re supposed to be the greatest city in the world, and we have zip ties around our tracks?”

    MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said: “When inspectors find certain issues, they use ties for temporary protection and to identify locations where following repair crews will make more permanent repairs.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 22:45

  • Trump Sentencing Will Put Merchan's Bias In Crosshairs
    Trump Sentencing Will Put Merchan’s Bias In Crosshairs

    Authored by Kenin Spivak via RealClearPolitics.com,

    On July 11, acting New York Judge Juan Merchan will sentence former President Donald Trump.

    Trump was convicted in a New York State court in Manhattan on a novel theory and on facts never before used to secure a conviction in New York. Disregarding at least a dozen reasons his conviction should be reversed, because Trump was convicted of falsifying records with the intent to commit a second crime – illegally interfering in the 2016 presidential election – the falsification was upgraded to a class E felony, comprising 34 counts, one for each entry. The maximum penalty is four years in jail on each count, not to exceed a total of 20 years.

    New York defendants sentenced to less than a year are usually jailed in notorious Rikers Island, known for its overcrowding, drug problems, and violence. The New York City Council voted to close the facility by 2026. New York Post photos from just a few years ago show the awful conditions there.

    For sentences of a year or longer, Trump could be remanded to one of 41 state prisons for men, though most likely to one of the three minimum security facilities. It seems highly unlikely that the U.S. Secret Service would permit Trump to be held in a New York prison. While space might be made available in a federal prison, or a building converted for exclusive use by Trump, it is more likely that he would serve any sentence in home confinement, wearing an ankle monitor.

    Alternatives to incarceration include probation for up to 10 years, unconditional discharge, or discharge, without probation, conditioned on not committing a further crime during the following three years, and a fine of up to $5,000.

    Merchan could order that confinement be limited to weekends or nights, and could permit exceptions for political or business activities.

    He also could split the sentence, for example, requiring 30 days of home confinement followed by conditional discharge.

    Even if Trump is conditionally discharged or given probation but is later convicted of another crime, he could be remanded to prison. In setting the sentence, Merchan will consider a mandatory Pre-Sentence Report and the nature of the crime in addition to Trump’s background, age, and health. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg follows a policy of not recommending incarceration for those convicted of non-violent class E felonies. During the trial, Merchan observed that he sees incarceration as a “last resort.”

    Trump’s indictment for numerous other crimes and his frequent violations of Merchan’s gag order will make unconditional release less likely. However, Trump’s evaluation also will suffer because of recent verdicts that he is liable for civil fraud and defamation, and for presumably refusing to accept guilt during the pre-sentence interview.

    If Merchan properly considers the nature of the offense, that similar offenses have not been prosecuted in New York, the “false records” were internal Trump accounts, there was no monetary loss, and the so-called effort to interfere in the 2016 election failed in New York (where Clinton overwhelmingly won), and Trump has no prior record, there should be no jail time or home confinement.

    However, if Merchan approaches sentencing with the same antagonism to Trump’s rights he brought to the trial, he can be expected to cite a fraud on the national electorate to justify at least a brief period of home confinement. Even then, it would be shocking if Merchan did not stay the sentence until after the election, pending Trump’s appeal.

    Trump likely will appeal to New York’s intermediate appeals court and will seek to have any sentence stayed pending the outcome of the appeal. Given the multitude of errors at trial and the pending election, it is a near certainty that his request for a stay will be granted.

    Trump could also bring an action in federal district court asserting that Bragg and Merchan lacked jurisdiction to accuse him of interfering in a federal election, and he was not given adequate notice of the alleged crimes. It is unlikely a federal judge would get involved prior to a state appeals court. Trump could seek intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court, but federal statutes generally require that the highest court in a state rule before the Supreme Court intervenes.

    In the end, it seems likely that Trump’s conviction will be overturned. Whether the sentence is harsh or a slap on the wrist, the entire process has been a political prosecution intended to keep Trump off the campaign trail and give Biden the talking point that Trump is a convicted felon. That flagrant abuse of due process is not how our justice or electoral systems are supposed to work.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 22:10

  • Pentagon Exposes Biden Lie That Troop Deaths Haven't Occurred Under His Watch
    Pentagon Exposes Biden Lie That Troop Deaths Haven’t Occurred Under His Watch

    The Pentagon is trying to run cover following Biden’s Thursday night debate falsehood claiming that he is the “only” president this century who hasn’t overseen American troop deaths “anywhere in the world”. But journalists forced a belated response.

    Here’s what Biden asserted in the CNN debate with Trump: “The truth is, I’m the only president this century that doesn’t have any this — this decade, that doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world, like [Trump] did.” But the reality is…

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    Newsmax and others have pointed out that all of the following happened under Biden, some which is relatively recent: 

    There have been 16 U.S. troops killed overseas since Biden took office, with 13 during the retreat from Afghanistan on Aug. 26, 2021, and three just five months ago in Jordan. Biden also glossed over the large number of U.S. troops that have perished in training incidents during his time in office.

    In April 2023, nine soldiers were killed during a training exercise in Kentucky and 20 U.S. service members have been killed in Osprey-related crashed alone from March 2022 through November 2023, as noted by NBC News.

    The Pentagon press secretary was asked about the discrepancy in a Friday press briefing, and whether she stands by the president’s statement…

    “Thank you for the question. For more on the president’s comments and on the debate itself, I’d refer you to the White House,” spokesperson Sabrina Singh said, trying to deflect the question.

    “But in terms of our service members who have been killed in some tragic events around the world … you’ve seen the president call these families to express condolences. This is someone that has intimately experienced the commitment and dedication of what our military does,” she added.

    Singh was asked the same question a second time after the attempted dodge:

    “Just to be clear, was the president’s statement incorrect?”

    “Again, not trying to get involved in that,” Singh said.

    A journalist pressed her for the third time: “Has President Biden had service members die anywhere in the world during his time in office?”

    To which she reluctantly responded: “As you have reported on, we have certainly had service members pass during this administration, and you’ve seen not just the secretary, but the president, weigh in and comment and offer condolences,” Singh finally admitted. She clearly tried to initially desperately avoid contradicting Biden’s claim, but the truth proved too obvious in the end.

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    Does Biden himself even remember what he tried to claim in the Thursday night debate? 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 21:35

  • Warren Buffett Reveals Plans For $130 Billion Fortune In His Will
    Warren Buffett Reveals Plans For $130 Billion Fortune In His Will

    Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

    Famed investor Warren Buffett has revealed details of his will, with the 93-year-old founder of Berkshire Hathaway charting a charitable course for his vast $130 billion fortune after he passes away.

    In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Buffett said that he intends for nearly all of his immense fortune to be put into a charitable trust that will be used to help the less fortunate.

    “It should be used to help the people that haven’t been as lucky as we have been,” Mr. Buffett told the outlet.

    His three children—Howard, Susan, and Peter Buffett—will manage the trust, he said. In order for a donation to be made, all three will have to be in agreement on the cause, he said.

    “There’s eight billion people in the world, and me and my kids, we’ve been in the luckiest 100th of 1 percent or something,” Mr. Buffett said.

    “There’s lots of ways to help people.”

    In 2006, Mr. Buffett committed to making annual gifts to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as four foundations associated with his family.

    At the time, it was a mystery what he would do with his fortune after his death. However, in the June 28 interview, Mr. Buffett revealed that the donations to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would come to an end.

    “The Gates Foundation has no money coming after my death,” Mr. Buffett told the outlet.

    Besides that, the billionaire investor hasn’t prescribed to his children how to spend the money.

    “I feel very, very good about the values of my three children, and I have 100 percent trust in how they will carry things out,” Mr. Buffett said.

    In a press release issued on June 28, Mr. Buffett said the full contents of his will are to stay secret until his death, but that his Nov. 21, 2023, letter to shareholders set forth procedures of his will that are “unlikely to be changed before my death.”

    ‘Playing in Extra Innings’

    In the Nov. 21, 2023, letter Mr. Buffett noted his advanced age while shedding light on the future governance of his vast fortune.

    “I feel good but fully realize I am playing in extra innings,” he wrote.

    At the time, he disclosed that his three children would serve as executors of his will and trustees of a charitable trust that would receive more than 99 percent of his wealth.

    Mr. Buffett wrote in the letter that, when he started giving his fortune away in 2006, his children were not prepared to assume the “awesome responsibility” of managing the process. However, “they are now,” he said.

    In his June 28 statement, Mr. Buffett announced that he had donated $5.3 billion of Berkshire Hathaway stock to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities.

    The $5.3 billion was his biggest annual donation to date, bringing his total giving to the charities to roughly $57 billion.

    Despite having given away more than half of his Berkshire stock since 2006, Buffett still owns about one-seventh of the outstanding shares.

    “I have no debts and my remaining A shares are worth about $127 billion, roughly 99½ percent of my net worth,” Mr. Buffett said in the statement. “Nothing extraordinary has occurred at Berkshire; a very long runway, simple but generally sound capital deployment, the American tailwind and compounding effects produced my current wealth.’

    “My will provides that more than 99 percent of my estate is destined for philanthropic usage,” he said.

    Besides the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr. Buffett has donated to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which funds abortion drugs; the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, which works to alleviate hunger and improve public safety; the Sherwood Foundation, which supports Nebraska nonprofits; and the NoVo Foundation, which has initiatives focused on minority girls and women.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 21:00

  • He's Just Sundowning: Biden Admin Spins Debate Meltdown – While Family 'Oligarchy' Decides Fate
    He’s Just Sundowning: Biden Admin Spins Debate Meltdown – While Family ‘Oligarchy’ Decides Fate

    How bad must those Hur tapes be?

    Following President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance on Thursday, the world saw that his cognitive decline isn’t some right-wing conspiracy theory fueled by “cheapfakes” – and that the White House’s desperate attempts to cover for Biden’s obvious dementia were nothing more than propaganda.

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    It’s so bad that the NY Times Editorial Board has called for Biden to quit the 2024 race.

    It’s so bad that the White House is now telling Axios that Biden is ‘dependably engaged’ between the hours of 10am to 4pm, and that outside of that range, he’s ‘more likely to have verbal miscues and become fatigued.’

    In other words: he’s sundowning hard.

    Which would explain why he looked like he swapped out Hunter’s Finest for his morning sugar at a mid-day rally on Friday, with no hint of a ‘cold’ we’ve been told explains his debate performance.

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    Yet, Biden will tune out calls to exit the race unless his ‘kitchen cabinet’ of lifelong family advisors counsels him to do so, Axios also reports.

    Dave Smith explains during his debate recap:

    According to Axios, “The only way President Biden steps aside, despite his debate debacle, is if the same small group of lifelong loyalists who enabled his run suddenly — and shockingly — decides it’s time for him to call it quits.”

    Dr. Jill Biden; his younger sister, Valerie Biden; and 85-year-old Ted Kaufman, the president’s longtime friend and constant adviser — plus a small band of White House advisers — are the only Biden deciders.

    …

    This decades-long kitchen cabinet operates as an extended family, council of elders and governing oligarchy. These allies alone hold sway over decisions big and small in Biden’s life and presidency.

    • The president engaged in no organized process outside his family in deciding to run for a second term, the N.Y. Times’ Peter Baker reports.
    • Then Biden alone made the decision, people close to him tell us.

    According to the report, if Biden refuses to quit – it’s because “He and the oligarchy believe he has a much better chance of being former President Trump than Vice President Harris does.”

    Additionally, Axios also notes that:

    • Biden allies have played out the scenarios and see little chance of anyone besides Harris winning the nomination if he stepped aside.
    • Is the Democratic Party going to deny the nomination to the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected V.P.? Hard to see.
    • These allies privately think Harris would struggle to pull moderate and swing voters, and would enhance Trump’s chances. (Harris “fares only one or two points worse than Biden in polls with margins of sampling error that are much larger than that,” The Washington Post found.)

    Meanwhile, Democratic congressional leaders are receiving panicked calls and texts from colleagues who think Biden’s weakness could also cost the party House and Senate seats in November.

    “This is no longer about Joe Biden’s family or his emotions,” said one adviser who’s in ‘constant touch’ with the West Wing. “This is about our country. It’s an utter f***ing disaster that has to be addressed.“

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 20:25

  • Magical, Mysterious, And Sometimes Dangerous Food Ingredients That Are Impossible To Pronounce
    Magical, Mysterious, And Sometimes Dangerous Food Ingredients That Are Impossible To Pronounce

    Authored by Matthew Little via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Not long ago, people could only dream of the foods we have today. Tasty, cheap, and ready to eat. They last forever, look great, and come in endless varieties. Ultra-processed foods are a dream come true.

    Illustration by The Epoch Times

    These new foods have achieved their incredible feats thanks to innovations in processing and a long list of additives that grant them superpowers denied to the foods eaten by previous generations.

    Some of these additives do important work, like keep food bacteria-free or let it stay safe from spoiling without need for refrigeration. But others are “experiential” and do things like make the food bright red or give it a more satisfying texture.

    Additives come in a variety of types. There are preservatives, flavorings, colors, stabilizers, emulsifiers, firming agents, humectants, and more. They have names like “titanium dioxide,” “sodium benzoate,” and “xanthan gum.” And the fact that people are living longer despite most Americans mostly eating ultra-processed foods would seem to indicate their safety.

    Except that they are linked to many chronic diseases like cancer, and many other issues, including depression, and anxiety, and may contribute to cognitive decline. They may even be addictive.

    Many additives have come under increasing scrutiny, with some states even banning some of them. And in some other countries, additives used in the United States have been banned for years.

    While it’s easy to blame food makers for adding ingredients that may make us less healthy, the truth is that we buy what they sell, and ask for more—at the cheapest price possible.

    My wife and I do stock some ready-to-eat foods though. Many grocery stores stock vacuum-sealed pouches of Indian food for $3, including rich dishes like baingan bharta, madras lentils, and palak paneer. The names may sound unfamiliar, but if you’ve ever eaten at an Indian restaurant, you know the food is well-flavored, typically a little expensive, and very satisfying.

    And the thing that has always amazed me about the instant pouches is the stunning lack of weird ingredients. They are full of whole foods and spices with nothing that’s hard to pronounce. It makes me wonder what kind of foods the innovative companies in the United States could come up with if we really wanted them to.

    America created ready-to-eat processed foods that have spread around the world, delivering exactly what we wanted in terms of price, flavor, and convenience. Now we just need to ask for foods with higher-quality ingredients and fewer additives that have uncertain effects on our brains and bodies.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 19:50

  • Deadly Attack On Israeli Embassy By Crossbow-Armed Terrorist
    Deadly Attack On Israeli Embassy By Crossbow-Armed Terrorist

    A bizarre attack on Israel’s embassy in the Serbian capital of Belgrade has unfolded Saturday, and ended in the death of the attacker, and a wounded security guard now fighting for his life.

    Serbia’s interior ministry is calling the incident a terrorist attack which involved a man armed with a crossbow shooting a police officer, wounding him in the neck, before the officer shot the assailant dead. Authorities are in the aftermath looking at links to Islamic extremism. 

    Via Associated Press

    The Serbian government statement indicated the officer who had been protecting the embassy “used a weapon in self-defense to shoot the attacker, who died as a result of his injuries.”

    A bolt was fired from the crossbow, and lodged in the officer’s neck. He was still conscious but described as in life-threatening condition upon being transported to the hospital.

    Authorities are describing that the assault was likely motivated by Islamic terror. According to a statement:

    “There are some indications that [those arrested] are already known to security services and we are talking about the Wahhabi organization, but that is not confirmed,” Dačić said, referring to a strict school of Islam.

    The officer was in a guard house and the attacker had approached him several times asking him where a museum was. He carried a bag from which at one point he took the crossbow and shot the guard, Dačić said.

    Serbia has maintained close relations with Israel and has even been supplying weapons to Tel Aviv throughout the course of the ongoing Gaza operations.

    For example, Middle East Eye has documented: 

    The Israeli newspaper Haaretz and Balkan Insight recently revealed that Belgrade was still exporting large volumes of weapons and ammunition to Israel, and ramped up exports this year amid the current war on Gaza.

    Both publications reported that Serbia exported at least €16.3m ($17.1m) worth of weapons to Israel through Israeli military planes as well as some civilian aircraft using Greek airspace, possibly also carrying crucial 155mm artillery rounds, produced by the Serbian state company Krusik. 

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    Israeli officials have meanwhile feared that the longer the Gaza operation persists, the greater chance of Israeli embassies and consulates abroad coming under physical attack.

    Already there have been been major anti-Israel protests throughout the world, including in front of consulates abroad. However, this is the first time a weapon like a crossbow has been used and resulted in a live fire incident.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 19:15

  • Did Fauci Admit That School Closures Were A Mistake?
    Did Fauci Admit That School Closures Were A Mistake?

    Authored by Ian Miller via The Brownstone Institute,

    Anthony Fauci actually concedes that he may have been mistaken?

    Stop the presses!

    It’s hard to believe considering the list of his policy failures, spectacular misinformation, and revisionist history is almost quite literally endless.

    Yet in a recent media interview, Fauci stated that a nationwide policy that he supported actually didn’t work. Kinda.

    If only he’d been willing to admit this years ago.

    Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the country’s foremost proponents of closing schools in a futile attempt to slow the spread of Covid, now admits that he may have taken it too far. Whoops!

    Fauci is out on his book tour, doing the rounds with friendly media outlets in support of his self-congratulatory, revisionist exploration of the pandemic. And in an interview with CBS Mornings, Fauci explained that maybe, just maybe, keeping schools closed for years was actually a bad idea.

    Co-host Tony Dokoupil asked Fauci about schools, and initially, Fauci downplayed what a disastrous result his advocacy caused. “One clear area seems to be the school closures, which did enormous harm to kids on multiple levels,” Dokoupil said, “and didn’t seem to save lives. And I wonder, can we say today that that is a mistake?”

    Fauci, of course, said “No,” because admitting that a policy he authorized was an unmitigated failure would mean accepting his role in creating that failure. Instead, as is his usual procedure, he deflected blame onto others. Just as a good scientist should.

    “Keeping it for a year was not a good idea,” Fauci said. “So, that was a mistake in retrospect?” Dokoupil asked. “We will not repeat it?”

    “Absolutely, yeah,” Fauci replied.

    Well, look who finally caught up to the damage he caused! And make no mistake, this most certainly is all on him.

    WASHINGTON, DC – Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing at the White House on November 19, 2020. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

    Anthony Fauci Once Again Directly Contradicts Anthony Fauci

    Fauci now pretends as if he had nothing to do with keeping schools closed long after they should have been reopened. But of course, that completely contracts his harmful, unconstitutional, ‘flatten the curve’ mandates to America in real-time during the height of the pandemic in 2020.

    In September 2020, Fauci described reopening efforts as “very concerning.” Even earlier, when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spoke about wanting to get schools open as soon as possible, Fauci criticized him and his plan: “If you have a situation where you don’t have real good control over an outbreak and you allow children together, they will likely get infected.”

    Fauci also criticized Sen. Rand Paul for pushing for schools to open amid the clear realization that children were not at significant risk of serious side effects from Covid. “I think we better be careful that we’re not cavalier, in thinking that children are completely immune to the deleterious effects,” he said at the time.

    Then in 2022, he told ABC News, “I don’t want to use the word ‘mistake,’” when referring to school closures. “If I do, it gets taken out of the context that you’re asking me the question on,” he continued. “We should realize, and have realized, that there will be deleterious collateral consequences when you do something like that.”

    But that was exactly the sentiment of DeSantis, and even former President Donald Trump in 2020. They warned that keeping kids home wasn’t going to save lives or even prevent the spread of the virus. And as we saw from Europe’s results, they were right. Fauci criticized them regardless because he not only supported school closures, but he even demanded they do so.

    Even now, he still speaks derisively about Dr. Scott Atlas, whose top priority on the Covid task force was getting schools open. In another MSNBC interview, Fauci said that Atlas told Trump “everything he wanted to hear.”

    Fauci didn’t want schools open, because he mistakenly believed closing them and other public spaces would have an impact on the spread of Covid. It didn’t. Just like masks didn’t have an impact, or vaccine passports, or getting huge numbers of people vaccinated. Nothing Fauci said would help actually worked. But admitting that is an impossibility for someone whose ego, willingness to hide information and condescending, patronizing attitude don’t allow for mistakes.

    And his Covid mandates were undoubtedly used for more malicious purposes than ‘stopping the spread’ of a virus.

    *  *  *

    Republished from the author’s Substack

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 18:40

  • How Uninhabited Terrain Became A Hotbed For Black Market Marijuana
    How Uninhabited Terrain Became A Hotbed For Black Market Marijuana

    Authored by Brad Jones via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The air is thick with the unmistakable pungent stench of cannabis plants in a massive network of illegal grow operations in a rural part of northern California, as Mount Shasta looms on the horizon.

    (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images, Public Domain, John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    Gated-off with chain link and wire fences—some with tattered shreds of privacy screening—the properties northeast of Weed, Calif., near Montague, are a compound of ramshackle huts, old RVs, and cheaply-made greenhouses of hoops and plastic.

    Several spotters in vehicles patrol the dusty roads, watching for police and intruders near the site off Shasta Vista Drive.

    These “guards” are often armed with automatic rifles, according to Siskiyou County Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue.

    The sheriff estimates about 90 percent of the nearly 2,000 properties in the Mount Shasta Vista subdivision are involved in illegal grow operations.

    Miles from Interstate 5, the illegal grow operations are out-of-sight and out-of-mind for most people, but even a glance at a satellite map reveals the vast network.

    “If you zoom out, that subdivision is pretty large—nine square miles,” Mr. LaRue said.

    The lots are on volcanic soil. Unsuitable for water wells and septic systems, the land is far from an ideal spot to build a “dream home,” he said.

    The once essentially uninhabited terrain is now scattered with makeshift shelters and other structures built without permits in camps that look like they belong “in a third-world country,” he said.

    The illegal cannabis operations have brought serious crime, including robberies, theft, and five unsolved homicides, he said.

    A recent armed robbery allegedly involved outsiders robbing people who were selling marijuana, Mr. LaRue said.

    “That doesn’t happen, generally speaking, to people that are growing alfalfa or cherries, or strawberries or corn. So, it’s a crop that really brings just a massive amount of violent crime with it,” he said. “People are willing to die for marijuana for some reason.”

    Hundreds of illegal marijuana grow operations are located outside of Montague, Calif., on May 7, 2024. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    Legalizing Marijuana

    More than 57 percent of California voters approved Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, in 2016, which legalized the recreational use of marijuana.

    Californians have led the push to soften cannabis laws in the United States since 1972 with Proposition 9, a failed ballot initiative that attempted to legalize marijuana. Eventually, in 1996, more than 55 percent of state voters supported Proposition 215 allowing the medical use of cannabis.

    But unlicensed cannabis cultivation and sales are prohibited, and cultivation is still illegal under federal law.

    Around 2015, a group of about 100 people moved from the Midwest and bought private property in Siskiyou County, where they started cultivating outdoor marijuana grows, Mr. LaRue said.

    The land was cheap then; 2.5-acre parcels sold for about $500, but today the same land is worth between $30,000 to $40,000 because illegal grow operations are lucrative and the sites are in high demand, he said.

    He estimates there are currently about 10,000 people involved in illegal cannabis cultivation.

    Nearly 5,000 “hoop houses,” a term the sheriff prefers to describe the makeshift greenhouses, cultivating three crops a year means the black market sites generate billions of dollars in profits, he said.

    Property owners have brought in illegal pesticides and other toxic chemicals, many from China, that are “destroying the environment,” he said.

    His deputies do the best they can to avoid contamination from unregulated and illegal pesticides found during routine raids, but Mr. LaRue said he worries about the risks they could face from long-term exposure to such toxins.

    Recent traffic stops show that illegal cannabis is going to licensed locations and that the legal market is also being supplied by the black market, he said.

    “Everything has kind of turned into what I call the gray market because everything is just dirty,” he said. “You really don’t know what’s legit and what isn’t … and the average user has no clue.”

    This makes the illegal pesticide issue even more alarming because “those chemicals are now on the product that’s going into legal dispensaries,” he said.

    “People are buying it as medicine for cancer patients and actually just smoking and consuming carcinogens. That should be troubling for the state. That’s a public health issue.”

    Marijuana is weighed on a scale at Virgil Grant’s dispensary in Los Angeles on Feb.8, 2018. In California, it is a felony to plant, cultivate, harvest, dry, or process more than six cannabis plants “to intentionally or with gross negligence cause substantial environmental harm to surface or groundwater,” according to the California Department of Cannabis Control. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

    Penalties for Illegal Cultivation

    Proposition 64, or the Adult Use Marijuana Act, which took effect in November 2016, allowed adults over age 21 to legally grow and harvest up to six plants.

    Under California law, it is a felony to plant, cultivate, harvest, dry, or process more than six cannabis plants “to intentionally or with gross negligence cause substantial environmental harm to surface or groundwater,” the California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times.

    Anyone 18 years or older convicted of planting, cultivating, harvesting, drying, or processing more than six living cannabis plants can face misdemeanor charges and up to six months in a county jail or a fine of up to $500, or both, under Article 11358 of the California Health and Safety Code.

    Penalties for anyone under age 18 include up to eight hours of drug counseling or up to 40 hours of community service, or both, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

    The DCC did not provide any statistics indicating how many people, if any, have been convicted and sentenced to jail time and stipulated that the prosecution of such crimes “is dependent on the jurisdiction where they occurred.”

    In practice, for illegal cultivation to be prosecuted as a felony, the crime is usually tied to an environmental infraction, Siskiyou County District Attorney Kirk Andrus told The Epoch Times.

    “It’s a misdemeanor all day long no matter how much you grow unless you have an environmental violation, and so that takes us some work to prove,” Mr. Andrus said.

    Meanwhile, the state is losing tax revenue, and some people who entered the legal cannabis market thinking they can make a profit are going out of business, he said.

    “If they want to make marijuana legal for recreational use, then defend the white market. The black market is killing the white market,” he said.

    “We have a black market in this county that’s the size of a small nation. I’m not a marijuana proponent but if it’s going to be legal, defend your market by letting us eradicate the black market.”

    A worker removes leaves from marijuana plants to allow more light for growth at Essence Vegas’ 54,000-square-foot marijuana cultivation facility in Las Vegas on July 6, 2017. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

    Potential Remedies and Solutions

    While Mr. LaRue admits there’s no quick fix for the crisis, he has urged the governor to take executive action to “free up money” for rural communities where police funding often falls short and implement more “aggressive” enforcement policies.

    “Not just in words but in action,” he said.

    Funding for six deputies to cover nearly 6,300 square miles and only two to deal with illegal grow operations just isn’t enough, Mr. LaRue said.

    He urged state lawmakers to take a closer look at what’s happening in Siskiyou County.

    “They need to look at it as an actual problem and get some laws on the books that would actually deter people from continuing this,” he said, stressing that his intent—and the purpose of tougher laws—is “not to lock everyone up in prison.”

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 17:30

  • Tropical Storm Beryl Set To Become 'Major Hurricane' 
    Tropical Storm Beryl Set To Become ‘Major Hurricane’ 

    Tropical Storm Beryl, currently in the Atlantic Basin and east of the Windward Islands, could strengthen into the year’s first hurricane before reaching Barbados late Sunday.  

    “Beryl is expected to rapidly strengthen and become a major hurricane when it reaches the Windward Islands late Sunday night or Monday. It will bring destructive hurricane-force winds and life-threatening storm surges,” the National Hurricane Center wrote in a message on Saturday. 

    NHC issued a hurricane watch for Barbados as Beryl gained strength about 820 miles (1,320 km) east-southeast of the island nation. Beryl could soon become the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic storm season. 

    “The storm has been on a steady strengthening trend since it formed yesterday, and now that its structure is more symmetric and compact, it likely will have an opportunity to rapidly intensify given the low wind-shear conditions,” NHC senior hurricane specialist John Cangialosi wrote in a note. 

    Cangialosi said, “The new NHC intensity forecast explicitly calls for rapid strengthening and shows Beryl becoming a major hurricane before moving across the Windward Islands.”

    “There have only been a few storms in history that have formed over the central or eastern tropical Atlantic this early in the year,” he noted.

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    In May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted an above-normal 2024 Atlantic hurricane season of 17 to 25 named storms, including as many as 13 hurricanes.

    We have pointed out that this hurricane season, the Biden administration must contend with an elevated number of storms. It only takes one major storm to disrupt Gulf Coast refineries, which would catapult average gasoline prices at the pump to the politically sensitive $4 a gallon before the elections this fall.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 16:55

  • The Art Of Being Eternally Shocked: How The Press And Pundits Are Again Mystified By The Obvious
    The Art Of Being Eternally Shocked: How The Press And Pundits Are Again Mystified By The Obvious

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    No one would think of the Beltway as being a place of the naive innocents of our society.

    Washington is the only ecosystem composed entirely of apex predators.

    Yet, this week everyone seems to be eternally shocked by what has been obvious for years.

    The press and pundits are coming off an embarrassing couple of weeks where the Hunter Biden laptop was authenticated in federal court as real. This occurred in the trial of the president’s son almost on the anniversary of a debunked letter of intelligence officials claiming that the laptop appeared to be Russian disinformation. Biden then repeated the claim in the last presidential debates to avoid answering questions over the massive influence peddling scheme of this family revealed by the laptop.

    After the story was suppressed before the 2020 election, it took years for the media to admit that, oops, the laptop is surprisingly real.

    For years, the press and pundits piled on experts who suggested that Covid 19 escaped from a Chinese lab. The New York Times reporter covering the area called it “racist” and implausible.  Now, even W.H.O. accepts the lab theory as possible and federal agencies now believe it is the most likely explanation.

    The response: surprise and spin.

    This week, the Supreme Court ruled that the Justice Department has unlawfully charged hundreds of people with obstruction of an official proceeding after the January 6th riot. For years, objections to the excessive treatment of these cases were dismissed as the view of the radical right. Now, even Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson voted to toss out these convictions.

    Surprise.

    Whether it was the false story about agents whipping migrants in Texas or the photo op claim in Lafayette Park, false stories were disproven only to have a collective shrug from those who spread them.

    For years, the press and pundits have repeated like gospel that Trump had called neo-Nazis “fine people.” At the time, most of us noted that Trump condemned the racists and neo-Nazis and made the statement about fine people on both sides of the controversy over the removal of historic statues.

    Six years later, Snopes finally decided to do a fact check and, surprise, found that Trump never praised neo-Nazis as fine people.

    The only person not surprised was Biden who repeated the false story on Friday as true.

    Heading into the presidential debate, the White House and the media attacked Fox News and other outlets for “cheap fake” videos designed to make the President look confused and feeble.

    For months, politicians and pundits have insisted that Biden is sharp and commanding in conversations even after Special Counsel Robert Hur cited his decline as a reason for not charging him criminally for the unlawful retention and mishandling of classified material.

    On MSNBC, Joe Scarborough stated “start your tape right now because I’m about to tell you the truth. And F— you if you can’t handle the truth. This version of Biden intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever. Not a close second. And I have known him for years…If it weren’t the truth I wouldn’t say it.”

    Then the presidential debate happened and, after years of being protected by staff, tens of millions of people watched the president struggle to stay focused and responsive.

    After the debate, there was total surprise, if not shock, on CNN and MSNBC. Suddenly, it is not a cheap fake but reality.

    Just seven days before the debate, the New York Times was running cheap fake articles on how Biden was being wrongly portrayed. The day after the debate, it was calling for him to withdraw from the race after expressing shock at his appearance.

    On CNN, Biden biographer and CNN contributor Evan Osnos admitted that many Americans were likely “shocked” by Biden’s appearance:

     “I don’t think there’s any other way to put it. This was clearly a person who was diminished from where he was on the debate stage four years ago.”

    Pro-Biden columnist Thomas Friedman wrote that he was floored by what he saw and that “heartbreaking” appearance of Biden made him “weep.”

    Washington is now full of surprises.

    It is a city of people who display that practiced faux shock that you adopt when you learn in advance that your friends are throwing a surprise party. The key is to look stunned and then mingle.

    It is a city of Claude Rains:

    The laptop is real, the President is really old, and Washington is really really phony.

    The only thing that would be more surprising is if pundits and the press started being a lot less shocked and more honest.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 16:20

  • Iran Threatens Israel With 'Obliterating War' If It Attacks Lebanon
    Iran Threatens Israel With ‘Obliterating War’ If It Attacks Lebanon

    Iran’s mission to the United Nations has put Israel and the world on notice, saying that if Israel launches an all-out war against Hezbollah in Lebanon the whole region will burn.

    A Friday statement from Iran’s ambassador warned the UN that any “full-scale military aggression” in Lebanon against Hezbollah will mean that “an obliterating war will ensue.”

    The Iranian statement continued by emphasizing that “all options, including the full involvement of all resistance fronts, are on the table” in a statement posted to X. 

    By “resistance fronts” Tehran means the militias it supports in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen will also ramp up their military activities. On a few occasions, Iraqi Shia militias have launched missiles and drones against southern Israel, as have the Houthis, with limited effect.

    Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has acknowledged this week that a “seven front war” could open up, in reference to all of Iran’s proxies across the region. 

    For years already, Israeli jets have been regularly attacking ‘Iranian assets’ inside Damascus, also in a continued effort to weaken Assad, despite the presence of Russia’s military primarily in the northwest coastal region.

    Israel has meanwhile continued to pound Hezbollah positions in south Lebanon, amid continued fears of a bigger war at any moment. The US has even sent amphibious military ships closer to Israel and Lebanon in the Eastern Mediterranean to be ready to evacuate Americans if a bigger conflict ensues.

    The Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper wrote Saturday, “In the past few hours, warplanes attacked several Hezbollah targets, including a military site for the organisation in the Zabqin area, two operational infrastructure sites in the Khiam area, and a Hezbollah building in the al-Adissa [Odaisseh] area.”

    Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has told Israel and its allies that a war with no limits will ensue if Israel attempts to invade southern Lebanon. Some Israeli officials fear that the IDF could be stretched too thin if this happens, considering it’s still in the thick of anti-Hamas Gaza operations in the south.

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

    Most analysts agree that Hezbollah is far more capable a paramilitary and guerilla force than Hamas, or any other Iran-linked group in the region for that matter. In the 2006 Lebanon war, there were reports that IRGC operatives were on the ground in Lebanon assisting Hezbollah.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 15:45

  • CDC Recommends New COVID-19 Vaccines For Nearly All Americans
    CDC Recommends New COVID-19 Vaccines For Nearly All Americans

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on June 27 recommended forthcoming COVID-19 vaccines for virtually all Americans.

    “CDC recommends everyone ages 6 months and older receive an updated 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine to protect against the potentially serious outcomes of COVID-19 this fall and winter whether or not they have ever previously been vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine,” the agency said in a statement.

    The COVID-19 vaccines now available, which are also broadly recommended, target the XBB.1.5 strain. But observational data indicate they provide short-lived protection against COVID-19 infection and hospitalization.

    U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials, acting on advice from their advisers, recently directed vaccine manufacturers to produce COVID-19 vaccines with updated formulations.

    Updated vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna will target the KP.2 variant, while an updated shot from Novavax will target the JN.1 variant.

    The updated formulations are expected to be available in September.

    CDC advisers earlier Thursday unanimously advised the CDC to recommend the forthcoming vaccines to virtually all Americans, even though no clinical efficacy or safety data are available for them.

    Data from animal testing suggest that the vaccines trigger higher levels of antibodies than the shots currently available, manufacturers said previously.

    CDC advisers considered a risk-based recommendation that would only say certain groups receive one of the vaccines but ultimately opted for what is known as a universal recommendation.

    Dr. Jamie Loehr, one of the members, said before the vote that the cost-effectiveness of vaccinating young people, who are generally at little risk from COVID-19, had him leaning towards a risk-based approach. He changed his mind, though, after listening to a presentation from a CDC researcher.

    Dr. Denise Jamieson, another member, said that members should not “get too caught up in cost-effectiveness currently.” She said, “If we compare it to other vaccine-preventable diseases it seems like a really good investment.”

    Each dose of a new shot could cost up to $130, according to estimates presented during the meeting.

    Pooled effectiveness estimates from studies of the currently available vaccines, which target the XBB strain, and the last slate of shots, which were bivalent, found that effectiveness against hospitalization due to COVID-19 was below 50 percent, the original threshold laid out by regulators.

    Researchers with the CDC and other institutions have also found the protection wanes over time, one reason U.S. officials have turned the COVID-19 vaccine model into a once-a-year update similar to the influenza vaccination program.

    Many Americans took the original COVID-19 vaccines but most have opted against receiving the newer shots. As of May 11, just 14.4 percent of children and 22.5 percent of adults have received one of the currently available COVID-19 vaccines, according to CDC surveys, which also found that many doctors have stopped recommending the shots because they’re focused on promoting other vaccines and worry recommending COVID-19 vaccination could increase hesitancy among patients to receiving the other vaccines.

    Experts said in Thursday’s meeting that the message needs to be that people need another shot.

    “We have to keep saying that over and over and over again—you need this year’s vaccine to be protected against this year’s strain of the virus,” Carol Hayes, who represents the American College of Nurse-Midwives as a liaison to the CDC panel, said during the session.

    The CDC estimated that up to 116,000 hospitalizations from COVID-19 will be prevented over the next year with universal vaccine recommendations, assuming an initial 75 percent effectiveness against hospitalization.

    The effectiveness was projected in certain scenarios to drop to 50 percent after three months, the CDC said.

    The KP.2 strain is the dominant strain in the United States as of May 25, according to CDC data. The closely related KP.3 strain, and the JN.1 variant, are also causing a number of cases.

    Modeling through June 22 projects the rise of a new strain called LB.1.

    A spokesperson for the CDC told The Epoch Times recently that LB.1 “has the potential to infect some people more easily based on a single deletion in a spike protein“ but ”there is currently no evidence that LB.1 causes more severe disease.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 15:10

  • NY Times Editorial Board Urges Biden To Quit Race – Did Trump Administer Premature Kill Shot?
    NY Times Editorial Board Urges Biden To Quit Race – Did Trump Administer Premature Kill Shot?

    Thursday night’s presidential debate mortally wounded President Biden’s political career, and now the New York Times has hammered a significant nail in the coffin — publishing an editorial bluntly declaring that “the greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election.” 

    With this development, Biden’s departure from November ballots is taking on an air of inevitability. At the same time, Team Trump is reckoning with what may have been a strategic error —  enabling a premature kill shot that could leave Trump facing a worse matchup. 

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    Repeatedly emphasizing President Trump’s supposed “enormous…danger” to the country, the Times editorial board wrote that Biden is “engaged in a reckless gamble” with America’s future, saying “it’s too big a bet to simply hope Americans will overlook or discount Mr. Biden’s age and infirmity that they see with their own eyes.” 

    You don’t have to respect the Times to appreciate the enormity of a cornerstone liberal media institution declaring an incumbent Democratic president mentally incapable of running for re-election. This move by a “newspaper of record” will embolden other leftist entities and elected officials  to do the same, and the momentum is likely to only grow stronger as the snowball effect gathers force. 

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    Here are some more pointed highlights: 

    • “Voters cannot be expected to ignore what was instead plain to see: Mr. Biden is not the man he was four years ago.”

    • “The president’s performance cannot be written off as a bad night or blamed on a supposed cold, because it affirmed concerns that have been mounting for months or even years.”

    • “[Biden] insisted on a date months earlier than any previous general election debate. He understood that he needed to address longstanding public concerns about his mental acuity and that he needed to do so as soon as possible. The truth Mr. Biden needs to confront now is that he failed his own test.”

    • “Democrats who have deferred to Mr. Biden must now find the courage to speak plain truths to the party’s leader….The clearest path for Democrats to defeat a candidate defined by his lies is to deal truthfully with the American public: acknowledge that Mr. Biden can’t continue his race.“

    Whistling past his boss’s political graveyard, Biden-Harris co-chair Cedric Richmond told CNN, “The last time Joe Biden lost the New York Times editorial board’s endorsement, it turned out pretty well for him” — a reference to the Times backing Senators Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 Democratic primary.  

    In what might be a political first, many of Biden’s most alarming moments in the debate came when he wasn’t speaking

    At this point, the post-debate glee at Trump campaign headquarters is likely infused with some angst. Presidential races are all about the matchups, and Trump couldn’t have asked for a more favorable opponent than Biden. That’s now in jeopardy. 

    In our debate preview, we warned that frontrunner Trump may have made a major strategic error in agreeing to an extraordinarily early date for the first debate:   

    Trump may come to regret agreeing to a debate that’s far earlier in the presidential election calendar than normal — indeed, before either party has even had its nominating convention. If tonight’s debate puts Biden’s mental decline under the national spotlight, the Democratic Party…may scramble to persuade Biden to leave the race with dignity and replace him with someone else.

    Now, as that exact scenario is playing out, the Trump campaign is feebly trying to steer Democrats away from benching Biden and subbing in the likes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom or Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Responding to the Times editorial, the Trump campaign told NBC News that Biden is the “incumbent president, he is the Democrat nominee, he has also said he won’t drop out, it’s too late to change that.”

    Don’t bet on it. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 14:55

  • Dam In East Texas On 'Potential Failure Watch'
    Dam In East Texas On ‘Potential Failure Watch’

    Officials in East Texas declared a “potential failure watch” status over concerns that heavy rains in the Houston region may result in a structure issue at the spillway of the Lake Livingston Dam. 

    On Friday night, The Trinity River Authority confirmed that the spillway “has been adversely impacted by the recent heavy rainfall and flooding in the dam’s drainage area.” 

    “While there is no immediate danger of either failure or breach of the dam, the potential does exist however remote it might be,” the river authority’s statement continued, adding, “The day-to-day operation of the dam will continue as necessary, although normal gate operations may vary as conditions dictate.”

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    “Beginning April 28, the Piney Woods region of the state received torrential rainfall that included more than 20 inches of rain falling in a seven-day period near the lake,” Houston Chronicle said. 

    Here’s footage of the dam:

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    Early last week, a century-old concrete gravity dam on the Blue Earth River in Rapidan Township, near Rapidan, Minnesota, experienced a ‘partial failure.’ 

    To summarize, America’s aging critical infrastructure is deteriorating as the lifespans reach their limits. However, leftist corporate media outlets continue to attribute failing infrastructure to climate change. Rather than funneling tens of billions of dollars of US taxpayer funds to Ukraine, the American people should demand that political elites in Washington, DC, fix America first before any more foreign wars.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 14:35

  • Lithium: A Clean Energy Solution With A Dirty Secret
    Lithium: A Clean Energy Solution With A Dirty Secret

    Authored by Haley Zaremba via OilPrice.com,

    • Lithium is essential for the clean energy transition, but its extraction often involves severe environmental and health consequences.

    • AlkaLi, a startup company, aims to revolutionize lithium extraction with a lower environmental footprint and potentially make the US more competitive in lithium processing.

    • The demand for lithium is expected to increase dramatically in the coming years, driven by the growth of electric vehicles and renewable energy storage.

    Lithium is essential to saving the world from climate change – but will it destroy the environment in the process? 

    Ironically, lithium extraction is just as associated with sharply negative environmental externalities as it is with clean and green energy initiatives. The communities where lithium is extracted are already suffering from dire health and ecological issues stemming from the extraction of the metal, but the lithium industry is just getting started. To avoid devastation for such communities, something about the lithium extraction process has to change drastically and soon. 

    Gradiant, a unicorn startup company that treats industrial wastewater, thinks that it has a solution to this rapidly expanding problem. It’s opening a new spin-off business called alkaLi which aims to extract lithium from naturally occurring brine and then process it for use in lithium-ion batteries via novel methods. The company’s innovative process “uses resins and membranes to more easily extract the lithium from brine, then relies on its own technology to concentrate the mineral, which ultimately is precipitated into a solid for use in batteries,” Forbes summarized in a recent report. 

    The team behind Gradiant and alkaLi believes that their disruptive lithium extraction and processing approach can turn the lithium industry on its head and jettison the budding AlkaLi  into the stratosphere. “The demand side of lithium is crazy,” Gradiant co-founder and chief operating officer Prakash Govindan was quoted by Forbes. “We believe we can create a billion-dollar company just from the lithium business, but it is in the early stages of revenue.”

    It’s true that the demand for lithium is going gangbusters and shows no signs of stopping. A 2023 report from Popular Mechanics calculated that “an electrified economy in 2030 will likely need anywhere from 250,000 to 450,000 tonnes of lithium.” By comparison, “In 2021, the world produced only 105—not 105,000—tonnes.”

    The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) corroborates this astronomical scale of growth. Its 2022 lithium report estimates that lithium demand for battery-making alone is expected to increase by a factor of ten over the decade between 2020 and 2030. These batteries will be essential to the global clean energy transition to power electric vehicles as well as to store variable renewable energy produced by solar and wind power.

    But there are a few problems with the massive growth of lithium demand.

    First is the aforementioned environmental impact of lithium mining and extraction. Lithium extraction is typically extremely water-intensive – according to a 2018 report from WIRED magazine, extracting a single ton of lithium requires approximately 500,000 liters of water. In a cruel irony, lithium is often found and extracted in extremely water-stressed areas, such as South America’s so-called ‘lithium triangle,’ which overlaps with the Atacama, the world’s driest desert. What’s more, extraction through brine ponds also poses a potential threat of contaminating existing, preciously scant water reserves. 

    Moreover, the chemicals involved in lithium extraction are extremely toxic. “The release of such chemicals through leeching [sic], spills or air emissions can harm communities, ecosystems and food production,” reads a recent report from international environment activism group Friends of the Earth. “Moreover, lithium extraction inevitably harms the soil and also causes air contamination.”

    Finally, the lithium industry presents key geopolitical issues in its current form. While most lithium is extracted in Australia and South America, almost all lithium processing takes place in China, creating a potentially dangerous concentration of a vital supply chain. 

    AlkaLi claims that its lithium extraction and processing method has a lower water footprint and carbon footprint than typical methods, and that it’s 50% cheaper to boot. This means that they may not only have found a way to reduce the environmental harm that the lithium boom threatens to cause around the globe, but also allow for the United States to eventually become competitive with China – a target that the U.S. desperately seeks. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 14:00

  • Costco To Build 800-Unit Apartment Complex In South Los Angeles
    Costco To Build 800-Unit Apartment Complex In South Los Angeles

    Costco is building a ‘mixed use’ 800-unit apartment complex in south Los Angeles – with 184 units designated as affordable housing, which some have speculated will allow them to fast-track the construction of an actual Costco Big Box store by taking advantage of a state law which removes significant red tape from such projects, the NY Post reports.

    Costco plans to open a new store in South Los Angeles and has teamed with developers to build an 800-unit apartment complex — with 84 units set aside for affordable housing. Thrive Living

    The project, in partnership with  Baldwin Village by developers Thrive Living and architects AO, is still in the permitting stage so no word on when ground will be broken.

    Via @CohenSite

    “The planning and land use system in California and in LA is a Rube Goldberg machine,” housing activist Joe Cohen told SFGATE, “and this project is seeing that machine laid bare.”

    The mixed-use complex would rise on a vacant, five-acre lot that was previously home to a hospital. 

    The plans include a gym, multi-purpose spaces, gardens, a rooftop pool, landscaping and a large parking lot, according to the press release. -NY Post

    According to Cohen – who calls it Costco Prison, the complex is “a bunch of small units along these long hallways, with a massive recreation center as an amenity space,” adding “From a plain view, it looks like an old school prison design,” due to its use of pre-manufactured apartment modules that can he brought to the site by truck.

    The reason for the ‘prison’ look, Cohen says, is that “Costco was facing years of public hearings, millions of dollars of consultant fees, and an uncertain outcome,” in order to gain approval.

    Thrive Living

    “However, mixed-use housing projects that meet certain criteria are automatically exempt from discretionary reviews by state law (AB 2011),” he continues.

    “So Costco did what any good Scooby-Doo villain would do. They put on a mask that says “I’m an apartment building, not a big-box store.”“

    To get the full protection of state housing laws (HAA), mixed-use buildings must be at least 2/3 residential. The Costco itself is 185,000 square feet. So they needed at least 370,000 sq ft of residential.

    (They ended up with 471,000 sq ft of residential plus an additional 56,000 sq ft of amenity space)

    But for a project that big, to qualify for AB 2011, you need to not only pay prevailing wages, but use “skilled and trained” (aka union) labor.

    “luckily”, union labor requirements only apply to on-site construction. So to lower the amount of on-site labor needed, Costco turned to pre-fab building modules.

    Pre-fab modules need to fit on trucks, which results in mostly small shotgun-style one-bedroom units.

    And that’s how you end up with a Costco housing project that resembles a prison! -Joe Cohen

    The Costco store itself will be close to mass transit, and will include a multi-floor, underground garage, pharmacy, and optical center according to SFGATE.

    “Mayor Bass has declared a housing emergency in Los Angeles, and we’re answering the call,” Jordan Brill of Thrive Living in a statement included in the press release. “Our company is focused on addressing the severe housing affordability crisis in Los Angeles, while also attracting retailers willing to make long-term commitments.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 13:25

  • Banksy 'Launches' Migrant Boat Stunt At Glastonbury Festival, Which Has An 8-Mile-Long, 20ft-High Border-Wall
    Banksy ‘Launches’ Migrant Boat Stunt At Glastonbury Festival, Which Has An 8-Mile-Long, 20ft-High Border-Wall

    Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

    The ‘street’ artist Banksy carried out a stunt at the now uber trendy Glastonbury Festival Friday night by launching a mock-up small boat complete with dummy migrants into the crowd.

    The Guardian reports that many in the crowd thought it was part of the band Idles’ set given that their songs are all about lefty political positions such as the idea that limiting mass illegal immigration is right wing and evil.

    The report notes, however, that Banksy was behind the stunt stating “The raft, a reference to the small boats carrying migrants across the Channel that have been such a high-profile target of Rishi Sunak’s immigration policy, was crowdsurfed through the thousands-strong Other stage crowd, which Idles were headlining on Friday night.”

    Given that Sunak has done practically nothing to prevent the boats and the Conservative government has actively incentivised mass illegal immigration for years now, you’d be forgiven for thinking the stunt was some sort of endorsement.

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

    Indeed, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what the point of it was. 

    What is the crowd cheering about here?

    The report further notes that the boat was ‘launched’ during a song called Danny Nedelko, which contains the following lyrics:

    My blood brother is an immigrant, a beautiful immigrant. My blood brother’s Freddie Mercury. A Nigerian mother of three. He’s made of bones, he’s made of blood. He’s made of flesh, he’s made of love. He’s made of you, he’s made of me. Unity. Fear leads to panic, panic leads to pain. Pain leads to anger, anger leads to hate.

    The report also notes that “Migration is a major theme at this year’s Glastonbury festival, with a new area dedicated to the topic.”

    Mega cringe.

    It continues, “Entrants to ‘Terminal 1’ must answer a question from the UK government’s citizenship test for prospective migrants.”

    The message being that having some form of secure border and vetting system is oppressive… or something.

    If people manage to pass the test they’re then treated to “music by representatives from Notting Hill carnival and Bristol’s St Paul’s carnival, alongside visual art by global artists including Love Watts, Yoshi Sodeoka and the Turner prize winner Mark Wallinger.”

    No thanks then.

    It perhaps would’ve been more accurate to treat them with a four star hotel, loaded debit cards and free meals.

    The idea that Glastonbury is some sort of moral arbiter on migration is laughable given that it is surrounded by an eight kilometre long 20 ft high hi tech secure perimeter complete with guards and watchtowers.

    The BBC noted in 2019 that “The festival might even be more secure than Mr Trump’s planned border wall between the US and Mexico.”

    Admittance is only granted to the select few who pay the massively extortionate ticket price and can afford to spend more than the majority of people earn in an entire month once inside.

    It’s basically full of metropolitan shitlib ‘creatives’ and influencers with trust funds and disposable incomes.

    So it’s the perfect venue to engage in empty virtue signalling stunts.

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 12:50

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Jun 29

Today’s News 29th June 2024

  • Why Won't The US Help Negotiate A Peaceful End To The War In Ukraine?
    Why Won’t The US Help Negotiate A Peaceful End To The War In Ukraine?

    Authored by Jeffrey Sachs via AntiWar.com,

    For the fifth time since 2008, Russia has proposed to negotiate with the U.S. over security arrangements, this time in proposals made by President Vladimir Putin on June 14, 2024. Four previous times, the U.S. rejected the offer of negotiations in favor of a neocon strategy to weaken or dismember Russia through war and covert operations.

    The U.S. neocon tactics have failed disastrously, devastating Ukraine in the process, and endangering the whole world.

    After all the warmongering, it’s time for Biden to open negotiations for peace with Russia.

    Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. grand strategy has been to weaken Russia. As early as 1992, then Defense Secretary Richard Cheney opined that following the 1991 demise of the Soviet Union, Russia too should be dismembered. Zbigniew Brzezinski opined in 1997 that Russia should be divided into three loosely confederated entities in Russian Europe, Siberia, and the far east. In 1999, the U.S.-led NATO alliance bombed Russia’s ally, Serbia, for 78 days in order to break Serbia apart and install a massive NATO military base in breakaway Kosovo. Leaders of the U.S. military-industrial complex vociferously supported the Chechen war against Russia in the early 2000s.

    To secure these U.S. advances against Russia, Washington aggressively pushed NATO enlargement, despite promises to Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin that NATO would not move one inch eastward from Germany. Most tendentiously, the U.S. pushed NATO enlargement to Ukraine and Georgia, with the idea of surrounding Russia’s naval fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea with NATO states: Ukraine, Romania (NATO member 2004), Bulgaria (NATO member 2004), Turkey (NATO member 1952), and Georgia, an idea straight from the playbook of the British Empire in the Crimean War (1853-6).

    Brzezinski spelled out a chronology of NATO enlargement in 1997, including NATO membership of Ukraine during 2005-2010. The U.S. in fact proposed NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia at the 2008 NATO Bucharest Summit. By 2020, NATO had in fact enlarged by 14 countries in Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union (Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland in 1999; Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia in 2004; Albania and Croatia, 2009; Montenegro, 2017; and Northern Macedonia, 2020), while promising future membership to Ukraine and Georgia.

    In short, the 30-year U.S. project, hatched originally by Cheney and the neocons, and carried forward consistently since then, has been to weaken or even dismember Russia, surround Russia with NATO forces, and depict Russia as the belligerent power.

    It is against this grim backdrop that Russian leaders have repeatedly proposed to negotiate security arrangements with Europe and the U.S. that would provide security for all countries concerned, not just the NATO bloc. Guided by the neocon game plan, the U.S. has refused to negotiate on every occasion, while trying to pin the blame on Russia for the lack of negotiations.

    In June 2008, as the U.S. prepared to expand NATO to Ukraine and Georgia, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed a European Security Treaty, calling for collective security and an end to NATO’s unilateralism. Suffice it to say, the U.S. showed no interest whatsoever in Russia’s proposals, and instead proceeded with its long-held plans for NATO enlargement.

    The second Russian proposal for negotiations came from Putin following the violent overthrow of Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014, with the active complicity if not outright leadership of the U.S. government. I happened to see the U.S. complicity up close, as the post-coup government invited me for urgent economic discussions. When I arrived in Kiev, I was taken to the Maidan, where I was told directly about U.S. funding of the Maidan protest.

    The evidence of U.S. complicity in the coup is overwhelming. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was caught on a phone line in January 2014 plotting the change of government in Ukraine. Meanwhile, U.S. Senators went personally to Kiev to stir up the protests (akin to Chinese or Russian political leaders coming to DC on January 6, 2021 to rile up the crowds). On February 21, 2014, the Europeans, U.S., and Russia brokered a deal with Yanukovych in which Yanukovich agreed to early elections. Yet the coup leaders reneged on the deal the same day, took over government buildings, threatened more violence, and deposed Yanukovych the next day. The U.S. supported the coup and immediately extended recognition to the new government.

    In my view, this was a standard CIA-led covert regime change operation, of which there have been several dozen around the world, including sixty-four episodes between 1947 and 1989 meticulously documented by Professor Lindsey O’Rourke. Covert regime-change operations are of course not really hidden from view, but the U.S. government vociferously denies its role, keeps all documents highly confidential, and systematically gaslights the world: “Do not believe what you see plainly with your own eyes! The U.S. had nothing to do with this.” Details of the operations eventually emerge, however, through eyewitnesses, whistleblowers, the forced release of documents under the Freedom of Information Act, declassification of papers after years or decades, and memoirs, but all far too late for real accountability.

    In any event, the violent coup induced the ethnic-Russia Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine to break from the coup leaders, many of whom were extreme Russophobic nationalists, and some in violent groups with a history of Nazi SS links in the past. Almost immediately, the coup leaders took steps to repress the use of the Russian language even in the Russian-speaking Donbas. In the following months and years, the government in Kiev launched a military campaign to retake the breakaway regions, deploying neo-Nazi paramilitary units and U.S. arms.

    In the course of 2014, Putin called repeatedly for a negotiated peace, and this led to the Minsk II Agreement in February 2015 based on autonomy of the Donbas and an end to violence by both sides. Russia did not claim the Donbas as Russian territory, but instead called for autonomy and the protection of ethnic Russians within Ukraine. The UN Security Council endorsed the Minsk II agreement, but the U.S. neocons privately subverted it. Years later, Chancellor Angela Merkel blurted out the truth. The Western side treated the agreement not as a solemn treaty but as a delaying tactic to “give Ukraine time” to build its military strength. In the meantime, around 14,000 people died in the fighting in Donbas between 2014 and 2021.

    Following the definitive collapse of the Minsk II agreement, Putin again proposed negotiations with the U.S. in December 2021. By that point, the issues went even beyond NATO enlargement to include fundamental issues of nuclear armaments. Step by step, the U.S. neocons had abandoned nuclear arms control with Russia, with the U.S. unilaterally abandoning the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in 2002, placing Aegis missiles in Poland and Romania in 2010 onwards, and walking out of the Intermediate Nuclear Force (INF) Treaty in 2019.

    In view of these dire concerns, Putin put on the table on December 15, 2021 a draft “Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Security Guarantees.” The most immediate issue on the table (Article 4 of the draft treaty) was the end of the U.S. attempt to expand NATO to Ukraine. I called U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan at the end of 2021 to try to convince the Biden White House to enter the negotiations. My main advice was to avoid a war in Ukraine by accepting Ukraine’s neutrality, rather than NATO membership, which was a bright red line for Russia.

    The White House flatly rejected the advice, claiming remarkably (and obtusely) that NATO’s enlargement to Ukraine was none of Russia’s business! Yet what would the U.S. say if some country in the Western hemisphere decided to host Chinese or Russian bases? Would the White House, State Department, or Congress say, “That’s just fine, that’s a matter of concern only to Russia or China and the host country?” No. The world nearly came to nuclear Armageddon in 1962 when the Soviet Union placed nuclear missiles in Cuba and the U.S. imposed a naval quarantine and threatened war unless the Russians removed the missiles. The U.S. military alliance does not belong in Ukraine any more than the Russian or Chinese military belongs close to the U.S. border.

    The fourth offer of Putin to negotiate came in March 2022, when Russia and Ukraine nearly closed a peace deal just weeks after the start of Russia’s special military operation that began on February 24, 2022. Russia, once again, was after one big thing: Ukraine’s neutrality, i.e., no NATO membership and no hosting of U.S. missiles on Russia’s border.

    Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky quickly accepted Ukraine’s neutrality, and Ukraine and Russia exchanged papers, with the skillful mediation of the Foreign Ministry of Turkey. Then suddenly, at the end of March, Ukraine abandoned the negotiations.

    U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, following in the tradition of British anti-Russian war-mongering dating back to the Crimean War (1853-6), actually flew to Kiev to warn Zelensky against neutrality and the importance of Ukraine defeating Russia on the battlefield. Since that date, Ukraine has lost around 500,000 dead and is on the ropes on the battlefield.

    Now we have Russia’s fifth offer of negotiations, explained clearly and cogently by Putin himself in his speech to diplomats at the Russian Foreign Ministry on June 14. Putin laid out Russia’s proposed terms to end the war in Ukraine.

    “Ukraine should adopt a neutral, non-aligned status, be nuclear- free, and undergo demilitarization and de-nazification,” Putin said. “These parameters were broadly agreed upon during the Istanbul negotiations in 2022, including specific details on demilitarization such as the agreed numbers of tanks and other military equipment. We reached consensus on all points.

    “Certainly, the rights, freedoms, and interests of Russian-speaking citizens in Ukraine must be fully protected,” he continued. “The new territorial realities, including the status of Crimea, Sevastopol, Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions as parts of the Russian Federation, should be acknowledged. These foundational principles need to be formalized through fundamental international agreements in the future. Naturally, this entails the removal of all Western sanctions against Russia as well.”

    Let me say a few words about negotiating.

    Russia’s proposals should now be met at the negotiating table by proposals from the U.S. and Ukraine. The White House is dead wrong to evade negotiations just because of disagreements with Russia’s proposals. It should put up its own proposals and get down to the business of negotiating an end to the war.

    There are three core issues for Russia:

    1. Ukraine’s neutrality (non-NATO enlargement),

    2. Crimea remaining in Russian hands, and

    3. boundary changes in Eastern and Southern Ukraine.

    The first two are almost surely non-negotiable.

    The end of NATO enlargement is the fundamental casus belli. Crimea is also core for Russia, as Crimea has been home to Russia’s Black Sea fleet since 1783 and is fundamental to Russia’s national security.

    The third core issue, the borders of Eastern and Southern Ukraine, will be a key point of negotiations. The U.S. cannot pretend that borders are sacrosanct after NATO bombed Serbia in 1999 to relinquish Kosovo, and after the U.S. pressured Sudan to relinquish South Sudan. Yes, Ukraine’s borders will be redrawn as the result of the 10 years of war, the situation on the battlefield, the choices of the local populations, and tradeoffs made at the negotiating table.

    Biden needs to accept that negotiations are not a sign of weakness. As Kennedy put it, “Never negotiate out of fear, but never fear to negotiate.” Ronald Reagan famously described his own negotiating strategy using a Russian proverb, “Trust but verify.”

    The neocon approach to Russia, delusional and hubristic from the start, lies in ruins. NATO will never enlarge to Ukraine and Georgia. Russia will not be toppled by a CIA covert operation. Ukraine is being horribly bloodied on the battlefield, often losing 1,000 or more dead and wounded in a single day. The failed neocon game plan brings us closer to nuclear Armageddon.

    Yet Biden still refuses to negotiate. Following Putin’s speech, the U.S., NATO, and Ukraine firmly rejected negotiations once again. Biden and his team have still not relinquished the neocon fantasy of defeating Russia and expanding NATO to Ukraine.

    The Ukrainian people have been lied to time and again by Zelensky and Biden and other leaders of NATO countries, who told them falsely and repeatedly that Ukraine would prevail on the battlefield and that there were no options to negotiate. Ukraine is now under martial law. The public is given no say about its own slaughter.

    For the sake of Ukraine’s very survival, and to avoid nuclear war, the President of the United States has one overriding responsibility today: Negotiate.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 23:25

  • Americans Dread Vote Between Two Unpopular Candidates
    Americans Dread Vote Between Two Unpopular Candidates

    When President Joe Biden and his predecessor and presumptive challenger Donald Trump faced off in the first of two planned presidential debates in Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday night, things were very different from usual.

    First of all, it was the earliest date ever for a presidential debate, which are usually held in September and October, shortly ahead of the election and after the candidates have officially been nominated by their parties. Secondly, the debate was hosted by CNN and held without a live audience, bypassing the Commission on Presidential Debates, which had organized all such events since 1988.

    Additionally, as Statista’s Felix Richter notes, the debate was also unique in that it featured two candidates that are viewed as unfit for the job by large parts of the American public, albeit for very different reasons. While President Biden is widely viewed as too old for a second term (and apparently proved that view correct last night), former President Trump is the first convicted felon to run for the country’s highest office.

    As a result of this unusual match-up, many voters feel like they’re caught between a rock and a hard place, as they have serious reservations about both candidates.

    According to a recent poll by The Economist and YouGov, Biden and Trump are seen unfavorably by almost 60 percent of Americans, with a shocking 44 and 47 percent holding very unfavorable views of the incumbent and his challenger, respectively.

    Of course, those numbers are largely driven by the extreme polarization of today’s political landscape, resulting in 92 percent of likely Democratic voters seeing Trump unfavorably and 94 percent of likely Republican voters holding a negative view of Biden, but there are reservations about their own candidate on both sides of the political spectrum as well.

    Infographic: Americans Dread Vote Between Two Unpopular Candidates | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    As Statista’s chart above shows, this results in what is often described as “election dread” or a widespread lack of enthusiasm ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

    According to The Economist/YouGov, 44 of percent of the 1,600 U.S. adults surveyed are not or not at all enthusiastic about voting in November, with election dread most widespread among those who identified as Independent – at 78 percent.

    Unsurprisingly, those who identify with or lean towards the Republican party are more enthusiastic about the upcoming vote, as concerns about Biden’s age appear to be more widespread within the Democratic base than doubts about Trump’s fitness for office are among Republicans.

    We will see if these numbers tilt aggressively in favor of Trump in the following days after Biden’s performance last night.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 23:00

  • DOJ Sues 5 Pro-Life Activists For Repeatedly Obstructing Access To Abortion Clinics
    DOJ Sues 5 Pro-Life Activists For Repeatedly Obstructing Access To Abortion Clinics

    Authored by Beth Brelje via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a lawsuit against pro-life advocates, alleging violations under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a law that prevents interfering with women entering abortion clinics.

    Calvin Zastrow and his daughter, Eva Zastrow, pause in Indiana while on a road trip from their home in Michigan to a federal court in Nashville, Tenn., on April 1, 2024. (Courtesy of Trish Zastrow)

    The civil suit seeks a monetary penalty and an injunction preventing repeat offenders from continuing their activity, marking a departure from the criminal cases that have been brought to prosecute violators of the FACE Act in recent years. In previous cases, the DOJ has asked the court to sentence the alleged offenders to 11 years in prison for each offense.

    The DOJ filed the lawsuit on June 20 in the Middle District of Florida against five people for violating the FACE Act two years ago at the Fort Myers Health Center, a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic.

    The case alleges that five people brought operations at the Fort Myers Health Center to a halt for at least one hour on Jan. 27, 2022. As a result, several patients had their appointments rescheduled or canceled, and one employee quit working there after eight years.

    Named in the lawsuit are Calvin Zastrow of Michigan, a longtime pro-life advocate; Kenneth Scott of Florida, who has been charged numerous times for pro-life advocacy at abortion clinics and often represents himself in court; Chester Gallagher of Tennessee, a former police officer who left his job to advocate for the unborn; Eva Zastrow of Michigan, a missionary and pro-life activist; and Katelyn Sims, also known as Katelyn Velasco, of Texas.

    The defendants trespassed onto a reproductive health center’s property, blocked the entrances, and temporarily stopped operations at the center, the complaint alleges.

    The defendants were charged locally in Lee County and found guilty. Several pro-life minors were also arrested for the incident and charged locally with trespassing.

    The defendants have been charged in previous FACE cases and are unlikely to stop showing up at abortion clinics, according to the complaint.

    Stephen Crampton, senior counsel for Thomas More Society, will represent some of the defendants, who have been advised not to make statements about the case.

    “This prosecution is yet another example of our two-tiered justice system ... whereby defenders of life are aggressively prosecuted while most who violently attacked churches and pro-life pregnancy centers are not brought to justice,” Mr. Crampton told The Epoch Times.

    “While we are pleased the DOJ has pulled back from its effort to inflict draconian criminal punishment on these gentle pro-life advocates, we are disappointed that they have decided to relentlessly pursue these peaceful, nonviolent demonstrators and seek civil penalties—including ruinous fines—for events that occurred years ago and which resulted in local law enforcement already taking action, as our federalist system of government rightly contemplated,” he said.

    The Department of Justice in Washington on March 25, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

    Blocked Door

    On Jan. 27, 2022, a Planned Parenthood security coordinator noticed the defendants arriving across the street from the Fort Myers Health Center at about 7:45 a.m. in several cars with out-of-state license plates, according to court papers. By 8:25 a.m., the center’s management was instructing employees to park at a tile outlet store’s parking lot next door and to wait for the security coordinator to escort them into the building.

    As employees arrived to work, the abortion protesters allegedly shouted “baby murderer” and “you’re going to hell” at them, the complaint said. A Planned Parenthood doctor was instructed to stay in her car due to the protests, and the DOJ says she was unable to enter the business until 10:30 a.m.

    The Lee County Sheriff’s Office then received reports from the Fort Myers Health Center that protesters were preventing individuals from entering the building, according to the complaint.

    Some defendants walked onto the property in front of the sheriff’s deputies and toward the door, while yelling, “They are killing babies inside and you are not doing anything about it.”

    A woman arrived for services while some defendants were blocking the door. The Planned Parenthood security officer had to pry open the door and the woman had to squeeze past the protesters to enter, court papers say.

    Sheriff’s deputies arrested one protester for trespassing. Another was still sitting in front of the door and refused to leave. He was also arrested for trespassing.

    Two other protesters went to the back door where employees had entered and tried to get in, but the door was locked, court papers say.

    The protesters tried to shove signs under the door, and according to the DOJ, employees inside were frightened by the protesters’ attempts to get in the back door and grabbed weapons, including a scalpel and an IV pole, to defend themselves if the protesters got inside.

    Those protesters were also arrested for trespassing.

    Repeat Offenders

    The defendants violated the FACE Act by blocking doors and intimidating women and abortion workers, the DOJ alleges, adding they have done it before and are likely to continue to commit such violations.

    Mr. Gallagher, Mr. Zastrow, and his daughter, Ms. Zastrow, have been criminally convicted in a previous FACE case and await sentencing. The Zastrows await court for other cases in Michigan.

    Each criminal case carries up to 11 years in federal prison. Instead of prison, this civil case asks for a penalty of $20,516 for first violations and no more than $30,868 for subsequent violations, plus damages of $5,000 for each person allegedly aggrieved by the defendants.

    It is unclear how many people the DOJ is counting as aggrieved in this incident.

    The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 22:35

  • These Are The Most Expensive US Metro Areas To Raise A Kid
    These Are The Most Expensive US Metro Areas To Raise A Kid

    Raising a child can be expensive, often costing hundreds of thousands of dollars from birth through to adulthood.

    This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, shows the 10 most expensive metro areas to raise a child in, among the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. Costs include food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, and other necessities.

    All figures are as of February 2024. Data is from SmartAsset.

    Methodology: SmartAsset used MIT Living Wage Calculator data to compare the living costs of a household with two working adults and one child to that of a childless household with two working adults in extensive metro areas.

    Boston Tops the List

    Raising a child in a large U.S. metro area costs an average of $25,181 per year.

    The Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA, area is the most expensive, at $37,758 annually. Childcare costs $22,806 annually, and additional housing needs cost $5,425.

    The San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley metro area comes in second, with an annual cost of $35,642 per child. Washington, DC, ranks third with an average cost of $35,554. Washington also leads the country in childcare costs alone at $24,886 annually.

    Additional housing costs are higher in the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad area, amounting to $7,056 annually. Meanwhile, the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area tops the list for food, healthcare, and transportation costs.

    If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out Ranked: The Most Valuable Housing Markets in America.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 22:10

  • 21 Facts That Joe Biden Doesn't Want You To Know
    21 Facts That Joe Biden Doesn’t Want You To Know

    Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

    It takes a lot of gumption to go on television and repeatedly lie to more than 300 million Americans.  I honestly don’t know how Joe Biden does it.  I suppose that after you have been lying for your entire career, lying comes as naturally as breathing does.  Sadly, there are still millions of Americans that are falling for his lies after all this time.  Biden would like for us all to believe that the economy is “booming”, that the southern border is under control, that our communities are safe, and that Ukraine is going to win their war against Russia.  Our entire society is literally crumbling all around us, and Biden and his minions have brought us to the brink of global war.  I am entirely convinced that he has been the worst president in U.S. history, and that is really saying something.

    Ultimately, Joe Biden is just another slimy politician that is trying to save his job.

    I get that.

    But come on man, how can anyone actually believe the nonsense that he is shoveling?

    There are a few numbers that Biden can cherry pick to try to make himself look good, but here are 21 facts that Joe Biden doesn’t want you to know…

    1. It takes the typical U.S. household $1,069 more a month just to purchase the same goods and services that it did three years ago.

    2. Two-thirds of the respondents to one recent survey indicated that they had to take action to deal with rising financial stress within the past year.  Those actions included “cutting back on spending, skipping monthly bills, or taking an additional job”.

    3. Home insurance rates have risen by 38 percent since 2019.

    4. Home rental prices are up 30 percent since Joe Biden entered the White House.

    5. A whopping 61 percent of U.S. renters cannot afford the rent on a median-priced apartment in the United States right now.

    6. Gasoline prices are up 46 percent since Joe Biden entered the White House.

    7. The average rate on a 30 year fixed mortgage is up 148 percent since Joe Biden entered the White House.

    8. According to Zillow, the monthly mortgage payment on a typical home in this country has almost doubled during the past four years.

    9. One recent poll discovered that 44 percent of retired Americans are considering going back to work because the cost of living has become so oppressive.

    10. New home sales fell 11.3 percent last month.

    11. Pending home sales are dropping at the fastest rate ever recorded.

    12. According to the House Budget Committee, there have been more than 8 million migrant encounters nationwide while Joe Biden has been in the White House.  We truly are in the midst of an immigration crisis that is far greater than anything that we have ever witnessed before.

    13. Thanks to our unprecedented immigration crisis, the homeless population in the city of Chicago actually tripled in just one year.

    14. Murder rates are up by double digit percentages in many major U.S. cities this year.

    15. Continuing jobless claims just shot up to the highest level in almost three years.

    16. The number of job openings in the United States has dropped to the lowest level in more than 3 years.

    17. Rite Aid just announced that it will be closing 27 more stores.  That is on top of more than 500 stores that it has already decided to shut down.

    18. Walgreens plans to close approximately one-fourth of its 8,600 U.S. stores.  If the economy really was “booming”, why would they be doing this?

    19. Today, 20 percent of the entire population of the state of California is living in poverty.

    20. According to one recent survey, 46 percent of Americans don’t even have 500 dollars saved up.

    21. So far, the U.S. has spent a total of approximately 175 billion dollars on the war in Ukraine, and the Russians are still winning.

    Over the past three and a half years, there has just been one epic failure after another.

    The nightmarish withdrawal from Afghanistan set the stage for the entire Biden presidency.  Everything that Biden and his minions have touched has gone sour.  In fact, usually the best thing that Biden and his minions can do to solve a problem is to do nothing at all.

    Have you ever known someone that has a knack for royally messing things up no matter how hard they try?

    Unfortunately, Biden and his minions aren’t just incompetent.

    They have blended extreme incompetence with sheer evil, and now they are asking voters to give them a chance to run America for another four years.

    But if we stay on the path that we are on, will our nation even survive?

    If we want to turn things around, we need to do the exact opposite of what we have been doing.

    And we better move fast, because the clock is ticking…

    *  *  *

    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
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 21:45

  • Trump Vows To Immediately Free WSJ's Gershkovich, Says Putin "Laughing" At Biden
    Trump Vows To Immediately Free WSJ’s Gershkovich, Says Putin “Laughing” At Biden

    Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been languishing in a Russian jail since March of last year after his arrest on allegations of espionage. Soon after his detention the US formally designated him “wrongfully detained”.

    Former President Donald Trump in last night’s debate with President Joe Biden hammered the administration on the lack of action on freeing the journalist. Trump vowed that if re-elected he would secure Gershkovich’s release very quickly upon entering office.

    Via Reuters: Evan Gershkovich is accused of espionage and could face up to 20 years in prison.

    “I will have him out very quickly, as soon as I take office, before I take office,” Trump said from the CNN debate stage, and continued: “As soon as I win the election, I will have that reporter out.”

    Trump sought to paint a general picture of the world “laughing” at us, especially leaders like Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping, and Vladimir Putin. Trump also said the only way Biden has gotten Americans released from foreign prisons is by handing overseas despots billions of dollars upon their demanding it.

    The Republican frontrunner specifically referenced $6 billion ‘given’ to gain the release of five detained Americans in Iran in 2023, in reference to freeing up frozen Iranian assets that had been held primarily in South Korea.

    Trump claimed that Putin is now demanding “billions of dollars” for Gershkovich’s release and that Putin “is laughing at this guy” – in reference to Biden.

    This week, starting Wednesday, Gershkovich’s trial began in secret in Ekaterinburg, which is the city some 900 miles away from Moscow where Russia’s FSB arrested him last year. He appeared in court behind the typical defendant’s glass cage.

    Watch Trump go after Biden on the issue of the journalist’s detention:

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

    WSJ’s Editor in Chief Emma Tucker has stated: “This bogus accusation of espionage will inevitably lead to a bogus conviction for an innocent man who would then face up to 20 years in prison for simply doing his job. And an excellent job he was doing, at that.” Trump on Thursday night hailed him as a “good guy”.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 21:20

  • Does The US Want A Strong Or Weak Dollar?
    Does The US Want A Strong Or Weak Dollar?

    Authored by Law Ka-chung via The Epoch Times,

    Financial markets generally show no clear direction these days. Accordingly, relatively small movements cause market noise. A few examples happened in the currency market where non-U.S. dollar exchange rates depreciated. While Euro depreciation had its back story of extreme right-wing parties rising in election polls, Japanese Yen depreciation had its story of the central bank (Bank of Japan) not managing market expectations well, Chinese Yuan depreciation had its story of bad outlook, the ultimate result was a strong U.S. dollar, against all.

    Many views have listed so many reasons that the U.S. dollar should decline, if not collapse. However, the “cruel” fact is the U.S. dollar is still trading near its historical high.

    Based on the well-known dollar index (DXY) compiled by Bloomberg, it has been over 100 for two years already, where most of the time in its history (from 1967 to now), it has ranged between 80 and 100. Directionally speaking, it has been trending up from 2008 to now.

    Even in terms of world trade invoicing, central bank reserves, and financial denominations, the U.S. dollar share remains stable.

    The strength of U.S. dollar is neither solely political nor solely economic.

    U.S. interest rate higher than the others is one force making the U.S. dollar stronger, but a mega wave of inflation and interest rates is generally a global phenomenon that all non-U.S. central banks would act similarly.

    It follows that any interest rate differentials are more likely the results of time lag and technical factors than global divergence.

    More importantly, the U.S. Dollar is widely used in so many countries that it might not reflect only the U.S. economy and policies but also some global boom-bust factors.

    Does the U.S. prefer a strong dollar?

    Of course, the U.S. would like to maintain the existing U.S. dollar status, but given the current situation, it might prefer a weaker currency, which would be good for the U.S. economy.

    As the accompanying chart shows, whether over the medium to long-run (from 2000 to now) or shorter-run cyclical term, GDP YoY growth moves oppositely to DXY YoY growth.

    DXY and U.S. GDP YoY. (Courtesy of Law Ka-chung)

    That said, a weaker dollar favours economic growth in both cyclical and decadal terms.

    Thus, the U.S. should have no incentive to maintain a strong dollar, which might be a market outcome.

    As most financial assets are denominated in U.S. dollars, risk-on/off has been the key factor of weak/strong dollar (at least over the past two to three decades). The recent strong U.S. dollar might reflect a certain reluctance to comprehensive global risk-on. That said, we do see some countries (like the U.S.) and some sectors (like tech) performing well, but this is far from a general phenomenon happening everywhere and at all times. Central banks like the Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan, and the People’s Bank of China have tried hard to intervene, but the effects were short-lived.

    Having said that, the long-term real effect on the global economy is largely contained as long as the DXY movement is within plus or minus 10 percent (such as the range of 80-100). At the sovereign level, short-term currency movements are never of any concern.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 20:55

  • These Are The World's Oldest And Youngest Countries, By Median Age
    These Are The World’s Oldest And Youngest Countries, By Median Age

    The median age is a single indicator of the age distribution of a population – where half the population is older and half is younger than the listed age.

    It can help government and private companies plan for age-specific demand for goods and services from the resident population.

    In the chart below, Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao visualizes the world’s oldest and youngest countries by median age, based on 2024 estimates from the CIA World Factbook.

    Ranked: Countries by Median Age in 2024

    Monaco and Japan – two countries with high life expectancies and low birth rates -`have some of the highest median ages (50+) in the world.

    A high median age is indicative of an aging population. Without policy support, this can lead to economic ramifications.

    Here are the median ages of 200+ countries and territories in the world.

    Rank Country/Territory Median Age
    1 🇲🇨 Monaco 57
    2 🇵🇲 Saint Pierre & Miquelon 51
    3 🇯🇵 Japan 50
    4 🇦🇩 Andorra 49
    5 🇮🇹 Italy 48
    6 🇧🇱 Saint Barthelemy 47
    7 🇭🇰 Hong Kong 47
    8 🇪🇸 Spain 47
    9 🇩🇪 Germany 47
    10 🇬🇷 Greece 47
    11 🇵🇹 Portugal 46
    12 🇸🇮 Slovenia 46
    13 🇵🇷 Puerto Rico 46
    14 🇸🇲 San Marino 46
    15 🇰🇷 South Korea 46
    16 🇷🇴 Romania 46
    17 🇱🇻 Latvia 46
    18 🇱🇹 Lithuania 45
    19 🇧🇬 Bulgaria 45
    20 🇭🇷 Croatia 45
    21 🇸🇭 Saint Helena 45
    22 🇪🇪 Estonia 45
    23 🇬🇬 Guernsey 45
    24 🇦🇹 Austria 45
    25 🇺🇦 Ukraine 45
    26 🇮🇲 Isle of Man 45
    27 🇭🇺 Hungary 45
    28 🇧🇦 Bosnia & Herzegovina 45
    29 🇹🇼 Taiwan 45
    30 🇱🇮 Liechtenstein 44
    31 🇨🇿 Czechia 44
    32 🇨🇭 Switzerland 44
    33 🇷🇸 Serbia 44
    34 🇧🇲 Bermuda 44
    35 🇲🇹 Malta 44
    36 🇫🇮 Finland 43
    37 🇻🇮 Virgin Islands 43
    38 🇵🇱 Poland 43
    39 🇸🇰 Slovakia 43
    40 🇨🇦 Canada 43
    41 🇫🇷 France 43
    42 🇨🇺 Cuba 43
    43 🇲🇴 Macau 43
    44 🇳🇱 Netherlands 42
    45 🇩🇰 Denmark 42
    46 🇧🇾 Belarus 42
    47 🇧🇪 Belgium 42
    48 🇷🇺 Russia 42
    49 🇹🇭 Thailand 42
    50 🇧🇧 Barbados 41
    51 🇰🇾 Cayman Islands 41
    52 🇸🇪 Sweden 41
    53 🇨🇰 Cook Islands 41
    54 🇲🇪 Montenegro 41
    55 🇸🇽 Sint Maarten 41
    56 🇦🇼 Aruba 41
    57 🇳🇴 Norway 41
    58 🇬🇧 UK 41
    59 🇲🇰 North Macedonia 41
    60 🇮🇪 Ireland 40
    61 🇨🇳 China 40
    62 🇨🇨 Cocos (Keeling) Islands 40
    63 🇲🇩 Moldova 40
    64 🇱🇺 Luxembourg 40
    65 🇱🇨 Saint Lucia 40
    66 🇲🇺 Mauritius 40
    67 🇨🇾 Cyprus 40
    68 🇸🇬 Singapore 39
    69 🇺🇸 U.S. 39
    70 🇦🇲 Armenia 39
    71 🇸🇨 Seychelles 39
    72 🇰🇳 Saint Kitts & Nevis 39
    73 🇹🇹 Trinidad & Tobago 39
    74 🇻🇬 British Virgin Islands 39
    75 🇬🇪 Georgia 38
    76 🇯🇪 Jersey 38
    77 🇦🇺 Australia 38
    78 🇨🇽 Christmas Island 38
    79 🇮🇸 Iceland 38
    80 🇳🇿 New Zealand 38
    81 🇨🇼 Curacao 38
    82 🇻🇨 Saint Vincent & the Grenadines 38
    83 🇦🇮 Anguilla 37
    84 🇩🇲 Dominica 37
    85 🇨🇱 Chile 37
    86 🇫🇴 Faroe Islands 37
    87 🇲🇸 Montserrat 37
    88 🇬🇮 Gibraltar 37
    89 🇺🇾 Uruguay 37
    90 🇱🇧 Lebanon 36
    91 🇦🇱 Albania 36
    92 🇼🇫 Wallis and Futuna 36
    93 🇹🇨 Turks and Caicos Islands 36
    94 🇰🇵 North Korea 36
    95 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates 36
    96 🇨🇷 Costa Rica 36
    97 🇬🇩 Grenada 35
    98 🇵🇫 French Polynesia 35
    99 🇵🇼 Palau 35
    100 🇬🇱 Greenland 35
    101 🇧🇷 Brazil 35
    102 🇹🇳 Tunisia 34
    103 🇳🇨 New Caledonia 34
    104 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan 34
    105 🇶🇦 Qatar 34
    106 🇲🇫 Saint Martin 34
    107 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka 34
    108 🇹🇷 Türkiye 34
    109 🇦🇬 Antigua and Barbuda 34
    110 🇮🇷 Iran 34
    111 🇧🇭 Bahrain 33
    112 🇦🇷 Argentina 33
    113 🇻🇳 Vietnam 33
    114 🇨🇴 Colombia 33
    115 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia 32
    116 🇲🇵 Northern Mariana Islands 32
    117 🇧🇳 Brunei 32
    118 🇸🇷 Suriname 32
    119 🇽🇰 Kosovo 32
    120 🇲🇻 Maldives 32
    121 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan 32
    122 🇲🇾 Malaysia 32
    123 🇵🇾 Paraguay 32
    124 🇫🇯 Fiji 32
    125 🇮🇩 Indonesia 32
    126 🇲🇳 Mongolia 32
    127 🇵🇦 Panama 32
    128 🇹🇲 Turkmenistan 31
    129 🇻🇪 Venezuela 31
    130 🇯🇲 Jamaica 31
    131 🇲🇲 Burma 31
    132 🇲🇽 Mexico 31
    133 🇧🇸 Bahamas 31
    134 🇧🇹 Bhutan 31
    135 🇲🇦 Morocco 31
    136 🇿🇦 South Africa 30
    137 🇬🇺 Guam 30
    138 🇰🇼 Kuwait 30
    139 🇵🇪 Peru 30
    140 🇮🇱 Israel 30
    141 🇦🇸 American Samoa 30
    142 🇮🇳 India 30
    143 🇸🇻 El Salvador 30
    144 🇧🇩 Bangladesh 30
    145 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic 29
    146 🇩🇿 Algeria 29
    147 🇳🇮 Nicaragua 29
    148 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan 29
    149 🇨🇻 Cabo Verde 29
    150 🇬🇾 Guyana 28
    151 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan 28
    152 🇫🇲 Micronesia, Federated States of 28
    153 🇪🇨 Ecuador 28
    154 🇰🇭 Cambodia 28
    155 🇹🇻 Tuvalu 28
    156 🇳🇷 Nauru 28
    157 🇳🇵 Nepal 28
    158 🇼🇸 Samoa 27
    159 🇴🇲 Oman 27
    160 🇰🇮 Kiribati 27
    161 🇧🇼 Botswana 27
    162 🇧🇿 Belize 27
    163 🇧🇴 Bolivia 27
    164 🇩🇯 Djibouti 26
    165 🇱🇾 Libya 26
    166 🇹🇴 Tonga 26
    167 🇵🇭 Philippines 26
    168 🇭🇳 Honduras 26
    169 🇲🇭 Marshall Islands 26
    170 🇱🇦 Laos 25
    171 🇸🇧 Solomon Islands 25
    172 🇯🇴 Jordan 25
    173 🇭🇹 Haiti 25
    174 🇬🇹 Guatemala 25
    175 🇸🇿 Eswatini 25
    176 🇻🇺 Vanuatu 25
    177 🇪🇬 Egypt 24
    178 🇸🇾 Syria 24
    179 🇱🇸 Lesotho 24
    180 🇵🇰 Pakistan 23
    181 🇹🇯 Tajikistan 23
    182 🇳🇦 Namibia 23
    183 🇰🇲 Comoros 23
    184 🇮🇶 Iraq 22
    185 🇲🇷 Mauritania 22
    186 🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea 22
    187 🇬🇦 Gabon 22
    188 🇾🇪 Yemen 22
    189 🇵🇸 West Bank 22
    190 🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea 22
    191 🇬🇭 Ghana 21
    192 🇪🇷 Eritrea 21
    193 🇲🇬 Madagascar 21
    194 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe 21
    195 🇨🇮 Cote d’Ivoire 21
    196 🇰🇪 Kenya 21
    197 🇸🇹 Sao Tome & Principe 21
    198 🇷🇼 Rwanda 21
    199 🇹🇬 Togo 21
    200 🇨🇬 Congo 21
    201 🇹🇱 Timor-Leste 21
    202 🇨🇫 Central African Republic 20
    203 🇪🇹 Ethiopia 20
    204 🇲🇼 Malawi 20
    205 🇬🇲 Gambia 20
    206 🇦🇫 Afghanistan 20
    207 🇱🇷 Liberia 20
    208 🇵🇸 Gaza 20
    209 🇬🇳 Guinea 19
    210 🇸🇱 Sierra Leone 19
    211 🇳🇬 Nigeria 19
    212 🇸🇩 Sudan 19
    213 🇸🇳 Senegal 19
    214 🇹🇿 Tanzania 19
    215 🇸🇴 Somalia 19
    216 🇨🇲 Cameroon 19
    217 🇸🇸 South Sudan 19
    218 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso 19
    219 🇿🇲 Zambia 18
    220 🇧🇮 Burundi 18
    221 🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau 18
    222 🇲🇿 Mozambique 17
    223 🇧🇯 Benin 17
    224 🇨🇩 DRC 17
    225 🇹🇩 Chad 17
    226 🇲🇱 Mali 16
    227 🇦🇴 Angola 16
    228 🇺🇬 Uganda 16
    229 🇳🇪 Niger 15

    Note: Figures rounded.

    Meanwhile, the presence of six European nations on the oldest countries list is a quick insight into the continent’s changing demographic. The UN estimates that one in four Europeans are currently aged 60 and over.

    Conversely, many countries in Africa have low life expectancies and high birth rates. This results in the opposite phenomenon: lower median ages.

    A low median age also has its own concerns. A higher proportion of children and adolescents can strain the education infrastructure. Without enough job growth, underemployment and unemployment can rise.

    However, if managed well, low median ages can lead to a demographic dividend, where the workforce temporarily grows faster than the dependent population, increasing per capita income.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 20:30

  • VDH: Stop The Ukrainian Meatgrinder?
    VDH: Stop The Ukrainian Meatgrinder?

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

    Nearly eleven months ago, in August 2023, the New York Times reported that U.S. officials had estimated that some 500,000 Russians and Ukrainians had been killed, wounded, or missing in the then 18-month Ukrainian War.

    Both Russia and Ukraine underreport their losses. Hundreds of thousands of additional casualties have followed in the 28 months of fighting.

    In the West, the mere mention of a negotiated settlement is considered a dangerous appeasement of Russia’s flagrant aggression. In Russia, anything short of victory would be seen as synonymous with the collapse of the Putin regime.

    Yet as the war nears two and a half years this summer, some facts are no longer much in dispute.

    Controversy still arises over the circumstances of the 2014 overthrow of Ukraine’s pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.

    Russia charges that the West engineered the “Revolution of Dignity” – an effort to westernize the former Soviet republic, to expand the borders of Europe right to the doorstep of Russia, and eventually to fully arm Ukraine as a member of NATO.

    Westerners counter that most Ukrainians wished to be part of Europe and independent from Russian bullying – and they had a perfect right to ask to join either NATO or the EU or both despite anticipated escalating tensions.

    After the heroic Ukrainian defeat of the 2022 Russian bid to take Kyiv, there have been few significant territorial gains by either side.

    Like the seesaw bloodbath on the Western Front of World War I, neither side has developed the momentum to force the other to negotiate or grant concessions.

    As nuclear Russian threats against Europe mount, NATO is seeking to regain deterrence capabilities by boosting defense budgets, incorporating robust frontline nations Sweden and Finland, and uniting over shared concerns about Russian aggression.

    Many in the U.S. cheer on the conflict as a necessary proxy war to check Russian aggression and bolster NATO’s resistance.

    But unlike third-party wars during the Cold War, now the Western client, Ukraine, is fighting directly against the chief antagonist of European NATO members.

    Arming a proxy in a war waged against the homeland of a nuclear adversary is a new and dangerous phenomenon.

    The West counts on supplying Ukraine with more and better weapons than a richer, larger, and more populous Russia.

    But Ukraine’s problem is not so much weapons as manpower. Nearly a fourth of Ukraine’s population has fled the country.

    Ukraine may have suffered some 300,000 causalities. The average age of its soldiers is over 40 years. It already lacks sufficient forces to replay the failed 2023 counter-offensive. The Russian plan of attrition is to wear down and bleed out the Ukrainian people.

    In a geostrategic sense, the new alignment of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea is starting to gain opportunistic support from illiberal Middle East regimes, Turkey, and the Islamic world in general.

    The Biden administration’s respective approaches to the Ukraine and Gaza wars continue to be utterly incoherent.

    It lectures our strongest ally Israel on the need for a ceasefire, proportionality, a coalition wartime cabinet, and the avoidance of collateral damage. The administration considers the terrorist Hamas almost a legitimate state.

    However, Biden and the American diplomatic establishment urge Ukraine to keep fighting without negotiations. They urge Kyiv to seek critical disproportionality through superior weaponry, including hitting strategic targets inside Russia.

    The U.S. has overlooked the cancellation of Ukrainian political parties and elections by the Zelensky administration. America does not seem to care about Ukrainian collateral damage to the borderlands. And it considers the Russian government a near-terrorist state.

    No one in the West, at least prior to the Russian February 2022 invasion—neither the prior Obama, Trump, and current Biden administrations or the Ukrainian government itself—had considered it even possible to regain by force the Crimea and the Donbass absorbed by the Russian invasion of 2014.

    Add up all these realities, and the only practicable way to avoid another near-one million dead and wounded would be a settlement, however unpopular.

    It would entail the formalization of the 2014 Russian absorption of Crimea and Donbass.

    Russia would then agree to withdraw all its forces to its pre-2022 borders. Ukraine would be fully armed but without NATO membership.

    Both sides would agree to a demilitarized zone on both sides of the Russian-Ukrainian border. Russia would brag that it prevented its former province from joining NATO while finally institutionalizing its prior incorporation of the Donbass and Crimea.

    Ukraine would be proud that, like heroic 1940 Finland, it miraculously stopped Russian aggression. It would remain far better armed than at any time in its history and soon enjoy a status similar to that of non-NATO Austria or Switzerland.

    The deal would anger all parties. But it would make public what most concede privately—and stop the ongoing destruction of Ukraine and the further slaughter of an entire generation of Ukrainian and Russian youth.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 20:05

  • Iran Openly Talks About Building A Nuke In Historic Shift
    Iran Openly Talks About Building A Nuke In Historic Shift

    In what’s likely messaging intended for both Israel and a potential incoming Trump administration in the US, Iranian officials are becoming more open about the possibility of building a nuclear bomb. Tehran’s official policy, backed by years of consistent statements by the Ayatollah, has been to insist its nuclear program is only for peaceful energy purposes, and that nukes go against Islamic morality. 

    Currently, it is no secret that the Islamic Republic has been drastically increasing the quantity and purity of its enriched uranium – which has hastened over the last year, after an already upward trajectory since Trump pulled out of the JCPOA nuclear deal in 2018. 

    The New York Times in a fresh report says an unprecedented trend is cause for serious alarm: “For the first time, some members of Iran’s ruling elite are dropping the country’s decades-old insistence that its nuclear program is entirely for peaceful purposes.” This comes just as Iran – which remains the archnemesis of Israel – is about to pick a new president after Ebrahim Raisi’s recent death in a helicopter crash.

    “Instead, they are publicly beginning to embrace the logic of possessing the bomb, arguing that recent missile exchanges with Israel underscore the need for a far more powerful deterrent,” continues the NY Times.

    Tehran is fully aware of its status as a ‘threshold state’ and is using this to project strength in its broader standoff with Israel in the region:

    In interviews with a dozen American, European, Iranian and Israeli officials and with outside experts, the cumulative effect of this surge appears clear: Iran has cemented its role as a “threshold” nuclear state, walking right up to the line of building a weapon without stepping over it.

    And yet Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu has warned many times over the years that he will not allow Iran to achieve nuclear status. He has vowed to launch a preemptive attack should Tehran cross this line. 

    But this has not stopped an official close to Iran’s supreme leader from recently explaining that if the country were to face an existential threat, it would “reconsider its nuclear doctrine” — as quoted in the Times report. 

    Without doubt, Iranian leaders have in the back of their minds the examples of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. Both gave up their WMD programs and nuclear aspirations, and soon after were invaded, overthrown, and executed (and in Gaddafi’s case he was killed on the street by NATO-backed rebels).

    Below are some key sections from the lengthy NY Times investigative report…

    * * *

    How fast to achieve a bomb?

    And they caution that while Iran could now produce the fuel for three or more bombs in days or weeks, it would still take considerable time — maybe 18 months — for Iran to fabricate that fuel into a warhead that could be delivered on missiles of the kind it launched at Israel in April.

    Gaza tinderbox has raised the stakes

    “Iran is sending a clear message that if the pressure of sanctions continues, if assassination of its commanders continues and if Washington or Israel decides to tighten the noose, it will then break all the chains,” said Hossein Alizadeh, a former Iranian diplomat who defected in 2010. He spoke from Britain, where he now lives.

    Practicing preemptive strikes

    While the U.S. and Israeli air forces often practiced what it would take to bomb Fordow, even building a mock-up of the site in the Nevada desert, military officials say it would take repeated, precise strikes by the United States’ largest “bunker buster” to reach down that deep.

    Anti-nuke Fatwah still officially in place

    Iran has insisted that it cannot manufacture or use nuclear weapons because of a 2003 “fatwa,” or religious edict, issued by the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The country said the fatwa remained in effect even after Israel stole, and then made public, a huge archive of Iranian documents that made plain the country was trying to design a weapon.

    Coordinated statements signaling policy change

    If Israel threatened Iran’s nuclear facilities, General Haq Talab said in a speech in mid-April, “it’s entirely possible and imaginable that the Islamic Republic will reconsider its nuclear doctrine and policies and reverse its previously stated positions.”

    A few weeks later, Mr. Kharazi told Al Jazeera that Iran had the capacity to produce a nuclear bomb, but that it has not decided to do so.

    “If Iran’s existence is threatened, we will have no choice but to reverse our nuclear doctrine,” he said.

    And in late May, Mr. Araghchi said at a conference in Doha, Qatar, that Israeli attacks “could force others to rethink their security calculations and their nuclear postures.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 19:40

  • You Keep Using The Term 'Authoritarian'…
    You Keep Using The Term ‘Authoritarian’…

    Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Brownstone Institute,

    You know the term “authoritarian.” You think you know what it means. 

    An authoritarian dad, boss, or government says: my way or the highway. They are forever barking orders and see compliance as the answer to all human problems. There is no room for uncertainty, adaptation to time and place, or negotiation. It’s ruling by personal dictate while tolerating no dissent. 

    To be authoritarian is to be inhumane, to rule with arbitrary and capricious imposition. It can also mean to be ruled impersonally by a machine regardless of the cost. 

    Sounds like a conventional government bureaucracy, right? Indeed. Think of the Department of Motor Vehicles. Think of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy which are right now issuing edicts that will end in the ability of your washing machine to clean your clothes and your car to go the distance. 

    They have been doing this to us for many decades, with or without the permission of Congress or the president. The agencies have become literally out of control in the sense that no one can control them. 

    Any society managed by a large and intrusive bureaucratic machinery is necessarily authoritarian. A government that is not authoritarian is necessarily limited in size, scope, and range of power. 

    Let’s say you have a political leader who has routinely called for less in the way of authoritarian rule by bureaucracies. He intends to use whatever power he has to curb the autonomous rule by administrative bureaucracies and subject them more to the wishes of the people, who should ideally be in charge of the regime under which they live. 

    Such a leader would not be called an authoritarian. He would be called the opposite, an emancipator who is trying to dismantle authoritarian structures. 

    If all of the above makes sense to you, try to make sense of this news story in the New York Times. It’s about the growing efforts on the part of many activists to resist a second term of Donald Trump. 

    In passing, the story says: “If Mr. Trump returns to power, he is openly planning to impose radical changes — many with authoritarian overtones” including “making it easier to fire civil servants.”

    The story quickly adds that he intends to replace the fired employees with “loyalists.” Maybe. But consider the alternative. The president is supposed to be ostensibly in charge of 2 million plus bureaucrats that are employed by 400-plus agencies in the executive branch — but they don’t actually have to carry out the policies of the elected president. They can in fact completely ignore him. 

    How is this compatible with either democracy or freedom? It is not. There is nothing in the Constitution about a vast army of bureaucrats who rule behind the scenes that is in no way reachable or manageable by elected representatives. 

    The attempt to pull back, rein in, and otherwise do something about this problem is not authoritarian. It is the opposite. Even if “loyalists” replaced the fired employees, that would be an improvement over a system of government in which the people truly have no control at all. 

    Two years into Trump’s first term, the administration came to figure out that this was a problem. The administration intended some dramatic turns in policy in a number of areas. All they experienced was dogged resistance from people who believed they and not the elected president were in charge. Over the next two years, they undertook many efforts to at least solve this problem: namely, the president should be in charge of the government that falls under his jurisdiction. 

    This only makes sense. Imagine you are the CEO of a company. You discover that the main divisions that actually run the company care nothing about what you say and cannot be fired even if you demand it, and yet you are personally held responsible for everything these divisions do. What are you going to do?

    It is not “authoritarian” to unseat or otherwise attempt to gain control over that for which you are held responsible, professionally or politically. That is truly all that the Trump people are suggesting. This is nothing other than a Constitutional system: we are supposed to have a government by and for the people. That means that the people elect the administrator of the executive branch. At a minimum, the winner of the election needs to be able to have some influence over what the agencies in the executive branch do. 

    And for suggesting this and trying to make it happen, Trump is called an authoritarian. Prepare yourself: this will be said millions of times between now and November and following. Can the mainstream media just flat-out change the meaning of a term like this? They can but there is also every reason to push back and not let it happen. 

    Language is a human construct. The more vibrant and fast-moving society is, the more the language changes. That can be a wonderful thing. In fact, one of my favorite books to read in off-hours is H.L. Mencken’s The American Language, written by this genius when he was otherwise censored for his views in wartime. 

    It’s a marvelous chronicling of the evolution of American usage, published in 1919, but oddly pertinent even today, applicable to the dwindling number of people who can still form coherent sentences. 

    When it comes to vocabulary, there are two schools of thought broadly speaking: prescriptivist and descriptivist. The prescriptivist view is that words have embedded meanings that you can trace from other languages and should be used as intended. The descriptivist approach sees language as more a living experience, a tool of utility to make communication possible, in which case anything goes. 

    As Americans, we mostly accept the descriptivist outlook but this can go too far. Words cannot mean literally anything, much less the opposite. But this is exactly what is happening. It’s the same with the word “democracy,” which is supposed to mean the people’s choice, not whatever elites dish out to us. If Trump is the choice, so be it. That is the unfolding of democracy. 

    If we want the president to be the CEO of the executive branch of government — and that’s a pretty good description of what the US Constitution establishes — then the administration ought to have that managerial authority. If you don’t like it, take it up with the Founders. 

    Again, any society managed by a large and intrusive bureaucratic machinery is necessarily authoritarian. A government that is not authoritarian is necessarily limited in size, scope, and range of power. 

    Any one president who takes action to curb the power and reach of arbitrary authority is not an authoritarian, but rather one who seeks to give authority back to the people. Such a man would be an emancipator, even if everyone said otherwise. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 19:15

  • These Are The World's Least Affordable Housing Markets
    These Are The World’s Least Affordable Housing Markets

    Many cities around the world have become very expensive to buy a home in, but which ones are the absolute most unattainable?

    In this graphic, Visual Capitalist’ Marcus Lu highlights a number of housing markets that are deemed to be “impossibly unaffordable” in 2024, ranked by their median price-to-income ratio.

    This data comes from the Demographia International Housing Affordability Report, which is produced by the Chapman University Center for Demographics and Policy.

    Data and Key Takeaway

    The median price-to-income ratio compares median house price to median household income within each market. A higher ratio (higher prices relative to incomes) means a city is less affordable.

    See the following table for all of the data we used to create this graphic. Note that this analysis covers 94 markets across eight countries: Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

    According to the Demographia report, cities with a median price-to-income ratio of over 9.0 are considered “impossibly unaffordable”.

    We can see that the top city in this ranking, Hong Kong, has a ratio of 16.7. This means that the median price of a home is 16.7 times greater than the median income.

    Which Cities are More Affordable?

    On the flipside, here are the top 12 most affordable cities that were analyzed in the Demographia report.

    Cities with a median price-to-income ratio of less than 3.0 are considered “affordable”, while those between 3.1 and 4.0 are considered “moderately unaffordable”.

    See More Real Estate Content From Visual Capitalist

    If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out Ranked: The Most Valuable Housing Markets in America.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 18:50

  • Nearly 1-In-3 Americans Earning Over $150,000 Worry About Making Ends Meet: Fed Report
    Nearly 1-In-3 Americans Earning Over $150,000 Worry About Making Ends Meet: Fed Report

    Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

    Americans in upper-income groups are concerned about their ability to pay bills, with more than 15 percent of this demographic taking up additional jobs over the past year, according to a survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

    As of April 2024, 32.5 percent of respondents earning over $150,000 annually were worried about making ends meet over the next six months, up from 21.7 percent in April of last year, the June survey showed.

    This percentage is higher than for those in the income groups of $100,000 to $149,999, $70,000 to $99,999, and $40,000 to $69,999. Only individuals who earned less than $40,000, the lowest income group, were more worried than the $150,000-plus group.

    Among all income levels, the percentage of people anxious about their ability to pay bills was higher in April 2024 compared to a year ago. The share of respondents concerned about making ends meet rose among those already paying their bills on time, with the increase most prevalent among people who are younger, female, or in higher income groups.

    In April last year, 20.7 percent of individuals who could pay all of their bills were worried about the next six months. In 2024, this jumped to 26.2 percent.

    The various income groups behaved differently in how they handled their tighter financial situations over the past year.

    Among the $150,000 group, 15.3 percent took an additional job, the highest among all income levels. This group borrowed the least from formal sources but was the second-highest when it came to borrowing from family or friends.

    People earning less than $40,000 ranked at the bottom in terms of taking up an additional job. However, they ranked second-highest in borrowing from formal sources and were at the top in terms of borrowing from family or friends.

    Only 8.8 percent of individuals in the $150,000 or more group skipped their monthly bills or debts or made partial payments, the least among all income levels. Those making above $100,000 cut back the least on essential as well as discretionary spending.

    The survey shows that while upper-income groups were more worried about higher prices impacting their ability to pay bills, a smaller proportion were forced to cut down on spending compared to their lower-income counterparts.

    A June 10 report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York presented a more upbeat outlook, finding that U.S. households have become “more optimistic” about their future financial condition.

    “Year-ahead expectations also improved, with a smaller share of respondents expecting to be worse off and a larger share of respondents expecting to be better off a year from now,” it said.

    Inflation Burden

    As high-income groups come under increasing inflationary pressures, discount retail chains are reporting an increase in the number of customers from this demographic. In March, Dollar Tree said their outlets saw a traffic uptick from relatively wealthy shoppers last year.

    During an earnings call in May, Walmart executives also said that they saw “higher engagement across income cohorts, with upper-income households continuing to account for the majority of the share gains” in the recently reported quarter.

    Historically, people with higher incomes have shopped at the company’s stores, said Doug McMillon, Walmart CEO. Such groups have usually been selective in the categories they buy.

    “So, if we offer them the right items at the right prices, whether that’s in-store, first party, or marketplace, they’ll respond to that. And so, as we’ve been able to expand our assortment online, we can appeal to more people.”

    In an August survey by Achieve, a digital personal finance firm, the majority of respondents said they were not anywhere close to reaching their definition of financial freedom.

    However, just above half of them were optimistic and believed their journey towards financial freedom was getting better.

    “We’re seeing far fewer Americans with the goal of becoming ‘rich’ and many families pivoting to just trying to be able to pay their bills on time. With all of the economic pressures facing American families, financial freedom is currently more about making ends meet,” Brad Stroh, co-founder and co-CEO of Achieve, said.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 18:25

  • Supreme Court Rejects Bannon Bid To Avoid Monday Prison Deadline
    Supreme Court Rejects Bannon Bid To Avoid Monday Prison Deadline

    Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon has until Monday to report to prison after the Supreme Court rejected his 11th hour bid to remain free while he pursues an appeal of his conviction for two counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee.

    US District Judge Carl Nichols had previously put Bannon’s sentence on hold as he pursued his appeal, saying that Bannon had presented a “substantial question of law or fact likely to result in reversal” of the conviction.

    That, however, was rejected by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in May – leaving him only the Supreme Court to help him avoid time behind bars.

    Bannon has argued that he was acting on the advice of counsel when he refused to comply with the subpoenas.

    He must report to prison on July 1.

    As the Epoch Times notes further, Bannon through his lawyers asked the Supreme Court to intervene. In the application, lawyers said it would be unfair for Mr. Bannon to start serving his sentence before the full appeals court and justices consider overturning the recent appeal rejection.
    “If Mr. Bannon is denied release, he will be forced to serve his prison sentence before this court has a chance to consider a petition for a writ of certiorari, given the court’s upcoming summer recess,” the lawyers wrote.
    Department of Justice attorneys, on the other hand, urged the Supreme Court to reject the application. They said Mr. Bannon “cannot make the demanding showing necessary to override the normal requirement that a convicted defendant begin serving his sentence.”

    Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), chairman of the House Administration Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight, told the court in a brief that the panel that subpoenaed Mr. Bannon produced flawed subpoenas because it failed to comply with House regulations, as it did not have a ranking member appointed by the Republican minority.

    “Notwithstanding the applicant’s indictment and sentencing, the select committee’s enforcement of the subpoena and the prosecution of Mr. Bannon for failing to participate in a deposition was factually and procedurally invalid,” Mr. Loudermilk wrote. “As such, this court should conclude that the entire prosecutorial process against the applicant was tainted and must be dismissed as a matter of law.”

    Peter Navarro, another former adviser to President Trump, is already serving a sentence after being convicted of contempt of Congress after also declining to cooperate with subpoenas from the same committee.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 18:00

  • Cultural Marxism: A Century Old… And Thriving
    Cultural Marxism: A Century Old… And Thriving

    Authored by Larry Sand via American Greatness,

    In 1923, a group of professors known as the Frankfurt School came to the fore. These German Marxists—notably Theodore Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Herbert Marcuse—harbored a deep disdain for capitalism and traditional morals.

    Unfortunately, the professors did not stay in their homeland long. Adolph Hitler’s rise to power forced them out of Germany, and they reemerged at Columbia University in New York City in 1935.

    And a century later, the malign effects of their teachings are still with us.

    Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), Critical Race Theory (CRT), Black Lives Matter (BLM), gender indoctrination, wokeism, etc., fade in and out of the news cycle, but they have established a secure foothold in the nation’s culture, notably in our schools.

    Cultural Marxism is still pervasive in a significant number of our colleges. In Illinois, legislators want to embed racial considerations into state appropriations for public universities. According to its website, Yale’s Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry faculty are told to place “DEI at the center of every decision” when making hires.

    There are a few bright spots, however. Public universities in Texas, Florida, and Utah have banned DEI. However, those decisions came from state governments, not from the colleges themselves.

    At MIT, a private university, President Sally Kornbluth confirmed in May that the school would “no longer require diversity statements in faculty hiring.”

    Also, according to an analysis from OpenTheBooks.com, the University of North Carolina spends an estimated $90 million each year on 686 employees who promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in their departments or across the system. But change is on the horizon. In a repudiation of DEI ideology, the UNC Board of Governors voted on May 23 to repeal its diversity policy.

    Sadly, at the elementary and high school level, the Marxists predominate. In fact, our K-12 schools lay the groundwork for all the college campus lunacy we see practically on a daily basis.

    Christopher Rufo reports that in Portland, the Intifada begins in kindergarten. For example, the teachers union suggests that kindergarteners be gathered into a circle and taught the history of Palestine: “Seventy-five years ago, a lot of decision-makers around the world decided to take away Palestinian land to make a country called Israel. Israel would be a country where rules were mostly fair for Jewish people with white skin. There’s a BIG word for when indigenous land gets taken away to make a country; that’s called settler colonialism.” (Ibram X. Kendi, probably the most strident CRT proponent in the country, contends that kindergarten is too late to start. He thinks that ‘Antiracist’ education should start before age 3.)

    The Jew-hating lies have been working. In the three months following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the Anti-Defamation League tallied 256 antisemitic incidents in K-12 schools nationwide.

    The Zinn Education Project, named after the late Communist college professor, is advancing its agenda via the “Teach Truth Day of Action,” which is celebrated in June. (There is no specific date.) The goal is to eliminate “right-wing forces” and “fascists,” which the organization laughably insists dominate public education in the country. The Zinners maintain that more than 65 organizations are co-sponsoring the Teach Truth Day of Action, including the Abolitionist Teaching Network, the African American Policy Forum, the American Library Association, Black Lives Matter at School, Black Teacher Project, SNCC Legacy Project, and more.

    Notably, the National Education Association is a big supporter of the Teach Truth Day of Action. On its website, the teachers’ union states, “On June 8, educators, students, parents, and community members across the country joined the 4th annual Teach Truth Day of Action, taking part in book exchanges (including banned ones!), historic walks, voter registration drives, and more.”

    It’s worth noting that while schools are doing a bang-up job of indoctrinating students, only 22% of eighth-graders scored at or above the NAEP Proficient level on the most recent test in civics, and just 13% scored at or above the NAEP Proficient level in U.S. history.

    One state seems to be moving in the right direction. Texas is doing what it can to reinstate tradition by injecting Bible stories into elementary school reading programs. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick praised the curriculum changes, explaining that they will “get us back to teaching, not necessarily the Bible per se, but the stories from the Bible.”

    What can be done to stem the Marxists?

    In public schools, state laws can help, and local school board elections can make a difference, but when the school bell rings and the classroom door is shut, the teacher will talk about whatever he or she wants to.

    Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former fifth-grade teacher, writes that a 2017 RAND Corporation survey found that “99% of elementary teachers and 96% of secondary schools use ‘materials I developed and/or selected myself’ in teaching English language arts. The numbers are virtually the same in math. But putting teachers in charge of creating their own lesson plans or scouring the internet for curriculum materials creates an irresistible opportunity for every imaginable interest group that perceives—not incorrectly—that overworked teachers and a captive young audience equal a rich target for selling products and pushing ideologies.”

    As an example, Pondiscio cites a public school in Brooklyn, part of the New York City Board of Education. Kids were sent home with an “activity book” promoting the tenets of the Black Lives Matter movement, including “queer affirming,” “transgender affirming,” and “restorative justice.” The book was not authorized for classroom use by either the N.Y.C. Department of Education or Brooklyn’s Community School District 15. “It appears to have begun its journey into students’ backpacks at the massive ‘Share My Lesson’ website run by the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second largest teachers union.”

    Pondiscio notes that while they are seldom traceable to formally adopted school curricula, there are 75 different lesson plans and resources for conducting “privilege walks” and more than 100 lessons and resources on “preferred pronouns” at Teachers Pay Teachers, which is another lesson-sharing website.

    Additionally, the advocacy group Parents Defending Education has created an Indoctrination Map, which documents countless incidents of “schools teaching lessons on race, gender, or other hot-button issues that parents deemed inappropriate or upsetting.”

    Mark Tapson, Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and culture warrior, along with his wife, homeschool four of their five kids. (Number five will join the others when he is of age.) Tapson asserts that the “aim of the neo-Marxist Left is to break down the family unit by de-legitimizing parents’ legal and moral right to determine how their own children are raised. The Left wants to take your children and grandchildren and raise them as loyal, dependent subjects of the atheistic State, disconnected from their own history and culture, and devoid of critical thinking skills, intellectual independence, or a spiritual dimension.”

    Tapson is absolutely correct. The godfather of communism, Karl Marx, taught his followers that the world was divided into two categories—oppressors and oppressed. Marx despised the nuclear family, which he claimed “performs ideological functions for capitalism” and teaches “passive acceptance of hierarchy.” He thought that the destruction of the family model would make it easier to abolish private property.

    Sending your kid to school these days is risky business, and parents need to step up and take on that responsibility if at all possible.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 17:40

  • "Feels Like September": Atlantic Disturbance Could Be Upgraded To Tropical Storm Beryl This Weekend
    “Feels Like September”: Atlantic Disturbance Could Be Upgraded To Tropical Storm Beryl This Weekend

    The National Hurricane Center is tracking three tropical waves, one of which could develop into Tropical Storm Beryl this weekend.

    As of 0800 ET, NHC said the tropical wave about 1500 miles east-southeast of Windward Island is “gradually becoming better defined,” indicating a 90% chance of strengthening into a tropical depression or storm over the next 48 hours.

    The two other storms, one a low-pressure system over the western Caribbean Sea and the second several hundred miles south-southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands, both have a low probability of developing over the next two days. 

    Here’s a map of all three systems NHC watches into this weekend:

    Global weather models show that the tropical wave with the highest probability of forming 1500 miles east-southeast of Windward Island could end up in the southern Caribbean Sea. 

    Tampa’s FOX 13 Meteorologist Dave Osterberg said, “We don’t typically track storms like this in late June, but record high temperatures in the western Atlantic are leading to more tropical activity.” 

    “It feels like it’s September to the water down here, rather than late June,” Osterberg said, adding, “And that’s why this is beginning to develop, and it’s going to develop as it moves into the eastern Caribbean.”

    Osterberg added that several computer models have this system developing into hurricane status. 

    While the models don’t show any of the three systems threatening the US Gulf Coast, we have outlined that the Biden administration must contend with the La Nina weather phenomenon, which is expected to fuel an active Atlantic hurricane season. These storms could disrupt major Gulf Coat refineries, driving average gasoline prices at the pump to the politically sensitive $4 a gallon. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 17:20

  • Zelensky Gets More Realistic: 'We Don't Have A Lot of Time'
    Zelensky Gets More Realistic: ‘We Don’t Have A Lot of Time’

    Authored by Kyle Anzalone via AntiWar.com,

    Speaking to journalists in Brussels on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned “We don’t have much time. We have a lot of injured, killed, both military and civilians. So we do not want this war to last for years. Therefore, we have to prepare this plan and put it on the table at the second peace summit.”

    Zelensky stressed the need for a peace process that would bring an end to the war with Russia, citing Ukraine’s mounting casualties.

    Since 2022, Zelensky has pushed a 10-point peace plan that would see Russia withdraw from all of Ukraine’s pre-2014 territory. The Kremlin has outright rejected that proposal, insisting it will not give up several formerly Ukrainian regions it has annexed.

    Still, Zelensky proposed his formula to other world leaders at a peace summit that was held in Switzerland earlier this month, although no Russian officials were invited.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has articulated a potential peace deal that would see Ukraine agree to denuclearization, neutrality toward NATO, and recognition of territory annexed by Moscow since 2014.

    As the war has progressed, the West has struggled to maintain the flow of weapons to Kiev, and Ukraine has been unable to replace its battlefield casualties with newly trained soldiers.

    The Kremlin has adjusted to a wartime economy and has a larger number of young men to serve in the military, giving Moscow a distinct advantage as the conflict has become a war of attrition.

    While Kiev and Moscow have been tight-lipped about their own causality figures, estimates for both sides range in the hundreds of thousands. To fill its ranks, Ukraine has recently expanded its conscription laws and cracked down on those seeking to avoid the draft.

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

    The ex-head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Yuriy Lutsenko, estimated the number of dead or seriously wounded Ukrainian soldiers was over 500,000 in January.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 17:00

  • Ahead Of Stress-Tests, Banks Saw Big (Adjusted) Deposit Inflows, But…
    Ahead Of Stress-Tests, Banks Saw Big (Adjusted) Deposit Inflows, But…

    Money market funds saw modest inflows last week (up around $5BN) as bank deposits (NSA) saw $25.7BN outflows…

    Source: Bloomberg

    However, on a seasonally-adjusted basis, total bank deposits rose by $38BN last week to their highest since SVB’s collapse…

    Source: Bloomberg

    And, excluding foreign deposits, domestic banks saw seasonally-adjusted deposits rise $57.7BN (large banks +$55.5, small banks +$2.2BN), while on an NSA basis, domestic deposits tumbles $4.3BN (large banks +8.4BN, small banks -$12.7BN)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    On the other side of the ledger, loan volumes increased on the week, driven by a $11.8BN rise at small banks (while large banks saw loan volumes shrink by $255MM), which is weird given the massive SA rise in large bank deposits….

    Source: Bloomberg

    Usage of The Fed’s Reverse Repo facility soared across quarter-/month-end (as it tends to do)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Finally, US equity market capitalization remains drastically decoupled from its historically tight relationship with bank reserves at The Fed…

    Source: Bloomberg

    But globally, central bank balance sheet shrinkage continues as stocks soar…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Now that would be quite recoupling.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 16:40

  • Biden's 'Blue Screen Of Death': They Knew, They All Knew…
    Biden’s ‘Blue Screen Of Death’: They Knew, They All Knew…

    Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

    Joe Biden Catches Cold

    “Biden’s entire closing statement is the political equivalent of the blue screen of death. It’s just one long frozen glitch.”

    -Sean Davis, the Federalist

    Maybe ninety-seconds into last night’s long-awaited debate spectacle, the consensus must have jelled among the woke-and-broken news media mavens that their champion, “Joe Biden,” was not quite killing it out there at the podium. CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash acted like witnesses at a ritual sacrifice. And afterward, the CNN post-mortem panel seemed genuinely shocked that months of playing pretend had skidded to such an ignominious finish.

    Which raises a great many questions, starting with: why on earth did the Democratic Party and its media handmaidens persist in pretending month-after-month that “Joe Biden” was a fit candidate for another four-year term?  Last night, he didn’t appear capable of even finishing the current term. Why did they usher him so jauntily into the nomination? And what are they going to do about that now? And what were their motives for all that pretending? “Joe Biden” circulates among scores of astute officials every day. Did they all fail to notice his incapacity? Or has the whole thing been a sham and a lie all along? Was this just the culminating hoax by the Party of Hoaxes of a long string of hoaxes against the nation going back to 2015?

    To the question of motives, the answer is obvious: the news networks have worked tirelessly (and with stunning dishonor) to hide their collusion with the government in gaslighting the public. More to the point, they’ve concealed the appalling truth that the CIA, DARPA, and their many intel blob subsidiaries conducted a silent coup over the USA and have been running our country’s affairs disastrously behind the “Joe Biden” façade — and that the coup actually started well before Mr. Trump’s 2016 inauguration. You know it, and they know that you know it.

    More acutely, now that “Joe Biden” has been revealed as a hoax president, whole legions of public officials appear liable to criminal charges of the most serious degree: sedition, treason, mass murder, fraud, malfeasance, and in the case of the president himself, influence peddling and bribery.

    They must be desperate to avoid accounting for all that, losing their accrued fortunes to legal fees and going to prison (or worse). For example, outed just this week: news that then-CIA Director in 2020, Gina Haspel, knew about and participated in the infamous operation using 51 former Intel officers to cover up the veracity of Hunter Biden’s laptop days before the election.

    They knew the laptop was real. Their colleagues over at the FBI knew it was real. They all knew it was stuffed with deal memos, legal memoranda, and emails that clearly laid out a long-running bribery operation among Biden family members and their lawyers. They knew it in 2019 when the Democratic Party moved to impeach Mr. Trump for inquiring about the Biden family’s money-grubbing activities in Ukraine — where, by the way, we may have fomented the war with Russia in part to cover up the culpability of all involved, including especially the State Department and their embassy staff in Kiev. The FBI and its bosses in the DOJ also withheld the laptop from Mr. Trump’s defense lawyers during the 2020 impeachment, though it contained massive exculpatory evidence to explain just why he made that fateful phone call to the newly elected Zelensky.

    It’s obvious that the ruling blob now has to deep-six “Joe Biden.” The problem is they must induce him to renounce the nomination of his own will. The party’s nominating process is so bizarrely complex that it would very difficult to just shove him out. Another problem is that the party had to peremptorily declare “JB” their legal nominee before the August convention in order to keep him on the ballot in Ohio with its 17 electoral votes (due to some arcane machinery in the state’s election laws).

    As per above, the debate fiasco calls into serious question whether “Joe Biden” is competent to even serve out this term. He (or shadowy figures pulling strings behind him) are making profoundly hazardous decisions right now, such as last week’s missile attack that killed and wounded civilians on the beach in Crimea. Are you seeing how easily “Joe Biden” might start World War Three? All of which is to say that pressure will soon rise to use the 25th amendment to relieve him of duty, leaving you-know-who in the oval office. If Joe Biden actually has to resign as president, he also loses the ability to pardon his son, Hunter, and peremptorily his other family members who shared bribery money received from China, Ukraine, and elsewhere.

    If he won’t resign, and the party can’t force him off the ticket, the blob could have no choice except to bump him off. I imagine they would get it done humanely, say late at night sometime, in bed, using the same method as for putting down an old dog who has peed on the carpet one too many times. Or, if that can’t be managed and he clings to his position, maybe the party could cobble up some new nominating rules impromptu. And then, who could they slot in from the bench?

    The usual suspects are like the cast of a freak show, each one displaying one grotesque deformity after another.

    Gavin Newsom we understand: the party’s base of batshit-crazy women may all want to bear his child, but that limbic instinct to mate with a six-foot-three haircut-in-search-of-a-brain might not work with any other voter demographic — and Newsom has the failed state of California hanging around his neck. All Mr. Trump would have to do is broadcast the scene from a San Francisco street-cam on “X” (Twitter) 24/7.

    Hillary has been stealthily flapping her leathery wings overhead for weeks as this debacle approached. She may still own the actual machinery of the Democratic Party — having purchased it through the Clinton Foundation some years back when the party was broke and needed a bailout. She could just command the nomination by screeching “Caw Caw” from the convention rostrum. Whatever happens, it will look terrible.

    Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan? An inveterate and notorious intel blob tool, Whitmer has allowed herself to be used repeatedly by the FBI to frame and persecute conservatives in her state as well as using her state AG Dana Nessel to go after political enemies there, especially poll workers who cried fraud in the sketchiest Michigan voting districts.

    Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. Like Dreamboat Newsom in California, Mr. Pritzker is busily running Illinois (and especially Chicago) into bankruptcy and chaos. Looks aren’t everything, but if Dreamboat gives the vapors to Karens across the land, the Illinois governor will get them shrieking in terror as from the sight of King Kong on Skull Island

    Who else is there? Michelle O, of course, who will be instantly branded as a catspaw for her husband seeking a fifth term — as Barack himself has averred in so many words: just hanging out in the background, managing things in his jogging suit. That would be the ultimate Banana Republic set-up for us and I don’t think the voters will go for it. It all boils down to the Party of Chaos being thrust into chaos. Can it even survive “Joe Biden?”

    Then there is Mr. Trump himself. He remains the object of widespread rabid loathing, yet more and more Americans are coming to appreciate his opposition to Woke Marxist chaos and intel blobbery-gone-wild in our land. His performance last night featured his usual jumpy locutions and incomplete sentences, but in contrast to the current president, he looked neither senile nor an agent of sinister forces dedicated to bringing our country to its knees.

    Had Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. been present both of the others would have been badly outclassed verbally and intellectually.

    If Mr. Trump survives the blob’s efforts to delete him before November, I’m sure Mr. Kennedy will play a prominent role in another Trump administration. He knows exactly where the rot is and how to roust it out.

    *  *  *

    Support this blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page or Substack

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 16:20

Digest powered by RSS Digest

Jun 28

Today’s News 28th June 2024

  • German Politician Hit With Hate Crime Investigation For Demanding Migrant Criminals Be Deported
    German Politician Hit With Hate Crime Investigation For Demanding Migrant Criminals Be Deported

    Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,

    A CDU politician in Germany is under investigation for hate crimes after he reacted to a knife attack by an Afghan migrant by calling for the expulsion of foreign criminals from the country.

    On the opening day of the Euro 2024 football tournament, a knife-wielding Afghan migrant went on a stabbing spree in Wolmirstedt which left one person dead and multiple others injured.

    Detlef Gürth, a state lawmaker for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Saxony-Anhalt, reacted by posting on X, “This pack has to get out of Germany.”

    And that was literally it.

    That’s all he said before subsequently deleting the tweet.

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

    However, it was enough for left-wing state politician Henriette Quade to file a criminal complaint against Gürth for allegedly committing a hate crime, which is now being investigated by the Halle public prosecutor’s office

    “The description of Afghans as a ‘pack’ who are denied the right to live in Germany is an insult to parts of the population,” Quade ludicrously claimed.

    “Those designated in this way are denied their basic right to life as equal individuals in the community and their human dignity is thus attacked. Furthermore, the post cannot be interpreted with any understanding other than that all Afghans living in the country are (potential) murderers. The post also incites hatred against parts of the population,” she added.

    Gürth was clearly referring to migrants who engage in violence, not all Afghans, but his relatively tame comment was reported to authorities anyway in another stunning example of how many in the German political establishment are more concerned about not hurting the feelings of migrants than they are stopping the wave of migrant-driven violence that has plagued the country for years.

    Statistics released by the German government revealed that around 6 in 10 violent crimes recorded in Germany are committed by migrants.

    “According to some criminal statistics, Afghans are five times more likely to commit a criminal act than native Germans,” reports Remix News.

    “However, in some categories, such as sexual assaults, they are 12.5 times more likely to commit an offense than the rest of society. However, this is only a fraction of the problem that Germany has been forced to endure with regard to migrant crimes, many of which are committed by repeat offenders.”

    As we document in the video below, German authorities are now handing out prison time to people who insulted a bunch of convicted gang rapists, in at least one case giving a woman more prison time than almost all of the gang rapists themselves.

    Yesterday we highlighted another case of migrant violence where a 20-year-old man in the North Rhine-Westphalia town of Bad Oeynhausen was beaten into a coma by a migrant gang and later died from his injuries.

    *  *  *

    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
    Fri, 06/28/2024 – 02:00

  • Japan Fires Its Top Currency Diplomat As Yen Disintegrates, Another Intervention Looms
    Japan Fires Its Top Currency Diplomat As Yen Disintegrates, Another Intervention Looms

    It is hardly a coincidence that literally minutes after the USDJPY hit 161 for the first time in almost two generations…

    … that Japan’s Nikkei reported the man who had been tasked to explain away Japan’s absolutely catastrophic currency policy, one which has made the yen the worst performing currency of the world and the envy of banana republics everywhere…

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

    … i.e., Japan’s top currency “diplomat”. Masato Kanda, has been fired.

    Kanda will be replaced with Atsushi Mimura, a director-general of the Finance Ministry’s international bureau, who will take over as vice finance minister for international affairs on July 31.

    Atsushi Mimura is set to take over as Japan’s top currency diplomat at the end of July

    Incumbent Kanda has been the main figure in handling the government’s catastrophic interventions in the foreign exchange market, which have been meant to arrest the yen’s slide against the dollar, yet despite spending a record $60+ billion two months ago on halting the yen’s implosion, the yen is now at the lowest level since the Plaza Accord.

    And while no amount of intervention will prevent the yen from imploding further – to do that the BOJ will have to raise rates to 4% or higher, setting of a cataclysmic collapse of the entire Japanese bond market – the outrage among the populace at the runaway inflation in Japan in large part due to the plunging currency, is finally being addressed now that Japan is facing election in a few months, and scapegoat time has arrived.

    We fully expect another intervention round in the coming days, one which sends USDJPY back to the low 150s before the pair resumes it trek higher until such time as Japan finally loses control over both its currency and bond markets. That will be the beginning of the end of the current doomed experiment in neoliberalism.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 23:40

  • CCP Hires Western Military Aviators To Prepare For War With Taiwan: Taiwanese Military Expert
    CCP Hires Western Military Aviators To Prepare For War With Taiwan: Taiwanese Military Expert

    Authored by Xin Ning and Cindy Li via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The Five Eyes (FVEY) alliance announced steps earlier in June to prevent Western military aviators from training Beijing’s military and naval aviators, capabilities that military experts say are key for Beijing to be able to attack Taiwan.

    A Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy J-11 fighter pilot performs an unsafe maneuver during an intercept of a U.S. Air Force RC-135 aircraft, which was lawfully conducting routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace, on Dec. 21, 2022, in a still from video. (Courtesy of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

    On June 5, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC), representing the FVEY (the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), issued a joint bulletin warning evolving the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) efforts to recruit current and retired Western service members to train its military.

    “To overcome their shortcomings, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been aggressively recruiting Western military talent to train their aviators, using private firms around the globe that conceal their PLA ties and offer recruits exorbitant salaries,” said NCSC Director Michael C. Casey.

    Actions by the United States and its Western partners to counter this threat include commercial restrictions on the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA), Beijing China Aviation Technology Co. (BCAT), Stratos, and other PLA providers exploiting Western and NATO personnel, as well as legal and regulatory changes to prohibit former military members from engaging in post-service employment with China.

    Tony Xia, a military expert and commentator, noted that pilots with real combat experience are rare in China.

    “It takes at least five years to train a fighter pilot. In fact, the pilot is required to fly for the rest of his or her service life,” he told The Epoch Times.

    He added that the main reason for the CCP to hire experienced aviators from Western militaries is to plagiarise Western training systems, methods, and experience.

    “In the past few decades, China’s fourth-generation fighters have hardly experienced any real-world combat experience,” he said.

    CCP Preparation to Attack Taiwan

    Zhang Yanting, the former deputy commander of Taiwan’s Air Force and currently a professor at the Political Warfare College of Taiwan’s National Defense University, believes that these CCP actions are preparation for a real war in the Taiwan Strait.

    Retired pilots bring combat experience, which the PLA lacks. They can pass on to the CCP military their valuable experience of the whole real-world combat scenario, threats, and how to give full play to their combat power, he told The Epoch Times.

    Moreover, each of them has different expertise: some of them fly fighter planes, some fly anti-submarine warfare aircraft, and some fly carrier planes.

    Taiwan’s armed forces hold two days of routine drills to show combat readiness ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays at a military base in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on Jan. 11, 2023. (Annabelle Chih/Getty Images)

    Qi Leyi, a senior media figure and military commentator in Taiwan, noted that the CCP values practical operational experience from recruited retired Western officers.

    The people on the front line are especially needed. Apart from acquiring skills, they can also get some intelligence and information, he told The Epoch Times.

    CCP’s History of Recruiting Western Military

    The CCP’s recruitment of Western retired pilots has been known since 2022, including cases such as the TFASA in South Africa, which was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Commerce in June 2023.

    While TFASA denied involvement in confidential military training and employing American and British citizens, Daniel Duggan, a former pilot for the U.S. Marine Corps and Australian citizen who would be extradited to the United States, was indeed a trainer for TFASA and trained Chinese pilots in the art of landing on aircraft carriers.

    Mr. Duggan moved to Australia after more than 10 years of service in the U.S. military and founded a company called Top Gun Tasmania, which employs former U.S. and British military pilots to provide tourists with jets for joyriding.

    Former U.S. military pilot Daniel Edmund Dugga is seen as a pilot in Tasmania, Australia, on Feb. 13, 2023. (AAP Image/Supplied by Duggan family)

    Mr. Duggan, with an Airline Transport Pilot’s Licence issued by the United States and Australia, has flown the AV-8B Harrier, T2C Buckeye, and A4J Skyhawk. In May, he admitted to working with Chinese spy Su Bin, who stole U.S. military secrets but denied knowing he was a spy.

    In the United Kingdom, it was exposed in 2022 that as many as 30 retired British pilots have been recruited by the Chinese military with high salaries (up to about $270,000 a year). The recruitment has been carried out through third parties, including a flying academy based in South Africa, and the pilots had served across the British military, not just in the Royal Air Force.

    France is also targeted by the CCP, which actively seeks skilled French instructors to guide Chinese pilots in carrier landings and learn NATO air force strategies. Other than the United States and China, France is among the few nations with catapult-equipped aircraft carriers.

    The CCP recruits retired Western carrier-based aircraft pilots to train its own carrier pilots and absorb the experience of carrier combat tactics from Western countries, Ou Si-Fu, who heads the Division of Chinese Politics, Military, and Warfighting Concepts at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taiwan, told The Epoch Times.

    Landing a fighter jet on a narrow carrier deck is a highly challenging task. The CCP is starting from scratch in terms of combat operations, necessitating training from Western nations, he said. Carrier combat strategies are national secrets that no country is willing to teach Beijing directly, prompting the regime to entice retired Western pilots with hefty salaries.

    Mr. Xia said that in their pursuit of developing aircraft carriers, the CCP aims to realize its “Deep Blue Dream,” which is “a way to compete for regional and world hegemony.”

    “For the CCP, the training of carrier pilots is basically blank. Western experience is of course very important for it,” he said. “The U.S. Navy, when observing the take-off and landing of Chinese carrier aircraft, exclaimed about their dangerous [amateurish] maneuvers.”

    Mr. Ou believes that the CCP penetrates Taiwanese society with a similar approach, absorbing retired military personnel to steal Taiwan’s military secrets and enticing semiconductor professionals for advanced industrial secrets.

    Taiwan and democratic Western nations must remain vigilant against these illegal measures by the CCP to steal defense military and advanced industrial secrets, he said.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 23:35

  • Judge Awards Over $1 Million To 2 US Citizen Children Detained Crossing Border
    Judge Awards Over $1 Million To 2 US Citizen Children Detained Crossing Border

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

    Two American children who were detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents while trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border to go to school will be awarded over $1 million in compensation, a federal judge in California has ruled.

    Customs and Border Protection agents check pedestrians as they exit Mexico into the customs area of the United States on the east side of the San Ysidro port of entry in Tijuana, Mexico, on Nov. 19, 2018. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

    U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of California Gonzalo Curiel issued the order on June 21.

    The order stems from a lawsuit involving Oscar Amparo Medina and his sister Julia Isabel Amparo, who were 14 and nine years old, respectively, in March 2019, when they were detained by border patrol agents at the Tijuana-San Ysidro, California, border crossing.

    According to the lawsuit—filed by their parents on their behalf—the two children lived with their parents and siblings in Tijuana, Mexico, and had been on their way to school in San Ysidro when the incident occurred.

    Julia was detained by officers for approximately 34 hours, and Oscar for roughly 14 hours, because officers suspected them of lying about their identities, with officers initially believing Oscar may have been attempting to smuggle or traffic his younger sister.

    The plaintiffs in the lawsuit had sought to hold the United States liable under the FTCA for false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligence.

    “Common sense and ordinary human experience indicate that it was not reasonable to detain Julia for 34 hours to determine her identity or to detain Oscar for about 14 hours to determine whether he was smuggling or trafficking his sister when multiple means of investigation were available and officers unreasonably failed to pursue them,” Judge Curiel wrote in his ruling.

    In a statement provided to media outlets, a CBP spokesperson said the agency “takes all complaints seriously and makes a good faith effort to resolve all complaints justly and fairly, including complying fully with orders issued by the federal district courts.”

    Identification Issues

    According to the lawsuit, both children were born in the United States and are U.S. citizens; however, their mother, Thelma, is a Mexican citizen who possesses a valid U.S. Border Crossing Card, and their father does not have the legal status or a visa to enter the United States.

    The two children showed their valid U.S. passport cards to agents when attempting to cross the border into the United States via the pedestrian border crossing in March 2019, the complaint states.

    However, when presenting their identification cards to border agents, one of the agents noticed a “dot on Julia’s photo that appeared to be a mole on her upper lip, which was not visible on Julia in person.”

    Julia also showed agents a school identification from her former elementary school in Mexico, which also “did not resemble Julia,” according to court documents.

    During further interrogation, an officer then allegedly “came up with the idea that Julia was her cousin Melany, and then pressured Julia into agreeing,” the lawsuit claims.

    Lawyers for the United States vehemently rejected that claim and argued that “Julia and Oscar stated that Julia was Melany unprompted and then continued to say that throughout their interviews.”

    A man crosses into the United States from Mexico into San Ysidro, Calif., on Feb. 2, 2024. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    Conduct Was ‘Extreme and Outrageous’

    The mother of the two children was not contacted when they were detained, according to the lawsuit.

    After the children were released by border agents, they suffered mental stress, grief, anxiety, humiliation, and emotional distress, lawyers for the plaintiffs wrote in the lawsuit.

    In his ruling, Judge Curiel concluded that the United States’ conduct was “extreme and outrageous” and that it had violated the rights of the two children.

    The judge also noted that one of the CBP officers who interviewed Julia in private did so without a witness or a recording of the incident, violating CBP policy. This led to a “false confession,” he said.

    “Since the confession was not recorded, witnessed or even recounted in any written detail, it will never be known why a 9-year-old U.S. citizen falsely confessed to being someone she is not,” the judge wrote.

    “CBP violated the directive that its officers not interview minors alone,” he added.

    “Although reasonable suspicion may have existed initially to believe that Julia was making a false claim of citizenship by fraudulently using the passport card of another, the duration of her and Oscar’s detention was unreasonable and in violation of the Fourth Amendment because officers repeatedly failed to take available steps to investigate their suspicions and failed to follow CBP’s own policies and precautions regarding the treatment of detained minors,” the judge concluded.

    Judge Curiel awarded $1.1 million in damages for Julia, $175,000 for Oscar, and $250,000 for Thelma.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 23:10

  • Scholars To Study Milk's Ties To "Colonialism" In Tax-Funded Project
    Scholars To Study Milk’s Ties To “Colonialism” In Tax-Funded Project

    By Micaiah Bilger of The College Fix

    This one doesn’t appear to be a hoax.

    A new research project, “Milking it: colonialism, heritage and everyday engagement with dairy,” comes out of the University of Oxford’s History of Science Museum.

    Leading the project are JC Niala, head researcher of the museum, and Johanna Zetterström Sharp, associate professor of archaeology at the University College London, according to an announcement on the museum’s Facebook page.

    Their goal is to “examine the milk-related collections of the History of Science Museum to understand scientific knowledge production and the impact of colonial legacies on contemporary issues,” the announcement states.

    “Through milk diaries, archival research, and participatory podcasting, it will investigate historical engagement with milk, building networks with consumers and producers in Britain and Kenya,” it states.

    Niala and Sharp “will question both the imagined and real aspects of milk,” including the “political nature of this everyday substance,” according to the announcement.

    The research project is new, and it’s taxpayer funded through the British Arts and Humanities Research Council, The Telegraph reports.

    But the topic is not new to either scholar.

    In 2022, Sharp participated in a panel discussion on the topic of “Milk and Whiteness” hosted by the Wellcome Collection in London. The event “explor[ed] milk’s associations with purity and whiteness and the racialised politics of diet and nutrition,” according to the collection website.

    The Telegraph reports more:

    In the panel discussion, the professor outlined a “Northern European obsession with milk” which has led to an assumption that it is a “vital part of any human diet”, and should be produced and provided on a vast scale.

    Such an assumption, she argued, “may be understood as a white supremacist one”.

    She explained: “Northern European needs and the science the technology devised to address them are the needs that pertain and are most important for global majority populations.”

    Additionally, Niala lists “milk” as a key subject of her research work in her biography on the museum website.

    For their new project, “the ultimate goal is to develop new methodologies for investigating our relationship with milk over time” and to “learn from the histories and global forces shaping milk today to envision more sustainable futures,” according to the museum.

    Milk, coffee, and racism were the subject of a student’s hoax research essay in 2021.

    As The College Fix reported at the time, the Swedish university student wrote about “how the marketing of the coffee has been characterized by highlighting ‘black and exotic elements’ of the drink. When it comes to milk, it has instead been ‘the local and white’ that has been emphasized.”

    Arvid Haag said he wrote the paper as a joke for a class about critical race theory, and was surprised when people took it seriously.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 22:45

  • Supreme Court Blocks EPA's Plan To Limit Ozone Pollution From Power Plants
    Supreme Court Blocks EPA’s Plan To Limit Ozone Pollution From Power Plants

    The Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration “pollution-fighting” plan that would mean crippling new emissions requirements on power plants and pipelines in parts of the country to stem ozone pollution that wanders into downwind states.

    It would also mean choking off US power supply at a time when AI data centers are draining the electrical network at record levels with little pushback from the same Biden administration which is oh so very concerned about the environment… but not when ultra liberal corporations are to blame.

    The justices, voting 5-4, and which was split men vs women as Trump appointee Barrett voted along with socialists Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson, put the Environmental Protection Agency’s “good neighbor” rule on hold while courts consider challenges pressed by upwind states, industry groups and companies led by Kinder Morgan.

    In doing so, they rejected arguments by the Biden administration and Democratic-controlled states that the plan was cutting air pollution and saving lives in 11 blue states where it was being enforced and that the high court’s intervention was unwarranted.

    The rule is intended to restrict smokestack emissions from power plants and other industrial sources that burden downwind areas with smog-causing pollution.

    It will remain on hold while the federal appeals court in Washington considers a challenge to the plan from industry and Republican-led states.

    The delay could be a lengthy one given that litigation over the rule is in its early stages. The focus now shifts to a federal appeals court, which will take the first look at the challenges.

    The Supreme Court order halts a rule that would have applied to 11 states, a number that had already been cut from 23 because of separate legal battles. A key issue in the fight was whether the EPA had adequately considered whether its approach was warranted even if it applied to only a subset of upwind states. The rule was originally scheduled to take effect last August.

    The challengers — Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia — contended the rule would impose billions of dollars in costs in the first year alone and threaten the reliability of the electricity grid by forcing generators into early retirement.

    The Biden administration said the rule would protect the health of people in downwind states suffering from emissions by their neighbors.

    The administration was backed by a group of downwind states led by New York.

    The rule is part of a two-pronged EPA approach that relies on the rejection of state plans to curb ozone followed by the imposition of a federal alternative.

    A number of states have managed to freeze the rejection component of EPA’s plan, reducing the reach of the alternative.

    The justices took the unusual step of holding an argument session in the case even though they were considering only a request for an interim order as part of the court’s emergency docket.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 22:20

  • With Rates Dropping, Operating Costs For Truckers Hit Record High In 2023
    With Rates Dropping, Operating Costs For Truckers Hit Record High In 2023

    By David Hollis of TruckersNews

    Operating expenses for trucking companies increased in 2023, according to the results of a new study released today.

    The American Transportation Research Institute’s 2024 Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking found the overall marginal costs of operating a truck hit $2.270 per mile in 2023, a new record high. While the increase was only 0.8 percent over the previous year, when surcharge-protected fuel costs are excluded, marginal costs rose 6.6 percent to $1.716 per mile, according to the study.

    ATRI’s annual report analyzes line-item costs, operating efficiencies, and revenue benchmarks by fleet sector and size.

    Overall, 2023 expenses rose moderately across most categories, with average costs across line-items increasing at less than half the rates experienced during 2021 and 2022, according to the study. It found:

    • Truck and trailer payments grew by 8.8 percent to $0.360 per mile

    • Driver wages grew by 7.6 percent to $0.779 per mile

    • Repair and maintenance costs grew by 3.1 percent to $0.202 per mile

    • Insurance premiums grew by 12.5 percent to $0.099 per mile after two years of negligible change

    ATRI said the soft 2023 freight market — which continues in 2024 — posed many challenges for operational efficiency. Deadhead mileage rose to an average of 16.3 percent for all non-tank operations, and driver turnover rose by five percentage points in the truckload sector.

    These pressures combined with low freight rates strained profitability across the industry, said ATRI in a statement announcing the release of its study.

    Average operating margins were 6 percent or lower in all fleet sizes and sectors other than LTL. The truckload and specialized sectors experienced drops in per-mile or per-truck revenue, and most saw “other costs” – expenses outside of the core marginal line-items – increase as a share of total revenue.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 21:55

  • Bill Gates Is Investing "Billions" In The New Wave Of Nuclear Power
    Bill Gates Is Investing “Billions” In The New Wave Of Nuclear Power

    It isn’t often Bill “Mr. I Know What’s Best For The Entire World” Gates comes up with an idea that we aren’t immediately skeptical of, but his recent pledge to promote next generation nuclear power sounds to us to be a common sense solution to multiple problems we’ll be facing in coming years. 

    Gates is pledging billions of dollars to promote nuclear through startup TerraPower LLC, OilPrice.com wrote this week. And it looks like that number could grow. 

    Gates recently told Bloomberg: “I put in over a billion, and I’ll put in billions more.”

    OilPrice.com notes that nuclear power is gaining global traction as a key player in decarbonization strategies. In addition to TerraPower, companies like Sam Altman-led Oklo are also focused on modernizing nuclear with small modular reactors. 

    Advocates emphasize its immense clean energy potential, proven technology, and existing infrastructure. Although not renewable, nuclear energy emits zero carbon and could help meet global emissions targets.

    As we have been noting for months, urgency for clean energy has intensified due to the tech sector, especially Artificial Intelligence, consuming massive amounts of energy. This surge in demand has reversed the trend, with developed countries now experiencing faster energy demand growth than developing nations.

    The IT industry currently accounts for about 2% of global CO2 emissions, according to Science Alert in 2023. Gartner predicts the AI sector alone will consume 3.5% of global electricity by 2030 without significant changes.

    In response, tech giants are seeking carbon-free energy sources, with many turning to nuclear power. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s TerraPower aims to supply nuclear energy for Microsoft’s AI needs and is developing safer, less controversial reactors using liquid sodium coolant, which reduces water usage and may recycle spent nuclear fuel, addressing hazardous waste concerns.

    Recall, at the start of April, we penned a lengthy report for premium subs discussing why artificial intelligence data centers, the electrification of the economy, and onshoring trends will result in a major upgrade of the nation’s power grid. We followed the note up on Monday with a report titled Everyone Is Piling Into The “Next AI Trade.” 

    In May, Larry Fink jumped on the trade: “I do believe to properly um build out AI. We’re talking about trillions of dollars of investing. So data centers today could be as much as 200 megahertz – and they’re now talking about data centers being one gigawatt. That powers a city.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 21:30

  • Enrollment Loss, Financial Woes An Increasing Problem At US Colleges
    Enrollment Loss, Financial Woes An Increasing Problem At US Colleges

    Authored by Aaron Gifford via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Before Cazenovia College in Upstate New York closed in May 2023 because of decreasing enrollment and financial problems, students were given a list of comparable schools in the same region with similar tuition fees, major courses of study, financial aid availability, and athletic programs.

    The administration building at Cazenovia College has remained vacant since the four-year school in Upstate New York closed in May 2023. A portion of the campus has since been leased to the New York State Police, which operate a training academy there. (Aaron Gifford / The Epoch Times)

    One of the schools on that list, Wells College, shut down one year later for the same reasons—low enrollment (354 students) and financial problems.

    “It’s pretty crazy when that happens with two schools in two years,” Carter Matus, who transferred to Elmira College from Cazenovia College, said. Some of his classmates had considered Wells but chose different schools.

    “Luckily they didn’t have to go through this again,” he said.

    What Mr. Matus went through was a brief but “semi-stressful” episode of finding another small higher learning institution at about the same costs that would accept his credits and allow him to continue playing varsity baseball. He changed his major from art to business and still maintains his custom trade and proprietorship, Art by Carter J. Matus.

    “It’s been an OK experience,” he told The Epoch Times on June 25, “but I do miss being closer to a city [Syracuse].

    “If I had to do it all over again, I probably would have stayed in Florida.”

    These are uncertain times for upstate colleges. Along with Wells, the College of Saint Rose in Albany and St. John’s University Staten Island campus also graduated their final classes in May. Medaille College in Buffalo shut its doors last summer. Clinton County Community College survived only by closing its campus and using space at neighboring SUNY Plattsburgh. And several other schools, private and public, made deep budget cuts.

    The decline is not limited to the Empire State.

    According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, college and university enrollment has decreased by about 1.5 million students, or 7.4 percent, in the past decade.

    Notable closings in other parts of the country this year include Notre Dame College in Ohio, Birmingham Southern University in Alabama, University of Saint Katherine in California, and Hodges University in Florida.

    The main reason is that, with declining birth rates, there won’t be enough students for every school, according to Adam Kissel, visiting fellow in the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation.

    College and university decision makers across the nation must have known about this population trend 20 years ago, he said, yet too few of those representing private schools had conversations about merging or sharing services to survive.

    “Too many colleges have their heads in the sand,” Mr. Kissel said.

    Other Contributing Factors

    Mr. Kissel added that there are a number of other factors contributing to these enrollment trends and the likelihood of more campus closings.

    Americans are increasingly questioning whether a college degree is worth the money at a time when interest is rising in vocational trades and career and technical education programs, which involve smaller commitments of time and money.

    “You hear about the massive student debt, and a lot of them [prospective students] are saying, ‘I could go into plumbing or electrical work,’“ Mr. Kissel said. ”Why would I need a bachelor’s for that?”

    There are also cultural changes across U.S. campuses. The college culture of drinking and partying isn’t as attractive as it used to be. As students become more serious about their courses of study when they realize the cost of attending colleges and universities, there’s also a growing distaste for progressive ideologies that have become commonplace in higher education, Mr. Kissel said.

    In 2022, the Harvard Crimson student newspaper reported that 80 percent of school faculty identified themselves as politically liberal. In September 2023, Inside Higher Education published an opinion piece, “Higher Ed Can’t Afford its Left-Wing Bias Problem.”

    “Students ask themselves if they want to be in that environment,” Mr. Kissel said. “Many people no longer trust colleges to educate students well.”

    The “final jolt” was the much delayed release of the 2024–2025 federal student aid (FAFSA) application, which affected $1.8 billion in federal student aid and caused some students to not apply for college who otherwise would have. Mr. Kissel said this debacle will cause many more struggling higher learning institutions to close in 2025.

    Depending on the state and type of school, the total cost of annual tuition, room and board, and fees across the nation this past academic year ranged from $11,000 to more than $80,000, according to the College Board. However, the net cost that students pay after scholarships and work-study initiatives might be a fraction of that.

    National Conference of State Legislature (NCSL) Senior Policy Analyst Andrew Smalley estimates that the number of higher education institutions that closed in the United States this year was as high as “one a week,” though that would include even the smallest of online certificate or degree programs that don’t have a campus.

    Mr. Smalley, speaking during NCSL’s June 16 podcast “Making Higher Education Accountable,” said data still support that college graduates earn more than high school graduates, by an average of $30,000 a year.

    Mr. Smalley said the pressing concern is that fewer than 20 percent of students who attend an institution that closes will actually finish a degree or certificate program at another school.

    “This is a huge derailer for students, and there’s a lot states can consider around financial monitoring, mergers, consolidations, and closure procedures should an institution close,“ he said. ”And states are really considering how to think about those challenges, and what they can do to support students earning their credential or degree from those institutions.”

    Much like the students who were displaced by the recent closings of New York state colleges and universities, faculty and staff members also had to become mobile and flexible if they wanted to continue their passion for education.

    David Rufo was a childhood education professor at Cazenovia College before the announced closing. He had hoped to obtain tenure and thought he’d finally found the perfect fit in a tight-knit community with plenty of academic freedom following prior jobs at Syracuse University and Fordham University in New York City.

    Within a matter of weeks, Mr. Rufo secured a tenure-track teaching position at Utica University. The move increased his commute from two minutes to one hour, but the trade-off is job security in an institution where enrollment is growing and more support staff are there to help him with research and publications.

    “Both places seemed to really appreciate innovation,” Mr. Rufo told The Epoch Times on June 25. “Cazenovia was really rewarding, but this has been rewarding so far as well. New challenges can be part of the experience.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 21:05

  • "My Retribution Is Going To Be Success" – 'Presidential' Trump Dominates Stuttering Biden In Debate
    “My Retribution Is Going To Be Success” – ‘Presidential’ Trump Dominates Stuttering Biden In Debate

    Well that backfired on the Democrats…

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    You know it’s bad when you lose Brian Stelter:

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    And others…

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    All the restrictions, all the hiding Biden away, all the bias… and all it did was help Trump and hurt Biden. Former President Trump was forced to be disciplined and precise, as his son noted on X:

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    President Biden was exposed as a frail old man, stuttering and stumbling through various faux pas…

    “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence — I don’t think he knows what he said, either.”

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    …falling back on propaganda lies to attack his opponent.

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    Whatever he was on, they needed more of it…

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    …and not just water, Jack!

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    And against all odds, the CNN moderators were surprisingly good (although there were a couple of very odd cuts early on in the debate as Biden stammered):

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    There are too many moments of note so we will cherry pick a few here:

    He did keep reaching for his ear…

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    Biden repeated the claim that Trump slandered dead veterans, turning to him and saying:

    “You’re the sucker, you’re the loser.”

    Trump did not rise to the bait and responded calmly.

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    Biden claimed the border was secure and that Border Patrol endorsed him… they responded…

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    President Biden kept repeating some claim about ‘nazis coming out of the woods holding torches’ and claimed that Trump said “Hitler did some good things.”

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    Biden on the economy:

    “We provided thousands of millions of jobs.”

    Oh and Biden claimed he “inherited 9% inflation”… Nope!

    On taxes, yes he said it: “fair share”…

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    President Biden claimed that America is the “most admired” nation under him… well no…

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    Trump was the “grown up” when they discussed Biden’s age and fragility:

    Biden: “Look I’d be happy to have a driving contest with him. I got my handicap when I was vice president down to a six. By the way, I told you before I’m happy to play golf with you if you carry your own bag. Think you can do it?”

    Trump: “That’s the biggest lie, that he’s a six handicap, of all.”

    Biden: “I was a eight handicap–“

    Trump: “Let’s not act like children.”

    Biden: “You are a child.”

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    Trump’s best line of the night when confronted with the ‘projection’ that he will weaponize the government against his opponents:

    “My retribution is going to be success.”

    Finally, as Rogan O’Handley noted on X,

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    And the market knows it, with stocks and the dollar bid and bonds selling off (as Goldman suggested) as PredictIt’s odds soared for Trump and crashed for Biden…

    Source: Bloomberg

    …and cue the excuses for Biden’s performance? A cold or COVID?

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    Working so much for the American people? Or will we get pure gaslit: “Actually, we think Biden killed it in the debate…and Trump sucked”. But hey if by victory you mean he stood up for 90 minutes, you’re right, well done (well there was a half-time break)

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    We doubt anyone is falling for that shit…

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    Paging Gavin Newsom!!

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    *  *  *

    Watch live

    * * *

    So, here we go, Trump-hating-CNN-anchor-hosted ‘debate’ in a TV studio with a one-to-two-minute (not 7 second) delay on the feed, with no audience, no press allowed in (seriously), and outside of the boundaries of the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates… what could possibly go right?

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    Here’s where the odds lay before the debate started…

    It sounds like some of the Biden team are getting nervous. Former Obama Advisor David Axelrod on Joe Biden:

    “If he spends the whole night extolling his record… he will lose this debate, and he may lose this election.”

    Here’s some last minute tips:

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    Oh, and we suspect you’re going to need a drink to get through this one.

    Here’s the best drinking game rules that we have found, courtesy of Matt Taibbi:

    TAKE A SIP ONLY WHEN YOU HEAR THE WORD/WORDS:

    1.    Felon.
    2.    Insurrection.
    3.    “Christians.” Double for “Persecuted Christians.”
    4.    Any of: Rigged, Crooked, Marxist, “Religions Freedom,” “Weaponizing,” “World war.”
    5.    Any of: Existential, Threat, “Our Democracy,” “At Stake,” or “Soul of a Nation.”
    6.    Any of: “C’mon, man,” MAGA, “Not a Joke,” “We’re the United States of America,” “President Obama and I.”

    As for the rest: look, this game is not going to be for the faint of heart. I’m not doing shots for this (I’ll be going with a beverage, man, i.e. a pitcher of White Russians) and strongly recommend everyone stick to beer or even weed, because if you actually play by these rules, you’ll get into a medical situation quickly. “Felon” alone is a hospital rule. So, watch responsibly.

    One evergreen rule is that YOU MUST DRINK EVERY TIME A CANDIDATE LIES.

    Beyond that, DRINK EVERY TIME:

    7.    Either CNN host brings up January 6th. If they use the word “insurrection,” you don’t have to drink twice.
    8.    Trump says he won in 2020 or warns that 2024 will not be honest, e.g. “If I knew there would be no corruption, I’d stop campaigning now.”
    9.    Biden says something unintelligible, turns his back on the camera, begins undressing, or generally does anything suggesting he’s forgotten where he is.
    10.    Trump accuses Biden of being on performance-enhancing drugs. Double shot if he sniffles while doing it.
    11.    Trump brings up Hunter.
    12.    Biden says, in response, “I love my son.” Double if he non-answers the actual question about Hunter.
    13.    Trump compares himself to a great president or unassailable historical figure: Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, Joan of Arc, etc. A double if it’s Jesus, or a long-incarcerated political prisoner like Mandela, Sakharov, or Solzhenitsyn.
    14.    On the ropes, Biden evokes Beau.
    15.    Trump mentions “Al Capone” or someone who is “my friend.”
    16.    “You’re fired, Joe.”
    17.    Biden evokes “Detention camps.”
    18.    Biden pulls a J.J. Redick and drops a quasi-profanity in there, e.g. “We got to remember who the hell we are.”
    19.    Trump brings up someone who was killed by “Biden migrant crime.”

    Finally – If the debate has to be halted for medical reasons, FINISH YOUR BEVERAGE.

    We’d take the over on ‘dementia’…

    Enjoy! (due to start at 2100ET):

    There is, of course, one man missing from tonight’s debate… and RFK Jr decided to host a ‘real debate’ here on Rumble instead.

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    *  *  *

    In a highly anticipated showdown, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump square off tonight in the first of two scheduled debates. The battle of wits comes extraordinarily early in the campaign, which — as we’ll explain below — could be something the Trump campaign regrets. 

    This combination of photos shows Donald Trump, left, and Joe Biden during the first general-election presidential debate in 2020, on Sept. 29 in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

    Here are the essentials: 

    • The debate in Atlanta will air at 9 pm ET on CNN and on the streaming platform Max. If you don’t have either of those, you can watch without a cable log-in at CNN.com  

    • Moderators are Jake Tapper and Dana Bash

    • The contest will last 90 minutes, and have two commercial/rest breaks. Candidates are not allowed to interact with their staff during the breaks

    • No prepared notes are allowed, but will have pads for making notes during the debate.

    • The contenders’ microphones will be muted when it’s not their turn to talk

    That last wrinkle could be a major help for the challenger: Trump’s performance in the crucial first debate of the 2020 election was a certified disaster, thanks to his incessant interruptions of Biden, which only served to annoy audiences and reinforce Trump’s reputation for supposedly “lacking civility.”  

    In anticipation of a train wreck on either side, will tonight’s debate viewership top 2016’s Clinton/Trump battle?

    Infographic: Which Presidential Debates Drew The Biggest TV Audiences? | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Then again, the muted microphones may be a redundancy, as Trump is reportedly well aware that his tactics backfired in the last election. “He has said to people, multiple times, that he knows that he interrupted too much in the first debate with Biden in 2020,” the New York Times‘ Maggie Haberman told CNN’s Anderson Cooper last week. In any event, here’s a CNN demonstration of what it will sound like if a muted candidate tries to speak during the opponent’s turn: 

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    With the latest New York Times/Siena College poll showing Trump leading Biden in all seven battleground states, the pressure is clearly on the incumbent. At the same time, Biden’s increasing pace of verbal miscues makes the debate a risky proposition for him. Rather than closing the gap, a performance that confirms the public’s worst beliefs about Biden’s mental acuity could spell disaster. 

    That’s why Trump may come to regret agreeing to a debate that’s far earlier in the presidential election calendar than normal — indeed, before either party has even had its nominating convention. If tonight’s debate puts Biden’s mental decline under the national spotlight, the Democratic Party — already deeply worried about Trump outperforming among blacks, Hispanics and young people — may scramble to persuade Biden to leave the race with dignity and replace him with someone else.

    Of course, Biden has the uncanny ability to go from confused nursing home patient to invigorated octogenarian – which has prompted Trump and many others to suggest they take blood tests before the debate. Of course, that’s not going to happen.

    As Andrew Ross Sorkin notes in the NY Times dealbook, the economy will be a big topic of debate.

    The economy is the big question. Various measures show strong growth under Biden, but many voters feel differently. What will Biden and Trump say about some of the key issues?

    • Inflation: This is clearly a challenge for the president, as Americans complain about what they’re paying in the grocery store, at the pump and on their rent. Biden can say that price increases are slowing down, and will most likely emphasize his administration’s efforts to crack down on “corporate greed,” like taking on so-called junk fees. Trump will probably stress how good things were when he took office in 2017 — an economy many Americans want back.

    • Taxes: Biden’s proposals for higher corporate taxes will hit profits: “It’s simple math,” David Bahnsen, the founder and chief investment officer of the Bahnsen Group, told DealBook. Many business leaders don’t like Biden’s plan to increase taxes on the wealthy, either. Trump will probably stress his desire to extend his 2017 tax cuts and lower the corporate rate to 20 percent. But questions about corporate earnings and the economy may eclipse those concerns.

    • Protectionism: Both candidates want to increase tariffs on Chinese goods, but Biden has been more targeted in how he has done it during his presidency. Trump has proposed significantly higher across-the-board levies, though it’s unclear how serious he is about it. Economists have warned that Trump’s potential approach could aggravate inflation and hurt the economy.

    • Markets: The S&P 500 set 31 records this year; investors will hope neither party messes with that momentum. In tonight’s debate, “markets probably care more about presentation than policy pledges,” Paul Donovan, an economist at UBS, wrote in a client note. Biden may have a slight edge, he added, since investors would prefer keeping “some continuity.”

    The Democratic convention in Chicago is set for Aug. 19 to 22; however, there are plans to nominate Biden ahead of time via a “virtual” online roll call, but the party has not yet announced a date. The Republican convention in Milwaukee will run from July 15 to 18. The second debate, will be hosted by ABC News on Sept. 10.

    Two of Trump’s three opponents tonight: CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash (via The Hill)

    And with expectations for Biden so low, the Trump campaign has been working to shape the evaluation framework ahead of time. “We believe that many in the media are already prepared to give Joe Biden a participation trophy if he can simply stand upright for 90 minutes,” senior Trump campaign advisor Jason Miller told reporters. 

    Trump will be in hostile territory tonight, with the risk of it becoming a de facto 3-v-1 battle. Not only is it being hosted by CNN, but moderators Tapper and Bash are some of the network’s harshest critics of Trump.

    As if we needed a reminder of the extent to which CNN is an extension of the Biden campaign, over the weekend Kasie Hunt kicked Trump 2024 press secretary Karoline Leavitt off her show when she dared to call out Tapper’s obvious animus against the former president: 

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    Biden’s handlers cleared his schedule for the week, so he could focus on debate prep at the Camp David presidential retreat. Speaking in Philadelphia, Trump said much of the prep was likely coming in the form of “sleeping…because they want to get him good and strong.” While Biden’s prep includes mock debates with a Trump stand-in, Trump’s preparation has centered on receiving policy briefings from a variety of allies. 

    Oh, and posting hilarious clips to his Instagram channel, like this one made by Jimmy Failla (@jimmyfailla):

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    Part of the debate set-up was decided by a coin toss, in which the winning campaign earned the privilege of choosing either their podium location or the sequence of closing statements. The Biden campaign won, and elected to choose the podium on the right side of viewer screens. The Trump campaign then opted to have the last word.  

    Speaking of last words, if history is any guide, no matter how terrible Biden may look tonight, we can expect major media outlets to gush about him beating expectations. However, having seen one Biden gaffe after another, the American people are increasingly less likely to fall for that kind of orchestrated snow job.

    Will Biden go full mask-off?

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 20:40

  • New U Of Arizona DEI Course Requirement Hit With Criticism: "Academically Unserious"
    New U Of Arizona DEI Course Requirement Hit With Criticism: “Academically Unserious”

    By Ellie Cameron of The College Fix

    As universities nationwide scale back diversity, equity and inclusion policies, Arizona’s flagship public institution is preparing to implement a new mandate for students — two courses with a DEI emphasis as a graduation requirement.

    Through the two courses, students will focus on themes of diversity, power, equity, privilege, oppression and marginalization, learn “how historical and contemporary populations have experienced inequality,” and “theorize how to create a more equitable society,” the university’s website states.

    “…Classes with the Diversity & Equity Attribute will focus on issues such as racism, classism, sexism, ableism, imperialism, colonialism, transphobia, xenophobia, and other structured inequities,” the university states.

    The DEI mandate is part of a general education curriculum update at the University of Arizona and takes effect in fall 2026. In the meantime, it has prompted criticisms from a high-profile conservative think tank in the state.

    Students “will be forced to take courses with academically unserious content that adds nothing to their education,” Timothy Minella, a researcher with the Goldwater Institute, told The College Fix.

    Minella authored the institute’s report criticizing the DEI mandate. Published this month, it argues “general education programs were originally intended to help students gain knowledge and skills essential for thoughtful citizenship and successful careers.”

    But the new DEI requirements “instead promote politically activist ideologies to a captive audience of students, who must complete the programs in order to receive a degree,” it adds.

    Susan Miller-Cochran, professor of English and executive director of UA’s general education, said the courses are in response to an Arizona Board of Regents policy “to contribute to a society that values ‘equality under the law, diversity, inclusion, and constructive dialogue through civil discourse.’”

    She said she strongly disagrees with the institute’s report.

    “It’s about reflection and theorization. Understanding theories about diversity and equity, and to cultivate habits of mind that help to meet the requirements that the Arizona Board of Regents gave us in their general education policy,” she told The College Fix in a telephone interview.

    The Goldwater report was the result of a wide-ranging public records act request from last fall, and it picks apart several courses that meet the DEI focus after obtaining about 1,000 pages of syllabi.

    Among the classes it highlights is one that requires students to “live like a bug” in “ENTO 160D1: Busy Bees and Fancy Fleas: How Insects Shaped Human History.” In one assignment, students will create “tissue paper wings” to understand the experience of “immigrants” or people “from a different social class.”

    Minella told The Fix that UA students “could graduate having ‘lived like a bug,’ but without learning about the Constitution, the Civil War, or landmark Supreme Court cases.”

    “This isn’t just bad policy. It’s a blatant violation of a clear directive to educate students in American civics from the Arizona Board of Regents, the body that oversees Arizona public universities,” he said via email.

    Another DEI class highlighted in the report is an anthropology one called “Race, Ethnicity, and the American Dream.”

    “Racism is deeply embedded in US history, society, and institutions. It is systemic,” the syllabus states. “You’ll learn [in] this unit that racism is a system of advantage, and disadvantage, based on race. White people hold unearned privilege while people of color have not had equal access to the ‘American Dream.’”

    Another DEI class includes “Constructions of Gender,” where students have the opportunity to participate in a “Safe Zone Training” through the campus LGBTQ center for extra credit.

    Minella called the courses “emblematic of the broader academic failings” of the DEI requirement.

    Mieczyslaw Zak, a spokesman for the university, said Minella did not discuss the courses with UA scholars and his report misses the mark.

    “The goal is absolutely not activism,” he told The Fix. “The goal is understanding, so that students can develop their own perspective and decide how they want to move forward.”

    Zak and Miller-Cochran also said they disagree the general education requirement runs afoul of Board of Regents policy. They said the regents acknowledged their curriculum policy does not provide a specific list of courses, and leaves the decision to the state universities.

    Asked about the entomology course highlighted in the Goldwater report, Miller-Cochran said “I’m not an entomologist.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 20:20

  • Atrial Fibrillation, Eliquis, And The Inflation Reduction Act
    Atrial Fibrillation, Eliquis, And The Inflation Reduction Act

    Authored by Allison DeMajistre via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Atrial fibrillation, often referred to as “AFib,” is the most commonly treated type of heart arrhythmia. This condition is now considered the new cardiovascular disease epidemic. In the United States, an estimated 3 to 6 million people have AFib, with projections suggesting that this number could reach 16 million by 2050.

    (Raihana Asral/Shutterstock)

    AFib is an irregular, sometimes rapid heart rhythm that occurs when abnormal electrical impulses override the heart’s natural pacemaker. Having AFib puts people at a three-to-five-times greater risk for ischemic stroke from a blood clot traveling from the heart to the brain. One of the primary ways to prevent a clot is to take an anticoagulant or blood-thinning medication.

    “AFib contributes to turbulent flow inside the heart. The irregularity of the blood flow allows for a pause in the blood flowing through the heart, allowing the blood to clot. This then can be sent to the brain[,] causing strokes,” Dr. Ken Perry, an emergency physician in Charleston, South Carolina, told The Epoch Times via email.

    The 2023 published clinical guideline for anticoagulant therapy to prevent stroke for AFib patients recommends a direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC), specifically the medication Eliquis (apixaban), because it has a lower risk of gastrointestinal bleeding than other DOACs.

    Patients taking Eliquis for AFib must continue taking the medication if they’re experiencing an abnormal rhythm or at risk of going back into it. Missing even one dose could significantly increase the risk of having a stroke.

    Unfortunately, for many people in the United States with AFib, Eliquis, the most commonly prescribed anticoagulant to prevent blood clots, can cost a patient up to $594 per month, depending on their insurance, Medicare Part D plan, or other type of coverage.

    In 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes several provisions to help lower prescription drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries. One of those provisions allows the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to negotiate the prices of some medications with drug manufacturers. In August 2023, CMS selected 10 Medicare Part D drugs for negotiation, and Eliquis was first on the list.

    CMS Negotiations

    According to a CMS factsheet, about 3.7 million Medicare Part D enrollees used Eliquis from June 2022 to May 2023. The total Part D gross covered prescription cost to Medicare for the same period was $16.5 billion.

    A CMS representative told The Epoch Times via email that “The IRA helps people who take anticoagulant medications through Medicare Negotiation. Any negotiated prices agreed to between Medicare and participating drug companies will be announced by September 1, 2024, and become effective beginning in 2026.”

    However, many AFib patients and health professionals believe the IRA will have several unintended consequences, including higher prescription costs and limited access to medications. They argue for oversight of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), as these managers have the authority to remove drugs from formularies or switch them to higher-cost tiers while securing larger rebates from more expensive drugs.

    Who Are the Pharmacy Benefit Managers?

    Pharmacy benefit managers are often overlooked intermediaries between drug and insurance companies. Three major PBMs—CVS Caremark, Optum RX, and Express Scripts—account for approximately 80 percent of medication fulfillment in the United States. They play a central role in pricing drugs for insurers, deciding which drugs will be most accessible to consumers, and determining how much pharmacies are paid for these medications.

    Mellanie True Hills, a patient advocate and the founder and CEO of the American Foundation for Women’s Health and StopAfib.org, spoke at the CMS Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program Patient-Focused Listening Session in October 2023. She and many others voiced concerns about the impact of the IRA and CMS drug negotiations on the pricing and accessibility of Eliquis.

    “There is a misperception by the White House and patients that the problem is the drug companies. What they don’t realize is the pharma companies are over the barrel, just like we are,” Ms. Hills told The Epoch Times.

    However, J.C. Scott, president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, stated in an op-ed titled “Elevating the Value of the Employer-PBM Relationship” that “Contrary to the narrative that some pharmaceutical companies want policymakers to believe, employers and health plan sponsors hire PBMs because they provide a wide range of pharmacy benefit options that help payers offer high-quality, cost-effective prescription drug benefits.”

    Drug pricing in the United States is complex. It begins with the drug companies developing a drug and making a list price. The drug wholesalers make the drugs and transport them to the pharmacies. The patient pays a copay, and the pharmacy sends a bill the insurance company pays. Although the flow sounds simple, it doesn’t account for the PBMs, which add further complexity to the chain.

    PBM Rebates

    PBMs work on behalf of insurance companies, large employers, and government agencies. One of their main responsibilities is lowering drug costs for these organizations. They achieve this by negotiating rebates with drug manufacturers. The rebates are paid to the PBMs, who retain a portion of the savings and pass the remainder on to the insurance companies or employers.

    In exchange for rebates, PBMs include a drug on their formulary, the list of drugs that pharmacies offer. PBMs utilize a tiered system to manage these drugs. Medications with a higher tier typically have a lower patient copay, motivating drug companies to provide higher rebates in exchange for a favorable tier placement. PBMs can remove a drug from the formulary altogether, potentially limiting patient access to that drug.

    Theoretically, rebates and formulary placement should lower drug costs for consumers, yet unfortunately, the opposite often occurs. According to an issue brief published by the Commonwealth Fund, PBMs report that 90 percent of rebates are passed on to health plans and payers. However, small payers and employers often report that they don’t receive these savings, and the drug-specific rebates are kept confidential between manufacturers and PBMs, making it difficult for commercial plans to assess the actual cost savings for their members.

    In a 2023 Congressional Oversight Committee hearing addressing the role of PBMs in prescription drug pricing, members and witnesses highlighted how PBMs monopolize the drug market to drive up prices. Despite bipartisan agreement that PBMs increase consumer costs and adversely affect patient care, no decisive action was taken against them. In December 2023, a Senate bill with only a few provisions was introduced.

    “Congress cannot risk leaving employers to fend for themselves against pharmaceutical giants or restrict flexibility, options and savings that help businesses design benefits that work best for their unique needs, achieve savings that supports [sic] their ability to sponsor, and invest in high-quality benefits and unlock better health outcomes for their employees,” Mr. Scott stated in his op-ed.

    PBMs and Drug Access

    When PBMs have to pay more for a drug without receiving a substantial rebate from the drug manufacturer, it negatively affects their margins. According to the Alliance for Patient Access, the PBMs will sometimes remove the drug from their formulary, forcing patients to either pay the total price out-of-pocket or switch to a different drug that may be similar but not the one prescribed by their doctor.

    Ms. Hills said a similar situation happened in December 2021, when many patients received word that CVS Caremark was dropping Eliquis from its formulary. This allowed patients to either take another anticoagulant—rivaroxaban or warfarin—or pay the total out-of-pocket cost for Eliquis.

    The American College of Cardiology and patient advocacy groups pressured CVS Caremark to reverse its decision. In July 2022, CVS Caremark reinstated Eliquis on its formularies, stating that the drug was re-added after securing a lower net cost from the drug manufacturer.

    Despite CVS Caremark’s decision to reinstate Eliquis, concerns persist about the potential loss of affordable access to the medication. These concerns are fueled by the possibility that CMS negotiations might force drug companies to lower prices, resulting in inadequate rebates for PBMs and potentially affecting the drug’s formulary status.

    Nonmedical Drug Switching Risks

    Nonmedical switching, especially with a medication like Eliquis, can be harmful to patients.

    “One of the problems is that patients taking Eliquis twice a day, switching to Xarelto (rivaroxaban), which is only taken once a day, could cause confusion and a potential overdose, putting them at risk for bleeding. When a patient is stable, they should be left on that medication,” Ms. Hills said.

    An article published in Research and Practice in Thrombosis and Haemostasis detailed a letter from CVS Caremark to Beth Waldron, a patient advocate for the National Blood Clot Alliance, who also takes Eliquis. The letter informed her that they were removing Eliquis from the formulary.

    “The stated approval criteria required that I first take and fail Xarelto or have another clinical indication, which was undefined,” Ms. Waldron wrote. “And if the exemption was approved, it would be at a higher coverage tier, making it subject to coinsurance and deductible. For me, this would mean an additional US$2400 a year.” The failure of Xarelto could also result in developing a potentially deadly blood clot.

    According to Ms. Hills, when a medication is removed from the formulary and a patient is forced to switch medications, they can ask their doctor to submit a prior authorization to the insurance company stating the patient’s need for one medication over another. However, some patients don’t have time for the prior authorization process.

    The American Society for Preventive Cardiology published a 2022 report on the impact of nonmedical switching on patients taking a blood thinner. According to the report, patients forced into nonmedical switching by health insurers indicated that the switch took a toll on their overall health. Specifically, 28 percent reported side effects, 22 percent reported resurfacing of symptoms, 7 percent had a heart attack, and 4 percent had a stroke.

    CMS Initiatives and Updates

    The Epoch Times emailed CMS and asked if any stipulations would be in place to ensure that PBMs don’t interfere with Eliquis’ accessibility and pricing for Medicare beneficiaries and people with private insurance.

    CMS did not answer the question about PBMs. However, it did offer specific details about the IRA price negotiations and the Extra Help program, available for people with incomes up to 150 percent of the federal poverty level. The IRA has expanded eligibility for the program, which can lower premiums and reduce out-of-pocket costs for prescription drug coverage.

    Ms. Hills said she recently received encouraging news from CMS. The agency has asked patients for comments about incorporating patient input into revising the negotiation process for the second round of talks with drug companies to ensure patient access to medications under Part D.

    “Within that, there are two things they’re asking about,” said Ms. Hills. “No. 1 is considering concerns around patient access disruption under Part D due to the combination Part D redesign would lead to coverage restrictions.”

    CMS also wants patient input about reviewing Part D sponsor formularies annually to evaluate and address instances where selected drugs are unfavorably placed on tiers or subjected to more restrictive utilization management than nonselected drugs in the same class. “CMS is actually recognizing that this is a problem, and they’re asking for input on it,” she said. “Apparently, they heard us.”

    The pharmaceutical industry is currently engaged in a legal battle with the federal government, attempting to block the negotiations by alleging that the program violates federal law and is unconstitutional. Despite these efforts, negotiations are ongoing and are expected to continue until August 1. The maximum fair price for the first 10 drugs, including Eliquis, will be announced on Sept. 1 and will take effect at the beginning of 2026.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 20:00

  • Russia Appears To Be Amassing A Dark Fleet To Ship LNG
    Russia Appears To Be Amassing A Dark Fleet To Ship LNG

    By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

    Russia appears to have started to amass a dark fleet of tankers to ship its LNG in vessel ownership transfers similar to the moves that Moscow began after the invasion of Ukraine to create a shadow fleet to export oil and products in the face of Western sanctions.

    Russia has already amassed a large shadow fleet of oil tankers, and it’s now working on a similar plan for LNG to circumvent current and future sanctions on its LNG, according to data from shipping database providers cited by Bloomberg.

    The analysis by Bloomberg has found that little-known shipping firms operating from Dubai’s free trade zone have assumed ownership of at least eight vessels in the past three months, per data from shipping database Equasis. Of these, four ice-class LNG carriers have already received approval from Russia’s authorities to pass through the Arctic route in Russia this summer. Moscow also appears to have issued a record number of permits for this route, the Northern Sea route. Some of the tankers with new ownership don’t have listed insurers—another sign of a vessel now part of a “dark fleet.”.

    “There are several indications pointing to efforts by Russia to create a dark fleet for LNG,” Malte Humpert, founder of the Washington D.C.-based think tank Arctic Institute, told Bloomberg.

    The transfer of ownership of vessels to little-known entities in little transparent jurisdictions outside Russia bears a striking resemblance to the Russian moves from two years ago when Moscow started amassing the dark fleet for its oil, Bloomberg notes.

    Russia has been seeking a larger share of the global LNG market, but U.S. sanctions have delayed the start-up of the Arctic LNG 2 project, while the EU just this week banned new investments, as well as the provision of goods, technology, and services for the completion of LNG projects under construction, such as Arctic LNG 2 and Murmansk LNG.

    The EU is also banning transshipment operations of Russian LNG to third countries in EU territory after a transition period of 9 months. This first EU move against Russia’s LNG could speed up the creation of a shadow Russian LNG fleet.  

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 19:40

  • Arby's Franchisee Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
    Arby’s Franchisee Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

    By Julie LIttman of RestaurantDive

    • Miracle Restaurant Group, a 25-unit Arby’s franchisee, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 20, according to court filings.

    • The company, which has been an Arby’s operator since 2005, has restaurants in Illinois, Indiana, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana, Donald Moore, manager and member of Miracle Restaurant Group, said in a court filing.

    • In addition to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the operator cited inflationary pressures, negative same-store sales, an inability to sell underperforming locations and the failure of the IRS to timely refund over $3 million to the company as part of Employee Retention Tax Credits as reasons for filing for bankruptcy protections, Moore said.

    This isn’t the first time the chain has filed for Chapter 11. In 2010, the company operated over 60 stores, but filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11, leading to closures of a number of stores. Creditors were paid in full under its restructuring plan, Moore said in the court filing. 

    Economic conditions appear to be more dynamic this time around for the operator. Negative same-store sales compressed profit margins that have not helped cover fixed costs. Price increases also couldn’t adequately compensate for a rise in labor and commodity expenses, resulting in an erosion of its cash position, Moore said. 

    Restaurants developed over the last three years also have had disappointing store sales.

    “The negative same store sales and lower than anticipated sales from newer stores have resulted in certain stores that operate at extremely low or (at times) negative cash flow on a weekly and monthly basis,” Moore said. 

    To help offset its declining financial situation, the operator approached its landlords and Arby’s for relief, but the responses were not enough to keep the franchisee from bankruptcy, Moore said. 

    Miracle also tried to sell some of its Texas and Chicago-land area locations, but has not been able to secure offers. Moore said overall declines in Arby’s systemwide same-store sales and low sales to fixed cost ratios of certain Miracle restaurants contributed to the bankruptcy. Last September, it sold three stores in Indiana and used those proceeds to pay down debt. 

    As part of its bankruptcy filing, the operator plans to sell seven Texas stores, eight Illinois stores and two Indiana stores and to focus on operating its Louisiana and Mississippi stores leaving it with eight remaining locations, Moore said. Miracle has retained Peak Franchise Capital to advise in marketing the sale of these restaurants. 

    The company said it has 200 to 999 estimated number of creditors, $1 million to $10 million in assets and $1 million to $10 million in liabilities in a court filing. 

    Bankruptcies have been on the rise among QSR franchisees. Since the start of 2023, franchisees of Burger King, CKE, McDonald’s, Popeyes, Subway and Wendy’s have sought bankruptcy protection. Operators have been under increased financial pressure due to rising labor and food costs, difficulty raising capital to fund expansions or remodels to help drive sales and falling consumer traffic, among other factors.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 19:20

  • What Are Libraries For?
    What Are Libraries For?

    Authored by Roger L. Simon via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    When I was a kid in New York, the 96th Street library was a focal point of my life. Even though I was perpetually losing my library card and amassing fines for overdue books I didn’t want my parents to know about, it (as well as the movie theaters on 86th) was my home away from home.

    People work at desks in the Rose Main Reading Room at the New York Public Library in New York City on Oct. 5, 2016. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

    It had also, I was given to understand, served the same function for the young James Baldwin (although Wikipedia cites the 135th Street library in Harlem) and other esteemed writers of the past and had a history of spawning authors, something even then I dreamed of being.

    It was also a place for stimulating the mind as only books can.

    According to its website, the 96th is currently undergoing a rehab. Simultaneously, I was interested to read, a new library here in my present hometown—six years now—of Nashville is opening.

    From Axios Nashville: “Musical performances, a puppet show and appearances from Nashville political leaders marked the long-awaited grand opening of the Donelson library branch Monday.”

    But wait, as they say, there’s more: “The new 24,000-square-foot library has three dedicated spaces to host community events, six study rooms, artwork by local artists and a mobile kitchen on wheels sponsored by the Stones River Woman’s Club.”

    They also do vehicle registrations. Seriously. No word on a bowling alley.

    The local official who has been sponsoring this project for years said: “Libraries are not about just going to check out a book. They’re modern multimedia centers and places for all kinds of community programming.”

    I disagree. Libraries should be primarily about the one thing that is among the most sorely missed in contemporary society—books, books, books, and more books.

    Now, I have to admit something: Though I am an author now working on his 15th book, I have rarely been in a library in recent years, except to give an occasional talk to promote my work.

    This aversion began several years ago when we had a second home in the Seattle area. I watched with interest, even excitement, as a new city library was erected. Designed by highly regarded Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, it was certainly stylistically cutting edge, utilizing all sorts of geometric shapes and colors.

    But when I first entered the new edifice shortly after opening, what seemed to dominate the building, beyond the trendy architecture—you could barely see any bookshelves—were computer banks. Seated at those banks were, largely, the homeless. What they had up on their screens wasn’t Dostoevsky.

    Not to overly disparage the well-meaning local official quoted above, but the one thing libraries should not be is a “modern multimedia center.” We, especially our children, get enough of that virtually everywhere else. In fact, we can hardly escape it. Nor should libraries be centers of  “community programming” that invite their use for ideological or lifestyle purposes that are inherently exclusionist. (These last have become all too common, with librarians too often the culprits.)

    Libraries should be what they were always intended to be, what the first ones were—temples of books.

    I assume that those who are expanding the concept of a library are doing so, in their minds, to induce people to read books. My guess is they are unwittingly doing the reverse. They are implying that reading a book is not sufficient unto itself, virtually the opposite of the truth.

    Reading a book is the point. It is the brain’s best food, no matter the topic, since the days of the Bible and even before. That is the message a library should deliver.

    What reading a book does for us as nothing else is create a mind-meld with the author or authors and, especially when it is good, allows us, whether fictionally or non-fictionally, to examine its subject in all its complexities and draw sophisticated conclusions. In short, we grow from the experience.

    Largely because of the internet and the ADHD that it so often causes, people are losing the attention span it takes to read a book through. Though I write them myself, I read fewer than I did at 25 when there were no computers or cell phones to distract me. Has this technology rotted my brain? I think, to some degree, yes.

    Having noticed this, I am making an effort to put away the phone—the latest from Ukraine can wait—and read some of a book every night. I don’t always succeed, but I’m trying. I recommend this, if you’re not already doing so. You will find it is also an antidote to the stress of these times.

    Meanwhile, I wish we could get some help in this by making libraries what they used to be—monuments to books and therefore public inspirations for a lifetime of learning.

    Roger Simon’s latest book is “American Refugees: The Untold Story of the Mass Migration from Blue States to Red States.” He is currently working on a novel.

    Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 19:00

  • Nike Shares Crash Near COVID Lows After Warning Sales Slump Is Worsening
    Nike Shares Crash Near COVID Lows After Warning Sales Slump Is Worsening

    Nike shares are down over 11% after-hours following an ugly earnings picture that saw Q4 revenues disappoint and more notably, a sizable cut in guidance for the first half of this fiscal year.

    Building on a slew of reports that suggest pain is finally hitting the consumer’s wallet, Nike’s revenue for Q4 fell 1.7% YoY to $12.61 billion (notably below the $12.86 billion consensus estimate).

    • Direct Revenue (via the company’s website, app and stores) $5.1 billion, -7.3% y/y, well below the estimate of $5.68 billion

    • Wholesale revenue $7.1 billion, +6% y/y, estimate $6.6 billion

    Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Poonam Goyal said the underperformance at Nike’s own sales channels “comes by surprise and is a reason for concern, as the activewear giant could be turning its core shoppers away due to lack of newness.”

    She added that the performance in wholesale, which beat estimates, is a “positive indicator for its revived and existing wholesale relationships.”

    Geographically, Asia was steady while European revenues fell. North America saw the biggest disappointment to expectations:

    • North America revenue $5.28 billion, -1.4% y/y, weaker than the estimated $5.44 billion

    • EMEA revenue $3.29 billion, -1.7% y/y, estimate $3.31 billion

    • Greater China rev. $1.86 billion, +2.9% y/y, estimate $1.83 billion

    • Asia Pacific & Latin America rev. $1.71 billion, +0.5% y/y, estimate $1.74 billion

    Across the product-lines, footwear and most notably ‘Chuck Taylor’ brand Converse saw revenues plunge…

    • Converse revenue $480 million, -18% y/y, estimate $545.6 million

    • Footwear revenue $8.24 billion, -3.6% y/y, estimate $8.64 billion

    • Apparel revenue $3.32 billion, +2.8% y/y, estimate $3.25 billion

    • Equipment revenue $578 million, +34% y/y, estimate $446.4 million

    But then, during the earnings calls, Nike management said that it sees 1Q revenue down about 10% (dramatically worse than the 3% decline consensus had expected).

    This comes after Nike said in March that it expected revenue to fall by a low-single-digit percentage in the first half of its fiscal year.

    “A comeback at this scale takes time,” Chief Financial Officer Matt Friend said during the company’s call with analysts.

    He added the company is transitioning its product lineup to reignite consumer interest. 

    NKE shares are trading down almost 12% in the after hours, almost back to COVID lockdown levels…

    …almost back to COVID lockdown levels…

    Nike Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe is cutting $2 billion in costs and slashing 2% of the workforce, with layoffs recently hitting the company’s European headquarters near Amsterdam and its Boston-based Converse brand.

    “We are taking our near-term challenges head-on, while making continued progress in the areas that matter most to NIKE’s future – serving the athlete through performance innovation, moving at the pace of the consumer and growing the complete marketplace,” said John Donahoe, President & CEO, NIKE, Inc.

    “I’m confident that our teams are lining up our competitive advantages to create greater impact for our business.”

    If Americans can’t afford a new set of sneakers – despite the record number of jobs that Joe Biden has ‘created’, then maybe, just maybe, those jobs weren’t as ‘created’ or ‘well paid’ as some would like you to believe… and maybe, just maybe, the sentiment signals and poll numbers are true about the state of the economy, no matter what all those Nobel laureate economists would prefer that you think.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 18:40

  • Odds Are High You're Going To Need Your Survival Supplies In The Next Few Years
    Odds Are High You’re Going To Need Your Survival Supplies In The Next Few Years

    Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

    In 2020 at the onset of the covid pandemic scare and right before the lockdowns I’ll never forget going on a grocery run on a Friday afternoon only to find near empty roads and near empty stores. The few other people shopping had a glassy stare in their eyes, like they were dazed or shell-shocked. For me and those I know that prep, it was just another day; for those that hadn’t prepped it was a nightmare of uncertainty.

    In Montana we didn’t pay much heed to the lockdowns after the first month.  In three months everything was basically back to normal except for the mask mandates which most people ignored. With more data available on the virus it was clear that the chance of death was greatly exaggerated. What scared us far more was the pervasive talk of vaccine passports in 2021. The proposed state and federal restrictions on people that refused to take the jab were familiar – This was the beginning of full blown tyranny unless we stood firm.

    In the meantime there was a public rush to buy up as many necessities as they could afford. And of course, the covid stimulus measures helped to trigger a stagflationary crisis that had already been building in the US for many years.

    In the face of so many potential threats, preppers were still well protected. If vaccine passports became the norm and access to public places was blocked then we had food storage to get us through for a long time to come. If the buying panic and inflation led to a supply chain disaster then we were ready, along with the guns and ammo and training needed to keep what we had. If a fight was coming then we had the means to defend ourselves.

    I have long been convinced that it was the prepper factor that caused the government to rethink their strategy of perpetual medical lockdowns and give up on vaccine passports. Recent surveys show that over 30% of the adult population of the US is involved in prepping.  We’re an unknown element, something they can’t predict, a possible monkey-wrench in the gears of the machine.

    With our own supplies we are not dependent on the system to keep us alive, and the harder they push the more we are compelled to organize into an even greater obstacle. Just as NATO sanctions have pushed Russia, China and the BRICS closer together, openly authoritarian policies in the west during covid have pushed liberty movement people together. The establishment backed away because they had to.

    That’s why I have to laugh whenever I see some idiot online say: “What’s the point of prepping when nothing ever happens?”

    These people must have been living under a rock since 2020. 

    We just dodged one of the biggest Orwellian bullets in our nation’s history with the defeat of the pandemic mandates. Or, maybe they don’t realize that the pandemic was just the beginning.

    If that’s the case then it pains me to remind everyone that nothing has fundamentally changed. Yes, we beat back the mandates but all the same elites are still in power, all the same globalist institutions that exploited covid to create a panic still exist, and the event has acted as a domino in a chain leading to other crises. Here’s just a few reasons why you’re definitely going to need your survival preps in the next few years…

    The Stagflation Crisis That Wouldn’t Die

    The stagflationary problem is persistent despite all the media claims that it’s under control. Readers familiar with my economic analysis know that I predicted stagflation several years ago as the inevitable outcome of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing and near-zero interest rates (See my article published in 2018 titled ‘Stagflationary Crisis: Understanding The Cause Of America’s Ongoing Collapse’ for reference). I also predicted the Catch-22 problem of rate hikes vs inflation and debt (read my my article from 2021 titled ‘The Fed’s Catch-22 Taper Is A Weapon, Not A Policy Error’). And when I said a couple years ago that the Fed wasn’t going to return to rate cuts for some time, I was right about that too.

    Given this track record, trust me when I say that stagflation is here to stay. Any move to cut rates will automatically trigger an even worse resurgence of inflation and the fed will be forced to hike once again. And, high interest rates will continue to create a national debt crisis as debt payments skyrocket.

    In other words, the economic situation is getting exponentially worse with each passing year. The US National debt was $28 trillion in 2021; by the end of 2024 it will be well over $35 trillion.  That’s $7 trillion added in four-years time.  There is already breakage in the system, but that’s nothing compared to what we face in the next four years. Any preparedness items you buy today should be considered an investment, because there’s no doubt all of those items will be far more expensive or harder to find in the future.

    Political Riots Are Assured

    Recent campus protests over Gaza (and the riots in France over gains by conservatives in government) have reminded people that they shouldn’t get too comfortable with the fading influence of BLM. The same leftists that rode the wave of racial division back in 2020 are going out and finding new causes to co-opt. They’re looking for any excuse to riot, even if it has nothing to do with them personally.

    With the 2024 election incoming we all know civil unrest will be the norm once again no matter who ends up in the White House. With riots follow the threat of looting, property destruction, political violence and even martial law. Then there is the public reaction to those circumstances, including the possibility of civil war. Don’t assume the country will calm down after the election. In fact, assume the opposite.

    The War In Ukraine Is About To Become A World War

    Again, I have mentioned in multiple articles the danger of western involvement in the war in Ukraine including the danger of a wider world war should NATO directly enter the fray. As I write this, France is pressing for “military advisers” to go to Ukraine to train recruits, which is exactly what the US did in Vietnam right before we officially went to war.

    Multiple NATO countries have also given Ukraine the green light to use long range NATO missiles against targets deep in Russia. If you are an avid student of history you know as I do that this only goes one way.

    That’s probably why officials in the US and in Europe are suddenly talking about draft procedures and forced conscription laws in order to shore up their ranks. How many people will actually submit to a draft? I don’t know, but I do know this is not the kind of talk that governments engage in when their goal is diplomacy. It’s the kind of talk they engage in when they’re getting ready to antagonize the enemy.

    A larger war with Russia comes with a host of difficulties that would take me too many pages to cover here. To summarize, war with Russia means war with China, war with North Korea, war with Iran and most of the Middle East, tragic supply chain disruptions, the end of the dollar’s world reserve status and a good chance of a limited (false flag) or regional nuclear exchange.

    I have serious doubts that global nuclear war is on the table because the establishment has nothing to gain and everything to lose from it. However, a war between East and West is more than enough to cause absolute havoc in every nation on the planet.

    The War Over Gaza Is Quickly Leading To A War For The Middle East

    I’m not going to cheer for either side in this conflict. My concern is America and Americans. That said, it’s clear that actions on both sides are forcing the war to expand well beyond Gaza. Recent Israeli strikes on Syria and scuffles with Egyptian troops are concerning. Lebanon is highly involved and Iran has already traded missiles with Israel. Israel has stated their offensive will continue through at least the end of 2024, and now they may be shifting to all out war on Lebanon.

    In terms of how this all affects the US or Europe, the immediate consequence will be a shut down of oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea. That’s 30% or more of the world’s oil trade slowed down or eliminated. Energy prices will explode along with prices on everything else. The price of all the goods you buy daily is affected by the price of oil.

    Agriculture, for example, relies heavily on fuel and oil based fertilizers. This means high oil prices will trigger high food prices, and food supplies will be key in the next few years.

    Prepping Isn’t A Hobby, It’s A Duty

    Frankly, preparedness should be a social mainstay – An integral part of American life. It’s not a hobby, it’s a duty. The more prepared people there are the safer every American will be. Most prepared people don’t panic because there’s no need. And people who don’t panic are less likely to harm others out of fear and desperation.

    Think of food storage like a big battery. A battery is energy storage for later when you need it. Think about how much time and work and energy goes into growing just one month of food for your family. Isn’t it far better to store all that work in long term foods so that you don’t have to worry about it later during the worst of conditions? Every bucket of stored food is a battery that saves you precious time and labor.

    Growing food and living sustainably is great in peacetime or in the middle of a large, well organized community. Growing food at the onset of a national crisis in a place where too many people are unprepared is almost impossible. If a breakdown occurs then your best bet is to hunker down, work with family, friends and neighbors, and live on your preps until there is a large enough community in place to securely restart agriculture again.

    There are too many variables right now around the world that can cause catastrophe, and even events on the other side of the globe can cause serious problems for you at home. I see very little chance of the situation improving in the next few years and a very high chance of things spiraling out of control. Take your prepping seriously, even when oblivious naysayers claim “nothing’s going to happen.” Those will be the same people crying for help before long, and you don’t want to share their fate.

    *  *  *

    One survival food company, Prepper All-Naturals, has proactively dropped prices to allow Americans to stock up ahead of projected hikes in beef prices. Their 25-year shelf life steaks currently come at a 25% discount with promo code “invest25”.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 18:20

  • US Readies To Evacuate Americans From Lebanon If War Erupts, Marines En Route
    US Readies To Evacuate Americans From Lebanon If War Erupts, Marines En Route

    With Israel-Hezbollah tensions soaring and the US and European countries urging both sides against an all-out war, the US Embassy in Beirut has issued a new travel advisory warning American citizens to stay away from Lebanon. “We remind US citizens to strongly reconsider travel to Lebanon,” said the fresh notice which follows prior similar alerts. It warned in particular about travel to the south of Lebanon and in border areas with Syria, and to also avoid refugee settlements.

    In the event of a “sudden outbreaks of violence and armed conflict” the Lebanese government nor the US Embassy can ensure US citizens’ safety, the notice warned further. Some European countries have issued similar alerts, with the Netherlands and Germany being the latest to warn their nationals to evacuate the country.

    US Navy via AP

    Throughout more than eight months of war, both sides have kept the engagement ‘limited’ – but the last weeks have seen bigger and bigger tit-for-tat strikes conducted along the border. Israeli attacks are also reaching deeper into Lebanon, and are occurring more frequently.

    But the Pentagon clearly believes a big escalation is imminent, and has moved assets off the coast in preparation for a potential emergency evacuation of Americans in the event of all-out war:

    The Pentagon is moving U.S. military assets closer to Israel and Lebanon to be ready to evacuate Americans as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies, according to three U.S. defense officials and a former U.S. official familiar with the plans.

    The USS Wasp, an amphibious assault ship, and Marines from the 24th Expeditionary Unit, which is special operations capable, moved into the Mediterranean on Wednesday to join the dock landing ship USS Oak Hill and another ship in their amphibious ready group, according to the Marine Corps. The Wasp will operate in the eastern Mediterranean to be ready for a Military Assisted Departure and other missions, the officials said.

    Meanwhile, the Israeli military (IDF) is conducting major drills along its northern border with Lebanon, in some significant signaling just days after the Netanyahu government approved potential war plans against Hezbollah.

    The drills which simulate combat began last week, with the IDF only now publishing videos and photos of the exercises, which also feature scenarios of a bigger offensive.

    The IDF said the drills are for “responding to various threats with the cooperation of the infantry, armor and fire forces” – at a moment there continues to be daily Hezbollah drone and rocket launches into northern Israel.

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

    IDF forces also practiced combat scenarios “in a tangled terrain that simulates combat on a northern route, progress along a mountain route and the use of gradual fire,” the statement said further.

    Among the units present for the drill included the 55th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade, which strongly points to Israel gearing up for a major invasion of south Lebanon.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 18:00

  • Justice Alito Dissent Says Majority "Shirks" Duty in Free Speech Case
    Justice Alito Dissent Says Majority “Shirks” Duty in Free Speech Case

    Authored by Sam Dorman via The Epoch Times,

    Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said the high court shirked its duty in rejecting a challenge brought over the White House’s communications with social media companies over political content, a case he described as “one of the most important free speech cases to reach this Court in years.”

    Justices Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas, dissented from the majority in the June 26 decision while six justices held that the state and individual plaintiffs involved lacked standing to even bring speech-related claims to the court.

    The plaintiffs had claimed, among other things, that the Biden administration illegally coerced social media platforms to moderate certain election-related content and posts related to COVID-19.

    Justice Alito’s dissent disputed the majority’s arguments about standing while detailing communications between the Biden administration and Facebook. He said administration officials’ actions were “blatantly unconstitutional, and the country may come to regret the Court’s failure to say so.”

    Majority ‘Shirks’ Its Duty: Alito

    Alito wrote that there was “more than sufficient” evidence that Jill Hines, one of the plaintiffs, had standing to sue “and consequently, we are obligated to tackle the free speech issue that the case presents.”

    “The Court, however, shirks that duty and thus permits the successful campaign of coercion in this case to stand as an attractive model for future officials who want to control what the people say, hear, and think,” Justice Alito added.

    The dissent warned that the majority, whose opinion was written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, sent a message to government officials that if a “coercive campaign is carried out with enough sophistication, it may get by.”

    He suggested the outcome should have been the same as in National Rifle Association v. Vullo, which was heard on the same day as Murthy and ultimately held that New York state’s government plausibly violated the First Amendment by pressuring companies to cut ties with the gun rights group.

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Court ruled last year that the administration’s communications constituted the type of coercion of social media companies that betrayed its duty not to violate the First Amendment.

    Three judges signed onto the September 2023 opinion that cited communications in detail. For example, it pointed to how a White House official “responded to a moderation report by flagging a user’s account and saying it is ‘[h]ard to take any of this seriously when you’re actively promoting anti-vaccine pages.’ The platform subsequently ’removed‘ the account ’entirely‘ from its site, detailed new changes to the company’s moderation policies, and told the official that ’[w]e clearly still have work to do.’”

    “The official responded that ’removing bad information‘ is ’one of the easy, low-bar things you guys [can] do to make people like me think you’re taking action.‘ The official emphasized that other platforms had ’done pretty well‘ at demoting non-sanctioned information, and said ’I don’t know why you guys can’t figure this out.’”

    Facebook

    In his June 26 opinion, Justice Alito described tech platforms as “critically dependent on the protection provided by §230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 … which shields them from civil liability for content they spread.”

    He added that Facebook faced a regulatory environment that incentivized the company to “please important federal officials and the record in this case shows that high-ranking officials skillfully exploited Facebook’s vulnerability.”

    The administration, he said, “continuously and persistently hectored Facebook” while the platform’s “reactions to these efforts were not what one would expect from an independent news source or a journalistic entity dedicated to holding the Government accountable for its actions.”

    “Instead,” he added, “Facebook’s responses resembled that of a subservient entity determined to stay in the good graces of a powerful taskmaster.” He later said: “Internal Facebook emails paint a clear picture of subservience.”

    A smartphone and a computer screen displaying the logos of the social network Facebook and its parent company Meta in Toulouse, southwestern France, on Jan. 12, 2023. (Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images)

    The dissent also considered a variety of communications between White House officials Andy Slavitt and Rob Flaherty. For example, it noted how Mr. Flaherty, who served as White House Director of Digital Strategy, accused Facebook of “hiding the ball” and suggested they were “playing a shell game.”

    Justice Alito also pointed to Facebook’s changing policy amid White House criticism. Facebook representatives, he said, “whimpered that they ’thought we were doing a better job’ but promised to do more going forward.”

    Meta, Facebook’s parent company, did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

    Brian Fletcher, principal deputy solicitor general of the United States, acknowledged that the government “may not use coercive threats to suppress speech,” but argued it was “entitled to speak for itself by informing, persuading, or criticizing private speakers.”

    There is a “fundamental distinction between persuasion and coercion,” he said.

    Justice Alito disagreed and argued that the administration was doing more than exercising its power in the bully pulpit.

    “In sum, the officials wielded potent authority,” he said. “Their communications with Facebook were virtual demands. And Facebook’s quavering responses to those demands show that it felt a strong need to yield.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 17:40

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Jun 27

Today’s News 27th June 2024

  • World Dangerously Headed For 'Food Wars', Top Commodity Trader Warns
    World Dangerously Headed For ‘Food Wars’, Top Commodity Trader Warns

    Sunny Verghese, CEO of Olam Agri, a Singapore-based agricultural trading firm, spoke at the Redburn Atlantic and Rothschild consumer conference last week, warned the audience that the world is heading towards a period of “food wars” as geopolitical wildfires spread across the globe. 

    “We have fought many wars over oil. We will fight bigger wars over food and water,” Verghese said, quoted by the Financial Times, adding that food protectionism has forced some governments to boost domestic food supplies, exacerbating food inflation.

    He pointed out that a surge in non-tariff trade barriers in 2022 in response to the war in Ukraine—1,266 from 154 countries by his count—had sparked “an exaggerated demand-supply imbalance.” 

    Food prices have soared in recent years, whether due to adverse weather conditions (sparked by El Nino) or the war in Ukraine. These prices are likely to remain elevated for years to come.

    Verghese said wealthier countries have been building surpluses of strategic commodities due to global uncertainty, which has helped push food prices higher.

    “India, China, everybody has got buffer stocks,” he said, adding, “That is only exacerbating the global problem.” 

    The latest data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations shows that global food prices are beginning to rise once again and remain well above pre-Covid levels. 

    What’s clear is that the most impoverished countries are extremely vulnerable to surging food prices and shortages, and these areas are at the highest risk of social unrest.

    However, wealthier economies aren’t immune, as we’ve seen evidence with US consumers pulling back on food spending while complaining about the failure of Bidenomics.

    FT provided two recent examples of food protectionism that is likely to continue in the years ahead, exacerbating food security risks for the world’s most vulnerable: 

    In 2022, Indonesia banned palm oil exports to protect the local market while last year India imposed export restrictions on certain types of rice in an effort to curb rising domestic prices ahead of parliamentary elections, after a volatile monsoon disrupted production and spurred fears of a supply shortage.

    The risks are skewed toward more food export curbs as the world splinters into a multipolar state full of conflict and chaos. Protectionism might be the worst thing for food security and yet another reason why prices will linger at elevated levels for the years to come.

    This is yet more evidence that Americans need to ditch Walmart and the food-industrial complex and support local farmers so they can beef up local supply chains to minimize risks abroad.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 02:45

  • Russia's Response To Ukraine's US-Backed Bombing Of Beachgoers Wasn't What Many Expected
    Russia’s Response To Ukraine’s US-Backed Bombing Of Beachgoers Wasn’t What Many Expected

    Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

    President Putin proved once again that he’s mature enough of a leader to make tough decisions that disregard public opinion following his government’s tepid response to Ukraine’s US-backed bombing of beachgoers in Sevastopol over the weekend. It was predicted that “Russia Probably Won’t Impose A No-Fly Zone Over The Black Sea After The Sevastopol Attack”, which explained why it was unlikely to capitulate to the public’s demand due to worries about accidentally sparking World War III.

    Instead of shooting down or otherwise neutralizing American reconnaissance drones over international waters in the Black Sea, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reaffirmed that President Putin’s ceasefire proposal still stands. Shortly afterwards, Peskov also expressed Russia’s continued openness to talks with France after Emmanuel Macron publicly said that he’s interested in them the other day while also walking back his earlier rhetoric about wanting to conventionally intervene in Ukraine.

    These two developments were then followed by new Defense Minister Andrey Belousov talking to his American counterpart in a call where “they exchanged views about the situation around Ukraine”. He also warned him about “the dangers of further escalation in terms of the continuing deliveries of American weapons to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.” Taken together, it’s clearly the case that Russia’s response was once again conciliatory and not escalatory, exactly as the earlier cited analysis predicted.

    Interestingly, these developments were interspersed with the viral fake news claim that Russia had already supposedly downed an American drone over the Black Sea in revenge, which was introduced into the information ecosystem here but was then quickly walked back by its originator here. Nevertheless, this claim wildly proliferated across social media because it conformed to many wishful thinking observers’ expectations, most of whom never came across the follow-up post walking it back.

    The reason why it’s so important to clarify exactly what Russia’s response to last weekend’s provocation was, namely to continue its conciliatory approach for de-escalation purposes as opposed to risking World War III by miscalculation if it reacted as the public demanded, is to prevent false expectations. Those who get their hopes unrealistically high will inevitably experience deep disappointment, after which some might become susceptible to hostile narratives that Russia “sold out” or whatever.

    Whether one agrees with the merits of its saintly restraint or not, the fact of the matter is that this is indeed the policy that President Putin has decided to promulgate for the reasons that were explained. While it’s possible that he might order a symbolic show of force by authorizing the shooting down or neutralization of an American drone in the coming future, his tepid response thus far suggests that he’s disinclined to do so, or that it would solely be a one-off in the unlikely event that it happens.

    President Putin isn’t a “madman”, “monster”, or “mastermind” like many imagine that he is, but is a consummate pragmatist at least as how he sees himself and is therefore unlikely to ever do anything that could be spun as emotional or radical. He always takes a long time before making major decisions, with the proof being how long it took for him to commence Russia’s aerial intervention in Syria and the ongoing special operation, usually waiting till the last possible moment.

    Likewise, if Russia does indeed decide to seriously escalate against the West, then the track record suggests that it would be a seemingly abrupt game-changer but preceded by clear statements of intent that could be seen in hindsight as “ultimatums” (despite being described differently by its diplomats). Some might interpret a few of its recent signals as hinting at that scenario, but the substance of its response thus far as was explained dispels that notion and suggests that the current policy will continue.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/27/2024 – 02:00

  • Electing The Next Dictator: Ugly Truths You Won't Hear From Trump Or Biden
    Electing The Next Dictator: Ugly Truths You Won’t Hear From Trump Or Biden

    Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

    “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

    – George Orwell

    No matter what carefully crafted sound bites and political spin get trotted out by Joe Biden and Donald Trump in advance of the 2024 presidential election, you can rest assured that none of the problems that continue to undermine our freedoms will be addressed in any credible, helpful way by either candidate, despite the dire state of our nation.

    Certainly not if doing so might jeopardize their standing with the unions, corporations or the moneyed elite bankrolling their campaigns.

    Indeed, the 2024 elections will not do much to alter our present course towards a police state.

    Nor will the popularity contest for the new occupant of the White House significantly alter the day-to-day life of the average American greatly at all. Those life-changing decisions are made elsewhere, by nameless, unelected government officials who have turned bureaucracy into a full-time and profitable business.

    In the interest of liberty and truth, here are a few uncomfortable truths about life in the American police state that we will not be hearing from either of the two leading presidential candidates.

    1. The government is not our friend. Nor does it work for “we the people.” Our so-called government representatives do not actually represent us, the citizenry. We are now ruled by an oligarchic elite of governmental and corporate interests whose main interest is in perpetuating power and control.

    2. By gradually whittling away at our freedoms—free speech, assembly, due process, privacy, etc.—the government has, in effect, liberated itself from its contractual agreement to respect our constitutional rights while resetting the calendar back to a time when we had no Bill of Rights to protect us from the long arm of the government.

    3. Republicans and Democrats like to act as if there’s a huge difference between them and their policies. However, they are not sworn enemies so much as they are partners in crime, united in a common goal, which is to maintain the status quo.

    4. Presidential elections merely serve to maintain the status quo. Once elected president, that person becomes part of the dictatorial continuum that is the American imperial presidency today.

    5. The U.S. government is spending money it doesn’t have on foreign aid programs it can’t afford, all the while the national debt continues to grow, our domestic infrastructure continues to deteriorate, and our borders continue to be breached. What is going on? It’s obvious that a corporatized, militarized, entrenched global bureaucracy is running the country.

    6. Forty years past the time that George Orwell envisioned the stomping boot of Big Brother, the police state is about to pass off the baton to the surveillance state. 1984 has become an operation manual for the omnipresent, modern-day surveillance state. For all intents and purposes, we now have a fourth branch of government. This fourth branch came into being without any electoral mandate or constitutional referendum, and yet it possesses superpowers, above and beyond those of any other government agency save the military. It is all-knowing, all-seeing and all-powerful. It operates beyond the reach of the president, Congress and the courts, and it marches in lockstep with the corporate elite who really call the shots in Washington, DC. The government’s “technotyranny” surveillance apparatus has become so entrenched and entangled with its police state apparatus that it’s hard to know anymore where law enforcement ends and surveillance begins. They have become one and the same entity.

    7. When exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime, you are being ruled by criminals. In the current governmental climate, obeying one’s conscience and speaking truth to the power of the police state can easily render you an “enemy of the state.” The government’s list of so-called “enemies of the state” is growing by the day. What we are dealing with is a government so power-hungry, paranoid and afraid of losing its stranglehold on power that it is conspiring to wage war on anyone who dares to challenge its authority.

    8. If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it. Americans only think they’re choosing the next president. In truth, however, they’re engaging in the illusion of participation culminating in the reassurance ritual of voting. It’s just another manufactured illusion conjured up in order to keep the populace compliant and convinced that their vote counts and that they still have some influence over the political process.

    9. More than terrorism, more than domestic extremism, more than gun violence and organized crime, the U.S. government has become a greater menace to the life, liberty and property of its citizens than any of the so-called dangers from which the government claims to protect us.

    10. The government knows exactly which buttons to push in order to manipulate the populace and gain the public’s cooperation and compliance. This draconian exercise in how to divide, conquer and subdue a nation is succeeding. This is how you use the politics of fear to persuade a freedom-endowed people to shackle themselves to a dictatorship.

    11. The government long ago sold us out to the highest bidder. The highest bidder, by the way, has always been the Deep State. America’s shadow government—which is comprised of unelected government bureaucrats, corporations, contractors, paper-pushers, and button-pushers who are actually calling the shots behind the scenes right now and operates beyond the reach of the Constitution with no real accountability to the citizenry—is the real reason why “we the people” have no control over our government.

    12. Every U.S. citizen is now guilty until proven innocent.

    13. “We the people” are no longer shielded by the rule of law. While the First Amendment—which gives us a voice—is being muzzled, the Fourth Amendment—which protects us from being bullied, badgered, beaten, broken and spied on by government agents—is being disemboweled.

    14. Privacy, as we have known it, is dead. Every second of every day, the American people are being spied on by the U.S. government’s vast network of digital Peeping Toms, electronic eavesdroppers and robotic snoops. Government eyes are watching you. They see your every move: what you read, how much you spend, where you go, with whom you interact, when you wake up in the morning, what you’re watching on television and reading on the internet. Every move you make is being monitored, mined for data, crunched, and tabulated in order to form a picture of who you are, what makes you tick, and how best to control you when and if it becomes necessary to bring you in line. Beware of what you say, what you read, what you write, where you go, and with whom you communicate, because it will all be recorded, stored and used against you eventually, at a time and place of the government’s choosing.

    15. Private property means nothing if the government can take your home, car or money under the flimsiest of pretexts, whether it be asset forfeiture schemes, eminent domain or overdue property taxes. Likewise, private property means little at a time when SWAT teams and other government agents can invade your home, break down your doors, kill your dog, wound or kill you, damage your furnishings and terrorize your family.

    16. If there is an absolute maxim by which the federal government seems to operate, it is that the American taxpayer always gets ripped off. The government’s schemes to swindle, cheat, scam, and generally defraud taxpayers of their hard-earned dollars have run the gamut from wasteful pork barrel legislation, cronyism and graft to asset forfeiture, costly stimulus packages, and a national security complex that continues to undermine our freedoms while failing to making us any safer. Americans have also been made to pay through the nose for the government’s endless wars, subsidization of foreign nations, military empire, welfare state, roads to nowhere, bloated workforce, secret agencies, fusion centers, private prisons, biometric databases, invasive technologies, arsenal of weapons, and every other budgetary line item that is contributing to the fast-growing wealth of the corporate elite at the expense of those who are barely making ends meet—that is, we the taxpayers.

    17. From the moment they are born to the time they legally come of age, young people are now wards of the state. Parents no longer have the final say over what their kids are taught, how they are disciplined, or what kinds of medical care they need.

    18. All you need to do in order to be flagged as a suspicious character, labeled an enemy of the state and locked up like a dangerous criminal is use certain trigger words, surf the internet, communicate using a cell phone, drive a car, stay at a hotel, purchase materials at a hardware store, take flying or boating lessons, appear suspicious, question government authority, or generally live in the United States.

    19. The government is pushing us ever closer to a constitutional crisis.

    20. Our freedoms—especially the Fourth Amendment—continue to be choked out by a prevailing view among government bureaucrats that they have the right to search, seize, strip, scan, spy on, probe, pat down, taser, and arrest any individual at any time and for the slightest provocation. Forced cavity searches, forced colonoscopies, forced blood draws, forced breath-alcohol tests, forced DNA extractions, forced eye scans, and forced inclusion in biometric databases are just a few ways in which Americans continue to be reminded that we have no control over what happens to our bodies during an encounter with government officials.

    These are not problems that can be glibly dismissed with a few well-chosen words, as most politicians are inclined to do.

    No matter which candidate wins this election, the citizenry and those who represent us need to own up to the fact that there can be no police state—no tyranny—no routine violations of our rights without our complicity and collusion—without our turning a blind eye, shrugging our shoulders, allowing ourselves to be distracted and our civic awareness diluted.

    Likewise, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, these problems will continue to plague our nation unless and until Americans wake up to the fact that we’re the only ones who can change things for the better and then do something about it. After all, the Constitution opens with those three vital words, “We the people.”

    There is no government without us—our sheer numbers, our muscle, our economy, our physical presence in this land.

    We are the government.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 06/26/2024 – 23:40

  • White House Warns Lebanon: US Can't Control Or Restrain Israel If Offensive Starts
    White House Warns Lebanon: US Can’t Control Or Restrain Israel If Offensive Starts

    Among the more interesting positions which the Biden White House has recently articulated to Arab allies in the Middle East is that the Untied States cannot restrain Israel if it decides to launch new offensives, namely against Lebanon.

    Axios has revealed that during his trip to Beirut last week, Biden’s special envoy Amos Hochstein warned the Lebanese government, “The US won’t be able to hold Israel back if the situation on the border continues to escalate and that Hezbollah needs to indirectly negotiate with Israel instead of ratcheting up tensions.”

    DoD image

    “The situation is serious. What President Biden wants to do is to avoid a further escalation to a greater war,” Hochstein had additionally said. “It will take everyone’s interest in ending this conflict now. And we believe that there is a pathway diplomatically to do it. If the sides agree to it.”

    But what do the Lebanese see of US foreign policy? And what do Arab leaders and their population see? Israel has for decades topped the list of US foreign aid recipients, receiving a consistent $3+ billion annually. Washington regularly makes arms deals with Tel Aviv to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars as well.

    Some Israeli leaders have lately gone so far as to admit that Israel’s military might not be able to persist in its Gaza operations without the steady flow of US arms and ammo.

    But the US has even reached out to Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, via intermediaries, to warn that it can’t hold Israel back in the event of escalation.

    “During his meeting with Berri in Beirut, Hochsteim asked the speaker of the Lebanese Parliament to pass a message to Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, that his assumption that the U.S. controls Israel is wrong, the sources said,” Axios wrote.

    “According to the sources, Hochstein said the U.S. won’t be able to hold Israel back if the situation on the border continues to escalate and that Hezbollah needs to indirectly negotiate with Israel instead of ratcheting up tensions,” the report continued.

    The US and European partners, especially France, have recently sought to entice and pressure the Lebanese government to reign in Hezbollah, something it has very limited capability in doing. The Lebanese Army is in reality almost powerless in dealing with Hezbollah, also as it has no air force to speak of. 

    The US itself has imposed sanctions and limits on what aircraft Lebanon can obtain, fearing that it could be used in a conflict with Israel.

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

    This week, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is in Washington meeting with top US officials. On Monday he met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken wherein the top US diplomat reaffirmed that the US will continue aiding Israel’s military. “He also underscored the importance of avoiding further escalation of the conflict and reaching a diplomatic resolution that allows both Israeli and Lebanese families to return to their homes,” a State Department press release indicated. “Secretary Blinken reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security.”

    And Tuesday, upon a meeting with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the Pentagon chief said, “I am extremely concerned about the rise in rocket attacks on Israel’s north from Lebanese Hezbollah.” He emphasized that “Another war between Israel and Hezbollah could easily become a regional war with terrible consequences for the Middle East, and so diplomacy is by far the best way to prevent more escalation.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 06/26/2024 – 23:20

  • How Vulnerable Are Our Digital Systems?
    How Vulnerable Are Our Digital Systems?

    Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

    Last week a cyberattack hit a huge number of car dealers in the United States. The software designed by the company CDK was completely disabled, affecting the whole of an integrated process of purchasing and processing. Sellers could not process sales, loans, insurance, registrations, and much more. It happened suddenly, lasted two and a half days, came back, then went down again.

    How did car dealers function? They wrote it all out on paper and pledged to complete the process after the systems came back. They are back and all seems well but the experience is a warning sign. These systems are far more vulnerable than anyone normally assumes. All it takes to shut down the modern world as we know it is a hack here and there. That’s an alarming realization.

    The problem is that the technological revolution as we fashioned it 30 years ago gradually evolved in an ever more centralized way, wholly dependent on a weak and old-fashioned electrical grid of networks without much duplication or backstopping. The software too has become centralized for each industrial purpose. If one thing goes wrong in any system with a single point of failure, the whole comes to a grinding halt.

    It’s amazing to consider that the old analogue world that lasted from the ancient world until the 21st century did not have this problem. It was more durable, physically anchored, fixable by human hands, comprehensible, and manageable. The move to digital everything introduced a fragility to the whole that we are only now discovering.

    This is not only a problem for whole industries. It affects individuals too. A friend of mine recently came back to his car to discover that his iPad had snapped and curled up as a crumpled piece of metal in the heat, something completely unexpected. The same day, the screen on his laptop split from top to bottom, likely due to some physical impact. Bad luck but out of nowhere, his life came to a grinding halt, left only with a phone that was on its last legs anyway.

    There are always answers here but everything involves a sudden expenditure of a thousand or two dollars plus many days wait. And getting back old material requires tapping back into a single account on a proprietary cloud that is itself vulnerable to hacking and leaks. And this is how we all live. We are dazzled and thrilled by all the snazzy things we can do with all our new toys but blissfully unaware of just how fragile the entire system is to technological contingencies.

    This has all come as a bit of a shock to me, a person who came of age with the claim that the internet is forever and more durable than anything that came before. With search engines ever more curated according to stakeholder priorities, and sites dying the death of neglect and old code every day, we’ve come to discover the opposite. Links and sites that were essential only five years ago seem to have been zapped out of existence, by the many millions.

    You know this if you have been posting articles for a long time. I can go back to an article I wrote ten years ago, if I can find it and it is still there, and try out the links therein. Most of them are dead now, meaning that the main way in which writers once documented their claims is completely unworkable now. And then it all happened in such a short period of time. In the “world wide web” it turns out that most of the strands of the web are as vulnerable as a spider’s own construction in a storm. It falls apart under the slightest stress.

    This leads to an astonishing realization. It is easier to dig up an article written in the 1920s or 1930s, or the 1880s for that matter, than anything posted online after 1995. In practice, the internet is not forever. It is temporary, gauzy, ephemeral, changing, and forever replacing the old with the new. This means that digital technology enables the constant replacing of one reality for another, which is amazing.

    Some years ago, I wrote something like 300 articles and 30 book introductions for a company I assumed would be around forever. The company was not able to make it according to profitability metrics and was replaced.

    I watched from one instant to the next with amazement as the entire infrastructure flipped from one domain to another that did not carry any of it over, and all the accounts where the books lived were suddenly deleted from one minute to the next. Two years of my own work was suddenly vaporized. This was not malice at work. It was just the reality of business: maintaining the legacy simply did not pay.

    I’m not bitter about this. It’s just business. Plus the same thing has happened to millions and billions of other pieces of content. Here today, gone tomorrow. This is the nature of the digital world. We’ve marveled at the cost savings of publishing and information distribution. It turns out that what you save out of pocket is paid for in other ways. You may never see it again.

    Yes, there are ways to preserve content on the web, such as the brilliant service offered by Archive.org but this one service cannot be expected to uphold the whole. It’s also extremely difficult to use. You have to know precisely what you are looking for before you can find it. Even then, it is hit or miss.

    We may all somehow rue the day that we gave up our physical libraries and replaced them with digital readers. We believed we were modernizing and improving our lives, and increasing our physical mobility. No one ever enjoyed moving books from one place to another. But now we find that even our access to learning and wisdom is highly contingent and dependent on centralized systems that can be taken down in an instant.

    It’s a terrifying thought that the whole of modern life hinges on such a thin foundation that can crack at any time, wholly changing reality in front of our eyes, taking down whole sectors, and disabling all functionality. We look back at the old days of analogue everything and consider it primitive but maybe that is completely untrue. Maybe it was far wiser to rely on systems that cannot break en masse and can be fixed by actual human beings when they break.

    Many people worry about the implications of solar flares that can take down the internet in a flash. That is a legitimate concern. But the real threat is far more pressing and real. It is how any system can be hacked and compromised in any sector: car sales, real estate management, delivery systems, banking and finance, and payment processing.

    t can all be here today and gone tomorrow.

    All these systems claim to have redundancies but we have no guarantees of that. And we’ll never really know until they are really tested. Redundancy is just a management slogan. It might be real but most likely is not.

    In fact, there have been very few serious stress tests of anything built over the last several decades. We’ve just barreled ahead, piling digit upon digit and trusting that everything is going to work just fine forever. We have no assurance of that.

    You know who will thrive if the nightmare scenario actually comes to pass? The Amish, the Mennonities, family farms in rural areas, and other small communities that never went all-in with digital adoption. Maybe it was a mistake to toss out everything we knew from the industrial age and convert the whole world so suddenly to an ephemeral world built of 1s and 0s.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 06/26/2024 – 23:00

  • Watch: Leftist Georgia Judge Arrested And Dismissed From Bench After Assaulting Police
    Watch: Leftist Georgia Judge Arrested And Dismissed From Bench After Assaulting Police

    Maybe it’s time for America to reconsider the ugly trend of bringing the ghetto into politics and the courtroom?  The list of leftist politicians and judges in trouble for corruption and belligerent low-class behavior is growing long.  It’s painful for many Americans to think about how this reflects on the country overall.  If anyone was unsure about our status as an idiocracy, we certainly look like one now.

    Case in point, one of Georgia’s highest paid (and most infamous) Democrat judges, Christina Peterson, has recently been arrested for assault on a police officer outside a nightclub in Atlanta.  Peterson has subsequently been dismissed from the bench, but not just for allegedly striking an officer during the arrest of another woman.  She was also investigated and disciplined for dozens of professional violations.  Seeing her personal conduct when interacting with police, one wonders how it was possible for such a woman to be in the position to become a judge.

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    The Atlanta Police Department said Peterson repeatedly brushed the officer’s arms away and pushed him twice before he detained her outside the Red Martini Restaurant and Lounge on Peachtree Road.  She refused to give officers her name for hours after the arrest. 

    She now claims that the officer didn’t identify himself and that he was engaged in a “coverup” of his “improper acts.”  The officer’s body cam footage appears to indicate otherwise.

    An investigation was already underway into 28 accusations of misconduct against Peterson when the incident occurred. 

    This week, the Georgia Supreme Court issued a decision removing her from office early, with her original term due to end later this year.

    The Supreme Court said the most troubling allegation against Peterson had to do with her treatment of a woman who appeared before her while trying to correct an error on her marriage certificate. Peterson held the woman in criminal contempt and imposed the maximum jail term of 20 days and a fine “without explanation or justification,” the panel found.

    Peterson is also alleged to have allowed people to enter the county courthouse after hours without ensuring proper security screening and then made unjustified requests for deputies to work overtime at taxpayer expense when her after-hours access was limited as a result, the high court opinion says. She also pressed a panic button in her chambers when the deputy assigned to escort her to court did not arrive on time. Those actions “did not demonstrate the decorum and temperament required of a judge,” the opinion says.

    As the childish nature of the political left seeps into every facet of American society there will be inevitable abuses of power on a scale consistent with the worst kinds of third-world cesspools.  Positions of authority requiring a high level of decorum are now being populated with low-IQ, impulse driven adolescents trapped inside adult bodies.  It’s a bad look, but also a poisonous condition for fairness or justice.  DEI strikes again, and the lowest common denominator continues to cut in line ahead of people with much greater merit and far better aptitude.   

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 06/26/2024 – 22:40

  • James Clapper, Mr. October Surprise: How Obama's Intel Czar Rigged 2016 And 2020 Debates Against Trump
    James Clapper, Mr. October Surprise: How Obama’s Intel Czar Rigged 2016 And 2020 Debates Against Trump

    Authored by Paul Sperry via RealClearInvestigations.com,

    Just before Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton faced off in their second presidential debate, then-National Intelligence Director James Clapper met in the White House with a small group of advisers to President Obama to hatch a plan to put out a first-of-its-kind intelligence report warning the voting public that “the Russian government” was interfering in the election by allegedly breaching the Clinton campaign’s email system.

    On Oct. 7, 2016 – just two days before the presidential debate between Trump and Clinton – Clapper issued the unprecedented intelligence advisory with Obama’s personal blessing. It seemed to lend credence to what the Clinton camp was telling the media — that Trump was working with Russian President Vladimir Putin through a secret back channel to steal the election. Sure enough, the Democratic nominee pounced on it to smear Trump at the debate.

    And that wouldn’t be the only historically consequential maneuver for Clapper, whose role in skewing presidential campaigns might deserve a special place in the annals of nefarious election meddling – by, in this case, a domestic, not foreign, intelligence service.

    In 2020, he was the lead signatory on the “intelligence” statement that discredited the New York Post’s October bombshell exposing emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop, which documented how Hunter’s corrupt Burisma paymasters had met with Joe Biden when he was vice president. It was released Oct. 19, just three days before Trump and Biden debated each other in Nashville. Fifty other U.S. “Intelligence Community” officials and experts signed the seven-page document, which claimed “the arrival on the U.S. political scene of emails purportedly belonging to Vice President Biden’s son Hunter, much of it related to his time serving on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

    In hindsight, Clapper’s well-timed pseudo-intelligence in 2016 and 2020 helped Clinton and Biden make the case against Trump as a potentially Kremlin-compromised figure, charges that crippled his presidency and later arguably denied him reelection.

    The phony laptop letter actually helped Biden seal his narrow victory since many of his voters in the close election told pollsters they would have had second thoughts about backing him had they known of the damning materials contradicting his denials he knew anything about his son’s shady foreign dealings.

    A post-election survey by The Polling Company, for one, found that thanks to the discrediting and suppression of the laptop story, 45% of Biden voters in swing states said they were “unaware of the financial scandal enveloping Biden and his son” and that full awareness of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal would have led more than 9% of these Biden voters to abandon their vote for him – thereby flipping all six of the swing states he won over to Trump and giving Trump the victory.

    In effect, Joe Biden was elected president because millions of voters were steered away by Clapper and his intelligence colleagues from learning about the damning contents on Hunter Biden’s laptop.

    In the Beginning, Disinformation

    In 2016, Clapper appeared to use his authority as Obama’s chief of intelligence to try to trip up Trump on behalf of Clinton.

    But not everyone in the administration was on board with releasing his official statement about supposed Kremlin meddling.

    Then-FBI Director James Comey had also met in the Situation Room in early October to discuss the plan. But Comey balked at accusing “Russia’s senior-most officials” of authorizing the “alleged hack” of the Clinton campaign and trying “to interfere in the U.S. election process,” as the two-page document claimed. Conspicuously, the FBI did not sign on to the intelligence.

    Still, Clapper implied in his statement that this was the finding of the entire “U.S. Intelligence Community” and that it was “confident the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of emails.” Aside from Clapper’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the only other agency that attached its name to the assessment was the Department of Homeland Security. Also remarkable was the paucity of underlying evidence. The joint ODNI-DHS statement based its conclusion primarily on a report by a cybersecurity contractor hired by the Clinton campaign’s law firm, who later walked back his finding in a sworn congressional deposition, allowing: “We did not have concrete evidence [Russian agents stole campaign emails].” 

    At best, Clapper’s finding was shoddy tradecraft. At worst, it was manufactured, or simply “dreamed up,” as one former FBI counterintelligence official described it to RealClearInvestigations.

    Either way, it came at a highly opportune time for Clinton. The Democratic nominee seized on the intelligence report during her debate with Trump in St. Louis on Oct. 9 to tarnish her Republican opponent as some kind of Russian agent.

    “You know, let’s talk about what’s really going on here, because our intelligence community just came out and said in the last few days that the Kremlin – meaning Putin and the Russian government – are directing the attacks, the hacking on American accounts to influence our election,” Clinton asserted, citing Clapper’s warning. “We have never in the history of our country been in a situation where an adversary, a foreign power, is working so hard to influence the outcome of the election.”

    “And believe me, they’re not doing it to get me elected,” she continued. “They’re doing it to try to influence the election for Donald Trump.”

    “Now, maybe because he has praised Putin, maybe because he says he agrees with a lot of what Putin wants to do, maybe because he wants to do business in Moscow, I don’t know the reasons. But we deserve answers,” Clinton went on, clearly reciting a prepared talking point. “And we should demand that Donald release all of his tax returns so that people can see what are the entanglements and the financial relationships that he has with the Russians and other foreign powers.”

    Some former U.S. intelligence officials say the Oct. 7 intelligence assessment appears to have been cooked up for the benefit of Clinton.

    “There was no evidence to support it,” said retired U.S. Army Col. Derek Harvey, who investigated the origins of the assessment for the House Intelligence Committee. “It was a political diversion to help Clinton.”

    He pointed out that the specious sourcing behind the intelligence violated Clapper’s own 2015 Intelligence Community directive outlining analytical standards for such assessments. What’s more, his directive prohibited any political bias in intelligence reporting, warning that assessments must be “independent of political consideration.”

    “Analytic assessments must not be distorted by, nor shaped for, advocacy of a particular audience, agenda or policy viewpoint,” according to the six-page document, which was signed by Clapper himself.

    Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker said Clapper’s Oct. 7 assessment is another example of the many covert ops the Intelligence Community ran against Trump to try to keep him from power or to minimize his effectiveness while in office. By pre-cooking the conclusion about the Russian government targeting Clinton, he said, Clapper abused the U.S. government’s awesome intelligence powers to intervene in a U.S. election.

    “In hindsight, it is now clear that the leaders of our intelligence agencies directed their immense powers towards all things Trump,” he said in an RCI interview.

    Swecker added that Clapper, now 83, was easily manipulated by Obama and then-CIA Director John Brennan, even though Clapper oversaw the CIA. “James Clapper was the Barney Fife of the Intelligence Community,” he said.

    The CIA and other American intelligence agencies are prohibited from getting involved in domestic affairs, Swecker noted, and certainly not American elections.

    Attempts to seek comment from Clapper, now retired, were unsuccessful. But in his 2018 memoir, “Facts and Fears,” Clapper revealed that he and then-DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, another Obama appointee, “agonized over the precise wording” in the Oct. 7 intelligence release, ostensibly because the linkages to the Kremlin were gauzy at best.

    “We didn’t see any hard evidence of political collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government,” Clapper admitted on page 349, “but as I said at the time, my dashboard warning lights were all lit.”

    He also suggested he was looking out for Clinton – whom his boss, President Obama, had publicly endorsed and was actively campaigning for at the time.

    “Both the Russians and the Trump campaign were, in parallel, pushing conspiracy theories against Secretary Clinton,” Clapper complained, namely that “she was corrupt.”

    Added the former intel chief: “Jeh and I felt strongly that we should inform the electorate,” and “President Obama assented.” In doing so, Clapper confessed they “pushed the boundaries” of what they could say about the purported “Russian activities.” As much as they juiced the intel, though, they agreed to stop short of blaming Putin directly.

    While Clapper, in his book, mentioned the presidential debate that took place two days later, he did so only in passing and failed to note the key fact that Clinton cited his ginned-up intelligence during the televised event, almost on cue.

    The Clinton campaign’s foreign policy adviser later gloated about the Clapper statement, showing how important it was to the campaign.

    “The fact is that the entire Intelligence Community stood behind a statement in October that the Russian campaign had hacked the DNC and released their emails,” Jake Sullivan testified in a closed-door December 2017 interview with the House Intelligence Committee. “We feared that we were under attack, not just by the Russians, but by a coordinated [sic] with the Trump campaign as well.”

    Sullivan was mistaken, of course. The entire Intelligence Community did not stand behind the statement, which was backed by no real evidence. At the time, according to internal documents, the FBI called the notion that the Russian government was behind the alleged hack “speculation.”

    And nothing the Russians may have done was coordinated with the Trump campaign, as multiple investigations have concluded.

    The ‘Laptop Op’

    Having been nearly charged with perjury in 2013 for lying to Congress about intelligence gathering before apologizing, Clapper appeared to politicize intelligence ahead of the 2020 presidential debate as well.

    In an Oct. 19, 2020, formal statement, Obama’s and Biden’s old intelligence czar falsely implied damning emails found on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop were Russian disinformation. The “intelligence” came just in time for Biden, who would be squaring off with Trump in three days, just like it did for Clinton in October 2016.

    “Clapper didn’t know the Russians were involved. He was just spitballing. His pre-debate guesswork was similar to his pre-debate so-called intelligence on Russia in 2016,” said the former senior FBI counterintelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

    Although the statement declared the Hunter Biden laptop “had all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” it provided no actual evidence of Russian involvement. Clapper and his colleagues asserted that they strongly suspected “the Russian government played a significant role in the case.” Later in the statement, they went further to state “our view” shared by the Intelligence Community — not merely a suspicion anymore — “that the Russians are involved in the Hunter Biden email issue.”

    “There is incentive for Moscow to pull out the stops to do anything possible to help Trump win and-or to weaken Biden should he win,” they speculated. “A ‘laptop op’ fits the bill, as the publication of the emails are clearly designed to discredit Biden.”

    But Clapper was dead wrong. There was no Russian “op.” And the laptop and its contents — including the damning emails published by the Post — were 100% real and authentic, as Special Counsel David Weiss confirmed during the recent trial of Hunter Biden on three felony gun charges, for which he was convicted earlier this month. The Russian government had nothing to do with any of it.

    In retrospect, many political analysts agree Clapper’s intel statement was designed not to inform the electorate but to mislead it. But more significantly, the timing of its release suggests it was meant to help Biden in the next presidential debate, which was scheduled just three days later in Nashville.

    During that final presidential debate, held on Oct. 22, 2020, Biden dismissed concerns about his son’s laptop emails and family foreign influence-peddling as part of a “Russian plant” after Trump lit into him about the laptop story. “Joe, they’re calling you a corrupt politician,” Trump said. “Take a look at the laptop from Hell.” Leaning on Clapper’s intel statement, Biden flatly denied knowing anything about Hunter’s foreign business dealings.

    “Look, there are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plant,” Biden shot back. “They have said this is, has all the characteristics — four, five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him and his good friend Rudy Giuliani.”

    The intel provided a much-needed lifeline for the former vice president.

    It were as if Clapper had teed up the perfect talking point for Biden.

    As it turns out, Biden campaign officials had worked with Clapper’s team prior to the release of the intel statement accusing Putin of planting the laptop story.

    In a House deposition, former deputy CIA Director Mike Morell, a Clapper confidant and one of the 51 signatories of the letter, testified that around Oct. 17, top Biden campaign aide Antony Blinken, now Biden’s Secretary of State, reached out to him to discuss the Hunter Biden laptop story.

    Morell revealed that one of the goals in releasing the letter two days later “was to help then-Vice President Biden in the debate,” according to an April 20, 2023, letter House investigators sent to Blinken. The day after speaking with the Biden campaign, Morell blasted out an email to former intelligence officials to recruit them to sign the Oct. 19 intel letter. “We want to give the VP a talking point to use in response” to Trump in the event he attacks Biden over the laptop revelations during the upcoming debate, Morell wrote his colleagues. After the Oct. 22 debate, Morell testified that Biden campaign chairman Steve Ricchetti called him to thank him “for putting the statement out.” Morell said former CIA chief of staff Jeremy Bash was also involved in the coordination effort. Bash happens to be the ex-husband of Dana Bash, who will be one of the CNN moderators questioning Trump and Biden at Thursday night’s debate in Atlanta.

    In effect, the Intelligence Community conspired with the Biden campaign to deceive the electorate by creating a false talking point for Biden in the presidential debate, which some government watchdogs say constituted an unreported campaign contribution and a potential violation of federal campaign finance laws.

    On the same day that Clapper released the statement, then-Politico reporter Natasha Bertrand hyped it in a story with the conclusive headline: “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.” During the earlier frenzied coverage of Russiagate, Bertrand, who now works for CNN, acted as a go-to reporter for leaks from intelligence officials about Trump. She quoted one signatory to the letter as being confident that “once again the Russians are interfering” in U.S. elections. About 15 minutes after Politico published its story, Jen Psaki tweeted a link to the Politico article. Psaki was named Biden’s press secretary the next month. The Biden campaign repeatedly cited Clapper’s statement to dismiss the allegations against Hunter and Joe Biden. Clapper played his part by jumping on CNN to claim the laptop was “textbook Soviet tradecraft.”

    It’s clear Clapper was rooting for Biden to win. Three days before Clapper released his all-too-convenient intelligence letter, he had donated $1,000 to Biden’s campaign, according to Federal Election Commission records. He had given another $250 to Biden For President the previous October. In the current election cycle, records show Clapper has contributed at least $300 so far to Biden.

    RealClearInvestigations reached out to Clapper for comment but did not hear back. However, in a previous statement, he was unapologetic. “I stand by the statement made at the time,” he told the New York Post. “I think sounding such a cautionary note at the time was appropriate.”

    Clapper and Tapper

    Clapper’s history of intrigue against Trump includes leaking damaging classified information about him to the media.

    CNN anchor Jake Tapper thought he had the scoop of his career when, on Jan. 10, 2017, he reported that President-elect Trump had been briefed by the FBI about “classified documents” containing information from a “credible” intelligence source that the Russians had “compromising” dirt on him. Citing unnamed “U.S. officials,” the report, co-bylined with Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame, also falsely claimed that the Trump campaign and the Russian government had “exchange[d] information” throughout the election and that these allegations had been verified. Tapper failed to note that the supposedly “classified” information came from political opposition research funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign, otherwise known as the Steele dossier, compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.

    As flawed as the story was, it triggered a feeding frenzy in the national media, which up to that point backed off from covering the wild and unsubstantiated allegations contained in the Steele dossier. But after they learned from Tapper – by way of Clapper – that the U.S. Intelligence Community itself had taken a keen interest in the dossier and appeared to be taking it seriously, they reported the allegations against Trump nonstop for several years as if the dossier reports were the Pentagon Papers.

    When congressional investigators first asked Clapper about the CNN leak in a July 2017 deposition, Clapper “flatly denied ‘discuss[ing] the dossier [compiled by Steele] or any other intelligence related to Russia hacking of the 2016 election with journalists,’” according to a report issued by the House Intelligence Committee. But Clapper changed his story upon further questioning. “Clapper subsequently acknowledged discussing the ‘dossier with CNN journalist Jake Tapper.’” The report added that Clapper secretly spoke with Tapper in early January 2017 and that on Jan. 10, CNN published Tapper’s story about the dossier allegations, for which he won the Merriman Smith Award for broadcast journalism in 2018.

    The next day, Clapper issued a statement describing a call with Trump in which Clapper “expressed my profound dismay at the leaks that have been appearing in the press” and stressed that “I do not believe the leaks came from within the IC,” or Intelligence Community.

    Clapper, who was later hired by CNN as an official “national security analyst,” had blatantly lied not only to the incoming president but also to the public. Again. And in effect, he had used Tapper, who’s not only failed to correct the record at CNN, but finds himself in the position to grill Trump on Thursday night as co-moderator with Bash of the first 2024 presidential debate in Atlanta.

    *  *  *

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 06/26/2024 – 22:20

  • North Korean Troops Will Be 'Cannon Fodder' If Sent To Ukraine, Pentagon Says
    North Korean Troops Will Be ‘Cannon Fodder’ If Sent To Ukraine, Pentagon Says

    Following on the heels of Putin’s visit to Pyongyang last week where he inked a strategic defense cooperation agreement with Kim Jong Un, North Korea is reportedly sending a contingency of troops to assist in Russia’s military operations in Ukraine.

    South Korea’s TV Chosun cited a Seoul official to say specifically the north will send construction and engineering units to Ukraine as soon as next month, according to Reuters. They will reportedly assist in rebuilding efforts for areas under Russian control.

    It true this could further ‘internationalize’ the conflict and might in turn trigger greater NATO involvement, possibly even the deployment of Western troops. 

    However, the news of Pyongyang deploying engineering troops is anything but confirmed at this point, given it appears to have originated in South Korean media:

    Those forces, working overseas under the disguise of construction workers to earn hard currency for the regime, would be moved from China to those Russia-held regions, the network said.

    Asked about the TV Chosun reports, South Korea’s foreign ministry said it was continuing monitoring the situation.

    But the reports were noticed by the Pentagon, which put Moscow and North Korea on notice. Pentagon press secretary Gen. Pat Ryder said in a briefing on Tuesday.

    “If I were North Korean military personnel management, I would be questioning my choice of sending my forces to be cannon fodder in an illegal war against Ukraine. And we’ve seen the kinds of casualties that Russian forces.”

    Ryder didn’t confirm whether the reports were accurate, but only said that it’s “certainly something to keep an eye on.”

    Likely if the US does observe or confirm that North Korean troops are in Ukraine the White House will directly address it, and issue threats.

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    North Korea has been arming Russia with artillery shells and possibly other military items since 2023 for the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine. Both countries are under far-reaching US sanctions. This means Russia has increasingly relied on other ‘pariah’ states to meet its military supply needs.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 06/26/2024 – 22:00

  • CBP Officers Seize Truckload Of Marijuana Worth $5.2 Million At Laredo Bridge
    CBP Officers Seize Truckload Of Marijuana Worth $5.2 Million At Laredo Bridge

    Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

    U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said on Monday that its officers at the World Trade Bridge in Laredo, Texas, thwarted an attempt to smuggle a cache of marijuana worth nearly $5.2 million.

    The seizure occurred on June 23 when an officer flagged a tractor hauling a commercial shipment for secondary inspection, according to a CBP press release.

    The tractor was driven by a 38-year-old Mexican citizen, accompanied by a 33-year-old Mexican citizen. Both of them have been arrested, the agency stated.

    CBP officers conducted a canine inspection and other examinations and found 98 packages containing about 2,323 pounds of alleged marijuana inside the trailer.

    The agency seized both the tractor and trailer, as well as the drugs, which had a street value of $5,198,328.

    “Frontline officers at the World Trade Bridge demonstrated exceptional effort in successfully disrupting this drug smuggling attempt,” Alberto Flores, port director for Laredo Port of Entry, said in a press release.

    “This large drug bust is a prime example of the efficient targeting strategies utilized in the cargo environment to help combat the flow of narcotics seeping into our communities,” Mr. Flores said.

    CBP officers assigned to the World Trade Bridge made a similar seizure in September last year, when a Freightliner tractor trailer hauling home goods was referred for secondary inspection. The agency seized 177 packages containing 4,466 pounds of marijuana, estimated to be worth over $9.9 million.

    The Department of Justice announced on May 16 that it is formally moving to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug under the Controlled Substances Act. So far, 38 states have legalized marijuana for medical use and another 24 have legalized it for recreational use.

    The Justice Department acknowledged the medical uses of marijuana, or cannabis, in a proposed rule it sent to the federal register while emphasizing the plant’s lower potential for abuse compared with other Schedule I drugs. By design, the Drug Enforcement Administration classifies drugs as Schedule I if the agency believes they have no medical value.

    This followed a recommendation from the Department of Health and Human Services after President Joe Biden urged the agency to review the drug’s status in 2022.

    While moving marijuana to Schedule III could affect future federal policy on the plant, drugs in that category are still considered controlled substances and subject to regulations. Anyone found guilty of selling them without proper authorization could still be federally prosecuted.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 06/26/2024 – 21:40

  • Court Orders Israel Army To Start Drafting Ultra-Orthodox, Compounding Internal Tensions
    Court Orders Israel Army To Start Drafting Ultra-Orthodox, Compounding Internal Tensions

    In an historic development that promises to fuel friction between different elements of the country’s society, the Israeli high court on Tuesday unanimously ruled that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) must start drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish students. 

    Until now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s commitment to maintaining the decades-long draft exemption has been a key means of earning the support of two ultra-Orthodox parties that are building blocks of his ruling coalition. While there’s nowhere for those two parties to flee in pursuit of restoring the exemption, the ruling seemingly removes one of the ties that binds the parties to Netanyahu. 

    Outside an IDF induction center, protesters of Haredim draft exemptions push mock coffins (Mothers at the Front)

    In their 9-0 ruling, the court noted the ongoing demands of Israel’s 8-month-old war on Gaza in retaliation for the Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel. “In the middle of a difficult war, the burden of inequality is felt more acutely than ever—and it requires advancing a sustainable solution to this issue,” the justices wrote. 

    As casualties have mounted in Gaza, long-simmering resentment of the exemption that covers some 1.3 million ultra-Orthodox Jews — or Haredi — has only grown. In addition to protests in the streets, high-ranking Israeli officials have called for an end to the special treatment. 

    “The war and the challenges placed before us… require us to share the burden of military service,” said Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in March. “Everyone must carry the burden, all sectors of the nation.”At the same event, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi declared that the Haredi exemption was undermining Israel’s “social cohesion.” 

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    The draft is just one facet of the Haredi’s special treatment in Israel. Haredi men who are enrolled in Yeshiva schools — to study the Torah — have also received public subsidies that keep going all the way until they reach the country’s standard retirement age of 67. 

    That’s makes these men doubly detractive: They’re economically unproductive, while also draining resources from those who contribute to the country’s economy. Meanwhile, Haredi children are exempt from Israel’s educational standards. Since they don’t have to study core topics like math, science and English, they offer lesser skills to would-be employers. 

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    Tuesday’s court ruling also landed a broadside hit on the wealth transfers, declaring that funding of students who don’t have a bona fide military exemption are illegal too. Responding to the high court’s ruling, the chairman of one of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox parties reiterated the argument that Haredi men’s full-time study of Judaism’s holy books makes an important contribution to Israel: 

    “The Jewish people survived persecutions, pogroms and wars only thanks to maintaining their uniqueness, the Torah and the commandments. This is our secret weapon against all enemies, as promised by the Creator of the universe,” Shas chair Aryeh Deri told the Times of Israel. “[Yeshiva students] preserve our special power and generate miracles in the [military] campaign.”

    Rather than resolving the issue, the ruling will likely inflame tension. “[It] creates an ongoing, endemic crisis that will probably continue to escalate,” Yohanan Plesner, president of the Jerusalem-based Israel Democracy Institute, told the Wall Street Journal.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 06/26/2024 – 21:20

  • Supreme Court Inadvertently Releases 'Idaho Emergency Abortion' Opinion
    Supreme Court Inadvertently Releases ‘Idaho Emergency Abortion’ Opinion

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The U.S. Supreme Court released an opinion in an abortion case on June 26 but quickly unpublished the ruling, in what a spokesperson described as a mistake.

    Members of the Supreme Court pose for a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington on April 23, 2021. Standing from left: Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett. (Erin Schaff/Getty Images)

    The opinion involves a case against an Idaho law that bans most abortions.

    The opinion “has not been released,” Patricia McCabe, a spokesperson for the Supreme Court, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.

    “The court’s publications unit inadvertently and briefly uploaded a document to the court’s website.”

    She said the opinion will be published “in due course.”

    The nation’s top court had an opinion release day on Wednesday and is scheduled to publish additional opinions on Thursday and Friday.

    A draft opinion in a separate case that challenged the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade was leaked in 2022, setting off protests against justices believed to be backing the opinion. The final ruling, when issued, struck down Roe v. Wade.

    The Idaho case deals with a law that prohibits doctors from performing abortions, with exceptions in any trimester in cases where doctors believe abortions are necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman or unborn child. The law also contains exceptions during the first trimester for women who were the victims of rape or incest.

    The law enables felony charges to be brought against doctors who violate the statute.

    Before the Idaho law took effect in August 2022, though, it was blocked by a federal judge. Judge Lynn Winmill said the state law clashed with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a federal law that requires emergency room doctors at hospitals that receive Medicare funds to offer treatments to stabilize patients who arrive with emergency conditions.

    Judge Winmell pointed to the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

    “At its core, the Supremacy Clause says state law must yield to federal law when it’s impossible to comply with both,” he wrote as he entered a preliminary injunction.

    A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2023 stayed the ruling. EMTALA “does not require abortions, and even if it did in some circumstances, that requirement would not directly conflict with” the Idaho law, U.S. Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke, writing for the panel, said. The full court later vacated the stay, but the Supreme Court reimposed it while it considered the case.

    In the opinion briefly published on Wednesday, which was obtained by Bloomberg News, justices ordered the injunction put back in place and said they should have not granted Idaho’s emergency request to review the case.

    Justice Elena Kagan said in a concurring opinion that Idaho’s arguments “do not justify, and have never justified, either emergency relief or our early consideration of this dispute.” She wrote that “EMTALA requires hospitals to provide abortions that Idaho’s law prohibits” and that “Idaho’s law is preempted.” She was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

    Justice Jackson said in a separate partial concurrence and partial dissent that because the court already acted in the matter, it should not back away from it and should instead proceed to its merits. “There is simply no good reason not to resolve this conflict now,” she said.

    Justice Amy Coney Barrett said in a concurring opinion that she’s become convinced by more detailed information presented in the case, including at oral argument, that the case is not appropriate for resolution by the court before the full Ninth Circuit takes up the matter.

    “Based on the parties’ representations, it appears that the injunction will not stop Idaho from enforcing its law in the vast majority of circumstances,” she said. Judge Barrett was joined by Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh.

    Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a dissent that EMTALA requires Medicare-funded hospitals to care for pregnant women and their unborn children, which is an ambiguity that the court should resolve.

    “No one who has any respect for statutory language can plausibly say that the government’s interpretation is unambiguously correct,” he said. “And in any event, Idaho never consented to any conditions imposed by EMTALA and certainly did not surrender control of the practice of medicine and the resolution of abortions within its territory.”

    Justice Alito was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Neil Gorsuch.

    The case will now move forward in the Ninth Circuit, although it could be taken to the Supreme Court again at a later stage.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 06/26/2024 – 21:00

  • Suspected Hypersonic Missile Fired By North Korea Explodes Midair
    Suspected Hypersonic Missile Fired By North Korea Explodes Midair

    North Korea is suspected of having launched a hypersonic missile as part of an apparently failed test early Wednesday. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the launch originated outside Pyongyang, and Japan’s defense ministry also said it detected a launch.

    The south’s intelligence agencies are reportedly investigating, with officials saying it may have been a hypersonic missile that exploded midair. 

    Yonhap via AFP: A vapour trail believed to have been created by the North Korean missile.

    “The launch from near the capital, Pyongyang, ended in failure as the missile blew up over the eastern coastal waters near the North Korean city of Wonsan,” the JCS said in a statement. 

    While there are no reports of damage, missile fragments were scattered up to 250 kilometers away, regional reports say.

    Japan said that before it failed the missile reached an altitude just over 60 miles and traveled a distance of 124 miles.

    An official was cited in Yonhap news agency as saying “there appeared to be more smoke than during previous launches, raising the possibility of combustion issues” and it “appeared to be a solid-fueled missile.”

    This latest test comes soon on the heels of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s official visit to Pyongyang where he met with Kim Jong Un and inked a comprehensive strategic cooperation treaty.

    Both countries which are under US-led sanctions have pledged greater cooperation on the defense technology front.

    Washington is alarmed given that Russia does possess capable hypersonic missiles, which have reportedly at times already been used in Ukraine.

    These missiles are much harder to intercept or even to detect given they are capable of hitting speeds in excess of five times the speed of sound.

    Recent footage of some of Kim’s new hypersonic “toys”…

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    From the West’s perspective and Seoul’s perspective, if Kim’s government ever achieved provable hypersonics and they were regularly deployed, it would be a nightmare.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 06/26/2024 – 20:40

  • US Army Revises Standards On Prohibited Extremist Activity
    US Army Revises Standards On Prohibited Extremist Activity

    Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The U.S. Army issued new, more specific guidance on Wednesday to address extremism within its ranks and ensure disciplinary action against those who engage with or promote extremist views.

    Secretary of the Army, Hon. Christine Wormuth, visits U.S. soldiers in Guam on July 25, 2023. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David Resnick)

    Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth signed off on a pair of memos, published on June 26, that refine how the service will handle protests and extremist or gang activity within the ranks, and report suspected prohibited behavior. One memo a directive for “Handling Protest, Extremist, and Criminal Gang Activities“ and the other is a directive for ”Reporting Prohibited Activities.”

    The memo on Handling Protest, Extremist, and Criminal Gang Activities states that prohibited activity within the Army can include distributing extremist materials online. This new Army memo reinforces a policy approach articulated by the U.S. Department of Defense in a November 2021 memo, which states that “an action taken to replicate content from one online location to another” can qualify as distributing extremist content online. The new Army memo now states the prohibited online distribution of extremist activity can include liking, sharing, and “re-tweeting” said content.

    “Military personnel are responsible for the content they publish on all personal and public internet domains, including social media platforms, blogs, websites, and applications,” the memo states.

    The Army’s existing policy, updated in July of 2020, had previously said prohibited online conduct could include “hazing, bullying, harassment, discriminatory harassment, stalking, retaliation, or any other types of misconduct that undermines dignity and respect” but was less specific about online extremist activity, stating only that “military personnel must reject participation in extremist organizations and associated cyber activities.”

    The new memo on Handling Protest, Extremist, and Criminal Gang Activities also states soldiers who “knowingly” display paraphernalia, words, or symbols in support of extremist activity, including on flags, clothing, tattoos, and bumper stickers—whether on or off a military installation—can run afoul of the Army’s prohibitions on extremist behavior.

    The new memo does not provide an exhaustive list of what paraphernalia, words, or symbols may meet their definition of extremist material but does offer a definition of views and activities the Army includes in its definition of extremism:

    1. Advocating or engaging in the use of unlawful force or other illegal means to deprive individuals of their rights under the U.S. Constitution or in any states, territories or political subdivisions thereof.
    2. Advocating or engaging in unlawful force to achieve goals that are political, religious, discriminatory, or otherwise ideological in nature.
    3. Advocating, engaging in, or supporting terrorism.
    4. Advocating, engaging in, or supporting the overthrow of the federal government, or state, territory, and local governments using force, violence, or unconstitutional or other unlawful means.
    5. Advocating or encouraging military, civilian, or contractor personnel within the [Department of Defense] DOD or U.S. Coast Guard to violate laws or disobey lawful orders.
    6. Advocating widespread unlawful discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including pregnancy), gender identity, or sexual orientation.

    The memo states that Army commands have several options for recourse against soldiers promoting those views. They include legal action under the military justice system, known as the uniformed code of military justice. Commands may also choose adverse administrative actions against soldiers alleged to have violated these prohibitions on extremist activity, including involuntary separating of soldiers, reassigning soldiers, revoking their security clearances, barring soldiers from continued service, or “other administrative or disciplinary action deemed appropriate by the commander, based on the specific facts and circumstances of the particular case.”

    The Second Memo

    The second memo, regarding how military officials should report suspected prohibited activity, seeks to establish a process for reporting suspicious activity to the DOD Deputy Inspector General (DIG) for Diversity and Inclusion and Extremism in the Military.

    Appropriate Army authorities who receive an allegation that a soldier engaged in a prohibited activity must notify the soldier’s commander or another appropriate authority and the appropriate Army inspector general within 30 calendar days if that soldier is in the active component and within 60 calendar days if that soldier is in the Army’s reserve component. The Army inspector generals must then forward information they receive along to the DOD Deputy Inspector General for Diversity and Inclusion and Extremism in the Military within another 15 calendar days of receiving said notification.

    Commanders are also instructed that they must ensure that a soldier’s permanent record in the Army Military Human Resource Record (AMHRR) is annotated if that soldier has received a court-martial conviction, nonjudicial punishment, or general officer’s memorandum of reprimand for actively participating in extremist activities.

    The reporting memo instructs Army commanders to periodically remind soldiers to avoid engaging in extremist activity.

    The memo also advises Army commanders that they should consider command-directed mental health evaluations and financial counseling sessions for soldiers showing signs of potential involvement in extremist activities.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 06/26/2024 – 20:20

  • Watch Live "The Border Debate": Pundits Clash Over Illegal Immigration
    Watch Live “The Border Debate”: Pundits Clash Over Illegal Immigration

    Watch Live on X, YouTube and Rumble

    ZeroHedge is bringing together four prominent pundits to debate one of the most combustible topics of the day: illegal immigration across the porous US border.

    Immigration is the most important political problem facing the US today according to Gallup and about a half-dozen other pollsters, not to mention at least half of America.

    To debate this issue, we are joined by former Navy intel officer Jack Posobiec and author Ryan Girdusky, who will make the case in favor of a border crackdown and even an all-out immigration moratorium.

    Debating against them will be The Hill‘s Robby Soave and Libertarian presidential Candidate Chase Oliver; they will argue that our economy needs immigrants and that our government should admit more of them.

    The debate will be moderated by The Intercept’s Ryan Grim and Unherd’s Emily Jashinsky who host the Counter Points show on YouTube.

    And so, without further ado, let’s get ready to rumble. 

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 06/26/2024 – 20:11

  • "Disgusting Discovery": Cali Beach Closures Prompt Questions Of Whether Mexico Is Dumping Sewage In U.S. Waters
    “Disgusting Discovery”: Cali Beach Closures Prompt Questions Of Whether Mexico Is Dumping Sewage In U.S. Waters

    Just when you thought the wave of illegal immigration coming from the U.S.’s southern border was demoralizing enough, it appears that something else may be drifting its way up from Mexico.

    According to a new report from the Daily Mail, beaches in San Diego have been shut down due to a “disgusting discovery”, which it described as “sewage creating frighteningly high levels of bacteria in the open waters”. 

    The report says that water contact closures have been issued for Silver Strand Shoreline, Imperial Beach Shorelines, and the Tijuana Slough Shoreline along the U.S.-Mexico border.

    Additionally, advisories were issued for La Jolla, Children’s Pool, Coronado, Coronado Lifeguard Tower, Ocean Beach, Dog Beach, San Diego River outlet, Mission Bay, North Cove, and Vacation Isle, the Mail reported.

    Imperial Beach, ranked as the dirtiest beach in the U.S., has bright yellow warning signs due to sewage flowing in from Tijuana, the Mail said, citing KGTV.

    Dr. Marvel Harrison was quoted as saying: “The level of stress when you smell the stench, when you get sick and you worry about your children, and the level of stress and the depression is real.”

    “We need our state and federal governments to declare a state of emergency,” added San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer. “Our community deserves clean air and clean water, and we will not rest until this is resolved.”

    The report noted that out of “thousands” of water samples from “across the nation” tested by The Surfrider Foundation, every single sample from Imperial Beach turned up “bacteria counts that exceeded the state’s health standard for recreational waters”. 

    City officials plan to gather data and secure funding to address the sewage problem affecting the beach city.

    The Surfrider Foundation reported that 64% of tested sites had unsafe bacteria levels, with California accounting for a quarter of these samples. Other polluted locations include Linda Mar Beach in Pacifica and the mouth of San Luis Obispo Creek.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 06/26/2024 – 20:00

  • Bolivian Coup Averted, Top General Arrested After Short-Lived Rebellion
    Bolivian Coup Averted, Top General Arrested After Short-Lived Rebellion

    Update(1950ET): It appears the short-lived coup attempt is over, with reports of the following: The President of Bolivia, Luis Arce has just stated during a Press Conference that the Leader of the Coup d’état in the Capital of La Paz, General Juan José Zúñiga has been arrested by his own Troops after they realized he was conducting a Coup against the Government; with all remaining Troops currently Returning to their Bases. News wires are also confirming:

    BOLIVIA’S EX-ARMY GENERAL ZUNIGA ARRESTED AFTER COUP ATTEMPT

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    Now begins the speculation over whether there was any external state backer or hidden hand in this brief episode.

    It also seems that for now at least, Arce’s supporters were able to present enough of a showing to get the military leadership to back off.

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    * * *

    There are emerging reports of a military coup going down in Bolivia on Wednesday, with embattled President Luis Arce denouncing the “irregular mobilization” of some units of the national army.

    He has accused the country’s top general, Gen. Juan Jose Zuniga,of plotting a coup, and warned “You need to respect democracy.”

    According to Reuters, “Heavily armed soldiers and armored vehicles were seen gathering in the capital’s Plaza Murillo, according to videos shared on social media.”

    “Former President Evo Morales, who has publicly split with Arce even though both belong to same socialist movement, announced a national mobilization of his supporters to support democracy in a separate post on X,” the report continues.

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    There are widespread reports that armored vehicles are destroying the door of the Presidential Palace, and that armed troops are breaking in.

    Bolivia state TV is airing the following dramatic footage…

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    Amid road blockages and works stoppages across the capital, each side is urging their forces and supporters to urgently assist: 

    Presidential Minister María Nela Prada said military and tanks were taking over Plaza Murillo in La Paz, calling it an “attempted coup d’état.” The people are “on alert to defend democracy,” she said to local television station Red Uno.

    The general commander of the army, Juan José Zúñiga, present in the same square, confirmed that there was a movement of uniformed officers, and said: “We are upset by the affront, enough is enough.”

    Currently protesters supporting Arce are filling up some of the streets leading to the square while chanting pro-Arce slogans and on their way to confront the mutiny.

    The following widely circulating and astounding photograph shows President Arce meeting the leader of the attempted military coup face-to-face at the doors of the Presidential Palace:

    developing…

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 06/26/2024 – 19:50

  • Banning Fossil Fuels Will Make Heat Waves More Dangerous, Not Less
    Banning Fossil Fuels Will Make Heat Waves More Dangerous, Not Less

    Authored by Connor O’Keefe via The Mises Institute,

    On Sunday, activists from the environmentalist organization Extinction Rebellion stormed the green in the final, pivotal moments of the Travelers Championship, a professional golf tournament. The protesters tossed red and white chalk and smoke bombs before being tackled to the ground by police. The stunt came days after two protesters with the group Just Stop Oil, a youth-led offshoot of Extinction Rebellion, sprayed orange paint on Stonehenge.

    The environmentalist protesters who do stunts like this are refreshingly honest about the destructive nature of their ambitions.

    They see the comforts and leisures of modern life as maladies to be eradicated in the name of saving the climate.

    But while the means these protesters used in the two high-profile stunts last week have come under wide condemnation, the environmentalist ends of such groups enjoyed blind acceptance in the news media amid a couple dramatic heat waves playing out around the world.

    Temperatures rose to record-breaking heights for June across the eastern United States late last week and over the weekend. The United Kingdom experienced a heat wave that, while mocked by many in the US for being laughably mild, brought temperatures far higher than the region is used to. Most dramatically, extreme heat killed over a thousand people during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Overall, more than fourteen hundred temperature records were broken around the world last week.

    The media has had a field day showing scary red maps and bringing on hysterical “experts” to terrify audiences into thinking it’s only a matter of time before we’re all roasting to death. Unless, we’re told, we “stop putting carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere,” as Bill Nye said in the clip linked above and the Extinction Rebellion protesters demanded on the eighteenth green on Sunday.

    But if the goal is to avoid heat-related deaths, the worst thing to do is ban fossil fuels.

    Fossil fuels, through technologies like air conditioning and refrigeration, make us safer from heat waves like those experienced last week.

    Air conditioning is an incredible invention that is too often taken for granted. Back in the 1840s, long before air conditioning, a Florida doctor named John Gorrie found that his patients recovered better from disease when placed in a cool room. Gorrie developed a system to cool hospital rooms, but it required huge blocks of ice to be cut and transported from frozen lakes and rivers in the northern states. Gorrie’s system made no sense logistically, but his method for cooling a room laid the foundation for what would become modern air conditioning.

    Sixty years later, a New York engineer named Willis Carrier expanded upon Gorrie’s design by utilizing cooling coils to heat and cool air. These first air conditioning units took up an entire room and cost as much as $1.5 million each in today’s dollars. But as Carrier and his competitors raced to improve upon their designs, air conditioning units became smaller, more efficient, and more affordable.

    A big problem with early air conditioning units was that the compounds they used as refrigerants, such as ammonia and propane, were toxic, flammable, explosive, and not very effective. Then, in 1928, Thomas Midgley Jr. and his team in the Frigidaire division of General Motors synthesized the first chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), which they named Freon.

    The adoption of CFCs like Freon provided a major boost to air conditioning. In the 1930s, when the US experienced the most severe heat waves in its history, air conditioning units began to be installed in movie theaters. Around the same time, the first window-mounted units were developed. But it wasn’t until after World War II that air conditioning started to become affordable and compact enough to become a common fixture in American homes. By the 1960s, most new homes in the US had central air conditioning.

    Air conditioning did not merely make life more comfortable; it saved lives. Heat-related deaths fell by 80 percent after the adoption of air conditioning. Regions like the arid Southwest and the humid Southeast became more inhabitable for more people.

    But as Mark Thornton has pointed out, the benefits of air conditioning extend far beyond staying cool on a hot day.

    Because architects no longer needed to rely on windows for ventilation, air conditioning allowed for larger, sturdier buildings that could extend higher than had ever been possible. These skyscrapers significantly increased the supply of housing and office space in urban areas without requiring more land. That meant the air conditioning making residences and offices more comfortable was also making them more affordable.

    The cooling and dehumidifying effects of air conditioning also help conserve things like books and historical artifacts. Thanks to modern HVAC systems, every major city in the country can have libraries, archives, and museums. That wasn’t true before. In fact, Willis Carrier first invented air conditioning not to cool hot rooms but to prevent magazine pages from wrinkling for a Brooklyn publishing company.

    Air conditioning has helped enormously with textile production, surgeries, plant and animal breeding, pharmaceuticals, and transportation—not to mention the preservation and transportation of food through refrigeration. It is also crucial for cooling the vast data centers that, together, power the internet.

    That’s all to say that it’s hard to overstate how much the world we all live in depends on our ability to control our indoor climates, regardless of the outdoor temperatures. But these systems rely on two central components: energy and refrigerants. And both of these components have come under attack from environmentalists and their allies in government.

    Environmentalists are very clear that they want the world’s governments to force their populations off fossil fuels. They fantasize about a world where, after a few cleverly concocted government policies are enacted, the world transitions to energy sources like solar and wind, the weather improves, and we all get to live in an egalitarian, plant-filled, postscarcity utopia.

    But those ambitions will never leave the realm of fantasy. So-called renewable sources like solar and wind power cannot support the world’s population at the current level of development. At best, things like air conditioning—which requires a lot of energy—will become more expensive.

    More likely, modern HVAC systems will become unavailable for large swaths of the population. Because, in addition to the effort to ban fossil fuels, today’s environmentalists have also set their sights on the refrigerants these systems rely on.

    It began in the nineties when the world’s governments seized on a scare that CFCs were causing a hole in the ozone layer (which was essentially a complete hoax) to ban the refrigerant and force a transition to a worse alternative called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The coerced adoption of HFCs made refrigerators, air conditioning systems, and even asthma inhalers more expensive and less effective. That’s the big reason why, as Thornton pointed out in the article linked above, air conditioning’s march to affordability reversed course in the 1990s and now costs so much.

    But it gets worse. The US government has already passed legislation to phase in a total ban on HFCs. Most bans are set to kick in over the next couple of years, but unlike the CFC ban thirty years ago, there is no clear alternative this time around. If it’s mentioned at all, the other options presented are the same toxic, flammable, inefficient compounds like ammonia and propane that were used in the early air conditioning units ninety-five years ago. Companies have begun hoarding HFCs as the phaseout progresses and, earlier this year, the first arrest was made for smuggling the refrigerant into the country.

    As air conditioning becomes even less affordable and available, all the benefits outlined above begin to slip out of reach as well. Life grows more expensive because internet, food, and rent prices will rise as the supply of data centers, refrigeration systems, and urban housing takes a hit. And, ironically, the warmest parts of the country will become less inhabitable, not because of a change in the climate, but because so-called green policies are destroying our ability to make them livable.

    So, in a sense, environmentalists are right when they warn that heat waves will become more dangerous. But it’s not because of small increases in their average peak temperature. It’s because of the environmentalists themselves.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 06/26/2024 – 19:40

  • Austin & Russia's New Defense Chief Speak For 1st Time After Crimea Beach Attack
    Austin & Russia’s New Defense Chief Speak For 1st Time After Crimea Beach Attack

    In a rare moment which appears a somewhat positive development (or at least it’s not more immediate escalation), the US and Russian defense chiefs spoke by phone Tuesday for the first time since March 2023.

    US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin initiated the call, and the timing is important given it comes following Sunday’s deadly Ukraine missile attack on a crowded Sevastopol beach which killed five people and injured 124 more, including children.

    Moscow has blamed Washington for providing the long-range MGM-140 ATACMS systems used in the attack, and has even said Kiev likely had satellite and targeting help from the Pentagon.

    The Guardian noted that “The two sides gave widely divergent accounts of the discussion – the first between US defense secretary Lloyd Austin and Russia’s defense minister Andrei Belousov.”

    Russian defense chief Belousov warned Austin against continued arms supplies to Kiev, citing the dangers of serious escalation. 

    As for the US version of the call, the Pentagon readout was scant, only saying that Austin “emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication amid Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.”

    The Kremlin is still pointing to Washington actions as being behind an ongoing escalation:

    Russia’s defense ministry said Washington and Kyiv bore “responsibility for a deliberate missile strike on peaceful residents,” which it said used US-supplied ATACMS missiles.

    Russia further called it a “terrorist act” and according to more details:

    Videos posted on social media showed people running from the beach as explosions went off and people in swimming outfits carrying a stretcher. AFP could not verify their authenticity.

    A local news channel on Telegram, ChP Sevastopol, cited witnesses as saying that an elderly woman was killed as she swam in the sea.

    But despite this, elsewhere there were other rare positives. On Tuesday Russia and Ukraine conducted a prisoner swap involving 90 total POWs.

    Sunday’s strike involved cluster munitions dropping on men, women, and children at a Sevastopol beach…

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    This was the second biggest swap since May 31st, when the two sides returned 75 captives each. That exchange had come after a long lull in exchanges, and there is likely more to come this summer.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 06/26/2024 – 19:20

  • US Admits Allies In Syria Using Child Soldiers
    US Admits Allies In Syria Using Child Soldiers

    Authored by Will Porter via The Libertarian Institute,

    The State Department has acknowledged that America’s top partner in Syria, the Kurdish-led “Syrian Democratic Forces” (SDF), is still using underage fighters after more than 10 years of similar allegations. The Pentagon continues to work closely with the group regardless, as US troops illegally occupy large swaths of territory in northeastern Syria.

    Published Tuesday, the department’s 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report highlighted a number of armed factions employing child soldiers in Syria, among them notorious terrorist outfits like ISIS and al-Qaeda as well as more US-friendly groups.

    Fighters with the Syria-based People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia, via Wiki Commons

    “The recruitment or use of children in combat and support roles in Syria remains common, and since the beginning of 2018 international observers reported continued incidents of recruitment and use by armed groups,” the report said.

    Those include several Kurdish militias, such as the People’s Protection Units (YPG), an affiliated all-female brigade known as the YPJ, as well as the US-backed and armed SDF. The latter org is an umbrella group containing several others, including the YPG, and has long served as Washington’s main proxy force in Syria.

    Another related Kurdish faction, the Revolutionary Youth Movement, was said to have tricked minors into joining up using “fraudulent announcements for educational courses in northeast Syria.”

    Although the State Department said the SDF was implementing a 2019 UN-mandated “action plan” to end the practice, it noted reports that “SDF-affiliated armed groups recruited and used children in 2022 and 2023.”

    Allegations of child trafficking and military recruitment have dogged the YPG for more than a decade, with rights groups reporting cases as far back as 2013. While YPG leadership claims to have ordered an end to the practice that year, the problem has only worsened since.

    In 2020, the United Nations found the YPG, “under the umbrella of the Syrian Democratic Forces,” was the top recruiter of child fighters in Syria with 283 documented cases the prior year – even beating out the local al-Qaeda affiliate. While the UN later acknowledged SDF efforts to crack down on the use of underage fighters, it still recorded dozens of cases in April 2021.

    Despite the official admission in the new State Department review, the US military continues a close partnership with the SDF and, by extension, the YPG. On Tuesday, the Pentagon deployed 40 vehicles and other hardware to reinforce a base in northwestern Syria, where US troops are embedded with Kurdish fighters. That move followed a similar deployment to Hasakah reported last April.

    Throughout a decade of external efforts to topple Assad, the West and Gulf states facilitated the entry of tens of thousands of foreign jihadist fighters…

    Via The Washington Post

    American forces have illegally occupied Syria for years despite repeated objections from the government in Damascus. While Washington insists the presence is necessary to ensure the lasting defeat of the Islamic State, US troops continue to hold significant energy resources in the oil-rich northeast, effectively controlling one-third of the country with the help of its Kurdish allies.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 06/26/2024 – 19:00

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