Jul 29

Today’s News 29th July 2024

  • Fear Is The Mind-Killer: America's Dangerous Obsession With 'Safety'
    Fear Is The Mind-Killer: America’s Dangerous Obsession With ‘Safety’

    Authored by Artis Shepherd via The Mises Institute,

    In modern America, an obsessive fixation on “safety” has given rise to a culture of fear, paralyzing action and warping decision-making across all levels of society. The conditioning begins early, with children trained to be fearful rather than competent in facing challenges or unfamiliar situations. In their formative years, children are inundated with rules and guidelines, ostensibly designed to maintain safety. But this only stunts their adventurous spirit, undercuts the development of real confidence, and provides an excuse to avoid the uncertain striving necessary for growth.

    Corporations and commercial establishments claim “safety is the highest priority” while failing to understand what that statement entails when taken to its logical extreme. If safety is indeed the highest priority, then we should all stay home and slowly decompose.

    Without irony, governments use the safety of the citizenry as a pretext to commit brutal acts of war and strip away natural freedoms at the point of a gun. The same is done to provide cover for merging the state with the economy, to the detriment of most and the benefit of a politically connected few.

    It is evident that the pursuit of safety, with fear as the motivator, prevents one from living a good life — one consisting of productive work driven by the attainment of values through reason and effort, the result of which is true self-esteem.

    Rather than safety, pursue competence. Genuine safety lies in acquiring the skills necessary to deal with life’s challenges, not simply avoiding them.

    Baby Kneepads

    In her book “Free Range Kids,” Lenore Skenazy discusses her decision to let her 9-year-old son ride the New York City subway by himself. By her telling, he was ready, capable and prepared. So she let him do it, and he did. Her son had just accomplished something of which he could be proud and which would be challenging for many adults.

    Unfortunately, the response to Ms. Skenazy’s decision was not one of approbation. National media, so-called parental experts and the frightened masses all learned about the event and condemned it. She was called horrible names and dubbed “America’s Worst Mom” by the U.S. media.

    The people who attacked Ms. Skenazy view the world as a scary place, one where selective observation substitutes for rational thinking — where the risk-reward equation is reduced to a big neon “RISK” sign flashing red. These are the same people who put kneepads on their babies when they learn to crawl.

    Ms. Skenazy highlights the benefits of kids spending time in nature, building skills of self-reliance and eschewing today’s conventional methods of risk avoidance. One gets the sense that children are capable of much more than they’re given credit for. Far from pushing them into danger, allowing children to confront and overcome challenges on their own provides the ultimate safety — a true sense of competence.

    The “Fed Put” and Subversion of the Free Market

    For over a century, the American economy has been subject to the vagaries of central bank control, including the management of “inflation” — poorly defined as the change in the general price level, an absurd abstraction that’s impossible to accurately measure — and the overall stability of the job market. Another stated goal of the Federal Reserve was ensuring the “stability of the banking system.” Despite this, all of the most severe episodes of bank failure in the U.S. occurred on the Fed’s watch, including the Great Depression.

    Since the 1980s, the Federal Reserve has been employing an all-but-explicit program of bailing out the capital markets — the stock market especially — every time there is a significant pullback in prices. Known as the Fed put, this is an especially sickening example of welfare for those of mediocre ability but the right political connections.

    While a desire to control — and enrich a small group at the expense of the majority — is at the heart of the motivations in creating the Federal Reserve, or any central bank, the ostensible reasons have to do with safety. In the rationale of the state and its adherents, Americans need to be kept safe from high price inflation, bank failures and other perceived threats of a free market. By this rationale, people need protection from the consequences of voluntarily exchanging goods and services at market prices, unimpeded by a bureaucracy. Heaven forbid.

    As a result, the central bank and federal government essentially control most of the economy. For single-family homes, 95% of mortgages are ultimately held and guaranteed by federal government agencies. As a profession, medicine has been subsumed by the requirements of government insurance and research funding. Food is regulated to the extent that obtaining a glass of real milk is impossible in many states. The costs of buying an automobile are substantially due to compliance with government regulations. No industry is untouched.

    The Welfare State

    As with the creation of a central bank, the forcible redistribution of capital — from the capable and driven to the incapable and indolent — is an attempt to remove the risk of failure from favored groups. Tellingly, these programs are referred to as “safety nets.”

    What the welfare state accomplishes, however, is the elevation of weakness as a character trait. Rather than allowing the freedom to achieve, the state acts as a mother with Munchausen syndrome by proxy — facilitating the dependency and helplessness of its wards so as to increase its own relevance via the caretaking process. In keeping with its role as the oppressive mother, one result is that fatherhood has become nonexistent, particularly in those groups most reliant on welfare.

    The destruction of the productive spirit is nowhere more obvious than in those reliant on government handouts, who have attempted to trade independence for safety but end up with neither.

    The Warfare State

    Woodrow Wilson’s slogan for entering World War I at the beginning of the 20th century was “making the world safe for democracy.”

    The world, then ostensibly safe for democracy with the entry of the U.S. military, incurred 40 million casualties during that war. That’s before counting the many tens of millions more over the following decades caused by events and regimes, including the Bolshevik Revolution, facilitated by that war. World War II, which would not have happened in the absence of World War I, saw another 75 million deaths, with some estimates north of 100 million.

    The war on terror has only reduced freedoms at home while creating increasingly aggressive enemies elsewhere. The cost is in the trillions, with no material benefit of which to speak.

    The Covid Panic

    Using “public health and safety” as a front, the Trump and Biden regimes, as well as most state governments, implemented one of the most blatant examples of wicked government action in history. People were locked down inside their homes, unable to even enjoy open spaces like parks and beaches. Children were encouraged to gaze into a computer all day instead of going outside or to school. The truly sick, those with cancer and other serious conditions, were discouraged from hospital visits to increase capacity for patients who seemed to have a minor cold virus—one that leaked from a research lab in China.

    That government would gin up a crisis out of nothing is expected. It was the lack of pushback from the public that was astounding. There was almost total mask compliance, even in “conservative” states and counties. Low-status individuals took it upon themselves to push the government’s safety propaganda — the only chance for them to wield authority. When an injection was offered — one whose trials had no control arm, an absolute necessity in scientific studies, and blanket immunity for the manufacturers — people lined up to take it, then bragged about it.

    The Nature of Risk

    In human activity, risk is involved — sometimes a considerable amount. In seeking to manage that risk, one should strive for competence over it, not avoidance of it. This naturally entails confronting fear, especially the fear of failure, and using it for productive gain. The accumulation of skills, confrontation of hurdles and commitment to a process with uncertain outcomes are essential to a life worth living.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/28/2024 – 23:20

  • How Capitalism Defeats Racism
    How Capitalism Defeats Racism

    Authored by Wanjiru Njoya via The Mises Institute,

    In her essay “Racism,” Ayn Rand argues that racism – which she describes as “the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism” – is incompatible with capitalism and can only be defeated through capitalism. She defines capitalism as “a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned.” She explains that a defense of private property and laissez-faire capitalism is the only way to defeat racism:

    “There is only one antidote to racism: the philosophy of individualism and its politico-economic corollary, laissez-faire capitalism. … It is capitalism that gave mankind its first steps toward freedom and a rational way of life. It is capitalism that broke through national and racial barriers, by means of free trade. It is capitalism that abolished serfdom and slavery in all the civilized countries of the world.”

    Walter Williams adopts a similar view of the role of capitalism in defeating racism. He argues that only in a capitalist system, where economic gains are made through free market exchange and not by seeking political preferences and protections, can minorities make economic progress:

    “Free-market resource allocation, as opposed to allocation on political grounds, is in the interests of minorities and/or less preferred individuals. … The market encompasses a sort of parity nonexistent in the political arena, where one person’s dollar has the same power as anyone else’s.”

    Williams’ point is that a racist seller of course wishes to sell his produce; therefore, he will not reject black buyers as he values their dollars as much as the dollars of white buyers. Most sellers would not consider it worth losing the sale simply to be true to their racist beliefs. Even in the case of a racist seller who is willing to pay a price for his desire not to transact with other races, a point is likely to come where his costs mount to a degree that he no longer considers it worthwhile to continue rejecting sales purely on racist grounds. This explains why even in the segregated states, many whites entered into commercial transactions with blacks. Williams writes:

    “The fact that some blacks were able to earn a comfortable living and indeed become prosperous — in both the antebellum South, in the face of slavery and grossly discriminatory laws, and in the North, where there was at best only weak enforcement of civil rights — gives strong testament to the power of the market as a friend to blacks.”

    Williams defends “free markets and the profit motive” against the charge that they reduce economic opportunities for victims of racism. He argues that on the contrary, even disadvantaged people can enjoy an advantage in free markets, based on the principle that “customers prefer lower prices to higher prices, and businessmen prefer higher profits to lower profits.” For example, a disadvantaged person could choose to work for a lower wage than his competitors in the labor market and thereby avoid both unemployment as well as the need to rely on the charity or largesse of others.

    Williams acknowledges that in the absence of mandatory pricing, some may be charged higher prices than others for the same product based on their race. For example, a landlord may charge a higher rent to black tenants than to white tenants. In this case, we can stipulate that it is unfair for anyone to have to pay a higher rent than someone else based purely on his race. However, we must go further and ask: Unfair compared to what? What are the available alternatives? Williams points out that a black tenant may prefer to pay a higher rent than his white neighbor if the only alternative is to go without housing altogether. While the state can seek to equalize everyone’s rental payments and can even seek to force landlords to rent to all comers regardless of race, the state cannot force people to build or supply housing for rent, nor can the state itself undertake to house the entire population to “protect” them from having to encounter a racist landlord. Even the Soviet Union at the height of its power, when the state owned most of the housing stock and undertook to construct housing for the entire population, could not achieve that.

    The risk of suffering unfairness in a free market must therefore be weighed against the hazards of marching down the path to communism in a misguided attempt to create “fair” conditions for everyone. In an argument echoed by Thomas Sowell in “The Quest for Cosmic Justice,” Williams argues that sound economic policy cannot be derived from a utopian desire to promote fairness for everyone: For example, it may be “unfair” that anyone works for less than $20 an hour, but it does not follow that working for that sum should be prohibited. Nor is it “unfair” to work for less than someone else is prepared to work for. Minimum wage legislation may seem “fair” as it guarantees that nobody earns below the set wage, but it raises the overall level of unemployment, which leaves the most disadvantaged out of work altogether. As Williams puts it, the real minimum wage is zero. His view is that “economic theory as such cannot answer questions of fairness. However economic theory can predict the effects of not permitting some people to charge lower prices for what they sell and higher prices for what they buy. … They will be worse off than otherwise would be the case.”

    Williams argues that the reduction in economic opportunities, as seen for example in unemployment rates, is not due to free market exchange but to “policies, regulations, and restrictions emanating from federal, state, and local governments” as well as “the power of vested groups to use, as a means to greater wealth, the coercive powers of government to stifle market competition.” He shows that interventions designed to eradicate “racism” often leave people worse off. The solution lies in promoting capitalism, which in turn creates opportunities for economic advancement.

    Williams’ analysis shows the importance of understanding economic theory as a prerequisite to understanding economic events. The economic progress among the disadvantaged races that he documents is not attributable to the policies, regulations and restrictions that people consider to be the source and guarantee of prosperity but is instead attributable to voluntary exchange. Robert Higgs, who has also documented prosperity and progress among black people in the U.S., reminds us that it is to human endeavor that we owe economic progress and not to the state:

    “In any event, society’s positive, productive forces always resided within the people themselves. All the genuine peace, cooperation, production, and order the society enjoyed sprang from them. So the state was never a solution to a problem the people could not solve for themselves, but itself a problem masquerading as the only solution to problems whose real solutions already lay close at hand, if they existed at all.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/28/2024 – 22:10

  • Thailand Sets Off Chaos In Domestic Auto Market By Subsidizing Chinese EVs
    Thailand Sets Off Chaos In Domestic Auto Market By Subsidizing Chinese EVs

    It isn’t just in Europe and the U.S. where the EV industry is seeing jolting effects of Chinese EVs entering their respective markets.

    It looks like the industry in Thailand has accidentally also set off chaos in their home market by offering subsidies to Chinese EV makers, a move that Nikkei Asia reports is “wreaking havoc” in Thailand. 

    The unintended consequences of EV subsidies have also affected supply chains, with at least a dozen parts producers shutting down as subsidized Chinese EV makers avoid buying from most of them.

    Since the Thai government introduced the EV subsidy scheme in 2022, 185,029 EVs have been imported. However, new EV registrations stand at 86,043, indicating an oversupply of around 90,000 vehicles.

    EVAT President Krisda Utamote, noting more Chinese EV makers are now investing in Thai production, said: “We are experiencing an EV oversupply as plenty of EVs imported from China over the past two years [remain in dealer] inventories.”

    The EV subsidy program, initiated in 2022 under the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement, aimed to make EVs more affordable by offering up to 150,000 baht ($4,130) per vehicle and eliminating tariffs on Chinese imports, provided the manufacturers produce an equivalent number in Thailand. Manufacturing was required to begin this year.

    Nikkei Asia reports that BYD, China’s largest EV maker, aggressively cut the price of its Atto model by 37%, while Neta reduced its V-II model price by 9%. When fully operational, Chinese EV makers in Thailand will have the capacity to produce about 750,000 vehicles annually.

    These subsidies have impacted the Thai automotive sector, which employs over 750,000 workers and contributes 11% to the GDP. The automotive sector is the fourth-largest economic contributor, following tourism (18%), retail (16%), and ahead of agriculture (8.6%).

    Sales of fossil fuel vehicles have declined since the subsidies, significantly affecting Japanese automakers who produce 90% of these vehicles in Thailand. Additionally, economic weaknesses have led consumers to cut back on expensive purchases, with vehicle sales in the first five months of the year down 23% from the same period in 2023, the lowest in a decade, according to the article. 

    Recall, we have extensively covered how the EU is attempting to tariff their way out of oversupply problems and what the Union sees as a price distortions as a result of China’s contributions to the industry. 

    As we noted earlier this summer, SAIC is being hit with a 38.1% tariff and BYD is being hit with a 17.4% tariff, the report says. Geely Auto will face a 20% tariff and all tariffs are on top of the EU’s existing 10% tariff. 

    EV-makers that cooperated with the probe but weren’t in the three-company sample will face an additional 21% duty, while uncooperative ones will incur the full 38.1%. European brands like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Renault, which export China-assembled EVs, will also face extra tariffs, according to Caixin.

    China’s Ministry of Commerce criticized the decision, stating the EU ignored facts, WTO rules, and objections from China and EU member states. Beijing vowed to protect Chinese companies’ rights.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/28/2024 – 21:35

  • Pandemic 2.0: FDA To Grant Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) For mRNA Bird-Flu Shots (Just Like What Happened With COVID)
    Pandemic 2.0: FDA To Grant Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) For mRNA Bird-Flu Shots (Just Like What Happened With COVID)

    Authored by Ethan Huff via NaturalNews.com,

    The medical establishment is teeing up for the launch of another “pandemic,” this one centering around H5N8 Influenza, also known as avian influenza or bird flu.

    The American Medical Association (AMA) made a few changes this past week to its Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) system, described as “the leading medical terminology code set for describing health care procedures and services.” One change is the creation of a new CPT code for H5N8 Influenza virus “vaccine” candidates that “receive emergency use authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).”

    You may recall that during the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) “pandemic,” the FDA granted EUA to the lineup of injections unleashed through Operation Warp Speed. Now, for the first time since COVID, the medical establishment is readying itself for what appears to be the next scamdemic: bird flu.

    To ensure that health care systems across the United States are up to date with the codes in their electronic systems, the AMA is updating its CPT system right away “in advance for the potential FDA authorization,” which appears imminent.

    “The new CPT code is a vital preparatory step in response to the potential danger to humans from a highly infectious avian influenza disease,” commented AMA President Dr. Bruce A. Scott, M.D.

    “A CPT code that clinically distinguishes the avian influenza vaccine allows for data-driven tracking, reporting, and analysis that supports planning, preparedness, and allocation of vaccines in case a public health response is needed for avian flu prevention.”

    If Trump wins, a bird flu “pandemic” is likely

    Attorney Tom Renz commented on the development after Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom (OAMF) – Ohio is the state where Renz is based – warned that bird flu is more than likely the next scamdemic coming down the pike.

    “I expect the next pandemic after Donald Trump gets back into office unless he finds a way to shut it down,” Renz wrote. “That said – can you imagine another plandemic with a Kamala Harris president? No way.”

    OAMF noted that the AMA’s CPT codes cover both adults and children who will be expected to take not just a “first” bird flu shot but also “each additional vaccine,” this referring to so-called boosters.

    “Mandates will come,” OAMF warned.

    Ohio could become the first state in America to pass protective legislation for conscientious and religious objections to adult vaccination, the group further revealed, which is good news for everyone who lives there – but what about the rest of the country?

    “This is just further confirmation that the next control pandemic is in route,” OAMF said. “We’re all focused on the election, but we need to pay attention to what they’re doing in the dark!”

    Renz also had a few things to say to Elon Musk and the other controllers of X concerning the apparent censorship still taking place on the social media platform.

    “Why is it that the pics on this threat keep being hidden and the thread does not appear in any searches for mRNA or elsewhere?” Renz asked after observing what he believed to be shadow-banning and other censorship actions occurring on his thread about all this.

    “Obviously it is being discussed and trending but – much like many other items on my feed – the pics are continually suppressed and the post cannot be found in a search. I never get a response and simply do not understand why this keeps happening on a free speech-based platform. Elon Musk is pushing for free speech – is the staff @X listening?”

    It looks as though bird flu is scheduled to be the next COVID.

    Learn more at Plague.info.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/28/2024 – 21:00

  • Teen Allegedly Derailed BNSF Freight Train For "Insane" YouTube Footage
    Teen Allegedly Derailed BNSF Freight Train For “Insane” YouTube Footage

    Nearly every American teen has access to a smartphone or tablet and actively uses multiple social media platforms, including TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram. In recent years, the number of social media challenges has skyrocketed and become increasingly dangerous, such as the “Tide pod challenge” and “Benadryl challenge.” Some teens are engaging in risky stunts and even orchestrating events in the real world that pose significant risks to themselves and others—all to get the clicks. 

    A 17-year-old Nebraska teenager has been slapped with two felony counts of criminal mischief after he was accused of derailing a BNSF Railway freight train while filming the incident for a YouTube video. 

    Here’s more from NBC News:

    The 17-year-old was charged in Lancaster County Juvenile Court on Wednesday, but prosecutors have filed a motion to have the case transferred to adult court.

    An investigator with BNSF Railway said in court documents that the teenager alerted authorities to the derailment and asked the investigator who arrived what caused the crash.

    He is accused of tampering with a rail and causing two locomotives and five loaded BNSF cars to jump the rails in Bennet on April 21.

    Under the YouTube account “Capitol City Rail Productions,” the teen uploaded this five-minute video titled “Loaded BNSF Arbor COLLIDES and DERAILS in Bennet, NE! MOST INSANE VIDEO I’VE EVER TAKEN!” 

    It’s evident that the title’s wording was crafted in a way to drive clicks on social media.

    “Join us as we delve into the dramatic events that unfolded when a falsely set switch altered the course of destiny. Unbeknownst to the crew of the loaded arbor coal train, a parked deflective coal car lay in wait on the wrong track, setting the stage for disaster,” the description in the video read. 

    The derailment caused approximately $350,000 in damages after the freight train smashed into an empty coal car, causing two locomotives and five loaded BNSF cars to derail. 

    The teen has denied trespassing on the tracks and tampering with the switch. However, investigators wrote in court documents that he knew where the switch was. They also noted a padlock that was supposed to be on the switch was missing. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/28/2024 – 20:25

  • Canada's "Worst Decline In 40 Years"
    Canada’s “Worst Decline In 40 Years”

    Authored by Peter St.Onge via The Brownstone Institute,

    Canada’s standard of living is on track for its worst decline in 40 years, according to a new study by Canada’s Fraser Institute. 

    The study compared the three worst periods of decline in Canada in the last 40 years – the 1989 recession, the 2008 global financial crisis, and this post-pandemic era. 

    They found that, unlike the previous recessions, Canada is not recovering this time. Something broke. 

    In fact, according to the Financial Post, since 2019 Canada’s had the worst growth out of 50 developed economies. Inflation-adjusted Canadian wages have been flat since 2016.

    So, yes, something broke.

    And it’s nowhere near over: Canada’s per-person real GDP is still falling and with a looming US recession – the US is 75% of Canada’s exports – Canada could crash again before it ever recovered.

    Trudeau’s Canada in Decline

    In previous videos, I’ve talked about the disaster that is Justin Trudeau’s Canada. In short, incomes are West Virginia-level, house prices are at the Los Angeles level, and Canadian taxes are halfway to the Soviet Union. 

    It’s not rare for a middle-class family in Canada to pay half their income in taxes. 

    Meanwhile, since the pandemic, Canada’s official food inflation is up 25%, and energy is up 30% – partly thanks to a carbon tax. 

    And keep in mind sales tax in most Canadian provinces is 13 to 15 percent on everything you buy. 

    While Canadians post TikToks about trying to stretch a loaf of rye bread through the week or selling off their possessions to afford groceries, the cost of living is hitting harder with time. 

    Canadian bankruptcy filings jumped 40% last year, while CIBC reports nearly half of Canadians have zero emergency savings. 

    According to StatsCan Canada’s violent crime rate is up 40% since 2014. 

    An Ipsos poll found 7 in 10 Canadians agree that “Canada is broken” – rising to 8 in 10 of those between age 18 and 34. 

    Angus found fully 42% of Canadians are considering moving to another country.

    What Changed

    This is all a shock because it happened so fast – it’s night and day from the last crisis in 2008, which Canada weathered much better than America. 

    What changed? Justin Trudeau. Specifically, his campaign to convert Canada from a mixed economy like the US into a government-dominated economy like the sick men of the European Union.

    Under Trudeau, business investment has plunged by a third. While government spending nearly doubled to almost half of GDP. 

    Government workers in Canada are growing almost four times faster than the private sector, and one in three Canadians now work for the government, raking in 30% more in salary and benefits than the taxpayers they lord over. Another 1.7 million Canadians – roughly 1 in 10 households – are on welfare.

    Of course, that makes it very difficult to win an election in Canada on a small-government platform: You’re up against the government-provided livelihoods of 40% of voters. Meaning you’ve got to win, what, 80% of everybody else.

    What’s Next

    Near-term things will get worse because Canadians are stuck with Trudeau through the next election in 2025.

    Conservative Pierre Poilievre is ahead in the polls for now, but Canada’s government-funded media is doing everything they can to destroy him so the lead’s already narrowing.

    That means more inflation, more decline, more mass migration, and rising crime in what was once a paradise.

    Republished from the author’s Substack

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/28/2024 – 19:50

  • The Biden-Harris $40 Billion High Speed Internet Plan Connected Nobody
    The Biden-Harris $40 Billion High Speed Internet Plan Connected Nobody

    Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

    Might I suggest it’s time for some fact checks? Let’s start with a fact check on the White House Internet program “Fact Sheet”.

    White House Fact Sheet

    Let’s discuss the June 26, 2023 White House Fact Sheet: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Announces Over $40 Billion to Connect Everyone in America to Affordable, Reliable, High-Speed Internet

    High-speed internet is no longer a luxury – it is necessary for Americans to do their jobs, to participate equally in school, access health care, and to stay connected with family and friends. Yet, more than 8.5 million households and small businesses are in areas where there is no high-speed internet infrastructure, and millions more struggle with limited or unreliable internet options. Just like Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Rural Electrification Act brought electricity to nearly every home and farm in America, President Biden and Vice President Harris are delivering on their historic commitment to connect everyone in America to reliable, affordable high-speed internet by the end of the decade.

    Fact Check on the Fact Sheet

    Please note FCC commissioner hits Biden admin for $42 billion in unspent high speed internet funds

    The senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is blaming the Biden administration for a lack of high-speed internet projects that were approved under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, comparing the situation to the dearth of electric vehicle charging stations that were also supposed to be built with the funds.

    “There’s no question that the 2021 law put some process in place, but the Biden administration decided to layer on top of that a Byzantine additional set of hoops that states have to go through before the administration will approve them to actually get these funds and start completing the builds,” Carr told FOX Business in an interview.

    Carr acknowledged that some high-speed internet projects have connected people during the Biden administration, but he said none of them have been funded by the $42.5 billion allocation from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program from the Infrastructure and Jobs Act, which was the administration’s signature broadband initiative.

    Where Would We Be?

    I am sure glad Biden put Kamala Harris in charge of the border and also delivery of high speed internment because otherwise where would we be?

    As long as I am asking questions, might I suggest it’s time for more fact checks on “Biden-Harris” Fact Sheet announcements?

    But hey, let’s step back and give credit is due. In this case, the “Biden-Harris” plan delivered nothing but amazingly cost nothing!

    No money has been spent because $42.5 billion has been bogged down in the “Biden-Harris” bureaucracy.

    How can you possibly beat that? This is arguably the biggest success story of the entire “Biden-Harris” term.

    No doubt I have piqued someone’s curiosity here, perhaps many people.

    Do I have any volunteers to fact check all of the “Biden-Harris” fact sheets?

    It’s a daunting task, but democracy undoubtedly depends on it.

    “All Hell Breaks Loose”

    On the economic front, please consider “All Hell Breaks Loose” In the Next Few Months as Recession Bites

    Uhhh… Thank You… Thank you very much.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/28/2024 – 18:40

  • After Failed 1984-Style Censorship-Crusade, Paris Olympics Forced To Apologize For Woke Opening Ceremony
    After Failed 1984-Style Censorship-Crusade, Paris Olympics Forced To Apologize For Woke Opening Ceremony

    On Saturday, the organizers of the Paris Olympics scrambled to pressure social media platforms, such as X, to censor users who mocked and criticized Friday night’s shocking Opening Ceremony. The event, which featured drag queens, nudity, and scenes deemed highly disrespectful to Christians, sparked outrage worldwide. When the International Olympic Committee’s social media 1984-style censorship efforts failed (read: here), the committee had no choice but to apologize for the drag queen parody of Jesus’ Last Supper on Sunday morning. 

    Here’s what shocked the world on Friday night during the Opening Ceremony: 

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    “There was never an intention to show disrespect to a religious group,” a Paris 2024 spokeswoman said, quoted by The Wall Street Journal. 

    The spokeswoman continued, “If people have taken any offense, we are, of course, really sorry.”

    Denial of intent… 

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    Never intended to offend anyone?

    What were the organizers thinking when they recreated the Biblical scene of Jesus Christ and his apostles with drag queens, a transgender model, and a naked singer made up as the Greek god of wine, Dionysus?

    And this… 

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    “We wanted to talk about diversity. Diversity means being together. We wanted to include everyone, as simple as that,” the artistic director Thomas Jolly told reporters. 

    Everyone except the Christians…

    The woke mind virus is a phenomenon spreading like cancer across the Western world, infecting the youngest generations through public schools and activist corporations funding non-profits, as well as leftist politicians, who intend to install a new religion of woke. It’s only natural for a competing religion to mock and attack the status quo, that being Christians, and that’s exactly what occurred at the Games by the new religion rooted in Marxism.

    Remember, the Olympics’ planning phase takes years and tens of millions of dollars. For the Games spokesperson to now desperately claim that this opening performance was a big misunderstanding – insults the intelligence of the world, which was watching and left in disbelief. Even the French…

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    So what about the mega-corporations who sponsored the Games? Where are their statements denouncing this absurdity?  

    We assume boycotts are coming to these brands. 

    Google Search trends for ‘boycott Olympics’ soared globally. 

    Coming… 

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    The backlash this weekend makes it very clear: the majority of folks just want to watch sports without having the woke religion forced upon them. Keep politics and social issues out of sports, please.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/28/2024 – 18:11

  • For 25 Minutes, Secret Service In Command Center Never Notified Trump's Detail
    For 25 Minutes, Secret Service In Command Center Never Notified Trump’s Detail

    While members of the Secret Service in a Butler, Pennsylvania command center were notified that an individual later identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks was acting suspiciously before he tried to assassinate Donald Trump, members of the former president’s secret service detail were not informed of the threat, according to the Washington Post.

    Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump is rushed off stage during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

    Members of former president Donald Trump’s Secret Service detail and his top advisers have privately questioned why they were not informed that local police were tracking a suspicious person before that person opened fire on Trump at his July 13 rally in western Pennsylvania, according to people with direct knowledge of the concerns.

    Approximately 20 to 25 minutes before Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at the former president, local countersnipers noticed him behaving strangely and sent his photograph to a command center staffed by state troopers and Secret Service agents, the head of Pennsylvania State Police told a congressional committee Tuesday.

    According to three sources, members of Trump’s Secret Service detail have complained to confidants and others inside the agency that they were never made aware of the warning, and they had no idea that local countersnipers eventually lost track of Crooks – or that a local police officer who was hoisted onto the roof of the building saw Crooks perched there with a gun. 

    Trump was on stage a full eight minutes – roughly 20 minutes after Crooks was spotted and reported – before shots rang out, wounding Trump, critically wounding two others, and killing one rallygoer.

    “Nobody mentioned it. Nobody said there was a problem,” Trump told Fox News in an interview last Monday. “They could’ve said, ‘Let’s wait for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, five minutes, something. Nobody said — I think that was a mistake.”

    Meanwhile, the Secret Service, which initially lied about denying Trump additional security requests, is not talking.

    “As it relates to communications at the rally, the Secret Service is committed to better understanding what happened before, during, and after the assassination attempt of former President Trump to ensure that never happens again,” said spox Anthony Guglielmi, the guy who lied about the denied security.

    Trump’s team has been at odds with Secret Service headquarters over various requests that the agency denied, including more magnetometers at events, more countersnipers at some events and other specialty teams at other events, The Post has reported. The Secret Service and Trump’s team also repeatedly clashed over security and logistics at the Republican National Convention earlier this month.

    The Butler, Pa., shooting is also emblematic of what some Secret Service critics say are chronic communication problems that have dogged the agency and contributed to serious security lapses. -WaPo

    Yes, just a breakdown in communication. Nothing nefarious.

    Also on Monday, then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle deflected when asked by House lawmakers why the Secret Service didn’t immediately delay Trump’s speech when local police reported a suspicious person – telling the committee that such reports are commonplace.

    “At a number of our protected sites, there are suspicious individuals that are identified all the time,” she said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that they constitute a threat.”

    Cheatle – who resigned last week, admitted that the Secret Service was notified of a suspicious person at the Butler, PA rally “somewhere between two and five times,” and she didn’t know when Trump’s security detail was notified.

    Turns out, they weren’t.

     

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/28/2024 – 18:05

  • Obama Instigated Anti-Biden Coup With '25th Amendment' Threat; Sy Hersh Reports
    Obama Instigated Anti-Biden Coup With ’25th Amendment’ Threat; Sy Hersh Reports

    Authored by ‘Sundance’ via TheConservativeTreehouse.com,

    In popular lingo young people simply say, “that tracks.”  It’s a quick way of saying, new information makes sense with pre-existing information.

    Investigative journalist Seymour Hersch writes on his substack [SEE HERE], an article outlying how his sources in Washington DC and the White House have confirmed to him that former President Barack Obama was the impetus to push Joe Biden out of the 2024 presidential race.

    Seymour Hersh says President Obama was “deeply involved” with the alleged coup and called Joe Biden after his “incident” in Las Vegas, which, from all outward appearances, looks like a major slip and fall – with a significant hit to the head.

    “I went over [reports] this week with a senior official in Washington who helped me fashion an account of a White House in complete disarray,” Hersh said.

    “Obama called Biden after breakfast [on July 20] and said, ‘Here’s the deal. We have Kamala’s approval to invoke the 25th Amendment,’” a senior Washington official told Hersh. Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Hakeem Jeffries were reportedly directly involved.

    Obama’s plan was to not to immediately endorse Kamala, but it was clear that she would “get the nod.” “[Obama] had an agenda and he wanted to seek it through to the end, and he wanted to have control over who would be elected.” (Hersch article encapsulated)

    Not only does this outline track with every datapoint known about events leading up to the Biden announcement, it also aligns with the entire background of the Obama team operating inside the Biden administration.  Team Obama have always been in control.  Heck, the Obamas never even left Washington DC after their term in office.

    The bigger understanding is in the final quote cited. 

    “[Team Obama] had an agenda and he wanted to seek it through to the end, and he wanted to have control over who would be elected.”  This is the part where people forget the risk to Team Obama that has never gone away.

    The Obama “fundamental change” was a construct of malicious intent.  Much of it fraught with unlawful activity only possible by weaponizing the various agencies and bureaus of the U.S. government.  Going all the way back to 2007 through 2017, that decade is filled with unlawful action by Barack Obama and the people behind him.  This is the core of their ongoing need for control, likely for a generation or more.

    President Obama and his likeminded ideological foot-soldiers weaponized the federal system of government.  In every action from the moment he left office, Obama’s team have been working one long continuum of control in order to keep all of their prior activity hidden. 

    The need for Kamala ‘brat’ Harris is simply another step in this long process to hide the activity.

    The NSA Database was weaponized to conduct political surveillance.

    The Dept of Justice was weaponized to target their political opposition.

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation was weaponized to act as the police investigative units for those targets.

    The Dept of Homeland Security was weaponized to control the evidence and information about their political targeting and surveillance.

    The IRS was weaponized against Obama’s political opposition.

    The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was weaponized to allow the targeting radar to sweep internally against American citizens under the guise of national security and domestic terror threats.

    The Central Intelligence Agency was weaponized allowing and permitting their “foreign surveillance” mandate to merge with the DHS internal surveillance mandate, while simultaneously the CIA conducted overseas political operations against the interests of sovereign countries.  All of their activity in ideological alignment.

    The Defense Department was purged of patriotism, intentionally weakened through diversity equity and inclusion, and then boiled down to a flag corps of general willing to go along with the policy of Obama.

    Main Justice through the National Security Division used FARA violations to target anyone who was determined a threat to the fundamental change, and Main Justice began wholesale Lawfare operations against Donald Trump and any entity who would dare align with him.

    Hundreds of millions, likely billions, were funneled through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, The Green New Deal, The Inflation Reduction Act, and various legislative expenditures to foreign governments; those funds went directly into the bank accounts of Democrat donors and political activist groups.

    And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, the part the awakened American public can look into and see for themselves. Underneath the waterline, there’s tens of thousands of vested interests, inside and outside of Washington DC, operating to maintain the fundamental change that Obama created.  However, their defenses are weak and shallow, fraught with vulnerability and the endless need to avoid sunlight.

    All of that scheming, rot, corruption and unlawful activity makes them vulnerable.  The need for control is a reaction to fear.  The ‘fundamental change’ group are fraught with fear.  That is why they consider the current political landscape as a zero-sum contest.

    It tracks, it all tracks.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/28/2024 – 17:30

  • US 'Watching Closely' Venezuela Election After Maduro Warned Of 'Bloodbath' If He Loses
    US ‘Watching Closely’ Venezuela Election After Maduro Warned Of ‘Bloodbath’ If He Loses

    President Nicolas Maduro alarmed and riled his enemies as well as Washington and its allies by declaring just ahead of Sunday’s elections: “If you don’t want Venezuela to fall into a bloodbath, into a fratricidal civil war, due to the fascists, let’s ensure the greatest success and greatest victory in the electoral history of our people.”

    Many pundits are taking this as a warning that he’ll refuse to give up power in the unlikely event he loses his bid for six more years in office, which would be his third term. While there are eight names total on the ballot as Venezuelans wait in long lines to vote Sunday, 74-year old opposition candidate and former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia is considered the only real contender who has a chance of defeating Maduro.

    González is basically the surrogate candidate for María Corina Machado, who has organized the opposition and has become wildly popular, even recently gaining name recognition abroad and in US media.

    Edmundo González Urrutia and Nicolás Maduro vote on Sunday.

    Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) have ruled over the central American country since 2013, after he took over following the death of his mentor, far-left icon Hugo Chavez.

    Millions of desperate citizens have already left their country in search of work and opportunities abroad amid a crushed economy and rampant accusations of corruption against Maduro government officials. Millions more may leave if his power is extended for another term.

    Polls have seen massive queues since they opened at 6am, but already there are reports of barriers in pro-opposition areas and stories of black-clad, masked men blocking voting stations, as The New York Times has alleged. “The destiny of Venezuela depends on our victory,” Maduro has proclaimed at campaign rallies, while decrying efforts of a hidden imperialist foreign hand to thwart his aims, as well as longtime US-led sanctions.

    Both the United States and Brazil have issued messages of “we’re watching closely”:

    Asked in a press briefing whether Maduro was likely to rig Sunday’s vote, John Kirby, White House national security spokesperson, said it was difficult to know how the situation would play out but that the U.S. wanted “to make it clear to Mr. Maduro that we’re watching, we’re watching closely.”

    Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has also urged Maduro to respect the results, telling international news agencies that he was “scared” by the Venezuelan’s recent remarks, Reuters reported.

    Brazil’s president added that Maduro “needs to learn that when you win, you stay; when you lose, you leave.”

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    Some analysts expect some degree of unrest and violence to break out no matter who emerges victorious, with either side set to contest.

    “On the basis of their own exit polls, the opposition will probably declare victory and push for regime change, ushering in a period of heightened political tension and uncertainty ahead of the inauguration,” Andre Masuko, a research analyst with the Economist Intelligence Unit, stated to CNBC.

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    “However, we do not expect the Maduro regime to be overthrown. His strict control over the country’s institutions, including the security forces, the judiciary and the electoral national council (CNE), will be instrumental in helping him to stay in power,” he underscored.

    One big unpredictable scenario of huge consequence is whether the US would throw its support behind any opposition allegations claims of widespread election abuse and fraud.

    Meanwhile, the usual Neocon suspects in Congress are alleging a ‘stolen’ national election before the ballots are even in…

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    Washington weighing in too forcefully would set the stage for another anti-opposition crackdown by Maduro government security services.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/28/2024 – 15:45

  • Bitcoin Breaks Through
    Bitcoin Breaks Through

    Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

    Almost everybody in the Bitcoin world is already going to be aware of the headlines former President Donald Trump made last night at the Bitcoin 2024 conference.

    At Bitcoin 2024, Trump pledged that if re-elected, his administration would retain all federal Bitcoin holdings, establishing a “strategic national bitcoin stockpile.” He highlighted that the federal government currently possesses nearly 210,000 bitcoins, about 1% of the total supply, mostly seized from cybercriminals. Trump promised that his administration would never sell this Bitcoin, adhering to the fundamental Bitcoin principle of holding.

    Additionally, he vowed to fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler on his first day in office, criticizing Gensler’s stringent regulations that many believe have hindered innovation in the crypto industry.

    Anyway you slice it, last night was a flurry of positive Bitcoin-related headlines hitting the wire as soon as Trump took the stage and began speaking to the crowd of crypto enthusiasts. The idea of bitcoin as a reserve asset has always been the holy grail for maximalists and Trump’s speech sent the idea of a bitcoin “standard” to supersonic speeds.

    And while there’s been plenty of speculation online about Trump’s motives, with some saying he’s simply fishing for votes from wherever he can get them, it doesn’t matter at this point: the game theory snowball of a Bitcoin “standard” has officially started rolling down the hill.

    Photo: New York Times

    This pro-Bitcoin psychology and reserve asset game theory, and what it could do for the world of Bitcoin regardless of whether or not Trump is elected, cannot be understated.

    The Bitcoin community has now, for the first time, seen a former and potential US president endorse the cryptocurrency as a strategic reserve asset for the country. This is multiple times more consequential than Wall Street listing Bitcoin ETFs, in my opinion, because it accelerates Bitcoin’s adoption regardless of whether or not Trump is elected our next president. The idea that the United States could potentially make Bitcoin part of a monetary standard has officially been launched into the orbit of the country’s economic zeitgeist.

    For comparison, when I started to warm up to the idea of Bitcoin about 6 months ago, I speculated that Middle Eastern money would be the next, after El Salvador, to put Bitcoin on a sovereign balance sheet. From there, I speculated such a move could unleash a tsunami of game theory, with multiple other countries scrambling to catch up across the world, not unlike the way Democrats — the party of Elizabeth “Ban Crypto” Warren — are now scrambling to play catch-up and modify their position stance on crypto.

    Too late, losers.

    If you would have told me months ago that one of the two major United States presidential candidates and a former president would be the first to assure the world they would place Bitcoin on the sovereign balance sheet of the most powerful nation in the world, I would have been assured the rest of the world would follow.

    That is exactly the case that is unfolding.

    And, by removing the red tape in the world of Bitcoin, not only would the Trump administration send adoption of the asset to stratospheric levels, it would also be the first tacit public acknowledgment that the fiscal crisis unfolding in the United States is not sustainable and must be dealt with via means other than printing dollars.

    🔥 50% OFF FOR LIFE: Zero Hedge readers take 50% off a Fringe Finance annual subscription for life by using this link: ZH50

    In other words, holding a bitcoin reserve would represent an attempt at a strategic move to sound money, regardless of whether or not Bitcoin itself stands the test of time.

    Yesterday not only marked a momentous occasion for Bitcoin, it marked a momentous occasion for everybody on the Austrian side of the economic aisle who has been waiting for a politician to begin to make serious concessions that the fiscal trajectory the country and the dollar are on is not sustainable. It was a limited hangout of sorts – a passive admission that eventually, the country is going to need a solution to its monetary problem that is outside the Keynesian pattern of simply printing more fiat.

    And so even if you are first and foremost an advocate for gold or silver, like I am, it’s easy to see last night’s comments by President Trump as not just a victory for Bitcoin but a victory for economic common sense.

    Just think about this: two major presidential candidates in the United States, both Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy, have now publicly come out and supported Bitcoin. That, in and of itself, is enormous.

    Even more consequential is the fact that the pro-regulation Orwellian juggernaut known as the Democratic Party, which can never seem to have enough oversight or control on how people live their lives, including saving and spending their money, has begun to realize they are fighting a losing battle.

    This was evident last night when headlines started to cross the wire around the time of Trump’s speech that multiple Democrats were urging Kamala Harris to walk back her stance on being anti-crypto. This is a monstrous pivot, especially given that party cornerstone Senator Elizabeth Warren has been the most outspoken critic of crypto over the last few years. The pivot is too little too late in my opinion — Democrats are already playing second fiddle with crypto adoption.

    In other words, the oft-touted adage that “you don’t change Bitcoin, Bitcoin changes you” seems to have once again rung true. History appears to have shown that eventually, people fall in line behind Bitcoin as long as it remains what the people want. Trump’s foresight to be first to figure out that it’s not worth fighting crypto advocates, but rather joining them, could wind up being one of the most consequential decisions that will determine the outcome of the 2024 election.

    What’s a better argument for a populist campaign than offering populist ways to save, store and preserve your wealth?

    As I wrote earlier this year in my first article about Bitcoin, Bitcoin will work if the people decide they want it to. It’s one of the few instruments that I’ve seen over the years capable of returning some power to the people in the world of economics. And despite Harris flip-flopping and scrambling to right her position on the issue, not unlike what she is doing with issues like banning fracking, having the freedom to choose how you want to store your wealth – even if it turns out to not be effective – is congruent with freedom and personal liberty. And freedom and personal liberty are far more aligned with the Republican party right now than the party that advocated for us to wear masks while outside at the beach, three years into Covid.

    If Trump was smart, he would continue tapping into the independent and libertarian base in the country by announcing that, if elected, he would make RFK Jr. his Bitcoin czar. In my exclusive interview with RFK, Jr. several weeks ago, he told me he was exploring ideas similar to Trump’s:

    “One of the issues that we’re toying with now is a Treasury bill that is based at least partially—maybe starting at one percent and increasing it—on a hard currency. On base currencies, like maybe a basket of currencies that include platinum, gold, silver, and Bitcoin. You know, my uncle tried to do something like this just before he died with the silver certificate and the gold certificate, to give Americans a hedge against inflation.

    “And there are lots of ways we can do that. We’re talking about making, for example, Bitcoin available and stopping the war against Bitcoin so that middle-class people, working-class people who want to hedge against inflation can do that. They don’t have to rely on fiat currency.”

    “And that will insert a discipline into the printing of money. If Americans have a choice, it will inject a discipline into the printing of money that we do not have right now.”

    Perhaps Trump could also take on Michael Saylor as an advisor. Saylor said to me in my exclusive interview with him that Bitcoin adoption would be inevitable due to “the inefficiency of central government or central banking planners”. He appears to be right so far: the people are driving Trump toward Bitcoin, not the other way around, and when the people want something, elected officials have no choice to but to conspire to make it happen.

    And so while the price of Bitcoin dipped last night after Trump’s speech, this was likely only a classic “sell the news” event after a week leading up to Trump’s speech where people were bidding up the price.

    The launch of Bitcoin ETFs this year was a major shot in the arm for the adoption of the digital asset and one of the reasons I began to strongly reconsider my position on Bitcoin. As sad as it is, if Wall Street gets behind an idea, it has a way of finding adoption, even if it eventually also peters out or collapses in value down the road.

    Similarly, when the United States as a country gets behind an idea, it also has a way of creating aftershocks worldwide. My contention is that if Bitcoin makes it for the long haul, the world could potentially look back at Trump’s comments this weekend as an inflection point in American history, American monetary policy and potentially the day even more doubt in Bitcoin’s long-term sustainability died.

    —

    As a quick disclaimer and reminder, I still believe there is significant risk in owning Bitcoin. Bitcoin is an unprecedented monetary experiment and it is extraordinarily volatile. I keep only a portion of my net worth that I am OK with losing in Bitcoin and consider the bet to be speculative in nature.

    Personally, I perfer apps like Swan for buying Bitcoin on a recurring basis, which, in my opinion, is important to help alleviate the volatile swings in the asset. Anyone that wishes to use my referral link at Swan will get $10 in free Bitcoin to start.

    —

    Now read:

     

    QTR’s Disclaimer: Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only. In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. These positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice and at any point I can be long, short or neutral on any position. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I’m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/28/2024 – 15:10

  • French Bishops Blast Olympic "Mockery Of Christianity" While MSM Hails "Unprecedented Display Of Inclusivity"
    French Bishops Blast Olympic “Mockery Of Christianity” While MSM Hails “Unprecedented Display Of Inclusivity”

    The French Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church has blasted the Olympic Games’ opening ceremony for its excesses and provocations which sought to make a mockery of Christianity.

    The French bishops expressed their thoughts “to Christians worldwide who were hurt by the excess, and provocation of certain scenes.” As we detailed previously, it included at least ten men in drag performing a reenactment of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” – along with many other sexualized scenes that included a man with his testicles exposed and hanging out of his outfit.

    Via AP

    “The opening ceremony… included scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity, which we deeply deplore,” the statement continued.

    “We think of all Christians worldwide who were hurt by the excess and provocation of certain scenes,” the French bishops continued. “We hope they understand that the Olympic celebration extends far beyond the ideological biases of a few artists.”

    Still, The Associated Press and other mainstream outlets hailed the segment as an “unprecedented display of inclusivity” despite an overwhelmingly negative reaction which come even from secular quarters. 

    Several X accounts that posted videos and/or screenshots about the absurdities of the Olympics’ opening ceremonies have been hit with Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaints. Additionally the Opening Ceremony highlights has been removed from the Olympics’ official YouTube page, as we detailed earlier. 

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    Even elements of the European Left condemned it, including far-left French politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

    * * *

    The following is a translation of and commentary on Mélenchon’s words by Arnaud Bertrand…

    Mélenchon on the Olympics opening ceremony, which really goes to show that the criticisms of it aren’t “far-right” as many are arguing, they’re just common sense:

    “I didn’t appreciate the mockery of the Christian Last Supper, the final meal of Christ and his disciples, which is foundational to Sunday worship. Of course, I’m not getting into the criticism of ‘blasphemy.’ That doesn’t concern everyone.

    But I ask: what’s the point of risking offending believers? Even when one is anticlerical! We were speaking to the world that evening. Among the billion Christians in the world, how many good and honest people are there for whom faith provides help in living and knowing how to participate in everyone’s life, without bothering anyone?”

    It’s the exact same point I was making yesterday: the whole point of the Olympics is to bring the world together, and this was perhaps the most needlessly divisive opening ceremony in history, because so shocking and tasteless to so many.

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    It spoke to an extremely tiny group of people. I actually think many even in the LGBT community found it completely ridiculous. Being secular doesn’t mean hating on religion. It means a separation of state and religion but it doesn’t imply insult of religion and their believers… In fact many profoundly secular states ban insults to religion…

    I admit that France does have a history of being irreverent to religion, but it is unwise to sacralize this as a core part of our identity as this show attempted to do, especially in the context of an event meant to bring the world together. These types of provocations belong in fringe publications like Charlie-Hebdo, not a ceremony like this.

    *   *   *

    A response from a US bishop… 

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    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/28/2024 – 14:35

  • "Adult Swim": Four Reasons Why We Have Not Seen The Summer Lows Yet…
    “Adult Swim”: Four Reasons Why We Have Not Seen The Summer Lows Yet…

    By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

    Baby Pool Closed for “Maintenance”

    Anyone who ever got that notice from a town or community pool knows exactly what happened. It feels like some of that has gone on in our markets of late, ensuring that this is an “adult swim.” For those who have had their vacations disrupted or are about to experience that as market volatility continues, we feel your pain!

    The Nasdaq 100 has had some wild swings, and the S&P 500 broke a long string of trading days without dropping 2%. Stocks ended the week strong on Friday and we got to continue to examine de-grossing, rotations, and de-risking. Last weekend we delved into these subjects in Know When to Fold ‘Em and we refined our views on Thursday morning in A Lot Going On.

    Here we are, once again attempting to navigate through what is likely going to be another “interesting” week to say the least. But, before diving into the week ahead, we saw lots of evidence of rotation/de-grossing:

    • The Nasdaq 100 was down 2.6% while the Russell 2000 gained 3.5%.

    • The S&P 500 was down 0.8% while the equal weight version was up 0.8%.

    • Energy, which we like as our favorite hedge against geopolitical risk, was mixed (XLE was down a smidge, while OIH was up 1.6%).

    • The 2s vs 10s spread on the Treasury side of things got as low as -14 and ended the week less inverted than when it started. For now, we will put this on the rotation/de-grossing side of the ledger and expect it to continue.

    Questions remain about how much de-risking has occurred?

    • Sure, QQQ has had some outflows of late, but it actually had inflows last week, while IWM (Russell 2000 ETF) had another week of strong inflows – which feels more like a rotation than de-risking.

    • When I look at the “frothier” end of things, I see little evidence of de-risking. TQQQ (a triple leveraged Nasdaq 100 ETF) had inflows, and SQQQ (3x inverse Nasdaq 100) had outflows. That looks like risk is being added. Similarly, NVDL (1.5x NVDA) had inflows. NVDS (-1.5x NVDA) had outflows, but it is tiny. I truly don’t understand the need for single stock ETFs (call me old fashioned), but those flows give some sense of the underlying tone out there. While I don’t understand why they exist, NVDL at $4.2 billion of AUM with an expense ratio of 1.15% is on a roughly $50,000,000 annual fee run-rate, which is pretty darn impressive for the creators!

    What really “seals the deal” for me on my view that we are not done de-risking (but likely will be) is the view of the Fed.

    • We’ve gone from being “out there” for saying that the Fed should cut in July, to being a more or less consensus view that the Fed should be cutting, but won’t cut until September.

    • According to Bloomberg’s WIRP function, based on futures contracts, the market is now pricing in 1.13 cuts at the September meeting and 3.4 cuts by the end of the January meeting. We’ve been in the camp that the Fed is late to the easing cycle, the real rates are too high, the economy is slowing, and inflation pressures have abated, but the market may be getting ahead of itself again. The current pricing is just a bit more aggressive than our view (from having been more conservative), which leads us to wonder if the Fed isn’t already priced in? Or, and this is becoming our base case, the Fed will have to ease at this pace or faster, only because economic conditions won’t support anything resembling tight monetary policy.

    With a lack of fear (even VIX has scaled back), some aggressive fund flows, and conviction that the Fed is going to announce the start of rate cuts driving this market, there still seems to be far more downside risk than upside risk.

    Maybe the weakest hands have played out their de-grossing strategy and the rotation that remains (which still makes sense to us) will happen in an “overall rising” market. The data could support that.

    We have four reasons to expect that we have not seen the summer lows yet:

    1. The Fed is fully priced in.

    2. The jobs data this week will be extremely disappointing. But not so disappointing that the Fed can pivot to “full-on dovish” given the Fed’s fears of an inflation resurgence. The pendulum swinging from no landing, to soft landing, to a possible bumpy landing could be the catalyst for more downside risk, especially since the Fed will likely feel the need to be restrained for the coming months.

    3. Earning and AI. There is no longer an automatic 5% pop in your stock price just for saying “AI” on your earnings call (I’m being facetious, but….). What is the cost of AI? The price to implement AI has soared. How good is the AI you are getting? The best analogy, that I have heard on many fronts, is that the “large language models” are like reading a really good newspaper or magazine. The articles on subjects that you know little about make a lot of sense. However, you find a lot of issues with the articles about your area of expertise. Yes, LLMs are only one part of AI. Even in that subset, there are different ones, and some have very specific training to overcome that rather generic analogy of reading articles. Will today’s models (or more accurately, the perception of what the cost benefit analysis will yield in a couple years) be able to justify today’s current valuations? Given positioning and some of what we have seen in some recent earnings, that might prove difficult and be a catalyst for de-risking.

    4. Politics and Geopolitical Risks.

    Political first. There is a real risk that as both parties start campaigning on their policies, the market will get nervous about where we are headed on the deficit and inflation. How we get the bigger deficit and inflation risks posed by each parties’ policies will be different, but I think the risks are similar and currently not being priced in. This is why we expect to see less inversion and even “normal” yield curves as term premium gets put back into the market.

    Geopolitical. On Thursday we published a SITREP as Chinese AND Russian Bombers were Intercepted Off the Alaskan Coast. While intercepting bombers is “normal,” this was the first time (that we are aware of) that planes from these two countries took off from the same base and operated together near North America.

    This comes on the heels of our monthly Around the World piece, published on Wednesday. It is longer than usual, as there is so much going on. The Geopolitical Intelligence Group provides an updated assessment on the War in Gaza and the risk of escalation with Hezbollah. Next, it addresses what might change and what is likely to remain the same following Iran’s election of a reformist president. Next, it identifies how Russia is enhancing its partnerships to support its war in Ukraine and some problems that are coming up in discussions about what any sort of peace might look like. Finally, we address the Increased Tensions with China in the South China Sea! While for most people, Taiwan is the main area of concern, but there is also an increased concern about China’s intentions regarding some “disputed” reefs with the Philippines. “Disputed” is in quotes, as the international courts have ruled in favor of the Philippines, so away from China’s view, there is little to dispute.

    This seems like a good time to update our Geopolitical Risk vs Perception Heatmap, last published in June.

    While the events of July 19th were not CYBER related, we have inched up the risk of a real cyber threat.

    We’ve reduced the risk of a trade war as it seems that China is content to wait until after the election to respond to our most recent round of tariffs against them. While the real risk is reduced, the perception of risk has declined almost as fast, leaving this as a potential problem for markets.

    While nothing has specifically happened with Russia, current signals, messages, and chatter warrant increasing the risk of some activity on their part, which helps support commodities.

    Far and away is the risk of some “wildcard” event. The potential opportunities for a geopolitical event somewhere around the globe seem to be on the rise. We currently have a President who is not running for re-election, parties that seem as happy to attack and divide to win as they are to win on policies alone, and an entire media industry geared towards elections at the expense of reporting on the rest of the world. Maybe Russian and Chinese planes flying together near Alaska is all that we will get? Or maybe that is a snippet of our enemies/adversaries/competitors (take your pick) trying to analyze how much they can get away with?

    Bottom Line

    The Fed is not enough to “end the risk of de-risking.” The rotation trades should continue to work (though the move has already been quite extreme), but look for it to occur in a falling market. Look for some form of “not so good” landing to make its way back into the lexicon in the coming weeks.

    • Energy remains a favorite sector.

    • For banks (both KRE and KBE have been doing very well) the risk is that we get data indicating stretched consumers and unrealized problems in some segments of commercial real estate (such as office space in some specific cities). That could put some pressure on banks. The outlook is good, unless the data starts coming in worse than our already mildly bearish view, which isn’t our base case, but it seems more likely than surprising to the upside.

    • Credit. If we are correct and equities face more pressure, it will translate into some pressure on spreads, but nothing to be too concerned about as equities are far more about valuations in certain areas and positioning rather than overall economic concerns that would directly affect the creditworthiness of most borrowers. However, it would be helpful if the calendar slowed, giving everyone a little time to tuck away the recent issues. Finally, if we get a scenario that puts banks under any pressure (not our view, but something to think about for the first time in a while), that would impact credit spreads more materially.

    The worst might be behind us in risk assets, but the view here is that we have more trouble to come and August, often a “trend-following month,” will follow the trend of choppiness and losses for stocks.

    Good luck and for those of you who swim as poorly as I do, put on the water wings, because the adult swim is likely going to continue!

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/28/2024 – 14:00

  • Meteorologists Watching New "Area Of Disturbed Weather" In Atlantic Basin After Lull In Activity 
    Meteorologists Watching New “Area Of Disturbed Weather” In Atlantic Basin After Lull In Activity 

    July has been a super quiet month in what has been expected to be a very active hurricane season, but that could all soon change with a new disturbance developing in the Atlantic Basin. 

    The National Hurricane Center reported a tropical development over the central tropical Atlantic Ocean. It is expected to interact with an approaching tropical wave early next week.

    Here’s more from NHC’s latest report:

    “Near the Leeward Islands and Greater Antilles: An area of disturbed weather over the central tropical Atlantic Ocean is expected to interact with an approaching tropical wave during the next several days. Environmental conditions are forecast to become conducive for some development in a day or two, and a tropical depression could form around midweek while the system is near or over the northern Leeward Islands, Greater Antilles, or the southwestern Atlantic Ocean.”

    Formation odds:

    • Formation chance through 48 hours was low or near 0 percent.

    • Formation chance through 7 days was medium or 40 percent

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    “Overnight 00z ensembles here on weathernerds. GFS still only has a few. EURO more aggressive and more east. Nothing expected to form until near the islands. NHC remains at 40% chance,” Mike’s Weather Page wrote on X. 

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    AccuWeather Lead Hurricane Expert Alex DaSilva noted that the hurricane season will soon be entering the point where more “systems take hold and organize into tropical depressions, storms, and even hurricanes under the right conditions.” 

    July brought a lull in tropical development, which will likely change as August quickly approaches. Plan those East Coast and Gulf Coast trips accordingly.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/28/2024 – 13:25

  • German Publisher Stops All Printing Of JD Vance's Book Hillbilly Elegy
    German Publisher Stops All Printing Of JD Vance’s Book Hillbilly Elegy

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    JD Vance is a marked man. After accepting the nomination for vice president, Vance has been the subject of endless media attacks. Recently, Vice President Kamala Harris even questioned his “loyalty” to the country despite his serving as a Marine in the Iraq War. Yet, one of the most chilling attacks came from Germany where the publishing house Ullstein Buchverlage has stopped printing the sold-out German translation of Hillbilly Elegy, his 2016 autobiography.

    As we have discussed previously in this country, it is the modern left’s equivalent of book burning. After all, why burn books when you can simply prevent their being printed under blacklisting campaigns?

    In this country, we have seen the left successfully force book bans for writers and even justices who espouse opposing viewpoints.  We have seen actual calls for book burning recently (here and here).

    Ullstein is facing a high demand for Vance’s best-selling book Hillbilly Elegy, but has refused to print more copies due to his political viewpoints (unrelated to the book).

    First published in 2016 and made into a movie in 2020, the book returned to the top position on The New York Times‘ bestseller list after Trump chose Vance as his running mate.

    HarperCollins is rushing to print more books to meet the demand.

    Some in the United States are already balking at the selling of any book by Vance. Seven Stories Press wrote, “Seven Stories Press is extremely thrilled to have never published JD Vance.”

    Ullstein published the German translation of Hillbilly Elegy in 2017 and held the rights to reprints.

    The company cited Vance’s allegiance with Trump and his politics as the reason in a statement to German media:

    “At the time of its publication, the book made a valuable contribution to understanding the drifting apart of US society…In the meantime, he is officially acting alongside him and advocating an aggressively demagogic, exclusionary policy.”

    German author Gerd Buurmann posted a mocking response that we should be happy that Ullstein had just thrown Vance’s book out of its catalogue and not into the fire – a reference to the notorious Nazi book burnings of the 1930s.

    Other Germans have raised the same objections and referenced the painful history of book bans and burnings in Germany under the Nazis.

    German readers want to read the book, which Ullstein acknowledged is one of the most influential works of this generation. However, because the company disagrees with his political viewpoints, it moved to block others from reading the book.

    We have seen similar campaigns leading to the banning or burning of books by figures like JK Rowling because of her opposition to some transgender policies. The left now protests any programs on Rowling’s work and opposes the selling of her enormously popular Harry Potter series or even video games based on the series. When authors have defended her right to be published, they have also been subjected to cancel campaigns.

    Yet, Ullstein’s decision is particularly chilling as a publishing house. Again, we have seen editors at publishing houses sign petitions to bar books by conservative figures like Justice Amy Coney Barrett from being published.

    In 1933, thousands of books by Jewish and leftist writers were burned throughout Germany. Publishing houses further banned the printing of these books. The books were announced as corrupting the minds of German citizens. Many books were banned or burned on the basis of the authors being Jewish or known socialists or anarchists.

    Now the left has developed a taste for censorship and blacklisting. Editors and publishing houses are blacklisting those with conservative or libertarian views as forms of dangerous viewpoints or disinformation.

    Ullstein will, of course, not stop people from reading the work of JD Vance. While it may make it more difficult for Germans to find copies, ideas like water have a way of finding their way out. Blacklisting and censorship have not succeeded in killing a single idea. What it does is reveal the true character and values of those who want to prevent others from hearing opposing viewpoints.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/28/2024 – 12:50

  • Lithium Battery Fire Sparks Traffic Mayhem Across California Desert
    Lithium Battery Fire Sparks Traffic Mayhem Across California Desert

    Some X users have described the traffic chaos near Baker, California, on the northbound lanes of I-15 as ‘carmageddon.’ This followed road closures on Friday that extended well into the weekend due to an overturned truck carrying lithium-ion batteries that ignited on fire. 

    As of early Sunday, the California Highway Patrol wrote on X, “I-15 N/B at Harvard Rd remains closed,” adding, “Crews are currently grading the dirt around the trailer housing the hazardous material. Heavy-duty equipment is on scene, and efforts to move the trailer will continue once deemed safe for the crews.” 

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    “A crisis situation is unfolding in the California desert. Thousands of people headed to Las Vegas have been stuck on the I-40 for many hours, running out of gas and water. This is all due to the lithium battery truck fire that closed down I-15 yesterday,” X user Las Vegas Locally wrote on X late Saturday afternoon. 

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    Drivers caught in the massive traffic backup were furious. 

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    “A different sort of energy crisis, also caused by alternative energy (a lithium battery fire),” X user Josh Young wrote. 

    The dangers of the ‘green’ energy transition are not being disclosed to the American people by radical leftists in the White House. There is limited transparency and unaccountability.

    Let’s not forget that lithium-ion batteries contain a lot of energy and can spontaneously enter into a ‘thermal runaway,‘ in other words…

    See here: 

    Though caused by a traffic accident rather than occurring spontaneously, the latest battery fire in the California desert highlights a major issue: firefighting crews nationwide are unprepared for EV fires.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/28/2024 – 12:15

  • One Man Found The Infamous "Carpet Trails" In Florida That Lead To Enormous Homeless Encampments Way Back In The Woods
    One Man Found The Infamous “Carpet Trails” In Florida That Lead To Enormous Homeless Encampments Way Back In The Woods

    Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

    If you are still able to afford a decent home, you should consider yourself to be incredibly blessed, because vast numbers of Americans do not have a permanent place to live at this point.  Homelessness in the United States is at the highest level ever recorded, and it has been growing at the fastest pace ever recorded.  The homeless encampments that have been popping up all over our major cities have been making lots of headlines in recent years, but many of the homeless live and die in very isolated places far from public view.  What I am about to share with you should deeply sadden all of us.

    Way back in the woods in southwest Florida, trails that have been made out of discarded carpets lead to absolutely enormous homeless encampments where hordes of homeless people have made homes for themselves.

    One man was able to find these infamous “carpet trails”, and he posted footage of them on his YouTube channel…

    Coastal areas of southern Florida are very popular among the homeless because the nights never get too cold even during the winter.

    But there are plenty of other hazards, and just trying to stay alive can be a real struggle.

    Of course the west coast is dealing with an even greater crisis.

    In Portland, homeless encampments have taken over vast stretches of the city and nobody seems to have any solutions.

    KATU recently visited one of the most notorious homeless encampments, and they discovered that it has gotten even bigger since the last time they visited it…

    This is what a collapsing society looks like.

    Poverty and hunger are spreading like wildfire, and the deplorable conditions in many of our core urban areas are being openly mocked all over the globe.

    In fact, in China they are actually “producing documentaries on the collapse of American cities”…

    The Chinese are now producing documentaries on the collapse of American cities. What this showcases is the grim aftermath of decades of deindustrialization, disastrous progressive policies, and an opioid crisis—ironically fueled by China.

    “Chinese are making documentaries about ultra-extreme poverty and decaying cities since they don’t exist in China anymore,” X user S.L. Kanthan wrote in a recent post, accompanied by a short clip from the documentary highlighting the implosion of Oakland, California.

    Since the video was narrated in Chinese, X user TranslateMom translated some of the captions, which said, “Everywhere is garbage … People don’t live in places. There are wanderers everywhere.”

    One of the primary reasons why so many people are forced to live in the streets is because housing has become ridiculously unaffordable.

    If you can believe it, there are now 237 U.S. cities where “buyers will find a price tag of $1 million or more on the typical starter home”…

    A million-dollar price tag no longer means lavish and luxurious living. In more than 200 U.S. cities, buyers will find a price tag of $1 million or more on the typical starter home, a new Zillow® analysis finds.

    The typical “starter home” — defined for this analysis as being among those in the lowest third of home values in a given region — is worth at least $1 million in 237 cities, the highest number of cities ever. Five years ago, there were only 84 such cities.

    That is nuts!

    Who can afford to pay a million bucks for a “starter home”?

    This is what rampant inflation has done to us.

    It has absolutely eviscerated our standard of living, and ordinary Americans such as you and I are feeling a tremendous amount of pain right now.

    According to Zillow, California, New York and New Jersey are the states that have the most cities where a typical “starter home” costs at least a million dollars…

    Exactly half of all states have at least one city with a typical starter home worth $1 million or more. There are 117 such cities in California, well ahead of New York (31) and New Jersey (21), which have the second- and third-highest numbers. Florida and Massachusetts round out the top five with 11 each.

    Among metropolitan areas, the New York City metro, which includes parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, has the most cities with million-dollar starter homes at 48. The San Francisco metro has the next highest count at 44, followed by Los Angeles (35), San Jose (15), and Miami and Seattle, each with eight. Irvine, with a population of more than 300,000, is the biggest city with $1 million starter homes.

    Of course California is also being overwhelmed by homeless encampments right now too.

    Progressive policies have resulted in a chronic shortage of affordable housing, and that isn’t going to change any time soon.

    Sadly, conditions are only going to get worse all over the nation because our economic momentum is rapidly taking us in the wrong direction.

    For example, we just learned that credit card delinquency rates have risen to the highest level ever recorded…

    A growing number of Americans are falling behind on their monthly credit card payments as they continue to battle high inflation and interest rates.

    New data published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia shows that credit card delinquency rates in the first quarter of 2024 rose to the highest level since 2012, when the Fed began tracking the data. All stages of credit card delinquency — 30, 60 and 90 days past due — rose during the first three months of the year.

    And another major retailer just went bankrupt and is closing lots of stores…

    Home goods retailer Conn’s HomePlus filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday and announced plans to close at least 70 locations across 13 states.

    On its website, Conn’s says it will close 18 locations in Florida, nine in Texas and seven in Arizona. Other states that will see stores close include Virginia, Colorado, Mississippi and Oklahoma, among others.

    Everywhere you look, there is suffering.

    But for the moment, those at the very top of the economic food chain are still thriving.

    In fact, the wealthiest one percent have actually gotten 42 trillion dollars wealthier during the past decade…

    The world’s richest one percent increased their fortunes by a total of $42 trillion over the past decade, Oxfam said Thursday, ahead of a G20 summit in Brazil where taxing the super-rich tops the agenda.

    Despite this windfall, taxes on the rich had plummeted to “historic lows”, the NGO added, warning of “obscene levels” of inequality with the rest of the world “left to scrap for crumbs”.

    A day of reckoning is coming for them too.

    In fact, a day of reckoning is rapidly approaching for the entire planet.

    Our system is fundamentally flawed, and decades of really bad decisions have brought us to a breaking point.

    So please don’t look down on those that have lost their homes and have no place to live, because lots more people will be joining them soon.

    *  *  *

    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
    Sun, 07/28/2024 – 11:40

  • Trump Promises To Make USA The "Bitcoin Super-Power Of The World"; Democrats Panic U-Turn On Anti-Crypto Crusade
    Trump Promises To Make USA The “Bitcoin Super-Power Of The World”; Democrats Panic U-Turn On Anti-Crypto Crusade

    In a spirited keynote address, Former President Trump promised to make USA the “bitcoin super-power of the world,” ensuring that cryptocurrency is “mined, minted, and made in the USA.”

    “We have to talk about Bitcoin. Our country is blessed with the extraordinary talent and genius in this room.

    This spirit built America and will help us make it great again.

    I admire what the Bitcoin community has achieved. In just 15 years, Bitcoin has gone from an idea to the 9th most valuable asset in the world.

    It’s already bigger than ExxonMobil and soon it will surpass the market cap of silver.

    That’s a big deal.”

    He went on with some big promises:

    “I pledge the day I take office the weaponization against Bitcoin ends.”

    “On day one, I will fire Gary Gensler and appoint a new SEC Chairman.”

    “I will immediately shutdown Operation Chokepoint 2.0“

    Trump also confirmed that he will appoint a crypto advisory council with “regulations written by industry-loving people within 100 days.”

    Trump also confirmed that “there will never be a CBDC” while he is president.

    “Those who say that bitcoin is a threat to the dollar have it exactly backwards, the danger to our financial future comes from Washington DC not crypto.”

    Additionally, the former president pointing out that

    “Bitcoiners understand inflation better than anyone. You all understood it first.”

    Promising to ‘drill, baby, drill’, Trump notes that with low energy costs the USA will become the undisputed bitcoin mining center of the world.

    Finally, Trump dropped the big guns:

    “The policy of the Trump administration will be to keep 100% of all that it currently holds as the core of the strategic national bitcoin stockpile,” and confirmed his promise to commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht to time-served.

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    Watch the full keynote address at Bitcoin 2024 here:

    Bitcoin price has risen significantly in the last 24 hours in anticipation of Trump’s speech…

    Notably, the Democrats appear to be worried that crypto could be a vote-change for many people (and are pushing back against the Warren/Gensler attacks). A number of Democratic congressmembers have penned a letter to the DNC pushing for change…

    Over 52 million Americans have embraced digital assets, seeing them as a means to democratize finance, spur innovation, and create new economic opportunities.

    According to recent polls. 19% of voters have bought crypto, 19% self-identified as Democrats, 18% as Republicans, and 24% of crypto-owning voters are independents.

    Data shows that digital assets are being adopted at higher rates among Gen Z, Black and Latino Americans, and immigrant communities key constituencies of the Democratic party compared to traditional financial products. These technologies are revolutionizing opportunities for these communities, reflecting their transformative potential.

    From an electoral standpoint, crypto and blockchain technologies have an outsized impact in ensuring victories up and down the ballot. Crypto is at the top of voters’ minds in swing states, and a balanced approach to crypto that spurs innovation while protecting consumers is a net positive for policymakers and candidates.

    Over 20% of voters in key battleground states identified crypto as a major issue in the 2024 election, and it is critical that our party presents a persuasive case to crypto voters while ensuring that consumers benefit from thoughtful and appropriate regulation.

    The current financial system has left Americans behind.

    According to recent surveys, 4 in 5 voters agree with the statement, “The current financial system favors elites over regular people.” Digital assets and blockchain technology are not merely financial instruments but represent a revolutionary shift that can enhance transparency, reduce fraud, and create a more inclusive financial system.

    We believe this technology is non-partisan, and the Democratic Party should also champion these innovations to help reaffirm the U.S.’s position as the leader in the global digital economy.

    They then make four suggestions that the DNC should back off the attacks on crypto:

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    Who could have seen this coming?

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    In the sixteen months since, we have seen a seismic shift in attitudes towards crypto from both Independents and Republicans; while Democrats continue to demonize the sovereign currency.

    Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised the role Bitcoin could play in improving the US economy and the American way of life as he spoke to an audience at the Bitcoin 2024 conference on July 26. He promised to sign a number of executive orders on his first day in office to begin the process.

    Kennedy would sign an order requiring the US Justice Department and US Marshalls to transfer the 204,000 Bitcoin held by the US to the Federal Reserve to be held as a “strategic asset,” he said.

    Furthermore, Kennedy said he would also order the Treasury Department to purchase 500 Bitcoin daily until the reserve reaches at least four million BTC.

    The United States would attain “a position of dominance no other country will be able to usurp” and its Bitcoin reserve would eventually reach a value of “hundreds of trillions of dollars,” he promised.

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    In addition, CoinTelegraph’s Derek Andersen reports that Kennedy would order the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to treat all transactions between Bitcoin and the US dollar as nonreportable and nontaxable. He would also order the IRS to treat Bitcoin as eligible for exchange into real property under the 1031 Exchange program, which provides incentives for real estate investment.

    “Transactional freedom [is] as important as freedom of expression in the 1st Amendment,” Kennedy said, and Bitcoin can provide that freedom and help restore the United States economy to its condition before President Richard Nixon took the US dollar off the gold standard to fund the Vietnam war. Kennedy added:

    “Fiat currency was invented to fund war. […] If the world was on a BTC standard, there would be no more war because you can’t print Bitcoin.”

    “I understand that tomorrow President Trump may announce his plan to build a Bitcoin Fort Knox and authorize the US government to buy a million Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset,” Kennedy told the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville on Friday, a day before Trump was scheduled to speak at the same event.

    “And I applaud that announcement.”

    However, most notable is the shift seen by former President Trump from his initial comments in 2019..

    “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated cryptoassets can facilitate unlawful behaviour, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”

    Thankfully, as Mark Shut and Lee Bratcher detail below, via BitcoinMagazine.com, the official position of the Republican Party has changed dramatically since President Donald J Trump condemned the emerging crypto industry in those uncompromising terms back in 2019.

    Earlier this month, the Republican National Committee adopted an ambitious platform to promote innovation in the US’ digital assets industry and protect the rights of bitcoin holders.

    For one, the official platform pledges that the Republicans will “defend the right to mine bitcoin.”

    This represents a much-needed departure from the policies of the incumbent administration.

    In February this year, the US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued an “emergency” survey to bitcoin mining companies, demanding highly sensitive information such as the specifications of the machines being used, the specific locations of their mining operations, and contractual information relating to their commercial energy partners. The EIA not only demanded all of this information but pledged to publish even the most commercially sensitive bits of it.

    This initiative represented an unprecedented intrusion into the activities of Bitcoin miners and a massive assault on the crypto industry. It prompted organizations such as the Texas Blockchain Council to launch legal proceedings to try and protect the rights of the crypto industry against federal outreach. The Republicans’ pledge to “defend the right to mine bitcoin” is therefore very welcome.

    There are other encouraging pledges that the Republicans have made.

    The GOP has said they will “ensure every American has the right to self-custody their digital assets and transact free from government surveillance and control.”

    They have also come out strongly against the idea of a CBDC.

    “Republicans will end Democrats’ unlawful and un-American crypto crackdown and oppose the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency,” the party has said.

    Of course, all of this is highly encouraging for digital asset industry advocates. But it still begs the question.

    What caused President Trump to change his mind and start embracing the massive potential of digital assets and decentralized finance?

    How has this pro-digital asset agenda vaulted into the limelight of Presidential politics?

    If there is one man who has contributed more than anybody else to changing Republicans’ mind on crypto, it is Vivek Ramaswamy.

    The former Republican presidential candidate and entrepreneur is clearly having increasing amounts of influence on the GOP inner circle. At the Republican Convention this month, Donald Trump Jr joked that he would like Ramaswamy to be his running mate in 2036. Indeed, ever since his presidential bid last year, it is clear that he has been one of the leading voices at the upper echelons of the Republicans guiding the party in a more pro-crypto direction.

    Ramaswamy made waves in GOP circles when, at the North American Blockchain Summit in Texas last year, he released a detailed and comprehensive plan for the US crypto space.

    What did he pledge to do? Perhaps the most eye-catching measure was his promise to fire most of the employees at the bloated Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and order the rest to stop trying to bully the crypto industry. Importantly, Ramaswamy defines many cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as commodities that are therefore not under the jurisdiction of the SEC.

    “I think it’s nothing short of embarrassing that Gary Gensler, the current leader of the SEC, in front of Congress could not even say whether Ethereum counted as a regulated security or not,” Ramaswamy said during one of the Republican debates last year. “This is just another example of the administrative state gone too far.”

    Ramaswamy has been a vocal advocate for innovation in the crypto space and the use of decentralized digital currencies as a tool for financial freedom. He has argued that the right to code should be a right protected by the First Amendment, protecting developers from the overreaches of federal agencies.

    He has also said that consumers should have a right to possess self-hosted digital wallets beyond the grasp of the government. This has now been explicitly adopted by the Republicans for their 2024 election campaign, showing the practical influence Ramaswamy is having on Republican policy.

    It is not just Ramaswamy who has been positively influencing Republican policy. Back in May last year, Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, brought into force a law banning any potential CBDC being used in the state. The regulation “prohibits the use of a federally adopted CBDC by excluding it from the definition of money within Florida’s Uniform Commercial Code.”

    Efforts like this have been essential in making the Republican leadership aware of the dangers associated with CBDCs and prompting them to pledge action.

    But arguably the most important impactful of Ramaswamy’s crypto activism is to persuade the broader Republican Party that supporting crypto innovation is in line with their political philosophy and natural instincts.

    He has powerfully argued that the current federal assault on the crypto industry is “an embodiment of our national decline” in the way it represents an attack on innovation and entrepreneurship, two values the Republicans have always claimed to hold dear.

    Ramaswamy has similarly noted that Bitcoin mining is “a frontier in American innovation” in the same tradition as American heroes such as Thomas Jefferson – who Ramaswamy thinks “would have been a Bitcoin miner.” This rhetoric seems to have worked in convincing President Trump and Republican leaders that they should indeed be the pro-bitcoin party.

    Another key emerging figure in the Republican party who is of a similar mind on digital assets as Vivek is Trump’s recent VP pick, J.D. Vance. Senator Vance is vocal about his support for bitcoin and digital assets and has a background in tech venture capital. He is young and he understands the importance of courting younger votes.

    So, what will “four more years” of President Trump mean for the US digital asset industry?

    Let’s end as we started, with another quote from the President – one that shows, thanks to the efforts of Vivek Ramaswamy, Senator Vance and others, just how much the Republican stance on crypto has changed over the last few years.

    “I will end Joe Biden’s war on crypto. We will ensure that the future of crypto and the future of Bitcoin will be made in America.”

    “If Trump is elected, the U.S. will have to add Bitcoin as a reserve, because it is digital gold,” said Arseniy Grusha, chief executive officer of data-center firm Dataprana, who attended the conference. “The earlier they do that, the better it will be for the United States.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/28/2024 – 11:11

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Jul 28

Today’s News 28th July 2024

  • Will India Supplant China As The Leader Of The Incipient Non-Western Peace Process On Ukraine?
    Will India Supplant China As The Leader Of The Incipient Non-Western Peace Process On Ukraine?

    Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,

    India’s WION cited unnamed diplomatic sources to report on Friday that Prime Minister Modi is planning to visit Kiev at the end of August. This was surprising considering that India summoned the Ukrainian Ambassador in mid-July to complain about Zelensky publicly insulting Modi after the latter visited Russia. It was analyzed here that Ukraine risked losing the support of the Global South after attacking the leader of its most populous country, but then something major happened to change Delhi’s calculations.

    Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba visited Beijing, which this preview here foresaw as a signal that his country is semi-serious about resuming peace talks with Russia. That insight was proven correct after he said that his country is ready for this but added that it won’t be forced into anything either. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova was skeptical, but Kremlin spokesman Peskov was less so, instead pointing to the political and legal obstacles that would have to be resolved before this happens.  

    In any case, the world interpreted Kuleba’s words as a newfound willingness to entertain the resumption of peace talks with Russia, which was hitherto taboo for his side and its foreign supporters to talk about. From India’s perspective, the possibility of China organizing a Brazilian-fronted non-Western peace process before and/or during the G20- in Rio would be a nightmare come true since it would result in Russia becoming diplomatically indebted in China, which could eventually lead to trouble for India.

    Russia’s recently recalibrated Asian balancing act, which readers can learn more about here and here, was crowned by Modi’s visit to Moscow but now India has reason to worry that all this progress might be reversed if China calls in its diplomatic debt and gets Russia to distance itself somewhat from India. It’s no secret that China and India are embroiled in a fierce border dispute, so it’s not unforeseeable that Beijing might lean on Moscow to decelerate and ultimately cut off the supply of military spares to Delhi.

    India is disproportionately dependent on Russian equipment so that scenario could instantly cripple its deterrence capabilities vis-à-vis China and thus force it into accepted a lopsided deal for resolving their dispute under the pain of war if it refuses. To be absolutely clear, there aren’t any credible indications that Russia would bend to China’s speculative demand to jointly blackmail India via complementary military means, but it can’t confidently be ruled out by responsible Indian policymakers either.

    That being the case, it naturally follows that the most effective way to preemptively thwart this worst-case scenario is for India to make a play for replacing China as the leader of the incipient non-Western peace process on Ukraine, ergo the reason why Modi might soon visit Kiev. From Russia’s perspective, it would be more ideal for India to mediate a resolution to this conflict than for China to do so since its established balancing/pragmatic policymaking faction wants to avoid diplomatic indebtedness to Beijing.

    Likewise, the US would also prefer for India to play this role instead of China since the latter is its systemic rival in the New Cold War, hence why Washington is unlikely to let Kiev participate in any Chinese-organized but Brazilian-fronted non-Western peace process anyhow. Nevertheless, Kiev might also “go rogue” to an extent by still taking part in such events, which its leadership might envisage leveraging to get more aid from the US and have it rescind all existing restrictions on the use of its arms.

    Even if that happens, Ukraine would be unable to agree to anything meaningful without the US’ approval though seeing as how it militarily depends on American-led NATO, so there are limits to what could come from its participation in such Chinese-organized but Brazilian-fronted events. By contrast, the US would have no objections to Ukraine taking part in Indian-led ones, especially since this could serve to help the US and India “reset” their troubled ties by cooperating to end this globally significant conflict.

    In the same vein, Ukraine and India could also “reset” their ties too, which unexpectedly worsened after Zelensky insulted Modi. If his country is truly serious about resuming peace talks with Russia and has American approval for this, then India could promptly mediate between them given its special and privileged strategic partnership with Russia. It would be a win-win for India, the US, Ukraine, and Russia if Modi assumes this role, but a lost diplomatic opportunity for China, which won’t give up its plans easy.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/27/2024 – 23:20

  • DOJ Urges Court To Reject TikTok Lawsuit Challenging Divest-Or-Ban Law
    DOJ Urges Court To Reject TikTok Lawsuit Challenging Divest-Or-Ban Law

    Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

    The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked an appeals court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by TikTok seeking to block a new U.S. law that could lead to a nationwide ban on the video-sharing app.

    President Joe Biden signed the new law in April, requiring either the sale of the app by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, by next year or face its removal from app stores and web-hosting services.

    TikTok filed a lawsuit in May challenging the constitutionality of the new law on the grounds that the U.S. government infringed the First Amendment rights of the company and its users in the United States.

    In a brief filed to the federal appeals court on July 26, the DOJ raised concerns over the national security threat posed by TikTok, noting that the app collects “vast swaths” of sensitive data from its 170 million U.S. users.

    “That collection includes data on users’ precise locations, viewing habits, and private messages—and it even includes data on users’ phone contacts who do not themselves use TikTok,” it stated.

    The DOJ argued that the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in China could potentially use its robust authority to gain access to U.S. consumer data and the algorithm owned by ByteDance.

    “Given TikTok’s broad reach within the United States, the capacity for China to use TikTok’s features to achieve its overarching objectives to undermine American interests creates a national-security threat of immense depth and scale,” it stated.

    The DOJ said the Chinese regime could “covertly control” TikTok’s algorithm to influence the content that U.S. users receive “for its own malign purposes,” such as promoting disinformation and exacerbating social divisions.

    “Among other things, it would allow a foreign government to illicitly interfere with our political system and political discourse, including our elections,” the DOJ stated.

    The DOJ claimed that employees of TikTok and ByteDance often engage in a practice called “heating,” in which certain videos are manually promoted to achieve a certain number of views.

    The department warned that this functionality could be “a powerful tool” for manipulating public discourse and public perceptions of events.

    The DOJ also accused TikTok of misapplying the First Amendment. It argued that the new law was aimed at “national-security concerns unique to TikTok’s connection to a hostile foreign power, not at any suppression of protected speech.”

    “They largely dismiss the divestment option—under which ByteDance’s American affiliate could continue engaging in these activities on the platform—as infeasible, in significant part because TikTok’s U.S. operations are currently interwoven with operations in China and because China will not permit the export of the proprietary recommendation algorithm,” it stated.

    A TikTok spokesperson said the DOJ’s brief does not alter “the fact that the Constitution is on our side,” reiterating that the new law would violate the First Amendment by silencing its users’ voices.

    “As we’ve said before, the government has never put forth proof of its claims, including when Congress passed this unconstitutional law,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times.

    “Today, once again, the government is taking this unprecedented step while hiding behind secret information. We remain confident we will prevail in court,” the spokesperson said.

    The new law sets the initial deadline for a TikTok sale by January 2025, and President Biden can decide to extend the deadline by another three months to allow the deal to be completed.

    TikTok has maintained that it has not and will not share U.S. user data with the CCP. But according to China’s counterespionage law, ByteDance must hand over data on U.S. users if requested.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/27/2024 – 22:45

  • Canada Revokes Jewish National Fund's Charity Status For Funding Israeli Army
    Canada Revokes Jewish National Fund’s Charity Status For Funding Israeli Army

    Via The Cradle

    The Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) notified the Jewish National Fund (JNF) on July 25th that it plans to revoke the group’s charitable status over its use of donations to build military infrastructure in Israel.

    “Canadian charities are not allowed to fund foreign militaries,” Mark Blumberg, an attorney specializing in Canadian charity law, told the National Post. “Clearly, there were previously some compliance issues,” he added.

    The Canadian parliament building in Ottawa, iStock

    “Our position is that it is unjust for CRA to revoke a charity because a charitable object that it accepted almost 60 years ago is now no longer considered to be a valid charitable object,” the JNF said in a statement, adding that it will challenge the decision in the courts.

    The Zionist organization also accused the CRA of “antisemitism.”

    “As a Zionist-inspired organization, JNF Canada has many vociferous antisemitic detractors who we believe have influenced the decision-making process in this matter,” JNF Canada national president Nathan Disenhouse and CEO Lance Davis told media.

    Founded in 1901, by 2007 the Jerusalem-based JNF owned 13 percent of the occupied Palestinian territories and has been considered the single-largest landowner in Israel. Furthermore, its charter explicitly prohibits the sale or lease of land to non-Jews.

    “Under the guise of ‘environmentalism,’ the JNF has forested over the ruins of Palestinian villages in an attempt to ‘greenwash’ non-Jewish dispossession.”

    “This includes ‘Canada Park’ which was built over top 3 destroyed Palestinian villages who more than 9,000 residents were expelled from their homes,” Canada’s Green Party says in a petition to revoke the charitable status of the JNF.

    “Because of its charitable status, JNF provides tax credits for donations, meaning that up to 25 percent of their budget comes from our taxes,” the statement adds.

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    The CRA decision comes several months after Ottawa announced plans to ban new arms exports to Israel. Nevertheless, officials clarified that export permits approved before January 8 would remain in effect.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/27/2024 – 22:10

  • Governments Must Act Now On Proper Forest Management Or Wildfires Will Get Worse
    Governments Must Act Now On Proper Forest Management Or Wildfires Will Get Worse

    Authored by Cory Morgan via The Epoch Times,

    Millions of Albertans, and indeed Canadians, are mourning the destruction of a site where they have memories of recent and childhood trips. We can be thankful that no lives have been lost, but the loss for residents of Jasper is unimaginable. I grew up in the town of Banff and can’t imagine watching my hometown go up in flames.

    Banff may very well suffer the same fate as Jasper soon, though, as it is nestled within the same kind of beautiful, but highly flammable Rocky Mountain forests as Jasper. When the Jasper fires have been extinguished and the rebuilding process begins, we must have a serious appraisal of our forest management practices and act as soon as possible. Otherwise, it won’t be a matter of if another community is lost to a wildfire, it will be a matter of when.

    The fingers are pointing and the partisan sniping has already begun as politicians and activists try to lay blame of the Jasper tragedy upon others. But we must set aside partisanship, and even ideology, and work towards solutions before we see more losses.

    To begin with, it must be accepted that fires in boreal forests are natural and inevitable. It has only been in the last couple of centuries that humans have entered the scene and meddled with the natural cycle of burning and rejuvenation of forests. What we are seeing today is the consequences of deferring the fires that would have naturally burned. The forests have become overgrown, unhealthy, and cluttered with layers of extremely flammable deadfall. Forests in that condition burn hot and fast, leading to fires that can’t be extinguished. Many communities in Canada are surrounded by forests like this and are but one spark away from a disaster.

    It’s not reasonable to just let fires burn naturally in populated areas. That means we must manage these forests and our communities to reduce the chances of wildfires and mitigate the damage they cause. This has been done to a degree in areas, but not adequately.

    Forest management to reduce wildfire risk is not new. Logging, tree spacing, and prescribed fires are all methods used to reduce fire hazards in populated regions. Unfortunately, when politics get involved, the wisdom of foresters can be lost as elected officials face backlash for supporting the cutting or burning of brush.

    Jasper is a prime example. A mountain pine beetle infestation had previously killed thousands of acres of pine trees around the townsite. Standing dead pine trees are extremely flammable, and experts were warning of the risk they presented to Jasper in 2018. A plan was formulated between the Alberta Forest Service and Jasper National Park officials to manage the forests, but it was rejected by the federal government. It’s not that the federal government wanted to see the area burn. They didn’t want to deal with the optics of bulldozers and loggers taking down tracts of forest in a scenic national park along with the haze and smoke prescribed burns would bring. The consequences of that deferral are being seen today.

    Municipal governments are loath to create buffers between forests and their townsites because residents enjoy the cozy feel of living next to the wilderness. Developers pitch communities that share space with nature and property owners will complain if bush is cut back.

    Cutting buffers in forests, doing prescribed burns, and clearcut logging may not look pretty, but it is all preferable to the devastation a fire will bring. Politicians must make the tough choices and impose fire mitigation measures upon communities, even if it upsets some residents.

    Just as we build dams and dykes to prevent flooding in populated areas, we must look at managing forests to reduce the fire risks. I worked as a surveyor for over 20 years in Alberta, and what I saw building up on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains was concerning, to say the least. In some areas, it is almost impossible to walk due to the volume of deadfall. If we don’t clear those zones out soon, a fire will and it will be a big one.

    Government jurisdiction and long-term changes in the climate are subjects worthy of discussion, and we doubtless will be having those discussions for years.

    In the meantime, we must act and safeguard our communities. We don’t have years to wait, and we will see more heartbreaking losses as we have with Jasper if we keep putting off the forest management that must happen.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/27/2024 – 21:35

  • Trump: Biden Was Ousted In A "Fascist Coup"
    Trump: Biden Was Ousted In A “Fascist Coup”

    Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

    During an address to the Turning Point Summit on Friday, President Trump asserted that Joe Biden was forced to quit the presidential race by “fascists” who carried out a “coup.”

    Trump told the Florida crowd “As you know, five days ago, we officially defeated the worst president in the history of the United States, Crooked Joe Biden. You know, I thought a lot about it. We defeated him.”

    Trump continued, “He was badly beaten. And, you know, everybody who was going to him said, ‘You can’t beat him. You’re not going to beat this guy. You can’t beat him. Get out. Get out. We want you out…We want you out of the race. You’re going to lose. We want to put somebody else in.’”

    Trump compared the situation to “a prizefighter,” explaining “He’s losing badly, ready to be knocked out. And they say, well, wait, let’s stop the fight. Let’s put somebody else in.”

    “It doesn’t work that way. And it’s not supposed to work that way. And this really was a coup by the Democrats. This was a coup. Nothing else,” Trump emphasised.

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    “He got 14 million votes,” Trump noted, referring to the Democratic primary, adding “I hate to stick up for Biden, but, you know, he didn’t want to do what he did. He said, ‘I’ll never go out. I’ll never, ever go out.’ About two days later, ‘I’m proud to go out.’”

    Trump further declared “the fascists went after him. They threatened him with the 25th Amendment.”

    “They said, we can do it the nice way or we can do it the hard way, Joe. That’s what happened. I know,” Trump added, referring to reports of what Nancy Pelosi said to Biden.

    Trump continued, “I know as many people on that side as I know on our side, so to speak. But that’s what happened. They said, we can do it the hard way. We can do it the easy way. 25th Amendment, if you don’t go. And he said, ‘Oh, I’ll go.’”

    “And now they’re trying to make him into a brave hero. He’s so brave,” Trump concluded.

    Elsewhere during the speech, Trump highlighted how some leftists are saying it is ‘hateful’ to pronounce Kamala Harris’ name incorrectly.

    Trump proclaimed “there are numerous ways of saying her name. They were explaining to me, you can say Kamala, you can say Kamala. I said, don’t worry about it.”

    “It doesn’t matter what I say. I couldn’t care less if I mispronounce it or not. I couldn’t care less,” he urged.

    “Some people think I mispronounce it on purpose, but actually I’ve heard it said about seven different ways. There are a lot of ways. There are a lot of ways,” Trump told the audience.

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/27/2024 – 21:00

  • How US Sports Leagues Make Money
    How US Sports Leagues Make Money

    Between 2022 and 2023, the five major U.S. sports leagues collectively earned $49.3 billion.

    The NFL generated the highest revenue, at $18.7 billion, significantly outpacing both the NBA and MLB, which each brought in $10.9 billion. Although the main sources of league revenues have largely remained unchanged over the last four decades, there are distinct variations in the revenue breakdown of each sport.

    This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte, breaks down U.S. sports leagues by revenue stream, based on data from Sportico.

    Breaking Down U.S. Sports League Revenues

    Below, we show how each major league generates revenue based on their primary sources of revenue. Revenue for the NFL and MLB is as of 2022, revenue for the NBA and NHL is for the 2022-2023 season, and revenue for the MLS is as of 2023.

    Central revenue includes league media, merchandise, other sponsorships, and shared ticket revenue.

    As we can see, central revenue, which largely consists of media and broadcast deals, is the most important revenue source for the NFL and NBA.

    Since 2018, the NFL has grown from 61 of the top 100 most watched TV broadcasts to 93 in 2023. Adding to this, streaming platforms are increasingly signing contracts with the NFL, including Netflix paying $150 million to stream two 2024 Christmas games and Amazon paying $1 billion to stream Thursday night games exclusively on digital.

    Additionally, the NBA recently signed an 11-year $76 billion deal with ESPN, Amazon, and NBC that is worth more than double its previous contract. Moreover, this trend of significantly increasing media deal values is seen across every major league amid high consumer demand for professional sports.

    For the MLB, local media is a vital source of revenue, with nearly a quarter of revenues coming from this source—more than any other sport by far. In fact, each day an average 2.3 million viewers watch MLB games on regional sports networks.

    Meanwhile, the NHL makes the highest share of revenue from seating and suite sales compared to major sports leagues, at 44%, due to it attracting less lucrative TV contracts.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/27/2024 – 20:25

  • The Downside Of Complacency
    The Downside Of Complacency

    Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

    Confidence / complacency doesn’t map the real world, in which liquidity dries up and markets go bidless.

    When Alan Greenspan issued his mea culpa in late 2013 about missing the subprime mortgage implosion and the resulting Global Financial Meltdown (Why I Didn’t See the Crisis Coming Foreign Affairs), he started by noting the complete and utter failure of everyone’s sophisticated models to predict the collapse of confidence.

    The core failure, he suggested, lay in the models’ reliance on the notion that humans make decisions rationally as Homo economicus, when the reality is we are extremely prone to irrational exuberance (a.k.a. running with the greed-enchanted herd) and panic (running off the cliff with the herd). He invoked Keynes famous “animal spirits” as the missing variable in economic models.

    Irrational “animal spirits” generate “tail risk,” events that supposedly happen only rarely but when they do happen, they trigger outsized consequences, and the Fed’s models failed to accurately account for “tail risk” because they happen more often than statistical models predict.

    All this boils down to liquidity and illiquidity: When “animal spirits” are confident in future increases in asset valuations, participants place a constant bid under the market because prices will keep going up so I’ll make more money in the future. This constant bid is called liquidity: cash is flowing into the asset class, be it stocks or housing or cryptocurrencies or commodities.

    When “animal spirits” turn to panic, sellers rush to sell as buyers vanish as they fear that prices will keep going down so I’ll lose more money in the future. Buying into a downtrend is known as “catching the falling knife”: the initial “buy the dip” players have their head handed to them on a platter, and those on the sidelines decide not to try to catch the falling knife.

    This is an illiquid market: when sellers dump assets on the market and buyers vanish, the bid keeps dropping until buyers are willing to gamble that “this is the bottom.” But should asset prices continue sliding after an initial euphoric pop higher–“the bottom is in, buy!”–then those who held back find their caution reinforced: that wasn’t the bottom after all, and everyone who jumped in lost money.

    As every surge of “buy the dip” players has their head handed to them on a platter, the market goes bidless–everyone who wanted to play “catch the falling knife” has been burned, and those who have lost the “animal spirits” to gamble stay out. The market goes bidless, and asset prices crash to levels no one in the greed-euphoria stage could imagine were even remotely possible.

    Those who follow liquidity assume that the more cash sloshing around the system, the more money will flow into assets. But this assumes participants–and therefore markets–are rational. When caution–and then panic–take hold of the herd, no matter how much cash is sloshing around, none of it will be gambled on a losing bet.

    Take a look at this chart of the Nasdaq dot-com bubble, and note the bubble symmetry: what shot up soon plummeted back to pre-bubble levels. Stocks that had reached $60 per share were recommended as “buys” at $45–a rational play perhaps, but wildly off the mark, as the stock eventually bottomed at $4.

    When sellers desperate to sell swamp buyers, prices decline. If buying dries up, prices crash.

    It’s worth pondering the psychological reality that losses make a much bigger impression on us than gains. This is the foundation of risk aversion: once burned, twice shy. Everyone’s surprised when “animal spirits” reverse polarity, but the confidence that any asset has reached “a permanently high plateau” is misplaced. Every manic greed-inflated bubble pops and cascades back to Earth. Here is a preview of the Everything Bubble popping:

    Greenspan’s models–and everyone else’s–projected a rational market in which buyers continued to buy assets even as they lost money on previous attempts to “catch the falling knife.” In other words, the markets will always be liquid.

    The Pavlovian “buy the dip” reflex that was so profitable on the way up now becomes the road to ruin as every pop higher gets sold. Those playing “buy the dip” are eventually wiped out, leaving only those burned and wary. Eventually people tire of losing and they give up. After losing 40%, a 4% return on a Treasury bond–brushed off in the glorious ascent as foolishly cautious–now looks pretty good.

    Confidence / complacency doesn’t map the real world, in which liquidity dries up and markets go bidless. In the real world, humans panic and eventually decide to never again buy stocks or real estate, as the sting of their losses lingers far longer than their memories of glorious gains earned by riding the bubble higher.

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/27/2024 – 19:50

  • Israeli Navy's 'C-Dome' Intercepts Hezbollah Kamikaze Drone Heading Towards Offshore NatGas Rig
    Israeli Navy’s ‘C-Dome’ Intercepts Hezbollah Kamikaze Drone Heading Towards Offshore NatGas Rig

    The Israel Defense Forces reported on Saturday that a Hezbollah suicide drone, launched from Lebanon with a heading towards an Israeli natural gas field in the Eastern Mediterranean, was intercepted by a warship equipped with the “C-Dome” defense system.

    According to The Times of Israel, citing an IDF official, the kamikaze drone was intercepted by C-Dome, the naval version of the Iron Dome, from one of the Navy’s Sa’ar 6-class corvettes. 

    The drone was heading towards the Karish gas field and was shot down at a “significant distance” from any oil/gas offshore infrastructure. 

    The C-Dome was first unveiled in 2014 and declared operational in late 2022. It has its own dedicated radar and is integrated into the ship’s radar system to detect and eliminate incoming threats.

    Tensions have risen across the Middle East in recent weeks. See this:

    It’s important to note that Hamas’ allies include Iran-backed groups such as the Houthis, Lebanese Hezbollah, and Iraqi paramilitaries.

    As regional spillover risks remain elevated, we cited the hawkish think tank Jewish Institute for National Security of America in recent weeks, which shows Hezbollah has thousands of suicide drones in stockpiles.

    What’s crucial to understand are the various types of drones Hezbollah can deploy, along with threat ranges. This shows conflict could easily spill over into the Mediterranean area.

    On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former President Donald Trump met at Mar-a-Lago in South Florida. 

    Trump claimed in the context of the meeting that a major war in the Middle East – and even possibly a “third world war” – will break out if he doesn’t win the election. He’s long been running as the candidate who will deescalate various powder kegs around the world that seemingly seemed to be nearing an explosion.

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    “If we win, it will be very simple, it’s all going to work out, and very quickly,” Trump said, adding, “If we don’t, you’re going to end up with major wars in the Middle East and maybe a Third World War. You are closer to a Third World War right now than at any time since the Second World War, you’ve never been so close because we have incompetent people running our country.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/27/2024 – 19:15

  • Inequality Is Caused By Inflation
    Inequality Is Caused By Inflation

    Authored by Lennart Wagemans via The Mises Institute,

    Many claim the problem with fractional reserve banking is that it loans money into existence. It does, but under normal circumstances the money created by commercial banks disappears when loans are repaid or defaulted on, which therefore doesn’t create a permanent inflation of the money supply.

    Government intervention, however, converts temporary money into permanent money through bailouts like the Troubled Asset Relief Program. They purchase loans that would have been defaulted on, preventing the evaporation of credit. When banks hold loans that are at risk of default, they face having to write them off, which would remove this part of the money supply. Bailouts turn such disappearing credit into permanent money, in effect giving banks free money.

    Without government bailouts, banks would be unwilling to make loans that are unlikely to be repaid, thus limiting their willingness to loan large amounts of money into existence. This would keep the money supply more stable. At any time, some part of the money in existence would still be destined for removal through repayment. This proportion would somewhat fluctuate with economic conditions, and the temporary money would be indistinguishable from other money until a loan is repaid, but new money would not continually get loaned into existence.

    When high-risk loans inevitably fail, the state steps in to purchase them to prevent banks from having to write off so many loans that they have net negative assets on their books. However, seeing the creation of toxic loans as just excessive risk-taking in reaction to having a safety net misses the larger dynamic. Praxeologically, the production of toxic loans is the rational supply of a good in high demand. These financial assets can be sold for a higher value than it costs to make them, thus their production is economically rational.

    Banks, praxeologically speaking, perform the function of government contractors, producing the product “toxic financial asset.” Similar to how defense contractors produce fighter jets or fish farms produce caviar for state banquets, banks create failing loans knowing the government will purchase them. This demand ensures that banks continue to produce high-risk financial instruments. The financial sector profits from creating these products despite knowing they may become worthless. Ironically, it is their worthlessness that causes them to be valuable since that rationalizes the bailout.

    Companies receiving bailout funds have not incurred typical costs, like having to maintain machinery or invest in future production, meaning they operate on much higher margins. Thus, they have much more money to offload before it loses value. They are looking for quick gains, not stable dividends, which can typically be found in assets like tech stocks and real estate, causing an unnatural inflow of funds into these sectors. This explains why tech giants grow disproportionately large; they happen to attract the interest of people with fresh money. Productivity and value creation become relatively less valuable as the economy becomes optimized toward capturing inflation investments. This process distorts market signals, misallocates resources, and perpetuates an economic environment where success ties more to financial maneuvering than genuine productive output.

    Many businesses today, especially in the tech sector, function more as inflation-capturing devices than traditional profit-generating enterprises. They prioritize attracting investment from the recipients of fresh money. A second layer of these inflation-capturing suppliers grew to capture the trickle of funds from the first layer. This means the economy has geared itself to supply the businesses that get new money, instead of allocating resources to what actual people want to buy.

    The closer to the inflation fan a business is, the more profitable it can be. In an economy that rewards inflationary rent-seeking, creating value has become unwise, as it only earns low-profit-margin money from stingy spenders who had to work to earn it. You will be able to confirm that practically anybody you know either receives money from an inflation source or supplies those who do. The economy has grown toward the money source, like a fungus toward a nutrient, rather than meeting real people’s needs. This means economic decisions are effectively made by what elites in palaces decide to finance, rather than the market. This is like a fascist economy where businesses were nominally private, but state planners in the capital made the production decisions.

    Many superwealthy today were simply lucky initial owners of popular assets that got bid up by this unnatural inflow of new money. Attracting the money flow toward assets you own has become a more important means of wealth generation than profitable operation. And that is what all the top companies do these days, trying to dazzle investors. It is like starting a cryptocurrency and getting people to buy it so your initial coins grow in value. This explains the propensity for hype cycles. They are not trying to make a profit; they are trying to excite investors to bid up their stocks.

    It is not just those who directly receive fresh money who benefit from an increase in the money supply. As everyone else’s purchasing power erodes from inflation, owners of substantial assets, like factories, are lifted relatively. They continually receive a transfer of purchasing power at the expense of everyone else. An 8% annual inflation rate — a realistic estimate considering that economic growth masks the true increase in the money supply — enhances the value of hereditary capital by 2,200 times when compounded over a century, or 220,000%. Conversely, a family without assets had their purchasing power reduced to 0.045% of its original value. This means inflation continually creates inequality. This is the real reason the rich get richer, why the world is so unequal, and why so many bad decisions are made in the internal power struggle for inflation capture.

    By continually handing free money to the rich, government facilitates a transfer of purchasing power from the population to the moneyed class. This skews wealth distribution and continually impoverishes the working class. Earned money now makes up a smaller portion of the overall purchasing power available. In a free market, wealth accumulation would rely more on productive enterprise than rent-seeking, resulting in a more equitable distribution of wealth based on productivity. Work would be more highly rewarded, and even modest employment would provide substantial purchasing power, reducing the need for a welfare state. Thus, the current system perpetuates inequality that favors the rich at the expense of the broader population.

    Marxists have misdiagnosed the cause of economic inequality. It’s not the extraction of surplus value from workers, as suggested by the labor theory of value, that gives capitalists unfair wealth. Instead, it’s the continuous influx of free money through increases in the money supply. Their analysis inverts the reality of how inequality arises. Karl Marx identified the natural market as the problem and called for state intervention to fix it. Thus, his cure was the disease. Interventionist policy ironically perpetuates the very inequality they decry. A culture steeped in his economic interpretation maintains an interventionist environment that benefits financial elites through inflationary policies and bailouts, perpetuating economic disparity. (Although praxeologically, this may have been his intention.)

    The problem is not insufficient regulation of the financial sector. If one type of risky bet is banned, banks will find other ways to speculate or create derivatives of existing bets. You can’t ban all risky bets. Mortgage-backed securities were bets on other’s mortgages, and Enron bet on future energy prices. In a normal market, these risks would be self-correcting. Faced with losses when bets go sour, they would be unwilling to make unsafe bets. The real problem is having a system of involuntary force that transforms temporary credit into real purchasing power.

    In a broader perspective, we can see distinct types of financial structures. During the industrial capitalism of the 19th century, power resided with industrial capitalists who created tangible products, driving progress and improving living standards. Today, the financial elite manipulate the allocation mechanism itself, without producing real value, having reduced industrial producers to the role of servants. This structure resembles feudal power systems, where medieval palace elites controlled society, disguised as modern financial theory.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/27/2024 – 18:40

  • The Huge Costs Behind The Olympic Games
    The Huge Costs Behind The Olympic Games

    The 2024 Summer Olympics are finally set to get underway in Paris today amid some substantial safety concerns like ISIS threats and this morning, large-scale vandalism of France’s train network. These high-level issues are momentarily distracting observers from another train wreck affecting most Olympic Games: cost overrun.

    Spending more than you have budgeted for has become the norm for host cities, but as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, Paris is actually not the worst of the bunch (as of current estimates) despite an overrun of more than 100 percent landing it at a cost of $8.7 billion for hosting the Games (excluding investments in urban and transportation infrastructure).

    Infographic: The Huge Costs Behind the Olympic Games | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    This is easily topped by Barcelona, which ran 266 percent over cost in 1992 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016, which was a whopping 352 percent over budget. Winter Games can also be more costly than expected, for example in the Russian town of Sochi in 2014, where the event was 289 percent more expensive than expected at a record-breaking 28.9 billion, or in Norway’s Lillehammer in 1994, there a 277 percent overrun occurred (but the total cost was still nowhere near as high).

    While hosting an event like the Olympics is sometimes touted as an opportunity to improve city infrastructure, the enduring legacy of the Games sometimes ends up being a slew of abandoned and overgrown venues that no one uses due to poor long-term planning. That remains the case to this day in past host cities such as Sarajevo, Athens, Beijing and Rio, to name just a few, where crumbling stadia and forgotten Olympic villages serve not as proud monuments to athletic achievement, but rather as somber symbols of catastrophic financial mismanagement.

    Some have taken these past mistakes to heart and Hamburg, Germany, is a notable example for taking back its 2015 bid on cost grounds after a public referendum. Other cities have learned that the financial consequences can be dire only after hosting the Games.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/27/2024 – 18:05

  • Update: The Greatest Political Experiment
    Update: The Greatest Political Experiment

    Authored by Joel Bowman via substack,

    “State intervention is always bad, because it’s based on coercion, on force, and nothing based on coercion can be good.”

    ~ Javier Milei, speaking at The Hoover Institution in May, 2024

    Today we take a break from our road-tripping adventure to offer a quick update from the other End of the World…

    Long time readers will recall our fascination over what we’ve been calling, with immodest grandiloquence, The Greatest Political Experiment of Our Age. 

    The story so far is that, down at the southern end of the Americas, in our chosen country of self-exile, Argentina, the locals have sensibly chosen to “throw the bums out.” 

    That is, in November of last year, the gauchos voted for a man who promised to finally cut their overfed Peronist government down to size. (He even campaigned with a chainsaw, to avoid confusion among the nuance-averse.)

    Javier Milei was elected in a landslide and has since taken his motosierra to the thorny brambles of the State with admirable gusto (though, rather to this observer’s disappointment, the nation’s Banco Central, which Milei promised to burn to the ground, remains standing. Still, one lives in hope…)

    Doomsday Mongers

    The Argentine experiment is particularly interesting in that it represents the first time in modern history that a sizable population (Argentina is home to ~45 million mostly-carnivorous human beings) voluntarily, peacefully, voted to “cancel” their own state. Nor did El Presidente renege on his promise to do just that. 

    On day one in office, Sr. Milei abolished or consolidated half the federal ministries, laying off tens of thousands of government parasites in the process and promising more of the same in the days ahead. And just last month, in a major legislative victory, his so-called “Ley de Bases” and fiscal reform package was signed into law, paving the way for sweeping privatization across multiple key industries along with much needed labor market deregulation.

    Needless to say, bed-wetting nanny statists around the planet, from Buenos Aires to the DC Beltway to Brussels and beyond, promptly set about prophesying a doomsday scenario, whereby the proud republic of Argentina would shortly descend into a Dantean hellscape the likes of which the civilized world has never known. 

    It is to their great and enduring dismay that such a scene has not materialized, though that hasn’t stopped them painting the picture in their newspaper columns just the same. Here’s the latest from our lease-mongering colleagues over in the popular presses…

    The worst economic crisis in decades puts Argentine ingenuity to the test under President Milei ~ The Associated Press

    Milei’s market honeymoon ends as investors question economic plan ~ The Financial Times

    Milei’s Austerity Plan Pushes Argentina Into Recession in First Quarter ~ Bloomberg

    And yet, despite having been bequeathed a raging currency conflagration, in which the hot potato peso was inflating at the fastest rate in the world, Milei has been able to avert that all-too-familiar path to catastrophe. Both general and core inflation have collapsed since Milei took office in December, with the latter plummeting from over 30% month-over-month to just 2.3% on a four week rolling basis (through July).

    Trend Reversal

    Not only that, but workers in the private sector are faring far better under Milei than when Sergio Massa (his main opponent in the presidential election) was serving as finance minister under the previous administration. 

    In the first five months of last year, inflation handily surpassed private-sector wage growth (42.2% to 39.4%). Even as inflation rocketed in the back half of last year, wage growth now outpaces inflation (81.7% versus 71.9%). Here’s the chart:

    (Tip ‘o the Hat to @OppenheimerAR)

    Here is another look at the trajectory of real salaries – that is, adjusted for inflation – on the rise across the economy. (Milei assumed office on Dec. 9, 2023):

    (Source: Argentina’s National Institute of Statistics)

    Drill, Baby, Drill!

    Meanwhile, despite Argentina having the worst projected economic growth of any major economy this year (at least according to the IMF), it nonetheless continues to defy expert forecasts. 

    Economic activity rose 1.3% for the month of July, the first month of positive GDP data since Milei assumed office and well above the 0.1% median growth estimates from analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Year over year economic activity likewise surprised to the upside, shooting 2.3% higher and far exceeding the negative –2.5% expected by those same analysts. 

    And here’s unconventional (shale) oil and gas production in the Vaca Muerta oil fields, reaching an all time record… 

    (Source: Secretaría de Energía, Argentina)

    [Translation: Unconventional oil and gas production in Vaca Muerta registered a historical record in June. In that month, 372 thousand barrels of oil and 78 million m3 of gas were obtained per day.]

    Of course, you’re unlikely to hear about any of this in the mainstream news. And that’s hardly surprising…

    That Argentina’s success proceeds to the chagrin of rabid interventionists and meddling do-gooders around the world serves only to underscore just how important this experiment in free markets and free people truly is. Long may it continue. 

    ¡Viva la libertad, carajo!

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/27/2024 – 17:30

  • Pulling A Biden: South Korea Introduced As North Korea During Paris Olympics
    Pulling A Biden: South Korea Introduced As North Korea During Paris Olympics

    Only a couple of days in and the 2024 Paris Olympics have already been subject of plenty of scandal and controversy – from the bizarre drag queen performance at the opening ceremony to lack of adequate food with enough protein being served to athletes at the Olympic village.

    But there has been one flub that perfectly parallels President Biden earlier this month calling Ukraine’s Zelensky ‘President Putin’ while introducing him on a NATO stage. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has issued a formal apology after its announcer mistakenly introduced the South Korean team as North Korean during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. Watch the mistaken announcement below:

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    In both English and French, the team was introduced as the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” – which is the official name for North Korea. It came as the team was in a boat sailing down the River Seine along with other delegations being introduced.

    The announcer had elsewhere actually gotten the North Korean team’s name correct, using the exact same introduction for them.

    “We deeply apologize for the mistake that occurred when introducing the South Korean team during the broadcast of the opening ceremony,” the IOC said in the aftermath.

    South Korea was so outraged that IOC President Thomas Bach quickly spoke with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Saturday to convey an apology and express regret in person.

    President Yoon noted that the people of South Korea, which had previously hosted Olympic games, were “surprised and baffled” and that the mistake must not be repeated.

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    South Korea’s vice minister for sports and culture has reportedly also requested a meeting with IOC President Thomas Bach to address the matter.

    The whole embarrassing incident might be looked back upon as the Paris Olympics’ “Biden moment”…

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/27/2024 – 16:55

  • Ten Points About Post-Lockdown Economics
    Ten Points About Post-Lockdown Economics

    Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Brownstone Institute,

    The sudden economic lockdown of March 2020, the world over, was one of the more shocking moments in history. The very core of the economic problem from the beginning of recorded time was getting more of what people needed to them in a way that was sustainable given the inherent scarcities of the state of nature. 

    Regardless of the system, creating wealth was the stated goal, and humanity gradually discovered that trade, investment, marketing, and access to more via travel and creativity was the way forward. 

    All in an instant, all those considerations were put on the back burner to combat what was supposed to be a deadly disease. What’s more, the belief was that ending economic activity, at least that deemed to be nonessential, was the path toward solving the health crisis. 

    For how long? It was initially advertised to be two weeks. But as time went on and the lockdown period was extended longer and longer, it became clear that the whole point was to wait for a vaccine. This was based on the evidence-free supposition that the whole population was under threat and that the shot would fix the problem. 

    The world economy crashed – entirely by intention and by force – as never before seen in modern times. As Trump said at the time, even as he greenlighted the lockdowns, no one had ever heard of anything like this. That’s because it is crazy and deeply dangerous. There is no such thing as turning a global economy off and then on again as if it had a breaker switch to pull and push again when the time came. 

    Of the attempt, here are ten general observations about the results. 

    1. The labor markets have never recovered. Both labor participation and employment/population ratios remain below what they were in 2019. Maybe this is the result of retirement. Maybe it is disability. Maybe it is just demoralization. Regardless, we never got back to normal. All the talk of the great job machine since 2021 is nothing but people finding work again after having been displaced during lockdowns or new people coming into the market. 

    The job market has not been “hot” by any standard. Monthly data reports institutional surveys, which double count, but rarely household surveys which show continuing weakness. The divergence between the two has never been higher. We are nowhere near a pre-lockdown trend. 

    2. Stimulus was wiped out by inflation. When the checks started arriving directly in bank accounts, people were doing absolutely nothing at home, and business was getting revenue from government even when their doors were closed, it seemed like some Nirvana had dawned. Riches were flowing from heaven. That lasted about 18 months. Once inflation came along, the purchasing power of those dollars was zapped away. Money creation had been on a level never before seen in modern times; some $6 trillion was created out of thin air to buy stunning amounts of debt. It was all taxed away in the most ancient scheme of tricking the public. 

    3. Retail sales and wholesale factory orders are not up. Among all the usual data releases, only the GDP numbers are routinely adjusted for inflation. For most reports, you have to do that independently. Retail sales and factory orders are reported in nominal terms, which works fine in normal times but in inflationary times, this habit produces absurdities. It ends up clocking more spending on the same goods and services simply because everything is more expensive. 

    EJ Antoni has been all over this point. Even adjusting usually severely underreported inflation shows that neither retail nor wholesale has genuinely risen. Again, these adjustments are based on conventional CPI data so the actual reality is much worse. 

    4. Output has not increased. In the conventional telling, the lockdowns created an instant recession but it only lasted a couple of months. Once the stimulus was released and the economy opened up a bit, the boom reversed all the damage. We’ve been growing moderately ever since. 

    In other words, the conventional data tells the story of the most implausible scenario, a beautiful lockdown that did no net damage but merely paused economic life until everything went back to normal. But what if this is completely wrong? How could it be? There are two major factors: the inclusion of government spending as constituting economic growth and an inflation adjustment that is lower even than the CPI, one crafted especially for use in national income statistics. 

    Everyone knows today that the statistical prosperity of wartime in World War II was not real due to the inclusion of government as the main contributor to supposed economic output. Government debt as a percentage of GDP has reached and surpassed wartime levels in the last four years. This should tell us something important about the credibility of this seeming recovery. 

    5. The inflation data is fake. According to the official data, the dollar of January 2020 has sustained 82 percent of its value, which is to say it has lost only 18 percent of value over four years. Think about this in your own life, based on your bills, your shopping, and what you can see with your own eyes. Think back to the good old days of 2019. In what world is it even vaguely plausible that the prices you pay (or consider paying but then decline to pay) have gone up only 18 percent? 

    How is the CPI able to render price increases this low? Because the data excludes interest rates, homeowners insurance, taxes, shrinkflation, and added fees. Data on health insurance prices are adjusted downwards for medical consumption. The data on home prices is fed through a wildly complicated formula called homeowners equivalent rent. It has become a fantasy. In the chart below, the red line is excluded from CPI in favor of the blue line. 

    Even on specifics, the Bureau of Labor Statistics can’t seem to reflect actual industry prices. The BLS has food prices up 26 percent since 2019. But industry data has grocery up 35 per. The least price increases are in retail liquor (11 percent), which is precisely why cocktails, wine, and beer are up so much at restaurants: it’s a good place to extract profit margins. 

    Then you have the black box of hedonic adjustments, which allow bureaucrats to re-render the price of any product with changed quality with some perception that, after all, you don’t mind paying more for higher quality, so therefore it is not really increasing in price. 

    Finally, you have the effective exclusion of most main forms of shrinkflation and added fees. How much does all this add to the CPI? We don’t really know. It’s not wildly impossible that real inflation over four years has been 30 percent or 50 percent or higher. Adjust all the other data for that and you gain a completely different picture of what is happening. 

    6. Trade blocs have formed and will not save us. When all supply chains in the world froze in March 2020, and then gradually reopened based on national politics, we saw the fraying of 70 years of global integration. The chip manufacturers moved from supply for cars and other industrial goods in the US to laptops and gaming machines in the Asian sphere of influence. Soon after the opening, the US de-dollarized Russian assets, giving BRICS new incentive and energy to become more robust. For years later, the new shape of the world is becoming apparent: it’s all about spheres of political influence, thus shattering a driving force of global economic growth for many decades. 

    7. Property rights are not secure. Never before in US history have so many small businesses been shut down coast to coast with such brutality. When they opened again, it was often only at throttled capacity, giving a huge boost to big over small restaurants and hotels. This was all a foundational attack on property rights, the very core of a functioning economic life. This surely shook the psychology of business formation nationwide. Though we have no empirical data on this, it is still the case that a state that attacks property this way cannot expect a thriving world of business startups. If your business can be shut down for such strange reasons, why start one at all? This is the sort of institutional problem that causes economic decay in imperceptible ways. 

    8. The debt is out of control; personal, corporate, and government. Plenty of people have written about the problem of the government debt, the interest on which three-quarters of taxes are now directed to pay. 

    The ship of corporate debt sailed long ago with the wild experiment in zero interest rates by the Federal Reserve after 2008. Rates were reversed to deal with inflation. The resulting high rates are deeply painful for any non-public business that depends on leverage for its operations: 

    The consumer debt problem is more striking still: in times of high interest, savings should be going up, not down, and debt should be going down not up. The opposite is happening simply because real income is falling dramatically and has been for three years. Even using conventional CPI data, we have not yet recovered from the lockdowns. 

    9. CBDCs are essential to the plan. A major ambition of the Covid response was the creation of a universal vaccine passport. It was deployed first in New York. The entire city was closed in all its public facilities to the unvaccinated. No one refusing the shot was permitted in restaurants, bars, libraries, or theaters. Boston then replicated the plan, and so did New Orleans and Chicago. It faltered because business complained and also the software failed, despite the tens of millions spent. All these efforts were reversed but the plan itself revealed the larger agenda: control through data collection and enforcement. The ambition is not gone and will likely come back but a better and more comprehensive path is the Central Bank Digital Currency, now being deployed in many parts of the world. It allows universal surveillance, timed currency expirations, and directed spending rationing to reflect political priorities. There is no question that the elites want this. 

    10. Financial markets will thrive until they do not. So far, in the course of the last crazy four years, we have been spared a serious financial crisis either in stocks or banks. This is not entirely unusual in the midst of a wild expansion of money and credit. After hitting prices and wages, the new money flows into financials, the rise of which is seen as fantastic news rather than simple price inflation. That said, the stock market is not the economy. It bodes well for people invested and stockpiling retirement accounts but does nothing for Main Street wage and salary earners. 

    The lockdowns amounted to the world’s largest and most elaborate economic head-fake in human history. It left the entire world less free and less prosperous, and with drained hopes that restoring normalcy can happen anytime soon. To add injury to the insult, most official institutions are manufacturing fake data to cover it all up. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/27/2024 – 16:20

  • Israel Says "All-Out War" Imminent After Hezbollah Rocket Slams Into Soccer Field, 30 Casualties 
    Israel Says “All-Out War” Imminent After Hezbollah Rocket Slams Into Soccer Field, 30 Casualties 

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Israel Katz are holding emergency consultations with the country’s senior defense leadership following a devastating Hezbollah rocket attack on the town of Majdal Shams in Israel’s north which resulted in 30 casualties, including at least ten killed.

    Nine victims among the several dozen injured are said to be in critical condition, many of them children, some as young as ten. Foreign Minister Katz told a state broadcaster, “There is no doubt that Hezbollah crossed all red lines.”

    Aftermath of deadly attack on soccer field, via Haaretz

    He warned that “We are facing an all-out war” and added, “I have no doubt that we’ll pay a cost” – but also said an even greater toll will surely be exacted on Hezbollah.

    The top diplomat further claimed in the comments that Israel will have “full backing” from the US and Europe in waging a bigger anti-Hezbollah campaign in Lebanon. Katz explained to Axios:

    The Hezbollah attack today crossed all red lines, and the response will be accordingly. We are approaching the moment of an all-out war against Hezbollah and Lebanon.

    We will pay prices, but at the end of the war Nasrallah and Hezbollah will be destroyed and the state of Lebanon will be severely damaged and we will restore peace and security to the residents of the north.

    Rockets reportedly scored direct impact on a soccer field in the Israeli Druze town in the northern Golan region. The IDF military is probing why Israel’s anti-air defenses didn’t work upon the missile being inbound.

    While for months hundreds of Hezbollah missiles and drones have rained down on northern Israel, it is much rarer for a missile to strike in the heart of a town or city.

    Widely circulating video which was verified by the Times of Israel shows a large fireball upon impact:

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

    Amid the rising death toll, Hezbollah has later in the day issued a surprising statement insisting it was not behind the attack:

    Hezbollah in a statement denies it launched rockets at Majdal Shams, in an attack that killed and wounded civilians, including children.

    The terror group says it “has no connection to the incident at all, and categorically denies all false allegations.”

    Hezbollah said earlier it launched dozens of rockets at an army base in the Golan Heights, near Majdal Shams.

    Israel is charging that not only Hezbollah was definitely behind it, but that this attack has just greatly escalated the conflict. Meanwhile, recent days have seen new reports of fires breaking out in southern Lebanon due to Israeli strikes there.

    In Gaza, Al Jazeera has the following latest developments:

    • Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 30 people have been killed after an Israeli bombing of Khadija School in Deir el-Balah. Israel claimed it targeted a “Hamas command and control centre”.
    • The civil defence in Gaza says at least 170 people have been killed in Israel’s military incursion in Khan Younis since it began more than a week ago.
    • The armed wing of Hamas says fierce battles are continuing in Gaza City and that its fighters struck an Israeli troop carrier surrounded by soldiers with an al-Yassin 105 rocket in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood.
    • A rare Israeli air raid has taken place in the occupied West Bank, targeting the Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus. It killed a Palestinian man the army said was wanted.

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

    Israel’s northern border has thus far since Oct.7 not slipped into all-out Israel-Hezbollah war, but this could mark the beginning of a broader conflict. The White House has long urged Israel to keep the fighting ‘limited’ and contained. The fear is that all of Lebanon could be engulfed if the IDF invades.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/27/2024 – 15:45

  • Olympics Opening Ceremony Features Dancing Drag Queens And Bizarre Symbology
    Olympics Opening Ceremony Features Dancing Drag Queens And Bizarre Symbology

    Update (1000ET):

    Several X accounts that posted videos and/or screenshots about the absurdities of the Olympics’ opening ceremonies have been hit with Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaints enforced by Elon Musk’s social media platform. 

    Your account has been locked because X received a compliant Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) Notice for content posted to your X account. Under the DMCA, copyright owners can notify X claiming that a user has infringed their copyrighted works. Upon receipt of a valid DMCA notice, X will remove the identified material.

    X maintains a repeat copyright infringer policy under which repeat infringer accounts will be suspended. Accruing multiple DMCA strikes may lead to suspension of your account.

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

    “They’re now targeting anyone who dared to complain about the blasphemous woke agenda during the @Olympics opening ceremony,” X user Dr. Simon Goddek wrote. 

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

    Other X users report being hit by DMCA complaints…

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

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    Another X user said, “Lots of DMCA takedowns of Olympic opening ceremony footage. Weird, it’s almost like they don’t want you to see it now.”

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

    As we penned earlier, the opening ceremonies were just absolutely bizarre – and, in some cases, inappropriate for children to watch. 

    Here’s what happened…

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    No comment. 

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    To sum up, the Olympics can’t tolerate mockery and criticism of the “Woke Games,” so they resort to censorship.

    *   *   * 

    Sports spectacles like the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the Commonwealth Games and a host of other events have become increasingly political in their messaging and their pageantry in recent years.  Furthermore, the symbology on display during these performances has become more and more bizarre.

    As we noted in May, the signs were not good for the Summer Games when it was revealed that drag queens and trans activists would be carrying the Olympic Torch in preparation for opening ceremonies.  Olympic torch bearers are supposed to be chosen from a list of people with significant contributions to their communities.  It’s hard to say what contributions trans activists have made to any community, but the announced “theme” of the Summer Games held in Paris helps to explain their presence.

    The stated tenets for Olympics 2024 are: Community, Diversity and The Collective.  In other words, the theme of this year’s Olympic Games is woke.

    The event was planned by “queer artistic director” Thomas Jolly (pictured below), who said he “wants everyone to feel represented.”  Yet another example of gay activists unable to control their impulse to project their sexual preferences on everything, even sporting events.

    Opening Ceremonies have launched in France with much fanfare, though the rest of the world is not very interested.  In the US, the Summer Games in Paris are expected to hit record low ratings; even lower than the Winter Games in Beijing in 2022.  When you see what has become of the Olympics today, it’s easy to understand why.

    The ceremony in Paris features strange performances from a horde of drag queens, including sexualized dancing and an LGBT recreation of The Last Supper.

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

    Yikes.  That’s not the kind of thing most people want to sit down to watch on a nice summer evening with their kids. Another example of odd symbology was the display of a metal horse with a rider in white galloping across the River Seine.

    The horse and rider, more disturbing than beautiful, were followed by 85 boats carrying almost 7,000 athletes from 205 countries down the River Seine.  The display came just hours after a sabotage attack on the high-speed rail networks caused travel chaos across France.  The opening ceremony was the first in Olympics history to be featured outside of the main stadium.

    The metallic horse is oddly reminiscent of a performance at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in the UK, which featured “dreamers” worshiping and appeasing a giant metallic bull while commentators discussed the enslavement of women.

    Make of this what you will, but it’s clear that major national and international games have changed dramatically in the past decade.  The spectacle is no longer meant to entertain, but to propagandize.  And, just as we have seen with woke theatrical entertainment and the collapse of the movie box office in recent years, audiences are dwindling for sporting events with political messaging. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/27/2024 – 15:11

  • What 'Project 25' Says About The Fed
    What ‘Project 25’ Says About The Fed

    Authored by Jonathan Newman via The Mises Institute,

    Mandate for Leadership 2025 is an unofficial blueprint for a potential conservative administration, published by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. Donald Trump has distanced himself from the project, even though many people associated with his first term as president contributed to the document.

    It’s billed as “The comprehensive policy guide for a new conservative president, offering specific reforms and proposals for Cabinet departments and federal agencies, pulled from the expertise of the entire conservative movement.” Paul Dans, the Project 2025 Director, says that the project aims “to deconstruct the Administrative State.”

    Chapter 24 of the 922-page document is on the Federal Reserve. It was authored by Paul Winfree, Distinguished Fellow in Economic Policy and Public Leadership at The Heritage Foundation.

    The chapter is decidedly anti-Fed – it calls for abolishing the Fed altogether and returning to a commodity-backed money – but it also suggests some more politically palatable reforms that would merely limit the Fed, in case the more radical measures prove to be infeasible. Winfree lists the proposals “in decreasing order of effectiveness against inflation and boom-and-bust recessionary cycles.” Free banking (which entails abolishing the Fed), and a return to commodity money are listed first.

    Overall, the chapter presents a great, albeit brief, critique of government intervention in money and banking. It blames the Fed for exacerbating the cycle of booms and busts, inflating away the value of the dollar, enabling exorbitant deficit spending by the federal government, picking winners and losers in financial markets, and expanding its own power with each crisis.

    From a Misesian-Rothbardian perspective, it has a few Friedmanite flaws. But assuming Donald Trump isn’t going to read and adopt Rothbard’s views in What Has Government Done to Our Money?, this is much better than the tepid, Fed-embracing advice from “right-wing Keynesians” during the 80s and 90s. (See “Clintonomics: The Prospects” in Making Economic Sense for more on them.)

    The influence of Friedman’s monetarism is not just in the third-, fourth-, and fifth-best policy compromises. The chapter begins in error: “Money is the essential unit of measure for the voluntary exchanges that constitute the market economy.” The idea that money is a unit of measure leads to a host of errors in monetary theory, leading to the conclusion that the purchasing power of money should be stabilized.

    In fact, it was this idea that led to the creation of the Fed in the first place. Winfree acknowledges this: “The Federal Reserve was originally created to ‘furnish an elastic currency’ and rediscount commercial paper so that the supply of credit could increase along with the demand for money and bank credit.” Winfree says that the Fed’s ability to stabilize the purchasing power of the dollar is hindered by the full employment side of the Fed’s dual mandate and by discretionary, as opposed to rules-based, monetary policy. Instead of attacking the Fed on more fundamental grounds, namely that the original justification for the Fed was fallacious, Winfree accepts this justification and says that Fed doesn’t do a good job at this task.

    The chapter also mentions Friedman’s diagnosis of what prolonged the Great Depression, but without citing him. According to Friedman, the Federal Reserve failed to prevent a collapse in the money supply from 1929 to 1933, and this is what caused what would have been a “garden-variety recession” to turn into the Great Depression. Winfree alludes to this diagnosis in more general terms: “the Great Depression of the 1930s was needlessly prolonged in part because of the Federal Reserve’s inept management of the money supply.” Of course, those who have read Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression know that it was the Fed-enabled monetary expansion in the 1920s that led to the inevitable bust, and that the depression of the 1930s was prolonged due to the host of interventions by Hoover and FDR. Bank failures and the concomitant collapse of money and credit actually help the adjustment process through the liquidation of mismanaged banks and by realigning the supply of credit with real savings.

    The influence of Friedman and the Chicagoites is most apparent in the policy proposals offered as alternatives to ending the Fed. Friedman’s “K-Percent Rule” is listed after the proposal to return to a commodity standard. The “K” refers to a fixed rate of growth in the money supply—Winfree offers 3 percent per year as an example. The idea is to take central bank discretion completely off the table, much like the other proposed rules: the inflation-targeting rule (which Winfree acknowledges is already somewhat in effect at the Fed), the Taylor Rule, and the Nominal GDP Targeting Rule.

    An important problem with all of these rules (aside from the fact that discretion can be good) is that they are arbitrary. Why a 3 percent fixed rate in money supply growth? Why should we have a 2 percent price inflation target? What weights should be applied in the Taylor Rule? Why should nominal spending be stabilized? To see why any explicit or implied target is arbitrary, consider what we would see in a progressing unhampered market economy.

    In such a progressing economy, we would probably have steady (but not fixed) price deflation primarily due to the increased production of goods and services. This expectation accords with historical experience, especially the 19th century: “throughout the nineteenth century and up until World War I, a mild deflationary trend prevailed in the industrialized nations as rapid growth in the supplies of goods outpaced the gradual growth in the money supply that occurred under the classical gold standard.”

    But even this is not grounds for a monetary policy rule that targets some fixed rate of price deflation, for the same reason we shouldn’t fix the price of anything based on what we assume is a natural trend. The economy is in constant flux as values change, the stock of known natural resources changes, technology is invented, and savings preferences change, among countless other factors. This is why Mises referred to stabilization policy as “an empty and contradictory notion” (Human Action, p. 220). To Winfree’s credit, he acknowledges that without a central bank, “the norm is for the dollar’s purchasing power to rise gently over time, reflecting gains in economic productivity.” It seems that this point is lost, however, once the monetary policy rules are discussed.

    I’m not against taking incremental steps to chip away at State power, but the proposed rules seem more like side-steps or steps backward. For example, if the Fed were explicitly committed to the Taylor Rule, this would probably bolster the perception that the Fed is an impartial, scientific agency using sophisticated models and tools to manage the macroeconomy.

    These issues, and a few other minor points (like the claim that fiscal policy is ok if it is “timely, targeted, and temporary”) keep me from giving this chapter an A+. But I wholeheartedly agree with the anti-Fed spirit and statements like the following:

    A core problem with government control of monetary policy is its exposure to two unavoidable political pressures: pressure to print money to subsidize government deficits and pressure to print money to boost the economy artificially until the next election. Because both will always exist with self-interested politicians, the only permanent remedy is to take the monetary steering wheel out of the Federal Reserve’s hands and return it to the people.

    It seems to me that all the alternative reform ideas involving “rules-based monetary policy” are moot because of these political pressures. Rules are easily bent and abandoned when political winds change. We should just remove the cancer and replace it with nothing.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/27/2024 – 15:10

  • Trump Promises To Make USA The "Bitcoin Super-Power Of The World"; Democrats Panic U-Turn On Anti-Crypto Crusade
    Trump Promises To Make USA The “Bitcoin Super-Power Of The World”; Democrats Panic U-Turn On Anti-Crypto Crusade

    In a spirited keynote address, Former President Trump promised to make USA the “bitcoin super-power of the world,” ensuring that cryptocurrency is “mined, minted, and made in the USA.”

    “We have to talk about Bitcoin. Our country is blessed with the extraordinary talent and genius in this room.

    This spirit built America and will help us make it great again.

    I admire what the Bitcoin community has achieved. In just 15 years, Bitcoin has gone from an idea to the 9th most valuable asset in the world.

    It’s already bigger than ExxonMobil and soon it will surpass the market cap of silver.

    That’s a big deal.”

    He went on with some big promises:

    “I pledge the day I take office the weaponization against Bitcoin ends.”

    “On day one, I will fire Gary Gensler and appoint a new SEC Chairman.”

    “I will immediately shutdown Operation Chokepoint 2.0“

    Trump also confirmed that he will appoint a crypto advisory council with “regulations written by industry-loving people within 100 days.”

    Trump also confirmed that “there will never be a CBDC” while he is president.

    “Those who say that bitcoin is a threat to the dollar have it exactly backwards, the danger to our financial future comes from Washington DC not crypto.”

    Additionally, the former president pointing out that

    “Bitcoiners understand inflation better than anyone. You all understood it first.”

    Promising to ‘drill, baby, drill’, Trump notes that with low energy costs the USA will become the undisputed bitcoin mining center of the world.

    Finally, Trump dropped the big guns:

    “The policy of the Trump administration will be to keep 100% of all that it currently holds as the core of the strategic national bitcoin stockpile,” and confirmed his promise to commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht to time-served.

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

    Watch the full keynote address at Bitcoin 2024 here:

    Bitcoin price has risen significantly in the last 24 hours in anticipation of Trump’s speech…

    Notably, the Democrats appear to be worried that crypto could be a vote-change for many people (and are pushing back against the Warren/Gensler attacks). A number of Democratic congressmembers have penned a letter to the DNC pushing for change…

    Over 52 million Americans have embraced digital assets, seeing them as a means to democratize finance, spur innovation, and create new economic opportunities.

    According to recent polls. 19% of voters have bought crypto, 19% self-identified as Democrats, 18% as Republicans, and 24% of crypto-owning voters are independents.

    Data shows that digital assets are being adopted at higher rates among Gen Z, Black and Latino Americans, and immigrant communities key constituencies of the Democratic party compared to traditional financial products. These technologies are revolutionizing opportunities for these communities, reflecting their transformative potential.

    From an electoral standpoint, crypto and blockchain technologies have an outsized impact in ensuring victories up and down the ballot. Crypto is at the top of voters’ minds in swing states, and a balanced approach to crypto that spurs innovation while protecting consumers is a net positive for policymakers and candidates.

    Over 20% of voters in key battleground states identified crypto as a major issue in the 2024 election, and it is critical that our party presents a persuasive case to crypto voters while ensuring that consumers benefit from thoughtful and appropriate regulation.

    The current financial system has left Americans behind.

    According to recent surveys, 4 in 5 voters agree with the statement, “The current financial system favors elites over regular people.” Digital assets and blockchain technology are not merely financial instruments but represent a revolutionary shift that can enhance transparency, reduce fraud, and create a more inclusive financial system.

    We believe this technology is non-partisan, and the Democratic Party should also champion these innovations to help reaffirm the U.S.’s position as the leader in the global digital economy.

    They then make four suggestions that the DNC should back off the attacks on crypto:

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    *  *  *

    Who could have seen this coming?

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    In the sixteen months since, we have seen a seismic shift in attitudes towards crypto from both Independents and Republicans; while Democrats continue to demonize the sovereign currency.

    Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised the role Bitcoin could play in improving the US economy and the American way of life as he spoke to an audience at the Bitcoin 2024 conference on July 26. He promised to sign a number of executive orders on his first day in office to begin the process.

    Kennedy would sign an order requiring the US Justice Department and US Marshalls to transfer the 204,000 Bitcoin held by the US to the Federal Reserve to be held as a “strategic asset,” he said.

    Furthermore, Kennedy said he would also order the Treasury Department to purchase 500 Bitcoin daily until the reserve reaches at least four million BTC.

    The United States would attain “a position of dominance no other country will be able to usurp” and its Bitcoin reserve would eventually reach a value of “hundreds of trillions of dollars,” he promised.

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    In addition, CoinTelegraph’s Derek Andersen reports that Kennedy would order the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to treat all transactions between Bitcoin and the US dollar as nonreportable and nontaxable. He would also order the IRS to treat Bitcoin as eligible for exchange into real property under the 1031 Exchange program, which provides incentives for real estate investment.

    “Transactional freedom [is] as important as freedom of expression in the 1st Amendment,” Kennedy said, and Bitcoin can provide that freedom and help restore the United States economy to its condition before President Richard Nixon took the US dollar off the gold standard to fund the Vietnam war. Kennedy added:

    “Fiat currency was invented to fund war. […] If the world was on a BTC standard, there would be no more war because you can’t print Bitcoin.”

    “I understand that tomorrow President Trump may announce his plan to build a Bitcoin Fort Knox and authorize the US government to buy a million Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset,” Kennedy told the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville on Friday, a day before Trump was scheduled to speak at the same event.

    “And I applaud that announcement.”

    However, most notable is the shift seen by former President Trump from his initial comments in 2019..

    “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated cryptoassets can facilitate unlawful behaviour, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”

    Thankfully, as Mark Shut and Lee Bratcher detail below, via BitcoinMagazine.com, the official position of the Republican Party has changed dramatically since President Donald J Trump condemned the emerging crypto industry in those uncompromising terms back in 2019.

    Earlier this month, the Republican National Committee adopted an ambitious platform to promote innovation in the US’ digital assets industry and protect the rights of bitcoin holders.

    For one, the official platform pledges that the Republicans will “defend the right to mine bitcoin.”

    This represents a much-needed departure from the policies of the incumbent administration.

    In February this year, the US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued an “emergency” survey to bitcoin mining companies, demanding highly sensitive information such as the specifications of the machines being used, the specific locations of their mining operations, and contractual information relating to their commercial energy partners. The EIA not only demanded all of this information but pledged to publish even the most commercially sensitive bits of it.

    This initiative represented an unprecedented intrusion into the activities of Bitcoin miners and a massive assault on the crypto industry. It prompted organizations such as the Texas Blockchain Council to launch legal proceedings to try and protect the rights of the crypto industry against federal outreach. The Republicans’ pledge to “defend the right to mine bitcoin” is therefore very welcome.

    There are other encouraging pledges that the Republicans have made.

    The GOP has said they will “ensure every American has the right to self-custody their digital assets and transact free from government surveillance and control.”

    They have also come out strongly against the idea of a CBDC.

    “Republicans will end Democrats’ unlawful and un-American crypto crackdown and oppose the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency,” the party has said.

    Of course, all of this is highly encouraging for digital asset industry advocates. But it still begs the question.

    What caused President Trump to change his mind and start embracing the massive potential of digital assets and decentralized finance?

    How has this pro-digital asset agenda vaulted into the limelight of Presidential politics?

    If there is one man who has contributed more than anybody else to changing Republicans’ mind on crypto, it is Vivek Ramaswamy.

    The former Republican presidential candidate and entrepreneur is clearly having increasing amounts of influence on the GOP inner circle. At the Republican Convention this month, Donald Trump Jr joked that he would like Ramaswamy to be his running mate in 2036. Indeed, ever since his presidential bid last year, it is clear that he has been one of the leading voices at the upper echelons of the Republicans guiding the party in a more pro-crypto direction.

    Ramaswamy made waves in GOP circles when, at the North American Blockchain Summit in Texas last year, he released a detailed and comprehensive plan for the US crypto space.

    What did he pledge to do? Perhaps the most eye-catching measure was his promise to fire most of the employees at the bloated Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and order the rest to stop trying to bully the crypto industry. Importantly, Ramaswamy defines many cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as commodities that are therefore not under the jurisdiction of the SEC.

    “I think it’s nothing short of embarrassing that Gary Gensler, the current leader of the SEC, in front of Congress could not even say whether Ethereum counted as a regulated security or not,” Ramaswamy said during one of the Republican debates last year. “This is just another example of the administrative state gone too far.”

    Ramaswamy has been a vocal advocate for innovation in the crypto space and the use of decentralized digital currencies as a tool for financial freedom. He has argued that the right to code should be a right protected by the First Amendment, protecting developers from the overreaches of federal agencies.

    He has also said that consumers should have a right to possess self-hosted digital wallets beyond the grasp of the government. This has now been explicitly adopted by the Republicans for their 2024 election campaign, showing the practical influence Ramaswamy is having on Republican policy.

    It is not just Ramaswamy who has been positively influencing Republican policy. Back in May last year, Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, brought into force a law banning any potential CBDC being used in the state. The regulation “prohibits the use of a federally adopted CBDC by excluding it from the definition of money within Florida’s Uniform Commercial Code.”

    Efforts like this have been essential in making the Republican leadership aware of the dangers associated with CBDCs and prompting them to pledge action.

    But arguably the most important impactful of Ramaswamy’s crypto activism is to persuade the broader Republican Party that supporting crypto innovation is in line with their political philosophy and natural instincts.

    He has powerfully argued that the current federal assault on the crypto industry is “an embodiment of our national decline” in the way it represents an attack on innovation and entrepreneurship, two values the Republicans have always claimed to hold dear.

    Ramaswamy has similarly noted that Bitcoin mining is “a frontier in American innovation” in the same tradition as American heroes such as Thomas Jefferson – who Ramaswamy thinks “would have been a Bitcoin miner.” This rhetoric seems to have worked in convincing President Trump and Republican leaders that they should indeed be the pro-bitcoin party.

    Another key emerging figure in the Republican party who is of a similar mind on digital assets as Vivek is Trump’s recent VP pick, J.D. Vance. Senator Vance is vocal about his support for bitcoin and digital assets and has a background in tech venture capital. He is young and he understands the importance of courting younger votes.

    So, what will “four more years” of President Trump mean for the US digital asset industry?

    Let’s end as we started, with another quote from the President – one that shows, thanks to the efforts of Vivek Ramaswamy, Senator Vance and others, just how much the Republican stance on crypto has changed over the last few years.

    “I will end Joe Biden’s war on crypto. We will ensure that the future of crypto and the future of Bitcoin will be made in America.”

    “If Trump is elected, the U.S. will have to add Bitcoin as a reserve, because it is digital gold,” said Arseniy Grusha, chief executive officer of data-center firm Dataprana, who attended the conference. “The earlier they do that, the better it will be for the United States.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/27/2024 – 14:50

  • Quake Detected Near North Korea's Nuke Test Site
    Quake Detected Near North Korea’s Nuke Test Site

    Some X users are speculating that an earthquake detected near the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site in North Korea might have been an underground nuclear test. However, there are no confirmations from North Korea, neighboring countries, the US, or allies of Washington to confirm or deny this report. 

    The Korea Meteorological Administration, South Korea’s meteorological service, posted on X early Saturday morning that an earthquake was detected in North Korea (translated by Google):

    “[Earthquake Information] 07-27 12:50 Area 42km north-northwest of Gilju, Hamgyeongbuk-do, North Korea Magnitude 2.9 Instrument seismic intensity: Maximum seismic intensity Ⅰ.”

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    After the KMA Earthquake’s post, X user OSINTdefender said, “A 2.9 Magnitude Earthquake was registered in North Korea a few minutes ago, almost right next to the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site.”

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    OSINTdefender wrote in several posts:  

    “North Korea always seems to do their Nuclear Tests during Major International Events, so it would make sense if this is a Test that they decided to do it during the Olympics.”

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    “Though if this was a Nuclear Test it wasn’t a big one, for comparison their last Nuclear Test in 2017 caused a 6.1 Magnitude Earthquake, with it believed to have been upwards of a 250 Kiloton Bomb.”

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    “This Area of North Korea is also prone to Natural Earthquakes as well, with a 2.4 Magnitude Earthquake near the Punggye-ri Site in January believed to have been Natural.”

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

    Seoul-based freelance journalist Raphael Rashid said, “2.9 earthquake detected moments ago in North Korea 41.30 N 129.13 E which corresponds almost exactly to the Punggye-ri nuclear test site.” 

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

    Given the coordinates (41.30 N 129.13 E) from Rashid, the location of the quake compared with the nuclear test facility is about a 31-minute car drive. Also, this nuclear test site is North Korea’s only one and was the location of the 2006, 2009, 2013, January 2016, September 2016, and September 2017 nuclear tests. 

    Here’s what some X users are saying about the report:

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    *Developing… 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/27/2024 – 14:35

  • FedEx To Cut Daytime Domestic Flight Activity By 60%
    FedEx To Cut Daytime Domestic Flight Activity By 60%

    By Eric Kulisch of FreightWaves

    FedEx plans to significantly slash daily flights and the number of U.S. cities served by air during the daytime when its air cargo contract with the U.S. Postal Service expires on Sept. 29, resulting in significant pay cuts for pilots, senior managers informed crews this week.

    FedEx operates nearly 400 freighter aircraft but will soon downsize U.S. flight operations after losing a large contract with the U.S. Postal Service. Pilots are expected to see a substantial reduction in pay with fewer flights scheduled. (Photo: Shutterstock/John Gress Media)

    Shedding daytime flying capacity in response to the lost postal business is part of a broader FedEx (NYSE: FDX) initiative to boost corporate profits that includes restructuring airline operations to align with lower parcel demand and improve efficiency.

    The parcel logistics giant will reduce daytime domestic flying time by 60% and the number of city destinations by 55%, which will add about 500 pilots to the existing surplus, said Justin Brownlee, senior vice president for flight operations and network planning, in a letter to airline workers obtained by FreightWaves. No pilots will be hired for the foreseeable future, he added.

    The company now has 5,500 pilots, down from 5,800 at the start of the year. With the workforce redundancy, remaining flight hours will be divided up among the entire cohort, resulting in a “significant” reduction in the minimum number of flight hours guaranteed to pilots starting in October, Brownlee told the flight team.

    The Postal Service in early April selected UPS (NYSE: UPS), instead of incumbent FedEx, as its air cargo carrier for the next 5 1/2 years. The last day FedEx will provide service to the Postal Service is Sept. 29, but the company has already been scaling back flights as the agency transitions volumes to UPS. FedEx recently said losing the Postal Service business will drag down operating income by $500 million in the current fiscal year.

    Lower postal volumes left FedEx with surplus equipment for its daytime air network and higher operating costs per unit. Management previously said the Postal Service contract wasn’t making money. Postal revenue in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2022, fell $236 million to $1.9 billion and was expected to continue decreasing. The contract previously generated annual revenue of at least $2 billion.

    Equity research analysts argued that FedEx’s airline was much bigger than necessary, partly because of commitments to fly postal shipments during the daytime in addition to its overnight express operation.

    FedEx officers earlier this year said expiration of the Postal Service contract gives them more flexibility to reorganize the daytime air network because aircraft won’t be dedicated to a single customer.

    Pat DiMento, vice president flight operations and training, provided pilots more details about the network changes in a follow-up memo, also shared with FreightWaves. The route map in October will go from 75 to 28 cities served – a 63% reduction versus the 55% mentioned by Brownlee, with daily flight trips in an average week falling nearly two-thirds. Cities losing daytime service include Atlanta; Austin, Texas; and Baltimore. Weekly flight hours will tumble from 2,045 to 1,203 (down 60%). Airbus A300 freighters, for example, will experience an 81% reduction in weekly daytime flight legs while Boeing 767 trips will be cut 70%, going from nearly 700 to 209 per week.  

    Executives stressed that the tentative October schedule was released now to give flight operations personnel pertinent information as early as possible, but that adjustments could still be made. 

    “The above plan will likely change as we settle into the new system form and other business opportunities develop. Our company is rapidly moving towards the network efficiencies that will ensure we remain the leader in the incredibly competitive cargo and logistics industry. We appreciate the significant impact these changes will have on your schedules and value your commitment to FedEx as we navigate these changes together,” DiMento wrote.

    Despite the reduced daytime flying, FedEx expects to maintain fleet size at current levels because the number of aircraft is primarily dictated by the priority overnight network and the company is working to attract other cargo business, Brownlee said.

    “In preparation for the conclusion of our air freight contract with the United States Postal Service, we have begun implementing adjustments to network operations that support postal volume. These adjustments include a reduction in daytime flight hours,” said Caitlin Adams Maier, FedEx’s director of public affairs, in a statement to FreightWaves. “As we transform our network and operations for the future, we remain committed to delivering world-class service to our customers around the world while providing outstanding service to the USPS through the contract’s completion in September.”

    Pilots have made substantially less money the past year because they share a smaller pool of flying assignments. No progress has been made on a new labor contract since June 2023, when members of the pilots’ union rejected a tentative contract. Negotiations remain in federal mediation. Company officials have privately suggested that a new ratified contract would incentivize pilots to retire, which would help address overstaffing.

    The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents the FedEx pilots in collective bargaining, urged management to resolve the contract talks so that the business transformation can fully achieve the desired financial outcome.

    Brownlee’s comments that aircraft count will stay the same while overstaffing levels increase “are contrary to one another and conveniently ignore the negative impact of the Drive and Tricolor [restructuring] on our pilots. We are certainly wondering how exactly management intends to implement Network 2.0 and Tricolor with a misaligned crew force,” said Jose Nieves, chair of ALPA’s FedEx Master Executive Council in a message to members and the company.

    Fleet plan

    The airline’s mainline fleet has shrunk from 417 aircraft in fiscal year 2022 to 389 as more aircraft are put out of service than are being added to modernize the fleet. FedEx last quarter permanently retired 22 Boeing 757-200 freighter aircraft as part of the downsizing effort. The older 757s were expendable because they are less fuel-efficient than other planes operated by FedEx, which still has 92 of the narrowbody freighters in the fleet. The company also retired nine MD-11s in the fiscal year ending May 31 and plans to phase out the tri-engine aircraft by mid-2028, subject to changes in customer demand. 

    FedEx last year received 14 freighter aircraft from Boeing (four 777s and 10 767-300s medium widebodies). The company is scheduled to take delivery of two factory-built 777 freighters in the next 12 months and 14 B767s over the next two years, according to its latest statistics.

    Meanwhile, as part of the new effort to consolidate the Express and Ground networks into one integrated system, FedEx in late January began repainting mainline cargo jets to present a unified brand, said Brownlee. That means aircraft will no longer show Express markings. The new paint scheme, which features a larger logo and different positioning to reflect a more modern look, has been applied to 18 freighters so far.

    Tricolor drive

    FedEx is now implementing its Tricolor strategy for streamlining its global air network with the goal of segregating the fleet according to various product categories and demand. Brownlee said new flights are being added to the Orange network to accommodate nonparcel cargo growth.

    The so-called Purple network is geared toward international customers willing to pay the most for the fastest speeds using dedicated aircraft that are well timed to go overnight into FedEx hubs for next-day delivery. Fewer large freight shipments will be mixed in to maximize density on aircraft and sorting efficiency, executives explained in the spring.

    Orange-designated flights will operate during the daytime and focus on priority international freight. Management describes this deferred air network as an extension of its European and U.S. less-than-truckload networks, designed to attract high-yield freight, such as pharmaceuticals, perishables, electronics and automotive components, that is more profitable per pound than heavier, general consignments. FedEx says it will mix in deferred parcels to fill out the aircraft.

    FedEx is reorganizing air operations to ensure planes are as full of packages and other cargo as possible. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

    The White network will handle e-commerce and other low-priority shipments, much of it processed through the company’s freight forwarding arm, FedEx Trade Networks. Those loads will utilize the belly space of commercial passenger aircraft operating between major international gateways that can be integrated into the FedEx Ground network in the U.S.

    Starting in September and October, FedEx will add a Boeing 777 route between Liege, Belgium, and its regional hub in Oakland, California; a route connecting Miami, Guatemala City and San Pedro Sula, Honduras, operated with a Boeing 757 freighter; and a Miami-Buenos Aires-Santiago, Chile-Quito, Ecuador-Miami route with a Boeing 767, according to Brownlee’s letter.

    In addition to those routes, the logistics integrator is expanding the Orange network in the Asia, Middle East and Africa operating out of a hub in Guangzhou, China. FedEx in early June also launched an MD-11 route from Guangzhou to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, with stops in Tokyo and Anchorage, Alaska, and bypassing the global hub in Memphis, Tennessee.

    “This route provides parcel and freight growth opportunities by directly connecting the East Coast and Asian markets while improving service levels by removing unnecessary touch points in our U.S. domestic network, which prevents more congestion” in Memphis, said Brownlee.

    He also disclosed that FedEx launched an intra-China flight between Guangzhou and Beijing utilizing a Boeing 737 freighter operated five times per week by Tianjin Air Cargo. As a foreign airline, FedEx does not have regulatory authority to operate the flight itself. Brownlee said the flight strengthens FedEx’s position in the China market and “provides freight growth opportunities by feeding additional volume into the global international air network” without displacing any company aircraft.

    Tricolor is part of a comprehensive restructuring program launched two years ago to strengthen profits after the pandemic surge wore off, specifically aimed at reducing redundant infrastructure and associated costs.

    The Drive initiative to take out $4 billion in structural costs by mid-2025, coupled with pickup and delivery efficiencies from a new consolidation of separate operating companies into one organization, has helped achieve four consecutive quarters of operating income and margin expansion despite revenue declines.

    FedEx’s adjusted operating profit increased 5.6% year over year to $1.9 billion last quarter on a 1% gain in revenue, underscoring the company’s progress in containing costs amid soft market conditions. It was the first time FedEx had year-over-year revenue growth after six quarters of declines.

    The company achieved $1.8 billion in structural savings last year and is targeting an additional $2.2 billion in savings from its transformation program in fiscal year 2025. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/27/2024 – 14:00

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Jul 27

Today’s News 27th July 2024

  • Biden And The Media's 'Anti-Disinformation' Campaign
    Biden And The Media’s ‘Anti-Disinformation’ Campaign

    Authored by Andrew Lowenthal via The Brownstone Institute,

    “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

    – George Orwell, 1984

    For years the media, “fact-checkers,” and “anti-disinformation” initiatives told the public there was nothing wrong with Joe Biden. A few weeks ago, in the space of five minutes, they flipped. Rapid-onset dementia had struck the President and it was time for change.

    The people who claim they can sort truth from fiction spent years lying despite the crippling obvious. What is more baffling is why so many people went along with it for so long. Was it fear? Complacency? Cowardice? An incredible level of discipline was enforced – that has thankfully now unraveled.

    Rather than debunking “misinformation,” Biden’s protectors often spread it.  

    In August 2020 the Aspen Institute coordinated a Hunter Biden laptop pre-bunk exercise that sought to suppress a true story to protect Biden’s wayward son and shield the President from major corruption allegations. A swathe of major media and Big Tech participated in that exercise, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Twitter, Facebook, and many more. Claire Wardle, former director of “anti-disinformation” NGO First Draft (now the Information Futures Lab at Brown University) also participated.

    In a letter allegedly organised by Anthony Blinken, 51 former intelligence agents claimed the Hunter Biden laptop was a “Russian information operation” and Facebook, Twitter, and others suppressed the story on their platforms. Almost everyone now admits the laptop was real.

    Or take Biden’s claim that “You’re not going to get Covid if you have these vaccinations.”

    PolitiFact thought that may have been an “exaggeration” but reassured us that cases of the vaccinated getting Covid are “rare.”

    The Party told you to reject the evidence not just of your eyes and ears, but your whole body.

    However, perhaps the biggest lie was the years-long campaign to “debunk” suggestions that Biden was growing incapable of commanding the highest office in the land. PolitiFact was very diligent in “fact-checking” “cheap fakes” and other stories that alleged Joe Biden was senile, reassuring us that everything was fine.

    The term “cheap fake” was coined by Britt Paris and Hunter Biden laptop denialist Joan Donovan. Donavan has long been a darling of the “anti-disinformation” field. 

    In the words of Aspen Hunter Biden laptop pre-bunker Claire Wardle, the Biden cheap fakes are “the weaponization of context. It’s genuine content, but the context changes via minor edits. Anyone can be vulnerable with the right edit.” In fact, as recently as June 21 Wardle was carrying water for Biden. In a New York Times article that sought to debunk “misleading videos that play into and reinforce voters’ longstanding concerns about his [Biden’s] age and abilities,” Wardle explained that “This isn’t a new narrative, it builds on an existing one, which tends to be much more effective.” Yes, adding more true information to other true information tends to make an argument more convincing.

    Or take Rebekah Tromble, Associate Professor of Media and Public Affairs and the director of the Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics at George Washington University. According to Tromble “Biden became a main target of deceptive edits.” “These clips draw on a common trope about President Biden that’s popular among his detractors: He’s old, bumbling, and senile, meaning he’s incompetent and incapable of doing this job.” His gaffes and inability to speak clearly are unrelated to his cognitive ability, and are instead because “Biden grew up stuttering.”

    PolitiFact is a project of the Poynter Institute which coordinates the biggest network of fact-checkers in the world, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). IFCN is funded largely by Facebook but also by the “Craig Newmark Foundation, the Koch Foundation, the Knight Foundation, the Omidyar Network, the National Endowment for Democracy, Microsoft, and the Washington Post.” This is not a small fringe “fact-checking” outfit; it is one of the leading organizations in the sector. 

    Perhaps the name makes it clear – it is Politi(cised) Fact-checking. 

    Newsguard, a “disinformation” ranking service that can punish a news site’s advertising revenue through its rating system, has also been active. Power Line, a conservative online news outlet, alleges they were contacted by Newsguard in 2021 about their claims of Biden’s cognitive decline. In an email, Newsguard asked:

    We’ve noticed that the site has repeatedly stated as fact in its article[s] that Joe Biden has dementia, both during the 2020 election cycle and since he became president. Why does the site make this claim without providing credible evidence that he has dementia?

    Newsguard’s approach is particularly concerning because of its ability to impact the revenue of media outlets, and due to its strong links to the State Department and intelligence agencies – its board includes former CIA Director Michael Hayden.

    If all that fails you can always blame the Russians. EUvsDisinfo, a European Union project to “forecast, address, and respond to the Russian Federation’s ongoing disinformation campaigns” claimed reports of Biden being “senile” are “false” and are part of “pro-Kremlin disinformation.”

    Mainstream media have also been a critical part of the lying machine, claiming recent videos that show Biden wandering off at a G7 event were “misinformation” or “cheap fakes” and are part of a concerted effort to “hammer the narrative that Biden is too old to be president.” PolitiFact also “fact-checked” the story with the usual line.

    The list could go on and on and on but Matt Orfalea’s amazing “sharp as a tack” compilation puts the nail in the coffin. More “out of context” clips and “cheap fakes” according to the “anti-disinformation” “experts” no doubt.

    What is the lesson?

    On one hand, censorship and suppression only work for so long. Reality will eventually catch up with you. However, it also tells us that a lot of people can pretend the emperor does have clothes, even when he is stark naked and half the court is screaming and pointing at the top of their lungs – also known as “spreading misinformation.”

    It seems there is an endless supply of “fact-checking” and “anti-disinformation” sycophants ready to bow and scrape before the mad king.

    Ultimately it tells us just how corrupt the “fact-checking” and “anti-disinformation” industries are. Whilst there are an increasing number of people on the outside speaking up, internally cowardice and the silencing of critics have allowed a prolific level of corruption to grow. This is an across-the-board problem in the liberal and progressive spheres where pious bullies have shut down dialogue. This corruption has led progressives and liberals down a disastrous dead end. Barring a miracle, Trump is coming.

    If there is any justice a reckoning is also coming for the “fact-checkers” and “anti-disinformation” “experts.”

    *  *  *

    Republished from the author’s Substack

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 23:10

  • Does Disney's Dramatic Decline Reflect Growing Public Opposition To Woke Activism?
    Does Disney’s Dramatic Decline Reflect Growing Public Opposition To Woke Activism?

    The participation of major corporations in the molding of cancel culture should not be overlooked.  While many people assumed that companies were “bending the knee” to progressive activists, the opposite was actually true.  Woke movements are a minority within western populations and have no boycott power.  There’s never been any reason for businesses to be afraid of them.

    In fact, without the support of companies like Blackrock, Vanguard, Google, Facebook, Twitter and many others the cancel mob would have little to no power.  The situation seems to be changing, or the damage seems to be minimized.  One corporate entity reflects this shift more than any other, and that’s Disney. 

    A lot has happened in the US in the past several years, so much in fact that it might be hard to remember how close the country came to total disaster under the dictates of the progressive hive.  The political left had been accumulating social influence with the aid of international corporations, NGOs and government officials since at least 2016.  However, after the Biden Administration took office and pandemic hysteria went into full swing, the activists sought to flex their cancel culture muscle in a big way.

    The result was a dystopian frenzy in which mass censorship was rampant and speaking out in any way against official narratives might get you booted from social media and even fired from your job.  Leftists called it “consequence culture” as a way to justify their behavior, but the consensus was that this was thought-policing on an Orwellian scale.  The assumption by leftists being that they are the virtuous arbiters over what words and beliefs should be punished.  No one voted for them to do this job.

    The smell of blood was in the water and, as with all dystopian societies, certain non-compliant people were made into examples to frighten everyone else.  

    UFC fighter and actress Gina Carano was one of those people.  Carano says she was harassed by Disney management to add “pronouns” to her social media bio to “prove her support for trans lives”.  After the actress made an online joke by listing her “pronouns” on Twitter as ‘beeb bop boop’, the company brought pressure to bear in an attempt to force Carano into silence. 

    Her eventual removal by Disney was heralded by the political left as a great victory and a display of the cancel mob’s power.  If they could destroy the career of a Hollywood celebrity then there was a good chance they could destroy the life of almost any average conservative.

    Disney then engaged in a slow boil of the theater-going public with DEI propaganda.  Many suspected Disney was removing white, straight and male characters from the majority of their productions on purpose.  As it turned out, that’s exactly what they were doing.

    The pendulum appears to be swinging back on Disney, however.  With the help of Elon Musk, Carano has pursued an effective civil suit against the company and a recent court decision blocked attempts by Disney lawyers to have the case dismissed.  The lawsuit will be going to trial.

    The vast majority of Disney content from films to streaming series have been met with box office failure and audience disinterest.  In 2023 alone, Disney had only one film that made a significant profit (Guardians Of The Galaxy) while spending a billion dollars on multiple box office flops (not counting marketing costs).  Not one Disney+ series was met with audience acclaim.  Streaming subscriber numbers sank.   

    Disney has consistently used its immense corporate power to legitimize the woke mob. Are they finally getting hit with the karma they deserve?

    After Disney publicly declared war on the state of Florida and conservative efforts to stop gender identity indoctrination in public schools, the company was put on notice.  They have since been exposed in numerous cases participating in far-left propaganda efforts including implanting LGBT messaging in children’s content. 

    Disney was also exposed by a VP on hidden camera for DEI practices and race discrimination against white male actors and corporate employees.

    Disney’s secret agenda is not so secret anymore.  They have been thoroughly defeated by the state of Florida and Ron Desantis in civil court and the company has lost their Reedy Creek autonomy.  Disney stock has been hovering near 5-year lows since 2023.  Their brand is essentially destroyed and their content is treated by most consumers as radioactive.  The sheer size of Disney and their holdings means that they have the capital to survive for years without public support, but the company has already started cutting employees in mass layoffs, including 14% of Pixar in May.  Not a good sign.   

    Is the karmic hammer finally swinging back to hit Disney in the face after nearly a decade of woke bullying?  It seems that way.  But the bigger question is, does Disney’s decline reflect a larger national move away from the woke mob and cancel culture in general?  Are Americans finally fed up with progressive pearl clutching and DEI?  This seems to be the case.  Disney fueled cancel culture for years only to find themselves canceled in return.   

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 22:45

  • "A Crisis Of Extremes": Behind The Homeless Surge In California's High Desert
    “A Crisis Of Extremes”: Behind The Homeless Surge In California’s High Desert

    Authored by Beige Luciano-Adams via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    In the scrubby Mojave desert north of Los Angeles, a sprawling encampment of decrepit RVs sits just off a dirt road separating the city of Lancaster from Los Angeles County’s unincorporated expanse.

    A homeless man lives in an old RV that sits in the Mojave desert, near Lancaster, Calif., on July 10, 2024. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    In every direction, garbage spreads out like an algae super bloom—beyond that, endless sand and brush, baking in the summer sun.

    “Keep your head on a swivel for dogs,” a member of the city’s public safety and emergency response unit tells us. Through the haze, we see two pit bulls and a German Shepherd under a tarp, but they are tethered, too hot to move.

    Freddy, a resident, seems only moderately bothered by the 110 degree temperature. “I don’t have a car anymore, so I can’t get my own water,” he says, when asked how he survives out here. 

    “Someone brings me water every two weeks,” he said, referring to a nonprofit. 

    Pointing down at his legs, scaly and engorged beneath black shorts, he adds, “And I’m sick, too. They bring me medicine.”

    There is no grid here, no power or water. RV residents dump their raw sewage in the desert, either right outside their vehicles, or sometimes with a hose that carries it a little farther out.

    Such encampments, which are also a magnet for illegal construction dumping, appear as clusters on satellite maps, dotting the rugged terrain just past the county line. Officials say they stretch out as far as 10 miles into the desert, but most stay closer to town.

    Freddy is one of thousands without housing in the northern part of the county, according to data released last month by the Los Angeles Homelessness Services Authority (LAHSA). 

    On any given night, an estimated 6,672 people are homeless in the Antelope Valley—a 42 percent increase over the year prior. But only 1,057 of the region’s homeless people live in its two main cities, Lancaster and Palmdale, leaving the remaining 5,615 in smaller towns and the region’s rural unincorporated areas.

    It’s surprising that so many people could be living in tents, under tarps, inside of old RVs, out in the middle of the high desert with no water or infrastructure.

    But those familiar with the situation say the population was already high, and the dramatic jump simply represents a more thorough count this year.

    “The count went up this year because the count was done wrong in previous years,” said a city official, who asked not to be identified by name. “This year we utilized a drone, and our teams went out to remote areas and did the count,” he said, estimating the actual increase over last year might be closer to 25 percent.

    L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose 5th District includes the Antelope Valley, also suggested the increase may not be as straightforward as it looks.

    “The Point In Time Count is not a perfect science and it’s rightfully evolving,” she said in an email to The Epoch Times, expressing uncertainty over whether the number reflects an increase or a better count. 

    A wind turbine system outside of Palmdale, Calif., on July 10, 2024. Palmdale’s homeless count rose from 177 in 2023 to 537 in 2024. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    “Regardless, we will use those results to draw down more federal and state funding so that we can deliver more local housing and shelter options. The need in the region is real.”

    Either way, the uptick is an outlier in 2024, when the county overall and most city homeless populations are either remaining stable or shrinking slightly.

    The City of Lancaster’s overall homeless count went down in 2024, to 520 people from 590 the year prior, with fewer unsheltered homeless and more sheltered homeless individuals. Palmdale’s, meanwhile, rose from 177 to 537.

    Inquiries to Palmdale city officials, including the mayor and city councilmembers, were not returned.

    LAHSA also did not respond to a request for comment on the increase in the homeless population in Antelope Valley.

    While many municipalities across the West stopped clearing homeless encampments after a series of Ninth Circuit Court decisions determined anti-camping laws violated the Eighth Amendment, Lancaster bypassed those restrictions with procedural caveats, by offering shelter before moving people. 

    Since the Supreme Court reversed the lower court rulings earlier this month, officials say, enforcement is easier.

    Critics of such enforcement, such as the ACLU, have long argued Lancaster is pushing people who have nowhere to go into dangerous, extreme conditions. But officials say there are beds available, and enforcement is attended by offers of services and shelter.

    So why are thousands of people homeless in the desert?

    End of the Line

    Lancaster Mayor Rex Parris, an outspoken critic of what he says is the county’s neglect of the region, allows there are various factors that might contribute to an increase in homelessness—former inmates at California State Prison, in Lancaster, who end up in the community without services, along with a small percentage of people losing housing or falling on hard times.

    Lancaster has always been a far more affordable bedroom community, but median rent is currently $2,595 a month—only about $200 cheaper than Los Angeles, according to real estate website Zillow.

    But the main reason, Mr. Parris told The Epoch Times, is L.A.’s systematic tendency—not a conspiracy, exactly, more like a default setting—to send its problems north.

    “I think it’s tied to the L.A. area pushing them up here,” he said of the homeless count increase. “They tend to push all of their problems up here, if they can. And now you’ve got the World Cup, and you’ve got the Olympics coming, and they’re in a mad rush to get rid of their homeless, and so they encourage them to come here.”

    Mr. Parris says his teams are “constantly interviewing people who were given a ticket and told, “go to Lancaster, we’ll feed and take care of them,” but did not specify by whom. 

    “It’s at the end of the Metro line, literally. This is not unusual.”

    The county’s transit system, plagued by violence in recent months, has its own problems. Used as a de facto shelter by thousands during the day, its buses and trains are emptied for cleaning each night, which some end-of-line cities say has resulted in sharp increases in their transient homeless populations.

    Lancaster, 60 miles north of Los Angeles and at the very end of the Metro transit system, is far more remote than other such cities.

    (Top) A homeless man walks with his belongings along a street in Santa Ana, Calif., on July 15, 2024. (Bottom) A homeless individual rests by a busy street in Santa Ana, Calif., on July 15, 2024. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    Lt. William Kitchin, who oversees the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s (LASD) homeless outreach team for the entire county, said he has not personally seen evidence to support the idea that people are being directed to the region, but has observed migration to end-of-line cities.

    However they end up there, once in Lancaster, civil rights groups say, authorities have routinely pushed homeless people out into the desert.

    In a study based on interviews with 53 unhoused people in and around Lancaster from February 2019 to October 2020, the ACLU claimed the LASD “banished” people to remote county areas, combining the threat of criminal and civil sanctions with “suggestions” to leave town.

    Such claims, the lieutenant said, are easily disproved by body cameras that record deputies’ interactions when enforcing local ordinances.

    Lt. Kitchin’s team works with LAHSA to resolve encampments of more than five people, and he said such operations are always done with advance notice and offers of services and housing.​​

    “We can’t dictate or tell people where to go. We just say you can’t be here. We prefer you take the services that were provided, so you can go inside and get your life started on the right track, but we can’t force them into it,” he said.

    Starting on July 22, his team plans to clear desert encampments in an area north of Lancaster and place an estimated 40 people in hotels as part of the county’s “Pathway Home” program.

    “Prior to the pandemic,” the lieutenant said, “what we used to see is that people who were homeless in that area either grew up there or had roots there, parents or family. Now we’re seeing more people from out of state.”

    Officials who asked not to be identified by name said they see a constant influx of new faces in Lancaster and the surrounding area. “We know everyone here and everyday we’re seeing new people. It’s not people losing their homes, there’s some of that, but mostly it’s not. They came from somewhere else, they moved here,” one said.

    The city’s team has access to five beds for immediate shelter. After two weeks, they move people to Kensington, Lancaster’s sprawling homeless housing campus—so those five beds always stay open for people who might need them, officials said.

    Mayor Parris told The Epoch Times that beds remain open at Kensington throughout the year, except when extreme weather drives occupancy up.

    Opened in 2019, the campus has 153 interim beds and 150 permanent supportive housing beds, and receives more referrals than it has availability, a representative for A People Concern, the organization that operates the campus, told The Epoch Times in an email.

    The representative said they are currently “nearing capacity,” with a “fluctuating occupancy as individuals may choose to transition between programs.”

    Michael, a homeless man, passes by an area with tents housing the homeless, near Lancaster, Calif., on July 10, 2024. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    Mr. Parris draws a hard line between what he characterizes as a minority of the homeless population in his city, who have fallen on hard times or been pushed out of housing—and an overwhelming majority, who refuse housing and choose the streets and drug abuse as a lifestyle.

    “I was a drug addict, and I have been homeless. And I have been in jail,” Mr. Parris, a lawyer, said. “So none of this is foreign to me. You know, I think I probably have a better understanding of it than most. But I know the difference between a looter and someone who needs help—and wants help.”

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 22:20

  • Gab Founder Says Trump Shooter Thomas Crooks 'May Have Had Account' – Was Pro-Biden
    Gab Founder Says Trump Shooter Thomas Crooks ‘May Have Had Account’ – Was Pro-Biden

    Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old resident of Bethel Park, PA who allegedly tried to assassinate Donald Trump may have had an account on social media alternative website Gab.  He apparently used the platform to spread messages in support of President Joe Biden, indicating a progressive political leaning.  Gab CEO Andrew Torba says he has received “an emergency disclosure request from a law enforcement agency” pertaining to a specific account linked to Thomas Crooks.

    The account @epicmicrowave  (which the CEO stressed he has been “unable to confirm” was definitely Crooks’) “posted on the site nine (9) times total,” Torba tweeted just 30 minutes after getting the law enforcement request.

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

    Torba noted in the post that:

    “We are disclosing this information at significant personal and business risk. If the past is any guide, defying the D.C. consensus by publishing the first definitive evidence that the shooter was a Biden supporter – something Democrats and their media allies have tried to cover up and deny at every turn – has a high probability of resulting in significant political and media backlash.”

    “We have saved the account data pending receipt of a search warrant,” he stated.

    Comments made by @epicmicrowave defend Biden policies including his Covid lockdown policies and immigration policies, while attacking those critical of illegal immigration. 

    The poster wrote:

    ‘Biden executive orders don’t incentivize human trafficking as human traffickers aren’t interested in citizenships, likewise the majority of illegal immigrants are not criminals and in fact some studies (such as the one linked below) show lower rates of crime committed by these individuals.’

    In related developments, the FBI did confirm that Crooks had searched for information about both Trump and Biden before the assassination attempt on July 13th. The FBI disclosed that the 20-year-old had looked up dates for Trump’s appearances and the Democratic National Convention (DNC), where Democrats are now expected to nominate Kamala Harris for president.

    The FBI noted that Crooks also researched information on the Kennedy Assassination, including “how far away was Oswald from Kennedy.”

    It has been nearly two weeks since the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, PA and there is still very little personal information available on Thomas Crooks.  The info that has been released is often contradictory.  Most suspicious of all is the utter lack of social media and web traffic related data.  For a 20-year-old in America, this seems impossible.

    Reports of Steam and Instagram accounts in the Crooks’ name have proven to be fake.  The Gab announcement, if accurate, would be the first solid indication of a political motive behind the shooting.  It may be years before any facts are released by the FBI and other agencies giving the public a better picture of who Thomas Crooks really was. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 21:55

  • FBI Director Debunks Biden's Claim That J6 'Gallows' Were Designed To Hang Mike Pence
    FBI Director Debunks Biden’s Claim That J6 ‘Gallows’ Were Designed To Hang Mike Pence

    Authored by Ken Silva via Headline USA,

    President Joe Biden said in a recent speech that the infamous gallows built on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021, were “erected to hang Vice President Mike Pence.”

    These men, who built the Capitol Hill gallows on Jan. 6, still haven’t been identified. PHOTO: House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight

    That’s a strong claim coming from the sitting—at least for now—leader of the free world. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., asked FBI Director Chris Wray about Biden’s claim during a Wednesday congressional hearing, and Wray surprisingly debunked the president’s false characterization of the “gallows.”

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

    “I’m not aware of any physical gallows … It might have been a replica or symbol,” Wray told Massie.

    The congressman agreed: “It looks like a prop. The construction doesn’t look like it would lend itself to hanging somebody. If the president were correct, that would be a very serious allegation.”

    Massie asked Wray whether anyone has been arrested or even identified as the builder of the gallows. He also asked whether the gallows builders were FBI informants.

    Wray said he had no knowledge of informants being involved, and that he didn’t know whether the gallows-makers have been arrested—but the answer is almost certainly no. As Headline USA reported in February, the FBI still doesn’t know who built the gallows.

    “Three years later, the FBI still has no suspects. Additionally, the Select Committee on January 6th seemingly did not review the USCP CCTV footage to identify the culprits behind the gallows, or if they did, they never released information about when the gallows were built and who built them—which can all be seen on CCTV footage from early in the morning on January 6,” Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., stated said in a February press release.

    According to Loudermilk, the gallows builders arrived at approximately 6:30 a.m. on January 6, 2021, in a white full-size van parked north of Constitution Avenue. There, three passengers unloaded a large bundle of lumber with wheels.

    After unloading, the group walked the bundle across Constitution Avenue and onto the grass at Union Square, according to Loudermilk. They were then joined by two more people arriving by cab at the corner of 1st and C Streets NW, Loudermilk said.

    Between 6:30 a.m. and 7:15 a.m., the group constructed the platform and two main pillars of the gallows, only leaving off the crossbeam, he said. During this time, the apparent group leader along with one other person, left the group and walked down 3rd Street, heading north. They returned a few minutes later with coffee, and the entire group left the scene, according to Loudermilk.

    “Despite the leader’s distinctive clothing—he was wearing a long trench coat, long white scarf, fedora-type hat, and walking with a cane—he has never been identified publicly,” he said.

    “At approximately 1:00 p.m., the group of five returned to the scene and the presumed leader, now wearing a baseball cap, installed the final crossbeam and added the noose made of bright orange rope. Shortly after construction was complete, all five men left the grounds.”

    Loudermilk noted that the construction of the gallows violated the Capitol Police Guidelines for Conducting an event on United States Capitol Grounds, which prohibit temporary structures from being built on Capitol grounds. He asked why Capitol Police allowed the gallows to remain intact throughout the morning of Jan. 6.

    “It is inconceivable that a gallows could be constructed on U.S. Capitol property and left up all day,” he said.

    “These men arrived early in the morning, several hours before the rally even started or anyone had gathered, to construct the gallows platform, yet this structure was allowed to stay intact for all to see. These actions raise more serious and troubling questions. Why didn’t the U.S. Capitol Police take down the gallows once it was seen on Capitol property, and why have the individuals never been identified?”

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

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 21:30

  • Trump Tells Netanyahu A 'Third World War' Is Likely If He Loses In November
    Trump Tells Netanyahu A ‘Third World War’ Is Likely If He Loses In November

    Former President Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Friday, just after the Israeli leader met with President Biden and VP Harris.

    Trump claimed in the context of the meeting that a major war in the Middle East – and even possibly a “third world war” – will break out if he doesn’t win the election. He’s long been running as the candidate who will deescalate global hotspots that Washington is too deeply embedded in.

    “If we win, it’ll be very simple. It’s all going to work out and very quickly,” Trump told reporters just before the meeting’s start.

    “If we don’t, you’re going to end up with major wars in the Middle East and maybe a third world war. You are closer to a third world war right now than at any time since the second world war. You’ve never been so close, because we have incompetent people running our country,” he said.

    Likely he had in mind the Russia-Ukraine war, and the Israel-Hamas conflict, given he has made similar comments of these flashpoints in the past. However, he’s never put it so bluntly as to say world war three could result if he loses.

    He also reflected on controversy left in the wake of Netanyahu’s meeting with VP Harris. The Israeli leader was reportedly upset with Harris’ post-meeting statement, where she said she would “not be silent” at the mounting civilian Palestinian casualties and suffering.

    “Harris’ statement after the meeting was much more critical than what she told Netanyahu in the meeting,” one Israeli official told Axios. According to more, “The Israeli official also said Netanyahu was unhappy with the fact that Harris criticized Israel publicly for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and for killing civilians, especially at the current timing amid the hostage deal negotiations.”

    Trump said going into the meeting with Netanyahu that Harris’ remarks on the Gaza war were “disrespectful”. Referencing Harris and the Biden administration, and Democrats broadly, Trump said “They weren’t very nice pertaining to Israel. I actually don’t know how a person who is Jewish could vote for her, but that’s up to them.”

    Trump also said something a bit unusual pertaining to Iran and the possibility of a future US war on Tehran…

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

    He said in social media statement that Iran must be wiped out if it ever carries out an assassination against a future President Trump.

    The comment appeared in follow-up to Netanyahu’s fiery Wednesday speech before Congress. The prime minister focused a lot of the talk on Iran, and described that it remains behind “all the terrorism” and “all the killing”. He then asserted that the Islamic Republic “brazenly threatened to assassinate President Trump.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 21:05

  • The FDA's Disastrous War Against Sleep
    The FDA’s Disastrous War Against Sleep

    Authored by ‘A Midwestern Doctor’,

    Story at-a-glance

    • The power of sleep — Proper sleep is essential for our health, and disruptions can lead to severe issues like heart attacks, psychiatric illnesses, car accidents, fatigue, diabetes, cognitive impairment, and dementia

    • A widespread epidemic — Poor sleep affects many due to a lack of understanding about its importance and the use of sedative sleeping pills that hinder healthy sleep. For instance, medical training often deprives students of sleep, despite its critical role in learning

    • The forgotten miracle drug — In 1964, a remarkably effective sleeping medication hit the market, improving conditions like insomnia and overall health. However, its success threatened other drug markets. By 1990, the FDA and media launched a campaign against it, much like the case with ivermectin, resulting in the drug becoming almost unknown and many sleep disorders remaining untreated

    • What you’ll learn — This article delves into the harms of poor sleep, explores common causes, and uncovers effective treatments for sleeping disorders

    One of the key themes I’ve tried to illustrate in my writings is that chronic illness has vastly increased over the last 150 years. A major cause of this is the disruption of the natural rhythms essential for our body’s self-regulation and self-repair.

    Modern Medicine (Allopathy) often overlooks this concept because it doesn’t recognize the innate health of the body. Allopathic treatments focus on stabilizing or altering the body (e.g., ICU care or surgery) and hoping it heals itself, unlike other medical systems that enhance the body’s natural recovery capacity.

    Typically, Allopathy excels with acute conditions, while a health-augmenting approach is better for chronic illnesses, an area where Allopathy often falls short. Here are three reasons why the Allopathic model dominates:

    1. Economic incentives — The Allopathic model creates many expensive treatments and diagnostics, making it highly profitable and incentivizing its dominance in the medical market.

    2. Cultural psychology — Our culture’s need to control and understand everything leads to methods that dominate nature rather than work harmoniously with it, oppose the philosophy of trusting the body’s natural healing.

    3. Research bias — Medical research favors treatments that show immediate, observable changes (like lowering blood pressure) rather than those that promote gradual, long-term recovery, skewing the focus towards pharmaceutical interventions.

    The Impact of Natural Rhythms on Health

    The health of the body relies heavily on the normal functioning of self-regulating cycles:

    • Breathing — Slow, smooth, nasal breathing profoundly impacts health and longevity by regulating many critical physiological functions.

    • Sunlight — Regular exposure to sunlight is vital for health, and its absence doubles the risk of mortality and can lead to conditions like depression or cancer.

    • Physical activity — Regular exercise is crucial, and a sedentary lifestyle leads to significant health issues. Those who walk daily often experience dramatically improved longevity.

    • Mental rest — The mind needs to alternate between rest and activity, but modern life often forces constant thinking and stress.

    In short, many of the natural rhythms our bodies rely upon for self-regulation are heavily disrupted in modern society, which in turn results in a variety of consistent derangements to normal physiology that are now seen throughout the population.

    The Importance of Sleep

    Throughout my career, I’ve met many integrative practitioners who emphasize normalizing their patient’s sleep as a crucial step in treating chronic illness. Sleep is a foundational process for restoring health, yet patients with chronic illnesses often suffer from disrupted sleep cycles, which can be challenging to correct.

    Sleep is a tightly regulated cycle, highly responsive to environmental signals and essential for maintaining other critical body rhythms. During sleep, the body cycles through different phases, each with critical functions: deep NREM sleep heals the brain and drains toxins, while REM sleep consolidates memories and processes emotions. A typical sleep cycle goes as follows:

    Note: Since REM sleep predominates later at night, not sleeping long enough disproportionately disrupts REM sleep. NREM sleep is responsible for eliminating unnecessary memories, whereas REM sleep processes the day’s experiences and reinforces them into long-term memory.

    Matthew Walker is one of the world’s most vocal sleep researchers. In his book Why We Sleep, he argues that sleep serves several vital functions, including:

     

    Any individual, no matter what age, will exhibit physical ailments, mental health instability, reduced alertness, and impaired memory if their sleep is chronically disrupted.

     

    Even when controlling for factors such as body mass index, gender, race, history of smoking, frequency of exercise, and medications, the lower an older individual’s sleep efficiency score, the higher their mortality risk, the worse their physical health, the more likely they are to suffer from depression, the less energy they report, and the lower their cognitive function, typified by forgetfulness.

    The Sleep Crisis

    Adequate sleep requires:

    1. Sufficient time set aside for sleep.

    2. Ability to fall asleep quickly.

    3. Cycling through all sleep phases once asleep.

    Adults generally need 7 to 9 hours per night, with infants and children needing more. Unfortunately, many people don’t get enough sleep, contributing to widespread health issues.

    Key points:

    • Gallup poll 57% of Americans want more sleep; only 42% get enough.

    • 35.5% of American adults sleep less 7 hours per night; 30% have insomnia symptoms.

    • 13.5% of adults feel tired most days; 10 days of 6-hour deficient sleep is equivalent to 24 hours of being awake (no sleep).

    • Sleep Apnea affects 9% to 38% of the population.

    • 30% to 48% of the elderly have insomnia symptoms, and 12% to 20% have insomnia disorders. Aging reduces sleep efficiency and quality and increases nighttime awakenings.

    Sleeping Pills

    Despite a $65 billion annual market for sleep aids in the U.S.24 and a $432 billion global “sleep economy” 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders. The pandemic worsened sleep for over half of Americans in 2020, and 76% admitted to buying sleep aids.

    The problem lies in the nature of most sleeping pills: they are sedatives, not sleep aids. They sedate the brain, impairing its ability to initiate restorative sleep, leaving users tired and at risk for health issues.

    Studies have shown that sleeping pill users are significantly more likely to die early and develop cancer. For example, one study found a twofold increase in mortality for sleeping pill users, with another study reporting a 3.6 to 5.4 times higher death rate for users over 2.5 years, and an increased cancer risk of 7% to 99%.

    This in turn, led the authors to conclude that in 2010, prescription sleeping pills “may have been associated with 320,000 to 507,000 excess deaths within the USA alone.”

    Most prescription sleeping pills, like Ambien, are “sedative hypnotics” similar to benzodiazepines (e.g., Valium), which are addictive and often used long-term despite being intended for short-term use. Over-the-counter options, like Benadryl or Unisom, are antihistamines that also disrupt the sleep cycle. Alcohol, with a similar mechanism to benzodiazepines, is another addictive sedative that inhibits sleep long after being ingested.

    Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate

    While most sleeping medications are unsafe and ineffective, one drug, gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), has shown remarkable results. Developed in 1874, GHB was marketed in Europe as an intravenous anesthetic in 1964. Despite its benefits, it wasn’t practical for surgeries but was useful in intensive care due to its unique properties:

     

    Decades of research followed and demonstrated GHB’s extraordinary properties and low toxicity. It metabolizes to succinate and water, has a high LD50, and no deaths have been conclusively attributed to it. GHB is a powerful sleep aid, restoring deep sleep cycles and leaving individuals refreshed — in many cases after just 3 to 4 hours of sleep.

     

    As more scientists (and then members of the public) began exploring the drug, according to Ward Dean MD29 (who provided extensive references to support his claims), through decades of research, they found a variety of benefits from GHB including:

    Given these remarkable benefits and the decades of research supporting its use, why has no one ever heard of it?

    The Ivermectin of Sleep Medicines

    The medical industry often uses public relations to create campaigns that generate profits at the expense of public health.

    For instance, dermatologists rebranded themselves as skin cancer fighters, spreading hysteria about skin cancer and sunlight dangers. This transformed dermatology into a lucrative field, despite the essential health benefits of sunlight. Similarly, during COVID-19, the FDA downplayed the benefits of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, creating unwarranted fear and blocking their use.

    GHB’s story mirrors this pattern. In the early 1990s, as it gained popularity as a supplement (largely due to bodybuilders recognizing the value of it increasing growth hormone in the body), the FDA and CDC publicized adverse reactions to it, despite no fatalities (e.g., hospital doctors misinterpreted the brief deep sleep it created as a coma requiring intubation).

    As recounted by Ward Dean MD, this led to an FDA ban, highly deceptive press releases, and a variety of illegal enforcement actions that were eventually overturned in court.

    The FDA then helped create a media hysteria over GHB, fueled by comparisons to Rohypnol (“Roofies”) and made up GHB tragedies, which led to its portrayal as a dangerous date-rape drug. This culminated in a 2000 Federal anti-date rape drug law 2000 that made GHB a Schedule I drug, while simultaneously enshrining a pharmaceutical GHB preparation as a Schedule III drug.

    Note: To be a Schedule I drug, the substance cannot have an acceptable medical use, which is hence irreconcilable with the FDA-approved preparation of it being a Schedule III drug.

    In reality, GHB was rarely involved in sexual assaults and had a distinct easily detectable taste. Misleading media reports and government actions overshadowed the actual data and research. Most remarkably GHB, Rohypnol (Roofies) avoided similar bans due to effective lobbying by its manufacturer, is still a schedule IV drug in America (where it was never brought to market), and remains legal in many countries. Here, Comedian Jimmy Dore covers the GHB saga in more detail:

    The Aftermath

    Because of this debacle, it became almost impossible to get GHB, and many leading integrative doctors at the time were disgusted with the FDA as they saw how much GHB benefitted their patients and treated a variety of immensely challenging illnesses.

    Patients occasionally ask me for GHB, and I sadly have to explain the criminal penalties associated with Schedule I drugs. Ironically, while GHB was outlawed, the off-patent and easy to manufacture schedule III pharmaceutical preparation of it sodium oxybate38 (Xyrem), remained legal but is prohibitively expensive, costing between $60,000 to $100,000 annually, a figure desperate patients will pay for this live changing medication.

    Despite evidence supporting GHB’s efficacy for conditions like alcohol addiction, fibromyalgia, and numerous debilitating sleep disorders,41 efforts to change the FDA’s perception of GHB as merely a date-rape drug have been unsuccessful.

    At the same time, underground GHB use has persisted, both recreationally and amongst certain patient groups (e.g., veterans with PTSD) due to its unique effects (e.g., enhanced sensory experiences and sociability alongside its myriad of remarkable therapeutic benefits). Here, Joe Rogan and Jimmy Dore discuss where things currently stand with GHB:

    Overall, one of the most extraordinary things about the GHB saga is that its many benefits discovered over the decades of research it received were then subsequently rediscovered by the sleep research community. This again illustrates how often the research we really need (and hence spend billions on each year) already exists but was simply buried due to it being inconvenient for the industry.

    More than anything else, I believe the GHB story demonstrates the importance of not being overly biased. For example, while many doctors hold a strong prejudice against any “natural” (e.g., nondrug) therapy, I am the opposite and typically avoid using pharmaceutical drugs because of how frequently I find their harms outweigh their benefits.

    Nonetheless, I periodically find extraordinary drugs I take a hard look at and end up using throughout my medical practice. Sadly, as the war against ivermectin showed the world, the primary motivation behind most of medicine is money, and as a result, whenever a highly beneficial drug is discovered that competes with existing drugs, the medical industry moves to bury it, regardless of how much evidence there is in support of it.

    Note: The existing research on GHB is discussed in further detail here.

    Sleep Hygiene

    Let’s now look at other options for improving sleep. One of the most tried and true ones is to change the signals your body receives so it can go to sleep on its own. Here are key approaches:

    1. Regulate circadian rhythm — The body’s natural cycle, governed by processes like adenosine buildup and circadian cues, signals when to sleep. Consistency in sleep and waking times is an essential piece of good sleep hygiene. Following environmental cues and natural cycles is ideal but often disrupted by modern lifestyles.

    2. Address sleep barriers — Factors like age-related brain damage or fluid obstructions hinder sleep. Remedies such as electrically improving the body’s fluid circulation or reducing EMF exposure can help.

    3. Avoid disruptive substances — Caffeine and alcohol, by blocking adenosine receptors or disrupting sleep cycles, impair sleep quality. Their effects linger due to varying metabolic rates, exacerbating sleep issues, especially as metabolism slows with age. One of the most intriguing data points I’ve seen about the effects of caffeine came from this NASA study.

    4. Temperature management — Natural temperature drops aid sleep onset, making cooler environments conducive to rest. Techniques like cooling baths or sleeping in cooler rooms promote better sleep quality.

    Note: One of the most interesting approaches to overcoming the temperature barrier for sleep was a study that found using a customized suit to externally drop people’s temperature made it much easier for them to sleep (especially in the elderly).

    5. Manage light exposure — Blue light from screens disrupts melatonin secretion, crucial for sleep regulation. Using blue light filters, minimizing screen time before bed, and creating darker sleep environments support healthy sleep patterns.

    6. Behavioral adjustments — Establishing bedrooms as sleep sanctuaries, maintaining consistent sleep-wake schedules, and practicing relaxation techniques before bed enhance sleep quality. Physical activity during the day and avoiding stimulating activities close to bedtime also aid in achieving restful sleep.

    Note: Many people find cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to be extremely helpful for insomnia and there is now significant evidence to support it being a first-line therapy.

    7. Diet and lifestyle — Maintaining a balanced diet, avoiding late-night eating, and monitoring caffeine intake play roles in promoting restorative sleep. Keeping a sleep journal can help identify triggers contributing to insomnia.

    By addressing these facets, we can optimize sleep environments and routines, fostering healthier sleep patterns, without being dependent on the sleeping pill industry, and despite the absence of healthy therapeutic options (GHB) for more serious physiological ailments and sleep dysfunctions.

    Conclusion

    One of the things I’ve repeatedly heard people say through COVID-19 was “if they did this with ivermectin (or hydroxychloroquine), what else have they done this with?” Here, I provide one such example, and sadly, the GHB story is by no means an isolated example (e.g., others are discussed here).

    However, while the GHB story is atrocious, on one level I am grateful for it, as had a safe and effective cure for insomnia existed, we likely would have never been forced to learn what the actual underlying causes of sleep impairment are, and likewise, our society would have never conducted the research which demonstrated just how critically important sleep is.

    Sadly, one of the greatest problems in medicine is that it typically takes 17 years for scientific discoveries to change the practice of medicine. In turn, despite the dire need for improved sleep in society, it is unlikely this problem will be addressed by the mainstream for a long time (even in areas like intellectually based professions or education where the cognitive impairment resulting from poor sleep is highly counterproductive to the goals of the institution).

    I hope the knowledge provided here has given you an appreciation for the importance of healthy sleep and a few helpful approaches you can incorporate into your life!

    Author’s note: This is an abbreviated version of a full-length article that takes a deeper look into the causes and treatments of insomnia. For the entire read with much more specific details and sources, please click here.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 20:40

  • Former Aide To NY Governor Hochul's House Raided By FBI
    Former Aide To NY Governor Hochul’s House Raided By FBI

    A home of a former aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was raided by the FBI earlier this week, according to NBC. 

    The Manhasset house was owned by Linda Sun, who served as the deputy chief of staff to the governor, the report says. 

    The FBI commented earlier this week stating it had carried out “court-authorized law enforcement activity”, but refusing to provide further details. 

    NBC reported that per her LinkedIn profile, Sun served as a senior advisor on business development, legislative priorities, and “constituent affair engagement” while deputy chief of staff from 2021-22, overseeing executive operations.

    After working for the governor, Sun transitioned to the role of deputy commissioner for strategic business development at the state Department of Labor.

    In May 2023, she began working as a campaign manager, creating a budget for advertising.

    Earlier this year, the FBI also raided the homes of Winnie Greco, a staffer for New York City Mayor Eric Adams, in the Bronx, according to the Associated Press.

    Greco, a former fundraiser and current director of Asian affairs for the mayor, was under investigation following allegations she promised an employee a job in exchange for renovating her kitchen, as reported by The City.

    Last year, the FBI also raided the homes of Brianna Suggs, a fundraiser for Adams, and Rana Abbasova from the mayor’s international affairs office, according to the Associated Press.

    A spokesperson for Adams stated that the mayor expects ethical behavior from all employees.

    Adams’ spokesperson said: “Our administration will always follow the law, and we always expect all our employees to adhere to the strictest ethical guidelines.”

    “As we have repeatedly said, we don’t comment on matters that are under review, but will fully cooperate with any review underway.”

    What is going on in New York?

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 20:15

  • On Kamala's "Inspiring" Backstory & The Big Lie About "Unity"
    On Kamala’s “Inspiring” Backstory & The Big Lie About “Unity”

    Authored by James Hickman via SchiffSovereign.com,

    The year was 1994.

    Former NFL superstar OJ Simpson has just fled from police in the infamous low speed chase in his white Ford Bronco. Pulp Fiction was playing in the cinemas.

    And 29 year old Kamala Harris began dating one of the most powerful politicians in the State of California— Willie Brown.

    Brown had been in politics for decades at that point and has risen to become the Speaker of California State Assembly, then Mayor of San Francisco.

    (And despite having spent his entire adult life in politics, Brown somehow managed to amass a collection of $6,000 suits and expensive sports cars.)

    Willie Brown was also at 60 years of age back in 1994 (he’s 90 now), three decades older than his girlfriend Kamala.

    Obviously she was in it for love. I’m sure that’s the case.

    But it just so happened that, barely a few months into their steamy relationship, Speaker Willie Brown appointed Kamala to multiple, senior-level positions in the state, including a seat on the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and the Medical Assistance Commission.

    I’m also sure that Brown appointed his girlfriend due entirely to her competence, and absolutely no other reason whatsoever.

    These appointments, along with Sugar Daddy’s public support and endorsement, were integral in Harris’s later campaign to become San Francisco District Attorney, then Attorney General of California in 2010.

    Willie Brown also endorsed her for Senate when she declared her candidacy in 2016, and was instrumental in securing her top endorsements, including from Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

    Again, all of this success was clearly due exclusively to Kamala’s tremendous competence and nothing more.

    Now, a lot of people have been remarking lately that Kamala is a DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) hire.

    But that’s completely unfair.

    Talk about a low blow. I mean, Kamala’s critics have completely missed the point that this woman— who claims to embody female empowerment— got her start by having sex with a powerful California politician 30 years her senior.

    So let’s give credit where credit is due: she slept her way to the top well before she became a DEI hire.

    In fact it wasn’t until she was picked to be Joe Biden’s running mate that she started benefiting from the DEI obsession.

    Curiously, it is now considered racist to even bring this up. CNN has decided that calling Vice President Kamala Harris a “DEI Candidate” is a “pseudonym for the N-word” and “racist dog whistle”.

    That’s absurd. Joe Biden’s entire presidency has been about promoting DEI candidates, and he admitted this himself recently when he said:

    “To me the values of Diversity, Equality, Inclusion are literally— and that’s not kidding— the core strengths of America. That’s why I’m proud to have the most diverse administration in history that taps into the full talents of our country. It starts at the top with the Vice President.”

    Biden also made it perfectly clear in 2020 that he wanted to select a woman of color as his running mate.

    So why exactly is it controversial to assert that Kamala was a DEI hire? Is it also controversial that the sky is blue, or that Michael Jordan was an exceptional basketball player?

    But these people in charge have a way of acting offended about even the most basic and obvious truths. It’s quite a talent.

    Speaking of talent, Kamala has none.

    Whenever she opens her mouth, she is as incompressible as Joe Biden yet without the excuse of age and dementia. Like this gem:

    “So I think it’s very important… for us, at every moment in time, and certainly this one, to see the moment in time in which we exist and are present, and to be able to contextualize it, to understand where we exist in the history and in the moment as it relates not only to the past, but the future.”

    This is also the person that was put in charge of the border security, which has been a total disaster. But in her televised explanation, she justified having not been to the border by saying she hadn’t been to Europe either.

    Wow, really racking up those foreign policy credentials!

    And on the topic of foreign policy, check out this inspiring quote as Kamala showcased her encyclopedic understanding of European affairs:

    “Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine, so, basically, that’s wrong.”

    Note that this wasn’t an interview on Nickelodeon or some event with elementary school kids. This was an actual response in a real interview about the war in Ukraine.

    One of my favorite Kamala stories, though, is when she visited Puerto Rico earlier this year.

    Protesters were in the streets of San Juan, singing in Spanish. Kamala merrily clapped along, until an aide quietly whispered that the song was protesting her visit as a representation of the federal government’s “colonization” of Puerto Rico.

    Her track record as a prosecutor is also far from impressive.

    As the Attorney General of California, she prosecuted and incarcerated cannabis users. But in 2019, asked if she herself had ever smoked weed, she cackled and said, “I have. And I inhaled.”

    In 2014, Kamala’s office argued to keep non-violent inmates (including from minor drug convictions) locked up so that the state would have free prison labor to fight wildfires.

    But Kamala would prefer that her Black Lives Matters voters forget about all that.

    The Big Lie they are now force-feeding us is that the party of democracy is energized and united around Kamala Harris.

    Personally I think they are terrified and desperate. Deep down they know this woman is an incompetent buffoon. And more importantly, they are still incredibly fractured.

    Just look what the radical left has been doing this very week.

    Their Marxist foot soldiers have been busy burning American flags, defacing public monuments, and hoisting Hamas flags, while chanting “Allahu Akbar!” in the streets. Curiously most of them are white atheist 20-somethings from upper-middle class upbringings.

    And some of the Left’s most prominent politicians boycotted a speech given by the Prime Minister of Israel— one of America’s strongest allies during its time of war.

    This continues to look like a group that is completely out of touch, but insists that they have everything under control… which is pretty much par for the course given the last few years under Biden.

    Having said all that, it would be foolish to think they won’t pull out all the stops— continue to create all the propaganda, tell whatever lie, manufacture whatever hoax, and suppress whatever truth is necessary to win.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 19:50

  • 22 Year Old Arrested For Allegedly Stealing Seattle Fire Truck
    22 Year Old Arrested For Allegedly Stealing Seattle Fire Truck

    A 22-year-old man was arrested this week after allegedly stealing a Seattle Fire Department truck, according to KOMO. 

    On Wednesday morning, the man rode a scooter to the truck, entered it, activated the lights and sirens, and attempted to drive away around 3:30 a.m. on the 9200 block of Second Avenue Southwest.

    The suspect couldn’t deactivate the parking brake and only managed to drive around the corner before exiting the vehicle, the report said. 

    A witness reported seeing a man on a scooter ride up to a fire engine, get on, and drive away with its lights and sirens on, additional reporting said. 

    Police then arrived, confirmed with Seattle Fire Department employees that a fire engine had been stolen.

    “The firetruck involved was from South Park-based Engine 26, as noted by the SFD incident log,” the West Seattle Blog reported.

    The man was arrested and booked into King County Jail for motor vehicle theft. According to police, the truck was returned to the Seattle Fire Department.

    Hoodline reported that this incident is the suspect’s ninth arrest in nine months.

    Previous arrests led to short stints in custody, except for his most recent one from June 20 to July 1 for two stolen-vehicle cases, with hearings set for early August.

    Despite frequent arrests, he has no past felony convictions.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 19:25

  • In Defense Of Standardized Testing
    In Defense Of Standardized Testing

    Authored by John Hilton-O’Brien via The Epoch Times,

    There’s been a lot of noise about getting rid of standardized exams. Supposedly, minorities are at a disadvantage with them. Consequently, the argument runs, doing away with standardized exams will allow more minorities to enter into prestigious career paths, enhancing “social justice.”

    If you look more closely at the history of standardized exams, however, this isn’t true.  Instead, getting rid of standardized exams serves the interests of an elite class—and will permanently lock minorities and entire classes of people out of social advancement.

    Standardized tests have already been eliminated in a number of places. Oregon, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire no longer have bar exams. The University of California no longer uses Standardized Admission Tests as part of its entrance requirement, just like SUNY and an association of Ivy League universities. And in Canada, many provinces are decreasing the use of standardized tests.

    But here’s the problem. Without the tests, how do we decide who gets admitted to university?

    (Unless, as in the movie “Idiocracy,” we get rid of them.)

    How do we decide who becomes a lawyer or a doctor?

    The most famous example of a standardized exam is the Public Service Commission Test used to vet applications for government civil service. If we do away with those, how do we decide who is qualified to become a public servant?

    Civil service examinations have been around for thousands of years. Imperial China used the examinations to allow young men from any social class or background to enter the imperial bureaucracy. Before that, and during dynasties where the exams were not used, entry into the patrician or bureaucratic class had been restricted by birth.

    Of course, entry still wasn’t easy. In imperial China, even more than today, you wouldn’t have the resources to study for the difficult standard exams unless you had access to money. Then, as now, money was a good indicator of success.

    But the point is that money wasn’t the only indicator. In fact, the imperial system came to run the exams as a double blind, going so far as to have exam responses copied out by another person, to ensure that nobody received favourable grading because a grader recognized their calligraphy.

    The China’s worst times are instructive for us, too. When the Mongol Yuan dynasty took over, they did away with the exams. When they returned them, only 25 percent of the exam seats were allotted to the majority Han Chinese ethnicity. How did they decide which Han wrote the exams? Letters of reference, of course, from existing bureaucrats or their Mongol overlords. Without open standardized exams, in other words, advancement was based on who you knew.

    That’s becoming true in the West today—complete with attempts at Yuan-style race-based admissions.

    As anybody who has ever applied to an elite university knows, reference letters are already important. If you’re entering a profession like medicine or law, a good reference letter can mean the difference between getting that coveted residency and not. Reference letters already reinforce pedigree—what university or prep school you attended. Even admissions specialists who hate reference letters admit they make a difference—and expensive prep schools write much better reference letters.

    In the absence of standardized tests and grading, reference letters will become even more important. And how are those rated? By who wrote them. The letter from an elite prep school is noticed as a letter from an elite school, regardless of content, and that tells the admissions expert what she or he needs to know.

    Who decides who becomes a lawyer? The partners in the law firms. And how will they choose their candidates? In the absence of a standardized bar exam, admission will depend on who the partners know. The same is true for doctors.

    If we wind up doing away with the public service admission tests, worse will follow.  Imagine a government whose civil service is hired based on who they know. The West has been here before—but not since the days of the absolute monarchs.

    So, who benefits from ending standardized tests? We suspect it is not the students.

    There is a sort of feedback loop inside the education industry, when the same people designing the curriculum are the ones testing for it. Internal tests such as “performance-based assessment” check only to see if the students can do what the teacher told them to do.  They don’t check to see if it will help the student in the environment that they are going to. In other words, little Suzy may consistently get top marks for her “holistic” language arts classes—but when she graduates, outsiders find that she can’t read or write.

    Externally administered standardized tests are the best way to make sure that the education system helps anyone aside from the teachers’ unions.

    You know who isn’t interested in dropping standardized test scores? Minorities who aren’t part of the “favoured” few. Part of the reason that elite U.S. universities are dropping standardized exams is that the U.S. Supreme Court told them that they couldn’t have race-based admission courses that left Asian-American students out in the cold. Dropping standardized tests allows universities to engage in discrimination without legal pushback. The racial policies of the Yuan and Qin dynasties live again in the Ivy League.

    Today, the abandonment of standardized testing is done specifically to disadvantage poor whites, as well as Asian students. The official reason given is that institutions—which claim to be guided by the highest ideals—can favour African American and Hispanic students in the United States, and (hopefully) First Nations in Canada. In the name of social justice, of course.

    But without standardized tests, admission decisions are arbitrary. Tomorrow, African-Americans, Hispanics, and First Nations may find that not all of them are favoured. Instead, favour will go to particular African American families, particular Hispanic families, and particular First Nations families. Skin tone doesn’t tell us the real story here.

    The simple truth of North American society is that we are developing a class system.  Those trying to get rid of standardized testing tell us outright that their motive is to decide who joins their social class of educated functionaries. They are trying to restrict entry. They are trying to become a self-selecting aristocracy.

    The only mechanism that ensures everyone with academic ability can have access to universities, professions, and civil service is standardized exams. We abandon them at our peril.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 19:00

  • Manhattan DA Argues Trump Case Not Affected By Supreme Court Immunity Ruling
    Manhattan DA Argues Trump Case Not Affected By Supreme Court Immunity Ruling

    Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has argued in a new court filing that former President Trump’s criminal case and guilty verdict are not affected by the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity.

    Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (L) steps away after speaking to the media after a jury found former President Donald Trump guilty of falsifying business records in New York City on May 30, 2024. (Seth Wenig/AP Photo)

    “That decision has no bearing on this prosecution and would not support vacatur of the jury’s unanimous verdict (let alone dismissal of the indictment) even if its reasoning did apply here,” reads a July 24 brief from Bragg’s team.

    Earlier this month the Supreme Court ruled in a separate case that presidents enjoy absolute immunity for core constitutional conduct, presumptive immunity for official acts, but no immunity for unofficial acts – which Bragg has seized on in his response to a Trump filing asking New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to toss Trump’s indictment, arguing that communications between Trump and his aides have been used as evidence before the grand jury which indicted Trump and a jury which returned a guilty verdict.

    According to Bragg’s team, all of the criminal charges in Trump’s ‘hush money’ case “stem from the defendant’s ‘unofficial acts’ – conduct for which ‘there is no immunity.'”

    As the Epoch Times notes further, the affected evidence is only a “sliver” if the “mountains of testimony and documentary proof that the jury considered,” therefore not warranting dismissal.

    Timing of Objections

    Prosecutors had relied on testimony of White House Communications Director Hope Hicks and Oval Office Director of Operations Madeleine Westerhout to establish that President Trump had signed Trump Organization checks at the White House.

    Defense attorneys had raised presidential immunity objections to Ms. Hicks’s testimony, and Justice Merchan had overruled the objections. The defense had also objected during Ms. Westerhout’s testimony, but not specifically citing presidential immunity.

    Prosecutors had also shown several social media posts made by President Trump during his time in office, some directly addressing allegations after his former attorney Michael Cohen was charged for financial crimes.

    Defense attorneys had objected to the admission of these quotes, but not on the basis of presidential immunity.

    Prosecutors argue defendants failed to preserve a record of objections based on immunity for official acts, and this “precludes this Court from considering any claim to vacate his conviction.”

    Prior to the trial, attorneys for President Trump did file a presidential immunity motion. Justice Merchan had dismissed the motion, ruling that defense attorneys could make individual objections against the admission of specific evidence during the trial and that he did not believe the motion was filed in good faith. The judge had faulted defendants for not raising presidential immunity earlier, including during an attempt to remove the case to federal court.

    Prosecutors now argue that the defense “waived reliance on presidential immunity as a defense” when they tried to remove the case to federal court. They cited a separate, civil case against former President Trump in which a federal judge had ruled that presidential immunity was a waivable defense. However, the U.S. Supreme Court majority opinion held presidential immunity to be necessary to the core principle of separation of powers.

    Charges

    Former President Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, and prosecutors argued that even excluding the contested evidence, the grand jury evidence establishes these charges.

    The 34 records are 11 checks to Mr. Cohen and their corresponding invoices and vouchers, including one repeated record after the initial one was lost. Prosecutors argue that the grand jury record establishes that these are business records, that they contain false entries, that former President Trump caused or made the entries, and that he “acted with intent to defraud.”

    “Even excluding all of the evidence defendant belatedly identifies as immune, the grand jury record is easily sufficient to support the indictment,” the brief reads.

    Justice Merchan has scheduled former President Trump’s sentencing in the case to Sept. 18. The judge is expected to issue a ruling on the presidential immunity arguments by then.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 18:40

  • Lies…
    Lies…

    Authored by W.J.Astore via BracingViews.com,

    They’re Everywhere in America

    Soon after Joe Biden took office as president in 2021, I remember hearing that his VP, Kamala Harris, was put in charge of immigration, informally known as the “border czar.” Yesterday, the House passed a resolution condemning Harris for her handling of the border crisis. Yet I’ve also been hearing from Democrats and the media that Harris never was the border czar, even as there’s plenty of video evidence of networks like ABC, CBS, and NBC referring to her using that term.

    Denying that Harris was the border czar is a fairly small lie immersed in much larger sea of lies, and of course it’s a bipartisan effort. Donald Trump exaggerates and lies just to stay in shape. Democrats love to attack Trump for lying even as they lie themselves. Truly, it’s hard to run a government and a country when lies confuse every issue.

    Another lie being told about Kamala Harris is that her candidacy is the result of democracy in action. She’s the people’s choice! Except almost nobody voted for her as a presidential candidate. She’s been elevated and selected by the DNC and the donor class. She is a packaged product of the so-called elites within the party, the very opposite of a candidate chosen by the people. And yet I’m told this packaged product is going to “save democracy” from Trump, who was actually selected as a candidate in a more democratic process.

    Of course, there are far bigger and more serious lies than whether Harris was the border czar or whether she’s the people’s choice as the savior of democracy. U.S. troops’ deadliest enemies, I’d argue, are most often the lies told by the U.S. government, abetted and amplified by senior officers in the military. Think here of Iraq and Afghanistan, or go back further to Vietnam.

    Daniel Ellsberg, truth-teller about the Vietnam War and so many other things

    Knowing (or sensing/feeling) you killed for lies, or knowing your friends died for lies, is surely a contributing cause to a rash of suicides in the U.S. military today. The sacrifices and horrors of war may be eased by a “just” war, like World War II, but they are aggravated by unjust wars.  And they are further aggravated when you try to get help through the VA only to be turned away or stonewalled.

    All this is prologue to a note I received from a regular reader of Bracing Views about lies in America. I’ve decided to retain the profanity because it’s more than appropriate:

    I don’t know about you, but I find it quite amazing that, despite decades of bold-faced lying about US wars, all of it proven and even reported in the NYT and other mainstream media, the narrative of the each subsequent war is always accepted as true, until it too is exposed as being nothing but lies.

    Let’s look at the recent record:

    1) Vietnam–exposed as nothing but lies by the Pentagon Papers.

    2) Iraq–exposed as lies when the infamous WMD were never found and there was nothing found to back up the claim of links to Al Qaeda.

    3) Afghanistan–exposed as pure fiction as revealed by the Washington Post “Afghanistan Papers” which said that “senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable.”

    Add to the above list the fact that the Mueller report investigating the Russiagate hoax came up with nothing, ZERO.

    Currently, there are a couple of new false narratives duly reported by the mainstream media and, for the most part, swallowed by most people. First is the false narrative about the US war in Ukraine, that NATO expansion has nothing to do with it but rather was caused by naked Russian aggression and Putin’s plans to re-create the Soviet Union and take over the rest of Eastern Europe. Second, the false narrative that Israel is just defending itself against Palestinian terrorism rather than committing grotesque war crimes, completely ignoring the fact that the Israelis have been keeping the Palestinians under illegal occupation for over 50 years, since June 1967. 

    Lie after lie after lie after lie. And yet none of it matters. It is all sent down the memory hole as if it never happened. And then it is on to the next war, when the official narrative spewed out by the DC blob will once again be swallowed hook, line and sinker. It appears to be never ending. No matter how much lying is exposed, it simply does not matter.

    I think it is pretty fucking amazing. What will it take to get people to come out of their coma and realize what the fuck is going on?

    And keep in mind…..it has nothing to do with party affiliation. The lying is endemic, it’s in the DNA of the National Security State. Presidents come and go, but the lying for war-making never stops. And no one is ever held accountable either. 

    It’s pretty fucking impressive, when you think about it.

    Keep this is in mind……one would think that, after this abhorrent track record, the appropriate response would be to assume that the narrative justifying the new war of the moment was not true and nothing but more of the same lying. But that NEVER happens. NEVER.

    How is that possible? Is it just a serious form of denial? Is it due to mental illness? Is it just some perverted form of patriotism? In what other realm is it possible to lie non-stop and never be held accountable? Even worse, to continue to have credibility despite a track record of pathological lying? 

    A friend of mine pointed out that, in the old USSR, people knew that the official news on their TV every night was nothing but lies. 

    So, this begs the question: Which system is more pernicious and has more effectively brainwashed its people? The one where people are controlled but they are aware that they are being fed nothing but lies, or the one that is constantly lied to but the people still believe they are being told the truth?

    To those keen insights, I made this reply:

    Our [American] system of lying is better! We have state/corporate media too, it’s just more subtle and advertised as “free.” We have our own “Pravda” except it rarely tells the truth, unless that “truth” is in the interests of the powerful.

    To which our BV keen reader replied:

    Exactly. But to suggest that we have our own version of “Pravda,” only worse because it has the cover of supposedly being “free,” is tantamount to treason, you realize.

    This is the reason why Julian Assange/Wikileaks was such a threat…for actually challenging the right of the National Security State to lie non-stop about its war making and never be exposed for its lying or held accountable.

    Of course, that is exactly why Assange was locked away in prison for so long and tortured, not because he was spreading lies but because he was revealing truths.

    And we can’t have that in America!

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 18:20

  • Arizona State Senator Claims "Political Persecution" After Ticketed Doing 71 MPH In A 35 MPH Zone
    Arizona State Senator Claims “Political Persecution” After Ticketed Doing 71 MPH In A 35 MPH Zone

    After being caught driving 71 in a 35 mph zone, Arizona State Senator Justine Wadsack is claiming she is the victim of “political persecution”. 

    As a result, she’s refusing the sign the citation, according to reports from Jalopnik, citing the Tucson Sentinel. 

    According to the report, in Arizona, driving 20 mph or more over the speed limit is a Class 3 misdemeanor. The penalties include up to 30 days in jail, up to a year of probation, a $500 fine, and three points on your license.

    And in further proof our politicians get too much leeway, the incident occurred in March, but Wadsack wasn’t ticketed due to her legislative immunity. Legislators can be charged after the session ends, which this year was on June 15.

    At that point, when the Tucson PD tried to have her sign the citation, and officer said she “immediately became defensive and argued that she was in fact not speeding.”

    The officer continued: “I explained that there was probable cause to issue her a citation for criminal speeding and that she could present her arguments to the judge; however, she refused to meet to sign the citation and said she would not accept it.”

    She was “also was upset that she was being cited several months after the fact and I explained that was due to the legislative session was ongoing at the time of the traffic stop (thus legislative immunity to be issued a ticket on March 15) however it did not prevent her from receiving a ticket once the legislative session adjourned.” 

    Then, she demanded to speak with the manager with the chief of police and claimed “political persecution”. 

    City attorney Mike Rankin commented: “Citing someone – Ms. Wadsack or anyone else – for putting other people in danger by driving at speeds more than 20 miles per hour above the posted speed limit within city limits is not ‘persecution.’ It is prosecution.”

    When asked why she was driving more than twice the speed limit, Wadsack claimed she was rushing home because her 2015 Tesla Model S had a low battery.

    This excuse is illogical, as electric vehicles are less efficient at high speeds. Even if she had a more plausible reason, like needing a restroom, she was still caught driving 36 mph over the limit. This behavior is reckless and dangerous, the report said, especially near the University of Arizona, where pedestrians are common.

    Additionally, Wadsack’s claimed residence raises questions. She and her husband own a home outside the district she represents. She listed an apartment in the district when running for office but now allegedly lives in a different apartment.

    When stopped, she was about 10 blocks from her house, 17 miles from one apartment, and 19 miles from the other. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 18:00

  • US Maternal Mortality Rates Remain the Highest Among High-Income Countries: Research
    US Maternal Mortality Rates Remain the Highest Among High-Income Countries: Research

    Authored by George Citroner via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The United States continues to lead developed nations in maternal deaths, with some experts calling the recent rise unprecedented despite spending trillions on health care.

    Mental health issues, racial disparities, and a shortage of specialized care providers all contribute to this “crisis,” according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund, an independent research foundation that focuses on health care issues.

    (Sopotnicki/Shutterstock)

    A Shortage of Health Care Professionals

    The recent analysis showed that the United States had a maternal mortality rate of 22 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2022, significantly higher than other high-income countries—often more than doubling or even tripling their figures, according to the report. Half of the countries in the analysis reported fewer than five maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.

    The increase is “stunning and unprecedented,” Dr. James Thorp, an obstetrician-gynecologist at the Sisters of St. Mary’s Health System in Saint Louis, Missouri, told The Epoch Times, referring to an increase in maternal deaths over the past few years. “And it really went … kind of unrecognized, kind of just slipped under the door, so to speak,” he noted.

    Maternal mortality is defined as the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of pregnancy’s end from any cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its management, excluding accidental or incidental causes. About 75 percent of maternal deaths worldwide are caused by severe bleeding, infections, high blood pressure during pregnancy, complications from delivery, and unsafe abortion, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

    In the United States, most maternal deaths occur during the postpartum period—especially the late postpartum period between 43 and 365 days after birth, as per the Commonwealth Fund’s research. This is a critical time when women face increased risks of severe bleeding, high blood pressure, and infection.

    The analysis highlights a shortage of maternal care providers in the United States, with just 16 midwives and obstetricians per 1,000 live births. Comprehensive postpartum support, including home visits from midwives and nurses, is vital to address maternal and mental health concerns and assess social health drivers, the authors wrote.

    The findings support those of a 2020 study published in The Lancet Global Health, which suggested that integrating midwives into health care delivery could provide 80 percent of essential maternal care, potentially reducing maternal deaths by 22 percent, neonatal deaths by almost 23 percent, and stillbirths by 14 percent.

    Many Factors Contribute to the Increase

    Several complex factors contribute to the high maternal mortality rates in the United States. These include an aging demographic, the ongoing obesity epidemic, and associated health problems.

    Research shows that more people are having children later in life or are becoming pregnant with chronic conditions such as obesity or cardiovascular disease. These factors increase the risk of complications during pregnancy and childbirth.

    The rising rate of cesarean sections may also play a role, as this procedure has been linked to increased mortality risks for both the mother (from blood clots or complications of anesthesia) and the child.

    A report by the U.S. Centers for Control and Prevention (CDC), published in September 2022, found that mental health conditions were the most common underlying cause of pregnancy-related deaths where a cause was identified. These conditions, including death by suicide and overdose or poisoning linked to substance use disorders, contributed to 23 percent of fatalities, surpassing infection (9 percent), hemorrhage (14 percent), and cardiac conditions (13 percent).

    There is also a disparity in health care outcomes relative to spending, according to Dr. Thorp.

    The United States has higher maternal death rates than India despite spending far more on health care. While the United States spends about $14,000 per person annually, India spends only $21 per person. Yet India, with four times the U.S. population, has “a better grade than we do,” Dr. Thorp said.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 17:40

  • 51 Days Later, Two Boeing Starliner Astronauts Still Stranded On International Space Station
    51 Days Later, Two Boeing Starliner Astronauts Still Stranded On International Space Station

    There is still no return date for astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who remain stranded on the International Space Station due to thruster failures and a helium leak in their Boeing Starliner spacecraft, according to Space.com.

    On Thursday, NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich told reporters, “We don’t have a major announcement today relative to a return date,” adding, “We’re making great progress, but we’re just not quite ready to do that.”

    Stich said mission managers have yet to formulate a return date for Starliner. However, he emphasized that the ultimate goal is to bring Wilmore and Williams back to Earth on the spacecraft.

    A test-fire of Starliner’s 28-thruster reaction control system will be conducted on Saturday or Sunday. The results could determine how the space agency and Boeing should move forward and if the spacecraft is deemed usable or unusable for the return mission. 

    “We’re going to fire all those thrusters to a number of pulses, just to make sure before we undock, that whole system performs the way we expected and the way it did last time we checked it.” 

    “We’ll also get a chance to look at the helium system. It’s been six weeks since we last checked that helium system; that was on June 15. So we’ll pressurize manifold by manifold, and then hot-fire the thrusters, and then we’ll get a chance to look at the helium leak rates and verify that the system is stable,” Stich told reporters. 

    Fifty-one days ago, on June 5, Starliner’s inaugural crewed flight blasted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The low Earth orbit mission was scheduled for only a week. NASA has rated Starliner for 90 days in space.

    Starliner is one of two private spacecraft that ferry astronauts from Earth to the ISS, along with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Boeing has lagged behind Crew Dragon and Cargo Dragon for years. Starliner has faced years of challenges. 

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

    Stich admitted that one of the rescue plans under review would be using SpaceX’s Dragon capsule to return the astronauts to Earth. 

    Imagine that headline: ‘Elon Musk’s SpaceX Rescues Boeing Astronauts From ISS’…  

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 17:20

  • Rate Of Shoplifting Spikes Across US
    Rate Of Shoplifting Spikes Across US

    Authored by Eric Lundrum via American Greatness,

    The rate of shoplifting saw a noticeable increase in the first half of 2024, even as the rates of other crimes fell to levels not seen since before the pandemic.

    According to the Daily Caller, a study by the Council of Criminal Justice (CCJ) determined that shoplifting rose by 24% in 23 different cities across the country, compared to the first half of 2023. That rate is also about 10% higher than the first half of 2019.

    Meanwhile, the rates of homicide and robbery fell to lower than the levels seen in 2019.

    “Shoplifting is a theft by someone other than an employee of the victim of an item displayed for sale,” the study clarifies.

    “After a notable decline in the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic … shoplifting dropped 15% from 2019 to 2020 and declined another 10% in 2021,” the report reads.

    “Shoplifting increased 12% across the sample cities from 2022 to 2023, but by the end of 2023, the shoplifting rate was 10% lower than in 2019.”

    Several of the most prominent cities to see shoplifting increases include Boston, which saw its 11.9% rate of shoplifting in May of 2020 surge to 42.4% in June of 2024, and Chicago, which previously had a rate of 14.8% in May of 2020 but skyrocketed to 41.4% in June of 2024.

    Meanwhile, the first half of 2024 saw approximately 2% fewer homicides and 15% fewer robberies than the first half of 2019.

    “The average homicide rate for the entire sample was 2% lower in the first half of 2024 than in the same period in 2019,” the study notes.

    “The overall decline was driven by large drops in cities with traditionally high homicide rates, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. Two-thirds of the sample cities (19 out of 29) actually had homicide rates that were higher in the first half of 2024 than in 2019.”

    The spike in crime in the United States, particularly shoplifting, began in 2020 amidst the nationwide COVID lockdowns and simultaneous race riots that destroyed hundreds of businesses, caused billions in damage, and killed over two dozen civilians.

    Looting was a frequent occurrence in cities struck by racial violence, which was overwhelmingly carried out by black nationalist groups like Black Lives Matter and the far-left anarcho-communist terrorist organization Antifa. Subsequent progressive efforts to curb the power of the police, including several cities outright defunding their police departments, led to the sustained and even increased rates of shoplifting and other crimes.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 17:00

  • WTF Is Going On With The Fed's Reporting Of US Bank Deposits
    WTF Is Going On With The Fed’s Reporting Of US Bank Deposits

    The last two weeks have seen US bank total deposits rise by $33BN (on a seasonally-adjusted basis)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    But.. on a non-seasonally-adjusted basis, total US bank deposits have fallen $40BN…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Which makes us ask again – what exactly is a ‘seasonally-adjusted bank deposit’?

    But we will move on from that farce.

    Excluding foreign deposits, the picture gets even more malarkey-ful – a $9BN unadjusted deposit outflow is magically morphed into a $27BN inflow by The Fed’s fuckery.

    The unadjusted outflow was all from large banks while the adjusted deposits showed strong inflows into both large and small banks (+$19BN and +$8BN respectively).

     

    Source: Bloomberg

    That’s $31BN of (unadjusted) deposit outflows magically morphed into $62BN of deposit inflows in the last two weeks…

    Doe it even matter anymore?

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 16:43

  • Saving Our Democracy…
    Saving Our Democracy…

    Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

    “Being insane is the new normal.”

    – Aimee Terese on “X”

    However it happened this week, “Joe Biden” passed the blowtorch to a new generation and got himself gone from the political battlefield. Delegates to the coming Democratic National Convention (August 19) were duly notified of the selected replacement, Veep Kamala Harris, and ordered to line up behind her.

    Not a peep of disagreement was heard among them. Amazing that no one had a different idea. Thus, is democracy saved.

    The curious details around this event remain shrouded in mystery.

    Reporters for The New York Times and the WashPo could not be bothered to inquire, and their readers are not inclined to ask how all this came to be. It just is. In a culture with no sense of consequence, things just happen or un-happen. It is your duty to recognize that the wind now blows from another direction and bend with it.

    One thing was obvious: the long-running prank of pretending that President “Joe Biden” is sound-of-mind fell apart after his mortifying appearance on the debate stage June 27th. Apparently, every last captain and foot-soldier in the Democratic Party ranks was taken completely by surprise to see their champion flicker out in real time, like a forty-watt bulb that has done years of duty on the front porch and suddenly leaves you in the dark. Three weeks followed with “Joe Biden” boldly campaigning as if nothing had happened. (Perhaps his mind did not register that things had changed.)

    And then there was the weird tweet on “X” Sunday afternoon when the whole country was outside waterskiing, grilling weiners, carjacking, and yelling at ballparks, and the deed was done. Someone, possibly even “Joe Biden” himself, wrote a letter pasted into the tweet that declared he was bowing out of the race. The White House staff didn’t even know until it was up-and-posted. Rumor had it that Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama read the riot act to “JB”, who was refusing to follow the script. There were plenty of carrots-and-sticks to finally lever his obdurate ass into motion: not least must have involved any pending legal outcome of the family’s influence-peddling operations, whispers of new whistleblower accusations about offshore bank accounts, perhaps with sweeteners in the deal as to how much schwag the clan could still hold onto in the end.

    Then, the valedictory speech on Wednesday, sort of a proof-of-life exhibition, to verify that Sunday’s janky tweet to the nation was for real. You heard a Homeric recitation of “JB’s” signal achievements in office, every one of them demonstrably false. He did not keep our country out of war, or grow the economy, or keep inflation down, or beat Big Pharma, or build anything, or defend personal freedoms, or “make it clear there is no place, no place in America for political violence or any violence ever.” (In fact, the very next day, Thursday, pro-Hamas mobs attacked US Park police and vandalized federal property at Washington’s Union Station, and on Friday all charges were dropped against them — while scores of J6 Capitol trespassers rotted for years in the DC jail.)

    What “Joe Biden” actually accomplished in office was the near-total wrecking of the USA. He torpedoed the authority and legitimacy of just about every federal agency, turned the Department of Justice into a Gestapo, seeded the federal court benches with Woke lunatics, allowed an invasion of perhaps 20-million border-jumpers (including many thousands of professional terrorists), coerced injections of an ineffective and injurious vaccine into millions of citizens afraid of losing their livelihoods, promoted gross medical experiments on sexually troubled children, invited drag queens and mentally-ill degenerates to cavort in the White House, spent borrowed money at a rate that propelled the national debt past the event horizon into a black hole, made the seeking of incompetence the number one priority of the Pentagon, provoked a war in Ukraine that now teeters on the hazard of a nuclear exchange, and allowed the CIA to complete its takeover of the US government. “Joe Biden” will go down in history as the worst of all 46 US presidents.

    And, of course, in the rush of cascading events the past several weeks came the attempted assassination of the Democratic Party’s nemesis, Mr. Trump, an operation festooned with loose threads, suspicious agency failures, and intimations of Deep State blob engineering. You’ll have to stand by on any of that resolving soon. But many Democrats expressed disappointment that Mr. Trump was not killed, since that would be saving our democracy.

    Also not quite resolved is the case of who the Democratic Party truly intends to run for president this year as the days dwindle down to Nov. 5. The current delirium over Kamala Harris is like a relief rally in the financial markets when a crisis has been averted — or, at least, stalled. You have reason to doubt that the Democratic Party’s leadership crisis has actually been averted. Despite sedulous efforts to wipe her record, too many Americans know Kamala Harris as a hee-hawing ninny with a predilection for hapless Marxist fantasies. I’m not persuaded that she is at all comfortable in her sudden role as the party’s avatar. She is rumored to hit the bottle in moments of stress.

    The Party of Chaos will supposedly run a “virtual roll call” of delegates August 1st in order to meet the requirements to get on the ballot in several states. But then comes the actual convention with live bodies in murmuration on the floor of the arena, and in the back rooms and hallways, and there are more than three weeks between now and then for Kamala Harris to remind the world what a cackling lightweight she is. A lot can happen between now and then.

    *  *  *

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

     

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 16:20

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Jul 26

Today’s News 26th July 2024

  • Georgia Is The Next Country That Might Face A High-Profile Assassination Attempt
    Georgia Is The Next Country That Might Face A High-Profile Assassination Attempt

    Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,

    Georgia’s State Security Service (SSS) informed the public that they’re investigating a criminal group linked to the former government which plotted to assassinate the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party. According to RT, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze claimed that these are the same forces that were behind the attempted assassinations of his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico and former US President Donald Trump, while Politico cited local media to report that the Georgian Legion is under suspicion.

    It was explained in early May why “The Georgian State Security Service & The Georgian Legion Are On The Brink Of War”, namely because that pro-US armed group can play a crucial role in catalyzing a spree of urban terrorism ahead of, during, or right after fall’s parliamentary elections. The preceding analysis followed the failed attempt by rioters to storm the parliament over a week prior in protest of their country’s FARA-inspired foreign agents legislation, which readers can learn more about here.

    In brief, although the ruling conservative-nationalist party aspires to join the EU and NATO, it doesn’t want to surrender the country’s sovereignty to the West in exchange and that’s why it’s been targeted for regime change over the past year and a half. The replacement of Georgian Dream with Western puppets would lead to “NGO”-propagated liberal–globalist values destroying their traditional society, hence the need for the foreign agents law, but there are also geopolitical consequences too.

    The authorities warned last year that the prior attempt to overthrow them was aimed at opening up a second front against Russia, while there’s also the chance that a puppet regime would allow Georgia to be used by NATO to send more armed aid to Armenia in preparation of another war against Azerbaijan. Georgian Dream wants to stay out of all regional conflicts, so much so that it hasn’t even sanctioned Russia, which is yet another argument against their continued rule from the West’s perspective.

    Speaking of Russia, its foreign intelligence service released a statement in early July warning that the West is preparing to exploit fall’s parliamentary elections as the pretext for another regime change attempt, and it’s possible that they shared information about this with their Georgian counterparts. That could explain why the local media cited by Politico said that some Georgian Legion members have been detained for questioning, while their leader claimed that 300 others have been added to the wanted list.

    Although comparatively small in number, this pro-US armed group could play a similar role in Tbilisi later this year as the Azov Battalion did in Kiev a little more than a decade ago during “EuroMaidan”, which was explained in the earlier hyperlinked analysis about why they’re on the brink of war with the SSS. The most effective “Democratic Security” policy that Georgian Dream can promulgate right now is banning the Georgian Legion as a terrorist group if the ongoing investigation ties them to the assassination plot.

    Allowing them to continue operating inside the country with impunity would constitute an enormous risk to Georgia’s national model of democracy considering the likelihood that they’ll catalyze a spree of urban terrorism ahead of, during, or right after the upcoming elections at the US’ regime change behest. Cracking down on this group ahead of the vote would greatly neutralize their ability to disrupt the democratic process and make associated Hybrid War threats much more manageable for the authorities.

    Aware that the window of opportunity for destabilizing their country might soon close, the Georgian Legion might desperately try to carry out a high-profile assassination attempt in the near future, even if it isn’t against the ruling party’s founder but someone else like the Prime Minister and they use a patsy instead of their own members. Everyone should therefore keep a very close eye on Georgia since it’s still a major New Cold War battleground given its geostrategic significance in the broader region’s dynamics.

     

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 02:00

  • Civil Unrest Is The Next Most Predictable Crisis For America Now
    Civil Unrest Is The Next Most Predictable Crisis For America Now

    Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

    For the past six months I’ve been writing about the clear uptick in civil war rhetoric within the establishment media in the US, and we all know that the coming presidential election is the reason for it. The bottom line is that no matter who ends up in the White House in 2025 there will be mass violence, but most of this violence will be reserved for the possibility of Donald Trump’s return.

    Set aside the recent attempted assassination (and how the Secret Service made it possible) for a moment and let’s consider the common leftist response to it – Around 30% of Democrats believe the attack was “staged” (virtually impossible given the circumstances and evidence). The rest are enraged that the shooter missed. No event has exposed the political left for what they truly are more than the near-murder of Donald Trump. We are dealing with bloodthirsty mental deficients that will do anything to win.

    The “false left/right paradigm” is dead, at least when it comes to average American citizens. The political left is not just an innocent subset of the population being led astray by false leadership – They are a big part of the problem. They are willing participants in the destruction of the west. Globalists would get nowhere on economic centralization, the DEI agenda, the trans agenda, carbon taxation, anti-2A legislation, open borders, etc. without help from a large portion of leftists.

    I have long cautioned that the political left is slowly but surely becoming a happy cannon fodder army in service to globalism. And sadly, leftists tend to engage in warfare while conservatives tend to engage in politics. Leftists use any means necessary and feel thoroughly justified. Conservatives color within the lines for fear of being accused of “fascism.” We don’t have to abandon our moral compass, but the sooner we realize that war is being waged on us the sooner we can defend ourselves against it.

    As we have seen in Europe (in France the past month), any perceived shift towards conservative influence in government will undoubtedly result in riots and chicanery from socialists. The media has so infected the minds of progressives that they truly believe they are the “good guys” and that conservatives intend to “end democracy.” Thus, in their view all violence or sabotage against conservatives (and independents) is justified.

    In the long run the left’s violence and hysteria is only inspiring conservatives to respond with aggression in kind. This is where the potential for civil conflict arises. Leftists argue that only they are virtuous enough to be allowed to dictate policy and law. Yet, their ideology also embraces moral relativism, so you can see where this thing is headed…

    They will continue to press for the erosion of western heritage and principles and, eventually, regular people are going to fight back; they have no choice. Leftists and globalists expect resistance, to a point. I believe part of their strategy is a classic communist provocation; for patriots to react with violence thereby giving the establishment fuel for a demonization campaign (much like January 6th). It’s not going to go the way they think it will next time and the response will be far larger and more swift than they anticipate.

    Meanwhile, if Trump enters office again the rioting America dealt with in 2020 will be a cakewalk compared to 2025.

    Progressives claim they are “protecting democracy” but you will see very quickly that as soon as democracy doesn’t go their way they will abandon it in a heartbeat and seek to prevail using other methods.

    This means a campaign of “monkey wrenching” followed by riots, looting and disruptions in major cities.

    One rising trend that should have all business owners and preppers on alert is the use of social media apps to coordinate seemingly spontaneous riots. These events can be organized within hours, encouraging some of the worst people to congregate and strike a business block without ever meeting each other before. What I worry about is that these methods will expand beyond business districts and local government buildings.

    Travel routes will come under threat, freight could be targeted and we may even see looters and rioters move into residential areas further away from the city center. Supply chain issues will surely arise. At the very least there will be concerns among freight drivers that they are taking a risk carrying truckloads of goods into places where they could be surrounded by an angry mob and hijacked (or worse).

    Large scale crime in general is bad for the economy. As we’ve witnessed in cities like Chicago and San Francisco, unchecked crime forces companies to move out of a region and leave those places barren. They call it a “food desert” – A place where tens of thousands of people have no close access to groceries or retail goods. Looting and rioting are an accelerating catalyst for this scenario. Once stores are looted or burned, they may never try to rebuild.

    What I am describing is a much larger number of incidents with a longer duration than 2020. I’m talking about prolonged civil unrest and I predict this will become the norm going into next year. Don’t count on the government to provide sufficient aid. Don’t count on FEMA rations or a national guard response that does anything other than exacerbate the problem. Don’t rely on outside help – You’ll regret it.

    There are different levels of civil unrest. Sometimes it starts as a less malicious redress of grievances, but often it becomes a vehicle for random destruction. The best way to counter indiscriminate violence is with directed and focused self defense, along with the proper supplies to keep you going until things calm down.

    Also, don’t think just because you live in the suburbs or a rural town that these threats don’t concern you. In Argentina during their economic collapse in 2001, gangs of looters stalked rural areas with impunity while cities ground to a standstill. Once the cities are hollowed out, where do you think the worst people will go next?

    In the US we have similar circumstances to Argentina in which economic crisis has the ability to feed directly into preexisting divisions. Politically motivated bad actors could be inspired to sabotage normal services in the face of limited law enforcement opposition. There are people who will do anything to get their way.

    Organize accordingly and keep your own supplies ready. There are plenty of people out there that think they are owed something. They think they are owed a political win, or social power, or maybe they just think they’re owed access to other people’s stuff.

    Right now the US is a powderkeg waiting to go off and the coming election period will be the fuse.

    * * *

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

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 23:25

  • These Are The American Jobs With The Highest Union Membership
    These Are The American Jobs With The Highest Union Membership

    In 1983, one-in-five American adults (20%) were in a union. By 2023, only one-in-ten (10%) were in a union, a record low for the country. However, there are still some industries that see rates of union membership that are on the higher end of the spectrum.

    This chart, via Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao, shows the rate of union membership of those employed per industry in America.

    Data for this graphic is sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for 2023.

    Government Workers are Often in Unions

    Two out of five local government employees are in a union, the highest rate across American industries, as classified by the BLS.

    A significant portion of these employees are police officers, as protective services have some of the highest union rates (32%) by occupation.

    *Excluding the internet. Figures rounded.

    Meanwhile, the utilities sector (energy, water supply, sewage removal) has the highest union membership in the private sector (20%) though this works out to about 200,000 members.

    About 16% of the transport and warehousing industry—one million strong—belongs to a union. Since 2022, workers at Amazon warehouses in particular have organized into the Amazon Labor Union to protest unsafe working conditions.

    Across the top 10 sectors by union membership rate, union employees out-earn non-union employees in eight of them. The wage difference is most noticeable in film & sound jobs, where a union employee makes nearly $1,000 dollars more per week.

    *Excluding the internet. Figures rounded. Wage data available here.

    On the other end of the scale, professional jobs—accounting, legal, tech, and finance—have the lowest rates of union membership (1%). And in them, non-union members out-earn their union peers.

    If you liked this article, check out Visualizing the American Workforce as 100 People for quick insight into the most common jobs people work at.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 23:00

  • Ben-Gvir Endorses Trump, Says He's More Likely to Back War On Iran
    Ben-Gvir Endorses Trump, Says He’s More Likely to Back War On Iran

    Authored by Brett Wilkins via Common Dreams,

    Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir endorsed former U.S. President Donald Trump—the 2024 Republican nominee—for the White House in an interview published Wednesday in which he accused the Biden administration of preventing Israel from winning its war in Gaza.

    “I believe that with Trump, Israel will receive the backing to act against Iran,” Ben-Gvir, who heads the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, told Bloomberg. “With Trump, it will be clearer that enemies must be defeated.”

    Getty Images/AFP

    “A cabinet minister is supposed to maintain neutrality,” the 48-year-old minister conceded, “but that’s impossible to do after [U.S. President Joe] Biden.”

    “The U.S. has always stood behind Israel in terms of armaments and weapons, yet this time the sense was that we were being reckoned with—that we were trying to be prevented from winning. That happened on Biden’s watch and fed Hamas with lots of energy,” added Ben-Gvir, who was convicted in 2007 of incitement to racism after he advocated the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

    While Biden, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and other administration officials have decried Israel’s often indiscriminate bombing of Gaza and high civilian casualties—at least 140,000 Palestinians killed, injured, or missing, according to local and international agencies—the U.S. has approved billions of dollars in new military aid and more than 100 arms sales to Israel since October.

    During his White House tenure, Trump—who boasted that he “fought for Israel like no president ever before”—moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and brokered the Abraham Accords between Israel and Arab nations Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates.

    Trump has said that Israel should “get the job done” in Gaza, while criticizing the Israel Defense Forces for posting videos showing its obliteration of the embattled Palestinian enclave.

    “I don’t know why they released wartime shots like that. I guess it makes them look tough. But to me, it doesn’t make them look tough,” Trump said in April. “They’re losing the PR war. They’re losing it big. But they’ve got to finish what they started, and they’ve got to finish it fast, and we have to get on with life.”

    While Trump says he wants a deal with Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons, as president he unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—also known as the Iran nuclear deal—and oversaw a “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran featuring deadly economic sanctions.

    On the advice of Iran hawks in his administration including then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump also ordered the January 2020 assassination of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qasem Soleimani in Iraq.

    Ben-Gvir’s interview was published as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to address a joint meeting of U.S. Congress Wednesday in Washington, D.C. A growing number of Democratic lawmakers have called for not only a cease-fire in Gaza but also a suspension of U.S. military aid to Israel, whose conduct in the war is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.

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

    Dozens of Democratic lawmakers and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont skipped Netanyahu’s Wednesday’s speech. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is also the Senate president, did not preside over Wednesday’s session. Harris, who is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in the wake of Biden’s withdrawal from the race on Sunday, said she will meet privately with Netanyahu on Thursday.

    Echoing calls from groups including CodePink and the Council on American Islamic Relations, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said this week that the prime minister should be arrested for war crimes and genocide.

    Karim Khan, the International Criminal Court prosecutor, has applied for arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes including extermination committed on and after October 7.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 22:35

  • An Empire Of Lies
    An Empire Of Lies

    Authored by Brian Maher via DailyReckoning.com,

    Why does government lie so repeatedly — and so atrociously?

    Why does it fear truth as the vampire fears garlic?

    The answer, we hazard, reduces to its desperate quest for prestige.

    Government equals authority. And an authority is an authority.

    Its word must be the final word. Its word must be the ultimate word.

    A supreme authority cannot withstand rivals — else its authority falls into question.

    It cannot endure mockery, ridicule or derision.

    And if its undeniable incompetence is exposed, its back goes up… and its dukes go up.

    Consider for example Monday’s congressional testimony of a certain Kimberly Cheatle…

    The Greatest Sin Against Government

    Ms. Cheatle directed the United States Secret Service when an aspiring assassin made a mockery of the lady’s organization.

    How can a murderous fellow scale a low rooftop with a rifle — some 140 yards from a former and potentially future United States president — and let eight projectiles loose — before being scotched?

    Here he was… placing his thumbs in his ears… wiggling his fingers… and putting out his tongue at Ms. Cheatle and the organization she bosses.

    And in the private opinion of Ms. Cheatle, that is the highest sin. It is not act itself.

    Is greater professional incompetence scarcely conceivable? We do not believe it is.

    “It’s an Ongoing Investigation”

    Yet the lady donned her armor, barricaded herself within fortress walls and deflected all questions concerning her agency’s abominations.

    She could not answer this question or that question because it is an “ongoing investigation.”

    “Was July 13 a Saturday, madam?”

    “It’s an ongoing investigation.”

    “What time did the attempted assassination take place? What was the local temperature?”

    “It’s an ongoing investigation.”

    “What color blazer was the former president Trump sporting?”

    “It’s an ongoing investigation.”

    “In which hemisphere of Earth did the incident occur?”

    “It’s an ongoing investigation.”

    “What color is the sky?”

    “It’s an ongoing investigation.”

    Governing Means Never Saying You’re Sorry

    Could the lady openly and candidly concede her organization’s botchwork? What government functionary ever does?

    Imagine her arguing, for example, that her sniper may have failed to shoot first because his scope was trained not on the rooftop — but on the fetching young lady in the third row with the cropped top and the shortest shorts.

    Imagine her arguing that the 5’4” female agent lacked the height to cover adequately her 6’3” protectee.

    Furthermore, that the identical female agent was admitted to the United States Secret Service on a sliding scale — that she did not satisfy the physical standards required of men.

    Imagine her conceding that her personnel were snoozing on the job.

    Have you imagined these potentialities? Then you have imagined impossibilities.

    Ms. Cheatle would never concede any of them even if true.

    That is because she fears for her (former) agency’s prestige.

    The Bigger the Organization, the Bigger the Lies

    “Why are you stating the obvious?” comes your retort.

    “Every organization, from the smallest business concern to the largest business concern, from any local government to the federal government, fears for its prestige.

    “No organization wants to be publicly embarrassed.”

    You are of course correct.

    Yet the larger the organization, the larger its scope. Thus the greater number of lies — and scale of lies — it must tell to cling to its prestige.

    Imagine you are the proprietor of a local business concern.

    You quake in fear of the competition. And you are hot to scotch it.

    Imagine the lengths to which you proceed… the fibs you tell… to defend and expand your localized little empire.

    What misdemeanor — indeed, what felony — wouldn’t you execute if it advantaged you?

    Yet your enterprise maintains a very constricted reach. It represents a nearly absolute insignificance to the world beyond.

    Who cares if you claim to be the most superior plumber in Springfield when you manifestly are not?

    A Local Government Can Manage Its Lies

    Next imagine that you are not a business concern. You are instead a local government concern.

    You are its mayor.

    You must tell your lies to glitter before your captives, your residents.

    The business may be difficult at times — yet it is manageable.

    You must lie about the efficiency of the Motor Vehicle Department or the Highway Department, for example.

    You must lie about the bribes you have accepted. You may therefore maintain your prestige.

    Yet the scope of your lies is contained with your narrow borders.

    A nation — a normal nation — must likewise tell its lies to hold up its prestige.

    It may be difficult at times. Yet if the nation is reasonably sized and has little ambition, it is, again, possible.

    In highest contrast stands the government of the United States…

    The Burden of Maintaining Global Prestige

    This is an empire that exerts dominion over each individual, over each local municipality, over each state municipality within these shores — from oceans Atlantic and Pacific, from the border with Mexico to the border with Canada.

    Imagine the impossibility of managing such a vast space.

    The United States government manages the job very poorly.

    Yet by its nature it must maintain its prestige among the American people. It must therefore inform you that it performs the job very well.

    It will stare you in the eyes… and lie to you… even if it knows that you know it is lying to you.

    Yet the United States is the world’s reigning kingpin, its dominant power.

    Its wingspan therefore covers the entirety of planet Earth. Does a single sparrow fall outside its awareness?

    Imagine — then — the lies it must tell to maintain its prestige among all the nations of Earth…

    Lies of Commission and Omission

    Who detonated the Nord Stream pipeline transmitting natural gas from the Russian Federation to the German republic?

    The answers reduce to the United States itself, one of its European allies or the nation of Ukraine.

    Do you believe the United States government is unaware of the answer?

    Yet imagine the catastrophic damage to its reputation if it revealed the answer.

    It would concede that the United States itself executed the largest act of environmental sabotage in all of history — and heavily wrecked the economy of its central NATO ally — or that another NATO ally did the deed.

    Or that the nation it stands impassionedly behind, Ukraine, did the deed.

    It must therefore shrug its shoulders in befuddlement or inform you that Russia blew holes in its own pipeline.

    It is a lie of omission or a lie of commission.

    We’re the Good Guys Here

    Imagine if the United States government conceded that Russia’s unprovoked aggression was very much provoked?

    And that it was the saboteur of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine that would have ceased the bloodletting one month after it commenced.

    Public support for the Ukrainian cause — in the United States and abroad — would collapse in a heap.

    United States government prestige would absorb a fatal blow.

    It must therefore babble lies.

    It must tell you that Mr. Putin’s aggression was not provoked. It must inform you that he will be at the English Channel within no time if he is not heaved out of Ukraine.

    It must inform you that it is battling on behalf of democracy.

    From the Middle East to East Asia, from South America to Africa, the identical dynamic obtains.

    If the Antarctic continent were sufficiently populated, it would extend there too.

    Empire of Lies

    Our co-founders Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin once labeled the United States an empire of debt.

    It is an empire of debt, yes. It is certainly an empire in debt.

    Yet in the more fundamental sense it is an empire of lies.

    The emperor in charge of it is presently being exposed — he is well and truly nude before a gaping world.

    Yet this emperor will never concede his nudity…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 22:10

  • Major American Cities Facing 'Day Zero Water' Crisis, Say Experts
    Major American Cities Facing ‘Day Zero Water’ Crisis, Say Experts

    Authored by Autumn Spredemann via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The term “day zero water” has become synonymous with a worst-case scenario for public water resources. It refers to a moment in which a city or region’s water supply is almost depleted and officials cut tap supply to communities.

    A buoy that reads “No Boats” lays on dry waterbed at Lake Mead, Nev., on July 23, 2022. Water levels in Lake Mead are at the lowest level since April 1937 when the reservoir was first filled with water, according to NASA. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

    This crisis was narrowly averted in 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa, which approached the threshold of a day zero event after rationing was almost not enough.

    Subsequently, environmental researchers and resource insiders have voiced concern over the possibility of water running out in U.S. cities after years of drought have reduced groundwater in places such as the Great Plains and the Southwest.

    In a recent study published in Nature, researchers noted “rapid groundwater-level declines” globally in the 21st century of more than 0.5 meters (20 inches) per year across 170,000 monitoring wells and 1,693 aquifer systems.

    This includes water resources in the United States.

    The study authors further observed groundwater declines have accelerated over the past four decades, highlighting an “urgent need for more effective measures to address groundwater depletion.”

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has also expressed concerns over national water assets.

    The agency highlights on its website a Government Accountability Office report from 2014 that stated that 40 out of 50 state water managers “expected shortages in some portion of their states under average conditions in the next 10 years.”

    Groups such as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) attribute much of the groundwater loss to climate change.

    “The conditions in the American West, which we’re seeing around the Colorado River basin, have been so dry for more than 20 years that we’re no longer speaking of a drought,” Lis Mullin Bernhardt said in a statement in May.

    Ms. Bernhardt, an ecosystems expert at the UNEP, called it “aridification” and a “new very dry normal.”

    However, some experts say poor water management and aging pipe infrastructure also play a significant role in depleting groundwater reserves.

    “Given current consumption patterns and the increasing strain on water resources due to factors like climate change and population growth, a Day Zero water crisis is certainly a possibility for some U.S. cities,” Natalya Holm told The Epoch Times in an email.

    Ms. Holm is a U.S. senior project manager for the Climate Risk & Water Stewardship Services Lead at Antea Group, an international environmental consulting firm.

    She explained the cities most at risk include a combination of high population density, limited water sources, and inadequate infrastructure to manage supply challenges.

    “For instance, cities like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Miami face significant water stress due to their geographical location, reliance on limited local water sources, and high water demand caused by urbanization,” she said.

    Park visitors look at the bleached “bathtub ring” visible on the banks of Lake Mead near the Hoover Dam in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Ariz., on Aug. 19, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

    The Israel-based company Watergen, which makes water from the air, also identified Los Angeles and Miami—along with Atlanta, Phoenix, and El Paso—as urban centers at risk of a Day Zero event due to drought and saltwater contamination.

    “Water supply sustainability and security can present a risk to communities if they are not proactively addressing these risks,” Barbara Martin, director of engineering and technical services at the American Water Works Association, told The Epoch Times via email.

    Ms. Martin said that communities face risks over water sustainability and security if officials aren’t proactive with infrastructure planning, asset management, and emergency preparedness.

    She said that while nothing can eliminate the risk of a Day Zero water crisis, public educational resources will help, as well as water asset managers bolstering their resilience planning.

    Down the Drain

    Water pipe infrastructure in the United States is in desperate need of repair.

    Moreover, the agency expects necessary replacements to cost $500 billion.

    In a May press release, the Biden administration announced a $3 billion initiative to replace toxic lead pipes in U.S. waterworks.

    The funding is part of a more than $50 billion spending package already approved to upgrade American water infrastructure.

    The White House statement called the initiative “the largest investment in clean and safe water in American history.”

    However, the number falls drastically short of the EPA’s estimated need for shoring up water loss due to leakage.

    “Among the 2.2 million miles of pipe that comprise our drinking water infrastructure … the EPA estimates that 240,000 water main breaks occur in the U.S. each year,” Ms. Martin pointed out.

    She stressed that it’s critical to ensure utilities have strong programs for asset management, capital improvement planning, condition assessment, and water loss control in addition to “supporting effective and timely infrastructure renewal and replacement.”

    Ms. Martin emphasized that continued investment in U.S. water infrastructure is needed to address this challenge.

    Ms. Holm called the U.S. water pipe network “unique” in its high number of water systems per capita. She says this creates distinctive challenges.

    “What that means is, especially in rural areas, there are a lot of very small water systems serving a very small population … it leads to fragmentation and inefficiencies in water management, preventing coordinated efforts for sustainable water use and infrastructure upkeep.”

    This fragmentation complicates regulatory oversight and equitable access to safe and reliable water, according to Ms. Holm.

    Wastewater undergoes the microfiltration treatment process at the Groundwater Replenishment System, the world’s largest wastewater recycling plant, in the Orange County Water District in Fountain Valley, Calif., on July 20, 2022. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

    Ongoing water loss through pipe leakage is also a money hemorrhage for those working in resource management, according to Ms. Holm.

    She said that some systems have reported water losses exceeding 60 percent. That kind of loss to pipe leakage is referred to as “non-revenue water.”

    “The utility [company] brought it up from the ground or pulled it from a river, treated it, pumped it out into the system, used the energy to bring it out to the system, and got no revenue back from it.

    “Nobody used it, and the water supplier lost out on 60 percent of the revenue, which means less money going into their infrastructure repair, improvement, and expansion funds,” she said.
    In its latest infrastructure report card, the American Society of Civil Engineers observed a water main break in the United States every two minutes, resulting in an estimated loss of 6 billion gallons of treated water every day.

    “Addressing this issue requires substantial investment in infrastructure renewal and maintenance,” Ms. Holm said.

    “This includes adopting modern technologies for leak detection and repair, prioritizing infrastructure upgrades in vulnerable areas, and enhancing coordination between federal, state, and local agencies to ensure effective management of water distribution networks.”

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 21:45

  • Tesla And BYD Claim A Third Of Global EV Market
    Tesla And BYD Claim A Third Of Global EV Market

    In the second quarter of 2024, Tesla’s gross margin dropped to a new low after declining every quarter since Q1 2022. Thanks to an uptick in deliveries over the past months, the U.S. automaker and pioneer of getting battery electric vehicles (BEVs) to the mass market still retained the biggest market share among all BEVs sold worldwide. 

    In the past year and the first three months of 2024, Tesla’s share was constant at 19 percent, according to analyses by EV Volumes and Inside EVs for the corresponding periods.

    The competition, however, is hot on its heels.

    As Statista;s Florian Zandt shows in the chart below, the Chinese conglomerate, which produces standalone electric vehicle batteries and associated electronics in addition to plug-in hybrid and fully electric vehicles, increased its market share by ten percentage points between 2021 and 2023. The BEV portfolio of legacy automakers like Volkswagen and Geely-Volvo stood at seven percent, on par with SAIC, which includes the joint venture between the Chinese state-owned SAIC Motor and Wuling as well as General Motors.

    Infographic: Tesla and BYD Claim a Third of the Global BEV Market | Statista

    While the first quarter saw BYD’s share drop by two points, it was only 18,000 cars shy of Tesla’s deliveries between April and June 2024, illustrating how close the head-to-head race between these two companies is.

    BYD is focused on providing BEVs to a more general consumer base, while Tesla’s products have a higher price tag.

    This difference might be slightly mitigated through the increase of tariffs on Chinese-made cars from 25 to 100 percent announced in May and coming into effect in early August, a move that simultaneously seeks to boost domestic sales and will likely increase tensions between the People’s Republic and the United States.

    According to EV Volumes, 14 million electric vehicles were sold globally in 2023, 70 percent of which were BEVs. However, 84 percent of all light vehicles sold still ran on traditional combustion engines or other non-electric fuel sources.

    The biggest exporter and market for both hybrids and BEVs was China with shares of 65 and 59 percent, respectively.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 21:20

  • Federal Judge Overturns ATF Ban On Trigger Devices That Enhance Firing Speed
    Federal Judge Overturns ATF Ban On Trigger Devices That Enhance Firing Speed

    Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

    A federal judge in Texas has ruled in favor of gun rights groups who sued the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in a bid to overturn the agency’s prohibition of forced reset triggers, devices that increase the firing rate of semi-automatic guns.

    U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas wrote in a July 23 order that the ATF exceeded its authority when it classified forced reset triggers as machine guns and, with very narrow exceptions, made them illegal.

    “Each time an agency circumvents the legislative process it chips away at the most prudent reason for the separation of powers that is, ensuring unelected and unaccountable individuals do not make the law,” the judge wrote, adding that the country’s foundational documents granted lawmaking authority to duly elected officials in order to “safeguard against future tyranny.”

    “While this case may seem focused on firearms, it represents so much more,” the judge wrote.

    “It is emblematic of a devastating problem that increasingly rears its head in federal courts: rampant evasion of the democratic process.”

    The case was brought by Texas Gun Rights (TXGR) and the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR), whose initial complaint challenged the ATF’s classification of forced reset triggers as machine guns on the premise that the ban was arbitrary and capricious, and violated constitutional rights.

    “We are absolutely thrilled that the court has dealt such a decisive blow to the ATF’s unconstitutional agency overreach,” Hannah Hill, executive director of NAGR, said in a statement.

    In response, the ATF argued in legal briefs that outlawing the devices was needed to protect public safety. The briefs included an open letter to all federal firearms licensees warning them that violations of the ban were punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

    In siding with the gun rights groups, the judge argued that the ATF overstepped its regulatory authority and failed to provide a valid rationale for the ban. He declared the ATF’s classification of the conversion devices as unlawful and ordered the agency to cease any actions based on the classification, including seizing forced reset triggers or destroying any previously surrendered ones.

    The judge also ordered the ATF to stop sending any notices or letters to manufacturers or gun dealers stating that the devices are machine guns, or from interfering in their production or sale.

    A spokesperson from the ATF’s public affairs office told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that the agency had no comment on the ruling.

    The ATF’s director Steven Dettelbach, who was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, said in a January 2023 statement after the Department of Justice (DOJ) had obtained a temporary restraining order against companies that were selling forced reset triggers, that the conversion devices pose a threat to the public and are increasingly a risk to law enforcement.

    “These machine gun conversion devices—which are machine guns under federal law—can turn any semi-automatic AR-type firearm into a weapon capable of shooting at a rate of fire similar to or exceeding that of an M16 machine gun manufactured for military use,” he stated at the time.

    The ATF’s ban on the forced reset triggers was in part motivated by the October 2017 mass shooting at a concert in Las Vegas.

    Judge O’Connor said in his order that there’s “no denying the tragic nature” of the shooting.

    “But no matter how terrible the circumstances, there is never a situation that justifies a court altering statutory text that was democratically enacted by those who are politically accountable,” he wrote.

    “That responsibility belongs exclusively to Congress.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 20:55

  • Watch: Ukrainian Kamikaze Drone Jet Ski Washes Up On Istanbul Beach 
    Watch: Ukrainian Kamikaze Drone Jet Ski Washes Up On Istanbul Beach 

    Ukraine’s military intelligence service has deployed kamikaze drone boats against Russian military vessels. These sleek, small boat drones have a low radar signature, making them extremely difficult to detect. They are equipped with GPS, optical sensors, a satellite dish (in some cases), and, of course, explosives.

    The unmanned boats are being used to target Russian military vessels and infrastructure across the Black Sea. Ukraine has claimed numerous times these drones have sunk and damaged Russian military ships. 

    Now, Ukraine’s military resourcefulness appears to be converting jet skis into kamikaze weapons. This may give Houthi rebels an idea in the critical maritime chokepoint of the southern Red Sea.

    “An unmanned jet ski loaded with cameras, military equipment and explosives, believed to belong to Ukrainian forces, was found on Çatalca Beach in Istanbul,” Turkish media outlet Bengü Türk wrote on X. 

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    Is that SpaceX’s Starlink dish?

    What’s very clear to military officials worldwide is how drones have transformed the modern battlefield across land, air, and sea domains in Ukraine. Everyone is watching and taking notes.

    Drones represent an evolutionary rather than revolutionary change to warfare, and that’s also evident in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden as the world’s greatest navy (US Navy) fails to counter Houthi boat and aerial drone threats.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 20:30

  • Utah Attorney Catches FBI Deception In OKC Bomb Records Case
    Utah Attorney Catches FBI Deception In OKC Bomb Records Case

    Authored by Ken Silva via Headline USA,

    Last month, the Justice Department asked a judge to pause a lawsuit seeking records about the FBI’s involvement with the Oklahoma City bombing. But in doing so, the DOJ and the FBI made statements so misleading they merit sanctions, according to the plaintiff in that case, Utah attorney Jesse Trentadue.

    PHOTO: Rick Bowmer/AP/Shutterstock

    The deception spotted by Trentadue stems from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit he filed against the FBI in February, seeking records about Roger Edwin Moore, who was a CIA asset, an FBI informant and a business associate to OKC bomber Tim McVeigh; as well as for records about the Aryan Republican Army, a neo-Nazi bank-robbery gang also involved in the attack.

    Trentadue filed the lawsuit after waiting nine years for the FBI to process his FOIA request for those records. Despite that long wait, the FBI then asked a federal judge for another nearly 12 years to release the records he seeks.

    Then, last month the bureau represented to a federal judge that many of the records Trentadue wants are already on the FBI’s website. But according to Trentadue, that’s a lie.

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    “That statement is so misleading as to merit sanctions. The BOMBROB records posted by the FBI, for example, consist of just 5,514 pages, not the 36,795 pages of responsive documents that the Bureau claims to possess,” Trentadue said in a Tuesday court filing, responding to the FBI’s request to pause his lawsuit. BOMBROB was FBI’s investigation of the ARA.

    “More importantly, of these 5,514 pages, only 51 pages reference McVeigh. Similarly, the FBI’s website contains just 229 pages of records on Roger Edwin Moore, not the 31,129 pages of responsive records that the Bureau claims to have located, and none of these records involve Moore’s participation in Operation Punchout,” Trentadue added, referencing the FBI operation in which Moore served as an informant.

    Trentadue also took issue with the FBI telling the judge that he agreed to receive records at a rate of 500 pages per month, which would mean it would take about 12 years to receive them all. Trentadue explained that he initially was OK with receiving 500 records per month on a rolling basis nearly a decade ago—as opposed to waiting for the FBI to gather all the records and send them in one batch.

    “Plaintiff agreed to receiving the document sin 500-page increments on a CD as they were processed, whereby he would not have to wait until all of the records were processed before receiving them,” he explained in his Tuesday filing. “Plaintiff NEVER agreed to the FBI processing the documents at the rate of only 500-pages per month.”

    For Trentadue, dealing with DOJ/FBI deception is nothing new. For instance, in a separate lawsuit seeking surveillance footage of the OKC bombing, a federal judge is investigating allegations that the FBI tampered with one of his witnesses. Trentadue referenced that ongoing scandal in his Tuesday response to the FBI.

    “It can fairly be said that the only difference between the FBI and Russian KGB is that the KGB never claimed to be a legitimate law enforcement agency. It can also be fairly said that in cases such as this involving an overarching specter of government malfeasance, the FBI has been and will be anything but honest and candid with the court,” he said.

    Trentadue wants the presiding judge to order the FBI to give him records at the rate of 5,500 pages per month.

    In his Tuesday filing, he noted that the 30th anniversary of the OKC bombing is this April. He argued that there’s immense public interest in that case, and attached two articles written by this reporter as evidence of that. To Trentadue’s point, Headline USA’s article about his initial lawsuit in February is currently the third-most viewed story on the site in 2024.

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    “The court should deny the FBI’s motion to stay and commence with the BOMBROB request because of the upcoming anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing … The court should also order the FBI to process the records at the rate of 5,500 pages per month with interim month-end releases of the documents processed during each month, which will result in Plaintiff receiving all of the records in about 13 months instead of 11-plus years,” he said.

    It’s not clear when the judge might decide on the matter.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 20:05

  • Judge Rejects Disney's Bid To Toss Gina Carano's Lawsuit
    Judge Rejects Disney’s Bid To Toss Gina Carano’s Lawsuit

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

    Disney must face a discrimination lawsuit brought by actress Gina Carano, whom it fired from “The Mandalorian” in 2021, a federal judge ruled on July 24.

    Disney terminated Ms. Carano after she posted on social media, including a post supportive of conservatives, and a quote from an executive saying “she didn’t align with company values.” That termination constituted illegal discrimination, Ms. Carano said in her suit, pointing to California law that prohibits employers from preventing employees from engaging in politics.

    Disney asked the federal court in central California to dismiss the legal action. Company lawyers said the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment “means that a state cannot force an employer engaged in speech to speak through an employee whose own views or public profile could compromise the employer’s own message, even if the employee does not express her views on the job.”

    U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett rejected Disney’s arguments. Under U.S. Supreme Court precedent, for the First Amendment to protect organizations in cases such as the one brought by Ms. Carano, judges must determine if the organization engages in protected association, or joining with others to promote certain views.

    “Although defendants indisputably engage in expressive activity—including, but certainly not limited to, producing and disseminating The Mandalorian—they have failed to establish that they engage in expressive association,” Judge Garnett wrote in her 23-page ruling.

    “Furthermore, at this stage in the litigation, the court cannot conclude, as defendants urge it to, that plaintiff’s continued employment by defendants would inhibit or intrude upon defendants’ rights to expressive association.”

    The Supreme Court in a previous ruling, cited by Disney, ruled that the Boy Scouts did not have to hire an openly gay man as an assistant scoutmaster despite a New Jersey law against discrimination because the scouts aimed to instill values in its members including that homosexuality is not moral.

    In another Supreme Court ruling, also raised by Disney, justices turned down an attempt by the United States Jaycees group to exclude females from becoming members, because, the group said, Minnesota anti-discrimination law requiring the nonprofit to allow female members would burden male members’ freedom of expressive association.

    Unlike the Boy Scouts and Jaycees, Disney is not a members-only, nonprofit, the judge said.

    Then-Disney CEO Bob Iger said after firing Ms. Carano that she did not align with Disney’s values, including “values of respect, values of decency, values of integrity, and values of inclusion.”

    Disney and other defendants, though, “have not identified any evidence—in the complaint or otherwise—to substantiate a claim that they employ public-facing actors for the purpose of promoting the ‘values of respect,’ ‘decency,’ ‘integrity,’ or ‘inclusion,’” the judge said.

    Even if Disney proved that employing actors was a form of expressive association, Ms. Carano has plausibly alleged that defendants fired her to distract from criticisms of Disney’s business dealings in China, according to the judge. In cases where two alternative explanations, both of which are plausible, are offered, then motions to dismiss cases are rejected under court precedent.

    Ms. Carano filed an internal email that was inadvertently sent to her that showed Disney officials initially discussing criticism of the company for doing business with China before transitioning to how some social media users were calling for Disney to oust the actress.

    A lawyer representing Disney and the other defendants, Lucasfilm and Huckleberry Industries, did not return a request for comment.

    Ms. Carano said on the social media platform X that she was moved to tears after learning of the ruling.

    “After a brutal 3 1/2 years, I am being given the opportunity to move forward in the court of law before the judge and my peers to clear my name. I am so grateful for this opportunity,” she wrote.

    “What happened to me was unacceptable, absurd and abusive, among other things. It should not have happened to me, and it should not happen to anyone else moving forward. Let it stop here.”

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    Ms. Carano also thanked Elon Musk’s, X’s owner, who helped fund the lawsuit.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 19:40

  • To Join California's Top 1-Percent, A Household Must Earn More Than $1 Million Per Year
    To Join California’s Top 1-Percent, A Household Must Earn More Than $1 Million Per Year

    Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    To rank in the upper echelon of income earners in California, individuals need to bring home more than $1 million annually, a study released July 17 by financial website Go Banking Rates found.

    From 2017 to 2022, the average income of the top 5 percent of households in California spiked more than 37 percent, from slightly less than $450,000 to more than $613,000. (CNN)

    With a population of slightly more than 39 million people, and nearly 20 million income tax returns filed in 2022 for the 2021 tax year, about 200,000 California households make more than $1 million per year, according to the study—which adjusted the amounts earned to 2024 dollars to account for inflation.

    Researchers expected the West Coast to rank the highest, but said that “surprisingly,” two Northeast states had a higher threshold for reaching the top 1 percent: Connecticut and Massachusetts.

    The top 1 percent of earners in five states nationwide—including Connecticut, Massachusetts, California, Washington, and New Jersey, in order of ranking—bring home seven-figure incomes.

    New York was hot on the heels of the top five, coming in $253 shy of joining the million-dollar club.

    On the lower end of the scale, the top 1 percent of workers earn less than $500,000 in three states—New Mexico, Mississippi, and West Virginia.

    In a separate study published July 2, Go Banking Rates found that incomes needed to qualify as “rich”—defined in the report as the top 5 percent of salaries in the state—are increasing across the country.

    Between 2017 and 2022—the latest filing data available from the Internal Revenue Service—the average income of the top 5 percent of households in California spiked more than 37 percent, from slightly less than $450,000 to more than $613,000.

    Every state experienced an increase over the same period, with Washington’s average jumping the most—nearly 44 percent from more than $378,000 to almost $545,000—while North Dakota’s nearly 15 percent bump from about $365,000 to approximately $419,000 was the lowest in the nation.

    Workers in 12 states need to earn at least a half-million dollars annually to be classified as “wealthy,” according to the study, a sharp increase from 2017 when only those in Washington, D.C., and Connecticut needed to have such high salaries.

    Some Californians say they’re feeling the pinch, with cost-of-living increases putting pressure on their families’ finances.

    “No matter how much I make or how many hours I work, it’s still difficult to pay for everything,” Mary Smith, a Sacramento-based customer service representative, told The Epoch Times.

    One Northern California resident said the findings were shocking, while commenting on a perceived need to earn large salaries just to make ends meet in the Golden State.

    “I had no idea so many people were making that much money,” Juan Hernandez, a laborer in the East Bay, told The Epoch Times July 22. “But with the housing prices in the Bay Area, if you’re not a millionaire, it’s impossible to afford anything.”

    Homes in the Bay Area cost on average $1.2 million, according to research from Zillow, an online real estate company.

    The median price of homes sold in California hit nearly $860,000 in June 2024, according to online real estate listing firm Redfin.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 19:15

  • Peak Summer Arrives With Maximum Climate Fear By MSM 
    Peak Summer Arrives With Maximum Climate Fear By MSM 

    It’s peak summer, which means leftist corporate media outlets are ramping up climate propaganda, pushing the ‘hottest day’ ever headlines, and of course, blaming ‘cow farts’ and petrol-powered vehicles. 

    Bloomberg data shows that headlines featuring the ‘hottest day’ ever in corporate media soared this month. This spike in climate doom headlines is an annual occurrence in July for the Lower 48. 

    Welcome to peak summer. 

    This year, climate alarmists claimed Earth experienced record heat. However, much of the data goes back several decades, not thousands of years, considering the Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Climate alarmists continue to push short-term data, some of which derive temperature data from sensors located in airports and cities full of asphalt and concrete. 

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    Climate alarmists are missing one crucial piece of the climate puzzle: “Tonga Volcano Contributed To Global Warming.”

    “How can anyone claim to be a “Guardian” of the environment and not know about the world’s recent unprecedented event which is causing today’s global warming spike?” meteorologist John Shewchuk wrote on X. 

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    Sigh.

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    More from X user the Climate Realists:

    The Historic Underwater Volcano Eruption at Hunga Tonga during January 2022, added an additional 5%-10% water Vapour into the Earths Stratosphere, and for the past 18 moths our Planet has seen temperatures well above as to what we expect them to be.

    However the way it’s being presented by various institutions and governments is that it’s human caused, and that if we don’t pay more taxes we are all going to fry.

    My own observations is that regrettably there will be higher than expected rainfall because of the extra Water Vapour, and in the course of time temperatures will fall due to long periods of La Niña over the next 6-7 years.

    To put the burden on the taxpayers to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere, when there is a more logical and scientific explanation as to why there is a recent increase in world temperatures is on a par to the story of the Emperor with no clothes. Whereby the theory of Man Made CO2 causing additional warming is completely naked as far as scientific analysis is concerned.

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    The trick climate grifters use is to show short-term data. 

    This guy…

    However, when you look at the data over a span of 10,000 years… 

    … the propaganda on the “hottest day ever” and Greta’s “we’re all going to burn” narratives completely evaporates. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 18:50

  • Gain Of Function, Loss Of… Everything Else
    Gain Of Function, Loss Of… Everything Else

    Authored by Martin Hoyt via RealClearHealth,

    It did not have to be this way. The COVID-19 pandemic cost American citizens their lives, their livelihoods, education, mental health, reputations and, ultimately, civil and religious freedoms. “The U.S. accounts for less than 5% of the world’s population, but more than 25% of total COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, and it currently ranks among the top 10 countries in COVID-19-related deaths per capita,” wrote the authors of  2023 commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association. And for all that, we have government to thank.  

    For years leading up to the pandemic, the nation had spent billions on preparation and planning for a biohazard attack or event. Whatever we learned was quickly discarded or undone by a lack of accountability, transparency, and humility. Decades of planning and untold man hours of research and training were rendered ineffective by a corrupt culture of greed, self-importance, scientific misconduct, and outright fraud. Because, while the government worked to prevent the worst, it was also helping to create chaos and contagion by funding and facilitating gain of function (GOF) research. 

    GOF research refers to laboratory efforts to make viruses deadlier or to increase their transmissibility. The potential for disaster is obvious. Almost five years prior to the pandemic Dr. Marc Lipsitch and Dr. Alison Galvani noted that GOF pathogenic research posed “a risk of accidental and deliberate release that, if it led to extensive spread of the new agent, could cost many lives … Furthermore, the likelihood of risk is multiplied as the number of laboratories conducting such research increases around the globe.” 

    But according to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s emails and other NIAID communications obtained via FOIA – those that weren’t deleted by the now-infamous “FOIA lady” – the Wuhan lab was working on Covid research with the U.S. as early as 2015. And the worst happened. Dr. Richard H. Ebright of Rutgers University told a Senate committee hearing on June 18, 2024, that “… lapses in U.S. oversight of gain-of-function research and enhanced potential pandemic pathogen research likely contributed to the origin of COVID-19 …” 

    While Ebright said GOF has no medical utility, he emphasized that there are “major incentives to researchers worldwide, in China, and in the U.S. The researchers undertake this research because it is easy, they get the money, and they can get the papers [in science journals].” 

    Not surprisingly, China was selected because it was quicker and cheaper to conduct research without U.S. government entanglements or oversight. Dr. Steven Quay also testified on June 18 and said the Wuhan Institute of Virology is a “level-2 lab,” as opposed to highly secure level-4 labs elsewhere. Moreover, Dr. Fauci et al were able to fund this research because the law was silent. Ebright again:  

    … in this category of research, which is the most significant in terms of consequences and potentially existential risk there is almost no regulation with force of law. No regulation with force of law for biosafety or any pathogen other than the smallpox virus and no regulation with force of law for bio risk management for any pathogen.

    But the U.S. and the world, may have temporarily escaped imminent catastrophe. Consider, according to Dr. Quay, what Wuhan obtained from Canada’s National Microbiology Lab in 2019: “two vials each of 15 strains of virus: seven varieties of Ebola virus, the Hendra virus, and two strains of Nipah virus, Malaysia and Bangladesh.” These virus samples, according to Dr. Steven Quay, are “the top three most deadly human pathogens on the planet.” The samples were obtained under murky circumstances (“described as a possible policy breach”) from a level-4 lab and surreptitiously flown on a commercial flight to Beijing where they were subsequently placed in a level-2 lab overseen by a country with a long history of a disregard for proper safety protocols.

    Gain of function research probably created COVID-19, but our legislative and executive branches created the conditions for the disaster. Congress failed to pass laws governing specific GOF research, both Congress and the executive branch failed to effectively manage the federal health and science bureaucracy, and various agencies failed to monitor the behavior and performance of grantees and vendors engaged in GOF research. When catastrophe struck, self-interest and political survival of those responsible overrode the best interests of our citizenry. 

    Who in the government benefited? How and to what extent did they benefit? Did any GOF research contribute to the U.S. global or response? Is GOF research being rerouted to our defense and security agencies to avoid scrutiny? NIAID continues to stall, obfuscate, and otherwise restrict transparency to its current and past activities. We know there was a concerted effort by senior leaders like Anthony Fauci to hide or delete emails but many other records still likely exist that remain uncovered.

    This must change. Any research activity or sponsorship of scientific endeavors that are capable of mass extinction, such as GOF, must be subjected to a higher level of accountability and scrutiny by our elected leaders and the American public. Accountability, transparency, and public debate after an international crisis like Covid-19 can’t undo the global catastrophic harm that was done. It can, however, reduce the ability of our public health bureaucracy to contribute to the next disaster or looming crisis.

    Martin Hoyt is the Director for Public Health Reform Alliance, a nonpartisan organization committed to increasing transparency and oversight on the public health system so it works better for all Americans. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 18:25

  • Chief University Diversity Officers Are Not Very Diverse…
    Chief University Diversity Officers Are Not Very Diverse…

    Authored by Emily Fowler via The College Fix,

    Chief diversity officer positions at major universities primarily go to black males and females, according to a College Fix analysis.

    Though black females are only six percent of the population, they obtained about 55 percent of top diversity officer roles among the country’s top 50 colleges and universities. The Fix compiled its list using the U.S. News and World Report rankings of national universities.

    The Fix used photos, names, and other public biographical information to determine the race and sex for the diversity officers. The Fix compiled its data from the highest-ranking diversity officer for the general university or undergraduate population, and not for specific departments or schools within universities.

    Some diversity officers are mixed race and the results are a best estimate.

    While black Americans are only 13 percent of the population, they were 80 percent of the highest-ranking diversity officials. Meanwhile, Latinos were only six percent, despite being 19 percent of the population. Asians were only two percent, despite being seven percent of the U.S. White people did not fare well, also only getting about two percent of the top roles.

    The uneven distribution would appear to violate Professor Ibram Kendi’s “antiracism” theory, which states that racial distribution must be perfectly even, although discrimination against white people is acceptable, according to him.

    The National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education endorses the idea of statistical racial equity and “antiracism. It did not respond to multiple requests for comment in the past month.

    The College Fix asked if NADOHE was aware of the low representation of Hispanic and Asian diversity officers. The Fix also asked if the organization promoted any initiatives to increase diversity among chief diversity officers. The group did not respond to two emails and a phone call left since June 24.

    Males were also underrepresented – despite being roughly 50 percent of the population, they were only 34 percent of the top diversity roles.

    The National Diversity Council, which works to “advance diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging by transforming our workplaces, communities and environments,” remained silent when asked for comment. It has not returned a phone message left in the past three weeks asking for potential solutions to underrepresentation and if it was aware of the problem.

    But a higher education reform group said diversity offices should be abolished.

    “The ideology that dominates most DEI offices does more harm than good on college campuses because it exacerbates divisions and causes people to self-censor rather than bringing them together and encouraging them to freely pursue the truth,” Steve McGuire told The Fix via email.

    He is a former professor who now works on campus freedom issues at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni.

    McGuire said universities would be wise to pour the funds used on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts back into the student body.

    “Colleges and universities would be much better served if they eliminated these positions and passed the savings onto students or applied the money to faculty lines or scholarships.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 18:00

  • Netanyahu's Meeting With Lame Duck Biden Was As Inconsequential As Anyone Expected
    Netanyahu’s Meeting With Lame Duck Biden Was As Inconsequential As Anyone Expected

    A lame duck president meets with the leader of America’s closest Mideast ally, who happens to be wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes, and the whole thing was somewhat predictably boring and lacking in much substance.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Joe Biden on Thursday where the two reportedly discussed closing the remaining “gaps” for a Gaza ceasefire deal (a ceasefire deal that it appears Netanyahu doesn’t actually want, having vowed to fully eradicate Hamas on the battlefield).

    But as we’ve discussed before, Netanyahu is essentially waiting out Biden, in hopes that Trump enters office. Trump is perceived by the Israelis as willing to give its military more free reign in its Gaza offensive. Politico had reported on Sunday that Netanyahu will likely delay Gaza ceasefire talks for at least another three months until after the US presidential election. In 2020 he called Trump “the best friend that Israel has ever had in the White House.”

    Netanyahu is now being widely accused of intentionally stalling progress on a ceasefire, until a new chapter in relations with the White House opens.

    As Biden looked like he struggled to stay awake and focus, Netanyahu praised the Democratic president and career politician for five decades of supporting Israel.

    “From a proud Jewish Zionist to a proud Irish-American Zionist, I want to thank you for 50 years of public service and 50 years of support for the state of Israel,” he said.

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    But just within the last months Netanyahu has repeatedly slammed Biden administration policy, particularly after the paused weapons shipment of heavy bombs, with the White House citing the likelihood that using them would result in mass civilian deaths among Palestinians.

    These tensions were apparently still on display to some degree on Thursday. According to a debriefing of their meeting: 

    At a news briefing, national security spokesman John Kirby said that Mr Biden and Mr Netanyahu discussed the urgent need for a hostage release deal, the potential of conflict spilling over into Lebanon, the threat of Iran and the need to reach “compromises” in peace talks.

    While Mr Kirby added that “gaps remain” in the US-Israel relationship, the countries have a “healthy relationship”.

    “By healthy, I mean they’re not going to agree on everything,” Mr Kirby said, adding that Mr Biden was  “very comfortable with the relationship he has with the prime minister”.

    And there was plenty of pushback from the press concerning the Oval Office meeting at a time Palestinian civilians continue to be slaughtered by the blunt force that is the IDF offensive in Gaza…

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    Netanyahu is expected on Friday to meet with former President Donald Trump in Mar-A-Lago on Friday,. Likely the mood will be much ‘warmer’ as Bibi expects a future Trump administration will involve even more of a ‘blank check’ for Israel than what it already receives. The Israeli leader is also soon to meet with VP Kamala Harris.

    * * *

    Meanwhile…

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    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 17:40

  • Illinois' Out-Migration Losses: Measuring The Destructive Impact On The State's Tax Base
    Illinois’ Out-Migration Losses: Measuring The Destructive Impact On The State’s Tax Base

    Authored by Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner via Wirepoints.org,

    One of the most damaging impacts of Illinois’ people loss to other states is the destruction of Illinois’ tax base. When people leave in a given year, they take their incomes (adjusted gross incomes, or AGI) with them, and that means the state’s tax base suffers. 

    A smaller tax base, everything else equal, means less tax revenues for safety, education, road repair and every other core government service – or, as is typically the case in Illinois, more debts and more tax hikes.

    Unfortunately, Illinois’ out-migration problem is much bigger than just a one year loss: the state has lost people and AGI every single year since at least 2000, the first year of Wirepoints’ out-migration analysis. The AGI losses pile up on top of each other year after year, slashing Illinois’ tax revenue growth and destroying Illinois’ overall prosperity. 

    In all, the cumulative impact of out-migration for the last 23 years means the state budget lost out on about $3.6 billion in income tax revenue in 2022 alone. (Said another way, had Illinois not lost all those people over the last 23 years, the state would have had $3.6 billion more in income tax revenues in 2022 alone.)

    The revenue losses for 2022 are even bigger when you take into account all the other revenues foregone – sales taxes, gas taxes, fees, etc. – due to the loss of taxpayers.

    Thanks to the state’s failed spending and pension policies, Illinoisans are paying the price.

    A breakdown of the numbers

    The latest 2021-2022 migration data from the IRS shows Illinois reported $9.8 billion in lost adjusted gross income as a result of losing a net 87,000 residents to other states. Read our full report here.

    That $9.8 billion in AGI, after taking into account exemptions of $1.6 billion*, could have become $400 million in income taxes for the state (calculated at 4.95%). That in itself is a significant amount of lost income tax revenues.

    But the cumulative impact of the AGI losses are much more dramatic. Let’s build out how state’s 2022’s income tax revenues were impacted by the cumulative AGI losses since 2000.

    In 2000, Illinois suffered a net loss of $2 billion in AGI as a result of outmigration, meaning the state lost out on being able to tax $2 billion that year.

    The next year, 2001, Illinois lost another $2.3 billion in AGI due to outmigration. Pile on top of that the $2 billion in AGI lost in 2000 and, overall, the state lost out on being able to tax a cumulative $4.3 billion in AGI in 2001.

    In 2003, Illinois lost another $2 billion in AGI, putting the cumulative AGI losses for that year at $6.3 billion. 

    You get the picture. When Illinois loses a taxpayer, his income isn’t just lost for tax that year. It’s lost for every subsequent year, as well. 

    So when you carry the above exercise all the way through to 2022, it totals nearly $88 billion in AGI that the state couldn’t tax in 2022 because of all the cumulative losses. Subtract exemptions*, and it results in about $74 billion in net income. Multiply that by Illinois’ 4.95% flat tax and you get $3.6 billion in income tax revenues the state could have had in 2022 alone if Illinois had not bled residents for 23 years.

    The same tax-revenue-loss calculations can be done for all prior years.

    In all, Illinois has lost – counting every single year’s cumulative loss – $700 billion in AGI, that it could have taxed over the entire 2000-202 period. It’s one of the big reasons Illinois is in such a fiscal mess and why it has the worst credit rating of any state in the country.

    The positive impact of in-migration

    The opposite of what’s happened to Illinois is true for the nation’s big winner of people and their incomes: Florida. 

    Gains in people and income pile on top of each other each year, building an ever-growing tax base. In 2022 alone, the state’s tax base was some $272 billion higher compared to 2000 because of the state’s 23 straight years of net in-migration.

    And while the state of Florida doesn’t directly take advantage of that income because it doesn’t have an income tax, it’s understandable why the government is swimming in cash when you take into account all the other tax revenues – sales, gas, fees, etc. – that the state’s growing number of taxpayers pay.

    In all, Florida has gained– counting every single year’s cumulative gain – $2.14 trillion in AGI, that it could have taxed over the entire 2000-2022 period.

    Reversing the flow

    More than anything, Illinois’ lost revenues represent the fundamental crisis this state faces because of chronic out-migration. 

    Illinois is stuck in a vicious downward spiral it can’t hope to escape from without fundamentally changing how it governs.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 17:20

  • Supreme Court Decisions Have Restored Balance Between Public And Private Interests
    Supreme Court Decisions Have Restored Balance Between Public And Private Interests

    Authored by Richard Trzupek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A group of recent rulings by the Supreme Court have led some to speculate that SCOTUS has opened the path to anarchy within the justice system, particularly in those cases that involve environmental regulation. I don’t believe that chaos is imminent—far from it—and will endeavor to make the case that SCOTUS has been reasonable within a Constitutional context.

    The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, on May 12, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

    For simplicity’s sake, we’ll stick to the two most important decisions: Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (Loper Bright) and Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Corner Post).

    Loper Bright did away with the “Chevron Doctrine” that directed the judiciary to defer to public sector experts when confronted with difficult and/or seemingly ambiguous technicalities involving statutes and regulations. Corner Post moved the bar on the six-year statute of limitations that applies when a plaintiff asserts that a particular statute or regulation causes the plaintiff to suffer undue financial (or other) harm. The court held that the six-year window does not open when the statute or regulation is enacted or promulgated, but when the plaintiff first feels the effect of the onerous action.

    Taken together, one could—and many have—made the argument that Loper Bright opens the door for private sector plaintiffs to effectively push forward frivolous and downright harmful legal actions by employing legions of impressive, but entirely prejudiced, experts. The potential mass of such lawsuits could cripple the judicial system by clogging its otherwise efficient pipes. Corner Post then exacerbates the problem by allowing those in the private sector determined to do so within a far wider window of opportunity within which to dispute legislation and regulation.

    While I understand the arguments, I can’t agree with them in substance, or especially in tone. Loper Bright and Corner Post are not earth-shaking decisions that would score far over a “four” on the Richter Scale of American politics. They are rather gentle tremors that reflect a healthy, but not shocking, adjustment of the public versus private sector balance. My reasoning, based on 40 years of representing the private sector in interactions with the public sector, chiefly in matters involving environmental regulation:

    1. The number of companies and trade groups who have both the motivation and the resources to flood the system is as near zero as one could imagine. Industry is going to go to court only if they perceive that doing so will: (1) ultimately be substantially profitable, (2) the likelihood of winning is great, and (3) doing so would not generate a significant amount of bad PR. I don’t believe there are many federal regulations or policies that will meet all three criteria.
    2. Rules and policies that have resulted in large capital expenditures are unlikely to be targets for further action. That capital is sunk and, in most every instance, the operational and maintenance costs to run controls, run monitoring systems, manage records, etc. is negligible in the scheme of things.
    3. For most industries, it is the local permitting authority (state agency, district, county, or municipality) that has the biggest impact—by far—on the nature of the relationship between the regulators and the regulatory community. They are the day-to-day enforcement arm. They process the permit applications and set permit conditions. The Environmental Protection Agency’s primary role in the system is oversight, not operations.
    4. Finally, I continue to believe that the net effect of Loper Bright, Corner Post, et al., will be much more about negotiation than adjudication. I often work with environmental attorneys on enforcement actions directed against a particular industrial facility. There have been many times where I convinced both counsel and his client that the permitting authority had made substantial scientific errors in developing their allegations, but the attorney declined to use this knowledge. The Chevron Doctrine was like a storm cloud hanging over those decisions. With the sun once again shining equally on all sides, I believe that industry will be more emboldened to take on questionable permitting and enforcement actions going forward. Knowing that their experts no longer possess the gift of infallibility, permitting authorities may also be a bit more moved to stay longer at the bargaining before heading for court.

    In my view, Loper Bright, Corner Post, et al. have restored a bit more badly needed balance between public and private interests in America, and have done so in a manner consistent with the language and intent of our Constitution.

    These decisions do not represent a massive, dangerous sell-out to the private sector, nor are they an angry rebuke of the public sector and some of its policies. They rather represent what appears to be the Roberts court’s continuing effort to steer judicial accountability back toward the middle.

    Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 17:00

  • Kamala Harris Receives Bipartisan Condemnation For Her Handling Of The Border
    Kamala Harris Receives Bipartisan Condemnation For Her Handling Of The Border

    Authored by Matt Margolis via PJ Media,

    In a stunning move on Thursday, the House of Representatives strongly condemned “the Biden Administration and its Border Czar, Kamala Harris’s, failure to secure the United States border” in a bipartisan vote.

    AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

    All Republicans supported the resolution, as did six Democrats: Reps. Yadira Caraveo (D-Colo.), Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), Donald Davis (D-N.C.), Jared Golden (D-Maine), Mary Peltola (D-Alaska), and Mari Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.).

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

    Their condemnation of their party’s presumptive presidential nominee represents a stark departure from the typical unity we see within the Democratic Party in Congress and underscores a growing discontent regarding the handling of immigration, which has become a key issue in the 2024 presidential race.

    The resolution detailed how President Biden appointed Harris as border czar in March 2021 to address the root causes of illegal immigration — something the mainstream media has been desperately trying to pretend never happened. 

    The resolution further explained how Harris took 93 days to visit the southern border and chose to visit El Paso, Texas, which is roughly 800 miles from the worst border crossing.  

    The text of the bill quoted former Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz, who said, “I’ve never had one conversation with the president [Biden] or the vice president [Harris], for that matter. I was the Chief of the Border Patrol, I commanded 21,000 people. That’s a problem.” It also cited current Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens, who also reported no direct communication with Harris since his appointment in July 2023.

    Since Biden and Harris took office, there have been over 9.7 million illegal immigrant encounters nationwide, with 7.9 million at the southern border and roughly 2 million gotaways who evaded Border Patrol. The resolution notes that May 2024 saw a 185% increase in illegal immigrant encounters compared to the average monthly totals under President Trump. This marked the 39th consecutive month where encounters were higher than any month during the Trump administration.

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    The resolution also detailed the migrant crime crises that the Biden-Harris administration’s border crisis has caused, including murders of Americans like Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungary, and Rachel Morin. It also mentioned national security threats, with the Biden administration reportedly releasing over 50 illegal immigrants with ties to ISIS and over 350 individuals on the terrorist watch list who authorities have stopped at the southern border. 

    Additionally, agents encountered a record-breaking 31,077 Communist Chinese nationals at the southwest border in fiscal year 2024. The resolution estimates that the border crisis is costing the U.S. approximately $150.7 billion annually, translating to $1,156 per taxpayer each year.

    The bill also criticized the Biden administration for ending former President Trump’s successful “Remain in Mexico” program in August 2022, attributing the historic border crisis to the administration’s far-left open border policies.

    The implications of the partisan nature of this resolution are huge. For one thing, it casts doubt on Harris’s leadership at a time when she’s attempting to define herself to the entire nation after taking the baton from Biden. The willingness of these Democrats to publicly condemn their party’s presumptive nominee underscores the significance of the border crisis as an issue in this election and as a key weakness of Kamala’s candidacy.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 16:40

Digest powered by RSS Digest

Jul 25

Today’s News 25th July 2024

  • These NATO States Are Embracing Conscription, Eyeing Future War With Russia
    These NATO States Are Embracing Conscription, Eyeing Future War With Russia

    Authored by Connor Freeman via The Libertarian Institute,

    As NATO escalates its proxy war in Ukraine and inches closer to fighting directly with Russia, the Washington-led bloc is embracing mandatory military service. Many European members of NATO have expanded or reintroduced conscription as part of large-scale preparations for such a war, CNN reports. Already outpaced in terms of military industrial capacity by Russia, the alliance’s new battleplans will see an attempt to beef up weapons production and form 35-50 brigades of 3,000-7,000 battle ready troops.

    Outgoing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has insisted, “Today, we have 500,000 troops on high readiness, combat-ready battlegroups in the eastern part of the Alliance for the first time.” But the bloc is struggling to meet its goals of assembling 300,000 soldiers prepared to be activated within a month and another half a million in six months. There is also a question of whether the bloc can filed a military fit for a protracted war akin to the Ukraine conflict.

    Following the end of the Cold War, several European states ceased conscripting their citizens. Although increasing numbers of NATO member countries have resorted to the draconian practice during recent years, especially in the Baltics and Scandinavia. Roughly a third of the NATO alliance practices some form of compulsory military service.

    This year, for the first time since it was abolished in 2006, Latvia reimplemented its draft. Male citizens are subject to conscription within a year of turning 18 years old. Additionally, Norway has unveiled a long-term plan to increase its ranks of mandatorily conscripted troops, employees, and reservists by 20,000 as well as double the military budget. In 2015, Oslo became the first NATO government to establish a gender-neutral draft.

    Lithuania brought back mandatory military service in 2015, each year drafting 3,500 to 4,000 men between the ages of 18-26 for a nine-month period. Although the Finnish Defense Forces employ only 13,000 people during peacetime, Helsinki claims it has the ability to activate over 900,000 reservists with 280,000 combat-ready troops. Sweden conscripts both men and women, Stockholm drafted 7,000 its citizens and the military expects to conscript 8,000 next year. The Swedes have had conscription since 1901.

    Citing the supposed Russian threat to Europe, Robert Hamilton, the head of Eurasia Research at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said “It is tragically true that here we are, in 2024, and we are grappling with the questions of how to mobilize millions of people to be thrown into a meatgrinder of a war potentially.” For 30 years, Hamiliton served as a US Army officer. “Meatgrinder” is a term often used by frontline troops in Ukraine, particularly during the battle of Bakhmut where the average life span of such a soldier was only a few hours.

    In the United Kingdom, conscription is currently being pushed by Conservative MPs. The 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, the annual military spending bill, may include provisions which inter alia will seek to automatically register all eligible men and women for Selective Service, a form of conscripted labor, which could inevitably include military service.

    Former Supreme Allied Commander of Europe General Wesley Clark echoed Hamilton’s hawkish sentiments, emphasizing “whether this is a new Cold War or an emerging hot war is unclear.” He added that NATO “must rebuild our defenses,” including with mandatory military drafts.

    “I think young people in Europe and the US will come to realize that this generation, like the generation that fought WWII, it didn’t ask to be the ‘Greatest Generation’ but the circumstances thrust that burden on them,” Clark added.

    The risk of direct war with Russia is growing by the day amidst the Ukraine proxy war, as the alliance has largely approved NATO missiles to be used for attacks against the Russian mainland. The bloc will soon provide Kiev with F-16s and an explicit green light for the warplanes to carry out direct strikes against Russian territory as well. Without irony, Stoltenberg claimed this should not be viewed by Russia as an escalation.

    As NATO considers increasing its nuclear weapons deployments, the US is also planning to deploy previously banned, medium-range, nuclear capable missiles in Germany which has caused Russia to hint it could similarly retaliate. Pointing to the massive US-led buildup for war with China, President Vladimir Putin accused NATO of creating major security threats for Russia in Asia.

    NATO set its sights on China four years ago, identifying Beijing as a military threat to European security. China maintains a “no limits” partnership with Russia. “NATO is already ‘moving’ there (to Asia) as if to a permanent place of residence. This, of course, creates a threat to all countries in the region, including the Russian Federation. We are obliged to respond to this and will do it,” Putin vowed earlier this year. That same month, Stoltenberg cited China as a reason the bloc is considering an “adaptation” of its nuclear arsenal.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 02:00

  • Escobar: China Designs An Economic Road Map All The Way To 2029
    Escobar: China Designs An Economic Road Map All The Way To 2029

    Authored by Pepe Escobar,

    There can hardly be a better place to track the four-day, twice-a-decade plenum of the Communist Party of China than dynamic, “one country, two systems” Hong Kong.

    Hong Kong is right at the heart of East Asia – halfway between Northeast Asia (Japan, the Koreas) and Southeast Asia. To the west is not only China but the Eurasia landmass, linking it to India, Persia, Turkiye and Europe. To the east, sailing forward, is the Pacific and the US’s West Coast.

    Moreover, Hong Kong is the ultimate multipolar, multi-nodal (italics mine) hub: a frenzied global metropolis forged by trade routes going back centuries, attracting people from every latitude keen on interconnecting commerce, ideas, technologies, shipping, commodities, markets.

    Now, reinvented for 21stcentury Eurasia integration, Hong Kong has all it takes to profit as a key node of the Greater Bay Area, the southern hub propelling China to economic superpower status.

    The plenum in Beijing was a quite serious/sober affair – trying to strike a balance between sustainable economic growth and national security all the way to 2029, when the PRC celebrates its 80th anniversary.

    The proverbial comprador elites, 5th columnists and outright Sinophobes across the West have gone bonkers on the current slowdown of the Chinese economy – complete with slumps in the financial and property fronts – running in parallel to all hybrid war strands of Chinese containment emanating from Washington.

    Fact: China’s GDP grew roughly 5% in the first semester; and the final plenum communique, released at the end of the four-day meeting, stressed that this should remain the “unwavering” target for the second semester.

    The official rhetoric of course was heavy on stimulation of domestic consumption, and “new momentum” to drive exports and imports.

    This key passage in the final communique breaks it all down when it comes to the new iteration of “socialism with Chinese characteristics”:

    “We must purposefully give more prominence to reform and further deepen reform comprehensively with a view to advancing Chinese modernization in order to better deal with the complex developments both at home and abroad, adapt to the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and live up to the new expectations of our people.

    It was stressed that, to further deepen reform comprehensively, we must stay committed to Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development and fully implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

    We must thoroughly study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping’s new ideas, viewpoints, and conclusions on comprehensively deepening reform and fully and faithfully apply the new development philosophy on all fronts.”

    And to make it more simple, Xi actually explained it all in some detail.

    Those Pesky ‘Markets’

    Nowhere around the world one finds a government focused on devising five-year plans for economic development (Russia now seems to be engaged in its first attempts) – encompassing development of rural land, tax reform, environmental protection, national security, the fight against corruption, and cultural development.

    When the term “reform” appears no less than 53 times in the final communique, that means – contrary to Western proselytism – that the CPC is dead set on improving governance and increasing efficiency. And all those targets must be met – otherwise heads will roll.

    Science and technology will once again have pride of place in China’s development, a sort of follow-up to the Made in China 2025 strategy. The emphasis predictably will be on better integration of the digital economy into the real economy; infrastructure upgrading; and boosting “resilience” in the industrial supply chain.

    It’s fascinating to watch how the communique emphasizes the necessity to “correct market failures” – which is a euphemism for reigning in turbo-neoliberalism. What is stressed is “unswerving support and guidance” to the development of the “non-state sector”, with Beijing ensuring “all forms of ownership” in the economy competing fairly and lawfully “on an equal footing”.

    The plenum could be easily interpreted as a calculated exercise in Taoist patience. According to Xie Maosong, from the China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, “Xi said many times that the easy part of the reform is over, and now we are in uncharted waters. The party must watch its step, particularly as the external risks build. We are also touching the vested interests of many groups.”

    Of course turbo-capitalist Hong Kong’s main obsession is “markets”. Conversations with British traders scouting Asia for their clients reveal they are not so keen on investing in China – yet that does not faze Beijing’s planners. What matters for the Politburo is how to meet the economic, social, environmental and geopolitical targets set by Xi for the next five years. It’s up to the markets to adapt to it.

    Of course Beijing planners are already factoring Trump in the overall equation. The Western mantra that China’s economy is struggling to stabilize may be debatable. Yet China’s economy may be in fact in a more precarious position now than when Trump unleashed his trade war in mid-2018. The yuan may seem to be under more pressure because of the gap between US and Chinese borrowing costs.

    According to a JPMorgan estimate, every 1% tariff hike during the 2018-2019 period of the US-launched trade war was linked to a 0.7% rise of the US dollar versus the yuan.

    Trump plans to impose a 60% tariff on virtually all Chinese products.

    That would lead to an exchange rate of roughly 9 yuan to the dollar, 25% weaker than now.

    Now Read the Whole Thing and Get to Work

    It’s enlightening to check what Hong Kong’s chief executive, John Lee, said about the plenum. He encouraged “all sectors of the community” to read the communique. And the Hong Kong business elite did get the drift: they interpreted it as Beijing betting once again on Hong Kong’s key role for the development of the Greater Bay Area.

    It would not be any other way. Hong Kong, Lee stressed, is a “superconnector” and “super value-adder”, linking mainland China with the Global North and the Global South, and still attracting all sorts of foreign investment to China.

    Now compare it with the predominant view on Hong Kong in US business circles. The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong is appalled, stressing how US businessmen in fact don’t understand the Safeguarding National Security directive approved last March, which complemented the National Security Law installed by Beijing in 2020.

    For Beijing, these are very serious matters of national security – which range from a crackdown on money laundering to preventing the proverbial 5th columnists from launching a color revolution such as the one that nearly destroyed Hong Kong in 2019. No wonder so many American investors cannot get it. Beijing couldn’t care less.

    Now let’s see what China’s top mutual fund manager has to say about it.

    Zhang Kun, manager of Blue Chip Mixed Fund, runs four funds with combined assets of $8.9 billion. He prefers to set his sights on Beijing’s aim to boost per capita GDP to match the West by 2035.

    If that happens, with or without a US trade war – and the Chinese won’t stop at nothing to achieve it – then per capita GDP could be around $ 30,000 (it was $12,300 last year, according to Chinese think tanks).

    So foreign investment will continue to be welcomed in China, via Hong Kong or not. But on each and every front, what trumps everything is national security. Call it a practical exercise in sovereignty.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/24/2024 – 23:40

  • The Salary Needed To Buy A Home In 50 US Cities In 2024
    The Salary Needed To Buy A Home In 50 US Cities In 2024

    In 2024, the median salary for the typical American home buyer has risen to $104,339 – up from $88,000 just two years prior.

    Despite record-high home prices, housing demand continues to outpace supply, even with mortgage rates at their highest in over a decade. As one bright spot, housing inventory is steadily increasing, with the number of homes for sale up almost 19% in May compared to the previous year. This growth in inventory could help ease the cost of home ownership looking ahead.

    This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Nuefeld, shows the salary needed to buy a home across the 50 largest U.S. metropolitans in 2024, based on data from Home Sweet Home.

    The Cost of Home Ownership in 2024

    Below, we rank U.S. metro areas based on the salary needed to buy a median-priced home.

    2024 Ranking Metro Area State Median Home Price Salary Needed
    1 San Jose California $1,840,000 $463,886.5
    2 San Francisco California $1,300,000 $336,170.4
    3 San Diego California $981,000 $241,783.5
    4 Los Angeles California $823,000 $207,030.2
    5 Seattle Washington $755,300 $191,332.4
    6 New York City New York $659,200 $186,122.8
    7 Boston Massachusetts $704,700 $186,058.7
    8 Denver Colorado $651,000 $160,874.3
    9 Miami Florida $625,000 $159,528.2
    10 Washington, D.C. N/A $600,200 $155,370.4
    11 Riverside/
    San Bernardino    		 California $579,900 $146,791.9
    12 Portland Oregon $574,000 $146,483.4
    13 Sacramento California $533,900 $139,283.1
    14 Austin Texas $466,700 $135,333.1
    15 Salt Lake City Utah $551,200 $134,691.8
    16 Providence Rhode Island $470,700 $129,565.5
    17 Phoenix Arizona $470,500 $114,499.6
    18 Orlando Florida $435,000 $114,215.9
    19 Las Vegas Nevada $465,400 $113,354.8
    20 Raleigh North Carolina $439,800 $111,347.6
    21 Dallas Texas $377,700 $110,463.0
    22 Richmond Virginia $425,000 $106,952.9
    23 Tampa Florida $405,200 $106,614.1
    24 Hartford Connecticut $350,400 $106,127.9
    25 Baltimore Maryland $385,000 $104,132.8
    26 Chicago Illinois $349,300 $103,794.0
    27 Jacksonville Florida $390,000 $103,487.6
    28 Minneapolis Minnesota $373,500 $101,868.4
    29 Nashville Tennessee $404,300 $101,535.4
    30 Charlotte North Carolina $398,300 $100,140.4
    31 Philadelphia Pennsylvania $342,500 $99,535.4
    32 Houston Texas $334,100 $98,135.3
    33 Milwaukee Wisconsin $354,000 $96,942.7
    34 Atlanta Georgia $369,200 $96,825.1
    35 San Antonio Texas $305,800 $90,259.9
    36 Virginia Beach Virginia $336,500 $88,208.3
    37 Columbus Ohio $306,600 $84,598.5
    38 Kansas City Missouri $308,600 $83,386.1
    39 Indianapolis Indiana $300,100 $77,181.6
    40 Cincinnati Ohio $280,600 $75,634.6
    41 New Orleans Louisiana $277,700 $75,218.3
    42 Birmingham Alabama $295,000 $75,193.9
    43 Memphis Tennessee $272,400 $71,943.2
    44 Buffalo New York $229,700 $71,669.2
    45 Oklahoma City Oklahoma $251,000 $70,455.8
    46 Louisville Kentucky $262,000 $69,169.8
    47 Detroit Michigan $240,000 $68,334.7
    48 St Louis Missouri $241,100 $68,240.0
    49 Pittsburgh Pennsylvania $207,100 $59,604.2
    50 Cleveland Ohio $191,900 $58,402.6
      National   $389,400 $104,339.0

    Note: These calculations determine the salary needed to afford the principal, interest, taxes, and insurance payments on a median-priced home in the corresponding metro area as of May 2024. Figures reflect homes with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and a 20% down payment.

    As the most expensive city overall, residents in San Jose require a salary of $463,887 for a median-priced home in 2024—more than quadruple the national average.

    Since 2023, this required salary has skyrocketed almost $100,000, soaring to a monthly payment of $10,824 to own a home. One reason why San Jose prices are sky-high: it sits at the heart of Silicon Valley. On average, homes on the market sell in roughly nine days.

    Like San Jose, the San Francisco metro area is highly unaffordable. In May, median home prices stood at $1.3 million. The metro area houses more billionaires than anywhere in the world, in addition to having among the most individuals with $100 million in investable wealth globally.

    New York City residents need an annual salary of $186,123, making it the sixth-highest in the country. While the annual growth in home prices fell into negative territory, the required salary to own a home jumped over $25,000 since last year. Overall, just 30% of New Yorkers own homes, compared to the 66% national average.

    On the other hand, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis are the most affordable metro areas in the dataset, where a salary under $70,000 can buy a median-priced home.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/24/2024 – 23:20

  • Blood Proteins Can Predict The Risk Of Developing More Than 60 Diseases
    Blood Proteins Can Predict The Risk Of Developing More Than 60 Diseases

    Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Over 60 diseases can be predicted just by looking at proteins in the blood, a study published Monday finds.

    (Connect world/Shutterstock)

    These proteins provided more accurate predictions for 52 out of 67 diseases than current clinical tests.

    “Measuring one protein for a specific reason, such as troponin to diagnose a heart attack, is standard clinical practice. We are extremely excited about the opportunity to identify new markers for screening and diagnosis from the thousands of proteins circulating and now measurable in human blood,” lead author professor Claudia Langenberg, director of the Precision Healthcare University Research Institute at Queen Mary University of London, said in a press release.

    Postdoctoral researcher Julia Carrasco-Zanini-Sanchez, who is also the study’s first author, told The Epoch Times that the study was prompted by her team’s prior research on a disease related to impaired glucose control.

    “[The condition] is basically a form of prediabetes that you can only detect when you do what’s called an oral glucose tolerance test, but not through HBA1c (blood glucose testing) or fasting glucose testing,” she said.

    “We started working with proteomics (large-scale study of proteins) to try to develop a test … to predict the outcome of this oral glucose tolerance test without having to perform it because it’s routinely not done in clinical practice.”

    Ms. Carrasco-Zanini-Sanchez said that their prior study led them to wonder if other diseases could be predicted using proteins.

    She said that their current model predicts disease development in 10 years’ time.

    “[Ten years] is kind of a long time frame for some of the diseases that we’re studying … a three- or five-year prediction timeline would be a bit more relevant. However, the data is still not large enough, which is why … all of them are trained for 10-year incidents,” the first author said.

    Ms. Carrasco-Zanini-Sanchez, who did her doctorate research on proteomics, told The Epoch Times that she hoped the study’s proteomics tests would be used to screen specialized populations most at risk for the disease in question rather than the entire population.

    52 Diseases Identified

    The study, published in Nature Medicine, used data from the UK Biobank and analyzed over 3,000 different blood proteins for 218 different diseases.

    Over 40,000 people were recruited to have a sample of their blood taken for proteomics analysis.

    These people were then followed for 10 years through their electronic health records to see what diseases they would develop.

    For those who did end up developing various diseases, by studying the protein levels they had 10 years ago, researchers determined protein signatures for over 60 diseases.

    Each protein signature is made up of five to 20 different proteins.

    The researchers developed a clinical model to predict the risk for various diseases, which included information such as age, sex, and body mass index, among other factors.

    On top of that model, they added the protein signature, disease biomarkers, or genetic risk scores to make three other models and compared the results.

    With the protein signature model, the authors found significant improvements to the predictions for 52 diseases. They include celiac disease, dilated cardiomyopathy, liver cirrhosis, multiple myeloma, COPD, dementia, Sjogren’s disease, and prostate cancer, among others.

    The authors highlighted that the biomarker model for prostate cancer, which is currently screened for by measuring a person’s prostate-specific antigen, was outperformed by their protein signature model.

    They also identified certain proteins that only predicted one disease; for example, TNF receptor superfamily member 17, a protein responsible for B-cell development, was highly specific for predicting multiple myeloma.

    Model Based on One-Time Sample

    Participants’ blood samples were only taken once at the start of the study. Their health outcomes were followed through their electronic health records for 10 years.

    Ms. Carrasco-Zanini-Sanchez said it is unlikely that blood protein levels would change too drastically.

    “There are not that many studies with repeated proteomic sampling. But the ones that exist do show that there are quite stable levels or stable measurements of the proteins. Very large variations are mostly associated with changes in risk factors or the environment that may, on itself, predispose you to a different disease.”

    Ms. Carrasco-Zanini-Sanchez envisioned that their test may help doctors make better judgments on diagnosing and treating high-risk groups.

    “If we think about screening the entire population [for celiac disease] … about one person in 100 people will basically go on to develop celiac disease,” she said, adding that many people may need to be tested to only help one person.

    However, in specific population groups, like those with autoimmune disease, their risks of developing celiac disease are higher.

    “This is kind of the general framework in which we envision,” she said, “It’s just about finding the right population in which you would apply this sort of test realistically.”

    The first author said that doctors in the United States may also use the proteomics test to screen their own patients for diseases during checkups.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/24/2024 – 23:00

  • Amazon Will Reportedly Start Charging $10 A Month For Premium Alexa AI Features
    Amazon Will Reportedly Start Charging $10 A Month For Premium Alexa AI Features

    All we’ve got to say is, good luck with that.

    According to The Verge, Amazon is planning to release a newer, subscription-based version of Alexa – the “assistant” who knows to set food timers and tell you the weather and, well, that’s pretty much it, with generative artificial intelligence support that will cost as much as $10 a month. Alexa will still be free for the basic version you have now, but the newly upgraded version will offer conversational generative AI with a monthly fee, which the Wall Street Journal reports could launch as soon as this month.

    While Amazon is reportedly targeting an August launch date for this new version of Alexa but that is subject to change. This comes as Amazon has started to roll out an improved version of Alexa on Fire TVs to help make finding movies and TV shows easier.

    Amazon hopes that putting its AI-upgraded Alexa –which may be called “Alexa Plus” or “Remarkable Alexa”– behind a paywall will drive revenue, but the plan is under a lot of pressure according to CordcutterNews.

    In 2022, reports said Alexa was set to lose Amazon $10 billion that year. As recent as November, Amazon cut several hundred jobs in its Alexa division. In short, a smaller team has to handle more work in a short amount of time.

    In addition, asking people who already use the voice assistant to start paying for it could backfire.

    “[S]ome were questioning the entire premise of charging for Alexa,” sources said in the report of other Amazon employees said earlier this year. “For example, people who already pay for an existing Amazon service, such as Amazon Music, might not be willing to pay additional money to get access to the newer version of Alexa.”

    The new technology has been tested by 15,000 customers, according to the report, and while it excels in human-like conversation, it’s “deflecting answers, often giving unnecessarily long or inaccurate responses.”

    This comes after Amazon unveiled an upgraded, more human-sounding version of Alexa in September. The enhancements aim to bring the company’s voice assistant in line with newer artificial intelligence technology.

    In the end of the day, however, the question is “would you pay for use Alexa”, and if not, just how brittle is the AI castle in the sky built on hopes of dreams of widespread adoption and which has singlehandedly propped up the market for the past two years…

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/24/2024 – 22:40

  • NIH's Latest Desperate Attempt To Incite Fear
    NIH’s Latest Desperate Attempt To Incite Fear

    Authored by Ian Miller via The Brownstone Institute,

    The response to the Covid-19 pandemic revealed many concerning aspects of how government functions and how committed individuals and institutions are to maintaining their preferred narratives.

    Truth, data, science, evidence…apparently none of those matter relative to the importance of ensuring the public complies with their desired behavior. Perhaps no single individual has been a better representation of the symbiotic relationship between government officials and media members, as well as their ceaseless commitment to ideological priorities, than Dr. Anthony Fauci.

    Fauci’s NIAID and its parent organization, the National Institutes of Health, have been two of the most prolific spreaders of ideologically motivated misinformation ever during the pandemic. But Fauci is no longer part of NIH, having departed for the considerable financial rewards available from the private sector. 

    So as a result of his timely exit, we must finally be witnessing improvements regarding government studies and communication, right? Right?

    Not exactly.

    Government Covid Misinformation Continues Unabated

    A triumphant, breathless press release from the National Institutes of Health was just released in the past week covering a new study that claimed a horrifying new conclusion.

    Contracting Covid-19 once is bad, but God forbid you experience two bouts of the virus…It’s terrifying. 

    That’s their claim resulting from utilizing massive volumes of “health data” on over 200,000 Americans who they believe had Covid at least once over a two-and-a-half-year period from 2020-2022.

    “Those individuals were originally infected between March 1, 2020-Dec. 31, 2022, and experienced a second infection by March 2023. Most participants (203,735) had Covid-19 twice, but a small number (478) had it three times or more,” the study says.

    The conclusion, is at first glance, concerning. 

    “Using health data from almost 213,000 Americans who experienced reinfections, researchers have found that severe infections from the virus that causes COVID-19 tend to foreshadow similar severity of infection the next time a person contracts the disease. Additionally, scientists discovered that long COVID was more likely to occur after a first infection compared to a reinfection,” the NIH summary claims.

    That sounds pretty bad. If you get infected a second time, you’re likely to experience a severe case of Covid. Right?

    Except that is a completely inaccurate conclusion based on the limited data presented. 

    “About 27% of those with severe cases, defined as receiving hospital care for a coronavirus infection, also received hospital care for a reinfection. Adults with severe cases were more likely to have underlying health conditions and be ages 60 or older. In contrast, about 87% of those who had mild Covid cases that did not require hospital care the first time also had mild cases of reinfections,” the researchers write.

    And there’s the real story, hidden in plain sight.

    We know from years of experience that Covid significantly impacts those who are in poor health, have underlying conditions, or are older AND in poor health. We also know that a very small percentage of Covid cases require treatment in a hospital setting. 

    All this study shows is that those who are in poor health, have underlying conditions, or are older, are more likely to need additional care if they get Covid a second time. Even then, 73% of those who had a second infection and were hospitalized the first time did not need hospitalization for the second infection. Sure enough, the vast, vast majority of those who had mild Covid cases the first time had mild Covid cases the second time.

    The protection from natural immunity is highly important and generally durable, though less so when an individual with poor underlying health has contracted the virus. This is nothing new. But that didn’t stop the new head of the NIH from spouting some impressive fear-mongering and bad science.

    NIH Can’t Stop Getting Things Wrong

    Dr. Monica Bertagnolli posted a link to the study on X, and a short summary. She repeated the same line about the severity of Covid reinfections, which were intended to undermine the importance of natural immunity.

    And more importantly, she claimed that the results underscore “the importance of preventing infection.”

    After analyzing data from 200K Americans who had #COVID19 twice, researchers found that a severe #COVID case tended to foreshadow a similarly severe infection the second time, underscoring the importance of preventing infection[.]

    Except that’s an impossibility. SARS-CoV-2 is an endemic virus. It will never be eliminated. It will never be stopped. Infection cannot be avoided. Vaccinations don’t prevent it, masks surely are ineffective, and any public interaction may result in an infection.

    There simply is no way to prevent infection, which is why some countries have now reported that roughly 70% of their population, even with masking and vaccination, have tested positive. Telling those at risk to try to avoid infection is irresponsible and inaccurate. So why is this coming from the NIH?

    Sure enough, these researchers also accidentally made the case for natural immunity. When studying the nonexistent phenomenon of “long Covid,” they found that those who had typical, longer-lasting effects from viral infections had bigger reactions after their first infection.

    “Scientists also discovered that regardless of the variant, long Covid cases were more likely to occur after a first infection compared to a reinfection,” the study says.

    Why is that? Because of natural immunity. 

    Under Anthony Fauci, they spent years downplaying it. They continue to undermine it in 2024. But the reality and the science continue to prove that natural immunity is protective and durable, and this is especially true for those in good health and younger age groups. Imagine if government agencies had been willing to admit this in 2020 instead of pointlessly locking down all of society in order to somehow prevent a virus that cannot be prevented.

    That would have been the correct evaluation and communication.

    But since when have government agencies handled a single aspect of Covid correctly?

    *  *  *

    Republished from the author’s Substack

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/24/2024 – 22:20

  • "We Don't Live In Dictatorship": Black Lives Matter Blasts Democrats For 'Anointing' Harris Without Vote 
    “We Don’t Live In Dictatorship”: Black Lives Matter Blasts Democrats For ‘Anointing’ Harris Without Vote 

    The radical left-wing Black Lives Matter group demanded on Tuesday that the Democratic National Committee host an informal, virtual snap primary across the country ahead of the DNC convention in August because the installation of Vice President Kamala Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee, without any public voting process threatens “the integrity of our democracy and the voices of Black voters.” 

    “The current political landscape is unprecedented, with President Biden stepping aside in a manner never seen before,” BLM wrote in a statement, explaining how the “Democratic Party elites and billionaire donors are attempting to manipulate Black voters by anointing Kamala Harris and an unknown vice president as the new Democratic ticket without a primary vote by the public.” 

    On Sunday, President Biden announced he would be exiting the presidential race and endorsed VP Harris to replace him at the top of the Democratic ticket to face former President Trump in the November presidential elections. Democrats have hemorrhaged all other talking points, such as the miracles of ‘Bidenomics,’ and resorted to this race is all about ‘defending democracy.’ 

    Notice how Trump’s rising election odds via PredictIt data prompted an immediate response from leftist corporate media outlets, resulting in a surge of articles about how Democrats were “defending democracy” from Trump.

    Meanwhile, BLM articulated very strongly that picking Harris without a public vote is a “blatant disregard for democratic principles” and “unacceptable.”

    “We have no idea where Kamala Harris stands on the issues, now that she has assumed Joe Biden’s place, and we have no idea of the record of her potential vice president because we don’t even know who it is yet,” the leftist group said. 

    BLM emphasized:

    “We do not live in a dictatorship. Delegates are not oligarchs. Any attempt to evade or override the will of voters in our primary system—no matter how historic the candidate—must be condemned. We demand an informal, virtual snap primary now that the incumbent president is no longer in the running.” 

    It gets better… 

    “For the past few years, the Democratic Party has proclaimed that “democracy is on the ballot” in an effort to persuade Black voters to participate in the upcoming general election. They have presented this as the most serious election for democracy in our lifetimes. However, democracy isn’t just an ideal to be protected against Republicans; it must also be safeguarded from erosions within the Democratic Party.”

    And better. 

    “Installing Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee and an unknown vice president without any public voting process would make the modern Democratic Party a party of hypocrites.”

    Again, better. 

    “Imagine our first Black woman president not having won some sort of public nomination process. The pundits would immediately label it as affirmative action or a DEI move, and any progress made by a President Harris would be on shaky foundations. If Kamala Harris is to be the nominee, it must be through a process that upholds democratic principles and public participation.”

    Shalomyah Bowers, one of BLM’s leaders, said:

    “This is about the nominating process. Those of us who care about the principles of democracy cannot be serious about installing Kamala Harris and an unknown vice president as the Democratic nominee without any semblance of a people-powered process. Not delegates and party elites, but actually asking communities across the country if they believe this should be the democratic ticket. Anything less is unserious in the quest for democracy. Democracies are stronger when political parties operate with primary systems that allow for genuine participation.”

    Oh, the irony: the Democratic Party, once the champion of voter rights and freedom of speech, now finds itself accused of voter suppression and disenfranchisement. Like BLM said, “Democratic Party elites and billionaire donors”… 

    Soros. 

    Are attempting to install Harris, all in the name of “saving democracy” against Trump. Yet, in doing so, they undermine the principles they claim to protect. 

    Here is what X users are saying about this:

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Let’s not forget. 

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

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

    This is entertainment indeed. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/24/2024 – 22:00

  • California's Danger Zones: 5 Counties With Highest Homicide Rates
    California’s Danger Zones: 5 Counties With Highest Homicide Rates

    Authored by Sophie Li via The Epoch Times,

    Alameda County, home to Oakland, ranked No. 1 in homicides in the state per capita in 2023, according to a report released earlier this month, by the California Attorney General’s office.

    Meanwhile, Merced County – in the central region of the state – which topped the list in 2022, showed a sharp decrease in homicides and fell out of the state’s top five.

    Los Angeles County, despite accounting for more than one-third of homicides in the state, also was not on the top five list.

    Statewide, 1,892 homicide cases were reported in 2023 – a nearly 16 percent decrease compared to 2022. This is the first time the number of homicides has dropped below 2,000 since 2020.

    1. Alameda County, Pop. 1.63 Million

    The county just north of San Jose topped the list with a murder rate of 10 per 100,000 residents, totaling 165 cases in 2023.

    The number is an 11 percent increase over a five-year period and a 3 percent rise from 2022.

    A majority of murders occurred in Oakland, with 126 deaths reported by the Oakland Police Department––representing a homicide rate of 27.6 per 100,000 persons.

    2. San Joaquin County, Pop. 793,220

    Just east of Alameda County, San Joaquin County ranked second in the state with a homicide rate of 9.6 per 100,000 residents, totaling 75 cases last year.

    Over a 10-year period covered in the report, the county has consistently been one of the “deadliest” regions in the state, with a homicide rate significantly higher than the state average each year. Additionally, the county has ranked highest in violent crime in recent years.

    3. Tulare County, Pop. 477,544

    Named after Tulare Lake, this growing county has also seen a rise in its homicide rate in recent years.

    With 43 murders in 2023, the county ranked third in the state in 2023 with a murder rate of 9.1 per 100,000 residents. The number has grown by 117 percent since 2019.

    4. Kern County, Pop. 916,108; Kings County, Pop. 152,981

    Tied for fourth were Kern and Kings counties, both with a murder rate of 7.9 per 100,000 residents.

    Largely different in population, the two counties also show varying trends in homicide throughout the years.

    Kern County, which spans the southern end of the Central Valley, has seen a downward trend for the past two years, after hitting a rate of 13.7 per 100,000 residents in 2021.

    Conversely, the rate for Kings County, located to the northwest of Kern County, has fluctuated due to its smaller population, but has been on the higher end in the state since 2020.

    5. Madera County, Pop. 160,256

    In 2023, the rural county—located at the southern entrance to Yosemite National Park—reported 12 homicides, resulting in a murder rate of 7.6 per 100,000 residents. The data also indicated an increase in such crimes over the past three years, though the rate remained below the state average in both 2021 and 2022.

    Notable Mention: Los Angeles County

    Although not among the top 5 “deadliest” counties in the state, L.A. County accounted for more than one-third of the state’s total homicides in 2023, with 683 cases reported.

    With more than 9.7 million residents—the most populous county in the nation—the rate translates to a murder rate of 7 per 100,000 residents.

    Such is a 7.6 percent decrease compared to 2022, and a nearly 19 percent decrease compared to 2021.

    Additionally, when compared with data from the Los Angeles Police Department’s from January, nearly half of the county’s murder cases, according to the report, occurred in the City of Los Angeles, which had 327 homicides and a rate of 8.4 per 100,000 residents in the city of about 4 million people.

    Killed by Acquaintance

    The report additionally showed that 48.7 percent of the 2023 murders were committed by friends or acquaintances; 30 percent by strangers; and nearly 15 percent by family members.

    Additionally, 80 percent of the victims were male, and 20 percent female.

    Nearly half of the victims were Hispanic, 27 percent were black, and 17 percent were white.

    Nationwide Comparison

    Data also showed California’s largest cities have a much lower homicide rate compared with other major cities across the nation.

    In 2023, Washington D.C. reported a murder rate of 39.7 per 100,000 residents; Philadelphia, 23.9, Chicago, 22.5; and Dallas, 18.9—according to a 2023 crime report by the Los Angeles Police Department.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/24/2024 – 21:40

  • A Harris Presidency Would Be The Final Death Blow To US Border Security
    A Harris Presidency Would Be The Final Death Blow To US Border Security

    During the first three years of Joe Biden’s presidency one issue was dodged and deflected more than any other – Illegal immigration and the unprotected southern border.  While the stagflation crisis remains at the top of the list of greatest concerns among the majority of Americans, almost every poll of non-economic problems puts immigration at forefront of people’s minds.  

    The two things are indelibly linked: Mass illegal immigration helps to feed the fires of economic crisis and inflation.  When your house is in economic decline the last thing you want to do is invite millions of unskilled freeloading migrants into your living room to sleep on your couch and eat from your fridge.

    Biden (along with the establishment media) spent an incredible amount of energy and resources denying and hiding the reality of the border situation.  When El Paso, TX was overrun with tens of thousands of illegals and the story could not be suppressed, conservatives demanded that Biden or Kamala Harris visit the region and see the danger for themselves.  Initially, they refused.  

    When Biden did finally fly to El Paso the city had been sterilized of all migrants and ironically, a border wall had been erected using storage containers and barbed wire guarded by armed soldiers.  Biden then enjoyed a quick photo op with border patrol agents and pretended as if there was never a problem.  

    During this period Harris was responsible for border related policy and PR.  She was often referred to as the “Border Czar” but today Democrats deny this was her position.  Harris had essentially taken over all public and media engagement on the border crisis, but this is a role Democrats would now prefer to diminish as she runs for president.

    One would think her first task would be to travel to the US/Mexico border and speak with locals and border agents about how to better secure ports of entry.  Points of invasion should have been addressed and the incentives motivating illegals to come to the US should have been examined.  This didn’t happen, ostensibly because doing so would be an admission that there was indeed a crisis in progress.  

    Instead, Harris traveled to Central American countries and launched her “Central America Forward” initiative.  She argued:

    “Most people don’t want to leave home, and when they do it is for one of two reasons: because they are fleeing some harm, or because to stay at home means they cannot satisfy the basic needs of their family…We have the capacity to give people hope and the belief that help is on the way.”

    Her office said US investment would create more than 70,000 jobs and provide internet access for more than 4.5 million people.  In other words, her solution was to give away even more American taxpayer dollars to pay off possible migrants before they come to the border.  

    The program ignored the greater issue of welfare subsidies and housing subsidies offered to “asylum seekers” as well as the 2-year-long waiting list for immigration courts to even address new asylum cases.  During that time, illegals have been allowed to stay in the US and enjoy numerous handouts. Over 60% of non-citizen households access US welfare programs that they rarely pay into.

    Biden and Harris fought for the end of Title 42, the Trump order that stopped migrants from living in the US while their asylum cases were processed.  They also tried to sabotage Governor Greg Abbott’s efforts to defend the Texas Border by creating a razor wire barrier.  Abbott has already put a dramatic dent in illegal crossing in the past year (a drop of 74%), and he promised to triple his razor wire projects should Kamala Harris become president.

    In a 2019 interview with National Public Radio, Harris suggested as president she would declare all illegal border-crossers refugees despite unconfirmed claims, even if that meant ignoring the law.  She argued:   

    “I disagree with any policy that would turn America’s back on people who are fleeing harm. I frankly believe that it is contrary to everything that we have symbolically and actually said we stand for. And so, I would not enforce a law that would reject people and turn them away without giving them a fair and due process to determine if we should give them asylum and refuge.”

    Harris also insinuated that ICE agents were a symbol of racism, stating in a Senate confirmation hearing for Trump nominee Ronald Vitiello that:

    “Certain communities saw ICE as comparable to the Ku Klux Klan for administering its power in a way that is causing fear and intimidation, particularly among immigrants and specifically among immigrants coming from Mexico and Central America…”

    Harris visited the border just once as Vice President, traveling to El Paso after immense public pressure.  Her plan to control mass immigration by “going to the source” and paying migrants to stay home failed.  Illegal crossings continued to skyrocket.

    Putting a stop to the border surge would require threatening Central American nations with economic retaliation should they continue to allow migrant caravans to cross their lands and travel to the US.  It would require a complete moratorium on asylum applications and an end to welfare subsidies.  Finally, illegals would have to be deported in large numbers in order to send a message that coming to America without going through proper channels is a waste of time and energy.  

    Harris will do none of these things.  In fact, her history shows that as president she will do the opposite and likely surpass Biden in border degradation.  Where Biden tried to hide his open border agenda from the public, Harris will be brazen and unapologetic.  She will gaslight the public and suggest the crisis is actually to their benefit.  She will rationalize open borders as a humanitarian necessity. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/24/2024 – 21:20

  • Net-Zero Targets Could Double Yearly Copper Demand By 2035
    Net-Zero Targets Could Double Yearly Copper Demand By 2035

    Authored by Sohrab Darabshaw via Metal Miner,

    • The global demand for copper is projected to increase by 40% by 2040, driven by the adoption of green technologies.

    • Vedanta Resources has regained control of the Konkola Copper Mines, a major high-grade copper deposit in Zambia.

    • The Cobre Panama mine closure and reduced output from Chinese smelters have contributed to concerns about a potential copper shortage.

    By now, the world knows that although the current global copper reserves are sufficient to meet demand, extraction continues to lag behind consumption.

    As a result, many inside and outside the copper market fear there will be a shortage in the coming years. 

    Predictions say that the annual global demand for copper will increase by about 40% by 2040.

    There are multiple factors fueling this expected growth, including the global move toward renewable energy and sustainable transportation.

    Given this current environment, any developments around copper and its mining remain guaranteed to hit the headlines. 

    Reclaiming an Essential Asset in the Copper Market 

    Analysts watched from the sidelines for months as the Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Resources Holdings Limited tried to regain control of the Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) in Zambia, Africa. That was before news arrived earlier this week that the global conglomerate had fulfilled its commitment under the “KCM scheme” of arrangement through a payment of U.S. $245.75 million.

    With this move, the copper market could see the immediate reinstatement of KCM’s Board of Directors and the restoration of full management control to Vedanta. This critical step is necessary for Vedanta to boost production and fully unlock KCM’s potential.

    KCM boasts copper grades over 2.4%, placing it among the world’s largest high-grade copper deposits. Moreover, the mine also has about 400 kt of contained cobalt reserves and resources, meaning KCM can become a top cobalt producer. As per media reports, Vedanta hopes to push copper production at KCM to 300 ktpa and hike cobalt production from 1 ktpa to 6 ktpa through enhanced production capabilities. 

    Global Copper Supply Remains in Doubt  

    Vedanta spent the past five years actively pushing to take full management control of the  KCM mine. However, the Zambian Government forced the copper mine into liquidation in 2019 after President Edgar Lungu accused it of failing to increase copper production.

    Commenting on the development to LiveMint, Chairman of Vedanta Group Anil Aggarwal said copper was the metal of the future. According to him, the Government of India wanted to secure a copper supply line for its own internal consumption. Incidentally, India has significantly limited domestic production, making it dependent on imports. According to a report by India’s Commerce Ministry, India imported copper plus copper articles worth $12 million in FY23 alone. 

    One significant event that impacted copper market dynamics was the closure of the Cobre Panama mine, a major global copper source. This closure altered market expectations from a surplus to a deficit, thus driving copper prices higher.

    Green Tech Continues to Fuel Copper Demand Predictions 

    Moreover, Chinese smelters decided to reduce output back in March due to a concentrate shortage, further increasing prices. Because of the feared upcoming shortage, copper miners globally foresee closer collaboration with end users, ranging from carmakers to utilities, which could help transform a previously fragmented supply chain. 

    According to this report, the change mainly revolves around copper’s importance in green technologies, which will likely only increase in the coming years. In fact, there’s an emerging trend involving some mining companies trying to sign direct deals with cable manufacturers, automotive companies, etc. in order to secure a steady supply of copper at an affordable price.

    It may eventually come down to a situation in which anyone using copper for any purpose, be it vehicles, green energy, or charging stations, will have to understand and plan how to lay their hands on the amount of copper they require every year. 

    Analysts believe that to get anywhere near net-zero targets by 2035, yearly copper demand may double to 50 MMT. Even conservative estimates predict a one-third increase in demand over the next decade, fueled by significant investments in decarbonization initiatives from both the public and private sectors. This will significantly strain copper markets in both the short and long term.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/24/2024 – 21:00

  • The Cost Of A Hoax
    The Cost Of A Hoax

    Authored by Wendy McElroy via The Mises Institute,

    The scandal surrounding Canada’s Kamloops Indian Residential School (1890-1969, British Columbia) is an ultracautionary tale about the damage inflicted by self-interested politicians and activists, backed by a media that toes the line. The 2021 scandal sprang from the alleged discovery of 215 graves of indigenous children. They were said to have died under suspicious circumstances at the Catholic-run school and then buried in unmarked graves behind the facility. Kamloops was one of the largest schools in the residential system through which indigenous children were culturally deprogrammed and indoctrinated to mold them into “proper” Canadians.

    When the story broke, the press fell over itself in a race to sensationalism. CBC News on May 28 declared, “Remains of 215 children found buried at former B.C. residential school, First Nation says.” The Toronto Star announced on May 28, “The remains of 215 children have been found. Now, Indigenous leaders say, Canada must help find the rest of the unmarked graves.” The international press jumped on the speeding news train with their own headlines, such as “‘Horrible History’: Mass Grave of Indigenous Children Reported in Canada’” from The New York Times on May 31.

    Actually, no graves had been discovered; their existence was extrapolated from “anomalies” in the earth found by ground-penetrating radar. Such anomalies are commonplace, however, and usually indicate a tree root, a large rock, or some other innocuous presence. Today, after three years and almost $8 million of publicly unaccountable funds being expended, no graves have been found. No one has bothered to even start the digging necessary to verify anything.

    Evidence is optional in the court of opinion

    The world was ready to believe without evidence. The residential school system was a horrific page of Canadian history and an act of cultural assault, if not cultural genocide. Perhaps this history lent an automatic credibility to the accusations that many students died prematurely and were buried anonymously as a cover-up or out of callousness.

    The fallout from these accusations was stunning. Canada was internationally smeared as a genocidal nation; the United Nations called for prompt action on a massive “human rights violation”; the Pope apologized; dozens of Catholic Churches in Canada were burned down in retaliation; the 2021 Canada Day celebrations were canceled in national shame, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau taking a knee to indigenous people. Subsequent government funds were pledged, including $3.1 million for a National Residential School Student Death Register and $238.8 million for a Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund. Other governments followed suit. For example, the government of Ontario pledged $10 million to search for unmarked graves at residential schools in this province.

    Eventually, academics and journalists began to ask for evidence. In a 2022 New York Post article entitled “Biggest fake news story in Canada: Kamloops mass grave debunked by academics,” Professor Jacques Rouillard of the Department of History at Université de Montréal expressed an increasingly common concern. “Not one body has been found. After … months of recrimination and denunciation, where are the remains of the children buried at the Kamloops Indian Residential School?” And why hadn’t a single missing person’s report on them been found?

    Almost alone among prominent Canadian media, the National Post ran a series of articles that showed cracks in what had become an almost sacred narrative about Kamloops. A Sept. 6, 2023, headline asked, “Who started calling residential school burial sites mass graves? At least in the beginning, First Nations didn’t claim there were deliberately hidden ‘mass graves.’ Media and activists did.” A May 30, 2024, article concluded, “Canada slowly acknowledging there never was a ‘mass grave’. There was much that was dark about residential schools, but no graves have been confirmed at Kamloops to this day.” In late 2023, the anthology “Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth about Residential Schools)” appeared.

    In response to a growing backlash, the special interlocutor assigned to the Kamloops criminal case asked Parliament to make “denialism” of this matter illegal under the criminal code. Those who expressed public skepticism would be vulnerable to prosecution for a hate crime in much the same manner as those who denied the Holocaust. Under section 319 of the criminal code, the willful promotion of antisemitism, unless in a private conversation, could lead to up to two years in prison. This includes “condoning, denying or downplaying the Holocaust.” Discussions of Kamloops would receive the same treatment. On Nov. 26, 2023, the Canadian Press reported that Justice Minister Arif Virani was still considering how to criminalize residential school denialism. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed sympathy for the idea.

    Making the open discussion of a news story into an illegal act obviously guts freedom of speech and journalism. The government wants to control both the information we can hear and our judgment of its worth. This is nothing new, and it is well-explored ground.

    But lesser-discussed damages inflicted by the handling of Kamloops are important and common to many cover-ups.

    Every day that passes without exhumations casts more doubt about the validity of the Kamloops story. If the narrative is true, then refusing to confirm it is an outrageous offense against the indigenous children lying in these graves. If false, then it is an outrageous offense against any indigenous person who reports a true atrocity in the future and is received with greater skepticism due to Kamloops. If false, then Kamloops also provides shade for real genocides around the globe. The CBC reported on June 22, 2021, “On the same day Canada helped to launch an international effort at the United Nations to demand that China allow free access to Xinjiang to investigate reported human rights violations, China and its allies have called on the UN to investigate crimes against Indigenous people in Canada.” When genocide becomes a game of political chess, it loses its connection to truth or justice.

    The politicization of Kamloops also prevents genuine healing for those involved because healing rests on understanding, not lies. As it stands, there is deepening antipathy on the part of the main parties: the white Christians accused and the indigenous people. Since May 2021, at least 33 Catholic Churches have burned to the ground, with 24 being confirmed as arsons.The Catholic Register on June 5, 2024, noted, “Over 100 Canadian Christian churches have been vandalized, damaged by fire or outright burned to the ground since the Kamloops’ claim first came to light.” (A map of vandalized or destroyed churches is here, valid as of February 2024.) To some, it feels like open war has been declared on Christianity, especially Catholicism.

    For their part, how can indigenous people join hands with white Christians when the latter are portrayed as the murderers of their children who bury the evidence in unmarked graves? The residential system has ceased to be the historical shame it truly is and has become, instead, a multigenerational burden of guilt that stretches forward forever.

    It does not have to be this way. The continuing turmoil is created by those to whom it brings power and money. The Epoch Times is correct in stating, “It’s absurd that people can claim a site contains the bodies of hundreds of murdered children yet refuse to allow further investigation into the issue. Only when we have confirmed what did or didn’t happen in Canadian residential schools will we be able to close the door on that chapter of our national history. Until there are excavations at the Kamloops site, the myths will continue to be spun and national healing won’t happen.” In the most literal sense, it is time to start digging for the truth.

    This is unlikely to happen. For one thing, in his 2021 federal election campaign, Trudeau leaned heavily on the promise to right the wrongs done against indigenous Canadians. For another thing, the federal government owns much of the mainstream media. Michael Geist of the University of Ottawa explained the government’s system of financially “supporting” the media:

    “While the current system covers 25% of the journalist costs up to $55,000 per employee (or $13,750), the government’s fall economic statement increases both the percentage covered and cap per employee. Under the new system, which is retroactive to the start of this year [2023], Qualified Canadian Journalism Organizations (which covers print and digital but not broadcasters) can now claim 35% of the costs of journalist expenditures up to $85,000 per employee. It increases the support to up to $29,750 per employee or an increase of 116%. This new support will run for four years at a cost of $129 million ($60 million this year alone).”

    Thus, in a literal sense, the federal government owns much of the mainstream media, at least in terms of paying their salaries.

    This is yet another cost of perpetuating an official narrative without evidence. Dismantling freedom of the press is a prerequisite to establishing the politically sacred version of an event, such as the discovery of 215 bodies of indigenous children. If the bodies exist, they will probably never be exhumed and given a proper burial. There is no political advantage in doing so.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/24/2024 – 20:20

  • Watch: President Biden Hails "Capable" Kamala In Resignation Speech Decrying "Tyrants & Dictators"
    Watch: President Biden Hails “Capable” Kamala In Resignation Speech Decrying “Tyrants & Dictators”

    Update (2020ET): To be frank, he didn’t sound great at all. Speaking quietly in his new ‘hoarse’ voice, President Biden did not use the word “Hitler” or explain why he is actually resigning from the race (aside from his usual platitudes), but there was still plenty of division and fearmongering for everyone if you don’t vote the ‘right’ way.

    He began:

    “My fellow Americans:

    It’s been the honor of my life to serve as your President.

    I draw strength and find joy in working for the people.

    But this sacred task of perfecting our Union is not about me. It’s about you. Your families. Your futures.

    It’s about “We the People.””

    He continued to explain that he quit “for party unity.”

    “Nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy.

    And that includes personal ambition.

    So I have decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.

    That is the best way to unite our nation.”

    Then the division and warnings started:

    America is at an inflection point.

    We must choose between moving forward or backward.
    Between hope and hate.
    Between unity and division.

    We have to decide: Do we still believe in honesty, decency, and respect?

    Freedom, justice, and democracy?

    “The sacred cause of our country is larger than any one of us,” he whispered on, adding that “those of us who cherish that cause – the cause of American democracy itself – must unite to protect it.”

    “In just a few months, the American people will choose the course of America’s future. I made my choice.”

    Watch the full brief remarks here and let us know what you thought:

     

    President Joe Biden will (allegedly or it could be a ‘cheap fake’) appear on camera from the Oval Office on July 24 for the first time since ending his candidacy and a week after testing positive for COVID-19.

    “Tomorrow evening at 8 PM ET, I will address the nation from the Oval Office on what lies ahead, and how I will finish the job for the American people,” he said in a post on X.

    The president has been out of the public eye since testing positive for COVID-19 on July 17 while campaigning in Las Vegas.

    President Biden canceled his remaining events and has since self-isolated in his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

    President Biden spoke with reporters after exiting Air Force One in his return to the White House on Tuesday.

    “Watch and listen. Why don’t you wait and hear what I say?” he said when asked what his message will be during his speech on Wednesday night, his first on-camera appearance since contracting COVID-19 on July 17.

    A reporter asked President Biden why he dropped out of the election. He turned his head to the reporter and laughed before walking to his motorcade.

    His ever-willing accomplice, KJP, just expressly told the White House Press Corps that the President continues to believe that he can serve four more years and did not withdraw due to his diminished state.

    “It has nothing to do with his health.”

    So, as Jonathan Turley wrote on X:

    “he ran out the primaries and then decided that the party would swap out presidential candidates at the convention for political reasons. This was after the Democratic establishment fought against anyone running against him or holding any debates…

    …The question is whether, in light of the decision to withdraw after the primaries, the President will agree to submit to neurological and cognitive tests in light of calls for the 25th Amendment process to start.”

    Watch President Biden cough, stumble, stammer, yell, and whisper-mode through his explanation for why he dropped out but is perfectly healthy otherwise… (due to start at 2000ET)…

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/24/2024 – 19:55

  • Pentagon's New Arctic Strategy Aims To Counter China–Russia Partnership
    Pentagon’s New Arctic Strategy Aims To Counter China–Russia Partnership

    Authored by Andrew Thornebrooke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Pentagon leadership is unveiling its latest strategy for the Arctic region as competition for geopolitical advantage heats up with China and Russia.

    The Russian “50 Years of Victory” nuclear-powered icebreaker is seen at the North Pole on Aug. 18, 2021. (Ekaterina Anisimova/AFP via Getty Images)

    The strategy takes aim at the increasing militarization of the region by Beijing and Moscow amid an expanding race for natural resources.

    “The Arctic is strategically vital to U.S. security,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks told reporters during a July 22 briefing.

    Ms. Hicks added that it’s imperative to national security that the United States ensure the Arctic “remains a secure and stable region” in the face of increasing aggression by the Chinese regime and Russia throughout the world.

    The strategy directs the U.S. military to adopt a “monitor and respond approach” while “exercising [a] calibrated presence” in the region by coordinating with Arctic allies on issues pertaining to strategy, training, and equipment.

    Ms. Hicks described the strategy as part of a “whole of government” effort to round out U.S. deterrence and readiness in the Arctic through regular training and exercises with allies, as well as investments in new systems, space capabilities, and cold weather gear.

    Among the efforts outlined is a directive to modernize the North American Aerospace Defense Command, through which the United States and Canada respond to emergent threats in North American airspace.

    The strategy is the Pentagon’s first since 2019 and follows the Biden administration’s National Arctic Strategy unveiled in 2022. It further outlines the U.S. objective to maintain an Arctic that is “peaceful, stable, prosperous, and cooperative,” while confronting communist China’s “pacing challenge” in the region.

    The Arctic houses vast reserves of natural resources, including oil, natural gas, rare earth metals, diamonds, and pristine fishing grounds. For the last decade, the Chinese regime has increased its efforts to project power into the region, in part to seize those resources for itself.

    The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules China as a single-party state, declared China a “near-Arctic state” in 2012, although its nearest territory is some 900 miles away.

    The Chinese regime has more than doubled its investment into Arctic projects since then and is focused on pursuing mineral extraction and scientific engagements, which could help to improve its military capabilities.

    China also is attempting to build out a new economic corridor through the region. The so-called Polar Silk Road would link Asia and Europe by traversing the opening waterways of the Arctic along Russia’s northern coast rather than going through the more densely patrolled Indo-Pacific.

    The subsequent flow of commercial, scientific, and military vessels into the region has increased, altering a geographic and strategic reality that had long seen little disturbance.

    “We’ve seen an uptick in their [China and Russia’s] cooperation over the last several years,” Deputy Secretary of Defense for Arctic and Global Resilience Iris Ferguson said.

    “We’ve also seen military exercises … off the coast of Alaska.”

    U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks addresses the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington on July 9, 2024. (Drew Angerer/AFP via Getty Images)

    Ms. Hicks described China and Russia’s continued strategic cooperation as “concerning” and said it’s likely China’s scientific research in the Arctic that would have military applications.

    “We always have concerns that there’s a military aspect to that,” she said.

    “It is imperative that the joint force is equipped and trained with what they need to succeed in the Arctic.”

    As such, Ms. Hicks said that the United States is investing in cold weather equipment just as it had previously invested in specialized gear for deployments in the Middle East.

    Foremost among those investments is the development and deployment of polar icebreaker ships, which are required to break through the softening ice of Arctic trade routes in the summer months.

    At present, the United States has just two diesel icebreakers, both of which are nearing the end of their life. Likewise, U.S. ally Finland maintains 12, and Canada maintains nine.

    Russia, meanwhile, boasts some 30 diesel-powered and seven nuclear-powered icebreakers.

    The White House announced earlier this month that the United States would work with Canada and Finland to jointly build up their icebreaker fleets as they look to bolster their defenses in the Arctic.

    The Icebreaker Collaboration Effort (ICE Pact) will facilitate collaboration in producing polar icebreakers and enhance information sharing on related issues. It also will allow workers and experts from each country to train in shipyards across all three.

    Ms. Hicks described the ICE Pact as “yet another example of the type of cooperation that we can leverage.”

    “It’s about making sure we’re ready to execute missions there,” she said.

    Likewise, Ms. Ferguson said, “This is the type of cooperation we should be leaning into more.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/24/2024 – 19:40

  • Elon Musk Says Report Of $45 Million Monthly Donation To Pro-Trump Super PAC Was "Made Up Fiction By WSJ" 
    Elon Musk Says Report Of $45 Million Monthly Donation To Pro-Trump Super PAC Was “Made Up Fiction By WSJ” 

    Elon Musk was spotted Wednesday in the US Capitol Building ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to lawmakers as the war in Gaza continues into its ninth month. 

    A reporter asked Musk, “Are you still going to donate to Trump? Are you still donating $45 million?”

    Musk replied, “At no point did I say that I was donating $45 million a month for Trump. That was a fiction made up by the Wall Street Journal.”

    Footage of the interaction between the reporter and Musk was posted on X by Collin Rugg. 

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

    On July 16, The Wall Street Journal reported that “people familiar with the matter” said Musk committed $45 million monthly to a new super political-action committee supporting the former president. 

    Earlier this week, in an interview with Jordan Peterson, the billionaire said, “What’s been reported in the media is simply not true. I am not donating $45 million a month to Trump.” 

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

    Musk has often criticized mainstream corporate media for inaccurate reporting.

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

    He has called out Reuters and Business Insider. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/24/2024 – 19:20

  • Russia Could Ban Diesel Exports Again
    Russia Could Ban Diesel Exports Again

    Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via Oilprice.com,

    Russia is considering banning the export of diesel if prices rise further, Russian daily Kommersant reported on Wednesday, citing several sources.

    The Russian government could ban diesel exports if prices spike in the near term, but no decision has been made yet, according to Kommersant’s sources.   

    There are no conditions for a complete ban on diesel shipments abroad yet, a source at a local oil company told the Russian daily.

    The government is restoring a ban on gasoline exports from August 1.

    In the autumn of 2023, Russia banned exports of diesel and gasoline in an effort to stabilize domestic fuel prices in the face of soaring prices and shortages as crude oil rallied and the Russian ruble weakened.

    Prior to implementing the ban, Russia had raised mandatory supply volumes for motor gasoline and diesel fuel to deal with a supply crunch.

    These bans lasted only a few weeks.

    This year, Russia reinstated a ban on gasoline shipments from March 1 but lifted the restriction on May 20 as more refineries completed planned seasonal maintenance or emergency repairs after Ukrainian drone hits in the winter and early spring.

    At the end of March, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said the government doesn’t plan to ban diesel exports again.

    At the time the supply and prices of diesel were stable.

    However, diesel demand and prices have increased in recent weeks, and, according to Kommersant’s sources, the government could reinstate a ban on exports if prices continue to rise.

    In terms of gasoline exports, a ban will be renewed on August 1, Novak said earlier this week.

    “We have the embargo approved until September 1. An exception has been currently made for the month of July. The exception ends from August 1. The tacit ban on exports of petroleum products and gasoline will be restored. In other words, the ban will be reenacted from August 1,” Russian news agency TASS quoted Novak as saying.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/24/2024 – 19:00

  • The Hubris Of Central Planning: A Lesson From Jim Grant
    The Hubris Of Central Planning: A Lesson From Jim Grant

    Via MoneyMetals.com,

    In the latest episode of the Money Metals Midweek Memo, host Mike Maharrey delved into the perils of central planning and the inherent limitations of human knowledge, drawing on insights from economist Friedrich Hayek and financial expert Jim Grant. 

    The episode offered a critical examination of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy and its implications for the economy.

    Planning in Uncertainty

    Maharrey began with personal anecdotes to illustrate the unpredictability of life. He shared stories of a day disrupted by a flat tire and an unexpected plumbing issue during a home renovation, underscoring the theme that “you don’t know what you don’t know.” This unpredictability, he argued, is a fundamental flaw in central economic planning.

    The Knowledge Problem

    Maharrey referenced Friedrich Hayek’s seminal work, “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” to explain why central planning is doomed to fail. Hayek’s “knowledge problem” posits that no central planner can possess all the information necessary to make informed economic decisions. Hayek wrote, “The knowledge of the circumstances of which we must make use never exists in concentrated or integrated form but solely as the dispersed bits of incomplete and frequently contradictory knowledge which all the separate individuals possess.”

    Jim Grant’s Critique of Central Planning

    Maharrey highlighted an interview with Jim Grant on Fox Business, where Grant criticized the Federal Reserve’s approach to monetary policy.

    Grant described central planning as “the ignorance that knows not it’s ignorant,” a phenomenon where policymakers fail to recognize the limits of their knowledge.

    He stressed the importance of markets in discovering interest rates rather than having them imposed by central authorities.

    Grant also pointed out the flaws in the Federal Reserve’s interest rate projections, noting that they are accurate only 38% of the time, which Maharrey compared to flipping a coin.

    This statistic underscores the speculative nature of central banking decisions.

    In the interview, Grant made a compelling point: “Assumptions are harmless as long as the assuming party doesn’t confuse them with foreknowledge.”

    Historical Perspective

    To provide context, Maharrey reflected on the contrasting attitudes of policymakers in 1953, the first year of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration. At that time, there was a commitment to balancing the budget and restoring the dollar to gold convertibility. Federal Reserve Chairman William McChesney Martin lauded the free market and emphasized that fixed interest rates and economic dysfunction were not part of American institutions.

    In contrast, today’s Federal Reserve is deeply involved in manipulating markets and interest rates. Maharrey pointed out that despite their confidence, central planners are inevitably blind to the full consequences of their actions, leading to economic dysfunction.

    “The future is a phenomenon both strange and wondrous though it doesn’t exist unless we reckon with it,” Grant remarked, highlighting the unpredictability of economic outcomes.

    The Current Economic Climate

    Maharrey criticized the current mindset that the Federal Reserve has everything under control, attributing the stock market’s highs to easy money policies rather than effective economic governance. He argued that the apparent stability over the past two decades has given people a false sense of security, ignoring the underlying issues that could lead to future economic crises.

    Maharrey expressed significant skepticism about Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve’s ability to manage the economy effectively. He argued that central planners, including Powell, are often overly confident in their ability to predict and control economic outcomes, despite lacking the necessary comprehensive knowledge. 

    Maharrey emphasized that “they don’t know what they don’t know,” highlighting the inherent unpredictability and complexity of economic systems.

    He pointed out that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate projections are only accurate 38% of the time, suggesting that their decisions are more speculative than scientific. Maharrey was critical of the Fed’s past and current policies, including the handling of the 2008 financial crisis and the response to the pandemic, which he believes have led to long-term economic instability.

    Maharrey also criticized the mainstream investment world for treating Fed officials like “demigods handing down wisdom from on high,” despite their frequent inaccuracies and failures. He argued that the Fed’s current monetary policies, including interest rate manipulation, are based on hubris and a false sense of certainty, leading to potential future economic crises.

    The Importance of Humility

    Maharrey echoed Grant’s advice for investors and policymakers to approach their predictions with humility. Grant reminded us that the future is uncertain and that past successes do not guarantee future accuracy. Maharrey emphasized that understanding historical economic trends and fundamentals can help make more informed predictions, but one must always remain cautious and prepared for unexpected events. 

    “Hubris almost always gets you in trouble,” Maharrey warned, reflecting on Grant’s insights about exaggerated pride and self-confidence.

    Preparing for Uncertainty

    In conclusion, Maharrey stressed the importance of having a safe haven like gold and silver in one’s investment portfolio to hedge against economic uncertainty. He encouraged listeners to contact Money Metals Exchange to explore opportunities in precious metals, especially during periods of market volatility.

    Final Thoughts

    Maharrey wrapped up the episode by inviting listeners to stay informed through Money Metals’ various platforms and to tune in to their regular podcasts for more insights into the precious metals markets and economic trends. “Just because nothing bad has happened yet doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen,” Maharrey cautioned, urging a proactive approach to financial preparedness.

    For more detailed insights, listeners are encouraged to visit the Money Metals website and subscribe to the updates and podcasts.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/24/2024 – 18:20

  • Ukraine Strongly Signals Willingness To Negotiate With Russia: China FM
    Ukraine Strongly Signals Willingness To Negotiate With Russia: China FM

    The Ukrainian government has been showing an increased willingness to get to the negotiating table to end the war, with the latest development being a trip by the country’s top diplomat to China to explore avenues forward. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Wednesday met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, and communicated in a statement that “I am convinced that a just peace in Ukraine is in China’s strategic interests.”

    “China’s role as a global force for peace is important,” he emphasized, while also stipulating that Kiev will only engage Moscow when Putin is “ready to negotiate in good faith.” However, he added that “No such readiness is currently observed on the Russian side.” This marks the first such trip of Ukraine’s foreign minister to China since the war began in February 2022.

    Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Source: Xinhua 

    Wang in a readout said that Russia and Ukraine had each “sent signals of their willingness to negotiate to varying degrees.”

    From Ukraine’s perspective, China alone is a powerful enough external actor which possesses enough influence with Moscow to get it to end the invasion. For Beijing, this is an opportunity to show itself a crucial counterweight to the United States on the world stage in dealing with intractable conflicts from Ukraine to Gaza.

    A Chinese Foreign Ministry statement continued in follow-up to Wang’s comments, saying, “Of course, the negotiations should be rational and substantive, aimed at achieving a just and lasting peace.”

    Wang had in the meeting warned the Ukrainian diplomat that there is the “risk of escalation and spillover” of the conflict, adding that “China believes that the resolution of all conflicts must eventually return to the negotiation table.”

    Last week, President Zelensky issued a surprise reversal, saying that a second Ukraine peace summit should include Russian representation. “I believe that Russian representatives should be at the second summit,” Zelensky told a press conference in Kiev on July 15 while outlining preparatory work for another summit.

    The first “Summit on Peace in Ukraine at the Bürgenstock” in Switzerland in mid-June importantly did not have either Russian or Chinese participation. While Beijing had been invited, Russia was not, and the Chinese government cited this as a reason it found the whole endeavor futile.

    China has been busy presenting itself as peacemaker while condemning ‘hegemonic’ Washington…

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    In addition to China, the Vatican is also this week calling for some very real talk regarding the war. According to a readout from the Vatican as quoted in Russian media: 

    The Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, believes that the Ukrainian conflict is still far from being settled and that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s proposed peace formula is not sufficient, the Cardinal said on Wednesday in an interview with Italian daily Avvenire…

    “It seems to me that we are still far away from the resolution [of the conflict],” he said. “We have President Zelensky’s peace proposal, which the Holy See supported immediately, particularly in the sphere of humanitarian issues.”

    “It represents an attempt to find peace, although it has gaps in the sense of not involving Russia. This plan can help, but it is not sufficient,” he continued. “I hope other formulae can be found to pave the way for the talks.”

    It remains that Kiev has been unwilling to budge on the idea of making territorial concessions. At the same time, Russia is unwilling to give up the four eastern territories it previously annexed, declaring them part of the Russian Federation after a referendum last year.

    But this month has included a series of openings and unprecedented signaling coming from Kiev for the first time. This as both Ukraine is in a desperate situation on the battlefield and as it is bracing for a likely future Trump administration in the US.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/24/2024 – 18:00

  • The Dark Arts Exposed: Fear-Nudging
    The Dark Arts Exposed: Fear-Nudging

    Authored by Robert Malone,

    During the COVID crisis, nudging emerged as one of the primary psyops tools used by globalists, governments, NGOs, and “security” (intelligence) forces against us ordinary folk.

    Recently, a number of peer-reviewed papers have come to light, exposing just how pervasive and damaging the use of nudges was during COVID-19. They also reveal how nudging, including fear nudging, is being used to control individuals and populations on matters such as health, climate change, meat-eating, tobacco use, alcohol use, weight control, electoral candidates, political campaigns, and more.

    The PsyWar Campaign continues to work to control our hearts and minds on all matters of statecraft.

    For those that need reminding, nudging is a form of psychological manipulation that is often used in psyops and psywar campaigns.

    A nudge is a technique for modifying people’s behavior in a predictable way by influencing people to behave in a desired outcome. Nudging is usually performed covertly, although that is not considered a criterion of the nudge. A nudge can be described as: “any aspects of the choice architecture that predictably alters people’s behavior without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives.”

    Nudging alters the environment, triggering automatic cognitive processes to favor the desired outcome. Nudging makes it more likely that an individual will make a particular choice or behave in a particular way.

    Fear nudging involves using nudges that utilize a fear component to drive behavior, opinions, or decision-making. While this is a particularly effective form of nudging, it is absolutely unethical, in my opinion and that of others.

    The peer-reviewed papers below document just how effective the fear nudge has become and how globalists and governments alike routinely use this technique to control populations.

    Abstract

    Internet users are inundated with attempts to persuade, including digital nudges like defaults, friction, and reinforcement.

    When these nudges fail to be transparent, optional, and beneficial, they can become ‘dark patterns’, categorised here under the acronym FORCES (Frame, Obstruct, Ruse, Compel, Entangle, Seduce).

    Elsewhere, psychological principles like negativity bias, the curiosity gap, and fluency are exploited to make social content viral, while more covert tactics including astroturfing, meta-nudging, and inoculation are used to manufacture consensus.

    The power of these techniques is set to increase in line with technological advances such as predictive algorithms, generative AI, and virtual reality.

    Digital nudges can be used for altruistic purposes including protection against manipulation, but behavioural interventions have mixed effects at best.

    Tactics of FORCES (Frame, Obstruct, Ruse, Compel, Entangle, Seduce), which are being used by governments, globalists, and NGOs to control populations.

    The above graphics are from the paper listed below.

    Link to the Full Paper

    Abstract

    Nudging, a controversial technique for modifying people’s behavior in a predictable way, is claimed to preserve freedom of choice while simultaneously influencing it.

    Nudging had been largely confined to situations such as promoting healthy eating choices but has been employed in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis in a shift towards measures that involve significantly less choice, such as shoves and behavioral prods.

    Shared decision making (SDM), a method for direct involvement and autonomy, is an alternative approach to communicate risk.

    Predominantly peer-reviewed scientific publications from standard literature databases like PubMed, PsycInfo, and Psyndex were evaluated in a narrative review.

    The so-called fear nudges, as well as the dissemination of strongly emotionalizing or moralizing messages can lead to intense psycho-physical stress.

    The use of these nudges by specialized units during the COVID-19 pandemic generated a societal atmosphere of fear that precipitated a deterioration of the mental and physical health of the population.

    Major recommendations of the German COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO) study, which are based on elements of nudging and coercive measures, do not comply with ethical principles, basic psychological principles, or evidence-based data.

    (Shared decision-making) SDM was misused in the COVID-19 crisis, which helped to achieve one-sided goals of governments.

    The emphasis on utilitarian thinking is criticized and the unethical behavior of decision makers is explained by both using the concept of moral disengagement and the maturity level of coping strategies.

    There should be a return to an open-ended, democratic, and pluralistic scientific debate without using nudges. It is therefore necessary to return to the origins of SDM.

    Link to the Full Paper

    The dark nudge is an incredibly effective fear-based tool that governments, political candidates, companies, NGOs, the security state, and others use to control thought and action at the individual and population level. This psyops tool has been, is, and will be utilized against ordinary people.

    • A search on “COVID-19 vaccine and hesitancy” in Pubmed pulls up 5,550 results.

    • A search on “vaccine and hesitancy” in Pubmed pulls up 7981 results.

    The use of the nudge is a key strategy that many organizations resort to in order to “overcome” vaccine hesitancy.

    The peer-reviewed paper below established that some hospitals used psychological torture and even physical discomfort to induce people to accept COVID-19 vaccination.💉

    Link to the Full Paper

    From the paper:

    Abstract

    Methods

    We conducted an explanatory sequential designed observational mixed-methods study, including quantitative and qualitative sections consecutively in two different pandemic hospitals between 15 September 2021 and 1 April 2022. The characteristics of vaccinated and unvaccinated (vaccination of healthcare workers) HCWs were compared.

    The vaccine hesitancy scales were applied, and the effect of nudging, such as mandatory PCR and education, were evaluated. In-depth interviews were performed to investigate the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among HCWs according to Health Belief Model.

    Results

    …After the mandatory weekly PCR request nudge, 83.33 % (130/156) vaccine-hesitant HCWs were vaccinated, and 8.3 % (13/156) after the small group seminars and mandatory PCR every two days.

    Conclusions

    The nudging interventions such as mandatory PCR testing and small group seminars helped raise the rate of COVID-19 vaccination; the most effective one is mandatory PCR.

    This study took place in Turkey, but a physical intervention (mandatory PCR testing) was performed to coerce people into being vaccinated against their will.

    We all know, having lived through the COVID crisis, that this intervention was performed informally throughout the Western world. These scientists just documented what governments and hospitals were doing to people worldwide.

    The truth is that “the machine” (the system) did this to us. This goes beyond some small unethical breach, as using PCR testing to harass and cause physical discomfort of the unvaccinated was performed worldwide. Hence, fear nudging that applied physical discomfort and even pain was performed on millions of people worldwide.

    The number of peer-reviewed papers documenting and encouraging the use of dark nudges is astounding. Often, these organizations don’t even know the name of this technique – they just do it because it is effective.

    It is time that legislative action be considered to control the abuse of this psyops technique that can border on psychological and even physical torture.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/24/2024 – 17:40

  • Florida Housing Downturn "Keeps Getting More Intense By The Day"
    Florida Housing Downturn “Keeps Getting More Intense By The Day”

    The housing market is shifting from a shortage of homes for sale to one with increasing inventory levels. Supply is rising for both new and existing homes. This added supply and high mortgage rates will likely put pressure on sky-high home prices. 

    Drilling down into the inventory story, Nick Gerli, CEO and Founder of real estate analytics firm Reventure Consulting, pointed out on X that all eyes should be on the “Florida housing downturn” because it “keeps getting more intense by the day.” 

    Gerli noted housing inventory across the Orlando metro area has spiked to levels not seen since 2007. 

    “With active listings skyrocketing 82% over the last year. To 10,759 homes on the market. That’s the highest level of supply since at least 2017. Suggesting: home prices will be going down in Orlando. And potentially by a lot,” he said. 

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    The analysts warned: 

    “This Florida housing downturn keeps getting more intense by the day. With a combination of investors, builders, and inflation-burdened homeowners off-loading houses at a historically fast clip. This increase in listings is now corresponding with a slowdown in demand, which is pushing inventory levels through the roof.”

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    With inventory rising, he said home values in Orlando are 28% overvalued compared to their long-term averages using data from Reventure. 

    “That’s a similar level of overvaluation to the previous peak in mid-2000s,” he said, adding, “The more that inventory climbs, the greater the likelihood that prices fall.”

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    He lists the ten most overvalued housing markets across the Sunshine State.

    Last month, Gerli said Austin, Texas’ housing inventory has “now spiked to the highest level on record. He said, “Values down nearly 20% already and could have another 15% decline to go.”

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    Low inventory has plagued the overall US housing market in recent years, but the US existing home sales inventory shows a nearing reversal. This also comes as the number of news stories featuring ‘housing inventory’ in corporate media has spiked to record highs. 

    High mortgage rates and rising supply are needed in the second half to reverse sky-high housing prices. However, if the Federal Reserve’s cutting cycle begins in September or the end of the year, a lower rate environment could drive demand, pushing prices higher. A continuation of higher rates for longer periods, with rising inventory, would likely begin to pressure home prices.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/24/2024 – 17:20

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Jul 24

Today’s News 24th July 2024

  • World War 3: The Catalyst For A New World Order
    World War 3: The Catalyst For A New World Order

    Authored by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,

    The F-22 Raptor is the best air dominance warplane in the world.

    It’s the top dog fighter jet.

    The F-22’s advanced avionics, stealth capabilities, and maneuverability make it an unmatched platform for hunting and killing other aircraft.

    While Russia, China, and several other nations have their own air dominance fighters, it’s doubtful they would fare well against an F-22 in air-to-air combat.

    In short, the F-22 is critical to the US Air Force’s ability to control the skies in a potential conflict with a sophisticated enemy.

    That’s why the F-22 Raptor is one of the few warplane models the US government does not export to any foreign country—not even to Israel or its NATO allies.

    The F-22’s highly advanced stealth capabilities give it a significant edge over other air dominance fighter jets. In air-to-air combat, enemy fighter jets probably wouldn’t even know there was a Raptor nearby until it was too late.

    The potential presence of an F-22 in an area would give any hostile air force an excellent reason to think twice before challenging the US Air Force.

    That’s why the US stations F-22s in Japan as a deterrent to China’s air force should it make a move on Taiwan, for example.

    However, all of this could change soon… and have enormous geopolitical implications.

    The South China Morning Post has remained Hong Kong’s newspaper of record since British colonial rule.

    They recently published a bombshell article claiming that Chinese researchers had developed a new radar detection technology that neutralizes the F-22’s stealth capabilities.

    They claim that China’s radar system can now accurately pinpoint an F-22’s real-time position. This information could then be relayed to interceptor fighter jets or surface-to-air missile batteries to target the F-22.

    If the claims are true, the impact on the F-22’s combat effectiveness would be huge. It would mean the US is unlikely to dominate the skies in a conflict with China.

    That has tremendous consequences for the island of Taiwan.

    Taiwan considers itself an independent nation with its own government, military, and foreign relations.

    However, China views Taiwan as a breakaway province and has vowed to reunify it with the mainland by force if necessary. Recently, Xi privately warned Biden that China would reunify Taiwan, but the timing had not yet been decided.

    While not explicitly committing to Taiwan’s defense, the US has been a significant supplier of military equipment to Taiwan. A Chinese invasion could trigger a response from the US military, though the extent and nature of this response are uncertain.

    China has one of the world’s largest and increasingly modern militaries. Taiwan has a well-trained military, though smaller and less equipped than China’s.

    In a military conflict, China seems to have the advantage. The only way Taiwan would have a prayer is if the US directly joined the conflict.

    The US government has conducted various war games to simulate and prepare for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. A key finding from these war games is that maintaining air superiority is critical for the US military to defend Taiwan successfully.

    In other words, if the US cannot dominate the skies above Taiwan, it probably won’t be successful in repelling a Chinese invasion.

    If the Chinese have compromised the F-22’s stealth capabilities, then I think it’s unlikely the US will achieve air superiority in case of a conflict in Taiwan. And if they can’t achieve air superiority, then their efforts are likely doomed to failure.

    If the US understands that intervening in Taiwan is doomed to failure, they are likely to leave Taiwan to its fate, which means China will be successful in reunifying it with the mainland.

    That would be a geopolitical earthquake and could fatally undermine the current US-led world order.

    Taiwan is one of the three key proxy wars that will, I think, be decisive in who wins World War 3.

    While many don’t realize it, World War 3 is already underway.

    World War 3 and the New World Order

    Total war between the world’s largest powers that reshuffled the international order defined the previous world wars.

    However, with the advent of nuclear weapons, total war between the largest powers today—Russia, China, and the US—means a nuclear Armageddon where there are no winners and only losers.

    That could still happen despite nobody wanting it, but it’s not the most likely outcome.

    World War 3 is unlikely to be a direct kinetic war between the world’s largest powers, like the previous world wars.

    Instead, the conflict is playing out on different levels—proxy wars, economic wars, financial wars, cyber wars, biological wars, deniable sabotage, and information wars.

    Out of all these domains, I think proxy warfare will determine who wins World War 3.

    Here’s the bottom line.

    Russia, China, and their allies want to change the US-led world order that has been in place since the end of World War 2.

    The conflict is playing out on a level that is below the threshold of direct kinetic warfare because that could invite a nuclear Armageddon.

    Nonetheless, there is a conflict between the biggest global powers to determine the world order, as in the previous world wars.

    As I see it, World War 3 is a conflict between two geopolitical blocks.

    The first block consists of the US and its allies who have hitched their wagons to the unipolar world order.

    I’m reluctant to call this block “the West” because the people who control it have values antithetical to Western Civilization.

    A more fitting label would be NATO & Friends.

    The other block comprises Russia, China, Iran, and other countries favorable to a multipolar world order.

    Let’s call them the BRICS+, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and other countries.

    BRICS+ is not a perfect label, but it’s a decent representation of the countries favorable to the multipolar world order.

    • In short, BRICS+ wants to transform the current world order from unipolar to multipolar and give themselves a bigger seat at the table in the process.

    • NATO & Friends want the unipolar status quo to prevail.

    • That’s World War 3, and it’s happening right now.

    It’s important to remember that world orders are nothing new.

    World orders are how the big global powers have set the rules of the game for centuries. They are simply the architecture for international political relations between countries.

    On a smaller scale, it’s similar to when the most powerful criminal groups in a given city—like mafias and street gangs—come together and agree on how to divide their activities and neighborhoods among themselves.

    Sooner or later, though, these agreements always break down. Then, there is a violent power struggle until the criminal groups reach a new agreement reflecting the new power balance.

    A similar dynamic is at play with the most powerful countries and world orders.

    Conflicts among the most powerful countries typically lead to a breakdown and restructuring in the world order.

    The current US-led world order was the result of World War 2.

    Prior to that, the Treaty of Versailles created a new world order after World War 1 that lasted from 1919 to 1939.

    Prior to that, the Congress of Vienna defined the world order. It lasted from Napoleon’s defeat in the early 1800s to the outbreak of World War 1 in 1914.

    Prior to that, the Peace of Westphalia defined the world order. It lasted from the end of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648 until the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars around the early 1800s.

    Here’s the bottom line.

    Changes to the world order are historical events with enormous implications—investment and otherwise.

    We’re living through one of these rare times right now.

    That’s why it’s crucial to sift through the noise and propaganda, put the pieces together correctly, and see the true geopolitical Big Picture.

    Countless millions throughout history were wiped out financially—or worse—during the previous world wars because they failed to see the correct Big Picture and take appropriate action.

    But what if you get the Big Picture right as World War 3 unfolds?

    You can avoid disaster AND set yourself up to potentially make life-changing profits by acting on the investment implications of WW3 before others figure out what is really happening and how it’s likely to end.

    It’s a rare fortune-building opportunity for those who understand what is happening and make the right moves today.

    That’s exactly why I just released an urgent new report with all the details, including what you must do to prepare. It’s called The Most Dangerous Economic Crisis in 100 Years… the Top 3 Strategies You Need Right Now. Click here to download the PDF now.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 23:25

  • VP Kamala Harris Had 92% Staff Turnover During Her First Three Years
    VP Kamala Harris Had 92% Staff Turnover During Her First Three Years

    By Adam Andrzejewski of OpenTheBooks

    “People really, really do not want to work for Kamala Harris,” wrote former staffer Dan McLaughlin, January 2022.

    Topline

    Under Kamala Harris, the Office of the Vice President has been called a “revolving door,” a “staff exodus” of key aides “heading for the exits.” 

    That’s not hyperbole from the national media. Our auditors at OpenTheBooks quantified an extraordinarily high 91.5-percent staff turnover rate. We used U.S. Senate disclosures to conduct our investigation and those databases can be downloaded below.

    Elected in November 2020, Harris took the oath of office in January 2021. As of March 31, 2024, only four of the initial 47 staffers from the first year are still employed – consistently and without interruption – by the Vice President.

    Furthermore, the turnover chaos isn’t getting better. In the trailing 12-month period, 24 staffers left — that’s almost half the employees.

    Download the Office of Vice President 2021 & 2024 payrolls here (source: U.S. Senate disclosures)

    Key facts

    The “top-to-bottom dysfunction” that The Atlantic referenced in October 2023 is shown in the reported payrolls that we captured.

    “In her first year and a half as vice president, Harris saw the departure of her chief of staff, communications director, domestic-policy adviser, national security adviser, and other aides,” the magazine wrote.

    If only that was all who left.

    The semi-annual Report of the Secretary of the Senate, among other things, lists the names, titles and salaries of staff in the Office of the Vice President (OVP).

    In the most recent publishing through March 31, only four staff from the original 47 listed in the 2021 report remained consistently employed and are among the office’s 50 current staff members.

    The Kamala Harris Fabulous Four – here are the names, titles, employment date, and salaries of the four employees most loyal to Kamala Harris:

    • Yael S. Belkind has been assistant to the chief of staff since Jan. 20, 2021, earning $85,924;

    • Nasrina Bargzie was associate counsel since Feb. 10, 2021, now is deputy council, taking home $118,066.

    • Oludayo O. Faderin was associate director from July 2021, then became deputy director of west wing operations, making $85,924.

    • Olivia K. Hartman was hired in August 2021 as advance coordinator and became deputy director of scheduling, making $94,750.

    Silas Woods, III began his career with the vice president as a vetting researcher on Feb. 17, 2021 making $52,500, became associate director of research, and left in August 2022. He went to work as a press assistant for the White House making $67,000. On March 25, 2024, Woods returned as a personal aid to the second gentleman and deputy director of special projects, where his full salary isn’t reported.

    The other 45 people employed in OVP as of March 31 were hired after Sept. 30, 2021, when staff had already begun leaving the office.

    In the last year alone, (April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024) 24 people left their jobs with Harris.

    Key background—Kamala Harris Tried To Hide Everything

    The Kamala Harris, Office of Vice President, is committed to the opacity of its payrolls and all other office information.

    In our 2021 reporting at Forbes, “VP Kamala Harris Is The Least Transparent Elected Official In The Nation,” we outlined the OVP’s refusal to provide any information to the public and taxpayers. Her office denied our FOIA request and claimed that they were immune.

    We had filed a FOIA request with the OVP for its staff payroll in September 2021. A spokesman replied:

    “Thank you for your inquiry. The Office of the Vice President is not subject to Freedom of Information Act requests. See 5 U.S.C. 552; 44 U.S.C. 2207.”

    We even tried to coax the information out of the OVP:

    “I understand the OVP isn’t subject to FOIA — is there any information you can provide me at all about the office staff? Whether it’s total staff employees (without names or any other employee-specific info) or total payroll for 2020 or current numbers for 2021?”

    However, the spokesman replied:

    “Thank you for the inquiry. OVP does not have any information to share at this time.”

    Therefore, we had to rely on the U.S. Senate’s semi-annual report for Oct. 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021, which gives a list of the 28 staff members who had been hired by the new administration between Jan. 20 and March 31, 2021. Over the next few months, the OVP added another approximately 20 staff members.

    We calculated that for VP Harris’s 28 staff listed in the Senate report, the 2021 salaries added up to $2,334, 223.

    But President Joseph Biden’s congressional budget submission shows the OVP got $5 million for 23 full time staff in 2021 and requested over $6 million for 27 full time staff in 2022.

    The OVP wouldn’t answer for the discrepancy in budget and staffing, citing the earlier provision that states only federal agencies are subject to FOIA, and the OVP, it argues, isn’t a federal agency.

    Vice President Kamala Harris, the second-in-command, and possible next president of the United States, is the only elected official in the country not required to share her office’s spending with the public.

    We captured 25 million public employee salary and pension records on 55,000 FOIA requests last year. You can search all federal, state, and local government payrolls on our website for free or with our free AI search tool, Benjamin, named after Benjamin Franklin.

    Biden’s High Turnover

    Harris isn’t alone in her inability to retain staff.

    Since 2021, only 127 of Biden’s initial 560 White House employees remain, a 77-percent turnover rate that would be considered high if not for Harris’ 92-percent rate.

    Between 2023 and 2024, 225 people left, a 43-percent turnover rate that is only slightly lower than the 46-percent between 2022 and 2023.

    (For context, Donald Trump’s payroll turnover from his first year until his fourth year was 72-percent.)

    But Biden’s high turnover isn’t the only staffing failure that should give taxpayers pause.

    He has the largest White House headcount since the Richard Nixon administration, who was the first president to exceed 500 staffers.

    Now Biden employs 565 staffers, costing taxpayers $61 million in salaries. That’s up from the 524 staffers in 2023, costing $52 million.

    Biden has 152 more employees than Trump (413) (FY2020) and 97 more than Obama (468) (FY2012), when each were in the fourth year of their first terms.

    This shouldn’t be surprising, as Biden has made clear his intentions to grow the size of the federal government.

    In the first nine days of his presidency, Biden issued many executive orders expanding the size, scope, and power of the federal bureaucracy.

    During his first three years, more than 40,000 bureaucrats were added across the 123 executive agencies, outside of the Department of Defense, U.S. Post Office, and intelligence services.

    Crucial quote

    Symone Sanders, Harris’ chief spokesperson and senior adviser, in early December 2021 was quoted in The Washington Post responding to critics of the staff departures, saying,

    “We are not making rainbows and bunnies all day. What I hear is that people have hard jobs and I’m like ‘Welcome to the club.’”

    She left the OVP later that year.

    Critic

    “Working for Harris is a nightmare, not just because she rides her staff hard, but also because she does so without the competence, decisiveness, and effectiveness that inspires people in politics to suffer under demanding bosses,” Dan McLaughlin wrote in a January 2022 National Review article titled, “People Really, Really Do Not Want to Work for Kamala Harris.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 23:05

  • Conrad Black: All US Presidential Assassinations Could Have Easily Been Avoided
    Conrad Black: All US Presidential Assassinations Could Have Easily Been Avoided

    Authored by Conrad Black via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump reminds us of how vulnerable American political leaders are to attacks with guns. In retrospect, all four of the assassinations of American presidents could easily have been avoided.

    Charles Jules Guiteau, a disillusioned office seeker, shoots U.S. President James Garfield (1831–1881) in the back at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Depot, Washington, D.C., on July 2, 1881. Garfield finally died of his injuries on Sept. 19, 1881. (William T. Mathews/MPI/Getty Images)

    President Abraham Lincoln was sitting in his box with his wife at Ford’s Theatre in Washington with no security at all, at the end of a terrible Civil War in which 750,000 Americans died in a population of 31 million, and the great animosity of that conflict had scarcely begun to subside. This was a particularly dreadful tragedy for the whole country, not only because Lincoln is generally recognized as the greatest president in American history and possibly the greatest statesman of modern times, but because he was the only person who could accomplish the adoption of a policy of national reconciliation that would have substantially avoided segregation and assured African-Americans the right to vote which, in the southern states, they did not acquire until 100 years later. If President Lincoln had had remotely adequate security, John Wilkes Booth, one of America’s most prominent stage actors, could not have killed him.

    President James A. Garfield was shot at the Washington railway station by disappointed office seeker Charles Guiteau just four months into his presidency and died two months later, largely because of incompetent medical treatment. Again, if he’d had one or two competent security personnel with him, or even adequate medical attention in the subsequent two months, the assassination attempt would have been unsuccessful. Garfield was a capable and promising man, a young and much-promoted combat Civil War general and the only person ever to make the jump directly from the House of Representatives to the presidency (though he was also a senator-elect), but his loss was not as grievous as that of Lincoln.

    President William McKinley was assassinated in Buffalo, New York, by an anarchist, Leon Czolgosz, in 1901, who had a handgun wrapped in a handkerchief when he shook hands with the president in a receiving line. Again, adequate security by contemporary standards would have prevented this, and again, competent medical attention would have prevented a fatality. The president was shot twice and the attending surgeon could not find the second bullet. Days passed with optimistic reports of the president’s recovery, but any informed person would have known that if the second bullet was not retrieved, acute septicemia was likely, and this was the cause of McKinley’s death.

    It was a time of frequent anarchistic assassinations abroad, and Czolgosz had been inspired to commit this act by listening to a speech of the anarchist firebrand Emma Goldman (who often lived in Toronto, and died there). The United States did not have such discontented classes and ethnicities as there were in Europe, but there was no excuse for McKinley’s inadequate security detail and inept medical attention. This was again a terrible personal tragedy to befall a capable and well-respected president and a brave man who had risen from private to major in the Civil War entirely because of his courage and leadership qualities. Fortunately, he was succeeded by one of the nation’s most capable and popular presidents, Theodore Roosevelt.

    All readers will remember or have seen film of the horrifying assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. The president of the United States has not travelled in an open car since then, and President Kennedy’s predecessors, Harry S. Truman and General Dwight D. Eisenhower, were just as visible in their official vehicles which had a bulletproof plexiglass roof. There has never been any explanation for why such a vehicle was not used in Dallas on that terrible day, though Kennedy’s penchant for convertibles was a factor.

    In the last 100 years, five other U.S. presidents apart from Kennedy have been the subject of attempted assassinations. Then President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1933 in Miami, was the target of anarchist Giuseppe Zangara, who missed Roosevelt but shot five others, including the mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak, who died. Security was not as extensive as it has subsequently become, but it was only good luck that FDR was completely unscathed. He returned to Vincent Astor’s famous yacht, the Nourmahal, on which he had been cruising, had two stiff glasses of whisky (although prohibition, which he had always personally ignored anyway, had not yet been abolished), and never mentioned the incident again. Of course, he went on to be America’s longest-serving president, and one of its greatest.

    The attempted assassination of President Truman in 1950 was fortunately incompetently conducted and the assailants did not get close to the president. But attempts on the lives of President Gerald Ford in 1975, Ronald Reagan in 1981, and Donald Trump this month, were only unsuccessful for miraculous reasons. President Ford’s first assailant, Squeaky Fromme, was intercepted as she fired, and the next, Sara Jane Moore, was jostled by a retired Marine. President Reagan’s security unit moved with commendable haste and courage and his bullet wound was only approximately an inch from being fatal. There was obviously a severe breakdown in appropriate security measures and coordination that almost cost the life of former President Trump in Pennsylvania on July 13.

    As guns were involved in all of these assassination attempts and the Constitution, in fidelity to the revolutionary origins of the United States, guarantees the right of every law-abiding adult citizen to have a firearm, no screening process or restriction of firearms sales is going to reduce significantly the danger to presidents. All that can be done is to intensify security, and particularly to put bulletproof but completely transparent acrylic screens around presidents during public speeches. Crowds can now be scanned by metal detectors, and presidents travel in automobiles that are both bulletproof and bombproof. We have no idea how many attempts on the lives of presidents have been conceived but undone before they could be carried out, but the fact that six of the last 15 presidents have been threatened by assassins, and one of them murdered, shows that the danger is constant.

    As long as there are discontented people who are severely deranged, the idea of killing leaders will have a simplistic appeal to them, as well as to a tiny echelon of terribly maladjusted people who imagine this to be a satisfactory route to historical fame. Assassins have not become more resourceful or ingenious since the time of Lincoln; it is for those entrusted with the security of the U.S. president to reduce the possibility of the success of assassins to the minimum. The same rules can apply to other elected figures who were victims of inadequate security, such as Robert Kennedy, assassinated in the kitchen of a Los Angeles hotel in 1968, and prominent non-presidential figures, such as Martin Luther King, also murdered in 1968, Malcolm X (1965), and Louisiana Governor Huey P. Long (1935).

    Nor should we imagine that this problem is exclusively American. Margaret Thatcher was nearly assassinated by the Irish Republican Army on a couple of occasions, and Charles de Gaulle was almost killed by opponents of his Algeria policy several times. German interior minister Wolfgang Schauble was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life by an unsuccessful assassination attempt.

    The problem may be slightly exacerbated in the United States because of the constitutionally guaranteed right to bear arms, but it is a universal problem, especially in democratic countries where leaders have to be relatively publicly visible. There is no antidote except better security and more and better-trained security personnel.

    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
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 22:45

  • Shocker! Study Reveals That Giving Americans $1,000 Per Month Has Negative Consequences
    Shocker! Study Reveals That Giving Americans $1,000 Per Month Has Negative Consequences

    A new study reveals what common sense could have predicted – giving Americans $1,000 per month disincentivizes them from working, causing them to work less – and earn less, over time.

    Illus: The MIT Press Reader

    According to the 3,000-participant, three-year study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, giving people $1,000 per month increased leisure time, as recipients spent less time on sleeping, child care, community engagement, caring for others, and self-improvement.

    The study also found that recipients’ income, not including the free money, reduced their incomes significantly, as “for every one dollar received, total household income excluding the transfers fell by at least 21 cents, and total individual income fell by at least 12 cents.”

    “The takeaway from the best study done so far about UBI in the United States is that handing out money isn’t the solution to all our problems,” Daniel Di Martino, a economics researcher and graduate fellow at the Manhattan Institute, told The Center Square. “In fact, sometimes it makes things worse.”

    The study’s authors noted mean-tested welfare encourages recipients to cut hours “to preserve benefits,” leading to advocacy for “unconditional cash transfer programs” without these distortions that would also allow individuals either to look for and secure higher-quality work or spend extra time on “productive non-work activities.” 

    Participants’ individual incomes declined $1,500 per year relative to the control group, excluding transfers, participants’ labor force participation was two percentage points lower, participants and their partners worked approximately 1.4 hours less per week. Participants spent their extra time on leisure, did not improve their quality of employment, and did not improve human capital investments such as training. 

    The study notes how during the 2020 Democratic primaries, candidate Andrew Yang proposed a $1,000 per month “Freedom Dividend,” which he claimed “encourages people to find work” and “increases entrepreneurship.”

    The study found that while “participants exhibited more entrepreneurial orientation and intentions,” that “this did not translate into significantly more entrepreneurial activity,” as “very few people have the inclination to become entrepreneurs in general.”

    According to Di Martino, the study did not address inflation concerns, and remained open to unconditional cash payments in lieu of certain welfare programs.

    “It’s important to remark that this study doesn’t look at the macroeconomic impact of UBI which would raise inflation and affect interest rates if implemented nationwide,” he said. “Now the question that’s more interesting is if the almost null effects of UBI are better (or less bad) than those of our existing welfare programs and whether it might be a good idea to replace them.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 22:25

  • After High Court Ruling, San Francisco Prepares To Clear Homeless Camps
    After High Court Ruling, San Francisco Prepares To Clear Homeless Camps

    Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    After last month’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave cities a green light to enforce laws and clear homeless camps, San Francisco is now crafting policies to allow officials to begin sweeping encampments, according to Mayor London Breed’s July 19 newsletter.

    “Our goal is to bring people indoors—camping or living on our streets isn’t safe for our community, residents, and people in need of support,” she said. “San Francisco is a city that prioritizes compassion, and we will continue to lead with services, but we cannot allow for people to refuse services and shelter when offered and available.”

    San Francisco Mayor London Breed speaks during a news conference outside of Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco, Calif., on March 17, 2021. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

    Officials are contemplating options with the city attorney’s office and more information will be shared soon, according to Ms. Breed.

    The high court’s decision—related to a lower court’s ruling on a case known as Grants Pass that blocked cities from clearing encampments—now allows municipalities to enforce laws against sleeping, loitering, and lodging on public property when people reject attempts to help them.

    “This decision by the Supreme Court will help cities like San Francisco manage our public spaces more effectively and efficiently,” Ms. Breed said in a June 28 press release. “This decision recognizes that cities must have more flexibility to address challenges on our streets.”

    She said discussions underway aim to reduce homelessness while finding people mental health treatment and services to improve the quality of life for all San Franciscans.

    “[Illegal camping] is not healthy, safe, or compassionate for people on the street, and it’s not acceptable for our neighborhoods,” Ms. Breed said.

    One San Francisco local said he supports increased enforcement because of what he described as “filthy” conditions in some areas.

    “The city has become known for feces on the sidewalks and dirty streets,” John Walker told The Epoch Times July 22. “Something needs to be done.”

    After the high court’s ruling was announced in June, the state’s Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals quickly moved to discontinue the injunction blocking homeless camp sweeps.

    San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said the legal changes will allow the city to better manage its streets and improve public safety.

    “This will give our city more flexibility to provide services to unhoused people while keeping our streets healthy and safe,” Mr. Chiu said in a July 8 press release. “It will help us address our most challenging encampments, where services are often refused and re-encampment is common.”

    A homeless individual in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco on May 16, 2024. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    Some homeless advocates argued the new policies could hurt people living on the street.

    “Penalizing individuals, including many with mental health and other disabilities, for merely trying to live is not only cruel but also counterproductive,” Marlene Sallo, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network, said in a June 28 press release. “Cities are now further emboldened to ignore effective housing-based solutions, opting instead to punish those with no alternative but to sleep on the streets.”

    She called on the federal government to provide resources for homeless individuals.

    “Too often a lack of housing in the community leaves people with disabilities stuck in institutions or worse, homeless,” Ms. Sallo said. “Affordable and accessible housing is a critical and necessary component for people with disabilities to live independent and fulfilling lives in the community.”

    Other nonprofits agreed and criticized the ruling and discussions about enforcing illegal camping laws.

    “Arresting or fining people for trying to survive is expensive, counterproductive, and cruel,” Jesse Rabinowitz, campaign and communications director at the National Homelessness Law Center, said in the disability network’s press release.

    She added that the “inhumane” ruling “will make homelessness worse.”

    “Cities are now even more empowered to neglect proven housing-based solutions and to arrest or fine those with no choice but to sleep outdoors,” Ms. Rabinowitz said. “While we are disappointed, we are not surprised that this Supreme Court ruled against the interests of our poorest neighbors.”

    In the 6–3 ruling, Supreme Court justices were split on how best to proceed.

    “Homelessness is complex. Its causes are many,” Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, author of the majority opinion, wrote in the ruling. “People will disagree over which policy responses are best … nor can a handful of federal judges begin to ‘match’ the collective wisdom the American people possess in deciding ‘how best to handle’ a pressing social question like homelessness.”

    In a dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that sleeping outside is the only option for some people.

    “Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime,” she wrote.

    Gov. Gavin Newsom said the ruling gives state and local officials the authority to enforce policies that will benefit Californians.

    “This decision removes the legal ambiguities that have tied the hands of local officials for years and limited their ability to deliver on common-sense measures to protect the safety and well-being of our communities,” he said in a June 28 press release.

    He also said the state will continue to treat all individuals with compassion.

    “California remains committed to respecting the dignity and fundamental human needs of all people and the state will continue to work with compassion to provide individuals experiencing homelessness with the resources they need to better their lives,” Mr. Newsom said.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 22:05

  • Robby Starbuck's Anti-Woke Crusade Expands: "Time To Expose Harley Davidson" 
    Robby Starbuck’s Anti-Woke Crusade Expands: “Time To Expose Harley Davidson” 

    Commentator and filmmaker Robby Starbuck’s strategy to expose all the insane woke activism within mega-corporations with large conservative customer bases has entered the third chapter. After Tractor Supply nuked its diversity, equity, and inclusion program and John Deere scaled back on DEI policies, Starbuck announced on X on Tuesday, “It’s time to expose Harley Davidson.”

    Starbuck’s anti-woke crusade drives a wedge between the corporation and the customer base, forcing high-level executives to immediately respond, as seen by Tractory Supply and John Deere, or risk ‘Bud Lighting’ itself (i.e., boycotts). It’s a genius move by Starbuck and his team as the anti-woke crusade against companies infected with the woke mind virus gains momentum.

    Starbuck claims that under Harley Davidson CEO Jochen Zeitz, the iconic motorcycle brand has been infected with woke activism, supports the Equality Act (which would allow men into girl’s bathrooms, sports, and locker rooms), funded all-ages pride events, and required 1,800 employees to undergo virtual LGBTQ+ ally training. 

    Starbuck notes that Harley Davidson is a founding member of Wisconsin’s LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce, sponsored an LGBTQ+ Entrepreneur Bootcamp, and made February and March “Months of Inclusion.”

    He adds that the company partnered with the United Way for multiple woke training programs, supported the Pennsylvania Youth Congress in creating gender-neutral licenses, and hosted numerous LGBTQ+ events at their corporate office. 

    Starbuck argues that Harley Davidson has alienated its core freedom-loving blue-collar customers by advocating Marxist ideologies pushed by leftists.

    “I don’t think the values at corporate reflect the values of nearly any Harley Davidson bikers,” he said. 

    He added, “My goal with this reporting is never destruction. My goal is to inform consumers about the values major companies are adopting so they can make choices about what they’re willing to support. That’s not cancel culture, it’s capitalism.” 

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

    X users respond to Starbuck’s new report: 

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    Starbuck’s mission has been to get politics out of business, especially wokeism that’s cut from Marxist cloth. Consumers would prefer corporate behavior without woke activism and for management to continue to innovate products—not become leftist activists and let the brand decay.

    Bud Light learned the hard way. The clock has begun for Harley Davidson to respond to Starbuck’s report. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 21:45

  • Harris And Biden Met In Person Only Six Times This Summer
    Harris And Biden Met In Person Only Six Times This Summer

    Authored by Philip Wegmann via RealClearPolitics,

    On the White House South Lawn, Vice President Kamala Harris praised the man she is likely to replace atop the Democratic ticket, telling an assembly of student athletes that “I am firsthand witness that every day our president, Joe Biden, fights for the American people.”

    But Harris hasn’t seen Biden in a week. And they haven’t seen much of each other this summer. Their working relationship, and subsequent friendship, has always been complicated by hectic schedules and international travel – including Biden’s trip to France just last month – making it difficult for the president and vice president to sit down in one place together for very long.

    The pair have met face-to-face just six times since the beginning of June, according to a RealClearPolitics analysis of the president’s public schedule.

    The latest meeting took place one week ago for a briefing from the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. A political lifetime has passed since then.

    Biden announced abruptly Sunday, via a post on X.com, that he would not run for reelection and promptly endorsed Harris for the job. It will now likely be up to her to keep the White House for Democrats and continue the work of Biden, who, in just four years, she said Monday, “has already surpassed the legacy of most presidents who have served two terms in office.”

    More than a month earlier, Biden and Harris were both on the South Lawn for a Juneteenth celebration. On June 10, the vice president could be seen dancing to the music along with second gentleman Doug Emhoff. But the president, he froze.

    The cameras caught Biden on tape looking lost. “The president stood there listening to the music and he didn’t dance,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later told reporters. “Excuse me, I did not know not dancing was a health issue.”

    Biden and Harris met for lunch the next day, the president’s public schedule shows. Shortly after his inauguration, the president promised the vice president lunch “once a week,” an optimistic schedule that Biden often failed to keep, an earlier analysis by RCP found.

    Then the debate happened.

    The White House and Biden campaign insisted for years that Biden had not lost a step, that he was, as Jean-Pierre told RCP, “as sharp as ever.” But for 90 minutes in Atlanta, the worst fears of Democrats were inescapable. The age and diminished mental acuity of the 81-year-old elder statesman were on full display as he meandered and mumbled through answers.

    Democrats started to abandon ship. Fears once whispered about his mental fitness were suddenly being shared on cable news. Harris, for her part, never abandoned Biden. She conceded, as he had to donors during a San Francisco fundraiser in July, that the debate was “not his finest hour.” But she insisted, “the outcome of this election cannot be determined by one day in June.”

    Harris next saw Biden on July 3, again for a lunch at the White House. The next day, the vice president joined the president for a Fourth of July celebration, taking in the fireworks from the South Lawn. On July 8, Harris joined Biden for his presidential daily brief.

    Harris, until recently, served as the most high-profile surrogate for the Biden campaign, crisscrossing the country on her own to fundraise and rally supporters. She was in Kalamazoo, Michigan, last Wednesday, then Provincetown, Massachusetts, on Saturday, stumping faithfully for a ticket that would soon disintegrate.

    Biden and Harris last shared a stage in Philadelphia on May 29. It was hosted by the campaign, and the vice president spoke first, introducing Biden as a president who “not only knows how to fight, he knows how to win.” Biden stepped to the microphone moments later after applause and chants of “Four more years!”

    “Thank you, Kamala, for your partnership,” he said. “And it is a partnership. And how about another round of applause for our great vice president,” he continued. “Isn’t she something else?” Fifty-four days later, he would be gone.

    Biden announced last week that he had again tested positive for COVID-19. The president retreated to his beach house in Rehoboth, Delaware, where he announced that he would not seek reelection. He remains in quarantine, though his physician, Kevin O’Connor, said in a memo released Monday that his symptoms “have resolved almost completely,” and he “continues to perform all of his presidential duties.”

    Those duties do not include addressing the nation as of now. Remarks from the outgoing president are expected but not yet scheduled. Neither the White House nor the vice president’s office returned RCP’s request for comment.

    On Monday, after Biden gave Harris his blessing, she traveled to Wilmington, Delaware, where their campaign headquarters are located. The president called in remotely before she arrived.

    “I know yesterday’s news was surprising and hard for you to hear, but it was the right thing to do,” Biden told assembled staff over the phone.

    “The name has changed at the top of the ticket, but the mission hasn’t changed at all,” he continued.

    The outgoing president then asked his campaign to work as hard as they could for Harris in the coming weeks and months. He won’t be going anywhere soon, though. “I won’t be on the ticket, but I’m still going to be fully, fully engaged,” Biden concluded. “I’ve got six months left of my presidency; I’m determined to get as much done as I possibly can. Both foreign policy and domestic policy.”

    Harris, during that time, is again expected to be away from the White House and the president.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 21:25

  • Taiwan Live-Fire Exercises Aimed At China Muted By Typhoon
    Taiwan Live-Fire Exercises Aimed At China Muted By Typhoon

    Taiwan’s military on Monday kicked off the live-fire component of its largest annual exercise, known as the Han Kuang drills. They are slated to run through July 26, and crucially this comes after China’s recent ‘encircling’ exercises wherein dozens of PLA vessels and aircraft breached the Taiwan Strait median line.

    But this year’s Han Kuang drills look to be muted, given a massive storm is hampering military movements. “An approaching typhoon prompted the cancellation of air force drills off Taiwan’s east coast on Tuesday, although naval and land exercises were set to continue in other parts of the self-governing island democracy, which China threatens to invade,” Associated Press reports.

    Focus Taiwan: “Tropical Storm Gaemi has developed into a typhoon and will potentially make landfall in Taiwan’s northeastern county of Yilan on late Wednesday or early Thursday.”

    The Air Force 5th Tactical Mixed Wing confirmed cancelation of its portion of the exercises, citing the imminent threat of the typhoon.

    “According to the Central Weather Bureau, Typhoon Gaemi was heading westward toward the island with sustained winds of 144 kilometers (about 90 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 180 kph (110 mph),” AP continues. The storm has also resulted in the cancelation of a number of domestic flights as well as ferries on Tuesday.

    Thus the drills are expected to be very limited at this point. They are reportedly focusing this year on defending against a Chinese attack on critical infrastructure and supply lines, especially in and around the capital.

    The typhoon bearing down on the island is named Gaemi…

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    Key to this will also be defending key ports against a potential future Chinese blockade, which analysts have long predicted would be a first step in any military aggression by Beijing.

    In May, China initiated its largest encircling and blockade drills aimed at Taiwan to date. In addition to many aircraft groupings, about a dozen PLA naval ships had surrounded the self-ruled island during that two day exercise, and in response Taiwan’s military deployed warships to monitor the situation and mirror the Chinese vessels.

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    Both sides are watching closely the political situation in the US, especially given a possible Trump second term could return the US to a focus on China, instead of the current Biden administration’s prioritizing of the Ukraine and Gaza flashpoints.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 21:05

  • Federal Judge Rejects Challenge To Chicago Ban On Gun Laser-Sights
    Federal Judge Rejects Challenge To Chicago Ban On Gun Laser-Sights

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

    Laser sights for guns are not protected by the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, a federal judge ruled on July 22, upholding the city of Chicago’s ban on the sights.

    Firearms are effective weapons without laser sights attached “and thus a laser sight ‘is not a weapon protected by the Second Amendment’” but is instead an accessory unnecessary to operate firearms, U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras said, quoting a ruling in a separate case.

    The organization Second Amendment Arms launched a legal challenge in 2010 against Chicago’s ban, which was imposed in 1999. The group said the laser sight ban violated the Second Amendment rights of its members and other law-abiding citizens.

    Judge Kocoras said he analyzed the ban in light of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2022 that found governments that impose gun regulations must show the regulations are consistent with America’s historical tradition of gun restrictions.

    Before looking at the history of restrictions, though, the decision guided courts to first decide whether the Second Amendment covers conduct restricted by a challenged regulation. The conduct must involve items “properly characterized as arms.”

    Plaintiffs had argued that the laser sights are covered by the Second Amendment. The sights “are protected by the Second Amendment, as a modern version of something that has been a part of safe firearm usage for hundreds of years, i.e., firearm sights,” they said in a brief.

    Chicago officials had told the court that “laser sights are not ‘arms’ within the meaning of the plain text of the Second Amendment, but are, rather, mere firearm accessories.”

    Judge Kocoras said the plaintiffs did not meet the burden of showing laser sights are protected by the amendment. That included a failure to differentiate them from silencers, which were previously ruled to fall outside the amendment’s protection.

    “Laser sights are neither firearms themselves nor necessary to the operation of a firearm, and are merely unprotected firearm accessories,” the judge said.

    The ruling also dismissed attempts from Second Amendment Arms and others to obtain damages from an ordinance that banned many sales of firearms in Chicago until a judge declared it in violation of the Constitution in 2014.

    The ruling came on the same day that Chicago announced it was dismissing a lawsuit it had brought against gun manufacturer Glock in March.

    The suit had said the company was improperly selling firearms that could easily be converted into machine guns.

    The notice of voluntary dismissal, filed with the federal court in northern Illinois, did not explain why the city was dropping the case.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 20:45

  • US Rejects China's Gaza Mediation Efforts For Legitimizing Hamas
    US Rejects China’s Gaza Mediation Efforts For Legitimizing Hamas

    This week a fresh United Nations assessment estimated that the Israeli military (IDF) has placed more than 80% of the Gaza Strip under evacuation orders or designated “no-go zone” – Al Jazeera reports, underscoring this means Palestinians have nowhere to go.

    The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the statement said, “As of July 22, nearly 83 percent of the Gaza Strip has been placed under evacuation orders or designated as ‘no-go zones’ by the Israeli military.” The latest order has urged some 400,000 Palestinians out of eastern and central Khan Yunis, where the latest IDF offensive is happening. The new order encompasses nearly nine square kilometers of land.

    “The area of the ‘humanitarian zone’ as designated by the Israeli military has thus decreased by 14.8 percent, from 58.9 to 50.2 square kilometers,” the OCHA report continued.

    Via AFP

    The crisis of “where to go” for internally displaced refugees has been exacerbated already as much of the Strip lacks water, food, and electricity.

    Meanwhile President Biden has newly pledged to end the fighting in Gaza by the time he leaves office at the end of this year. According to Axios, “President Biden pledged to spend his remaining six months in office trying to end the Israel-Hamas war and bringing home the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.” He has announced this week, “We are on the verge of getting that.”

    But this has been claimed many times before, going back months. Just days ago Secretary Blinken declared that efforts to reach a truce deal are “inside the ten yard line.”

    “I believe we’re inside the 10-yard line and driving toward the goal line in getting an agreement that would produce a cease-fire, get the hostages home and put us on a better track to trying to build lasting peace and stability,” the US top diplomat said Friday at he Aspen Security Forum.

    Still, Hamas continues to fundamentally disagree with both Israel and the US on some key points of a potential ceasefire. It should also be noted that Israel and the US also don’t see eye to eye with China’s diplomatic maneuverings of late regarding the conflict either:

    Spokesman Matthew Miller has responded to a Beijing-brokered “national unity” agreement signed between Hamas, Fatah and other Palestinian groups today.

    The agreement lays the groundwork for an “interim national reconciliation government” to rule post-war Gaza and has been seen as a bulwark against any governance plans that sideline Palestinians.

    Miller told reporters the United States opposes any post-war plan that includes Hamas.

    “As we have made clear for months, Hamas is a terrorist organization. … When it comes to governance of Gaza at the end of the conflict, there can’t be a role for a terrorist organization,” Miller said. He added the US would “like to see the Palestinian Authority governing a unified Gaza and the West Bank, but no, we cannot support a role for Hamas.”

    AP: China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, with Mahmoud al-Aloul, left, vice chairman of Fatah, and Mussa Abu Marzuk, a senior member of Hamas in Beijing on Tuesday.

    The China-brokered deal is seen as legitimizing Hamas in preparation of the group having some part in a future Palestinian-administered Gaza. Thus Washington has firmly rejected it.

    Beijing likely sees its own approach as more realistic, based on a perspective that Hamas cannot ever ultimately be rooted out by military force. Interestingly, some Israeli current and former officials have appeared to admit the same.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 20:25

  • Sugar: A Potential Culprit In Pancreatic Cancer, The 'King Of Cancer'
    Sugar: A Potential Culprit In Pancreatic Cancer, The ‘King Of Cancer’

    Authored by Shan Lam and JoJo Novaes via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Pancreatic cancer, sometimes dubbed the “king of cancer“ due to its malignancy, poses challenges in both early detection and late-stage treatment. Understanding its causes and warning signs enables people to take preventive measures. Rong Shu, director of Dr. Rong TCM Clinic in the United Kingdom and a seasoned traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioner with over 30 years of experience, outlined the causes, early symptoms, and effective prevention strategies for pancreatic cancer on the Epoch Times’ ”Health 1+1” program.

    (qoppi/shutterstock)

    The Dual Role of the Pancreas

    In Western medicine, the pancreas is recognized as both a digestive and an endocrine organ. As a digestive organ, it secretes various enzymes to break down proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in food. As an endocrine organ, it produces insulin and glucagon to regulate blood sugar levels, maintaining them at appropriate levels crucial for the functioning of key organs.

    Ms. Rong highlighted that from the perspective of TCM, the pancreas is regarded as part of the spleen system which include the pancreas, liver, gallbladder, spleen, stomach, and intestines. This system is responsible for the digestion, absorption, transformation, and transportation of nutrients from food, providing energy to various tissues and systems in the body.

    Sugar and Pancreatic Cancer

    In the ancient Chinese medical text “The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine“ or the ”Huangdi Neijing,” it is documented that the spleen corresponds to sweetness. Ms. Rong explained that while a small amount of sweetness can nourish the spleen, excessive sweetness can be detrimental. Sugar is present in refined sweet foods. Eating too many highly refined sweet foods for too long can lead to chronic damage to the spleen, potentially resulting in cancerous changes.

    Numerous studies have confirmed the close relationship between sugar and pancreatic function, identifying sugar as a driving factor in the onset of pancreatic cancer. A 2019 study published in Cell Metabolism found that elevated blood sugar levels triggered metabolic imbalance in mice, leading to pancreatic cancer.

    Another study published in Cell Reports in 2020 following nearly 500,000 Europeans over 20 years indicated that a high-sugar diet increased the risk of pancreatic cancer in some individuals and promoted tumor growth and spread.

    Challenges in Detection and Treatment

    Ms. Rong explained that the difficulty in detecting pancreatic cancer in its early stages is due to the pancreas’ location. Often referred to as a “hidden organ,” the pancreas is concealed behind several other organs. This positioning makes it nearly impossible for doctors to feel it during a physical examination, and even with an ultrasound, capturing clear images of the pancreas is challenging.

    Furthermore, when tumors form and grow in the pancreas, they typically do not cause noticeable symptoms. Even if symptoms do appear, they are rarely recognized as related to pancreatic issues, making early detection unlikely. It is often only when the tumor cells have metastasized to other organs that the symptoms become apparent.

    According to Limor Appelbaum, a Harvard Medical School instructor and radiation oncologist, “approximately 80–85 percent of pancreatic cancer patients are diagnosed at advanced stages, where cure is no longer an option.”

    In late 2023, researchers from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) jointly developed a new pancreatic cancer detection model called PRISM, which can detect 35 percent of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas, the most common type of pancreatic cancer, compared to 10% with conventional screening.

    Limited Treatment Options

    Additionally, pancreatic cancer cells are aggressive and exhibit resistance to multiple levels of treatment, making a complete cure very challenging. According to the American Cancer Society, the five-year relative survival rate for pancreatic cancer is only 13 percent.

    Treatment options for pancreatic cancer remain very limited. The primary surgical treatment is pancreaticoduodenectomy, but less than 20 percent of pancreatic cancer patients are eligible for this procedure.

    In addition to surgery, treatment options for pancreatic cancer include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, targeted drug therapy, and immunotherapy. However, these methods are generally ineffective in curing pancreatic cancer and can cause significant harm to the body.

    TCM as an Adjunctive Treatment

    Ms. Rong recounted a recent case of treating a pancreatic cancer patient. A late-stage patient underwent five months of chemotherapy with no improvement. When they came to the clinic for a checkup, they had lost all their hair, their face was distorted with pain, and their stomach was bloated like a balloon. After acupuncture treatment, the patient’s symptoms significantly improved, as did their emotional state.

    Ms. Rong stated that TCM intervention can alleviate symptoms in pancreatic cancer patients, significantly reduce pain, and enhance the quality of life for late-stage cancer patients. It also demonstrates some capability to inhibit the spread of cancer cells or even facilitate healing. Patients may consider TCM as an alternative therapy or opt for a combination of Western medicine and TCM for treatment.

    Early Symptoms

    Ms. Rong noted that some patients with pancreatic cancer exhibit no symptoms at all, while others experience only a few symptoms that are often overlooked, such as:

    • Upper abdominal bloating and discomfort
    • Itchy skin
    • Unexplained sudden increase in blood sugar levels or sudden ineffectiveness of diabetes medication
    • Lower back pain, especially at the level of the navel, unrelated to kidney disease or injury
    • Yellowing of the eyes and skin (jaundice)

    Risk Factors

    While the exact cause of any cancer is unknown, the following are risk factors that may influence pancreatic cancer development:

    • High stress, depression, and anxiety: One study showed that depression may be a precursor to pancreatic cancer, with half of pancreatic cancer patients exhibiting psychiatric symptoms 43 months before physical symptoms appear.
    • Unhealthy lifestyle: Uncontrolled diet and irregular sleep patterns.
    • Unbalanced diet: Eating an unvaried and unhealthy diet, such as eating too much meat and not enough fruits and vegetables.
    • Bad habits: Smoking, drinking alcohol, consuming excessive amounts of coffee, and frequently eating charred foods.
    • Underlying health factors: Diabetes is a known risk factor for pancreatic cancer.
    • Pancreatitis: Chronic inflammation of the pancreas can lead to cancer, and benign tumors may become malignant.
    • Genetics: Pancreatic cancer has a certain degree of familial inheritance.

    Preventive Measures

    Ms. Rong emphasized that to prevent pancreatic cancer, it is essential to make lifestyle adjustments and cultivate healthy habits in daily life. Consider implementing the following:

    • Reduce intake of sugary foods: Instead, opt for high-protein and whole-grain foods, nuts, and legumes. For instance, incorporate boiled or lightly fried fish, chicken, eggs, oatmeal, corn, millet, and rye into your diet.
    • Eat a variety of vegetables and fruits: Vegetables and fruits are rich in antioxidants, which combat oxidative stress and chronic inflammation, reducing the risk of cancer.
    • Increase intake of healthy fats: Research has shown that olive oil consumption can reduce the risk of cancer.
    • Engage in regular exercise: Physical activity can strengthen the immune system and lower cancer risk.
    • Maintain a positive mindset and manage stress: Depression may have some association with pancreatic cancer. It is essential to actively manage stress and incorporate relaxation techni

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 20:05

  • Dramatic Video Shows Houthi Kamikaze Boat Drone Blown Up By Container Ship Crew
    Dramatic Video Shows Houthi Kamikaze Boat Drone Blown Up By Container Ship Crew

    Iran-backed Houthis have intensified their unmanned suicide surface drone attacks in the critical maritime chokepoint of the southern Red Sea. Dramatic footage shows the crew of a container ship successfully destroying a Houthi kamikaze boat drone with small-arms fire. 

    The video surfaced overnight on X. There has been no official MSM confirmation of the video so far. Depending on the X user, the crew of the vessel, which is not named, is either Ukrainian or Russian.

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    “This video was making the rounds yesterday and seems to be a Houthi USV attacking a containership with the embarked security team opening fire,” shipping expert Sal Mercogliano wrote on X. The ship’s crew appeared to have successfully repelled the attack. 

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    The timing of the incident remains unknown. Additionally, the IMO ship identification number and the exact location of the incident have yet to be shared on X.

    X user H I Sutton provides a detailed guide on the type of vessel the Houthis could use for drone boat attacks. 

    Source: H I Sutton

    Over the weekend, Israeli fighter jets pounded the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida in Yemen. This was an unprecedented operation in response to a prior deadly drone attack on Tel Aviv launched from Yemen late last week. 

    Houthis have released footage of other recent boat drone attacks in the critical maritime chokepoint. 

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    As previously noted, the continued disruptions in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden have sparked a ‘supply shock‘ in the global economy by sending container rates for certain shipping lanes sky-high. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 19:45

  • How Does The Economy Really Work?
    How Does The Economy Really Work?

    Authored by Gail Tverberg via Our Finite World blog,

    The world economy is an amazingly complex, physics-based, self-organizing system. The three major elements are extracted resources including energy resources, human population, and demand coming through the financial system.

    Figure 1. Major elements of the world economy according to Gail Tverberg. These are human population, extracted resources including energy resources, and financial demand.

    All three of these elements tend to increase over time, but both population and extracted resources tend to hit limits because the world is finite. Financial demand is emphasized by politicians because it seems to increase without limit. The extraction limit is not obvious: It is the amount that consumers can afford to pay for resources and the products they create. This limit cuts off resource extraction at amounts that are far below the amounts that geologists calculate are available for extraction.

    In this post, I will offer some insights into how the world economy actually operates.

    [1] There is a close relationship between world energy consumption and economic growth.

    Figure 2. Relationship between inflation-adjusted world GDP and energy consumption based on data of the 2024 Statistical Review of World Energy, published by the Energy Institute.

    The fitted years are 1965 to 2023. The R2 =.98 tells us that there is a close relationship between energy consumption and GDP.

    [2] There is a physics reason why energy consumption and economic growth are related. The economy requires energy for a similar reason to the reason why humans require food.

    Physics tells us that every action, even the movement of molecules, requires energy dissipation. Within the economy, this energy can be human energy, energy from the sun, or energy from sources such as burned biomass or fossil fuels.

    In physics terms, the world economy and many structures within the world economy are dissipative structures. These structures are self-organizing, and they often grow over time. Examples are plants and animals, hurricanes, and businesses.

    Dissipative structures require energy of the right kinds for their continued “life” and for growth. Animals require food for their continued life and growth. Hurricanes get their energy from warm sea water. The fact that the economy is a dissipative structure has been known since 1996 and is written about today.

    [3] Starting long ago, humans became adapted to eating some cooked food. This change led to humans being able to outcompete all other animals. Eventually, this change led to populations outgrowing available resources and collapsing.

    According to Discover Magazine, pre-humans first began to build fires to cook food at least 800,000 years ago. The consumption of cooked food allowed early humans to have bigger brains, smaller teeth and jaws, and more time for activities other than chewing, such as making crafts.

    Humans are now adapted to having some cooked food in their diets to get adequate nutrition. (A few people today try to consume a raw food diet, but they often use a food processor or juicer to break down cell walls.) As a result of the adaptation to eating some cooked food, two major changes took place:

    (a) Humans were able to achieve dominance over other plants and animals. They could use fire directly to scare away other animals, and they could use fire to help make better tools for hunting and agriculture.

    (b) Because of this dominance, the population of humans has tended to grow until some kind of limiting condition is hit. The resulting pattern is often called overshoot and collapse.

    History shows a repeated pattern of overshoot and collapse. A population would grow until the carrying capacity of the local area was reached. Food surpluses would become lower and lower, so less food could be saved up for fluctuations in rainfall and temperature. Eventually, civilizations would succumb to one or another problem: disease, attack by a neighboring group, climate fluctuations, or governments overthrown by unhappy citizens.

    We tell ourselves that overshoot and collapse cannot happen now, but human population is high relative to fossil fuel resources, and intermittent wind and solar are not working out well as substitutes.

    [4] The financial system provides growing demand through debt and many other financial promises. An important aspect of this financial demand is its time-shifting ability.

    Figure 3. Figure made by Gail Tverberg in 2018 to explain the complex interplay of debt, energy supply, devices using energy, growing efficiency, profitability and government laws.

    Figure 3 shows my view of how the economy works. Debt is indeed important because it helps pull the economy forward. For example, it helps an entrepreneur afford to build a factory and hire workers. As long as the investment pays back well enough to repay the debt with interest, the system seems to work. GDP tends to grow. (Figure 3 also shows five other parts of the system, but I am leaving these to the reader to review.)

    Debt is not unique in pulling the economy forward. Shares of stock issued with the promise of dividends act similarly to debt because they allow investment before a new product is made. Pension plans, even if not funded, stimulate the economy because citizens decide that they don’t need to save for the future (or have children), if they can depend on the government pension plan to take care of them. Even inflation in the price of a home or shares of stock can have the effect of adding to demand. For example, a person owning shares of stock can sell some appreciated shares of stock and use the proceeds to build a new factory.

    It is the time-shifting aspect of debt and related promises that is important. With the help of debt and its equivalents, people can spend today to build a road or factory that will provide a long-lasting benefit. The hope is that the total return will be high enough that the debt can be repaid with interest, or that dividends can be paid on the shares of stock.

    If the economy is growing quickly, interest rates can be quite high without slowing the economy. If energy costs are very high, or if all industries are stagnant, it may be difficult to get any payback at all from a debt-related investment. Instead, interest rates may need to be very low, or debt defaults become likely. Economic growth is likely to be low, or even negative.

    In one their analyses of borrowing by governments over eight centuries, Reinhart and Rogoff unexpectedly discovered the phenomenon of low defaults among rapidly growing countries. They reported, “It is notable that the non-defaulters, by and large, are all hugely successful growth stories.”

    [5] Models become very important in today’s economy. They often are misleading, even if they are supposedly scientific.

    The easiest models to build are ones that assume the future will be very similar to the past, or that the trend from the past will continue. These models tend to be popular with citizens because they suggest that good times will continue indefinitely. Such outcomes are what everyone would like to see, so these models tend to be accepted as “scientifically valid.”

    In a finite world, many kinds of patterns are constantly changing. Depletion of resources and rising population are particular stressors. Figure 4 shows the base scenario of a 1972 computer model of resource depletion, population growth, and pollution growth.

    Figure 4. Base scenario from the 1972 book, The Limits to Growth, printed using today’s graphics by Charles Hall and John Day in Revisiting Limits to Growth After Peak Oil.

    The model used was an engineering-type analysis of the physical quantities involved. This approach did not show growth continuing indefinitely. Instead, it showed a major downturn about now.

    I have looked at the model myself, and I have talked with Dennis Meadows, who oversaw the analysis. The model looks at resources used in each six-month calendar period. The share of these resources needed for getting these resources out and transformed into usable work cannot be too high, or the economy tends to collapse. (Nature doesn’t use accrual accounting!)

    In such a calculation, quick payback of an energy investment becomes very important. Also, the amount of supplementary equipment, such as electricity transmission lines and batteries required, becomes important. I would expect that wind, solar, nuclear, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) would do relatively poorly in such a calculation. Oil, coal, and burned biomass would do much better because their energy payback is immediate–when they are burned. Furthermore, oil, coal and biomass require relatively little specialized equipment for transportation and storage.

    [6] Narratives are created to accompany the questionable models that have been developed.

    One popular narrative is that Financial Demand is all that really matters. Politicians have significant control over the Financial Demand shown in Figure 1. They can see that if they can create more debt, they can perhaps get some of the money that the debt makes available down to ordinary citizens. With more money, citizens can perhaps buy more goods and services from the world economy.

    Historically, raising financial demand has worked well because the extraction of fossil fuels and many other resources were well within physical extraction limits. Higher demand would lead to higher prices, which in turn would lead to more extraction. But as we get closer to the physical extraction limits, this approach works less well. The problem is that at some point, finished goods (such as automobiles and groceries) become too expensive for consumers if prices rise high enough to satisfy producers.

    Because we are now reaching extraction limits, the added debt approach works much less well, as the short tenure of Liz Truss as Prime Minister of the UK in 2022 shows. The problem for countries other than the US is that with added debt, their currencies tend to drop relative to the US dollar. Thus, while perhaps their citizens can individually buy more, the cost of imported goods and services, especially energy, tends to rise. Overall inflation tends to be higher. This causes citizens to become very unhappy.

    The US is in a unique position because it is currently the holder of the “reserve currency.” Its currency can’t drop relative to the US dollar. However, since 2020, the US has added huge amounts of debt, as have other countries around the world. Asset prices have also risen because of temporarily low interest rates. Newly made goods and services don’t increase in proportion to the rapidly growing debt and other financial stimulus. What tends to happen instead is inflation, as we have recently witnessed.

    [7] One popular narrative is that if enough demand can be added to the economy through financial manipulations, energy prices will rise sufficiently to allow the needed amount of energy to be extracted.

    Figure 5. Average annual Brent-equivalent oil prices based on data of the 2024 Statistical Review of World Energy, published by the Energy Institute.

    Unfortunately, this doesn’t work. Affordability is important to the consumer, so oil prices can’t rise too high. At the same time, prices cannot fall too low, for too long, or producers will stop extracting oil. Instead, oil prices tend to spike and then fall back. They are to some extent not very acceptable to either buyer or seller. Whether the buyers or sellers are more disadvantaged varies over time. A similar pattern holds for other resources, as well.

    [8] A third narrative is that climate change caused by excess CO2 is the world’s worst problem, and that the world can voluntarily move away from fossil fuels and fix this problem.

    Unfortunately, the world economy can no more move away from fossil fuels than humans can move away from eating food. In fact, moving away from fossil fuels would likely lead to starvation for a large share of the world’s population. In 1798, Thomas Malthus wrote about his concern that population was growing too fast relative to food supply. The timing was shortly before fossil fuels began being used very widely. World population at that time as only about 1 billion. World population today is over 8 billion.

    In part, the climate change narrative seems to be an excuse to move manufacturing from Advanced Economies to economies that make extensive use of coal, as it tends to be a cheap fuel. The latter economies also tend to have lower wage and benefit levels, so there is a definite cost advantage. China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. The result is easy to see in Figure 8 below. The US now exports coal to India and China, among other countries.

    Figure 6. Coal consumption, divided between the Advanced Economies (members of OECD) and other economies, based on data of the 2024 Statistical Review of World Energy, published by the Energy Institute.

    As a person might expect, world CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use have soared.

    Figure 7. Billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, based on data of the 2024 Statistical Review of World Energy, published by the Energy Institute.

    [9] The truth is that there aren’t enough resources to go around to support a growing world population. We are reaching a turning point where the total amount of goods and services that the world economy can produce will soon turn down. (This is not unlike the situation modeled in Figure 4, above.)

    While the narrative we hear endlessly is “We are moving away from fossil fuels to prevent climate change,” I believe the real issue is that fossil fuels are leaving the world because we are hitting extraction limits. No one wants to hear such an awful story, however. The climate change narrative is a “sour grapes” version of the story that is more palatable to listeners.

    Figure 8 below shows that the year 2020 should have been a wake-up call that the world needs to cut back on diesel and jet fuels. Diesel fuel is heavily used by agricultural machinery, large trucks, trains and boats. Of course, jet fuel powers jets. With rising world population and a growing economy, it would be expected that their consumption would continue to grow. Diesel and jet fuel are both “middle distillates,” which are most abundantly supplied by heavy oils such as Urals oil from Russia and oil from the Oil Sands in Canada .

    Figure 8. Diesel and Jet Fuel Consumption based on data of the 2024 Statistical Review of World Energy, published by the Energy Institute.

    Between 1990 and 2018, consumption of diesel and jet fuels increased by an average of 1.7% per year. Between 2018 and 2023, there has been no increase at all–in fact, world consumption for 2023 is slightly lower than in 2018. If the 1.7% per year growth pattern had continued, consumption of this combination of fuels would have grown by 8.8% during the five-year period from 2018 and 2023.

    In a sense, there is a shortfall of approximately 8.8% of the diesel and jet fuel combination. Some airline schedules (especially in Asia) have been cut back. Farmers in Europe are protesting because the selling prices for the crops they grow are not high enough to cover today’s diesel and fertilizer costs plus other costs of production. Diesel is a problem fuel and fertilizer is very energy dependent. If the price of groceries rises high enough to cover the costs of diesel and fertilizer for farmers, grocery costs become unaffordable to many citizens.

    [10] Added complexity looks like it would be a solution to inadequate energy and other resource supplies. Instead, added complexity leads to wage and wealth disparities and frequent system breakdowns.

    Complexity can take many forms, including greater specialization; more education for some of the workers; larger, more hierarchical businesses; greater globalization; and ever more complex devices. Such devices can often use energy products more sparingly. Because of these potential energy savings, many people assume that such devices can allow the energy supply that is available to be stretched to cover all the economy’s needs.

    In practice, it doesn’t work this way. Instead, added complexity often adds to energy demand instead of reducing it. For example, moving significant manufacturing to China starting in late 2001 was a type of added complexity. This change added to world coal demand and increased CO2 emission because the goods produced in China and shipped elsewhere were cheaper and therefore more affordable than goods made in the US or Europe.

    Another issue with complexity is the susceptibility to breakdowns it produces. Just this past week, there was an example of this with the update of CrowdStrike computer software that took down computer networks around the world. Another example is the problem Kia is having with engines shutting down unexpectedly. Nature uses complexity, but it also incorporates redundancy so that unexpected breakdowns are not a frequent result.

    A third problem with complexity is that it leads to supply chains for practically everything manufactured in the US or Europe needing to go through China. This makes the US and Europe dependent upon suppliers in China. Even military goods have supply chains running through countries that we are at odds with, including China. This means that China can, in many ways, “hold the US hostage,” by refusing to sell the US rare earth minerals, or by refusing to provide parts of supply chains needed for military armaments.

    Perhaps the most important problem of all with added complexity is the wage and wealth disparities that it leads to. With added complexity, there is more specialization. A few workers with considerable training and advanced degrees get high paying jobs. The wages for these workers, plus the wages for managers, leave little funding left over for less trained workers. Also, competition with workers in low wage countries tends to hold down wages for less-skilled workers.

    Besides the wage disparities, some people, mostly those who are already high-wage earners, become owners of these companies. If stock prices rise, this increases the wealth disparities between the rank-and-file workers and those at the top of the hierarchy. The higher-wage people also tend to purchase homes, and the price-appreciation on their homes adds to their wealth.

    Physicist Francois Roddier, in his book The Thermodynamics of Evolution, explains that this growing wage and wealth disparities are to be expected when energy supplies are short, and added complexity is attempted as a substitute. Already wealthy people tend to get a disproportionate share of the goods and services produced by the economy, while poor people increasingly get squeezed out because of the physics of the situation.

    [11] Ultimately, not enough goods and services to go around leads to conflicts of many types. These include conflict within political parties, within countries, and among countries.

    I believe this issue is behind the conflict we are experiencing today. I will leave this issue for another post.

    [12] Slowing growth is likely to lead to bankruptcies and financial collapse.

    This is another issue that I will leave for another post.

    [13] Conclusion

    I hope these thoughts are somewhat helpful. I have only touched on a few aspects of how the economy really works. Perhaps I can offer more ideas on this subject in the future.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 19:25

  • Watch: Russia Mounts Ballistic Missile Strike On Western Arms Depot In Ukraine
    Watch: Russia Mounts Ballistic Missile Strike On Western Arms Depot In Ukraine

    Russia’s military has released new video as part of ongoing warnings to the West as it pours weapons and ammo into Ukraine. Moscow also continues to warn against the West introducing F-16s into the conflict, which is imminent.

    The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday published footage purporting to show the destruction of a large warehouse filled with US-supplied weapons, specifically including a HIMARS multiple rocket launcher system. The depot was destroyed by a Russian ballistic missile, with the video showing an extensive building engulfed in huge flames. Watch:

    Russian media details that the US-supplied HIMARS system was “discovered by a surveillance drone and was tracked to a hangar in the village of Novopetrovka, in Ukraine’s Nikolayev Region.”

    “The location was hit by a ballistic missile fired by an Iskander-M system, the Russian military reported on Monday, adding that the HIMARS and its crew had been destroyed,” the report continues. The destruction and aftermath was then filmed by Russian surveillance drones.

    Meanwhile, Ukraine launched its own attack, this time sending drones to Russia’s Krasnodar Region’s Kavkaz port, which lies on the eastern side of Kerch Strait.

    It was a rare moment that Ukraine attacked a ferry, resulting in a handful of casualties and one death.

    “The Kiev regime has once again attempted to carry out a terrorist act on the territory of the Krasnodar Region. This morning the drones attacked a ferry in the port of Kavkaz. Unfortunately, there are casualties and a fatality among the crew members and port employees,” the region’s governor wrote on Telegram.

    Port where the ferry was attacked, via TASS

    A fire also resulted after the rare attack on the ferry as it was in operation. However, reports suggest the ferry was not carrying large groups of civilians at the time it was struck.

    Ukraine has not backed off its frequent cross-border drone strikes on Russian territory. Moscow has at the same time stepped-up its targeting of Western assets and weapons inside Ukraine, in a continued escalation spiral.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 19:05

  • Google Reversing Third-Party Cookie Phaseout In Favor Of New Strategy
    Google Reversing Third-Party Cookie Phaseout In Favor Of New Strategy

    Authored by Stephen Katte via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The Google logo in Las Vegas on Jan. 10, 2024. (Steve Marcus/Reuters)

    Global tech giant Google said it plans to reverse an earlier decision to phase out third-party cookies in its Chrome browser and instead focus on a new strategy involving user choice.

    In 2020, Google announced a new initiative, Privacy Sandbox, which would phase out third-party cookies, the data stored in web browsers that lets companies track users and help advertisers target ads.

    At the time, the tech giant said the goal was to make the “web more private and secure for users while also supporting publishers.”

    However, a July 22 blog post from Anthony Chavez, vice president of the Privacy Sandbox initiative, revealed that these plans have shifted after feedback from stakeholders such as regulators, web developers and advertisers.

    “This feedback has helped us craft solutions that aim to support a competitive and thriving marketplace that works for publishers and advertisers, and encourage the adoption of privacy-enhancing technologies,” Mr. Chavez said.

    Mr. Chavez says Google is proposing to give users a choice to limit how third-party cookies are used in their browsers instead of outright removing them. Users will have some input into how they are tracked across Google’s search products. There is already a feature to disable cookies in most browsers, and it’s unclear how this latest proposal from Google would differ.

    “We are proposing an updated approach that elevates user choice,” Mr. Chavez said. “Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they’d be able to adjust that choice at any time.”

    According to Mr. Chavez, Google is discussing its new plans with regulators and “will engage with the industry as we roll this out.”

    Troubled from the start

    In January 2020, Google promised to phase out third-party cookies within two years. The timeline has been extended multiple times in response to concerns from advertisers and regulators.

    Google carried out several cookie replacement experiments, but none gained full support. FLoC, Google’s initial cookie replacement, was scrapped in 2022 after two years over concerns it was inadvertently making it easier for advertisers to gather user information.

    Over the last few years, the advertising and publishing industry has raised concerns about Privacy Sandbox’s impact on advertising effectiveness, campaign performance, and revenue. In January, the UK’s antitrust enforcer, the CMA, also flagged 39 concerns about Google’s Privacy Sandbox and urged the company to pause plans to implement it.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 18:45

  • Kelly Surges Ahead Of Shapiro As Top Contender For Harris' Veep Pick
    Kelly Surges Ahead Of Shapiro As Top Contender For Harris’ Veep Pick

    With Vice President Kamala Harris now expected to secure the Democratic Party’s nomination for the 2024 presidential race, the next crucial decision will be selecting a running mate to complete the ticket.

    As Emel Akan reports via The Epoch Times, after President Joe Biden endorsed Ms. Harris as the party’s nominee on July 21, several names have been floated as her potential running mate.

    As RealClearPolitics notes, her VP pick could make or break her chances at beating Trump.

    The choice of a running mate says a lot about the judgment of the presidential nominee and it can increase support for ticket. Political scientists Chris Devine and Kyle Kopko find that a popular pick of a vice-presidential nominee has the most influence on boosting perceptions of the president who chooses them. This would be of particular importance as Kamala Harris has a relatively high number of Americans who have not yet made up their minds about her.

    Beyond the electoral effects, running mates matter because vice presidents are just one heartbeat away from the presidency, the most powerful elected position on the planet. For this reason, it is important that a presidential nominee get this choice right.

    …

    The most important condition is whether the individual is qualified. Sometimes, out of desperation, nominees give short shrift to this criterion, and they pick an individual for electoral reasons, governing be damned. Arizona Sen. John McCain’s selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in 2008 is a premier example of this. The selection was widely panned, with many believing Palin was not qualified for the position. 

    So with that said – here is a list of the leading candidates who are currently in the spotlight.

    Gov. Josh Shapiro

    Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, 51, has emerged as a top contender for the vice presidential pick. Before assuming office in 2023, he served as the state’s attorney general from 2017 to 2023.

    Story continues below advertisement

    He is frequently mentioned as a strong candidate for the VP role due to his status as a swing state Democrat and his reputation for being moderate. He is Jewish and a strong supporter of Israel.

    Mr. Shapiro endorsed Ms. Harris in a statement on Sunday.

    “I will do everything I can to help elect Kamala Harris as the 47th President of the United States,” he said.

    Gov. Andy Beshear

    Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, 46, rose to prominence with his election as governor in the deep-red state of Kentucky in 2019. He gained reelection to a second term in November 2023. His name is also circulating as a possible VP pick.

    Karen Hult, a political science professor at Virginia Tech, told The Epoch Times that although Kentucky is not a swing state, it is an Appalachian state, making him an “interesting counterpoise” to former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), author of “Hillbilly Elegy.”

    Mr. Beshear endorsed Ms. Harris on X, stating that “she’s incredibly tough & smart, w/ the compassion and empathy to be a phenomenal president.”

    Gov. Roy Cooper

    Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, 67, has served as governor since 2017. Before that, he was the state attorney general from 2001 to 2017.

    North Carolina is a key battleground state, although former President Donald Trump won the state both in 2016 and 2020.

    Mr. Cooper endorsed Ms. Harris for the presidential nomination in a statement posted on X on Sunday.

    “Kamala Harris should be the next President. I’ve known @VP going back to our days as AGs, and she has what it takes to defeat Donald Trump and lead our country thoughtfully and with integrity,” he wrote.

    “I look forward to campaigning for her as we work to win NC up and down the ticket.”

    Sen. Mark Kelly

    Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), 60, has served in the Senate since 2020. He’s a former NASA astronaut and Navy combat pilot.

    Mr. Kelly has national recognition from being married to former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who survived an assassination attempt in 2011. Ms. Giffords was shot in the head at a constituent event near Tucson, Arizona, while she was serving her third term in Congress. The attack left Ms. Giffords partially paralyzed and led to her becoming a gun control activist.

    Mr. Kelly, like Ms. Harris, has advocated for tighter gun control.

    “He’s quite articulate, and he is more conservative and has a fairly strong defense and national security grounding,” Ms. Hult said. “So, he could also be a very attractive candidate.”

    The Arizona senator, in a statement on X, threw his support behind Ms. Harris, stating, “I couldn’t be more confident that Vice President @KamalaHarris is the right person to defeat Donald Trump.”

    Other Candidates

    Other notable names mentioned include Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. However, both have stated that they are not interested in joining the presumptive Harris ticket.

    Some other names considered include California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

    “It’s going to be about balancing the ticket,” David Carlucci, a Democrat strategist and former New York state senator, told The Epoch Times.

    Mr. Carlucci noted that the Harris campaign will be looking closely at who can propel the campaign in crucial battleground states.

    He said he believes Democrats from swing states, such as Mr. Shapiro from Pennsylvania or Mr. Kelly from Arizona, “are going to be eyed very closely.”

    While the vetting process is just getting started, a senior administration official told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly are the leading candidates to be Harris’ running mate.

    According to the latest prediction markets, Kelly is surging ahead of Shapiro…

    Source: Bloomberg

    The two men come from key 2024 battleground states, and have experience battling Trump-endorsed candidates.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 18:25

  • The White-Collar Job Squeeze
    The White-Collar Job Squeeze

    Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

    The other day, I was tooling around at the grocery store and, in line to check out, I noticed a clothes hamper in the shopping cart in front of me. I thought it was pretty nice. I said so to the person pushing the cart.

    Yes, I know it is awkward to strike up such conversations but I’m glad I did. I quickly found that the shopper was not buying for himself but for a customer of Instacart, an online ordering service. He was working and shopping as a customer himself.

    Intrigued, I asked other questions. He has a university degree, recently earned, another full-time job, and just does this to put money in the bank and pay the rent. Casually digging around further, it turns out that this person is deeply grateful for this second job because otherwise he would be bankrupt and have to move home across the country to live with his parents.

    This whole scene struck me as odd, so the next time, I began to wonder about other shoppers and tried the same line of inquiry. As it turns out, several more people there were working for various online shopping companies, Instacart among others. They all had similar stories of hustling as much as possible in the evening hours to pay the bills.

    Truly, I had no idea that many people in our grocery stores today are not there buying for their families but for other businesses. They are gig workers. It’s their second and third jobs. I feel silly not to have known this but I’m not among those who have used such services. But plenty of people do. And that results in jobs for which people are deeply grateful because they have to pay their bills.

    My friends, this is not normal. It has a Weimar vibe: wild economic activity and opportunity amidst a scramble to maintain one’s standard of living. It’s a hamster wheel with just enough payoff to keep it turning. Young people should not be doing this, particularly not those with high-level college training and expectations of the good life just right around the corner.

    A story in the Wall Street Journal has gripped me. It’s about a kid who attended a very fancy school, Loyola University in Chicago. A degree there costs about $280,000 plus four years of lost job experience. You pay it because the credential is great and opens up a world of opportunities. The young person the story chronicled obtained a degree in English literature and imagined a future of working for a major publisher, perhaps advising the next F. Scott Fitzgerald.

    Upon graduation, he started sending out resumes. Ten. Then a hundred. Then several hundred. Then a thousand. Months went by. He heard nothing from any of the companies. Despairing, he started writing to local newspapers. Nothing. Then he tried writing and marketing his material. Nothing. After nearly a year and facing utter bankruptcy, he finally landed a job: a part-time cook but mostly dishwasher at a local diner. For that he is grateful.

    Indeed. Please understand: this person came from a wealthy family and went to the highest-end school. He got excellent grades throughout school. He graduated with honors. He had a network. But when actually going out there and trying to find gainful employment, he had come up with absolutely nothing. It took him a long time but he finally realized that there is nothing wrong with dishwashing. Any job is a respectable job. And all kudos to him for being willing to tell a reporter his story.

    It’s hardly unique. It’s the experience of a whole generation. These days, sending out thousands of applications and hearing nothing is considered normal. A person of my generation cannot imagine this but it is true.

    The WSJ says:

    “The white-collar labor market is entering a more uncertain phase after cooling for more than a year. Job insecurity is climbing and fewer professionals feel emboldened to change their employment. The lack of turnover is stalling hiring even more as companies rethink their talent needs after pandemic-hiring sprees.”

    That much is very obvious.

    The hiring boom was always fragile and sketchy.

    Now it is ending as the financial squeeze from inflation eats away at corporate profits and payrolls shrink across the entire white-collar world. A whole generation has been caught off guard. They followed all the rules. They went into massive debt. They did what they were supposed to do, on the promise that all will work out in the end.

    Sadly, nothing is working out after all. Not even the restaurant and hospitality sector is offering gainful employment. This is a huge change from just one year ago, when at least young people had the option of serving tables. That is no longer true. Those who have such jobs are deeply fortunate. And they know it.

    It’s all the more frustrating for people under 30 to realize that the system that has robbed them of opportunity and income—buying a home is out of the question but not even owning a car is possible—is being run by people with massive retirement accounts who are over the age of 70.

    This is the old exploiting the young, not intentionally but in effect.

    The post-pandemic and actual pandemic economy always had the feeling of unreality about it. It was funded by fake money and debt plus subsidies. Most people had the confidence that all would work out because it always had. But this supposition runs headlong into the reality of accounting. Nothing really added up.

    Inflation is simply not going away and it has eaten into living standards. It is far higher than the government is reporting. Everyone knows this now. Quite simply: the government numbers exclude interest, shrinkflation, added fees, and a realistic accounting of housing prices and insurance. It doesn’t matter how many Nobel Laureates say that all is well. American citizens know it is not.

    For a while, people believed that the magic of technological innovation would once again save us. Artificial intelligence stocks soared and the companies that seized on this new shiny object seemed to be the darlings of Wall Street. But in the last week, that too has changed as major institutional investors are asking old-fashioned questions about price-earnings (P/E) ratios and underlying values. Wall Street says this is merely “rotation.” Rotation is to stocks as “transitory” is to inflation.

    The post-lockdown jobs boom was always artificial, a product of miscounting and misreporting. But whatever strength appeared to be there is now melting away, leaving dislocation and stagnation, even in sectors like hospitality that were reliable only 10 months ago.

    (Data: Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), St. Louis Fed; Chart: Jeffrey A. Tucker)

    Hard times are coming and most people get this. It’s going to be difficult for the new presidential administration. There is no magic solution, as much as we might want one. All budgets, including government budgets, must be cut severely. We have no choice but austerity. It is going to come whether we want it or not.

    The flight to value will continue. The new fashion will be for real jobs, real balance sheets, real assets, and real lives. It’s about time. Nothing in the political theater of our times will change this. These are extremely uncertain days, ripe for all sorts of possibilities. Let us all hope that we will choose freedom and sound money as the only real alternative to stagnation and collapse.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 18:05

  • "Hydrothermal Explosion" Rocks Yellowstone National Park
    “Hydrothermal Explosion” Rocks Yellowstone National Park

    Yellowstone National Park announced on X that a “hydrothermal explosion” occurred earlier today near Sapphire Pool in Biscuit Basin, just north of Old Faithful.

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

    Park rangers provided more color on their website about the incident:  

    • Biscuit Basin, including the parking lot and boardwalks, are temporarily closed for safety reasons. The Grand Loop Road remains open. 

    • No injuries were reported and the extent of damage is unknown at this time. 

    • Park staff and staff from USGS will monitor conditions and reopen the area once deemed safe. 

    Dramatic video footage of the rapid ejection of boiling water, steam, mud, and rock fragments captured by tourists has surfaced on X. 

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

    Hydrothermal explosions can reach heights of 1.2 miles high, ejecting mostly breccia (angular rocks cemented by clay). 

    Park rangers said, “Today’s explosion does not reflect a change in the volcanic system, which remains at normal background levels of activity.” 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 17:45

  • Was Donald Trump The Victim Of White Privilege? A Democratic Member Wants To Know
    Was Donald Trump The Victim Of White Privilege? A Democratic Member Wants To Know

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    For most of us, this election could not become more confusing. However, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D., Tx.) may have added a whole new level of confusion for many in suggesting that Donald Trump may have been the latest victim of systemic racism among law enforcement in the United States.

    Trump previously cited his alleged abuse in the criminal justice system as a point of shared experience with some in the black community.

    Crockett, however, seems to be willing to go further in suggesting that he may be the latest victim of a racist law enforcement system.

    In the hearing with Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, the failure to stop and hold Thomas Crooks was raised by both parties in an unprecedented failure of security.

    Crockett then got her chance and suggested that Trump may have come close to dying at the hands of white privilege.

    “I want to talk about training and the fact that there was a little bit of confusion between this suspicious person and this perceived threat situation, and it seems like a different analysis is being done. One of my questions is what training your officers are getting on bias.

    I’ve learned over and over again, dealing with law enforcement, that there’s generally no perception of threat when it’s a young white male, even if he’s carrying a long gun. Yet a lot of times, at least in this country, when it comes to law enforcement, there’s a perception of threat simply because a person has a little bit more melanin in their skin.

    …Often times, one of the things that we’ve consistently advocated for on my side — and when I say my side, I mean when we’re faced with a tragedy where law enforcement has made a mistake — is bias training and whether or not our officers are getting it. So I’m curious, in some of the training that you’re talking about that’s part of your budget, is bias training part of it?”

    Cheatle responded with “Yes, that’s true.” (An apparent response to the training element).

    Notably, Crockett began by getting Cheatle to acknowledge that this was not a failure due to DEI, or Diversity Equity and Inclusion, policies. She then suggested that further DEI training may be needed in light of the assassination attempt.

    To be clear, there is no evidence that Crooks was allowed to walk away after being spotted with a “long gun.” The current theory is that Crooks hid the gun before the event.

    Moreover, he was identified as a possible threat due to being found with a golf range finder. However, that was not considered a barred or threatening device by the Secret Service.

    Yet, Trump may find common ground here with Vice President Kamala Harris who has long maintained that “We do have two systems of justice” and has added:

    “I don’t think that most reasonable people who are paying attention to the facts would dispute that there are racial disparities and a system that has engaged in racism in terms of how the laws have been enforced. It does us no good to deny that. Let’s just deal with it. Let’s be honest. These might be difficult conversations for some, but they’re not difficult conversations for leaders, not for real leaders.”

    Trump may be willing to have the “difficult conversation” as the now purported victim of white privilege in the dismissal of would-be presidential assassins.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 17:30

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Today’s News 23rd July 2024

  • True Purpose Of NATO Remains USA Hegemony
    True Purpose Of NATO Remains USA Hegemony

    Authored by Yves Engler via Counterpunch.org,

    NATO’s new focus on China harkens back to the belligerent alliance’s early days.

    At the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington, DC, last week China was a big part of the agenda. The NATO summit’s final declaration mentioned the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) 14 times. It noted that “the PRC continues to pose systemic challenges to Euro-Atlantic security” and China’s “stated ambitions and coercive policies continue to challenge our interests, security and values.”

    The leaders of NATO “partner” nations Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia attended the summit. They collectively met NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to map out strategy for the Asia Pacific region. NATO announced four new joint projects with countries that are important to Washington’s bid to establish an anti-China military bloc. In response, Beijing accused NATO of “inciting bloc confrontation and hyping up regional tensions”.

    Unsurprisingly, NATO frames its focus on China as defensive. “The PRC has become a decisive enabler of Russia’s war against Ukraine”, claimed the summit’s final communique. According to this storyline, Chinese relations with Russia threaten NATO. But this is exaggerated. China has taken a cautious approach to Russia’s war largely complying with (illegal) US sanctions and refusing to sell arms (though its companies sell some dual use products to Russian firms). Conversely, North Korea and Iran are selling Russia arms while NATO countries are donating large amounts of weapons to Ukraine.

    Comparing Chinese ties to India’s highlights NATO’s exaggeration. India is buying more oil and weapons from Russia than China and when NATO began its meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Moscow to meet President Vladimir Putin.

    In 2022, NATO released a strategic concept listing China for the first-time. It labeled Beijing a challenge to the alliance’s “interests, security and values” and at the time Stoltenberg declared, “China is substantially building up its military forces, including nuclear weapons, bullying its neighbours, threatening Taiwan ….”

    This is all part of the US empire’s bid to contain China’s rise. Washington has become obsessed with an emerging “peer competitor” that may eventually rival its power.

    While it seems strange that an alliance to defend the ‘north Atlantic’ should target a faraway Asian state, NATO is neither defensive nor only about the north Atlantic. The alliance’s recent wars in Afghanistan and Libya demonstrate that it’s a tool to enable US-led global domination.

    That’s been clear for 75 years.

    As part of the Parliamentary debate over NATO’s founding Canada’s external affairs minister Lester Pearson said:

    “There is no better way of ensuring the security of the Pacific Ocean at this particular moment than by working out, between the great democratic powers, a security arrangement the effects of which will be felt all over the world, including the Pacific area.”

    Two years later he said:

    “The defence of the Middle East is vital to the successful defence of Europe and north Atlantic area.”

    In 1953 Pearson went even further:

    “There is now only a relatively small [5000 kilometre] geographical gap between southeast Asia and the area covered by the North Atlantic treaty, which goes to the eastern boundaries of Turkey.”

    Pearson believed that the newly created ‘defensive’ alliance justified sending 27,000 Canadian troops to Korea. In a history of the 1950-53 US-led Korean war David Bercuson writes that Canada’s external minister “agreed with [President] Truman, [Secretary of State] Dean Acheson, and other American leaders that the Korean conflict was NATO’s first true test, even if it was taking place half a world away.”

    The Korean War was partly a reaction to Mao’s 1949 communist/nationalist revolution in China. After US forces approached its border, China intervened. The war left around three million dead.

    In reality, NATO was established to bring a decolonizing world under the US geopolitical umbrella. This remains true 75 years later as the alliance continues to advance US hegemony.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 02:00

  • Engineering A Crisis: How Political Theater Helps Keep The Deep State Stay In Power
    Engineering A Crisis: How Political Theater Helps Keep The Deep State Stay In Power

    Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

    “The two ‘sides’ of mainstream politics are not fighting against one another, they’re only fighting against you. Their only job is to keep you clapping along with the two-handed puppet show as they rob you blind and tighten your chains while your gaze is fixed on the performance.”

    – Caitlin Johnstone

    A failed assassination attempt on a presidential candidate. An incumbent president withdrawing his re-election bid at the 11th hour. A politicized judiciary that fails to hold the powers-that-be accountable to the rule of law. A world at war. A nation in turmoil.

    This is what controlled chaos looks like.

    This year’s election-year referendum on which corporate puppet should occupy the White House has quickly become a lesson in how the Deep State engineers a crisis to keep itself in power.

    Don’t get so caught up in the performance that you lose sight of what’s real.

    This endless series of diversions, distractions and political drama is the oldest con game in the books, the magician’s sleight of hand that keeps you focused on the shell game in front of you while your wallet is being picked clean by ruffians in your midst.

    It’s the Reichstag Fire all over again.

    It was February 1933, a month before national elections in Germany, and the Nazis weren’t expected to win. So they engineered a way to win: they began by infiltrating the police and granting police powers to their allies; then Hitler brought in stormtroopers to act as auxiliary police; by the time an arsonist (who claimed to be working for the Communists in the hopes of starting an armed revolt) set fire to the Reichstag, the German parliamentary building, the people were eager for a return to law and order.

    That was all it took: Hitler used the attempted “coup” as an excuse to declare martial law and seize absolute power in Germany, establishing himself as a dictator with the support of the German people.

    Fast forward to the present day, and what do we have? A discontented citizenry, a disconnected government, and a Deep State that wants to stay in power at all costs.

    So what happens? Trump has a near miss, Biden bows out, and politics becomes exciting to the masses again.

    It works the same in every age.

    This is how the police state will win, no matter which candidate gets elected to the White House.

    You know who will lose? Every last one of us.

    After all, politics today is not about Republicans and Democrats.

    Nor is it about abortion, healthcare, higher taxes, immigration, or any of the other buzzwords that have become campaign slogans for individuals who have mastered the art of telling Americans exactly what they want to hear.

    Politics today is about one thing and one thing only: maintaining the status quo between the Controllers (the politicians, the bureaucrats, and the corporate elite) and the Controlled (the taxpayers).

    Indeed, it really doesn’t matter what you call them—the 1%, the elite, the controllers, the masterminds, the shadow government, the police state, the surveillance state, the military industrial complex—so long as you understand that no matter which party occupies the White House in 2025, the unelected bureaucracy that actually calls the shots will continue to do so.

    In other words, no matter who wins this next presidential election, you can rest assured that the new boss will be the same as the old boss, and we—the permanent underclass in America—will continue to be forced to march in lockstep with the police state in all matters, public and private.

    Consider the following a much-needed reality check, an antidote if you will, against an overdose of overhyped campaign announcements, lofty electoral promises and meaningless patriotic sentiments that land us right back in the same prison cell.

    Perhaps the most troubling fact of all is this: we have handed over control of our government and our lives to faceless bureaucrats who view us as little more than cattle to be bred, branded, butchered and sold for profit.

    As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, if there is to be any hope of restoring our freedoms and reclaiming control over our government, it will rest not with the politicians but with the people themselves.

    One thing is for sure: the reassurance ritual of voting is not going to advance freedom one iota.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/22/2024 – 23:40

  • Trump To Play Golf With PGA Pro In Demonstration Of Physical & Mental Health
    Trump To Play Golf With PGA Pro In Demonstration Of Physical & Mental Health

    US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau announced on X that former President Trump will be featured in the next episode of his YouTube golf show, “Break 50.”

    In this episode, DeChambeau and Trump will attempt to complete 18 holes in under 50 shots. This will serve as physical and mental tests for Trump, recorded for the world to see, especially as President Biden’s cognitive decline has forced him out of the presidential race, with Democrats replacing the elderly president with giggly Kamala Harris.

    “To be clear, this is about golf and giving back to our nation’s veterans, not politics. A few weeks ago I reached out to both parties’ presidential campaigns and @realDonaldTrump was down for the challenge. It is an incredible honor to be able to enjoy a round of golf with any sitting or former president, and all have an open invitation to join me for a round of Break 50 anytime,” DeChambeau wrote on X. 

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    Golf Digest posted a teaser video of the episode with DeChambeau and Trump standing on a green with an American pin flag in the background. 

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    Meanwhile, the nation is asking this question about Biden. 

    Let’s not forget this nonsense. 

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    One X user said, “If he actually ends up breaking 50 with Trump then Trump is officially the greatest golfer in presidential history.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/22/2024 – 23:20

  • Not All Body Fat Is Created Equal
    Not All Body Fat Is Created Equal

    Authored by Zena le Roux via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    US regulators were seen approving the first exchange-traded funds that invest directly in Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, according to the latest filings Monday.
    The latter suggest the Securities and Exchange Commission signed off on spot-Ether ETF applications from 21Shares, Bitwise Asset Management Inc., BlackRock Inc., Fidelity Investments and VanEck, paving the way for official trading of the products.

    (Pavel Chagochkin/Shutterstock)

    Fat’s Role in the Body

    According to a 2013 review, fat is not merely a passive store of energy but is, in fact, a highly “sophisticated organ” that regulates metabolic processes and branches of the immune system. Fat tissue is also crucial in regulating many organs and is closely linked with brain function.

    Fat provides numerous benefits, Kristen Smith, a registered dietitian, manager of bariatric surgery at Piedmont Healthcare in Georgia, and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, told The Epoch Times. These include supplying energy, supporting cell growth, protecting organs, and aiding in the absorption of essential nutrients.

    Dr. Sulagna Misra, a medical doctor and founder of California-based Misra Wellness, also told The Epoch Times that fat keeps our bodies warm and insulated and serves as a way for the body to store fuel. Additionally, it functions as an endocrine gland with significant activity.

    Fat is composed of adipose cells, which produce hormones like estrogen and leptin, cytokines (proteins involved in cellular communication) such as tumor necrosis factors (TNFs), and pro-inflammatory markers. When present in excess, these adipose cells can lead to metabolic or hormonal dysregulation.

    Subcutaneous Fat

    Subcutaneous fat, located directly beneath the skin, is the most abundant type of fat in the body, according to Ms. Smith. It is also the most metabolically favorable form of fat. Often considered neutral, subcutaneous fat can protect against coronary artery disease and Type 2 diabetes.

    According to an article in the International Journal of Obesity, subcutaneous fat is linked to a protective glucose and lipid profile, reduced metabolic risk, and lower levels of inflammatory cytokines. This type of fat appears more passive than abdominal fat and “exerts its protective properties by long-term fatty acid storage.”

    However, excessive subcutaneous fat, particularly in the upper body, can be harmful. Research has found that upper body subcutaneous fat is associated with increased cardiometabolic risk factors.

    Visceral Fat

    On the other hand, studies suggest that high levels of visceral fat raise one’s risk of developing cardiovascular events. Visceral fat is belly fat that surrounds internal organs and is deeper in the abdominal cavity.

    Visceral fat is more insulin-resistant, sensitive to lipolysis, and metabolically active. It can generate free fatty acids and uptake glucose more than subcutaneous fat. Additionally, it is a more robust predictor of death.

    There are significant differences between fat depots and their associated risks of metabolic disorders. Visceral fat has been shown to generate inflammation and is considered a greater risk for metabolic disorders. Visceral and subcutaneous fat are metabolically distinct tissues.

    The Framingham Heart Study measured the relationship between visceral fat and depressive symptoms in 1,581 women (average age 52 years) and 1,718 men (average age 50 years). The study found a relationship in women but not in men. However, a link between subcutaneous fat and depressive symptoms was not observed, underscoring the differences in metabolic activity within each fat depot.

    There is also a link between stress, cortisol, and abdominal fat deposits. Stress increases exposure to circulating levels of cortisol, leading to an increased appetite and the mobilization of fat from the periphery (outer areas of the body) to the central region. Cortisol is known to redistribute fat from the outer areas of the body to the abdominal area.

    According to a 2011 article in Obesity, various factors could influence the relationship between obesity and depressive symptoms, including inflammation. Visceral fat appears to have “a unique and important contribution” to the inflammatory state, the authors wrote.

    Ms. Smith explained that visceral fat typically increases with age and heightened stress levels. Studies indicate that the distribution of body fat is more important for overall health than the total amount of body fat. An unbalanced diet high in fatty foods and carbohydrates, combined with a sedentary lifestyle, creates conditions that promote the accumulation of visceral fat, she said.

    Liver Fat

    According to Dr. Misra, liver fat consists of fatty tissue stored in the liver, typically as fuel. Liver fat accumulates following excess consumption of sugar and fat (glucose and triglycerides). Diets high in sugar and saturated fat often lead to the accumulation of liver fat. Excessive liver fat can significantly impair liver function. The liver is crucial for metabolism, hormone production, and many other functions, which is why obesity often leads to metabolic and hormonal disorders.

    Regarding the role of diet in liver fat accumulation, total energy intake, rather than fat intake per se, is the key mediator of liver fat content. Hypo-energetic diets (calorie deficit) decrease liver fat regardless of total fat content, while hyper-energetic diets (excess calories) increase liver fat.

    Dietary fat composition could also affect liver fat accumulation, with diets rich in saturated fat increasing liver fat content more than diets with more unsaturated fats.

    Added fructose sources also seem to be of concern when it comes to liver fat. It has been shown that fructose metabolism is faster than glucose and more is converted to liver glycogen. Additionally, ingested carbohydrates are more likely to contribute to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) than dietary fat intake; NAFLD increases the risk of liver damage.

    4 Ways to Reduce Harmful Fat

    “Monitor what you eat, listen to your body, get good quality and quantity sleep, integrate play, eat more vegetables and fiber, choose cleaner and less processed foods, cook at home, and exercise regularly (especially weight training),” advised Dr. Misra. Keep the following four tips in mind:

    1. Avoid processed foods: These include deep-fried or ultra-processed foods, sodas, candy, and commercial baked goods. Foods sweetened with fructose should be avoided or enjoyed only in moderation. Read the labels and avoid ingredients like “partially hydrogenated oils” or “high-fructose corn syrup.” These deplete your body of necessary nutrients and convert to fat quickly.
    2. Try a high-intensity workout: High-intensity, high-volume training encourages visceral fat loss and improves carotid artery health, facilitating blood flow to the brain.
    3. Stay active: Sedentary behaviors, particularly watching TV, have distinct associations with fat depositions.
    4. Eat enough fiber: Increased soluble fiber intake is associated with less visceral fat accumulation—regardless of body mass index (BMI). Increased soluble fiber intake combined with increased physical activity slows the natural progression of visceral fat.

    A New Definition of Obesity

    Authors of a 2006 review in Current Diabetes Reviews called for a new definition of obesity based on the anatomical location of fat rather than its volume, particularly when assessing cardiometabolic risk.

    The review suggested that the term “metabolic obesity,” which refers to visceral fat accumulation in both lean and obese individuals, may better identify those at risk of cardiovascular disease.

    Dr. Misra added that there are diseases or situations in which the BMI may be normal, but the person may have a high amount of visceral fat. “I prefer to address each person individually because ‘normal’ weight is a spectrum, and weight gain is complex,” she concluded.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/22/2024 – 23:00

  • "Someone's Going To Die": Windows Keep Randomly Falling Off New Philadelphia High Rise
    “Someone’s Going To Die”: Windows Keep Randomly Falling Off New Philadelphia High Rise

    Windows keep falling off a building in Philadelphia and no one seems to care enough to do anything about it.

    “Someone’s going to die,” a resident told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Past three months I think we’ve had six or seven windows fall. Eventually it’s going to fall on someone.”

    The Riverwalk building, a residence near the Schuylkill River that was built in 2021 by Philadelphia’s largest residential landlord, PMC Property Group, is “shedding its windows”, according to Penn Live, citing the Inquirer. 

    Its located next to a biking and running path that runs along the river, as well as moderate on-street pedestrian foot traffic.

    PMC Property Group has gone litigious, filing two lawsuits in Philadelphia’s Common Pleas Court against Wisconsin-based Wasau Window and Wall Systems Supply.

    The lawsuits, filed in June and July, claim that the companies supplied windows worth tens of millions of dollars that allegedly “spontaneously” break.

    The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that over 60 windows have “spontaneously” broken across three towers. Residents claim management has done little despite three years of complaints.

    According to Penn Live citing Fox 29, recent months have seen six or seven windows fall, posing a danger. PMC Management stated they are aware of the issues and have taken immediate steps, including filing a lawsuit against Wausau Window.

    PMC is working with Philadelphia’s Departments of Licenses and Inspections, structural engineers, and a glass vendor to replace cracked windows and is installing protective scaffolding at Riverwalk.

    PMC said: “These incidents have led us to file suit against the manufacturer, Wausau Window, to resolve any defects. PMC is also working closely with the city of Philadelphia’s Departments of Licenses and Inspections and structural engineers.”

    The concluded: “Additionally, we are collaborating with a glass vendor to remove and replace cracked windows. Although the tempered glass windows are designed to crack into small pieces like a car windshield, we are proactively erecting protective ground-level scaffolding at Riverwalk.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/22/2024 – 22:40

  • Bird Flu: They Fooled Us Once, Looks Like They'll Try To Fool Us Again…
    Bird Flu: They Fooled Us Once, Looks Like They’ll Try To Fool Us Again…

    Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,

    The more we learn about the made-up rules enforced during the COVID-19 pandemic, the more outrageous the entire thing becomes. Anthony Fauci had the utter audacity to sit in Congress and admit they had no data, so they just creatively improvised things like social distancing measures. They fooled a lot of folks once, so shame on them. It looks like they’re about to try and fool us twice with the Bird Flu. If we fall for it again, then shame on us.

    They did everything from withholding effective medications to depriving people of employment to shaming people publicly, discriminating against them, and wishing them dead.

    Then as if 2020 and 2021 weren’t brutal enough, we find out from Congressional investigations and Anthony Fauci’s recent testimony it was all a bunch of baloney to make Big Pharma rich and Big Government powerful. People died who didn’t need to die, the elderly became isolated from their loved ones, medical personnel became burned out and traumatized, and children lost an entire year of educational experiences. Others were vaccinated, some eagerly and some grudgingly, and are suffering longterm disability and even death from the hastily created mRNA vaccine.

    If we don’t take away some lessons from this, we don’t deserve to call ourselves preppers.

    And it looks like we’re about to be tested on what we’ve learned.

    The Bird Flu

    Last week, Dr. Peter McCullough of The Wellness Company released an update on where we stand with the bird flu (H5N1), where this is heading, and what individuals can do to stay safe and informed. 

    First, Dr. McCullough says the mass destruction of livestock to “eradicate” the virus is “futile” and will only work to harm our food supply – not end the spread of bird flu. 

    Second, Dr. McCullough believes it is clear that the rapid spread of bird flu to migratory birds and mammals is the result of gain-of-function research and a lab leak. A set-up that looks eerily to COVID-19. 

    Third, Dr. McCullough rightly points out that the fearmongering around the bird flu promoted by the mainstream media is to facilitate mass vaccination of animals and humans, which will line the pockets of Big Pharma and their NGO backers. 

    The lessons we should have learned

    First, it’s entirely possible that they can and will use this as another two-year power grab. It’s another election year, and it almost feels like deja vu, watching the MSM wax fearful over this virus. But if we are aware, we’re able to mitigate some of the damage.

    Financial problems

    Of course, we can’t do much about the overall damage to the economy. We can only prepare ourselves for it with supplies, savings, and other preps. By this, I mean general prepping and being ready for economic hard times.

    “New” vaccines

    We have seen how badly the last vaccine turned out for many people. Young, otherwise healthy athletes dropping dead on the playing field. People confined to wheelchairs. Others living through a disabling brain fog. Some people got through it fine, while for others it was completely devastating. We’d do well to remember this in case of another speedy-to-market vaccine.

    Inability to get the medication that works

    We learned that when Big Pharma has an agenda, we may lose access to the medications we need. They all but outlawed ivermectin during Covid, and even people who got prescriptions found that pharmacies were unwilling to fill them. The Wellness Company has a Contagion Emergency Kit that contains the necessary prescription meds to treat all types of viral illnesses. It contains Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine, Azithromycin (generic Z-Pak™), Oseltamivir (generic Tamiflu™) and Budesonide along with a nebulizer. Interestingly, these were the meds and treatments I was given in Mexico when I got Covid there.

    I have these kits on hand for every member of my family, because I’m not going to risk being at the mercy of Big Pharma in the future.

    Food prices going up

    If you think food prices went crazy last time, just wait until this time around. We’re already seeing livestock being pre-emptively killed, which will make meat and poultry prices skyrocket. But will this work to help “stop the bird flu?”

    Dr. McCullough says no. He believes that the mass destruction of livestock to “eradicate” the virus is “futile” and will only work to harm our food supply – not end the spread of bird flu. 

    This is a place where preppers excel – stocking up on food and developing as much food independence as possible. This book is a physical copy of 12 years worth of OP articles on food storage, production, acquisition, and preservation.

    Mental preparedness

    Perhaps the most important thing in the upcoming bird flu scare is your mental preparedness. If you panic, you tend to lose your reasoning skills. If you can remain calm and centered, then you will get through the times ahead with much more clarity of thought. And that’s absolutely essential when trying to sift through the lies to get to the truth.

    We’ve watched this before.

    I don’t want to downplay the seriousness of these illnesses for some folks. I know that many question whether Covid even exists. I believe it does and I believe that the bird flu does too. I also believe that these things are being tampered with to make them even more deadly. Only if the populace sees dramatic images that fill them with fear will they be easily herded toward even more draconian regulations.

    Don’t let your knowledge of how deceptive they were in the past allow you to become complacent. Don’t immediately brush off all fears to the point that you take no precautions. It’s important to figure out exactly what we’re dealing with first. If another pandemic conveniently comes along, you can bet it will have been made more deadly. It would have to be even scarier than Covid to convince people to go along with this stuff again.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/22/2024 – 22:20

  • Mr. Beast's Co-Host Deletes X Posts After Reports Swirl Of Inappropriate Conversations With Minor 
    Mr. Beast’s Co-Host Deletes X Posts After Reports Swirl Of Inappropriate Conversations With Minor 

    Mr. Beast’s YouTube empire is under scrutiny after his friend and collaborator Ava Kris Tyson, formerly known as Chris Tyson, scrubbed at least one of his social media accounts after reports suggesting potential involvement in sexual conversations with a minor. 

    “Mr. Beast Co-Host Trans Kris Tyson outted for sending s*xual messages to 13 year old,” media outlet TheQuartering wrote on X. 

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    X user Clown World wrote that Tyson scrubbed “all X posts following reports of inappropriate conversations with a 13-year-old when he was 20.” 

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    The 28-year-old YouTube star confirmed last year in an interview on content creator Anthony Padilla’s show that hormone replacement therapy “saved my life.” 

    “For so long, every day I would go to bed and I would have vivid dreams that I was a woman. And I would wake up in the morning and it was just like getting ripped out of a reality that I didn’t want to be taken out of,” Tyson said in the interview. 

    While Tyson chooses to act as a woman, another friend of James Donaldson, also known as Mr. Beast, Chandler Hallow, apparently found Jesus. 

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    Certainly, there are a lot of questions here. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/22/2024 – 22:00

  • San Diego's 1,000-Bed Shelter Proposal Stirs Concern Over Costs
    San Diego’s 1,000-Bed Shelter Proposal Stirs Concern Over Costs

    Authored by Sophie Li via The Epoch Times,

    San Diego’s mayor announced July 17 a lease deal to convert a commercial building near the city’s airport into a 1,000-bed homeless shelter and resource center, but the city’s budget analyst raised concerns over the cost.

    “For years, past mayors and city councils have only engaged in ad-hoc, piecemeal, temporary approaches to addressing homelessness,” Mayor Todd Gloria said in a statement.

    “With this proposal, we are looking to deliver the change that San Diegans want to see with regard to addressing homelessness on our streets.”

    The 30-year lease, which awaits approval from the city council on July 22, includes a cost of $1.95 per square foot for the property—with annual 3.5 percent rent increases—and an estimated $12.5 million in facility maintenance costs over the term.

    The 64,939-square-foot property at Kettner Boulevard and Vine Street in Middletown spans 1.8 acres over two parcels. It features a two-story building and 134 parking spaces, including rooftop, gated, and surface parking areas.

    While the city’s Office of Independent Budget Analyst acknowledged the project’s potential to help with the city’s homeless situation on a July 15 report, it raises questions about its affordability.

    The decades-long lease will amount to $72 million in rent for the city, which, according to the report, is above market rates of $1.44 to $1.54 per square foot for similar properties.

    Besides the more expensive rates, the report raised concerns over “significant upfront and ongoing costs associated with rent, lease operating, tenant improvement, and program operating costs.”

    Instead, the budget analyst suggested that the city purchasing and renovating the property itself could be a more economical option, potentially saving $15.7 million.

    However, the mayor said that the property is not available for sale and highlighted several benefits of the agreement:

    • Nineteen months of rent would be waived, saving $2.4 million.

    • The property owner would contribute $5 million to the property.

    • The owner would be responsible for mitigation of any potential hazards identified during the renovation process.

    • The city has first right of refusal should the landlord sell the property.

    • If the property is sold within five years, the city would receive 14 percent of the net profit.

    • The deal would include an adjacent parcel of land that can serve “multiple uses including for additional shelter and services.”

    Another concern raised by the report is the project’s operating costs, noting that the source of funding is unclear and could place an additional burden on the city.

    San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria speaks at the press conference at H Barracks on June 6, 2024. (Jane Yang/The Epoch Times)

    According to the mayor, the city would need to pay an estimated $26.4 million to operate shelter beds, a commercial kitchen, laundry facilities, dining areas, recreation spaces, and showers. Proposed services at the shelter campus would include job training, meals, housing navigation, and behavioral health support.

    However, the report said only $13.7 million in existing operational funds can be reallocated from other homeless programs if no new funds are approved, leaving the remainder uncertain.

    The report also detailed a monthly cost of $32,000, covering property taxes, maintenance, utilities, and insurance.

    The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/22/2024 – 21:40

  • LA Sheriff Investigated, "Urged" AG To Prosecute Reporter Who Leaked List Of Problem Deputies
    LA Sheriff Investigated, “Urged” AG To Prosecute Reporter Who Leaked List Of Problem Deputies

    After the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department leaked a list of problem deputies to Los Angeles Times reporter Maya Lau, it then turned around and investigated her.

    It also “urged the state attorney general to prosecute” her, according to the Los Angeles Times this week. 

    The investigation began in 2017 when then-Sheriff Jim McDonnell’s team sought to identify who leaked a list of roughly 300 names to reporter Lau, the report says.

    The case lost momentum but was revived in 2018 after Alex Villanueva took office, as revealed by a recent 300-page investigative file.

    The department eventually labeled Lau as a criminal suspect for allegedly receiving “stolen property” and identified Diana Teran, its constitutional policing advisor, as the leaker, despite Teran having reported the leak and denying involvement.

    In 2021, the case was sent to Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose office declined to prosecute in May, citing “insufficient evidence”, the Times wrote this week. 

    Lau (Photo: LA Times)

    In 2021, Lau said: “I’m glad this investigation is over, and it’s an outrage that the Sheriff’s Department would criminally investigate me as a reporter for doing my job. It’s the kind of action that’s aimed at intimidating journalists from digging into government agencies.”

    “Under the leadership of Sheriff [Robert] Luna, we do not monitor journalists and we respect the freedom of the press,” the department commented this week. 

    David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, explained Lau’s immunity as a journalist: “You’re not authorized to break into a file cabinet to get records. You’re not authorized to hack computers. But receiving information that somebody else obtained unlawfully is not a crime. Publishing that information is protected under the 1st Amendment.”

    The leaked records at the center of the investigation date back to 2014 when Diana Teran, working at the Office of Independent Review, began compiling a Brady List of officers with problematic disciplinary histories.

    Teran relied on information from the district attorney’s office and Sheriff’s Department databases but stopped adding names in late 2014, believing the Sheriff’s Department had started maintaining its own list.

    In 2015, she joined the Sheriff’s Department as a constitutional policing advisor. In 2017, Teran discovered that reporter Maya Lau and others were inquiring about deputies on the Brady List, leading her to suspect her list had been leaked. She tracked down public records requests and identified similarities between her list and the reporters’ list.

    The case made it all the way to Attorney General Rob Bonta in 2021, who declined to prosecute due to insufficient evidence.

    You can read the LA Times full story here. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/22/2024 – 21:20

  • 'Pure Blood': Dating Divide Over Vaccination Status Splits Those Looking For A Partner
    ‘Pure Blood’: Dating Divide Over Vaccination Status Splits Those Looking For A Partner

    Authored by Allan Stein via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Courtney Furlong, 36, had always considered modern dating a hit-or-miss prospect, even before COVID-19 vaccines, masks, and lockdowns turned the world upside down.

    Unjected.com founder Shelby Hosana hosts a “pure blood” social mixer for unvaccinated singles in Phoenix on July 15, 2024. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

    But today, Ms. Furlong said it’s downright “terrible” trying to find a suitable dating partner who isn’t vaccinated.

    Having chosen to avoid taking the COVID-19 shots over concerns about their safety, the Phoenix resident now finds the dating market more restricted and challenging than ever.

    She said that many vaccinated people refuse to date the unvaccinated, and vice versa.

    “I’m at the age now where I want to have children. My situation now is, who should I have a baby with?” Ms. Furlong said, standing at the vegan bar at The Giving Tree in Phoenix, watching 50 other unvaccinated people mix and mingle on a hot Monday evening.

    Who knows? Tonight could be the night she’ll meet her significant other, she said—or at least make new like-minded friends.

    “I’m at a place where I’d like to meet someone and have a child,” Ms. Furlong told The Epoch Times. “A huge factor is: Did you get the vaccine or not?”

    Sponsored by the dating website Unjected.com, the informal gathering of unvaccinated men and women took place on July 15 at The Giving Tree.

    Other social mixers, dubbed “pure blood parties,” are also planned in Canada, New York City, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

    “These unvaccinated mixers are starting to pop up everywhere,” said Shelby Hosana, 28, who launched Unjected.com in the spring of 2021 to bring the unvaccinated singles community together.

    She said a person’s COVID-19 vaccination status is “the biggest ice-breaker and deal-breaker in the modern dating world.”

    And it cuts both ways—vaccinated and unvaccinated alike.

    Many online dating sites, such as Tinder, Match, and Bumble, now include COVID-19 badges, stickers, and filters to help singles better navigate the post-pandemic landscape.

    “It’s the very first question asked in the dating scene for many,” Ms. Hosana told The Epoch Times. “Especially now that we can anticipate all vaccines on the market will be mRNA. It’s quite literally choosing partners who choose zero vaccination.”

    Jill Crosby, owner and founder of Conscious Singles, a dating site “for those who value freedom and sovereignty,” said that unvaccinated singles appear to be more concerned about dating within their group.

    Courtney Furlong, 36, stands at the vegan bar during a social mixer for unvaccinated singles in Phoenix, Ariz., on July 15, 2024. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

    “Many of our non-vaccinated members will only date other non-vaccinated members,” Ms. Crosby told The Epoch Times.

    However, vaccinated members are usually less likely to care whether a potential partner is vaccinated.

    In early 2022, a sufficient number of unvaccinated members asked to declare their vaccination status to aid them in finding other unvaccinated members.

    Ms. Crosby said Conscious Singles responded by creating unvaccinated and vaccinated badges to post on dating profiles.

    “Since then, we’ve had a close to equal number of members post a nonvaccinated or vaccinated badge on their profile,” she said, “and about the same amount of members [about 30 percent] selected ”prefer not to say.”

    The dating site also provides multiple-choice “Match Questions” in many categories and recently added, “Will you date someone who has been vaccinated?”

    Ms. Hosana said not long ago some dating sites banned profiles that required a person’s vaccination status.

    Moreover, the recent data point to a distinct social divide with online dating following the rollout of the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines for COVID-19 in early 2021.

    A July 2022 Pew Research Center survey, found that nearly 25 percent thought it “very important” to include one’s COVID-19 vaccination status in a dating profile.

    On the other hand, nearly half (47 percent) said it was “somewhat important” for people to provide their vaccination status, according to the survey.

    The survey showed that roughly 9 percent of U.S. adults had used a dating site or app between 2021 and 2022.

    More telling was the partisan split in survey responses: According to the report, Democrats were “far more likely” than Republicans to say that vaccination status was “important for them to see.”

    In Las Vegas, Ms. Hosana said she was curious to learn about what other people thought about dating and COVID-19 vaccination status.

    So she and her marketing director, Scott Armstrong, conducted a random “man on the street” survey that asked people whether they would date a vaccinated or unvaccinated person.

    Unjected.com marketing director Scott Armstrong checks in guests during a social mixer for unvaccinated singles in Phoenix, Ariz., on July 15, 2024. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

    “Some [vaccinated] people said they would never date an unvaccinated person—someone as ’stupid’ as an anti-vaxxer,” Ms. Hosana said.

    “It’s going both ways,” she said. “They don’t want to be with us. And we really don’t want to be with them.”

    “To me, it’s like the first question they ask—did you take the COVID shots?” Mr. Armstrong told The Epoch Times about online dating.

    “It’s sad, too,” he said, to think that a man or a woman rejected as a potential dating partner over their vaccination status could have been “the one.”

    “It’s tough [but] this is the world we’re living in now,” he said.

    And, given the number of vaccinated people versus the unvaccinated, singles who have not taken one or more COVID-19 shots appear to be at a disadvantage, Ms. Hosana said.

    According to USAFacts, more than 270 million Americans (81 percent of the U.S. population) have received at least one COVID-19 injection; more than 230 million (70 percent) are considered fully vaccinated.

    The website added that of the roughly 1 billion doses distributed since 2020, more than 676 million (68 percent) doses were used nationwide, with almost 64 percent reported as fully vaccinated in Arizona.

    As new strains of the virus develop, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that people should receive an updated 2024–25 COVID-19 and flu vaccine for the fall and winter seasons.

    Among unvaccinated singles, the CDC’s advice falls on unwelcome ears.

    Unvaccinated singles Kristen Feuerstein (L) and Melanie Dias attend a social gathering for unvaccinated men and women in Phoenix, Ariz., on July 15, 2024. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

    “It’s a whole new wild navigation in the world,” Ms. Hosana said.

    “Of course, the desire to match with someone who also is aligned with protecting personal freedoms is paramount. But the need to protect reproductive health and overall health has been the biggest concern since day one,” she said.

    Kristen Feuerstein, 58, and her friend Melanie Dias, 54, are both Phoenix residents who attended the July 15 social mixer hoping to connect with like-minded people.

    As unvaccinated health care workers, both women are divorced, single, and currently dating vaccinated men.

    Ms. Feuerstein said she is trying to make her relationship work despite her concerns about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines and alleged spin-off effects, like spike protein “shedding.”

    She said her biggest fear is “investing” in a relationship in which her partner gets sick with the vaccine down the road.

    Overall, her COVID-19 vaccination status has “really niched me down” in terms of charting a dating course, she said.

    “Such trippy days,” Ms. Feuerstein said. “I’ve actually given up [on internet dating]. It’s just made dating really challenging.”

    Ms. Dias said her goal is to seek out other people who are “on the same page” as herself regarding the mRNA vaccines and who “see the world the same as you.”

    “At my age, I don’t want to invest time and energy in somebody who’s going to keel over,” she said jokingly.

    More than 50 unvaccinated singles attended a gathering at The Giving Tree in Phoenix, Ariz., on July 15, 2024, to listen to health experts discuss ways to detoxify the body.

    The vaccinated man she’s now seeing is someone from her past. During the pandemic, her friend had assured her that he would not be taking the injection.

    “We met up again last year,” Ms. Dias told The Epoch Times. “I assumed he didn’t get it. But he didn’t tell me [he received it] until we were already dating”—just “one” shot, she said, “but it was a tough call.”

    “It was the only way he could fly into Chicago to visit his family. He visits his family every year. What am I going to say to that? Don’t see your aging parents?” Ms. Dias said.

    John Ahlgren, 40, of Phoenix, said his plan at the social mixer was to meet other unvaccinated people and “have a good time.”

    “For dating, I don’t know if [taking the vaccine] is a deal-breaker,” he said, “but when I find someone, I want to spend the rest of my life with them.”

    “It’s just that the culture has changed. COVID certainly had a part to play in it. Social media has changed the landscape too,” Mr. Ahlgren told The Epoch Times.

    Being single, he said he prefers face-to-face “organic engagements” with people and views online dating as a “big waste of time.”

    Would you date a vaccinated person?

    “Not fully vaxxed,” Mr. Ahlgren said. “Once [vaxxed] twice shy, I guess.”

    Mike, 45, of Scottsdale, said he wasn’t expecting to meet the unvaccinated woman of his dreams on July 15, but he was open to the possibility.

    Unvaccinated single Bradley Ahlgren said he hoped to meet like-minded people during a social gathering of the unvaccinated in Phoenix, Ariz., on July 15, 2024. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

    “That’s what this whole thing is pretty much about,” he said. “It’s about people who don’t want to meet someone vaccinated.”

    Ms. Furlong said the natural choice is to be with someone whose morals and values align with her own.

    “When I told one of my best friends I wasn’t getting [vaccinated]—he’s had five boosters—well, he said if you don’t get your vaccine, you’re never going to meet my parents,” Ms. Furlong said.

    “I feel like I’m the only person out of 20 people in my family who didn’t get injected. My parents said they only did it because they felt pressured.”

    Ms. Dias said she intends to “stay present” in her current relationship, as she is a romantic at heart.

    “They say it’s better to have loved than not at all—and if a person is really kind—you know what I mean,” she said.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/22/2024 – 21:00

  • Israel Gives 400,000 Palestinians Minutes To Flee Khan Yunis Before Fresh Blitz
    Israel Gives 400,000 Palestinians Minutes To Flee Khan Yunis Before Fresh Blitz

    Via The Cradle

    The Israeli army ordered the sudden evacuation of over 400,000 Palestinians taking shelter in eastern Khan Yunis Monday, dropping leaflets in the besieged city moments before warplanes began their raids.

    At least 35 deaths, including five children, were reported in the initial aftermath of the attacks. Dozens of injured Palestinians have also been pouring into the barely functional Nasser Medical Complex.

    Source: EFE

    Authorities at Nasser Medical Complex appealed for urgent blood donations, saying it faces a shortage of blood units, “which poses a serious threat to the lives of the sick and injured in light of the ongoing massacres carried out by the occupation forces against the innocent and civilians.”

    The Israeli military said in a statement on Monday morning: “The IDF is about to forcefully operate against the terror organizations and therefore calls on the remaining population left in the eastern neighborhoods of Khan Yunis to temporarily evacuate to the adjusted humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi,”

    Israeli Army Radio reported that Monday’s air raids in Khan Yunis are the most violent since the end of the military operation in the city earlier this year.

    Local reports say many victims are still under the rubble and scattered along the streets, with ambulance and civil defense crews unable to reach them due to the violent and continuous shelling.

    The brutal attack on thousands of displaced families comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on his way to the US capital to meet with top authorities before addressing a joint session of congress.

    Chaos as civilians flee the assault at the last minute…

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    Speaking to reporters before his trip, the premier said his visit to Washington would be “an opportunity to discuss with [US President Joe Biden] how to advance in the critical months ahead the goals that are important for both our countries – achieving the release of all our hostages, defeating Hamas, confronting the terror axis of Iran, and ensuring that all of Israel’s citizens can return safely to their homes in the north and the south.”

    Netanyahu is on a direct flight to the US capital, deciding to avoid stops in any European nation under fears of being detained in compliance with an expected arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) over war crimes committed in Gaza.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/22/2024 – 20:20

  • Proof Of Life? Biden 'Phones In' During Harris Campaign Event
    Proof Of Life? Biden ‘Phones In’ During Harris Campaign Event

    President Joe Biden has made his first live remarks since dropping out of the 2024 presidential race – phoning in to let staffers know at campaign headquarters that “the mission hasn’t changed at all.”

    “I know yesterday’s news was surprising and it was hard for you to hear, but it was the right thing to do,” said Biden – and definitely not AI – during the call with no video.

    “The name has changed at the top of the ticket, but the mission hasn’t changed at all,” Biden continued. “And by the way, I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to be out there in the campaign with her, with Kamala.”

    “I won’t be on the ticket, but I’m still going to be fully, fully engaged,” the voice which sounds like Biden continued, adding that he would do anything needed to support Harris.

    Proof of Life?

    The call was likely intended to serve as ‘proof of life’ after nobody has seen or heard from the president since he stepped out of the race on Sunday – less than an hour after his campaign manager was on television insisting he was in it to win it – and with no address to the country.

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    Which White House aides learned by reading the news on X.

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    Pssh… as if they can fake Biden’s voice!

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    Looks like they made Boebert’s deadline? Except, not in front of a camera.

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    Kamala isn’t helping…

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    Of course, who needs proof of life when Biden just spat fire from the Oval Office?

    No wait, dangit to heck. Who could have known that was fake!?

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/22/2024 – 20:00

  • A Decade Of Conspiracists?
    A Decade Of Conspiracists?

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

    Who has most peddled conspiracy allegations the last nine years—all of them false and nearly all of them influencing national elections and public policies?

    Once a target is constructed as Hitlerian, almost any means necessary to quash that perceived existential threat become justified. And we have seen a lot of them in the last nine years.

    Russian collusion did not work. Christopher Steele was a fraud. Robert Mueller came up empty.

    The Alfa Bank ping caper was a myth.

    The Russian laptop disinformation was a lie and ruined the reputations of the “51 former intelligence authorities” who sanctioned it.

    The first Trump impeachment was a strictly partisan vote, activated when Trump lost the House and Mueller had come up empty.

    Only ten Republicans impeached Trump a second time; the Senate again acquitted then-private citizen Trump.

    January 6 was a buffoonish riot. In magnitude and lethality, it marked only a fraction of the destruction in lives and property of the green-lit Antifa-BLM-organized 120-day “summer of love” of rioting, violence, and arson of 2020.

    The post facto militarization of Washington into an armed camp, the presence of FBI informants on Capitol grounds, the decision not to beef up security forces, the weird effort to suppress videos of the riot and congressional testimonies and evidence, the promotion and canonization of the reckless officer Byrd who lethally shot an unarmed Ashli Babbitt, and the use of solitary confinement for the arrested, long detentions without trials, and inordinately harsh prison sentences (in comparison to the nearly 14,000 arrested in 2020 who were mostly released) will remain controversial until freedom of information suits release the full story of the day’s events and aftermath.

    Sixteen states, in an unprecedented move, tried in vain to remove Trump from the 2024 ballot. All failed. If they had succeeded, elections as we know them would have ceased to exist.

    Four prosecutorial teams, local, state, and federal, sought to bankrupt, jail, or render Trump inert during the 2023-2024 campaign cycle. All will likely fail—but risk opening a new chapter of tit-for-tat lawfare in lieu of relying on the voters to choose their own president.

    The entire meme of Trump, the fascist who will institute a dictatorship, has likewise boomeranged.

    Democracy is dying in darkness, given the current Democrat insider machinations of removing by diktat President Joe Biden. He won the most delegates in the Democratic “primaries”—but now apparently must be dropped either because he is behind in the polls or mentally unfit to remain a candidate or both. Stealth donors and covert politicos in the shadows—not transparent primaries and elected delegates—run the party that “defends democracy.”

    But note those on the left would allow Biden to remain our president for the next six months in his debilitated state, but not to continue as their (losing) candidate. The quest for progressive power always trumps the collective interest of the nation: he’s not fit for me but fit enough for thee.

    The recent assassination attempts to kill Trump likewise failed. The eerie laxity of the Secret Service and the Biden administration’s long stonewalling to prevent adequate protection for candidates Trump and Robert Kennedy, Jr., will be long examined.

    No one has ever apologized for any of the above, although all were unprecedented efforts to use the courts, the administrative state, and the media to do what they feared the people might not through voting.

    Earlier, a number of celebrities, columnists, and rich elites had suggested that the only way to rid the country of Trump was to kill or injure him. They are now outraged by any suggestion that their assassination porn might have influenced the unhinged to believe they could become heroic by taking out the supposed Trump threat to civilization.

    But note the Trump vitriol has not diminished. And the combination of signaling to the crazies that Trump really is Hitler while the Secret Service has demonstrated it cannot protect the ex-president and leading current presidential candidate from 20-year-old boys with overt drones, range-finders, and AR-15s will only encourage other evil would-be assassins to continue where the Crooks demon left off.

    In this regard, recently, the cover of The New Republic transposed an old German pro-Hitler poster to portray Donald Trump. He stares out with a Hitlerian moustache, amid a supposedly scary black background. Beneath Hitler-Trump, German archaic fraktur fonts blare out in red “American Fascism,” followed by the subtitle “What it would look like”—in turn listing left-wing professors and pundits as the issue’s essayists on Trump the fascist.

    Aside from the reality that the FBI, CIA, DOJ, and Director of National Intelligence were not weaponized during the Trump administration, as they were under both Obama and Biden, why should we take such essayists seriously?

    For example, one contributor, Rosa Brooks, warns us about what Trump might do in a second term to warp democracy.

    But this is the same legal expert who, just 11 days after Trump was inaugurated in 2017, published a Foreign Policy essay titled “3 Ways to Get Rid of President Trump Before 2020.”

    What followed was a manual on the various ways of how to remove the just-inaugurated president—listing three alternatives to the then-distant 2020 election: impeachment and conviction, 25th-Amerndment removal, and, barring all that, a military coup:

    “The fourth possibility is one that until recently, I would have said was unthinkable in the United States of America: a military coup, or at least a refusal by military leaders to obey certain orders.”

    Ironically, Brooks’ paradigms are now more apt for the creepy ways in which the left just deposed President Joe Biden, winner of the Democrat primaries and nearly all the delegates.

    Brooks’ 2017 essay also proved eerily prescient in retrospect, given that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley later chose to violate the chain of command and purportedly ordered theater commanders in the field to report directly to him, despite his strictly advisory role, in times of existential national crises to circumvent the commander-in-chief.

    Milley also stealthily contacted his communist Chinese military counterpart to assure the head of the People’s Liberation Army that he would warn him first should Dr. Milley, on his own, diagnose his own president as unhinged and thus any supposedly dangerously warlike presidential order as invalid. Think of the Milley precedent: are the Joint Chiefs in the future to diagnose the stability of their presidents to adjudicate when they can contact their communist Chinese counterparts to warn them of their own commanders-in-chief?

    Note as well that in August 2020, retired Lieutenant Colonels John Nagl and Paul Yingling co-wrote an op-ed addressed to Milley, warning him that he should use the military to remove Trump, should the military, in its infinite and vast political wisdom, assume that Trump would not accept the verdict of the impending election.

    Moreover, throughout 2020, some imaginative retired generals and admirals, repeatedly and with absolute impunity, clearly violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice by endlessly and publicly smearing their Commander-in-Chief as a liar, similar to Mussolini, Nazi-like, worthy of being removed “the sooner the better,” and employing policies similar to those used at Auschwitz.

    Had any non-commissioned officer leveled the same invective publicly against then President Barack Obama, those same four-stars would likely have recommended his court marshal.

    In sum, never in the history of the republic have the FBI, CIA, DOJ, and Pentagon so vastly exceeded their constitutional and legal parameters or violated the careful guardrails between civilian and military.

    Finally, note that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer reacted in outrage over Florida federal Judge Cannon’s dismissal of much of the special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Donald Trump and called for her dismissal from the case:

    This breathtakingly misguided ruling flies in the face of long-accepted practice and repetitive judicial precedence. It is wrong on the law and must be appealed immediately. This is further evidence that Judge Cannon cannot handle this case impartially and must be reassigned.

    A federal judge is to be dropped because she disagrees with Chuck Schumer?

    But if Judge Cannon is to be taken off the Trump case and reassigned because Schumer disagrees with her verdict – one which will be reexamined by various appellate judiciaries—what should we think of Schumer’s own record of judicial “activism”?

    After all, in March 2020, at the head of a wild pro-abortion crowd at the doors of the Supreme Court, Senator Schumer all but threatened two Supreme Court justices by name:

    “I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

    “Hit you?”

    In what sense, Senator Schumer?

    His threats were later absorbed by the left as criticism against the right-wing drift of the Bush-Trump court.

    And presto, by 2022-2023 mobs were appearing outside the private residences of Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Thomas—with complete impunity.

    Apparently, a vindictive Attorney General, Merrick Garland (a former Supreme Court failed nominee), saw nothing wrong with such intimidation—although it is arguably a felony to parade or picket a Supreme Court Justice’s environs with the intent to influence impending rulings.

    Certainly, the purpose of these pro-abortion protestors picketing justices’ homes was precisely the same as Schumer’s own earlier intimidation—to make the justices, and now their families as well, aware that there would be a “whirlwind” to follow their decisions.

    Donald Trump was impeached for “inciting” a violent protest by instructing his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically” demonstrate at the Capitol, which was followed by a riot. Schumer was praised for threatening justices by name.

    It was perhaps no surprise that in such a climate, Nicholas Roske was later indicted on charges of attempted murder after he was arrested near Justice Kavanaugh’s home—armed and apparently on a mission to assassinate the justice, at least until he had second thoughts.

    For some nine years, we have been bombarded with hysterical warnings that Donald Trump is a Hitlerian figure who is a fascist who would destroy democracy to justify calls for extremist action. Yet in his four years, he certainly did not weaponize the government against his enemies in the same fashion as in past administrations. Lois Lerner, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, John Brennan, James Clapper, and a host of others either lied under oath, feigned amnesia under oath, or took the Fifth Amendment any time scrutiny arose over their politicized and extra-legal behavior.

    Substitute the name Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton for Trump during any of the last decade’s rhetorical and administrative venom, and we can only imagine what would have happened to the perpetrators.

    So, can we at last cease the tiresome charge of Trump the fascist since it has not only been proven false but has revealed far more about the authoritarian and conspiratorial nature of the accusers than their target?

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/22/2024 – 19:40

  • Chaos Ensued The Last Time A US President Bowed Out Only Months Before An Election
    Chaos Ensued The Last Time A US President Bowed Out Only Months Before An Election

    Joe Biden’s sudden (though widely expected) announcement that he would be dropping out of the 2024 election is a rare event, but not without precedent.  Biden is the third president in history to make such a last minute decision and all of them were Democrats. 

    Both Harry Truman and Lyndon B Johnson abandoned their intentions for a second term and both did so because of failing public approval ratings.  Truman lost support in 1952 for a myriad of reasons including the war in North Korea and Johnson became wildly unpopular by 1968 because of the war in Vietnam.  Biden has a similarly dismal public approval rating but he is the first president to drop out as a nominee for a second term due to cognitive decline (i.e. “health reasons”).

    Much like Biden, Lyndon Johnson’s first term was rife with national division, economic decline, the rise of socialist movements, mass protests, inner-city riots and increasing political violence.  He was of course sworn in after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and then continued on to a full term starting in 1965.  Many would later see Kennedy’s death as the first domino in a terrible chain that ultimately ended with the US entering the war in Vietnam. 

    Johnson’s announcement to step down as nominee in 1968 was initially marked as a “moment of calm.”  The general populace and the media treated the decision as a positive, a vehicle for ending national conflict and bringing Americans back together.

    We have seen similar rhetoric in recent days surrounding Biden’s proclamation, with many predicting a trend towards “unity.”  If history is any indication, this optimism is a pipe dream.  

    The Democratic Party was plunged into confusion over their prospective candidates and their chances.  Johnson insisted on controlling party decisions on who would take his place, but there were other candidates that might disrupt Johnson’s plans, including Robert Kennedy, brother of John F. Kennedy. 

    Though Biden has endorsed Kamala Harris to take his place as the Dem candidate, the official decision is up to DNC delegates, not Biden.  An upset at the convention might sound unlikely, but it is certainly possible if Harris is viewed as too incompetent or unpopular to run against Trump. 

    Only five days after Lyndon Johnson’s speech, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a “lone gunman” in Memphis, TN.  Two months later, Robert Kennedy was shot and killed by a “lone gunman” after a campaign event celebrating his California primary win.

    Trump’s near assassination just before Biden’s announcement to step down may mark a renewed period of political violence on a scale not seen since the 1960s.  Suspicions of conspiracy are only magnified by the similarities to the LBJ era of multiple assassinations.    

    Despite hopes that Johnson’s departure would lead to peaceful conditions his replacement Hubert Humphrey promised to continue Johnson’s policies in lockstep, including the war in Vietnam.  This enraged activists and resulted in riots around the convention in Chicago that summer.  Johnson’s “Great Society” agenda had also left the country with deep racial divisions to be inherited by the next president and Humphrey was certain to expand on that agenda. 

    Richard Nixon and the Republicans were given an assured win.  Humphrey was crushed by Nixon by a comfortable margin in the electoral college with many analysts suggesting Johnson would have done better had he stayed in the race.  Nixon became the first former (non-sitting) vice president to win a presidential election; he was the only person to achieve that until Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election. 

    Nixon would enter office with a recession in progress and ultimately an energy crisis and stagflationary crisis hit hard (he didn’t help matters much when he started the process to remove the US dollar from the gold standard in 1971).  There’s an array of economic threats facing the next president in 2025, with the most likely prospect being Trump and conservatives stepping into a financial and geopolitical mine field.  Biden’s announcement likely heralds another tumultuous period in American history.            

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/22/2024 – 19:20

  • California To Launch 'Hydrogen Hub' To Expand Zero-Emission Technology
    California To Launch ‘Hydrogen Hub’ To Expand Zero-Emission Technology

    Authored by Summer Lane via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    California will have the nation’s first so-called hydrogen hub—a network that produces hydrogen for various needs including powering vehicles and generating electricity—after federal officials announced July 17 they have signed a $12.6 billion agreement to bring the technology to the state, according to the office of Gov. Gavin Newsom.

    The Green Hydrogen Plant built by Spanish company Iberdrola in Puertollano, Spain, on April 18, 2023. (Valentin Bontemps/AFP via Getty Images)

    The grant stems from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was signed by President Joe Biden in 2021 and championed by California state Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat.

    “California is leading the nation with the first hydrogen hub to sign a cooperative agreement, and we will continue to lead by decarbonizing goods movement, the energy sector, and heavy industry,” Mr. Padilla said in a statement July 17.

    According to the governor’s office, the hydrogen hub will facilitate renewable hydrogen production that will cut fossil fuel use throughout California by 2 million metric tons annually.

    It is projected to create up to 220,000 jobs in California and generate $2.95 billion annually from “better health and health cost savings,” per the governor’s office.

    The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and will be carried out by the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems—known as ARCHES—a state initiative working to accelerate hydrogen projects by building necessary infrastructure.

    It’s not clear when the infrastructure for the hub will be complete. ARCHES officials only said that they hope the project helps the state get closer to achieving a carbon-neutral economy by 2045.

    Leaders behind the initiative said they plan to build, as part of the hub, more than 10 sites to produce renewable hydrogen to provide energy for the ports of Long Beach, Oakland, and Los Angeles.

    “The Department of Energy’s announcement to fund ARCHES is a monumental step forward in the state’s efforts to achieve its air quality, climate and energy goals, while improving the health and well-being of Californians and creating new green jobs across the state,” said ARCHES CEO Angelina Galiteva in a statement July 17.

    ARCHES also plans to build more than 60 hydrogen fueling stations for more than 5,000 electric trucks and 1,000 electric buses in cities across California, and to assist the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Northern California Power Agency in transitioning “key power plants” to hydrogen.

    A spokeswoman for ARCHES told The Epoch Times that the hydrogen hub project will encompass the entire state of California.

    In addition to the projects at major state ports, “power plants in Northern California, Southern California, and Lancaster, as well as on the federally recognized reservation of the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians, will all be part of this initiative,” she said.

    The announcement comes after California was also selected in 2023 as the recipient of a $1.2 billion grant from the Department of Energy to accelerate the development of renewable hydrogen.

    Also, on July 19, the San Francisco Bay Ferry will launch the world’s first-ever hydrogen-powered ferry, the “Sea Change,” for a six-month demonstration period showcasing zero-emission maritime technology.

    In an aerial view, the San Francisco Bay Ferry MV Sea Change, the world’s first zero-emission hydrogen-powered commercial passenger ferry, navigates the San Francisco Bay in San Francisco on July 19, 2024. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

    The governor’s office highlighted the achievement as an example of California’s leadership in hydrogen-powered transportation innovation in a statement.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/22/2024 – 19:00

  • Police Departments Advertise Six Figure Salaries , Better Quality Of Life, To Lure New Recruits
    Police Departments Advertise Six Figure Salaries , Better Quality Of Life, To Lure New Recruits

    Big cities are struggling badly to hire police. And, in the day and age of “all cops are bastards” and “defund the police”, it’s easy to see why: policing has become more of a thankless job than ever. 

    But a new Wall Street Journal report detailed some of the strategies police departments are using to “hustle” for new recruits. 

    In Plano, Texas, they are offering $108,150 a year and putting the salary figure on billboards to attract attention. 

    Officer Andrae Smith, the recruiter at the Plano Police Department told the Journal: “The No. 1 attraction is the pay.”

    “Our goal was to pull at the shirttail of every individual who had interest in being in law enforcement,” he added.

    Officer Karina Hinojosa transferred to Plano from New York City for the lower cost of living and better pay. She commented: “For me, it was quality of life.” 

    To attract candidates, cities have increased perks. For instance, Bellevue Police Department in Washington state now offers take-home cars and allows officers up to three on-duty hours per week for workouts.

    Wendell Shirley, the police chief, told WSJ they had 750 applications last year and hired 33 officers: “For me, it’s really important for you to find the right organization that has the right culture.”

    To attract recruits, some states are easing restrictions. Dallas recently relaxed its tattoo policy, Pennsylvania dropped its college credit requirement for state troopers, and Seattle now accepts applications from DACA recipients, the report says. 

    In 2023, the average annual wage for police officers was $76,550, a 13% increase from 2019, while the average wage for all occupations was $65,470, a 22% increase.

    As the job market cools and violent crime rates fall, more officers were hired in 2023 than in the previous four years, although resignations remain higher than pre-pandemic levels but have decreased since 2022.

    The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office in Wyoming promotes a culture-war incentive, highlighting that “breaking the law is still illegal” in their state.

    The Journal writes that since the pandemic, policing has faced difficulties in recruitment and retention, similar to teaching and nursing. Many burned-out employees have resigned or retired, resulting in nearly 19,000 fewer officers in 2023 compared to 2019, a 3% drop according to Labor Department data. 

    Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, notes that officers used to move from smaller cities to larger ones, but now the trend has reversed, especially after the 2020 killing of George Floyd.

    A survey of over 200 police departments shows that small and medium agencies have more officers than before the pandemic, while large agencies have fewer.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/22/2024 – 18:40

  • Kamala Harris: The Next Worst Thing
    Kamala Harris: The Next Worst Thing

    Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

    Short of Joe Biden staying in the race while exemplifying the energy and lucidity of an empty bag of Lay’s Sour Cream and Onion potato chips on the floor of a basement frat party, “passing the torch” to Kamala Harris is the best thing Republicans could have wished for — and simply “the next worst thing” for Democrats who, in their hail mary hour, reached into their quiver and pulled out the political equivalent of a Fran Drescher laugh track on repeat.

    The entire party all of a sudden throwing their endorsement behind a woman who polled worse than a quart of cottage cheese that was left to sit in the sun for six months during the 2020 primary exemplifies the point I made a month or two ago when I argued that politicians have a talent for making the worst possible decisions.

    QTR’s Fringe Finance is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

    Not only did Tulsi Gabbard publicly humiliate Kamala Harris on the debate stage during the 2020 primaries, but both polling and the results of Harris’ campaign forced us to one conclusion: most Americans find Harris detestable. And, in 2024, there doesn’t seem to be any indication that this attitude has changed.

    Democrats’ disingenuous logic continues to whack them in the face when they least expect it like Chevy Chase in the attic, stepping on two-by-fours in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

    I can’t describe the pleasure I get from watching the stupid decisions the Democratic party makes—namely, selecting Kamala Harris based on her gender and race to be Vice President of the f*cking United States —come back to bite them in the ass.

    The fact is that if Harris was not vice president, she would never be next in line to be the Democratic nominee. She was picked to be vice president only because Joe Biden made his selection based on race and gender hustling, completely ignoring the fact that nobody seemed to like Harris and she doesn’t appear to have the brain torque necessary for the job.

    By circumventing an actual legitimate selection process for Vice President, which should always boil down to a meritocracy as one of the most important positions in the world, Democrats planted a political seed in a pile of horse manure that has now blossomed into poisonous, cackling political fungus. And by moving Kamala Harris into position to be the next Presidential nominee, the party is officially taking the first bite of the fungi they began growing on the dung heap four years ago.

    Beyond identity politics coming back to bite Democrats, the Harris pick makes no obvious sense because she is easily tethered and tied to the horrific last four years President Biden had in office. We are voting to “continue to be burdened by what was”, to use the parlance of Kamala’s time.

    Putting aside the fact that the Democratic Party shamelessly lied about Biden’s mental condition literally up until the day they forced him from the nomination, his presidency was littered with endless miscues and palpable lack of leadership. And those four years are always going to be the Biden-Harris administration, not just the Biden administration.

    🔥 50% OFF FOR LIFE: Zero Hedge readers take 50% off a Fringe Finance annual subscription for life by using this link: ZH50

    And so rather than pick somebody new, who doesn’t have a record of taking a blowtorch to civility and law and order in the country over the last four years, the Democrats are actively choosing to retain all of the worst f*ck ups from the last 4 years and try to put the lipstick of a new candidate on them.

    However, nothing in the realm of the political world surprises me anymore. Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me if Hillary Clinton made a run for the position at the upcoming convention — or if the party decided the Presidential candidate by a nationwide non-binary pan-sexual twerking contest, or a round robin “burn the flag” tournament.

    But at least the next time they tell you they’re going to change the world, remind them that their candidate sat idly by in office for the last four years while the nation went to hell. And the next time they remind you that they’re the party of democracy, remind them that they all but forced the voters’ choice for their nominee to step down, all so they could make the brilliant strategic move of replacing him with “the next worst thing”.

    The circus freak show of life continues, like the worst reality TV show we never even sat down to watch. Have a great week.

    QTR’s Disclaimer: Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only. In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. These positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I’m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/22/2024 – 18:20

  • Dearborn, Michigan Is "America's Jihad Capital" And Has Descended Into "Civil War"
    Dearborn, Michigan Is “America’s Jihad Capital” And Has Descended Into “Civil War”

    The city of Dearborn, Michigan has been bestowed with the title of “America’s Jihad Capital”, and has fallen into civil war with itself over the war in Gaza, the Daily Mail reported last week. 

    Dearborn, near Detroit, Michigan, hosts the largest Arab American community in the U.S. As the death toll in Gaza rises with no political solution in sight, local sentiment has shifted.

    Residents feel American political leaders are complicit in the ongoing Middle East conflict, diminishing their interest in the upcoming election.

    The Mail interviewed Abu Bilal, owner of Oriental Fashion on Warren Avenue, who questioned the lack of humanity regarding the deaths of 90 Palestinian civilians.

    Another man, at Al-Rehab Barber Shop in Dearborn, expressed apathy toward the upcoming presidential election, saying it wouldn’t make a difference to him.

    His barber, who didn’t vote in 2020, echoed this sentiment. 

    As the Daily Mail notes, the implications for the upcoming election in Michigan could be enormous. 

    Joe Biden won Michigan in 2020 by 154,000 votes, with Dearborn’s turnout 10 percent higher than in 2016.

    However, local enthusiasm has waned, with many Arab American voters protesting Biden’s support for Israel.

    In the Democratic primaries, 6,432 Dearborn voters chose ‘uncommitted.’ Despite a recent campaign rally near Dearborn, Arab Americans are rejecting Biden’s bid for their votes, according to the Daily Mail. 

    Jenin Yaseen, an artist whose family is from a village outside Nablus in the occupied West Bank told the Mail: “The whole community was aware [that the administration had sent campaign officials to meet with the community], and I think it says a lot, that he sees us as no more than votes and that it’s been normalized for our people back home to be killed.”

    She added: “Dearborn is made up of people from Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere that have been directly impacted by American imperialism.”

    In January, Biden’s campaign team visited Dearborn, but Mayor Abdullah Hammoud and two other Arab American state representatives refused to meet them, as the meeting focused on elections rather than the war.

    Hammoud criticized President Biden’s remarks on an Israel-Hamas ceasefire, delivered while he was eating ice cream, and later voted ‘uncommitted’ in protest of Biden’s stance.

    In April, Muslim protesters in Dearborn chanted “death to America” and “death to Israel” during a rally supporting Palestinians and opposing Israel.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/22/2024 – 18:00

  • China & Philippines Reach Deal On Fiercely Disputed Shoal
    China & Philippines Reach Deal On Fiercely Disputed Shoal

    Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

    The Philippines said on Sunday that it reached a deal with China to reduce tensions around Second Thomas Shoal, a Philippine-occupied reef in the South China Sea that’s also claimed by China, Vietnam, and Taiwan.

    Manila did not disclose any details about the deal but said it would allow the resupply of the BRP Sierra Madre, a World War II-era ship the Philippines grounded on the reef in 1999 and uses as a base of operations for the area.

    China has been blocking Philippine vessels attempting to resupply the ship, and sometimes the encounters lead to collisions. In some instances, the Chinese Coast Guard fired water cannons at the Philippine boats.

    Via Philippine Coat Guard: A China Coast Guard cutter water-cannons a Philippine patrol boat.

    The incidents risk major escalation since the US is strongly backing the Philippines in the dispute and has repeatedly warned attacks on Philippine vessels in the South China Sea apply to the US-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty. That means if the Chinese and Philippine boats start shooting at each other, the US could intervene and be in direct conflict with China.

    The encounters in the South China Sea became much more frequent after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. came into office in June 2022. Emboldened by the US, he pushed hard against China’s claims to the waters and broke from the Beijing-friendly policies of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte.

    Earlier this year, China released the details of what it said was an unwritten agreement between Manila and Beijing over Second Thomas Shoal and other hotspots in the South China Sea.

    Duterte had acknowledged that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed to maintain the “status quo” to avoid war.Part of that status quo was the Philippines not delivering construction materials to the BRP Sierra Madre, only food, water, and other basic supplies.

    The security agreement could already be unraveling amid fresh denunciations by Beijing…

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

    China has made that demand in recent negotiations, along with the demand to be able to inspect boats making the deliveries, but a Philippine official told AP that Manila had not conceded to that as part of the new agreement.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 07/22/2024 – 17:40

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Jul 22

Today’s News 22nd July 2024

  • Dersh: The Secret Service Must Be Revamped
    Dersh: The Secret Service Must Be Revamped

    Authored by Alan Dershowitz via The Gatestone Institute,

    Now that the Republican convention ended without incidents, we must get back to considering the implications of the near-assassination of former President and current presidential candidate Donald Trump two days before the convention began.

    Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle says she will not resign, despite the failure of her agents to secure the rooftop from where the shots were fired at Trump, and despite her refusal to come clean about the causes of the failure.

    The Secret Service is being praised for protecting Donald Trump from an assassin. This praise is justified if one focuses on the bravery of the agents who risked their lives to shield Trump from the immediate threat posed by the shooter after he fired the initial shots, but that well-deserved praise must be accompanied by constructive criticism for the failure to prevent the shooting in the first place. The would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, came within an inch of succeeding. An armed person should never have been allowed to be at a location from which he could take aim at a presidential candidate.

    It is not as if this attack could not have been anticipated and planned for. It is quite similar to the shooting of then President John F. Kennedy from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. The major difference is that Lee Harvey Oswald shot at a difficult moving target, whereas Crooks shot at an easier stationary target. In both cases, there was a failure to secure an obviously dangerous location. One would think that the Secret Service would have learned from their failure in Dallas. They did not.

    There must be changes in the protective procedures employed by the Secret Service, especially at large outdoor rallies. Everyone admitted to the venue is vetted for weapons, but apparently there is insufficient protection against potential snipers shooting from outside the actual venue. This failing must be remedied before the next rally. The Secret Service should be devoted exclusively to preventing and responding to attacks on its protectees. It must get out of the unrelated business of investigating currency counterfeiting and other crimes.

    This assassination attempt may well be an outgrowth of the increasing acceptance of violence by extremists on all parts of the political spectrum. We do not yet know the specific motivation of Crooks, but it is certainly possible that he may have been influenced by the current rhetoric justifying violence as an appropriate response to perceived injustice. We do know that in addition to possessing a rifle legally purchased by his father, he also had explosives in his car and home. He was determined to murder Trump, though for what reasons we do not yet know. Although there is no direct evidence of his motive, politically-inspired violence is increasingly common, especially among the younger generation of activists.

    Our universities are turning out students who engage in violence and are only rarely punished for it. Some faculty members are teaching that noble ends justify ignoble means. The result has been physical attacks on fellow students based on political, ideological and religious disagreements. It is only a short step from physically attacking those with whose policies you disagree, to shooting at political candidates who support such policies.

    An atmosphere of violence has become pervasive and is likely to increase as a result of this nearly successful assassination attempt and the growing divisions over the coming election.

    The Secret Service must learn from its mistakes and must redouble its efforts to protect candidates from what are likely to be increasing dangers over the next four months and beyond. In its press conference, the Secret Service said it was not changing any plans regarding the Republican convention. Nor did it permit any questions regarding the failures that led to the attack.

    Even more important, political, educational, religious and other leaders must denounce violence advocated and practiced by those on their side of the political divide. It is easy to denounce violence by one’s opponents. It is far more difficult, but more important, to denounce violence by one’s allies.

    Social media is filled with extremist left-wing praise for Crooks and regrets that he missed. Had he succeeded, there would likely be blood on the streets. This is an even more dangerous time than back in the 1960s, when three major assassinations occurred.

    We must do everything in our collective power to prevent a recurrence of the near-assassination and tragedy that occurred in Pennsylvania. We are not doing enough.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/21/2024 – 23:55

  • These Are The Largest Religious Groups In Each Southeast Asian Country
    These Are The Largest Religious Groups In Each Southeast Asian Country

    A 2014 Pew Research study found that two of the most religiously diverse countries (Singapore and Vietnam) are in Southeast Asia. At the same time one of the least religiously-diverse countries (Timor-Leste) is also from the same region.

    We map out the largest religious group (by percentage of the population) in every Southeast Asian country.

    Data for this map and article is sourced from the U.S. State Department’s Religious Freedom Report (2022).

    Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity in Southeast Asia

    Southeast Asian countries predominantly follow one of three major religions: Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity.

    Buddhism arrived first in the region, between the 1st–3rd centuries, brought by Indian and Chinese traders. However, despite arriving first, the religion accounts for about 35-38% of the Southeast Asian population, second after Islam.

    Here’s a breakdown of the largest religious group in each Southeast Asian country, along with the percentage of the population.

    Note: Includes all denominations and sects. *Only 14% of Vietnam is religious, of which 6% is Christian, 5% Buddhist, and 3% other religions.

    In Cambodia and Thailand, where over 90% of the population is Buddhist, nearly nine-in-ten people surveyed by Pew Research said being a Buddhist was important to their national identities. More than 70% Cambodians also see Buddhism as an ethnicity one is born into.

    Meanwhile, Islam arrived in the 7th century, brought along with Arabian traders. More than 85% of Indonesia—the world’s fourth-most populous country—is Muslim, helping Islam become the majority religion of Southeast Asia as a whole.

    Finally, European missionaries brought Christianity to the region in the 16th century. Most Christians in the region are Catholics. Indonesia (despite being predominantly Muslim) has the second-highest number of Catholics (after the Philippines) amongst the countries.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/21/2024 – 22:45

  • What A Trump Presidency Means For Bitcoin
    What A Trump Presidency Means For Bitcoin

    Authored by Mark Jeftovic via BombThrower.com,

    …and the Journey from “Notgeld” to World Reserve Currency in Under Two Decades

    “Just because something is inevitable doesn’t make it imminent”

    – Douglas Casey

    For a long time, anybody paying attention knew that central banks printing fiat money out of thin air, then lending it to nation states at interest and blowing it out into the economy would inexorably, eventually lead to such wealth disparity that the society would break down.

    It would get to the point where popular revolts would threaten to overwhelm the position of the elite class; those Cantillionaires who lord over this phantasmagorical system that created value ex nihilo and caused, through inflation, the vast majority of wealth to accrue to society’s “capstone class”…

    Class structure, now and future

    One of my personal favourite quips is:

    Eventually always shows up sooner than everyone expects.

    It’s been over three years since I released The Crypto Capitalist Manifesto, and in it I laid out my base investment thesis that “The Great Reset” wasn’t actually anything to do with climate change or any of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – what it really was all about, is the debt:

    “YOU WILL OWN NOTHING, AND YOU WILL BE HAPPY.

    The messaging coming out of global elites such as the World Economic Forum, The Party at Davos, the International Monetary Fund and even places as disparate as The Vatican and Hollywood are all riffing on the same theme: You, the middle class, the lower class, the masses – are going to have to get used to a lower standard of living.

    The real reason why isn’t because of climate change, or even COVID. It’s because of the debt. The world has finally run out of runway from kicking the can down the road all those times the global economy threatened to backslide into recession or when previous monetary bubbles imploded. All those decades of collectively living beyond our means have finally hit the wall. This is it. We’re here.

    Governments have spent beyond their means for decades, and now the bills have come due. The only way to pay them will include inflation and austerity. It will resemble a controlled demolition of the entire middle class. The easiest way to do that will be to turn them into a completely dependent welfare class via endless rolling lockdowns, Universe Basic Income programs and mandatory health passports.

    However “The Great Reset” is basically at its core, a monetary reboot. A way to restructure the global debt overhang and turn “money” into technocratic lube for enacting grandiose social engineering projects: most of them geared toward ratcheting down the standard of living for the masses of the developed world and suppressing the standard of living for the so-called Third World.”

    (If you want a free copy of the entire manifesto, just sign up for the Bombthrower mailing list and we’ll send you the PDF).

    “The Great Reset” and “Build Back Better” attempted to lay the groundwork for the eventual (and still somewhat inevitable) pivot of fiat money into Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). They will almost certainly be fused with social credit systems denominated in carbon footprint quotas – and thus a mechanism to implement forced austerity across the debt-drowning economies of the world resulting in a kind of “monetary Apartheid”.

    What I Got Wrong in My Manifesto

    Aside from the fact that events I assumed would play out over decades happened within 18 months, there was another fundamental flaw in my analysis:

    I first discovered Bitcoin during the Cyprus banking crisis of 2013 – when people began to understand that “as safe as money in the bank” didn’t quite mean what it used to anymore.

    The Cypriots got hit with a 10% “bail-in”, but more ominously – bail-in provisions started showing up all over the place (from the Manifesto, again):

    As the bail-in was being planned and executed in March 2013, Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem told interviewers that Cyprus would serve as a template for future bank restructurings in the euro zone.

    In April 2013, the idea of enshrining the framework for bail-ins surfaced in my home country of Canada, with the Conservative Harper government’s budget

    The Canadian bail-in language was been preserved in the budget even after the Liberals under Justin Trudeau assumed office in 2015. In 2018 it officially became The Bank Recapitalization (Bail-in) Conversion Regulations.

    In Australia the Financial Sector Legislation Amendment (Crisis Resolution Powers and Other Measures) Bill of 2017 gave the Aussie government the power to facilitate bail-ins.

    And in case you’re wondering, the USA was a front-runner for codifying bail-ins into legislation: the Dodd-Frank Bill that was passed in 2010, ostensibly to reform the banking sector after the Global Financial Crisis contains provisions for “Statutory Bail-Ins” to recapitalize any “systemically important” banks that gets themselves into trouble.

    In fact, new supra-national bail-in laws took effect across the entire G-20 in 2014.

    It was during the Cyprus bail-in that Bitcoin surged above $100 USD for the last time. It would never again trade at the double-digit level.

    Even so,  I never thought Bitcoin would become the world reserve currency or even a component of whatever comes next after this post-post-Bretton Woods era we now live in.

    My mental model for Bitcoin, right up until 2022 was as a kind of globally emergent “Notgeld” – a German term that came into being during their 1920’s Weimar Hyperinflation, and translates into English as “emergency money”.

    In Germany, individual towns began printing their own scrip, during the Zimbabwe hyperinflation, people began using prepaid phone and gas cards. Every hyperinflation has its Notgeld, and until early 2022, that’s what I assumed Bitcoin was, on a global level.

    Two things happened that changed my mind:

    1. The US seized the foreign asset reserves of two nation states – it doesn’t matter who those states were or what they did to “deserve it”.

    2. During the #FreedomConvoy, the Canadian government declared martial law and seized the bank accounts of truckers and any citizens who supported them.

    The first sequence of events forever changed the calculus that nations would employ for deciding how to allocate and hold their sovereign wealth.

    The second did that for individual citizens. It alone orange-pilled Robert F Kennedy Jr, who two years later would make Bitcoin a US election issue when he opened his historic keynote at Bitcoin 2022 in Miami with the words:

    “I became a Bitcoiner when I saw what the Canadian Government did to the truckers” 

    From that point on – Bitcoin shifted from being “Notgeld” – emergency money amid a slow-rolling, global hyper-inflationary event, and it became inevitable component of a future, successor monetary regime.

    The Next President of the United States Has Been Orange-Pilled

    No matter what you think of Donald Trump, whether he induces either type of “TDS” (Type 1 = “Trump Derangement Syndrome”, Type 2 = “Trump Divinity Syndrome”), or  you’re more dispassionate and objective, the fact remains that a Trump-led GOP landslide is all but baked-in come November 5th.

    Like RFK Jr., Trump has firmly jumped onto the Bitcoin bandwagon. He’s been orange-pilled (props to David Bailey Bitcoin Magazine for doing so).

    Trump declared that he “wants all future Bitcoin to mined in the USA”. Granted, it doesn’t quite work that way, but he went on to reiterate that, and the right to self-custody at: the Republican National Convention:

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

    The Big Announcement Will Drop on July 27th

    This year Trump will be delivering the keynote address at Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee. RFK Jr will also be on hand. Both candidates firmly on board with Bitcoin, albeit one destined for the Presidency more than the other (I expect RFK will land somewhere within a Tump administration come January 2025).

    The inside baseball is that at that keynote address, Trump is expected to announce his intention to create a strategic reserve of Bitcoin for the US Treasury.

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

    Doing so could be as simple as a stroke-of-the-pen on inauguration day, as the US is already sitting on about $5B worth of BTC:

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

    Once that happens, we’re in a whole new ballgame. The Game Theory of Bitcoin will irrevocably change globally, and nation states will be incentivized to follow suit.

    Regardless of how it plays out, Bitcoin has already crossed the Rubicon. It’s here to stay, it isn’t some kind of “emergency money” to temporarily sidestep the ongoing unraveling of the global fiat standard – it’s now part of the plumbing.

    *  *  *

    Read my special report on what a Trump presidency means for Bitcoin, and which companies stand to win big right here. Join the Bombthrower mailing list and get a free copy of the Crypto Capitalist Manifesto here (and The CBDC Survival Guide once it drops) Follow me on Nostr or Twitter here.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/21/2024 – 22:10

  • Alberta Fires Threaten 350,000 B/D Of Oil Production
    Alberta Fires Threaten 350,000 B/D Of Oil Production

    Alberta’s oil patch faces a worsening wildfire threat heading into the new week as temperatures rise, according to Alberta Wildfire and Alberta Emergency Management.

    The province’s northeast, where most of Canada’s crude oil is produced, is forecast to experience “extreme fire behavior” for next few days. With temperatures in the past few days rising as high as 35C (95F) – with low humidity and winds of 10km/h (6.2 miles/h) to 15km/h and no chance of rain – more than 1,000 Albertans have evacuated homes, including 89 residents of Chipewyan Lake, northwest of Fort McMurray as Alberta has some 144 wildfires burning, including 55 that are out of control.

    According to Bloomberg, a total of 377 of the 887 wildfires that have ignited this year have started in July amid hot weather. 80% were caused by lightning.

    The problem is that some 154 wildfires burning in the province, of which 58 are out of control on at least 10 hectares (25 acres) in size and within ~10km (6.2 miles) of 348k b/d of oil production and ~24k boe/d of gas output, according to Alberta Wildfire and Alberta Energy Regulator data.

    Already some producers are halting output: Suncor curtailed production at its Firebag oil sands site and Greenfire temporarily curtailed output from its Hangingstone sites a week ago. while Cenovus, MEG and Imperial Oil have evacuated non-essential workers from oil sands facilities

    Tourmaline said in email that the nearest fire is 4 miles from nearest well and 6 miles from nearest plant and has no effect operationally.

    Below is the approximate oil, gas and condensate production, broken down by company, in equivalent of barrels of oil a day that’s within ~10km of at least one out-of-control wildfire that’s at least 10 hectares in size, based on AER geospacial data, May production data and Alberta Wildfire data

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/21/2024 – 21:35

  • Hurricane Hunters Brace For A Summer Of Flying Into The Eye Of The Storm
    Hurricane Hunters Brace For A Summer Of Flying Into The Eye Of The Storm

    Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    They didn’t need to chase this storm, hunt this hurricane, it was already there—bigger and badder than anything seen before at this time of year, this far out in the Atlantic.

    A U.S. HC-C130J aircraft, carrying Hurricane Hunters, approaches the edge of Hurricane Florence after a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Savannah Air National Guard Base, Ga., on Sept. 12, 2018. (U.S. Air Force via Getty Images)

    Cmdr. Brett Copare knew he was flying into history on June 30 as he steered the P-3 Orion “Kermit” nose-first into a churning wall of towering thunderheads ringing a 450-mile maelstrom that was but a radar flyspeck 48 hours earlier.

    “Before we got out there, it was already a Cat 4,” he said, recalling being “awe-struck” and thinking, “A storm this big, this fast … this is unique.”

    That flight of unwelcome discovery was one of dozens made by National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) aircrews in tracking the Atlantic’s first-ever June category 4 and 5 hurricane as Beryl launched its 6,000-mile, two-week romp from Cabo Verde to Vermont.

    On his third day of standby July 11 at NOAA’s Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) at Lakeland Linder International Airport in central Florida, Cmdr. Copare pondered lessons learned—and questions raised—by a storm that “happened so fast,” and was unlike any of the 25 hurricanes he’s flown through.

    “Typically, when storms form, we see them when they are at their lowest status, a low-pressure disturbance, and monitor as they gear up,” he said. “This was the reverse of what we normally observe.”

    On this haze-gray day, technicians calibrate instruments inside two Lockheed WP-3D Orions—modified U.S. Navy submarine chasers—parked on the tarmac under a gauzy sun.

    Inside the AOC’s hangars, mechanics tend to a Gulfstream G-4 and De Havilland Twin Otter while in offices above, meteorologists and scientists ferret through data from storms’ past and monitor National Hurricane Center radar for storms to come.

    All are set to go at a moment’s notice. And after Beryl’s rapid intensification, all are aware that notice could come any moment.

    “Currently, there’s nothing out there,” NOAA meteorologist and flight director Sofia de Solo said. The lull comes after she flew three G-4 Beryl missions in 10 days.

    “As meteorologists, our job doesn’t end when a mission is completed,” Ms. De Solo said, explaining there’s data to review, instruments to fine-tune, and quality control systems to analyze.

    But while she “wouldn’t say it’s boring,” standby is not what she says she’s here to do—that being, ride “a scientific laboratory in the sky” to collect real-time data to save lives.

    A hurricane specialist inspects a satellite image of Hurricane Beryl at the National Hurricane Center in Miami on July 1, 2024.

    From 45,000 feet above, with horizons hemmed only by the planet’s curved roll, storms are disembodied blots spilling across sky blue, sky black, shimmering as “a very bright big white glow,” a pulsating, living literal ball of energy, Ms. De Solo said.

    It’s her “dream job” and there’s no place she’d rather be, she said with the derring-do expected of NOAA’s heralded Hurricane Hunters, the fearless pilots and crews who fly into the eyes of hurricanes.

    “We’re prepared. It’s going to be a busy year,“ Ms. De Solo said. ”We’re ready to fly.”

    Checking her phone for National Hurricane Center alerts, it’s as if she’s alerting the center: “We’re standing by. We’re ready to go.”

    Many NOAA Missions

    The Hurricane Hunters are the stars, but not the only operators at NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, which moved from MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa to its custom-built Lakeland AOC in June 2017.

    On any day, half the AOC’s 20 pilots, 90 scientists and technicians, two dozen mechanics, and 10 aircraft could be tracking tropical depressions in the Caribbean, mapping coastal estuaries, measuring Rocky Mountain snowpack, or flying for the National Geodetic Survey’s GRAV-D project “calculating the intensity of gravity.”

    Most crews are NOAA civilian employees or contractors, but pilots are members of NOAA’s Commissioned Officer Corps, the smallest of eight U.S. federal uniformed services.

    NOAA Corp’s 320 officers—there are no enlisted ranks—man 15 research/survey ships and fly specialized data-collecting aircraft, such as those housed at the Lakeland AOC.

    A Department of Commerce agency, NOAA coordinates storm-tracking with C-130 “Hurricane Hunter” flights by the U.S. Air Force’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, based in Biloxi, Mississippi.

    Like many Hurricane Hunter pilots, Cmdr. Copare is a former military aviator. Before transferring to NOAA, he flew Navy “long leg” surveillance/antisubmarine P-3s.

    Entering his fourth season, he’s tallied at least 140 “hurricane penetrations, or “pennies,” he estimates, piloting Orions older than their crews straight into storms beginning with Cat 4 Hurricane Ida in 2021.

    “Kermit,” a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) WP-3D Orion hurricane aircraft, is displayed at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Va., on June 3, 2024.

    NOAA’s two P-3s—their fuselages festooned with Kermit and Miss Piggy stencils personally crafted by Muppeteer creator Jim Henson—have flown through more than 100 hurricanes since 1976.

    During eight-to-10-hour missions, their 18-to-20 member crews of three pilots, navigators, engineers, technicians, and flight meteorologists, are locked into “Setting 5” work-station harnesses, chart air chemistry, barometric changes, wind speeds, temperature shifts, updrafts, downdrafts, and all the mayhem between in real-time transmit to the National Hurricane Center.

    Much data is collected by dropwindsondes, Pringles can-shaped probes that measure wind, temperature, humidity, and pressure as it parachutes through a storm.

    Ms. De Solo said she deploys about 30 every mission aboard “Gonzo,” the G-4 also sporting an original Henson stencil.

    While crews collect data, pilots plot the storm’s track by flying Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) patterns, or “quadrant-to-quadrant butterflies and circle-eights,” Cmdr. Copare said.

    “We start at one corner of the storm, make three to four passes through the core,” he said. “Then, back in. The aim is to find the center path by dead reckoning, each fix to each fix.”

    Each “penny to penny” pass at 8,000-to-10,000 feet can take an hour with P-3s usually making three to four every mission.

    NOAA provides simulations and training, but replicating a flight through a 120-mph slipstream of fury in a careening canister is hard to do.

    “There’s really no way to prepare yourself for what that’s going to be like,” Cmdr. Copare said, noting as the battered plane bounces and heaves, there’s an out-of-body sense with the windshield obscured by rain, all sound blurred in a thunderous, rattling roar, and two-handed focus on cockpit controls.

    He recited the mantra repeated since a B-25 Mitchell bomber crew first successfully flew through a hurricane in 1943 because it’s still the best way to describe it.

    “It’s like riding a roller coaster through a washing machine,” Cmdr. Copare said.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/21/2024 – 21:00

  • Meet The Harris Campaign's New Deputy Press Secretary For Swing-State Pennsylvania
    Meet The Harris Campaign’s New Deputy Press Secretary For Swing-State Pennsylvania

    Eric Lipka, who recently worked for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), has been appointed as the Biden-Harris campaign’s deputy press secretary for Pennsylvania. According to Lipka’s social media profiles, he is a traveling ‘drag queen’ on the weekends.

    In an X post on July 17, Lipka revealed, “Thrilled to share I’ve joined the Biden-Harris campaign as deputy press secretary for Pennsylvania!” 

    He added, “Let’s get to work, and finish the job!” 

    For Lipka, in the key battleground state, he might want to give up weekend drag events and, instead, focus on the Biden campaign because the latest polling data from Emerson College shows Trump leads Biden by a 5-point margin (48% to 43%) in the state, following the assassination attempt last weekend.

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    This was first reported by Fox News. 

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    Furthermore, Democrats have been pressuring Biden to step aside following the disastrous debate with Trump last month. There are concerns the president’s cognitive decline has worsened.

    Let’s not forget Jill Biden’s quote, “Decency is on the ballot.” 

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    And wokeness “is straight up precursor to *violent* revolutionary Marxism,” Eric Weinstein recently wrote on X. 

    Weinstein said that the Democratic Party embracing wokeness is inadvertently promoting a communist agenda aimed at destabilizing capitalism and American society. 

    Let’s get back to this… 

    A majority of Americans are rejecting the woke agenda by showing their support for Trump. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/21/2024 – 20:25

  • Study Challenges 'Bad Cholesterol' Label For LDL
    Study Challenges ‘Bad Cholesterol’ Label For LDL

    Authored by Sheramy Tsai via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    For decades, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol has been commonly referred to as “bad cholesterol” due to its association with increased risks of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), such as heart attacks and strokes.

    However, a new study involving more than 4 million people across China challenges this belief, suggesting LDL may not be as harmful as previously thought—at least, not for everyone.

    Research led by Dr. Liang Chen and colleagues reveals a more nuanced picture. While high LDL levels are linked to increased mortality in some groups, they do not pose the same risk for others, they found. The relationship between LDL and mortality varies significantly based on an individual’s cardiovascular disease risk and overall health status.

    These findings suggest reconsidering the one-size-fits-all approach to cholesterol management. Instead, personalized treatment strategies may be essential for effectively managing cholesterol and improving health outcomes.

    (Anusorn Nakdee/Shutterstock)

    About the Study

    The study participants were part of the China Health Evaluation and Risk Reduction through Nationwide Teamwork (ChinaHEART) project, which included individuals aged 35 to 75 from various regions across China.

    Participants were divided into three groups based on their risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), a heart disease caused by plaque buildup on artery walls:

    • Low-risk group: Individuals with no history of cardiovascular disease and a low estimated risk of developing it.
    • Primary prevention group: Individuals with high-risk factors for cardiovascular disease but no established disease.
    • Secondary prevention group: Individuals with a history of cardiovascular disease.

    Researchers tracked data from these participants, including cholesterol levels and lifestyle choices like smoking and drinking habits. They also considered medical histories, including conditions such as diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The goal was to determine how different LDL cholesterol levels impacted their mortality risk, particularly from heart disease.

    Over an average follow-up period of 4.6 years, the study recorded nearly 93,000 deaths, with over 38,000 attributed to cardiovascular issues. The results revealed a U-shaped association between LDL cholesterol levels and mortality in the low-risk and primary prevention groups, indicating that both very high and very low levels of LDL were associated with increased mortality.

    In the secondary prevention group, the association was J-shaped, meaning extremely low LDL levels were linked to a higher risk of death, while moderate levels were associated with the lowest risk.

    According to the American Heart Association, “normal” LDL levels are considered less than 100 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL). Levels above 160 mg/dL are categorized as high, and those below 70 mg/dL are deemed very low. However, the study found that the optimal LDL levels for reducing cardiovascular mortality varied among the groups:

    • Low-risk group: 117.8 mg/dL
    • Primary prevention group: 106.0 mg/dL
    • Secondary prevention group: 55.8 mg/dL

    The American Heart Association states that “various research studies on LDL have shown ‘lower is better.’” However, these findings suggest this may not always be true. The study indicates that “lower LDL-C targets with increasing ASCVD risk should be considered for reducing CVD mortality.”

    The study also discovered that people with diabetes might need stricter cholesterol control than those without. It found that the optimal LDL cholesterol level to reduce heart-related deaths in people with diabetes is 87 mg/dL, while for non-diabetics, it is 114.6 mg/dL.

    The study authors acknowledged that low LDL cholesterol levels might result from serious health issues rather than cause higher death rates. They excluded people with chronic diseases from their analysis but still found a link between low LDL levels and higher death rates. This suggests other factors, like frailty, might be involved. More research is needed to understand these relationships fully.

    Dr. Jack Wolfson, a cardiologist and owner of Natural Heart Doctor, explained the study’s findings to The Epoch Times. He stated that very low LDL cholesterol levels could indicate liver dysfunction, where the liver can’t produce enough LDL. Conversely, very high LDL levels suggest the body isn’t clearing it properly, both scenarios leading to higher health risks.

    Evolving Views on Cholesterol

    The American Heart Society describes cholesterol as a waxy substance essential for building cell membranes and producing hormones. Cholesterol travels through the bloodstream in particles called lipoproteins, primarily as low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL).

    LDL, often called “bad cholesterol,” carries cholesterol to cells and arteries, where it can form plaques, narrowing the arteries and increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke. Conversely, HDL, known as “good cholesterol,” transports cholesterol from the arteries to the liver for elimination, according to an article by Dr. Ami B. Bhatt, a cardiologist and Chief Innovation Officer at the American College of Cardiology.

    Dr. Wolfson challenges the notion that LDL is purely harmful. “There’s no such thing as ‘bad cholesterol,’” he said. “All mammals have LDL—they perform many functions. When oxidized, they could be considered ‘bad,’ but this may only reflect general oxidative stress.” He explained that the presence of oxidized LDL (ox-LDL) might indicate underlying issues rather than being the problem itself.

    Recent research has shifted the focus from LDL quantity to particle size. Larger LDL particles are less harmful than smaller, denser ones, which are more likely to penetrate arterial walls and form plaques. Experts like Dr. Ronald Krauss, a senior scientist and director of Atherosclerosis Research at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, have emphasized that small, dense LDL particles are more likely to form artery plaques than larger, buoyant ones. Dr. Krauss, who has published more than 400 papers on this topic, highlights the significance of particle size in assessing cardiovascular risk.

    The HDL-to-LDL ratio also emerges as a better predictor of heart disease risk than LDL levels alone. A high ratio indicates a greater proportion of protective HDL, reducing cardiovascular event risks, as noted in a 2022 BMC Cardiovascular Disorders study.

    Dr. Wolfson cautions against a one-size-fits-all approach to cardiovascular health and cholesterol. “Each individual has a perfect level for themselves,” he said. “What is good for you may be high or low for me.”

    He advocates for evaluating inflammation in the body, the underlying cause of heart disease. He recommends markers of inflammation and oxidative stress, such as c-reactive protein, phospholipase A2, and ox-LDL, as better predictors of cardiovascular risk than LDL alone.

    As research progresses, a more tailored approach to cholesterol management could improve cardiovascular health outcomes.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/21/2024 – 19:50

  • La Ñina Boosts Panama Canal; Houthi Threat Drives Up Shipping Costs Through Suez
    La Ñina Boosts Panama Canal; Houthi Threat Drives Up Shipping Costs Through Suez

    By Stuttgart Daily Leader

    While La Ñina is helping ease the traffic knots at the Panama Canal, repeated attacks by Houthis — some fatal — have driven shippers to find alternatives to the Suez Canal, said Ryan Loy, extension economist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

    The Panama Canal is a key route for global trade, including for Arkansas commodities such as soybeans and corn. In March, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said that traffic through the Panama Canal had dropped 49 percent since 2021 and 42 percent in the Suez Canal during the same period.

    “About 26 percent of U.S. soybeans and 17 percent of U.S. corn is transported via the Panama Canal,” Loy said. “And this is important to us, especially in Arkansas, because a lot of our grain goes down the Mississippi River to the Port of New Orleans.”

    Arkansas’s export soybeans and corn go through the Panama Canal to get to Asia, Loy noted.

    Long-term drought across Central America was strangling the Panama Canal. While the passage connects two oceans, the water used to raise and lower ships between the coasts comes from Gatun Lake, a fresh water body. Each ship transit requires 52 million gallons of water. The lake fell to its lowest levels in five years last June, hitting 79.5 feet.

    “It was a very dire situation,” Loy said. The alternative to the canal would mean sailing around Cape Horn at the bottom of South America, costly in fuel and fraught with dangerous weather.

    Lower lake levels meant shallower water in the locks. The Panama Canal Authority ended up restricting the number of ships making transits. Ships that could make the trip had to carry less cargo to prevent their hulls from hitting bottom.

    However, the return of La Ñina has meant replenishing rain for the lake and the canal authority has not only increased the number of ships allowed through, but also allowed heavier ships that sit more deeply in the water.

    As of July 11, the canal authority was “increasing the number to 33 ships a day. Then on July 22, they’re going to allow 34 ships a day and on Aug. 5, they will open up one more spot for the Neopanamax ships.”

    “Neopanamax” refers to the largest ships than can pass through the canal’s newest locks, which opened in 2016. These vessels can be up to 1,202 feet long, 168 feet wide and have a draft of 50 feet. Draft is the distance between the ship’s waterline and its lowest point.

    “This is very close to what they used to do —  38 ships a day — so we’re getting close to normal,” Loy said.  “Just for comparison, in November 2023, they were at 24 ships a day, so you can see how much we’ve kind of improved since then.”

    Should drought return the canal to its restricted state and if China’s soybean crop is poor, “that leaves Brazil an opportunity,” he said.

    Brazil is a key rival to the U.S. for soybean trade and doesn’t rely on the Panama Canal.

    “Brazil can come in and say, we don’t need the Panama Canal. We can transport our grain via rail and trucks to the Pacific. They have a lot of it and it’s much cheaper,” Loy said. “So those are the kind of implications of what could happen if the drought comes back.”

    Suez Canal

    The Suez Canal is a critical route, carrying an estimated 12-15 percent of global trade.

    Since starting in November 2023, Houthi attacks in the Suez Canal have become fiercer, resulting in the deaths of four crewmembers from attacks on two ships, the MV True Confidence and the Tutor.

    MarineTraffic.com, which tracks global shipping, reported a 79.6 percent reduction in dry bulk carriers — whose shipments include grain — passing through the Suez, just 24 ships in June, compared to 118 in June 2023. The amount of cargo passing through the canal in May was 44.9 million tons, down from 142.9 million tons in May 2023.

    The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said many shippers were opting to avoid the canal and the Houthis, including British Petroleum, Evergreen, CMA CGM, Hapag Loyd and Maersk.

    Maersk resumed its use of the canal in June, since taking the the Cape of Good Hope route around the tip of South Africa added an estimated $1 million in fuel costs and one to two weeks in additional transit time, according to the U.S. Naval Institute. Rounding the cape is still perilous, with one ship running aground and another losing cargo, according to Bloomberg.

    The Suez Canal’s decreased traffic meant the port authority’s yearly revenues were nearly halved, from $648 million last year to $337 million, Loy said.

    “The areas surrounding this are also impacted, too, because people’s jobs, people’s livelihoods depend on traffic through the Suez Canal,” he said, and “that’s tough for that region.”

    Houthis are only attacking ships affiliated with the U.S., Israel and their allies, affecting insurance premiums for the carriers.

    “The total premium for U.S.-based cargo is 1.7 percent of total freight on board,” Loy said. “Because they’re not attacking Chinese ships, the Chinese premium is just 0.2 percent of the value of total freight on board.”

    Where does this leave consumers?

    “I’m surprised that we haven’t seen much increase in items at the grocery store, even vehicles, or whatever it may be, anything besides grain, that are separate from our inflation issues,” Loy said. “The expected big ripple effect is having a little bit less of an impact than most people thought.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/21/2024 – 18:40

  • "First Traces" Of Solar Cycle 26 Detected On Sun 
    “First Traces” Of Solar Cycle 26 Detected On Sun 

    Scientists from the University of Birmingham in England have detected the “first rumblings”—or first indications—that the sun’s next 11-year solar cycle, Cycle 26, will begin by the decade’s end.

    The current cycle, Cycle 25, has reached what scientists call a “solar maximum,” when the sun’s magnetic field flips and its poles swap places. This peak is known for elevated solar activity, including sunspots, flares, and coronal mass ejections.

    Researchers from Birmingham recently presented the new data at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting in Hull. The data shows the first signs that the next solar cycle is beginning. 

    Astronomers use the sun’s internal sound waves to measure how it rotates, making visible a pattern of bands (solar torsional oscillation) that rotate slightly faster or slower. These move towards the sun’s equator and its poles during the activity cycle.

    The faster-rotation belts tend to show up before the next solar cycle officially begins. -researchers 

    Research leader Rachel Howe from Birmingham noted a ‘faint indication’ is beginning to show up after analyzing the pattern of the sun’s bands (solar torsional oscillation). The faster-rotation belts tend to show up before the next solar cycle arrives. 

    “If you go back one solar cycle – 11 years – on the plot, you can see something similar that seems to join up with the shape that we saw in 2017. It went on to be a feature of the present solar cycle, Cycle 25,” said Dr. Howe.

    This map shows which latitudes on the Sun were rotating faster (shown in red and yellow) or slower (shown in blue and green) than average over the last 29 years, as inferred by helioseismology (the analysis of solar sound waves). For each solar cycle, there is a band of faster rotation that moves down towards the equator. The yellow lines show the areas where the magnetic fields are most concentrated.

    She said, “We’re likely seeing the first traces of Cycle 26, which won’t officially start until about 2030.”

    It is possible to see the whole of Solar Cycles 23 and 24, and the first half of Cycle 25. For each cycle, the band of faster rotation starts well before the magnetic activity for that cycle. On the far right of the figure, a bit of red marks what the team believes is the beginning of the fast-rotating band for Cycle 26. Rachel Howe

    Researchers have been analyzing solar torsional oscillation patterns on the sun using helioseismic data from the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG), the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, and the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory since the mid-1990s. This data now covers Solar Cycles 23, 24, and 25, allowing researchers better to understand the precursors to the next solar cycle. 

    Howe has been a student of the stars for 25 years, studying the sun’s rotation through GONG and MDI data. 

    “With more data, I hope we can understand more about the part these flows play in the intricate dance of plasma and magnetic fields that form the solar cycle,” she concluded.

    Several studies (one here) have suggested the sun will experience a new grand solar minimum between 2030 and 2040. This could decrease solar activity, similar to the Maunder minimum in the 17th century. At that time, Earth experienced a period of global cooling known as the Little Ice Age. 

    But in the meantime, the Tonga eruption in 2022 appears to have fueled global warming, not cow farts or Taylor Swift’s private jet.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/21/2024 – 18:05

  • DHS Officials Defend Women In Law Enforcement After Trump Assassination Attempt
    DHS Officials Defend Women In Law Enforcement After Trump Assassination Attempt

    Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

    Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, alongside other senior officials and agency leaders, have issued a joint statement firmly defending female Secret Service agents during the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

    “In the days following the attempted assassination of former President Trump, some people have made public statements questioning the presence of women in law enforcement, including in the United States Secret Service,” reads the July 20 statement.

    “These assertions are baseless and insulting.”

    Besides Mr. Mayorkas, the statement was endorsed by 10 other senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials, including Kimberly Cheatle, director of the U.S. Secret Service, who will appear Monday on Capitol Hill to answer questions about the assassination attempt.

    The attempted assassination of former President Trump has raised questions about how 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks managed to position himself on a rooftop with a clear line of sight to the former president, whose ear was injured by a bullet.

    The shooting brought the Secret Service director’s stated interest in hiring more women into the spotlight.

    “I’m very conscious, as I sit in this chair now, of making sure that we need to attract diverse candidates, ensure that we are developing opportunities for everybody in our workforce, and particularly women,” Ms. Cheatle told CBS News in an interview last year.

     

    An array of commentators, including some Republican lawmakers, focused explicitly on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies at the Secret Service, claiming that such programs have undermined its mission.

     

    “Under Director Cheatle’s failed leadership, the United States Secret Service has prioritized woke DEI policies over the core responsibilities of the Secret Service, including protecting our nation’s leaders,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) said in a statement, while introducing a bill to hold Ms. Cheatle accountable for allowing the gunman to fire off several shots—including one that grazed former President Trump’s ear—before being killed by police snipers.

    Ms. Boebert’s bill would prohibit “any federal funds from being used to pay the salary or expenses” of Ms. Cheatle.

    Earlier in the week, the Secret Service’s chief of communication, Anthony Guglielmi, called out the “baseless assertions” that agents are unqualified.

    “As an elite law enforcement agency, all of our agents and officers are highly trained and fully capable of performing our missions,” Mr. Guglielmi said in a statement provided to some news outlets.

    “It is an insult to the women of our agency to imply that they are unqualified based on gender. Such baseless assertions undermine the professionalism, dedication and expertise of our workforce.”

    The Saturday statement from Mr. Mayorkas and other top DHS officials appeared to focus most acutely on the line of criticism against women being on the front lines in the Secret Service.

    “Every single day, in communities big and small across our great country, women are serving in federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, and campus law enforcement,” the joint statement reads.

    “They are highly trained and skilled professionals, who risk their lives on the front lines for the safety and security of others. They are brave and selfless patriots who deserve our gratitude and respect.”

    Mr. Mayorkas and the other officials added that DHS will continue to recruit, retain, and elevate women in our law enforcement ranks and take “great pride” in doing so.

    “Our Department will be the better for it, and our country more secure,” the statement said.

    Former President Trump has thanked the agents who were at the rally and praised members of the security team.

    “They did a fantastic job,” he told the New York Post on Sunday.

    “It’s surreal for all of us.”

    The former president’s son, Eric Trump, went further, offering praise for the female agents in particular.

    “I know all those agents on stage and they’re the greatest people ever,” Eric Trump told MSNBC on July 16.

    “The female that’s in the picture, she was with me for a very long time and she’s one of the greatest human beings you would ever meet.”

    Besides injuring former President Trump, the gunman critically wounded two men and killed one.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/21/2024 – 17:30

  • Dems Go Full Throttle On Kamala After Biden Drops Out Of 2024 Race
    Dems Go Full Throttle On Kamala After Biden Drops Out Of 2024 Race

    Update (1630ET): And just like that, the Democratic party has gone all-in for Kamala Harris – who did so poorly in the 2020 election that she dropped out before the primaries. Just hours after Biden’s campaign manager insisted he wasn’t leaving the race.

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    Oh…

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    Lefties from the Clintons, to the Progressive Caucus, to Trump assassination jokester Reid Hoffman, to Alexander Soros, are now firmly behind Harris.

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    Now the question turns to who’s going to be her VP pick. Newsweek suggests these as top-5 candidates:

    Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro
    A rising Democratic star, Josh Shapiro is often floated as a possible running mate for Harris. He governs a major battleground state and could help Harris make inroads among voters in the Keystone State.

    North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper
    Roy Cooper’s governorship has been a sign of hope for Democrats in the Tar Heel state.

    Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer
    Gretchen Whitmer’s name has long been floated as a possible presidential candidate, and a Harris-Whitmer ticket would mark the first all-women ticket in history, which Pitney described as “intriguing.”

    Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear
    Andy Beshear impressed many Democrats when he won a second term in the conservative state last year.

    California Governor Gavin Newsom
    Newsom has become one of the most nationally recognizable figures within the Democratic Party.

    According to Polymarket, Shapiro is the top contender.

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    Harris issued a statement following her endorsement, which reads like Joe isn’t about to serve out the rest of his term:

    “On behalf of the American people, I thank Joe Biden for his extraordinary leadership as President of the United States and for his decades of service to our country. His remarkable legacy of accomplishment is unmatched in modern American history, surpassing the legacy of many Presidents who have served two terms in office.

    “It is a profound honor to serve as his Vice President, and I am deeply grateful to the President, Dr. Biden, and the entire Biden family. I first came to know President Biden through his son Beau. We were friends from our days working together as Attorneys General of our home states. As we worked together, Beau would tell me stories about his Dad. The kind of father—and the kind of man—he was. And the qualities Beau revered in his father are the same qualities, the same values, I have seen every single day in Joes leadership as President: His honesty and integrity. His big heart and commitment to his faith and his family. And his love of our country and the American people.

    “I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination. Over the past year, I have traveled across the country, talking with Americans about the clear choice in this momentous election. And that is what I will continue to do in the days and weeks ahead. I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party—and unite our nation—to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda.“

    In short:

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    Of course, if you mention that Harris’s career started out underneath Willie Brown, you might get called out by Scary Poppins…

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    That said, not so fast Kamala…

    In response to Biden’s announcement, Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison promised a “transparent and orderly” process to choose the party’s next nominee.

    “The American People owe President Biden an enormous debt of gratitude for the unparalleled progress he has delivered over the last four years — and we will honor that legacy, and the decision that he has made today, through a firm commitment to nominating and electing a Democratic president this November who will carry that torch into the next four years,” Harrison said in a statement, adding that the process will follow established rules for the party, and that the delegates “are prepared to take seriously their responsibility in swiftly delivering a candidate to the American people.”

    “As we move forward to formally select our Party’s nominee, our values as Democrats remain the same — lowering costs, restoring freedom, protecting the rights of all people, and saving our democracy from the threat of dictatorship. We have and will continue to make this case to the American people.”

    Also…

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    And a few reactions:

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    *  *  *

    President Joe Biden is dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, has endorsed Kamala Harris, and will “focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

    He also won’t address the nation about it until sometime next week (after his next blood transfusion, we assume?).

    And while 81 million voters are surely crestfallen, Kamala Harris’ odds of being the 2024 Democratic nominee naturally spiked. Roughly 30 minutes after Biden announced he was leaving the race, his social media team followed up with an endorsement of Harris.

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    My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.

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    Meanwhile, a few relevant headlines from the last couple of weeks:

    And of course, if Biden can’t run, how can he remain president?

    Shortly after Biden’s announcement, House Speaker Mike Johnson posted on X:

    Rgardless of the chaos in the current White House, our adversaries around the globe should be reminded that the U.S. Congress, the U.S. military, and the American people are fully prepared and committed to defend our interests both at home and abroad.  

    If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately. November 5 cannot arrive soon enough.

    Johnson, ever cautious, is a little late to the game:

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    As Jonathan Turley notes:

    The decision of Joe Biden to withdraw from his reelection bid raises the obvious question of how he can continue as president if he is incapable of running for that office. The Democratic Party seems to have created its own 25th Amendment, but there remains the “other” 25th Amendment.

    This is a type of 25th-lite option where you lack capacity to run but not to serve for an office.

    It also focuses attention on the efforts of Democrats to drop any challengers or hold any debates through the primary as millions voted for Biden. Holding a party “primary” in a matter of weeks is hardly a substitute for a primary campaign to expose candidates to prolonged.

    The problem for the White House is the glaring disconnect between pulling out of the election but holding on to the office.  Pulling out as simply politically incapable of winning makes a mockery of the unopposed primary process.

    Yet, pulling out do to diminished capacity makes a mockery of his political office. There is a striking lack of clarity on the basis for this historic action…

    Read Biden’s message below:

    My Fellow Americans,

    Over the past three and a half years, we have made great progress as a Nation.

    Today, America has the strongest economy in the world. We’ve made historic investments in rebuilding our Nation, in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, and in expanding affordable health care to a record number of Americans. We’ve provided critically needed care to a million veterans exposed to toxic substances. Passed the first gun safety law in 30 years. Appointed the first African American woman to the Supreme Court. And passed the most significant climate legislation in the history’ of the world. America has never been better positioned to lead than we are today.

    I know none of this could have been done without you. the American people. Together, we overcame a once in a century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We’ve protected and preserved our Democracy. And we’ve revitalized and strengthened our alliances around the world.

    It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection. I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.

    I will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision.

    For now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all those who have worked so hard to see me reelected. I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all this work. And let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the American people for the faith and trust you have placed in me.

    I believe today what I always have: that there is nothing America can’t do – when we do it together. We just have to remember we are the United States of America.

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    Trump has responded to the news, posting the following on Truth Social:

    Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve – And never was! He only attained the position of President by lies, Fake News, and not leaving his Basement. All those around him, including his Doctor and the Media, knew that he wasn’t capable of being President, and he wasn’t – And now, look what he’s done to our Country, with millions of people coming across our Border, totally unchecked and unvetted, many from prisons, mental institutions, and record numbers of terrorists. We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

    And hey, Kamala has the support of Elizabeth Warren, so there’s that, despite a disastrous conference call with 300 major Democratic donors last week.

    According to Elon Musk, this was in the cards:

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    The announcement came after in intense pressure campaign, after new polling showed that 60% of Americans said Biden should drop out.

    The opposition included virtually the entire Democratic party – from Pelosi down, and even former Democrat (now independent) Sen. Joe Manchin, the deep state, and Democratic donors – who began pausing funds after last month’s horrific debate between Biden and Donald Trump – and most recently led by a call from Mike Novogratz to replace Biden.

    “The Democratic donor base will be re-energized if there’s a fair process to pick the next candidate,” said Novogratz, the billionaire founder of Galaxy Digital Holdings, who added that if Democrats pick a centrist replacement through a nomination process, “there are a tremendous amount of donors who will cut checks.”

    According to veteran Democrat operative James Carville in a statement to Semafor last week, “This I can confirm. Donors in revolt.“

    “Campaigns are expensive. Sadly, the George Clooney check-writing crowd opposed to Biden remaining in the race might win out,” Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf told Newsweek in response to a recent NYT op-ed by the actor.

    “He who controls the gold might make the rules, making the Democrats no different from the Republicans,” he added.

    The decision to drop out came after the Clintons were reportedly privately urging Democrat donors to keep giving to Biden as long as he remains the presumptive nominee.

    One of the sources said the Clintons are choosing to be “deferential to Biden’s decision.” However, the second source, who is familiar with the Clintons’ thinking and has spoken with the couple in recent days, insisted that it is more accurate to say they are “deferential to the process.”

    According to this source, the Clintons have made clear in private conversations recently that it doesn’t matter what anybody says or thinks — unless Biden decides he will drop out of the 2024 race or the delegates vote for somebody else, he is the party’s presumptive nominee. -CNN

    Deep State Displeased

    On Friday, NBC News reported that “More than four dozen former foreign and national security officials call on Biden to drop out of race” – so the deep state is officially negative on Biden.

    “We write as former U.S. officials who have strongly supported your presidency and your initiatives to strengthen U.S. foreign and national security policy,” they wrote in a letter. “We strongly believe that now is the time to pass the mantle of leadership, and we respectfully urge you to do so.”

    Visualizing Biden’s post-debate downward spiral:

    Via Axios

    What now?

    While Biden just endorsed Harris, Democrat delegates are under no obligation to support her. That said, if she is the nominee, who will she pick as her running mate?

    Coincidence?

    What will Jill do now?

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    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/21/2024 – 16:34

  • In Defense Of Bitcoin Culture
    In Defense Of Bitcoin Culture

    Via BitcoinMagazine.com,

    A response to the recent piece “Reflections on Bitcoin Culture” by Margot Paez, by Joakim Book.

    Bitcoin changes our lives.

    It’s an almost spiritual observation that we’ve all seen within ourselves. After acquiring some, learning how it works, and to various degrees delving into what this decentralized, uncensorable, proof-of-work money is, we’ve seen our lives change. It echoes history. Some people see god in it.

    Bitcoiners have had their lives upended, their perspectives shifted, and their value systems altered. We see how our behavior changed from our pre-Bitcoin selves, our emphasis now squarely placed on real things, hard things, the long term, and the local. We look to our inner selves, and we look after ourselves. We see to our families. We set our own house in order before we criticize the world.

    Bitcoin encourages higher-level thinking, of the dynamic kind that once characterized good economics. Once a Bitcoiner, we become less prone to believing commonly accepted just-so stories — more skeptical and interested in verifying rather than trusting.

    Anyone who’s been in Bitcoin for a while can point to countless such examples in their own lives. It’s undeniable, therefore, that Bitcoin itself has a culture. It affects change in the people it welcomes; you don’t change Bitcoin, Bitcoin changes you.

    The values embedded in it are rules that people who embrace this monetary revolution can’t help but internalize. Whether they understand it or not is unimportant. Bitcoin is for anyone, sure, but you don’t stay that same person after Bitcoin has changed your life; you’re a different “anyone” than when you first opened your fiat eyes.

    Bitcoin allowed us to see much of the stupidity of the collective delusions at the base of the state, democracy, central banks, public health, public schooling — public anything, really. It’s the same realization that makes us put huge question marks on climate change worries or trans ideology.

    In the world of fiat, anything goes.

    You can unverifiably feel oppressed, a man can unverifiably be a woman, anyone who’s sad or distracted can unverifiably feel autistic or depressed. If the lord of the printing press doesn’t feel like there’s enough money around, he makes more. Violently extorting productive members of society is held as a morally good thing and celebrated. The experts and fiat media voices say the world ends in twelve (or five) years, and if you disbelieve them or ask for verification, you’re on par with the Nazis.

    In Bitcoin, this playbook doesn’t fly anymore. Identifying as receiving a block reward does nothing, political votes become irrelevant, nobody’s unverifiable feelings reign supreme, and cheating gets harder. UTXOs don’t have a sex. It all goes out the window, revealed and denuded for the nonsense it always was.

    Thus, something doesn’t add up in Margot Paez’s recent article thrashing Bitcoin culture.

    She writes:

    “…popular influencers who are often millennial men spending a lot of time taking photos of themselves flexing their muscles in front of a mirror. I really wonder how big those muscles have to get to protect the fragile ego buried beneath those muscular fibers.”

    Big muscles are flexes because they’re unfakeable – like a hash under the difficulty target. A transaction is valid and confirmed or it isn’t. It’s right there, objective, and verifiable to anyone who cares to look.

    Pull-ups are flexes because they display truth, regardless of what anyone else thinks about an invisible ego beneath. You can do them, or you can’t; they’re verifiable and undeniable. A muscle-up doesn’t ask for permission or tries to confuse you about nuances to an imagined reality.

    This stands in contrast to the fiat, legacy world — of which trans ideology is merely one of the least material but verifiably stupid examples — where words are violence, invisible and unverifiable identities rule, fiat schools can’t teach people to read or count, Uber doesn’t have any cars, and the banks don’t have your money. It’s a broken culture, where the only thing running away faster than the deaths of despair are the deficits in a profligate Treasury, forever bound to send welfare checks to rent-seekers.

    It’s a culture dominated by sensitivity instead of truth, that celebrates weakness instead of strength and responsibility and self-improvement, that encourages therapy even though it barely works and shoves you pharmacy-full of meds and injections at the first sign of trouble.

    That’s why I’m not sold on this “Progressive Bitcoiner” ethos flying around. Progressives came to Bitcoin and carved out a niche for themselves, and for now that works well as a bridge over from the hyper-leftwing clown world to our world. But you won’t be a Bitcoiner and long remain a progressive; they’re mostly incompatible ideas.

    Progressivism came to Bitcoin as a breath of fresh air, but it will ultimately die here.

    Bitcoin strips a government of control over transactions and economic value. A progressive requires a large and invasive government to uphold and enact the many things they yearn for. If you still want those goodies, but not the violent organized crime syndicate we call government, you’re merely a libertarian with a strong social ethos. Congrats. I’ve said so before regarding Jason Maier’s A Progressive’s Case for Bitcoin, and I maintain that in time Bitcoin will change him too, like it has the rest of us.

    Bitcoin sooner or later forces you into seeing the world of truth and acting in unfakeable ways, looking to what is rather than what’s voiced or recommended by “experts.” On the way there one usually complains loudly about the mean Bitcoiners not seeing the world you do.

    It’s not a coincidence that so many Bitcoiners proudly and diligently consume steak. We saw that the nutritional guidelines were gunk (some might even say corrupt), and the people pushing them were obese, ill, and ugly. We ate a bunch of meat and felt better. Do I look unhealthy to you?! we ceremoniously ask.

    The LGBTQ flags that Paez defends sit next to flags with “Free Palestine” — even though Palestinians aren’t exactly known for their pro-gay values — and “Slava Ukraini,” celebrating a country that scores among the worst on the Rainbow Europe index and routinely counts as Europe’s second most corrupt country (behind Russia). These are not serious people. You know something is rotten when originally peace-loving leftists celebrate the very warmongering people they should detest.

    The ultimate shit-test is the clown world shitshow, not Bitcoiner culture. In fact, the truth and honesty in Bitcoin culture is the antidote.

    Quit whining and go do some pull-ups.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/21/2024 – 16:20

  • Visualizing The Cost Of Hosting The Olympics
    Visualizing The Cost Of Hosting The Olympics

    The Paris Olympics are estimated to cost over $9 billion to host, making them one of the less expensive Summer Olympic Games in recent memory.

    This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu, lists the estimated cost of hosting the Olympics (Summer and Winter) in 2021 USD. It goes back to the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics.

    The figures come from various sources and were accessed via the Council on Foreign Relations.

    Costly Infrastructure

    The cost of hosting the Olympics has varied massively in recent years, from Sochi’s $59.7 billion to Salt Lake City’s $2.9 billion (2021 USD).

    One of the biggest costs associated with hosting the Olympics is infrastructure. This includes sports facilities such as arenas and general infrastructure like housing and transportation.

    This is typically higher for summer games, which can attract hundreds of thousands of tourists.

    The International Olympic Committee requires cities to have at least 40,000 hotel rooms for spectators and an Olympic Village that can house 15,000 athletes and officials.

    As a result, despite generating billions of dollars in revenue, the Olympics can leave a negative legacy for a host city if not carefully planned or executed.

    For example, a report by the University of Birmingham concluded that the most expensive event – Sochi in 2014 – left the Russian resort vastly overdeveloped relative to its actual occupancy levels. The report estimates that over a billion dollars of follow-up investment is required to maintain the underused infrastructure, including transport networks, sporting venues, and hotels.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/21/2024 – 15:45

  • VDH: Which Party Is 'Killing Democracy'?
    VDH: Which Party Is ‘Killing Democracy’?

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via X:

    Democracy Really Is Dying in Darkness – But by Whom?

    Never in modern presidential history has a political party staged a veritable inside coup to remove their current president from his ongoing candidacy for his party’s nomination and reelection.

    Stranger still, the very elites and grandees, who now are using every imaginable means of deposing Biden as their nominee, are the very public voices that just weeks ago insisted that candidate Biden was “sharp as a tack” and “fit as a fiddle.” And they damned any who thought otherwise!

    They are also the identical operators whose machinations ensured that there would not be an open Democratic primary. They demonized the few on the Left who weakly challenged Biden in the primaries. Yet now they will select a replacement candidate who likely never received a single primary vote.

    Note further: Biden’s impending forced abdication is not because he is non compos mentis.

    Rather, the inside move is due to Biden’s disastrous debate exposure that confirmed his dementia could no longer be disguised by a conspiracy of leftist politicos and media.

    But far more importantly, the impetus for removal is driven by the admission that the cognitively Biden is headed for a climactic November defeat.

    Were Biden now ahead in the polls by five points, these same backroom machinists would be insisting that he was still Pericles.

    Yet now Biden is being un-personed and Trotskyized, as we prepare the new groupthink narrative of his likely surrogate—a soon to be praised eloquent, mellifluous, and articulate Cicero-Harris.

    That Biden will likely remain as president until January 20, 2025, should remind the country the Left is more worried about its own next four-year continuance in power than the fate of the country that now admittedly will be guided in the next six months by a president judged unfit by his own supporters to run for the very office that he will still keep holding.

    Further irony arises when those who, as supposedly guardians of democratic norms, pontificated to the country the last nine years about the Trump-Hitlerian threat to democracy. Yet now they so cavalierly work overtime on how:

    a) to pull off the removal of their candidate from the November ballot on grounds of senility,

    b) but not the removal of the same president from office (their own fate is more precious than our collective fate as a nation),

    c) while trying to select, rather than elect, a replace candidate,

    d) without ever offering any explanation, much less an apology, how a Democrat president from January 20, 2021, was daily declared vibrant, dynamic, and engaged but suddenly one day after June 27, 2024, was remanufactured as not?

    Perhaps as an aid and primer on Biden removal they should reread the essay by former Obama Pentagon official Rosa Books. Just 11 days after the Trump inauguration, she published in Foreign Policy, “3 Ways to Get Rid of President Trump Before 2020”.

    It was a veritable manual on the various ways of removing the just inaugurated president – listing immediate alternatives to the distant 2020 election: impeachment and conviction, 25th-Amendment removal, and, barring all that, a military coup:

    “The fourth possibility is one that until recently I would have said was unthinkable in the United States of America: a military coup, or at least a refusal by military leaders to obey certain orders.”

    So, to make sense of what these self-appointed and sanctimonious protectors of democracy are trying to pull off demands an Orwellian vocabulary—memory hole, newspeak, unperson, and groupthink.

    Yet there is one more irony.

    Very soon, those who welcomed the protests of summer 2020 radicals, and exempted the rioting and violence, and then again did nothing in 2024 as mobs tore apart campuses and shut down public facilities, will host a Chicago convention – where those very same liberated forces may wreak havoc on the outside, while their backroom progenitors, with threats, money, and the media, will wreak havoc on democracy on the inside.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/21/2024 – 15:15

  • Houthis Warn 'No Red Lines' In Counterattack After Israel Bombs Yemeni Port
    Houthis Warn ‘No Red Lines’ In Counterattack After Israel Bombs Yemeni Port

    Israel confirmed on Sunday its military forces launched a retaliatory airstrike on the Hodeida Port, a key Yemeni port on the Red Sea and the second largest in the country.

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    Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Hodeida port was the “entry point for weapons that Iran supplies to its Houthi terrorist proxies. ‏The Houthis have used those weapons to attack Israel, to attack Arab states in the region, to attack many others.”

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    Emanuel Fabian, a military correspondent for The Times of Israel, posted on X satellite images from Israeli intelligence and imagery firm ImageSat that show extensive damage at the Hodeida port.

    The Israeli strike came one day after Iran-backed Houthis hit Tel Aviv with a drone for the first time, killing one person and injuring several others. 

    PM Netanyahu described the counteroffensive against Houthis as a “direct response” to the kamikaze drone attack on civilians in Tel Aviv. 

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    In response to the port attack, which killed three people and wounded 80, rebel spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam told Qatar’s Al Jazeera TV, who was cited by Times of Israel and Reuters staff, as saying there will be “no red lines” in the next attack on Israel.

    “All sensitive institutions with all its levels will be a target for us,” Abdulsalam told Al Jazeera. 

    Separately, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree warned the terror group’s “response to the Israeli aggression against our country is inevitably coming and will be huge.”

    Over the last nine months, rebel forces have fired over 220 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones at Israel in support of Gaza, where Israel has been fighting Hamas terrorists. 

    Houthis have also targeted Western-linked vessels, including container ships and crude tankers, in the critical maritime chokepoint of the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. 

    What’s clear is that Houthi’s threat coverage is expanding, something we told readers was possible at the start of May. 

    Numerous maritime chokepoints in the Middle East are under constant threat, which has only sparked a global supply shock (read: “Supply Shock: Shipping Container Costs Top $10,000 Amid Red Sea Turmoil Thinning Global Capacity”). 

    A recent note by David Asher, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former State Department official in the Trump administration, warned that the next financial shock could potentially originate from the Middle East through the weaponization of crude oil by Iran. 

    On slide 29 of the report, Asher pointed out that Yemen’s Houthi rebels could begin targeting high-value oil facilities in Saudi Arabia. This would send Brent crude over the $100/bbl level quickly if Abqaiq were hit. 

    Remember 2019?

    Israeli’s attack on Hodeida is a ‘message’ to Iran. Now, the perfect storm of escalation is possibly ahead.

    All eyes are also on Brent crude prices. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/21/2024 – 14:45

  • Know When To Fold 'Em?
    Know When To Fold ‘Em?

    By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

    Know When to Fold ‘Em?

    It is not often that a single title can apply to so many things.

    Let’s start with Geopolitics, where:

    • How long can the war in Ukraine continue?

    • What is going to happen in the Middle East as it too seems to have reached a “stalemate” status?

    • The issues surrounding China and Taiwan and China and the Philippines seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum, as we are getting more and more questions around the potential for “starting” conflicts, rather than questions about how it all ends.

    Academy’s Geopolitical Webinar from Wednesday covered these and many other relevant geopolitical questions. Geopolitics as a tail risk was also discussed on Fox Business as a Bank of America survey of investors listed geopolitics as the biggest tail risk to markets.

    We could discuss “folding ‘em” in terms of politics, but we won’t go into detail.

    • Former President Trump is no longer the “presumptive” nominee and is now the official nominee. J.D. Vance is his official running mate. While the Republican ticket has been finalized and the convention was widely viewed, it is too early to clearly identify what policies (that are being discussed) will have a real possibility of becoming laws after the election. While it is “fun” to play “what if games” in terms of policy (in the event of a Trump win), we will hold off on that for now. Figuring out what is a campaign promise, versus a real policy desire is difficult enough. Then, even if the Trump ticket wins, it will be important to see who wins the House and the Senate.

    • President Biden remains the presumptive nominee, but there are daily questions about that. Once that is definitively decided, we will need to know the vice-presidential candidate. In any event, all the reasons why we are not overly interested in predicting “what the economy will look like” if so and so wins apply to the Democratic ticket as well.

    • We will largely ignore “if this party wins” type of trades and market moves for now, with two exceptions:

      • We continue to like energy. The commitment to growing both traditional and new energy sources is real and is increasingly important to supporting AI and data centers. Also, owning energy related stocks and commodities remains our favorite “geopolitical tail risk” hedge.

      • We think yields, especially at the long end, will drift higher. Whatever the current takes are on various economic policies, we remain convinced that as the campaigns continue, it will become painfully obvious that no one cares about doing anything to stem the growth of the deficit. Yes, there will be all sorts of “offsets” for any spending plans or tax cuts to “keep the budget stable,” but they will be largely wishful thinking rather than anything that is likely to work in the real world.

    We remain on heightened watch for a potential “surprise” or “wildcard” geopolitical event while the nation and the media is so focused on domestic issues.

    Know When to Fold ‘Em – Markets

    Let’s start with rates.

    We continue to see 75 bps of cuts this year. The data is likely to support a cut by at least September, if not July. The data, in our view, already supports a July cut, but that is unlikely to occur.

    One thing that is becoming extremely clear to everyone, and something that we’ve been pounding the table on for months, is that a rate cut ahead of the election will be portrayed as helping the incumbents by all those looking to oust the incumbents. The political backlash against a Fed cut, as undeserved as such backlash would be, could pose longer-term threats to how both America and monetary policy are viewed.

    Having said that, the daily reminders that the deficit is heading higher are likely to take their toll on the long end of the yield curve. That rise in yields will be driven by a “normalization” of yield curves and a return to risk premium. First stop would be 0, then possibly as high as 20 bps between 2s and 10s. Also, I think that we can forever retire inverted yield curves as a very useful signal of an upcoming recession.

    On the equity side we certainly saw “de-grossing” where hedge funds in particular scaled back both their longs and their shorts.

    That helped contribute to a week where the S&P 500 lost 2%, the Nasdaq lost 3.7%, and the Russell 2000 gained 1.7%. This follows our writing and views in Chips and the Russell 2000 vs S&P 500 Ratio, which were also presented in more detail in last weekend’s July – Breadth and Liquidity which really focused on the S&P 500 versus the equal weighted version of the S&P 500. That index was “only” down 0.1% on the week, outperforming the S&P 500 again, and narrowing the biggest gap that we’ve seen in a long, long time between the two indices.

    It is difficult to believe that this week started with questions about the assassination attempt (which haven’t been fully answered), concerns about more sanctions surrounding chips, and even chatter about an imminent attack on Taiwan (which we saw no evidence of) and with the help of the Geopolitical Intelligence Group, responded with the view that it was some very misleading and out of context headlines from a Japanese annual defense report on China’s military activities around Taiwan.

    All of this impacted markets, and we are left knowing that we had “de-grossing,” but we are questioning whether we have had “de-risking.”

    De-grossing is cutting longs and shorts. Often “simplifying” complex portfolios. It tends to be a hedge fund/quant fund/CTA strategy. It can feed into “risk parity” strategies (strategies that attempt to harness the correlations and volatility of stocks, bonds, and commodities to generate alpha).

    De-risking is actual selling. Where fear starts driving decisions. Where assets are sold, not to buy other assets, but to reduce leverage or risk.

    IWM, a Russell 2000 ETF, for example, had large inflows starting late last week. Consistent with de-grossing or rotation, not risk aversion (though it also started to have outflows later in the week). In a similar vein, RSP, an Equal Weighted S&P 500 ETF, experienced inflows and has the most shares outstanding since it was launched in 2003.

    Rotation and de-grossing are not de-risking. Which means that the investors (or “gamblers” using our theme of the day) are still holding ‘em.

    Given:

    • Summer “liquidity” or lack thereof may concern investors.

    • More uncertainty and unprecedented events surrounding our election may not be an ideal backdrop for risk.

    • Heightened concern about geopolitical risk and activity across the globe is a threat.

    • There are indices with heavy concentrations of a few names, sitting near all-time highs, that have performed well year-to-date. The S&P is up 15% and the Nasdaq 100 is up 16% (seems low), which may promote profit taking. This would hit the “momentum” factor hard and produce more selling.

    • While it is early in the earnings season, we are trying to figure out results, versus what was expected, versus what happened to the stocks, and whether it was earnings related or just market noise. We may well be entering a period where the hurdles are quite high for stocks to perform on the backs of earnings.

    You should watch out for investors who might be looking to “fold ‘em.”

    The Nasdaq 100 is down almost 6% from recent highs and nearing its 50-day moving average (19,522 close versus 19,321 50 DMA). We could see the 100 DMA come into play (18,627) which would be another 5% drop from here, taking us to our 10% downside target.

    Expect derisking, hands to fold, and while “rotation” sectors will outperform, we should have better entry points later this summer!

    Bottom Line

    Don’t count your money while you are sitting at the table. My sense is that too many are doing this with both bonds and stocks, leading to more selling than buying in the coming days and weeks!

    While there is some debate about whether “The Gambler” is a country song, a crossover song, or just selling out, there can be no debate that the National Anthem sang before the home run derby at the All-Star game was an abysmal performance!

    In any case, be prepared for more volatility in an illiquid market, which will amplify moves in either direction beyond what the news flow would justify.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/21/2024 – 14:15

  • NATO Commander Warns A 'Very Big Russia Problem' Will Remain No Matter How War Ends
    NATO Commander Warns A ‘Very Big Russia Problem’ Will Remain No Matter How War Ends

    The Biden administration and leading NATO officials have long touted that their muscular response to Russia, which has included firm support to Ukraine in terms of billions in arms sent and setting up training programs, has deterred Moscow from expanding the conflict. These leaders claim that escalating against Russian forces now can ensure peace for the future. But the chief of NATO’s European Command, Christopher Cavoli, has recently cautioned about the long-haul challenges ahead. He injected a little more realism into the conversation, warning in an address before the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Thursday that the West “can’t be under any illusions” as ultimately Russia will reconstitute its force and will be “very, very angry” at its adversaries Washington and NATO.

    Cavoli described that in modern warfare a military force “either wins fast and upfront” or is stuck “for a long slog full of unpredictable twists and turns” – which is clearly the course of the Ukraine conflict. “A lot of it’s going to come down to force generation capability, which side can generate force fastest and take advantage of that while they have a window of opportunity,” he asserted. By most accounts, Russia is doing this, and has by far the advantage in terms of manpower and artillery shells.

    While remaining optimistic about Kiev’s chances to change the battlefield situation, the top commander at one point said bluntly, “We can’t be under any illusions: At the end of a conflict in Ukraine — however, it concludes — we are going to have a very big Russia problem. We are going to have a situation where Russia is reconstituting its force, is located on the borders of NATO, is led by largely the same people as it is right now, is convinced that we’re the adversary, and is very, very angry.” Watch a key segment of his comments below:

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    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/21/2024 – 13:25

  • Is Left-Wing 'Trump-As-Hitler Iconography' In The Mainstream Media Responsible For The Attempt To Assassinate The 45th President?
    Is Left-Wing ‘Trump-As-Hitler Iconography’ In The Mainstream Media Responsible For The Attempt To Assassinate The 45th President?

    Authored by Richard Truesdell and Keith Lehmann via American Greatness,

    So many of us watched in horror last Saturday when a 20-year-old assassin aimed at Donald Trump’s head just after he started his remarks at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. How and why did this happen? Did the mainstream and social media enable a radical to commit murder?

    The June issue of the far-left publication The New Republic featured on its cover a vile photo of the faces of Trump and Adolf Hitler merged together. At the time it was released, we had no idea of what would transpire on July 13, 2024, when Thomas Matthew Crooks, using an AR-15 from 400 feet away, attempted, at the highest level, to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.

    But should we be surprised? Hardly.

    It’s been an open secret among leftist elites that regime-approved violence falls somewhere between “it’s okay to punch a Nazi” and “your speech is violence, while our violence is speech.” Media outlets like The Intercept’s Prem Thakker claim that Crooks was a registered Republican but he also made a small donation to Act Blue, a far-left PAC.

    Regardless of party affiliation, the 20-year-old shooter was shockingly motivated to commit murder. Did it come to him in a dream? Was he personally harmed and looking for justice? Did he conclude that this was a logical and necessary act for the protection of society at large?

    No. His motivation was driven by a firehose of personal hatred and outrageous propaganda promulgated by media platforms (and Democrats) that utilize Hitler imagery and Nazi narratives that are embedded in our minds as murderous, dangerous, and anti-human, all the while tying them to Donald Trump. If anyone thinks that the concept is outlandish, one only has to look at the past decade and see how this imagery and narrative have been pushed to influence the weak minds and radicals among us.

    In reverse chronological order, let us examine three of the most egregious examples of the left using Trump-Hitler iconography to spew their disgusting narrative.

    The New Republic (June 2024)

    For its June 2024 issue, Owner and Editor-in-Chief Win McCormack and Editor Michael Tomasky were rightfully savaged on X/Twitter for the cover merging the faces of Trump and Hitler together. On X/Twitter, this was their rationalization and justification.

    “We chose the cover image, based on a well-known 1932 Hitler campaign poster, for a precise reason: that anyone transported back to 1932 Germany could very, very easily have explained away Herr Hitler’s excesses and been persuaded that his critics were going overboard. After all, he spent 1932 campaigning, negotiating, doing interviews—being a mostly normal politician. But he and his people vowed all along that they would use the tools of democracy to destroy it, and it was only after he was given power that Germany saw his movement’s full face.

    “Today, we at The New Republic think we can spend this election year in one of two ways. We can spend it debating whether Trump meets the nine or 17 points that define fascism. Or we can spend it saying, “He’s damn close enough, and we’d better fight.

    “We unreservedly choose the latter course. And so we have assembled herein some of our leading intellectual historians of fascism; a member of the fourth estate who learned firsthand what the Trump lash feels like; a leading expert on civil-military relations; a great Guatemalan American novelist with a deep understanding of immigrants’ lives; one of our most incisive cultural critics; and a man with all-too-real experience in living under a notorious authoritarian regime. The scenarios they describe are certainly grim. We dare you to say, after reading these pieces, that they are impossible.”

    It should be noted that The New Republic is barely profitable. One can hope that, because of its lack of editorial integrity, even left-wing elite intellectuals will abandon it before the 2028 presidential election so that it will go bankrupt and sink below the waves into historical irrelevance.

    The Washington Post (December 20, 2023)

    Back in December, author and attorney Mike Godwin opened his WaPo op-ed Opinion: “Yes, it’s okay to compare Trump to Hitler. Don’t let me stop you,” with a side profile graphic of Trump and Hitler back-to-back.

    “My very minor status as an authority on Adolf Hitler comparisons stems from having coined ‘Godwin’s Law’ about three decades ago. I originally framed this “law” as a pseudoscientific postulate: As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.’ (That is, its likelihood approaches 100 percent.)”

    Godwin continues, “But when people draw parallels between Donald Trump’s 2024 candidacy and Hitler’s progression from fringe figure to Great Dictator, we aren’t joking. Those of us who hope to preserve our democratic institutions need to underscore the resemblance before we enter the twilight of American democracy.”

    This plays directly into the ongoing progressive left narrative that Trump presents an existential threat to American democracy. If elected, Trump will be a dictator, and the 2024 election will be the last to be held in America. It goes back to the words of Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels’ law of propaganda, who once said, “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.” We’ve seen the media become sheep, often repeating the exact same talking point simultaneously, like for the last couple of years that Joe Biden is “sharp as a tack” and “runs circles around staffers that are half his age,” and that he “would never ban gas stoves.” We could go on.

    Many on the progressive left, including influencers like MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, serve up this pablum for the masses on almost every broadcast. Worst of all, their low-information audiences tend to accept and believe it, repeating it at cocktail parties inside the DC Beltway. It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy to them.

    The Daily Beast (January 13, 2018)

    The Trump-as-Hitler narrative didn’t happen overnight. The villification started the moment Trump announced his candidacy when he rode down the golden escalator with his wife Melania back on June 16, 2015. But it certainly accelerated when he dispatched his primary opponents, was nominated, and defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

    Once in office, the attacks intensified, with no editorial guardrails to be seen. The mainstream media had the green light to engage in any attack, no matter how insane it might seem. The editors at the left-wing website, The Daily Beast, opined on January 13, 2018, just a year into the Trump Presidency, with the op-ed Trump’s War on the Press Follows the Mussolini and Hitler Playbook. Not only did they compare the evil Orange Man to Hitler but to Mussolini as well. The graphic? A color image of Trump superimposed over a historic black-and-white photo of Hitler and Mussolini standing side-by-side. It stated:

    “The abasement of language by Donald Trump and his assorted flacks began long before, but this concept was so naked, so novel and so unblinkingly forthright that it established the rules for the assault to come, just as the first salvo of an artillery barrage signals the creation of a new battlefield where there will be many casualties.”

    But it didn’t stop there.

    “Trump has spent two years vilifying the “dishonest” media (including The Daily Beast), even invoking the Nazi chant of ‘enemies of the people.’ Aided by the alt-right zealots at Breitbart, he has successfully persuaded millions of Americans that The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and MSNBC are seditious forces bent on denigrating and destroying the man they elected.”

    Funny how, more than six years on, we have watched how all the media outlets cited above have turned out to be nothing more than stenographers for the Democrat Party, and since January 2021, for the most authoritarian presidency in our 245 years, the Biden administration until his dismal debate performance two weeks ago.

    The Basic Difference Between Right- and Left-Wing Media

    There are very few right-leaning popular culture magazines to find anything comparable to The New Republic, newspapers like the Washington Post, or web platforms like The Daily Beast that would merge an image of Joe Biden with Forrest Gump to return the favor. You won’t see mainstream conservative websites with a large following like The Blaze or Brietbart (or American Greatness) publish anything like that. With the exception of Fox News and all the major broadcast and cable networks. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and especially MSNBC, lean left.

    It’s not because the imagery and political pushback are not deserved. It’s because this is not a “both sides” issue. The violence here is solidly footed on the left. Antifa, BLM, Occupy Democrats, Just Stop Oil…all left-wing organizations. And they are organized, not nutty individuals with their own ideas at work. Violence is a common tool in the left’s arsenal, and they are not hesitant to use it.

    Most likely, we will find that the 20-year-old who shot Trump is among that group. He was probably marinating in hate his entire young life. It likely began at home, where parenting has nearly collapsed, and was extended in the public school system, where kids are taught the absolutist Marxist notion of “oppressors versus the oppressed,” villains versus heroes, Good versus Evil. He would have been a fine candidate for the KKK back in the 1950s and 1960s.

    A media and political party that ties a man to Hitler, to a petty dictator, to an authoritarian, and to someone who needs to be defeated “by any means necessary” is complicit in this murder attempt. Democrats and the legacy media completely understand that they can still influence weak-minded, radical people to do their bidding and hide their complicity under the veneer of plausible deniability.

    Of course, there will be no real media accountability here aside from sharply declining readership and viewership. The media will just move on, unapologetically changing the subject and hoping nobody will notice or remember the slanders.

    Politicians, however, push these extreme narratives at their own peril. They are creating an underclass of radicals that cannot be controlled, and once these murderers-in-training are set loose, the leftist politicians who made them will need to hide, for they could be the next target.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/21/2024 – 12:50

  • US B-52s On First Time Mission Over Northern Finland, Russia Scrambles MiG Jets
    US B-52s On First Time Mission Over Northern Finland, Russia Scrambles MiG Jets

    The US military has sent two B-52 bombers over northern Finland on Sunday in a historic first and in a clear strong message aimed at Russia. Finland entered the NATO alliance in April of 2023 and this marks the first big act of military cooperation with NATO and the US over its territory.

    The bombers entered Finland from Norway’s northern region, linking up with Finnish fighter jets for the rest of the flight. “Today, Finland has implemented cooperation with the strategic bombers of the United States in the territory of Finland,” Finnish defense minister Antti Häkkänen announced.

    Finnish Air Force photo of B-52s flying over Finland

    “It is a normal cooperation carried out in the territory of a NATO member country and it demonstrate the basic pillar of common defense and deterrence,” Häkkänen said.

    But as the Barents Observer underscores, this flight was an unprecedented first: “But two B-52 strategic bombers over northern Finland is far from normal,” the publication writes. “It has never happened before and shows the fundamental change in geopolitics following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.”

    Separately, the Kremlin said that Russian forces scrambled Mig-29 and MiG-31 fighter jets as the bombers made their way north of Finland, over the Barents Sea.

    “As the Russian fighters approached, the U.S. strategic bombers turned away from the State Border of the Russian Federation,” the Kremlin stated.

    The Russian warplanes “safely returned to their base airfields,” it added. “The flight of the Russian fighters was carried out in strict accordance with international rules for the use of airspace over neutral waters, observing safety measures.”

    Last week NATO announced that as an initial step and development in military cooperation, the alliance’s two newest members have been integrated into NATO air policing of the Baltic Sea.

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    Already this involves the two (previously and historically neutral) Nordic countries ‘confronting’ Russia. According to a NATO statement from July 16, “NATO’s Combined Air Operation Centre at Uedem, Germany, reported two Russian fighter aircraft flying over international waters in the Baltic Sea from Kaliningrad to mainland Russia on July 15.”

    It added, “The aircraft were also tracked by Finnish and Swedish air operation centers, and both Allies launched their quick reaction alert (QRA) forces to intercept the Russian military aircraft.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 07/21/2024 – 12:15

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Jul 21

Today’s News 21st July 2024

  • The Biden Titanic
    The Biden Titanic

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

    Joe Biden’s escalating dementia and the long media-political conspiracy to hide his senility from the public are the least of the Democrats’ current problems.

    Biden’s track record as president may be more concerning than his cognitive decline. He has literally destroyed the U.S. border, deliberately allowing the entry of more than 10 million illegal aliens. His callous handlers’ agenda was to import abjectly poor constituencies in need of vast government services without regard for the current struggles of a battered American middle class and poor.

    The widespread poverty of a vast new cohort of illegal immigrants could serve as indictments of a “racist,” “unequal,” and “unfair” America—as if the residents of East Palestine, Ohio or inner-city Chicago had anything to do with the centuries-long corruption and oppression of Mexico and Latin America that daily drives thousands of their own poorest citizens northwards to a society founded on very different ideas than those of their homelands.

    Note that the left, neither in Mexico nor in America, never asks why millions of these impoverished people prefer to break into a supposedly racist America. Much less do they even distinguish those principles and values that once made America prosperous, free, and secure from their antitheses that have sadly made much of Latin America mostly poor, without freedom, and insecure.

    Biden inherited near-zero real interest rates and inflation at 1.4 percent. Almost immediately, in nihilistic fashion, Biden did to a sound economy what he had done to a secure border. So, he recklessly printed money at a time of spiraling, quarantine-ending demand and supply chain disruption. Middle-class wages never caught up with Biden’s inflation, as prices for key staples are nearly 30 percent higher than when he took office.

    The cost of servicing the ballooning national debt at high interest is now nearly $1 trillion per year. The world abroad is aflame, lit by Biden’s inexplicable withdrawal from Kabul, his mixed signals to Vladimir Putin on the eve of his invasion of Ukraine, his deliberate alienation of Israel, his appeasement of Iran and China, and his cuts in the defense budget, coupled with his woke war on mythical “racists” in the military.

    Energy prices soared, even as Biden’s green agenda proved unworkable and prompted draining the strategic petroleum reserve and begging foreign oil despots before key elections. The “unifier” Biden by design needlessly alienated nearly half the country, and in his debate, he reiterated why Trump supporters do not deserve his concern. And more ominously and recently, Biden grossly told hundreds of his donors that “it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye”—just days before the attempt on Trump’s life.

    The greatest absurdity of the Biden White House is the gaslighting talk of Biden’s “achievements.” Biden’s actions over the last four years are not offsets for his senility that warrant his continuance in office, but again, sadly, they serve as force multipliers, furthering claims of his dementia and for his removal.

    Joe Biden is not just non compos mentis and in a sane world, he would be subject to 25th Amendment removal. He also increasingly seems unpleasant and obnoxious, if not sometimes simply weird. To achieve momentary clarity, Biden either shouts at his audience or stoops over and whispers in an eerie fashion.

    He insults reporters and his own staff. Every few sentences, without warning, he begins screaming. His face is fixed in a permanent, angry contortion. As a result, the public sees their president as an off-putting, angry old man—and in his selfish dotage, an increasingly unsympathetic one. Even after more than 40 months of media hagiography, Joe Biden still cannot poll over a 40 percent approval rating, given that his rudeness is fueled further by the day due to escalating mental confusion.

    Biden is, to be candid, a serial prevaricator. It is not just his ad nauseam repetition of Trump’s supposed slurs—the Charlottesville “both sides” lie, the “suckers” lie, or the “bloodbath” lie. He continues to peddle absolute falsehoods like the mythical nine-percent inflation he inherited and Trump’s supposed intention to ban all abortions, or his whopper that after welcoming in 10 million illegal aliens, Biden would have had a closed, secure border if not for those selfish Republicans who, for some reason, did not trust his ridiculous eleventh-hour, election-timed immigration proposal.

    When he hammers Trump as a “convicted felon,” Biden has no clue that a majority of Americans equate that charge with Biden’s own warped lawfare assault on ancient customs, as well as a reminder that his now closest advisor is likewise a “convicted felon.”

    When Biden rants near daily about the rich “paying their fair share,” he reminds us that his son is also facing federal tax evasion charges for unreported foreign income in the millions of dollars and that as soon as Biden himself leaves office, as a recipient of the same foreign cash, he may find himself in the same legal jeopardy. So, to use a Bidenism, “how dare he” accuse affluent Americans of the very crimes that his own family is knee deep in?

    Biden’s prefaces of “no lie,” “here’s the deal,” “no kidding,” and “no joke” are little more than tics that forewarn us of complete fabrications about to follow, from the ridiculous story of an uncle supposedly eaten by New Guinea cannibals to his supposed heroics during the Civil Rights movement and his near childhood adoption by various minority communities.

    In this regard, senility served oddly as a crutch for Biden. In the past, he paid dearly for his plagiarism, cheating, racist rants, and prevarications, losing three presidential bids and earning a reputation as the empty-suit blowhard of the Senate. Now his press handlers conveniently chalk up his long-standing habitual untruth as momentary mental “confusion.”

    Given all the above, remember that Biden was to be the “savior” of the Democratic Party. To this day, celebrities demanding his withdrawal from the race throw him the bone that “he saved the country by stopping Trump”—as if no wars, stability abroad, no inflation, low interest, and low energy costs were something to fear.

    Yet Biden’s four years pale in comparison to what in 2016 might have been a Harris, Buttigieg, Warren, Booker, or Sanders candidacy or presidency. No wonder Democrats concluded that there were no viable alternatives to a cognitively challenged Biden, precisely because Biden was the only available fig leaf to the new Democratic Party and its neo-socialist agenda—that, if transparent, would have terrified the country that it was soon to nearly destroy.

    Biden’s Democratic critics have it all wrong: removing Biden is wise and needed for the country’s sake, but it will not solve the growing public anger at the left. Without the veneer of even a tottering old Joe from Scranton, there will be no camouflage. And then, the true leftist agenda will be served raw to the American people—open borders, woke/DEI racial polarization, transgendered obsessions, inflation/stagflation, wars a plenty abroad, an inert Pentagon, unaffordable energy, partial-birth abortions, and crazy ideas like packing the court and making Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, states.

    So, what is the Democratic strategy to win the 2024 election?

    Certainly, an “open” convention would not produce a moderate Democratic nominee or even a suitable replacement façade. There are no moderates in contention. If there were any hale candidates to offer cover, the party would be in permanent war with its shrill and angry woke base. Joe is the last of his generation to offer a credible front. There are no more Diane Feinsteins or Bill Clintons to package the hard-left agenda. If Harris cannot serve as Biden’s replacement, someone like her or further to the left would appear on spec.

    The Democrats have no plans to run on their record.

    Their tripartite strategy is as simple as it is tired and worn.

    • First, expect a third chapter to follow the 2016 Russian collusion caper and the 2020 laptop disinformation ruse – likely some October revelation from the administrative state’s “experts” and “authorities” that Trump is a criminal, a traitor, or a spy or plans a coup, to destroy NATO or nuke something. Perhaps there is another Access Hollywood tape, a porn star on ice, anything to avoid discussing the damage done since 2017.

    • Second, there is still a last gasp to a dying lawfare. Never underestimate the last-gasp judicial effort to inactivate, gag, bankrupt, or jail Trump, however counterproductive such attempts so far have proved.

    • Third, when all else fails, remember that in many of the swing states, 70 percent of the electorate will not be voting on Election Day and will not be presenting IDs. Millions of their ballots will be harvested or cured by third-party activists. Last time around, the leftist journalist Molly Ball bragged about their “cabal” and “conspiracy” of big money and big tech that had “saved” Americans from Trump.

    Those post-election confessions were not just high-fiving but also a confident forewarning of what is to come.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/20/2024 – 23:20

  • Eric Weinstein: "It's The Communism Stupid"
    Eric Weinstein: “It’s The Communism Stupid”

    Eric Weinstein, a former managing director of Peter Thiel’s investment firm, Thiel Capital, took to X to explain one of the most under-discussed forces shaping the current US presidential election is the perception of communism.

    Weinstein said the Democratic Party does not identify as a communist. He noted that some see elements of the party’s agenda—such as DEI initiatives, social justice movements, and progressive policies—as precursors to revolutionary Marxism. This view fuels massive support for Donald Trump by notable individuals, such as the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, and his deep network of VCs with ‘enormous checkbooks.’  

    Weinstein said the belief is that the Democratic Party, by embracing progressive causes, is inadvertently promoting a communist agenda aimed at destabilizing capitalism and the American society. This view, although not widely accepted by corporate media, is a pivotal factor in Trump’s surging support. 

    Weinstein’s X post (emphasis ours):

    One of the most important forces shaping the current US presidential election is not being sufficiently discussed: COMMUNISM.

    Because the Democratic Party does not view itself in any way as communist, you can’t have a discussion about the role that communism is playing in support for Donald Trump. How can a Wall-Street friendly party favored by large institutions be communist!?!

    Okay. Begin by just stipulating that this is true for the sake of argument whether or not you agree with it.

    For the moment, imagine that you see all DEI as Marxist and Maoist. Imagine that you see AOC and the squad as communists. Imagine that what you see in terms of ‘social justice’ or ‘wokeness’ or ‘Postmodernism’ or ‘Gender affirming healthcare’ or ‘Palestinian Genocide’ or ‘Soros open society initiatives’ or ‘progressive DAs’ or ‘Anti-Whiteness’ or ‘defund the police’ is straight up precursor to *violent* revolutionary Marxism.

    The people crossing over to the cause of Trump with enormous checkbooks see this EXACTLY the way I have described in the above paragraph. You can pretend that this isn’t so. Maybe they won’t admit it to you or do so in public. But the stark truth of it is that what is driving a lot of surprising support for Trump and the Republicans has nothing to do with either. It’s not all about Trump. Or the GOP.

    It’s about Marx, Mao, Stalin, and Lennin. It is the idea that Revolutionary Marxism is a dangerous brain cancer that is always trying to get a foothold among the weak.

    The idea that is everywhere is this: “The Democratic party of the United States thought they could play with rebranded revolutionary Marxists as if the new communism were merely a form of socially conscious pro-market, pro-democracy liberalism, when it is instead a communist Trojan horse philosophy. It has as its aim, destabilizing and destroying our culture, the United States and then the world. This isn’t a culture war. It is the takeover of the United States by hardcore revolutionary neo-marxists who have come for your newspapers, universities, public schools and your children. The leaders who think they can reach out to ‘progressive’ voters do not realize that they are dancing with a devil who will outplay them.”

    Does that sound silly to you? Great. Glad to hear it.

    And, if so, you have absolutley no idea what is being discussed by many of the world’s smartest, most powerful and most influential people. Constantly.

    Why is this confusing? Well, no one I know sees Joe Biden as communist. They don’t even see the Democratic party leadership as communist. They view the party as opportunistic and naive in thinking that Democrats can allow violent pathological revolutionaries into the big blue tent with a simple coat of blue paint and a bargain basement rebrand to ‘Deconstruct the patriarchy’ and ‘Decolonize’, ‘Defund’, and otherwise ‘Reform’ our society while quietly waiting for their real moment.

    I’m sorry if this sounds funny to some of you who can’t imagine opposing Biden for these reasons. If so, it just means you have no clue…as in ZERO…as to what is going on in a pivotal part of the shift towards Trump.

    I just wanted to bring this up because it is barely being discussed in mainstream media:

    “It’s the Communism stupid.”

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/20/2024 – 22:45

  • COVID Social Distancing Linked To Newborn Mortality And Preterm Births, Study Finds
    COVID Social Distancing Linked To Newborn Mortality And Preterm Births, Study Finds

    Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Pandemic social distancing is linked to higher rates of preterm births and newborn deaths within one to two months, according to a new study.

    (Alena Ozerova/Shutterstock)

    In a study published Thursday in JAMA Network Open, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) evaluated over 18 million births in Alabama from 2016 to 2020, comparing prepandemic years to the period after officials enacted public health restrictions in March 2020.

    The link was not immediately apparent. However, when researchers examined neonatal mortality and preterm rates two months after social distancing was implemented in the population, they found a link between the population’s social distancing behavior and neonatal mortality and preterm births. The neonatal period includes the first four weeks of a baby’s life.

    The study evaluated the “unanticipated effects” of social distancing on infant health outcomes, senior study author Dr. Vivek Shukla, a neonatologist and assistant professor in the UAB Division of Neonatology, told The Epoch Times via email.

    The clinician-researcher said that more research is needed to get a more nuanced understanding of these associations.

    “This study shows that, on a population level, there might be delayed effects of health interventions,” he said. “Sometimes the effects of measures are not evident on the first day the measures are implemented.”

    He added that the study only evaluated how social behavior might have related to health outcomes and did not examine how COVID-19 infections could affect a mother and her child.

    Fewer Prenatal Visits

    The authors said that their findings may be related to disrupted prenatal care and pregnancy complications.

    They observed that during the pandemic, there were fewer prenatal visits and medical checkups during pregnancy, which may have been linked to social distancing behaviors in the population.

    “These appointments are important to catch and address complications that could be life-threatening to both mom and baby,” co-author Dr. Rachel Sinkey, an associate professor in the UAB Division of Maternal–Fetal Medicine, said in a press release.

    According to the American Medical Association, 81 percent of physicians surveyed in July and August 2020 reported providing fewer in-person visits than before the pandemic. The average number of in-person visits fell from 95 to 57 per week.

    Additionally, disease rates, including gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, and induction of labor, as well as neonatal intensive-care unit (ICU) admission, were higher during the pandemic.

    The study found that neonatal mortality rates were generally lower throughout the 2020 pandemic period, but there were slight increases in neonatal mortality and preterm births after the population became more adherent to social distancing practices.

    “COVID-19 affected the health care systems globally, and many lives were lost; it is important to learn from this experience to prepare better for possible future health crises,” said Dr. Shukla.

    “We need to understand how changes in health behavior affected outcomes, whether people had limited access to care or healthy habits were altered.”

    Further Research Needed

    Since the study is only observational, no causal conclusions can be drawn from its findings.

    “The results indicate a need for more in-depth studies on the unintended effects of pandemic-related health behavior changes,” Dr. Shukla said.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/20/2024 – 22:10

  • These Are America's Biggest Gambling States
    These Are America’s Biggest Gambling States

    In 2023, the “commercial gaming industry” which includes casinos and sports betting services collectively earned more than $66 billion, a 10% jump from 2022.

    In the following graphic, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu ranks the top 10 U.S. states by the amount consumers spent on gambling in 2023.

    Data for this graphic and article is sourced from the American Gaming Association.

    Which State Has the Highest Gambling Spend?

    Unsurprisingly, Nevada attracts the most gambling spending in the country at $15 billion. However, Pennsylvania and New Jersey both saw over $5 billion spent in 2023.

    The top 10 states collectively accounted for 74% of America’s total gambling spending in 2023.

    Rank State 2023 Revenue YoY Change
    1 Nevada $15.5B +5%
    2 Pennsylvania $5.9B +10%
    3 New Jersey $5.8B +11%
    4 New York $4.7B +12%
    5 Michigan $3.6B +10%
    6 Ohio $3.3B +42%
    7 Indiana $2.8B -2%
    8 Louisiana $2.7B +4%
    9 Illinois $2.5B +18%
    10 Maryland $2.5B +14%
    11 Mississippi $2.5B -4%
    12 Iowa $1.9B +1%
    13 Missouri $1.9B +1%
    14 Massachusetts $1.7B +47%
    15 Colorado $1.5B +5%
    16 Virginia $1.1B +98%
    17 West Virginia $806M +7%
    18 Rhode Island $708M +3%
    19 Florida $691M 0%
    20 Arkansas $687M +12%
    21 Kansas $588M +23%
    22 Connecticut $580M +39%
    23 Arizona $557M +15%
    24 Delaware $507M +3%
    25 Tennessee $458M +21%
    26 New Mexico $271M +3%
    27 Maine $175M +6%
    28 Oklahoma $151M 0%
    29 South Dakota $148M +3%
    30 Kentucky $112M N/A
    N/A U.S. $66.7B +10%

    Note: Figures rounded.

    The American Gaming Association notes that the commercial gaming industry grew in 32 of the 36 states they cover in their report. Only Washington D.C., Florida, Indiana and Mississippi saw their gambling spending contract.

    Meanwhile, Kentucky legalized sports betting in 2023, (full casinos are still illegal) and immediately saw more than $100 million spent in the year. Ohio, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and Maine also legalized sports betting last year.

    Land-based “traditional” casinos also had a bumper year, attracting nearly $50 billion in gambling spending, up 3% compared to 2022.

    The gambling industry’s revenues have only been growing in the last few years. Access to platforms through smartphones, the 2018 Supreme Court decision that removed restrictions on sports betting, and the pandemic, have all contributed.

    Experts point out that while gambling is “a terrible get-rich-quick scheme for individuals,” it’s a “much better one for states.” Nevada, a state with little in natural resources, is a prime example.

    If you enjoyed this article, check out Visualizing the Tax Burden of Every U.S. State which measures the percent of an average person’s income paid towards local taxes.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/20/2024 – 21:35

  • Top US General Laments 'Failure' Of Yemen Operations As Putin Mulls Arming Houthis
    Top US General Laments ‘Failure’ Of Yemen Operations As Putin Mulls Arming Houthis

    Via Middle East Eye

    The top US commander in the Middle East warned Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that the US’s operations against Houthi fighters in Yemen are “failing” to deter the Iran-backed group from attacking international shipping, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

    In a classified letter, General Michael Erik Kurilla, the head of US Central Command (Centcom), suggested the US should take a more forceful approach against the Houthis, the report said. The letter comes amid fears that Red Sea tensions could draw in Russia. 

    The WSJ cited an exclusive article published by Middle East Eye last month which revealed US intelligence agencies learned Russian President Vladimir Putin has mulled arming Yemen’s Houthis with anti-ship cruise missiles.

    US Navy/DoD file image

    MEE revealed that Putin was dissuaded from the move by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “Putin engaged Mohammed bin Salman who requested them (Russia) not to pursue the arrangement,” the senior US official previously told MEE.

    According to The Wall Street Journal, the Biden administration still believes Putin could pursue the arrangement and is confidently trying to stop Russia from arming the Houthis.

    Fears about the Houthis’ access to potentially more sophisticated weapons are likely to grow, following a drone attack on Tel Aviv on Monday that killed one person and injured several others. The Houthis claimed responsibility for the strike.

    Ukraine and Red Sea

    Russia’s deliberations to step up its involvement adds a new dimension to the conflict. Moscow is upset with US and European military support for Ukraine. Putin said last month that Russia is considering providing long-range missiles to third countries to hit the assets of Nato countries.

    “There is a connection between Russia’s war on Ukraine and the Red Sea,” General Frank Mckenzie, the retired commander of US Central Command, told MEE.

    But aiding the Houthis is not straightforward for Moscow, which enjoys good ties to Sunni Gulf monarchies and Iran, the Houthis main foreign backer. Saudi Arabia and the UAE launched a campaign against the Houthis after Yemen descended into civil war in 2014 amid concerns a Houthi takeover of Yemen would install Tehran’s partners at their borders.

    The Saudi-led coalition launched thousands of air strikes on Yemen which failed to dislodge the Houthis but resulted in thousands of civilian deaths and a major humanitarian crisis. The Houthis responded by lobbing missiles and drones at civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

    Since 2022, an uneasy truce has held between the Houthis and Saudi-backed forces, but Gulf states are alarmed about rising tensions in the Red Sea. The Houthis began attacking commercial ships in November, in what they said was in solidarity with besieged Palestinians in Gaza.

    List of new Houthi targets

    The attacks have upended global trade, forcing shipping companies plying goods between Europe and Asia to take a circuitous route around Africa to avoid Houthi attacks.

    The Houthis have also struck at the core of the US’s great power projection in the region: protecting sea lanes of communication. In January, the US began striking Houthi positions in response to the attacks. MEE reported previously that Houthi fighters have been tapping commercially available maritime intelligence to draw up their target lists in the Red Sea.

    The Houthis have at times hit vessels linked to Russia and Iran, but the group has promised the countries safe passage and has made a point of trying to avoid hitting their vessels, analysts and former maritime officials told MEE.

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    But former senior US officials who spoke to MEE said that within defense circles, there have been complaints that the Biden administration has restricted the US’s ability to hit the Houthis.

    The WSJ reported that Kurilla warned in his letter that “US service members will die if we continue going this way”, as he argued for a more forceful response to Houthi attacks. The report said that Centcom has been instructed to draw up a list of expanded targets, including specific Houthi fighters.

    Houthi attacks died down during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but as fighting between Hezbollah and Israel intensified in June, they have increased.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/20/2024 – 21:00

  • US-Japan Patriot Missile Production Hits Snag On Shortage Of Boeing Part 
    US-Japan Patriot Missile Production Hits Snag On Shortage Of Boeing Part 

    It has become apparent since the Russian invasion and resulting multi-year war in Ukraine that America’s stockpiles of ammunition, from shells to missiles, have been dangerously depleted, and there is a massive need to upgrade and expand weapon production capacity domestically and abroad in allied nations as the world quickly fractures into an uncertain and dangerous multi-polar state.

    This munitions deficiency endangers the US’ ability to fight future wars, and American dominance under the elderly President Biden has greatly suffered. Ronald Reagan would have been disgusted by Biden’s disastrous foreign policy moves, which have only stoked more chaos worldwide. 

    If Trump becomes president for the second time, he will likely restore a sense of American dominance and exceptionalism. This means modernizing America’s Armed Forces and, most importantly, ensuring the West has enough munitions and warfighting capabilities for future wars. 

    However, a new Reuters report suggests that production snags have already been developed in Japan to boost the production of Patriot air defense missiles.

    Sources say supply chain woes have made it challenging for Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to boost Patriot missile production from 30 to 60 per year under a license from defense contractor Lockheed Martin. 

    This could complicate the US plan to increase Patriot missile production from about 500 yearly to more than 750. Sources say the hold-up in Japan is due to a shortage of a critical component manufactured by Boeing that guides the missile to the target in the final stages of flight. 

    “It could take several years before Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is able to raise output” because of the shortage, one of the industry insiders told Reuters. 

    Last year, Boeing began expanding the capacity of the seeker technology in the US, with an annual increase of the critical component reaching about 30%. However, the new production lines won’t be operational until 2027. 

    “The production snag in Japan shows the challenges Washington faces in plugging industrial help from its global allies into its complex supply chains,” Reuters pointed out.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/20/2024 – 20:25

  • Carnegie Mellon University Prof Says Trump Assassination Attempt Was "Staged" Like "Stupid Tubi Movie Set"
    Carnegie Mellon University Prof Says Trump Assassination Attempt Was “Staged” Like “Stupid Tubi Movie Set”

    By Emma Arns of CampusReform

    A professor at Carnegie Mellon University took to social media after the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump and suggested that the shooting was “staged,” suggesting that the shooter was part of a “stupid show.”

    Uju Anya, an associate professor of second language acquisition at Carnegie Mellon University, made the comments just hours after the attempted assassination.

    “People dying doesn’t make the attack any less staged. Someone who thought the attack was real could’ve killed others trying to prevent harm. Also, someone could’ve shot the shooter to hide the plot,” associate professor of second language acquisition, Uju Anya, tweeted.

    “Politicians kill all the time and kill many more people to steal power,” she added. “And people died behind this farce. Actual people’s lives gone for them to stage this stupid show.”

    Anya currently teaches and conducts research primarily “examining race, gender, sexual, and social class identities in new language learning through the experiences of African American students,” according to her website. 

    “It was staged. Like a stupid Tubi movie set in the Bronx with palm trees in the background,” she added.

    “They lie, and people die. That’s exactly what they do. That’s the record. Whatever ‘attack’ on him they set up to stoke his followers’ fears and sentiments, threat and persecution has now cost lives,” Anya said.

    When an X user commented “someone is dead,” Anya responded, “a dead person can’t reveal the setup.”

    Trump was grazed by a bullet Saturday at his Pennsylvania rally. The gunman was taken down by Trump’s Secret Service team, and Corey Comperatore, an attendee, was killed.

    Anya considers herself an “antiracist” a “feminist” and an ally of the LGBT+ community, as referenced in her X account biography.

    She is also the author of two books, “Racialized identities in second language learning” and “Racial equity on college campuses”.

    Campus Reform has reached out to Anya and Carnegie Mellon University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/20/2024 – 19:50

  • If You're Going To Take A Bribe (You Shouldn't), At Least Get Gold
    If You’re Going To Take A Bribe (You Shouldn’t), At Least Get Gold

    Authored by Mike Maharrey via Money Metals,

    On July 16, a jury convicted Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) on 16 counts, including wire fraud, bribery, and extortion.

    According to the indictment, the senator and his wife took bribes, including 13 gold bars, from New Jersey businessmen with Egyptian ties. 

    According to court documents, the Sen. and Mrs. Menendez accepted the gold, along with cash and an automobile from three prominent Egyptian businessmen in exchange for the senator’s influence. Menendez also allegedly provided “sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt,” as part of the bribery scheme. 

    According to the indictment, a June 2022 raid at the couple’s New Jersey home found “over $480,000 in cash – much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe.” Police also found two 1-kg gold bars along with 11 1-ounce gold bars.

    At the time of the indictment, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Menendez and his wife wielded “power and influence to protect and enrich the businessmen and benefit the government of Egypt.”

    After the conviction, Williams said, “This case has always been about shocking levels of corruption.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes, including gold, cash, and a Mercedes-Benz. This wasn’t politics as usual; this was politics for profit.”

    Menendez continues to maintain his innocence, saying he was “deeply disappointed” in the jury’s decision. 

    “I have never violated my oath. I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country. I have never, ever been a foreign agent,” he said.

    Menendez’s attorney claimed the cash and gold weren’t bribes but gifts to the couple in “lean times.” In his closing arguments, he asserted, “His actions were lawful, normal, and good for the country.”

    Gold: A Solid Bribe

    If you’re going to accept a bribe (and you shouldn’t) getting it in gold is the way to go.

    According to the indictment, “Multiple gold bars provided by Daibes (one of the Egyptian businessmen) were found during the court-authorized June 2022 search of the couple’s home.” It also says the senator performed a web search for “how much is one kilo of gold worth.”

    At the time of the indictment in June 2022, the spot price of gold averaged around $1,800 an ounce. Menendez received just over 81 ounces of gold in the bribery scheme. At the June 2022 price, it was worth over $145,800. 

    Here’s the kicker – gold holds its value and even appreciates over time. Unlike the $480,000 in cash Menendez received, the gold is worth a lot more today than it was then.

    Today, those gold bars are worth $200,475. That’s a 37.5 percent increase!

    Meanwhile, the $480,000 in 2022 cash is only worth $452,755 today thanks to price inflation.

    During the Republican Convention, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) quipped, “Inflation has gotten so bad, you can no longer bribe Democrat senators with cash alone. You have to use gold bars just so the bribes hold value.”

    Gaetz has a point. If you’re going to take a bribe (don’t), get it in gold.

    There are some other advantages of getting bribed in gold instead of dollars. It effectively packs a lot of dollars into a very small space. It’s easy to store and transport. It’s virtually impossible to destroy. Gold is also liquid. Menendez wouldn’t have had any problem selling his gold bars — if he had not gotten nailed by authorities.

    One word of caution: if you accept gold as a bribe (don’t) you should make sure the gold is real. There are a lot of shady people out there, and let’s be honest, if someone is offering you a bribe, they’re probably shady. So, you want to be careful so you don’t get scammed.

    Let me be clear: you really shouldn’t take bribes. But if you do (don’t), get it in gold. It will maintain its value over time even in this crazy world of inflation!

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/20/2024 – 18:40

  • White House Mulling Sanctions On Hardline Israeli Ministers Smotrich & Ben-Gvir
    White House Mulling Sanctions On Hardline Israeli Ministers Smotrich & Ben-Gvir

    The White House has over the last several months imposed a series of sanctions against small Israeli settler groups accused of committing human rights abuses against Palestinians and of stealing land. These are so limited (largely amounting to restrictions on travel to the US) that they are largely seen as merely symbolic.

    There are new reports in Israeli media saying the Biden administration is mulling a big next step: sanctioning top Israeli government ministers who are known to encourage and support radical settler groups in the West Bank.

    Via Flash90

    The Jerusalem Post reports that Biden’s National Security Council held a meeting days ago to discuss strategies to thwart expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

    Among the plans reportedly discussed was the possibility of sanctions on hardline and outspoken Netanyahu coalition ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir. Not only have these two officials frequently made incendiary remarks seen as exacerbating the Gaza crisis, but they openly encourage Israelis to move in on Palestinian land.

    The two actually oversee Israeli government policy in Judea and Samaria, where some of the most extreme settler groups have a significant presence.

    Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have also regularly denounced the ‘weakness’ of Biden administration policy on the Gaza crisis in the wake of the Oct.7 terror attacks on southern Israel. 

    The have both claimed that Biden is ‘helping Hamas’:

    Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stated bluntly that the strong American opposition would only reinvigorate Israel’s drive to eliminate Hamas.

    “We must continue this war until victory, despite, and to a certain extent precisely because of, the opposition of the administration Biden and the stopping of arms shipments,” he said in a statement. “We simply have no other choice that does not endanger our existence and security.”

    National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a firebrand who leads the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, tweeted simply that “Hamas [loves] Biden.”

    With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expected in Washington next week, where he’ll address Congress and likely meet with President Biden, the US will more than likely not trigger a full-on diplomatic crisis with its closest regional ally by sanctioning its top ministers at this time.

    Relations have already been tense of late…

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    A possible future Trump administration would also surely reverse any possible sanctions. Trump’s team has vowed to given Israel whatever it needs to eradicate Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in the ongoing Gaza operations.

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

  • "Vast DEI Bureaucracy" Hurting U.S. Armed Forces; ASU Study Finds
    “Vast DEI Bureaucracy” Hurting U.S. Armed Forces; ASU Study Finds

    By Cameron Arcand of The College Fix

    A new Arizona State University study suggests that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts in the United States military are ineffective.

    The study done by the university’s Center for American Institutions argued that there is a emphasis on training new soldiers about social issues like “unconscious bias” and “intersectionality” in a way the center says runs contrary to typical American ideals. The study examined DEI plan’s in different sector of the military, including DEI office staffing and education at academies like West Point.

    “The massive DEI bureaucracy, its training and its pseudo-scientific assessments are at best distractions that absorb valuable time and resources,” the executive summary states. “At worst they communicate the opposite of the military ethos: e.g. that individual demographic differences come before team and mission.”

    Donald Critchlow, director of the center, wrote in the introduction it was focused on looking at the influence of Critical Race Theory in the United States Armed Forces training.

    “The Commission on Civic Education in the Military began as a project to review civic education in the military. Our research team did not expect to find Critical Race Theory so embedded and pervasive. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs are found throughout the U.S. Armed Forces and our service academies,” Critchlow wrote. “This year long study documents just how pervasive these training programs are in our Armed Forces and Service Academies and that DEI extends well beyond just formal training programs in the military and service academies.”

    “The Founders of our nation understood and feared a politicized military. History had shown them that a politicized army easily became the tool of tyranny. The Armed Forces of the United States has proudly upheld this long tradition of separating mission from politics,” he continued.

    In terms of recommendations, the study suggests that DEI offices be completely scrapped, but said it may be politically unlikely for the time being.

    “The surest way to eliminate the concerning trends we have identified, and the growth of race and sex-based scapegoating and stereotyping in the U.S. military, is to altogether end the DEI bureaucracy there,” the study states. “However, until such a time as the executive or legislative branches of the government choose to end the DEI bureaucracy in our federal agencies and military, we are left to advocate the pursuit of alternative avenues that may affect positive change despite existing policies.”

    They also suggested the military prioritize civic education with a focus on “America’s commitment to freedom and opportunity.”

    The study comes as some branches of the military continue to struggle with recruiting new service members.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/20/2024 – 17:30

  • Bangladesh Issues 'Shoot-On-Sight-Order' As Deadly Student-Led Protests Spiral
    Bangladesh Issues ‘Shoot-On-Sight-Order’ As Deadly Student-Led Protests Spiral

    Weeks-long protests in Bangladesh led by students have descended into increasing violence amid severe economic woes and a new controversial law widely seen as unfairly rewarding supporters of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party with lucrative government jobs.

    Since early June, campus-based protests have called for a complete shutdown of the country until the new policy is repealed. A High Court ruling at the start of the summer came down in favor of a quota system which secures 30% of government jobs for family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

    Getty Images

    The student protesters have demanded a system based on merit. A series of initially peaceful university protests resulted in increasingly chaotic scenes and clashes with police, resulting in casualties. From there protests have grown nation-wide.

    Deaths among protesters have grown into the dozens, with the police reporting casualties as well. Some reports say over 100 demonstrators have died and that this figure is climbing by the day.

    Communications have been intermittently disrupted for the nation of 170 million people as authorities desperately try to gain control of the situation.

    Authorities have also escalated, as of Saturday allowing security forces to use live-fire to put down protests:

    Police imposed a strict curfew with a “shoot-on-sight” order across Bangladesh as military forces patrolled parts of the capital Saturday after scores were killed and hundreds injured in clashes over the allocation of civil service jobs.

    The curfew began at midnight and was relaxed from noon to 2 p.m. for people to run essential errands, and is expected to last until 10 a.m. Sunday, allowing officers to fire on mobs in extreme cases, said lawmaker Obaidul Quader, the general secretary of the ruling Awami League party.

    Police and military checkpoints have been set up in the streets of the capital Dhaka in order to enforce the curfew.

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    It’s essentially a state of martial law, with one eyewitness saying, “The public is anxious as people didn’t expect the army to be deployed. But some people are also relieved because there is a great deal of respect for the army in Bangladesh.”

    And an Al Jazeera correspondent has described, “There are a lot of ordinary people who are supporting the students. There’s a great degree of frustration in the country right now and many people don’t accept this government and feel like the prime minister came to power by force.”

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    The government has meanwhile accused opposition parties of stoking the unrest, and has condemned the destruction of property and further pointed out some 300 police officers have been injured.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/20/2024 – 16:55

  • "Many Educators Portrayed Trump As An Existential Threat. Moving Forward, A Narrative Shift Is Essential"
    “Many Educators Portrayed Trump As An Existential Threat. Moving Forward, A Narrative Shift Is Essential”

    By Jared Gould of Minding the Campus

    American Education: Public, Popular, And Polarizing

    We may never know what motivated Thomas Matthew Crooks to become Trump’s would-be assassin, but as we seek answers, we must recognize the role educators across the country have played in perpetuating a discourse that fuels animosity and normalizes political violence. Specifically, many educators have portrayed Trump as an existential threat to America. Moving forward, a narrative shift is essential.

    Days before the attempted assassination, retired Seattle teacher Michael McSweeney penned an editorial in the The News Tribune, expressing concern that Trump may win the presidency again, issuing a dramatic “apology” to former students, admitting he had misled them about the U.S. government’s checks and balances. “I lied to you because I never could have imagined one person as evil and dangerous as Trump could ever be elected president,” McSweeney wrote, echoing the ideological stance many educators have taken since Trump rode the golden escalator.

    In 2016, when I was a freshman history student at the University of Southern Mississippi, professor Dr. Tyler used her lecture on World War II to draw a comparison between Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan and Hitler’s rhetoric, alleging that Hitler said, “Make Germany Great Again.” How could impressionable students interpret this intellectually dishonest comparison as anything other than equating Trump with an evil dictator?

    This sentiment wasn’t unique to my college in South Mississippi.

    A year later, College Fix reported that University of Southern California professor Charles H.F. Davis defended controversial tweets that included obscenities directed at President Donald Trump and calls for the destruction of “whiteness” and the “white supremacist heterosexist patriarchy.” Davis, then an assistant professor and Chief Strategy Officer at the USC Race and Equity Center, argued that Trump’s rhetoric and policies embody oppressive systems. His Twitter background photo showed a black woman shooting a pig dressed in a police uniform.

    Even after the horrific events of this past weekend, this rhetoric persists. 

    Louise A. Kelly, an associate professor of exercise science at California Lutheran University, posted on Facebook her hope for another assassination attempt, even wishing to assassinate Trump herself. Stacey Patton, an associate professor at Morgan State University, wrote that she hoped the attempt was successful and argued that killing Trump would be justified because “Republicans are racist”—minorities did incredibly well under the Trump administration.  

    The same rhetoric surfaced in Crooks’s neck of the woods. In 2019, a Pennsylvania middle school teacher had to apologize to parents after assigning homework in which students pretended to be refugees amid a scenario where President Trump was attempting to seize control of the country.

    Without a doubt, this education has profoundly warped the minds of young people everywhere.

    A young TikTok user recorded herself screaming into her phone, angry that Crooks missed. In an interview by Timecast News another seemingly young woman, who claimed to be born in the Soviet Union and has a hammer and sickle tattoo on her shoulder, says, “It’s a shame the person missed.” Others have recorded themselves summoning John Wilkes Booth, whose spirit might help a future assassin. 

    This should surprise no one. Educators have contributed, in the most inappropriate ways, to our political discourse. If anything, the attempt on Trump’s life is a clear wake up call that educators must change their tone.

    Amidst dangerous rhetoric and ideas, educators should uphold our republic’s principles. Political differences and passionate debates should not escalate to violence; instead, educators should inspire civil discourse, respectful disagreement, and peaceful solutions.

    I hope the trail ahead is better. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/20/2024 – 16:20

  • Speaker Johnson Threatens To Arrest Lawmakers Who Disrupt Netanyahu's Congress Speech
    Speaker Johnson Threatens To Arrest Lawmakers Who Disrupt Netanyahu’s Congress Speech

    Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address Congress at the invitation of Republicans on July 24. Several Democratic lawmakers have announced their intent to boycott the speech, citing what they say are ongoing human rights abuses and war crimes by the Israeli military (IDF) in Gaza.

    Additionally, this week 230 anonymous staff members have signed a letter urging a Congressional protest or boycott. According to The Hill, this includes staff from Republican congressional offices as well… “across 122 Democratic and Republican offices,” it says. The letter was organized by the Congressional Progressive Staff Association.

    House Speaker Mike Johnson has put the body on notice, threatening to arrest anyone who is protesting or displaying unruly behavior. 

    Via AP

    “There are a number of Democrats in the House who have said they’re going to boycott that event. Some others may protest,” Johnsons told an audience of the Republican Jewish Coalition on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee earlier this week.

    “We’re going to have extra sergeants at arms on the floor. If anybody gets out of hand… We’re going to arrest people if we have to do it,” he added.

    As for the Congressional Progressive Staff Association’s letter, it reads as follows: 

    “Citizens, students, and lawmakers across the country and the world have spoken out against the actions of Mr. Netanyahu in his War on Gaza,” the letter says.

    “Israelis have been protesting in the streets for months, decrying his failure to negotiate a ceasefire and release of hostages. We hope you will join your fellow Members of Congress in protest at his speech or in refusing to attend it.”

    There are some 100 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus in the House and Senate, and the majority or even all of them are expected to boycott or possibly protest the speech. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the country’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, have called on Congressional security officers to refuse Johnson’s directive.

    In the wake of Johnson’s crackdown threat, some pundits have highlighted that he’s a big recipient of funds from America’s foremost Israeli lobby…

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    It remains an open question whether Netanyahu will meet with President Biden, given especially his Covid diagnosis amid the full-blown White House crisis of his staying the course and running again. 

    Biden is meanwhile under pressure to show some serious progress in Doha-sponsored peace talks. On Friday there are once again claims that the two sides are at the “goal line” of reaching a deal, but similar headlines have been echoed on and off again for months. 

    About 120 hostages remains in Hamas and Islamic Jihad (PIJ) captivity, and Netanyahu too has faced immense domestic pressure to achieve a ceasefire deal and gain freedom for the captives. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/20/2024 – 15:45

  • Gov. Pritzker's Role In The Extreme Rhetoric Surrounding Donald Trump
    Gov. Pritzker’s Role In The Extreme Rhetoric Surrounding Donald Trump

    By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner of Wirepoints

    The language of politics is nasty and in recent years it’s become extreme. Many even link the assassination attempt on Donald Trump to the rhetoric that’s enveloped this presidential election. We won’t go that far, as vile language does not equal assassination attempts and free speech deserves to be fiercely protected, no matter how offensive it may get between politicians.

    But what can’t be ignored is the damage done to the social fabric of the nation by the name-calling that condemns massive swaths of the American population as racist, fascist or a “threat to our country,” which our own governor is guilty of doing. In the last two years, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has increasingly betrayed his own ideology of “inclusiveness” with a growing attack on nearly half the country. His vitriol has become destructive.

    Gov. Pritzker is a leading voice in today’s Democratic Party and a major surrogate for President Biden and his own messaging. Pritzker’s words matter. When he calls Trump a “threat to our democracy” and accuses him of fascism and authoritarianism, Pritzker knows he’s effectively labeling the 70 million-plus MAGA Republicans the same because of their support for Trump. It’s not the name-calling itself that matters, but rather the impact such language has on the left. Pritzker is telling his half of the country there should be and can be no compromise, no cooperation with the other “fascist” half. It’s polarizing to the extreme.

    Pritzker’s rhetoric became more extreme when he began hinting at presidential ambitions. During his first presidential preview speech in New Hampshire, he remarked: “Let me be clear, I loathe Donald Trump. Every stump speech I delivered in my 2018 campaign began with ‘Everything we care about is under siege by a racist, misogynist, homophobic xenophobic president.’” The crowd cheered, and since then he’s upped his rhetoric even further.

    Pritzker’s latest speeches and tweets go so far as to call Trump a “threat to the nation” as well as declare “right wing extremism” a threat to “our democracy and our freedoms.” Today, the governor is the Democrats’ main attack dog, if the New York Times headline “This Top Democrat Is Leading His Party’s Attack on Trump as a Felon,” is any indication.

    Pritzker’s personal attacks against Trump have escalated to tying MAGA to fascism. Just last year, the governor told listeners at the Illinois state fair: Illinois Democrats have done more in the last five years to push back on the wave of authoritarian, anti-democratic MAGA Republican nonsense than in any other place in the country…leave it to us to raise the tallest flag in the fight against modern American fascism.” 

    Pritzker also accused MAGA Republicans of stirring up hatred after his Chicago home was vandalized in October of last year: “The divisions across the country, which are being fomented by the MAGA Republicans led by their MAGA Republican leader Donald Trump, are causing people to feel that there’s a hatred, that it’s okay to act upon if they disagree with you on an issue.” 

    Even disagreements on policy issues are now an existential threat to democracy. Think Big America, Pritzker’s national abortion-rights organization, declared “Far-right extremism” – defined as “being against abortion” now “threatens our democracy and our freedoms.” 

    And Trump himself is a “threat” to the country, according to Pritzker: “Donald Trump is a racist, a homophobe, a grifter and a threat to this country. He can now add one more title to his list — a felon.”

    Pritzker has been relentless. Just a month before the fateful Trump rally in Pennsylvania, the governor tweeted his longest list of invectives yet: “Donald Trump is a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist, and a congenital liar. He’s a racist, sexist, misogynistic narcissist who wants to use the levers of power to enrich himself and punish anyone who dares speak a word against him.”

    The attempted assassination has caused the Democratic Party and Gov. Pritzker to pull their punches – at least for now. They’ve canceled a planned series of attack ads that were set to run during the Republican National Convention. And Pritzker’s own planned appearance in Milwaukee has also been scrubbed.

    The peace won’t last long. Gov. Pritzker’s national image – and his potential hopes for the presidency – are too closely entwined with his anti-Trump crusade for him to abandon it for long. 

    In fact, the governor was already back to the personal insults just three days after the assassination attempt:

    “I have never, and never would call for any political violence. And you can take that to the bank. That’s not anything that I’ve ever advocated. I think that there’s always hot competition in the world of ideas, in the political world. And so we all advance our own ideas and when their ideas are bad ones, we call them out.

    But it’s still true that Donald Trump is a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist, has been a congenital liar and is unfit for the office of President of the United States.”

    Not even an assassination attempt can temper Gov. Pritzker. That’s quite revealing.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/20/2024 – 15:10

  • Trump Tells Zelensky He'll "Bring Peace" In "Very Good Call"
    Trump Tells Zelensky He’ll “Bring Peace” In “Very Good Call”

    Former President Trump has again declared he will “bring peace” following a rare phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday, which comes as world leaders prepare for a likely second Trump administration. 

    Trump in a readout hailed it as a “very good phone call” wherein Zelensky congratulated him on a “very successful” Republican National Convention and becoming the Republican nominee for US President.

    Zelensky during the call condemned the “heinous” assassination attempt which targeted Trump, slightly wounding his ear, and praised American unity in the aftermath.

    Trump apparently pushed a theme of the urgency of negotiations to end the war with Russia in the call:

    “I appreciate President Zelenskyy for reaching out because I, as your next President of the United States, will bring peace to the world and end the war that has cost so many lives and devastated countless innocent families,” Trump wrote.

    “Both sides will be able to come together and negotiate a deal that ends the violence and paves a path forward to prosperity.”

    Zelensky similarly shared on X that he wished the former president and Republican nominee “strength and absolute safety in the future.”

    “I noted the vital bipartisan and bicameral American support for protecting our nation’s freedom and independence,” Zelensky said. “Ukraine will always be grateful to the United States for its help in strengthening our ability to resist Russian terror.”

    He also said he agreed with Trump to at some point discuss “at a personal meeting what steps can make peace fair and truly lasting.” In general, the Ukrainian side liked what it heard, and responded positively, per Politico:

    A person close to Zelenskyy who requested anonymity to discuss the private conversation said it went “exceedingly well” and that Trump pledged to “achieve a just peace in Ukraine” if he wins back the White House.

    Zelensky and his top officials within the last year have excoriated peace proposals and statements coming from Trump and his team, earlier strongly suggesting Trump is naive. The Ukrainian leader has more than once even invited Trump to come to his war-ravaged country in order to “see for himself” the nature of Russia’s war there.

    NATO at the same time has sought to “Trump-proof” the alliance’s long-term funding commitments to Ukraine, on fears that Washington support could soon drastically pull back. Trump has in the past blamed Biden’s weak standing on the world stage for allowing the Russian invasion to happen in the first place.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/20/2024 – 14:35

  • Putting The National Debt Into Perspective We Can All Understand
    Putting The National Debt Into Perspective We Can All Understand

    Authored by Mike Maharrey via Money Metals,

    The federal government ran another big deficit in June, as the national debt inches closer to $35 trillion.

    $35 trillion USD.

    Trillion with a ‘T.’ 

    That’s an unfathomable number. It’s meaningless to most people. We simply can’t comprehend a number that big.

    Let’s try to put the $34.9 trillion national debt into perspective.

    According to the National Debt Clock, every American citizen would have to write a check for $103,565 to pay off the national debt. 

    Of course, a lot of people don’t pay taxes. That means the taxpayer burden is much higher. Every U.S. taxpayer would have to write a check for $266,953 to wipe out the debt.  And that’s on top of the taxes we already pay!

    To put it another way, $35 trillion is more than the total economies of China, Japan, Germany, and the UK combined.

    Visualizing 1 Trillion

    1,000,000,000,000

    It’s hard to wrap your head around how big 1 trillion is, much less 35 trillion. Here are a few factoids to help you visualize just how big that number is:

    • There are 1 million seconds in 11.5 days. A trillion seconds is about 32,000 years. 
    • If you could say one number every second, it would take about 11.5 million days to count to 1 trillion. 
    • If you had spent $1 million every day since the birth of Christ, you still wouldn’t have spent $1 trillion.
    • If you line up dollar bills end-to-end, you could go to the moon and back around 203 times with $1 trillion. You could wrap them around the earth about 3,893 times.
    • If you stacked up 1 trillion dollar bills, the dollar tower would rise to 67,866 miles.
    • If a cup of coffee costs $3, you could buy 333 billion cups of coffee with $1 trillion. 
    • If you had 1 trillion dollars, you could give every person on Earth approximately $125.
    • One trillion grains of rice would weigh about 20,000 metric tons. 

    Keep in mind that all of these examples only illustrate the size of $1 trillion. The national debt is nearly 35 times that number.

    James Madison once called a large national debt a “public curse.”

    “I go on the principle that a Public Debt is a Public curse and in a Rep. Govt. a greater than in any other.”

    We’re certainly cursed to the tune of $35 trillion USD.

    Thomas Jefferson said he considered “public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.”

    In his Farewell Address, George Washington urged us to use debt sparingly – and, get this, actually pay it off as quickly as possible!

    “As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it.”

    We failed to heed the warning of the Anti-federalist writer Brutus.

    “I can scarcely contemplate a greater calamity that could befall this country, than to be loaded with a debt exceeding their ability ever to discharge. If this be a just remark, it is unwise and improvident to vest in the general government a power to borrow at discretion, without any limitation or restriction.”

    And here we are.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/20/2024 – 14:00

  • Israeli Jets Strike Houthi-Controlled Port City Following Tel Aviv Drone Attack
    Israeli Jets Strike Houthi-Controlled Port City Following Tel Aviv Drone Attack

    For the first time since the Israel–Hamas war erupted last October, the Israeli military has deployed fighter jets to strike Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. This action follows an incident where the rebels penetrated Tel Aviv airspace with a kamikaze drone (also for the first time) on Friday, resulting in the death of one civilian. 

    Huthi official Mohammed Abdulsalam posted on social media that a “brutal Israel aggression against Yemen” had just occurred. He noted that the airstrikes hit “fuel storage facilities and a power plant” in the Yemeni port of Hodeida “to pressure Yemen to stop supporting” Palestinians in the Gaza war. 

    Footage of the attack has surfaced on X by early Saturday afternoon. 

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    Axios reports US and Israeli officials confirmed the Israeli Air Force strikes in retaliation for the Houthi drone strike in Tel Aviv on Friday morning, killing one and wounding eight more. We noted that this Houthi drone strike risked “sparking escalation of warfare between Yemen’s Houthis, Hezbollah, and the State of Israel.”

    “This attack makes it crystal clear to the Houthis and Iranians that strategic, energy-linked economic targets are fair game in retaliation for attacks on Israeli strategic locations like Tel Aviv,” Scott Modell, CEO of Rapidan Energy Group, tells us. 

    Modell points out, “The Houthis are really taking a big risk because any tankers who supply them will now be in the crosshairs for retaliatory attacks by Israel. The US & NATO allies will continue to do practically nothing.” 

    Mario Nawfal on X points out that Israel destroyed Yemen’s main port: 

    Israeli airstrikes on Hodeidah port reportedly killed dozens and crippled the Houthis’ ability to unload containers. Hodeidah port is a crucial lifeline for Yemen, handling 70% of the country’s imports, including vital humanitarian aid. This strategic blow aims to disrupt supplies and intensify pressure on Yemen.

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    Axios cited a senior Israeli official who said the strike on the port was ‘purely Israeli action.’ 

    “This was a targeted operation at the port of Hodeida. We carried out the strike after many months of restraint in the face of Houthi attacks that included the firing of dozens of items, including surface-to-surface missiles,” the official said.

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    Furthermore, Houthis have been increasing their aerial and surface drone attacks on the critical maritime chokepoint in the southern Red Sea, which has disrupted global shipping, sending the capacity of containers lower while pushing freight costs higher. The Biden administration’s Operation Prosperity Guardian has failed to secure the maritime route so far.  

    Sigh… 

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    *This story is developing. Please check back for updates. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/20/2024 – 13:30

  • Court Blocks Ariz. Illegals From Registering To Vote… Until September
    Court Blocks Ariz. Illegals From Registering To Vote… Until September

    Authored by Jacob Burns via Headline USA,

    A voting sign points voters in the right direction to drop off early ballots in Phoenix. / PHOTO: AP

    In a decision released Thursday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals determined that illegal immigrants were not allowed to vote in Arizona.

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    However, the ruling will apply only through the primary elections, Votebeat Arizona reported.

    With an appeals court scheduled to hear the case in September, it leaves open the possibility that the Gov. Katie Hobbs’s outrageous election-law loophole to let illegals vote in federal races may yet be reversed ahead of the Nov. 5 general election, with little time left afterward to seek additional remedy.

    The current Arizona law inexplicably requires proof of citizenship for state elections but not for federal ones. With Democrats currently in control, recent advertisements actively encouraged illegal immigrants to fill out applications for ballots, warning them that without ID they would only be sent the federal ballot.

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    The 9th Circuit’s temporary stay requires those registering to vote in the state have to provide proof of citizenship for federal elections as well.

    The Circuit Court in any case reversed the decision of a lower court, which had argued that the National Voter Registration Act preempted the need for proof of citizenship with respect to voting in federal elections in particular, even if the State of Arizona could still require it for state and local elections.

    Arizona State Senate President Warren Petersen said the ruling was a victory for those who care about free and fair elections.

    “Only U.S. citizens should be allowed to vote in our elections,” he wrote in response.

    “It sounds like common sense, but the radical left elected officials in our state continue to reject this notion, disrespecting the voices of our lawful Arizona voters.”

    According to Petersen, however, the only way to adequately address the issue in the long run is for the United States Congress to act.

    “We are grateful the court is upholding this provision in our law, and it’s time for Congress to take action to ensure only lawful U.S. citizens are voting in federal races,” he concluded.

    Not all were pleased with the ruling. Progressive Arizona election lawyer Jim Barton called the ruling “bad news,” because it may mean lower voter turnout if only citizens can vote.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/20/2024 – 12:50

  • We Are On The Edge
    We Are On The Edge

    Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

    At the beginning of the year, I not only laid out 24 stocks that I would be watching for the year based on what I thought the macro environment would do, but I also detailed gold and miners as what I would buy if I had to narrow things down to one trade only.

    It’s been a great first six months for this potential trade, with the VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX) up about 24% and the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) ETF up about 19%, roughly the same as spot gold which opened January at $2062 and now sits over $2470.

    I was reading the news last night and, taking into account how odd trading in the market has been over the last two sessions, I presented myself with the same question:

    If I had to put on one trade right now for the rest of the year and narrow it down to one position, what would I do?

    I think the answer is simply that it would be long volatility or long the VIX in some way right now. Not only are we simply due for an enormous spike in the VIX, but there’s also no shortage of catalysts that can make it happen over the next six months, in my opinion.

    We took the next step in the President Joe Biden freak show yesterday when, just six hours after President Biden said he would consider dropping out of the race if a medical condition emerged, he “coincidentally” announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19 later in the evening. Then, despite testing positive, Biden was seen walking around without a mask on. And you guys wonder why I write entire articles dedicated to the Democratic party’s inability to finesse their strategies…

    Regardless, after a week or two of Biden appearing as though he may have once gaian firmed up his grip on the nomination, especially given the news regarding Trump’s assassination attempt usurping the news cycle, it once again appears as though his party is turning on him.

    Politico was out with an article yesterday saying that the Democratic Party, led by Nancy Pelosi, is ‘convinced Biden will lose’. Democratic leaders like Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Chuck Schumer, and Hakeem Jeffries are all now reported to have suggested that Biden step aside. And, in a crucial difference, headlines started to break late last night and early this morning that Biden was “receptive” to the idea and had queried his team as to whether or not Vice President Airhead had a better shot of beating Donald Trump in the general election than he did

    Also politically, although I have publicly encouraged otherwise, the temperature surrounding the Donald Trump assassination attempt continues to have everybody in the country on guard.

    With five months left until the election, it is only common sense to believe that other “surprise” political news could emerge. Except, this time when it does, the country will already be in a heightened state of alert due to the events of the last week. This makes it more likely than normal that we would see volatility related to the upcoming election, in my opinion.

    🔥 50% OFF FOR LIFE: Zero Hedge readers take 50% off a Fringe Finance annual subscription for life by using this link: ZH50

    On top of that, the stock market as a whole is starting to show signs of weak knees, as I’ve been predicting would happen as a result of interest rate hikes for the better part of the last two years. One sign of approaching volatility in markets isn’t always that stocks go down quickly, but that they sometimes swing wildly both up and down—something we saw this week after the Dow 700+ points in one day, only to see tech stocks collapse the most since 2022 in the next session.

    The rotation from technology to industrial stocks and boring value stocks that I talked about just days ago in my portfolio review appears to be taking place. Check out the 6% divergence all of a sudden over the last two sessions.

    Either way, this volatility in markets could continue not only as a result of said rotation, but also eventually as a result of the economy’s gears locking up and high-interest rates finally wreaking havoc. As we get closer and closer to the first rate cut, I continue to believe that this could be the ultimate “sell the news” event and could mark the beginning of a large correction in equity markets.

    As a reminder, all of this is taking place at a time when the country has unsustainable levels of debt, a growing deficit, out of control spending and is entering a period of fiscal dominance.

    On top of the election and the market, all of the standard risks I pointed out at the beginning of the year remain in place: you have President Biden creating turmoil by restricting Chinese chip manufacturers, we still have an emerging conflict between China and Taiwan, Israel is still engulfed in its conflict in the Middle East, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is still begging the United States for more money to perpetuate the country’s non-stop conflict with Russia.

    Finally, we still have a wildcard with the BRICS nations potentially challenging the US dollar, and one of our closest allies in the dollar, Saudi Arabia, drifting away from the petrodollar. This is a catalyst that would likely take years to develop to a point where it would have a meaningful impact, but in my opinion, the gears are whirring away in the background, and just because we can’t see the consequences yet doesn’t mean that we should ignore this potential seismic change in progress.

    For me, it’s just a numbers game. If I had to look at the trade that has the “most ways to win,” I’m not sure anything else right now has a better setup than being long volatility. Since COVID, the VIX has been trading systematically lower and lower while markets have done nothing but go higher and higher, both in defiance of a very risky macro environment. We are so overdue for a “CNBC anchor meltdown style market move lower” that it hurts.

    QTR’s Disclaimer: Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only. In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. These positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I’m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 07/20/2024 – 11:40

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Jul 20

Today’s News 20th July 2024

  • The Ballot Or The Bullet
    The Ballot Or The Bullet

    Authored by Michael Kochin via American Greatness,

    Saturday’s attempted assassination of President Trump killed one rallygoer, a father of two who died shielding his children from the assassin, and critically wounded two others. President Trump miraculously escaped with a slight wound in one ear, and in the photo of the century, he stood up from under the swarm of secret service agents, literally bloody but unbowed, raised his right hand in a fist, and mouthed, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

    Some of Mr. Trump’s partisan critics attacked Mr. Trump’s “violent rhetoric.”

    Of course, none of them squawked when President Biden said on Monday before the attack that “we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.” 

    We do not know, and may never know, whether the murderer perceived that he was simply following an order from his Commander in Chief.

    It is time to man up, stop blaming others, and figure out what we ourselves have done or not done that made this attack and the inciting rhetoric that led to it possible. The hard truth is that it is our weakness, not our extremism or our own “violent rhetoric,” that invited this attack.

    The regime media from the top down, in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Republic, on television and on social media, have repeatedly called Mr. Trump a fascist, compared him to Hitler, and called for his elimination from the race by any means necessary.

    We know that nothing Mr. Trump did or said, and nothing we, his partisans, have done or said, can be called the true cause of this kind of talk. We know that because the same outlets said the same kinds of things about other Republican leaders, from Thomas Dewey to Mitt Romney.

    Democrats talk this way about Republicans because they are not afraid of the consequences of talking that way. The party that banned God from the schoolroom and forbade public worship has no fear of God, who sees and punishes the deceitful, and has no fear of us. They believe, correctly, that they can, without fear of us, delegitimize elections by effectively licensing fraud and intimidation of voters, and that they can turn mobs on synagogue-goers and conservative speakers. Too many Democrats live their lives in media, public “service,” nonprofit or academic echo chambers in which everyone either amens such transgressions or is silenced by fear of violence or corporate HR.

    Ignore the hysterics about “violent rhetoric.” Politics is about violence, about the control and deployment of the force of the community for the ends of the community. Free and fair elections, free discussion, and even the right of the people to peaceably assemble come not from rhetorical or actual disarmament. These necessary features of free government come from a balance of terror that produces mutual fear and, thus, mutual respect.

    Sadly, in western countries, including the United States, that balance of terror does not exist. MAGA may have guns, but our anti-populist, that is to say anti-democratic rivals, have the secret police, the intelligence services, and, when necessary, Antifa, the stormtroopers of the woke capital, ever ready at the nod of the authorities or the regime media to target peaceful opposition.

    We who fear God have to be better than them, but that also means we have to be at least as frightening as them.

    As Malcolm X said sixty years ago, it is always and everywhere “the ballot or bullet.” 

    It is better to fight it out with violent rhetoric and ballots than with bullets, but that is only possible, Malcolm X explains, as long as every side fears what their rivals could do should they become enemies.

    Yes, my friends, we have to fight. We have to fight for the right to speak and to be heard, for the right to rally for our candidates and our beliefs, and for the right to wear a red hat in every corner of this great land.

    The only way that we can maintain our right to fight this “campaign” without resorting to actual violence is to frighten our rivals into refraining from violence, even when they know that the media and “authorities” will take their side.

    In this struggle, there is no substitute for courage, but there is also no substitute for brains about when and how to show fight. Our situation is not yet desperate, and to make sure it never becomes so, we must manifest both menace and discipline.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/19/2024 – 23:40

  • Distraction? Blinken Says Iran Just 1-2 Weeks Away From Producing Material For A Nuclear Weapon
    Distraction? Blinken Says Iran Just 1-2 Weeks Away From Producing Material For A Nuclear Weapon

    A well-timed distraction? Or is it real this time? The White House says Iran is on the verge of being nuclear weapons capable. 

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Friday that the Islamic Republic will have enough enriched uranium for producing fissile material to achieve a nuclear weapon within just “one or two weeks.”

    “Iran, because the nuclear agreement was thrown out, instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, is now probably one or two weeks away from doing that,” Blinken said at a forum in Colorado.

    Via AFP

    He did add a caveat, saying there’s as yet no evidence Iran is actively pursuing a nuke at this point; however, the timing is interesting given the White House crisis of Biden’s reelection bid, as well as the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address Congress next week.

    “What we need to see, if Iran is serious about engaging, is actually pulling back on the work that it’s been doing on his program,” Blinken continued.

    “Second, we have been maximizing pressure on Iran across the board. We’ve imposed more than 600 sanctions on Iranian persons and entities. We haven’t lifted a single sanction,” he said.

    And yet the irony here is that clearly the sanctions haven’t worked. While Biden and Democrats in general had long ago been frequent critics of Trump’s prior “maximum pressure” campaign, in reality little has changed. 

    Blinken still touted the Biden admin’s record on Iran at the Aspen Security Forum, describing, “When this administration came in, we tried to pursue again, nuclear diplomacy with Iran, because if you could at least take one problem off the board, which is Iran potentially with a nuclear weapon, that’s inherently a good thing.”

    The White House says it has still been wielding a big stick, particularly in light of the Gaza crisis and the prior Israeli massive attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus which sent tensions spiraling. 

    Axios reported earlier this week that the Biden admin’s behind the scenes pressure campaign has yielded limited results: 

    • The U.S. officials said the Iranians came back with a response that included explanations for these nuclear activities, stressing there has been no change in policy and they are not working on a nuclear weapon.
    • The exchange of messages and other information obtained by the U.S. and Israel addressed some of the concerns and somewhat eased anxieties over the Iranian research and development activities, U.S. and Israeli officials said.
    • A U.S. official said that the message the U.S. sent to the Iranians was effective, but added there are still significant concerns about the Iranian nuclear program.

    Iran has grown bolder in its declarations of late, and so all of the above doesn’t actually sound like “effective” diplomacy.

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    Without doubt, Iranian leadership is watching the US presidential race closely, given that a potential future Trump administration will be stacked with Iran hawks, as was the first.

    Israel has meanwhile vowed preemptive attack if its intelligence believes Tehran is bent on developing a nuke, and if it is on the threshold. At the same time, critics of Netanyahu have alleged his hawkish position is rooted in political survival, like with his hardline Gaza policies.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/19/2024 – 23:15

  • The Ascendance Of Sociopaths In US Governance
    The Ascendance Of Sociopaths In US Governance

    Authored by Doug Casey via InternationalMan.com,

    An International Man lives and does business wherever he finds conditions most advantageous, regardless of arbitrary borders. He’s diversified globally, with passports from multiple countries, assets in several jurisdictions, and his residence in yet another. He doesn’t depend absolutely on any country and regards all of them as competitors for his capital and expertise.

    Living as an international man has always been an interesting possibility. But few Americans opted for it, since the U.S. used to reward those who settled in and put down roots. In fact, it rewarded them better than any other country in the world, so there was no pressing reason to become an international man.

    Things change, however, and being rooted like a plant – at least if you have a choice – is a suboptimal strategy if you wish to not only survive, but prosper. Throughout history, almost every place has at some point become dangerous for those who were stuck there. It may be America’s turn.

    For those who can take up the life of an international man, it’s no longer just an interesting lifestyle decision. It has become, at a minimum, an asset saver, and it could be a lifesaver. That said, I understand the hesitation you may feel about taking action; pulling up one’s roots (or at least grafting some of them to a new location) can be almost as traumatic to a man as to a vegetable.

    As any intelligent observer surveys the world’s economic and political landscape, he has to be disturbed – even dismayed and a bit frightened – by the gravity and number of problems that mark the horizon. We’re confronted by economic depression, looming financial chaos, serious currency inflation, onerous taxation, crippling regulation, a developing police state, and, worst of all, the prospect of a major war. It seems almost unbelievable that all these things could affect the U.S., which historically has been the land of the free.

    How did we get here? An argument can be made that things went bad because of miscalculation, accident, inattention, and the like. Those elements have had a role, but it is minor. Potential catastrophe across the board can’t be the result of happenstance. When things go wrong on a grand scale, it’s not just bad luck or inadvertence. It’s because of serious character flaws in one or many – or even all – of the players.

    So is there a root cause of all the problems I’ve cited?

    If we can find it, it may tell us how we personally can best respond to the problems.

    In this article, I’m going to argue that the U.S. government, in particular, has been overrun by the wrong kind of person.

    It’s a trend that’s been in motion for many years but has now reached a point of no return. In other words, a type of moral rot has become so prevalent that it’s institutional in nature. There is not going to be, therefore, any serious change in the direction in which the U.S. is headed until a genuine crisis topples the existing order. Until then, the trend will accelerate.

    The reason is that a certain class of people – sociopaths – are now fully in control of major American institutions.

    Their beliefs and attitudes are insinuated throughout the economic, political, intellectual, and psychological/spiritual fabric of the U.S.

    What does this mean to you, as an individual? It depends on your character.

    Are you the kind of person who supports “my country, right or wrong,” as did most Germans in the 1930s and 1940s? Or the kind who dodges the duty to be a helpmate to murderers? The type of passenger who goes down with the ship? Or the type who puts on his vest and looks for a lifeboat? The type of individual who supports the merchants who offer the fairest deal? Or the type who is gulled by splashy TV commercials?

    What the ascendancy of sociopaths means isn’t an academic question. Throughout history, the question has been a matter of life and death. That’s one reason America grew; every American (or any ex-colonial) has forebears who confronted the issue and decided to uproot themselves to go somewhere with better prospects. The losers were those who delayed thinking about the question until the last minute.

    I have often described myself, and those I prefer to associate with, as gamma rats. You may recall the ethologist’s characterization of the social interaction of rats as being between a few alpha rats and many beta rats, the alpha rats being dominant and the beta rats submissive. In addition, a small percentage are gamma rats that stake out prime territory and mates, like the alphas, but are not interested in dominating the betas. The people most inclined to leave for the wide world outside and seek fortune elsewhere are typically gamma personalities.

    You may be thinking that what happened in places like Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Mao’s China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, and scores of other countries in recent history could not, for some reason, happen in the U.S. Actually, there’s no reason it won’t at this point. All the institutions that made America exceptional – including a belief in capitalism, individualism, self-reliance, and the restraints of the Constitution – are now only historical artifacts.

    On the other hand, the distribution of sociopaths is completely uniform across both space and time.

    Per capita, there were no more evil people in Stalin’s Russia, Hitler’s Germany, Mao’s China, Amin’s Uganda, Ceausescu’s Romania, or Pol Pot’s Cambodia than there are today in the U.S. All you need is favorable conditions for them to bloom, much as mushrooms do after a rainstorm.

    Conditions for them in the U.S. are becoming quite favorable. Have you ever wondered where the 50,000 people employed by the TSA to inspect and degrade you came from? Most of them are middle-aged. Did they have jobs before they started doing something that any normal person would consider demeaning? Most did, but they were attracted to – not repelled by – a job where they wear a costume and abuse their fellow citizens all day.

    Few of them can imagine that they’re shepherding in a police state as they play their roles in security theater. (A reinforced door on the pilots’ cabin is probably all that’s actually needed, although the most effective solution would be to hold each airline responsible for its own security and for the harm done if it fails to protect passengers and third parties.) But the 50,000 newly employed are exactly the same type of people who joined the Gestapo – eager to help in the project of controlling everyone. Nobody was drafted into the Gestapo.

    What’s going on here is an instance of Pareto’s Law. That’s the 80-20 rule that tells us, for example, that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your salesmen or that 20% of the population are responsible for 80% of the crime.

    As I see it, 80% of people are basically decent; their basic instincts are to live by the Boy Scout virtues. 20% of people, however, are what you might call potential trouble sources, inclined toward doing the wrong thing when the opportunity presents itself. They might now be shoe clerks, mailmen, or waitresses – they seem perfectly benign in normal times. They play baseball on weekends and pet the family dog. However, given the chance, they will sign up for the Gestapo, the Stasi, the KGB, the TSA, Homeland Security, or whatever. Many seem well intentioned, but are likely to favor force as the solution to any problem.

    But it doesn’t end there, because 20% of that 20% are really bad actors. They are drawn to government and other positions where they can work their will on other people and, because they’re enthusiastic about government, they rise to leadership positions. They remake the culture of the organizations they run in their own image. Gradually, non-sociopaths can no longer stand being there. They leave. Soon the whole barrel is full of bad apples. That’s what’s happening today in the U.S.

    It’s a pity that Bush, when he was in office, made such a big deal of evil. He discredited the concept. He made Boobus americanus think it only existed in a distant axis, in places like North Korea, Iraq and Iran, which were and still are irrelevant backwaters and arbitrarily chosen enemies. Bush trivialized the concept of evil and made it seem banal because he was such a fool. All the while, real evil, very immediate and powerful, was growing right around him, and he lacked the awareness to see he was fertilizing it by turning the U.S. into a national security state after 9/11.

    Now, I believe, it’s out of control.

    The U.S. is already in a truly major depression and on the edge of financial chaos and a currency meltdown.

    The sociopaths in government will react by redoubling the pace toward a police state domestically and starting a major war abroad. To me, this is completely predictable. It’s what sociopaths do.

    *  *  *

    A big part of any strategy to reduce your political risk is to place some of your savings outside the immediate reach of the thieving bureaucrats in your home country. Obtaining a foreign bank account is a convenient way to do just that. That way, your savings cannot be easily confiscated, frozen, or devalued at the drop of a hat or with a couple of taps on the keyboard. In the event capital controls are imposed, a foreign bank account will help ensure that you have access to your money when you need it the most.

    In short, your savings in a foreign bank will largely be safe from any madness in your home country. Despite what you may hear, having a foreign bank account is completely legal and is not about tax evasion or other illegal activities. It’s simply about legally diversifying your political risk by putting your liquid savings in sound, well-capitalized institutions where they’re treated best. We recently released a comprehensive free guide where we discuss our favorite foreign banks and jurisdictions, including, crucially, those that still accept Americans as clients and allow them to open accounts remotely for small minimums. New York Times best-selling author Doug Casey and his team describe how you can do it all from home. And there’s still time to get it done without extraordinary cost or effort. Click here to download the PDF now.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/19/2024 – 22:50

  • Illegal Alien TikToker Who Urged Migrants To Invade US Homes Reportedly Worked For Venezuela's Military Intel
    Illegal Alien TikToker Who Urged Migrants To Invade US Homes Reportedly Worked For Venezuela’s Military Intel

    Millions of Americans were disgusted when they learned earlier this year that an illegal alien used TikTok to inform other migrants how to “invade” unoccupied homes across America and take advantage of progressive squatter laws. 

    We noted at the time, “The Marxist destruction of private property rights is on full display after a viral video circulating TikTok, then posted on X, shows a migrant informing other migrants how to “invade” unoccupied …” 

    Remember this idiot? 

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    The good news is that in March, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested the illegal alien who goes by the name “Leonel Moreno.” 

    And now, time for the bad news: Since Moreno’s arrest, US intel officers have found the illegal alien was a sergeant in Venezuela’s military intelligence unit before he invaded the US southern border, the New York Post reports, citing a Homeland Security source.

    It’s believed Moreno illegally entered the US through Eagle Pass, Texas, on April 23, 2022, and was released into the country with no proper vetting. He intentionally skipped check-ins with ICE. 

    Here’s more from NYPost: 

    Information from foreign countries is often hard to come by for border agents trying to protect the country from potential threats.

    When it comes to Venezuela, the task is nearly impossible because the government there is unwilling to communicate with US authorities, several Border Patrol sources have told The Post.

    The issue with Moreno is that many others like him are still running amok across this nation, unvetted and lost by the incompetent federal government overseen by the Biden administration. This risk has been repeatedly highlighted by former President Trump, Elon Musk, and many others who have warned Biden’s disastrous open southern border policies are flooding the nation with military-aged men. 

    Meanwhile, we were the first to report in early March about the Iranian assassin roaming the US and possibly plotting assassination attacks against former and current government officials. This is still a very real and active threat. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/19/2024 – 22:25

  • The Quiet Power And Influence Of Timothy Mellon
    The Quiet Power And Influence Of Timothy Mellon

    Authored by Austin Alonzo via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The largest donor of the 2024 election cycle is also, arguably, the most mysterious.

    Timothy Mellon stands outside an inspection train during a property tour in 1981. (AP Photo)

    Since the beginning of 2023, no one has given more to political causes than Timothy Mellon. Through the first five months of 2024, Mr. Mellon gave more than $115 million to various Republican candidates for federal office and conservative causes.

    Brendan Glavin, deputy research director at money-in-politics watchdog OpenSecrets, told The Epoch Times what makes Mr. Mellon’s millions so odd is the apparent lack of desire for attention attached to the gifts.

    “When you are making these contributions … it gives you access, it makes you a player,” Mr. Glavin said of the typical so-called megadonor. “It creates a situation where you know people are going to cater to you because they want your money.”

    Despite this, Mr. Mellon can only be found in donor records.

    The recipients of his money and his associates often decline to speak about the 81-year-old investor, who apparently lives close to Saratoga, Wyoming. He’s hard to reach. Even biographers writing about his influential family can’t get a word from him.

    The Epoch Times attempted to reach Mr. Mellon through his publisher, a public relations firm who represented him in the past, associates who said they read his book, the Mellon family foundation, and through organizations he regularly supports.

    Old Money

    Timothy Mellon is an heir to the Mellon family fortune. Forbes estimates the entire group of descendants of Irish immigrant Thomas Mellon is worth more than $14.1 billion.

    The family’s wealth dates back to the 19th century and its name is attached to companies such as The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and institutions such as Carnegie Mellon University. Timothy Mellon’s grandfather, Andrew Mellon, and his father, Paul Mellon, were instrumental in the foundation of the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

    As the U.S. treasury secretary, Andrew Mellon served from 1921 to 1932 under Republican Presidents Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover.

    Timothy Mellon founded a privately held transportation company—Guilford Transportation Industries—in 1981, which acquired several New England-area railways. In 1998, Guilford paid $24.5 million for the name and assets of the airline Pan American World Systems and renamed itself Pan Am Systems. In 2020, that company was purchased by CSX Corp. for an undisclosed amount.

    Mr. Mellon also sat on the board of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation from 1981 to 2002. Maggie Slowey, a spokeswoman for the foundation, told The Epoch Times, “Neither Tim Mellon nor any other family member has any current connection to the Foundation nor have they, in recent years, played a significant role in the Foundation’s giving strategy or day-to-day operations.”

    Mr. Glavin said Mr. Mellon is the only eight-figure political donor of this cycle to come from so-called old money. Most others, he said, have made their fortunes as investors or entrepreneurs relatively recently.

    Liberal commentator and former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich has called Mr. Mellon “the poster child” for the perils of generational wealth in America.

    Businessman and politician Andrew Mellon (1855–1937) (3rd L) poses in a group photo along with other American lawyers and politicians following a meeting at the White House in 1923. Mr. Mellon served as the U.S. treasury secretary from 1921 to 1932. (Keystone View Company/FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

    “Timothy Mellon … is the product of a tax system pioneered by his grandfather that allows the perpetuation of dynastic wealth and the maintenance of its political power,” Mr. Reich wrote on his blog in February.

    Representatives of Mr. Reich did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

    Silent Partner

    In 2024, Mr. Mellon is drawing attention for simultaneously bankrolling the presidential campaigns of former President Donald Trump and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

    On May 31, the day after the 45th president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee was convicted of multiple felonies in New York, Mr. Mellon sent a $50 million check to Make America Great Again Inc., the super political action committee (PAC) that’s backing former President Trump’s campaign.

    Representatives of MAGA Inc. declined to comment, citing the group’s policy not to comment on donors.

    Mr. Glavin said the $50 million contribution was one of the largest in American history. Donor records indicate it is the biggest single gift of Mr. Mellon’s federal giving career.

    Mr. Mellon’s May donation brought his overall support for MAGA Inc. since the beginning of 2022 to $76.5 million, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records. He is currently the PAC’s biggest individual sponsor.

    Federal records show Mr. Mellon also gave $20 million to the Trump-supporting super PAC America First Action Inc. in 2020.

    Additionally, since the beginning of 2023, Mr. Mellon has donated $25 million to American Values 2024. The hybrid PAC is helping Mr. Kennedy. Mr. Mellon is also the biggest individual backer of the PAC.

    Democrats see this connection as clear evidence that Mr. Mellon is backing Mr. Kennedy exclusively to foil President Joe Biden’s reelection effort. In a March release, Alex Floyd, the Democratic National Committee’s Rapid Response Director, called RFK Jr. a “stalking horse to help Trump return to the White House.”

    Mr. Glavin agreed with the Democratic analysis, saying he believes the funding is a “tactical move” to help former President Trump’s chances in November.

    Former President Donald Trump stands on stage at a rally in Philadelphia on June 22, 2024. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

    In a May 26 interview with host Brian Tyler Cohen, Mr. Kennedy said he’d met Mr. Mellon twice.

    “Here’s what I believe from talking to Tim Mellon: I think Tim Mellon would prefer me to be president,” Mr. Kennedy said in the interview. “If I’m not going to be president, then he would prefer President Trump to President Biden.”

    Deep Mellon–Kennedy Connections

    The Mellon family’s links to the Kennedys stretch back to the 1960s.

    According to author Meryl Gordon’s 2017 book, “Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend,” Timothy Mellon’s mother, Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, was a friend of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s uncle President John F. Kennedy. Bunny Mellon redesigned the White House Rose Garden during his presidency.

    Ms. Gordon told The Epoch Times that Mr. Mellon declined to be among the hundreds interviewed for the book.

    Much of what is known about Mr. Mellon comes from a self-published 2016 autobiography, “panam.captain,” that is no longer publicly available. Skyhorse Publishing is due to publish a new version of “panam.captain” in July.

    At some point after June 2020, when The Washington Post published an article claiming Mr. Mellon used “racial stereotypes to describe African Americans,” the book was scrubbed from the internet. The Epoch Times cannot independently verify the newspaper’s claims about the book’s content.

    According to screenshots of the book’s website captured when it was still live, “panam.captain” could be purchased with a donation to groups apparently picked by Mr. Mellon. None of the groups Mr. Mellon solicited donations for—Hillsdale College, the Pan Am Historical Foundation, and Landmark Legal Foundation—responded to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

    Since its foundation in 2006, the New York-based imprint has published numerous books by and about Mr. Kennedy and others associated with the non-profit organization Children’s Health Defense. Skyhorse’s “panam.captain” will feature a quote from Mr. Kennedy on its front cover.

    President John F. Kennedy (C) and his family pose for a photo after he won the presidential election, at Hyannis Port, Mass., on Nov. 9, 1960. The Mellon family’s links to the Kennedys were established back in the 1960s. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

    Skyhorse President Tony Lyons co-founded American Values. In FEC filings, Mr. Lyons is listed as the group’s treasurer.

    Furthermore, three of the six reviewers of “panam.captain,” listed on the Skyhorse website, are connected to either Children’s Health Defense or American Values. Mr. Kennedy, the group’s founder; Mary Holland, the group’s CEO; and Gavin de Becker, founder of private security firm Gavin de Becker & Associates, all provided quotes in praise of Mr. Mellon and the book.

    According to federal records, Mr. de Becker is the second-largest sponsor of American Values behind Mr. Mellon. His firm is also providing security for Mr. Kennedy during his presidential run. As of the end of May, Mr. de Becker had sent $14 million to American Values since the beginning of 2023.

    “These pages reveal Tim Mellon’s open-mindedness in action—and show that it’s possible to resist tribalism,” Mr. de Becker’s review said.

    Mr. de Becker declined to comment further about Mr. Mellon. Representatives of Children’s Health Defense and the Kennedy campaign did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

    The Power of Money

    According to donation data collected by OpenSecrets and shared with The Epoch Times, Mr. Mellon has donated about $239 million to federal and state political causes since he began giving in 1990.

    Most of the money went to Republican candidates or conservative causes; $22,800 has gone to Democrats or liberal causes; and about $25 million has gone to Mr. Kennedy’s American Values 2024.

    Records show Mr. Mellon did not begin to make significant contributions until 2018.

    After his presidential donations, Mr. Mellon’s most significant contributions have gone to the Congressional Leadership Fund and the Senate Leadership Fund. Since 2018, Mr. Mellon sent a combined $75 million to the funds.

    Both are conservative PACs helping Republicans win seats in the House and Senate.

    Representatives of the Congressional Leadership Fund and Senate Leadership Fund did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

    In August 2021, Mr. Mellon reportedly donated about $53.1 million in stock to the state of Texas to aid in Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s effort to build a wall along the U.S. southern border. The state is building the border wall as part of Mr. Abbott’s Operation Lone Star.

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tours the U.S.–Mexico border at the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, on May 23, 2022. Mr. Mellon in August 2021 donated about $53.1 million in stock to Texas to aid in the governor’s effort to build a wall along the U.S. southern border. (Allison Dinner/AFP via Getty Images)

    According to the operation website, as of July 2, the state had collected about $55.4 million in donations specifically for the border wall project.

    The report about Mr. Mellon’s border wall donation was initially published by the Texas Tribune Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headed by Sonal Shah. Ms. Shah is a former member of the Obama administration and former leader of Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign. Mr. Buttigieg is now the Secretary of Transportation.

    Mr. Abbott’s office declined to comment on Mr. Mellon’s reported donation. Instead, it directed The Epoch Times to file a public records request. On July 16, the open records division of Mr. Abbott’s office sent documents to The Epoch Times that confirmed Mr. Mellon had donated stock worth about $52.7 million in August 2021.

    In 2022, Mr. Mellon sent about $29 million to eight different PACs backing Republican Senate candidates. Most of his chosen candidates were not successful and the Democratic Party retained control of the chamber in the mid-term election.

    The increase in Mr. Mellon’s giving matches up with what Mr. Glavin of OpenSecrets described as an “explosion” in the amount of money a handful of extremely wealthy people are injecting into American politics.

    A 2020 report published by OpenSecrets summarizing the effect of the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling on Citizens United vs. FEC found that total super PAC spending increased from $62 million in 2010 to $822 million in 2018. The decision is often credited with creating super PACs that can accept and spend unlimited amounts of money, given that they do not directly interact with political campaigns or candidates.

    The same report found that donations from the top 1 percent of the wealthiest Americans accounted for 96 percent of super PAC funding in 2018.

    Mr. Glavin said most Americans don’t know who the big donors are that channel money into competitive races.

    Donors get access to politicians, Mr. Glavin said. Those who give the most get the most. However, only the people with the money and the people with the power know precisely how much influence donors may have on politicians.

    “They don’t always have to necessarily ask for something because they’ve already chosen the candidate that they know agrees with them,” Mr. Glavin said.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/19/2024 – 22:00

  • Leftists Prove They Are Zealots In The Wake Of Trump Shooting
    Leftists Prove They Are Zealots In The Wake Of Trump Shooting

    The response by a large portion of the political left to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump has revealed a disturbing ideological madness – A dedication to lies and delusions that goes deep into the realm of zealotry.  It’s something that thousands of commentators have warned about over the years.  The general public has long denied the claim as being “reactionary” and many thought conservatives were exaggerating. Recent events prove otherwise.

    What else would you expect from the same group of people that can’t define what a woman is?  The same people that think sexualized drag performances and graphically sexual picture books are a good idea for young children in public schools?  The same people that engaged in years of violent rioting because of the death of a hardcore criminal and fentanyl addict who happened to be black?  The same people that supported medical authoritarianism and mass censorship during the covid pandemic? The same people that claimed “stagflation was transitory”?  The people that bought into the Russiagate hoax, refused to believe that Hunter Biden’s laptop was real and denied Joe Biden’s steep cognitive decline? 

    This zealotry continues to be exposed through their response to the attempted assassination of Donal Trump.  The narrative in the media is that now is the time for “cool heads” and calm, yet, at the same time they are working diligently to peddle the conspiracy that the plot was staged by Trump himself.

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    The envy from Joy Reid is transparent – The leftists are furious about that iconic photo and they wish they could diminish it somehow.  They aren’t honest enough to say “Hey, I don’t like Trump’s policies, but that moment was ballsy.” 

    She seems to be asserting that Trump trusted a sniper enough to barely miss his face so that he could get a great photo.  This would mean that the plan was for Trump to fake an ear injury with hundreds of people and cameras around him, and that the shooter would have to fire close enough to his head to make it believable, hitting three bystanders and killing one of them in the process. And of course, most of Trump’s Secret Service security team and local police would have to be in on the plot, not to mention the photographer.

    Keep in mind, there’s no evidence to support any of this and the leftists suggesting the conspiracy are the same people who argued that conservatives should “follow the science” during the pandemic lockdowns.  When it comes to leftists and Trump, reason goes completely out the window and their true insanity shines through.  Those that aren’t entertaining conspiracies about the shooting are simply enraged that the shooter missed. 

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    Why are these people like this?  One could assume they’ve always been this way – Zealots with a pure hatred for anyone that contradicts their ideology and Trump happens to be a convenient magnet for their animosity.  Then again, it’s more likely that they have been radicalized by the very media that’s calling for conservatives to “calm down” after the attack, not to mention the Biden Administration.  Remember this speech painting MAGA Republicans as monsters ready to tear down “democracy”?

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    When leftists are referred to as “useful idiots” it’s important to understand what that means.  It means that they are willing to say anything and do anything to further a cause which, in the end, doesn’t even benefit them.  It means they have ascended to a dangerous level of incompetence; a world in which reason and logic have no meaning and everything they do to win is emotionally justified. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/19/2024 – 21:35

  • The REPO Act: A Precursor To The Dollar's Downfall
    The REPO Act: A Precursor To The Dollar’s Downfall

    Authored by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,

    In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the US government has launched its most aggressive sanctions campaign ever.

    The US government and its allies froze around $300 billion of the Russian central bank’s reserves—the nation’s accumulated savings.

    It was a stunning illustration of the political risk associated with the US dollar and Treasuries. It showed that the US government could deny access to another sovereign country’s reserves at the flip of a switch.

    Recently, President Joe Biden signed the REPO Act into law.

    It allows the US government to seize frozen Russian state assets and transfer the funds to Ukraine.

    The US dollar and Treasuries have become weaponized in a way they had not before. They are now clearly not neutral assets worthy of forming the bedrock of the international financial system but political tools for Washington to coerce others.

    The rising political risk attached to Treasuries has made them even less attractive as a store of value. It’s now apparent to everyone that dollars are only dollars as long as you don’t upset the US government.

    Many countries are undoubtedly wondering if the US government will seize their savings if they run afoul with Washington.

    China is one of the largest holders of US Treasuries, and it indeed took note of what is happening.

    Since 2022—when the US froze Russian state assets—China has sold about 25% of its Treasuries, an enormous change in such a short period.

    In the first three months of 2024 alone, China dumped a record $53 billion worth of US Treasuries.

    Further, China has increasingly ditched the US dollar in international trade. For example, over 90% of the $240 billion in trade between Russia and China is done outside of the dollar in yuan and ruble.

    At the same time, China and Russia have been on a gold buying spree to make their economies and financial systems more resilient to US sanctions.

    China is the world’s largest producer and buyer of gold. Russia is number two. Most of that gold enters the Russian and Chinese governments’ treasuries.

    Russia has over 75 million ounces of gold, one of the largest stashes in the world. Nobody knows China’s exact amount of gold—Beijing is notoriously opaque—but most observers believe it is even larger than Russia’s stash.

    Even if we take China’s official gold statistics—which almost certainly understate reality—Beijing’s gold holdings have soared by 17% in the past 17 months to around 73 million ounces.

    China’s recent gold buying spree unsurprisingly coincides with the US seizure of Russian assets in the wake of the Ukraine conflict and their dumping of US Treasuries.

    Conclusion

    Treasuries have been the bedrock of the international financial system ever since President Nixon severed the dollar’s last link to gold in 1971.

    However, the US government’s seizure of Russian state assets was a fundamental change to this system, signaling the end of an era.

    The fiat US dollar can be either a neutral reserve asset or a political tool Washington wields. It cannot be both.

    After 2022, Russia, China, and everyone else saw that the international financial system centered on the US dollar was over.

    That is terrible news for the US dollar, which was already in big trouble as it is becoming clear the Fed is trapped in ever-increasing debasement.

    Ray Dalio is one of the world’s most successful hedge fund managers. His success is due to his consistent ability to get the Big Picture right. He recently said this:

    “The indicators of when a fiat currency is going to decline and to collapse, is when those holdings its debt sell the debt and the government, the central bank, has to print money to buy that debt in large size while the currency is going down. Those are the most important indicators.”

    In short, I believe we are on the verge of a paradigm shift as gold replaces Treasuries as the base layer asset—the bedrock—of the international financial system.

    The last time the international monetary system experienced a paradigm shift of this magnitude was in 1971.

    Then, gold skyrocketed from $35 per ounce to $850 in 1980—a gain of over 2,300% or more than 24x.

    I expect the percentage rise in the price of gold to be at least as significant as it was during the last paradigm shift.

    That’s because this coming gold bull market could be fundamentally different from other cyclical bull markets. It will be riding the wave of a powerful trend: the re-monetization of gold as the king store-of-value asset. It could lead to the biggest gold bull market ever.

    While this megatrend is already well underway, I believe the most significant gains are still ahead.

    That’s precisely why I just released an urgent report on where this is all headed and what you can do about it… including three strategies everyone needs today. Click here to download the PDF now.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/19/2024 – 21:10

  • Russia Says 'Let's Be Realistic' About Chances Of Trump Ending Ukraine War
    Russia Says ‘Let’s Be Realistic’ About Chances Of Trump Ending Ukraine War

    Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

    On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said she noted comments from former President Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance about ending the war in Ukraine but said Moscow needed to be “realistic” about the prospect.

    “We saw the statements — Trump said he would resolve the conflict within 24 hours, then Vance said that China is a bigger problem for the United States than the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” she said, according to Reuters.

    Image source: Bloomberg

    “It’s necessary to separate pre-election rhetoric from statements by government officials vested with the appropriate powers. If we talk about whether it’s possible to resolve the conflict, let’s be realistic,” she added.

    Zakharova pointed out that during the previous Trump administration, the president and some of his advisors made statements about bringing peace to the Middle East.

    “They prepared for the ‘deal of the century’ for quite a long time, but it did not end in anything, and under Biden, on the contrary, a colossal historical tragedy happened,” she said.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has also noted Trump’s comments about ending the war in Ukraine and said he took them “seriously” but said he’s not familiar with any concrete proposals put forward by the former president.

    In an interview with The New York Times last month, Vance outlined some ideas for a potential peace plan.

    “What I would like to do … is you freeze the territorial lines somewhere close to where they are right now. That’s number one. Number two is you guarantee both Kyiv’s independence but also its neutrality. It’s the fundamental thing the Russians have asked from the beginning,” he said. “And then three, there’s going to have to be some American security assistance over the long term. I think those three things are certainly achievable, yes.”

    Vance wants the US to wind down its support for Ukraine so it could focus more on building up in the Asia Pacific and arming Taiwan.

    “The thing that we can control now is making it costly for [China] to invade Taiwan, and we’re not doing that because we’re sending all the damn weapons to Ukraine and not Taiwan,” he told the Times.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/19/2024 – 20:45

  • Zuck Praises Trump As An American "Badass"
    Zuck Praises Trump As An American “Badass”

    Authored by ‘Sundance’ via TheConservativeTreehouse.com,

    My, how quickly the winds can change [or do they]. 

    Previously in order to assist his ideological travelers, specifically Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg gave the DNC a $500 million ballot harvesting operation as a gift in 2020.  It was one of the most obvious examples of election fraud facilitated.

    Fast forward a full election cycle, the installed 2020 outcome, Joe Biden, is on the ropes and being isolated, ridiculed and marginalized -in part- by the same network of ideological travelers (i.e. the Obama network). 

    When asked if he was going to participate in funding the goals and objectives of the political apparatus in 2024, Zuckerberg announced his intention to stay out of the game of influence, he would not be endorsing “any political candidate.” 

    He then went further saying what he witnessed in the assassination attempt of President Trump, “was one of the most badass things I ever witnessed in my life.” 

    WATCH:

    Not only does this put the DNC at a deficit for their ballot harvesting operation; on the other side of the coin billionaire Elon Musk has pledged $45 million per month to help the RNC counteract the ballot harvesting operation of the DNC.

    President Trump is well positioned to win the 2024 presidential election.  However, nothing can be taken for granted and all efforts must be maximized to ensure a secure election and get every element of the Trump movement out to vote.

    On a smaller point, I had noted earlier this year (see tweet below) that perhaps Mark Zuckerberg is not quite as severe a leftist as the tribe around him.

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    I was told by people close to Zuckerberg that he is much more of a right-leaning independent thinker than everyone thinks.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/19/2024 – 20:20

  • These Are America's 'Most Trustworthy' News Organizations In 2024
    These Are America’s ‘Most Trustworthy’ News Organizations In 2024

    America’s trust in the media has plateaued over the last few years with only around one-in-three Americans saying they trust the news.

    Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu visualizes the percentage of Americans who trust (or distrust) various news organizations. Importantly, this is not an exhaustive list of media brands.

    Data is sourced from a 2024 YouGov survey commissioned by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

    ℹ️ More than 2,000 nationally representative Americans were asked to rate a brand’s trustworthiness on a scale of 0–10. Responses that picked 0–4 were coded as “don’t trust;” similarly 6–10 were coded as “trust.” The middle number, 5, was categorized as “neither.”

    CNN & Fox Are the Most Divisive News Outlets

    Local TV stations and newspapers are still Americans’ most trusted news organizations, despite the gutting of local news outlets over the last decade.

    Brand Trust Neither Don’t Trust
    📺 Local television news 62% 21% 17%
    📰 Local newspapers 58% 24% 18%
    🅰️ ABC News 52% 20% 28%
    🌍 BBC News 52% 25% 23%
    📺 CBS News 52% 20% 28%
    🗽 New York Times 50% 20% 30%
    📺 NBC/MSNBC News 49% 18% 32%
    💼 Wall Street Journal 49% 26% 25%
    📺 CNN 48% 15% 37%
    📻 NPR News 47% 23% 29%
    🇺🇸 USA Today 47% 27% 27%
    🏛️ Washington Post 46% 23% 31%
    🦊 Fox News 43% 15% 43%
    🌐 Yahoo! News 40% 29% 30%
    📰 HuffPost 39% 28% 32%

    Note: Figures are rounded and may not sum to 100.

    Meanwhile, broadcasters ABC, BBC, and CBS are also more trusted than not for at least half of those surveyed. Print and digital newspaper The New York Times also managed a 50% trust rating—the only named newspaper to do so.

    Towards the bottom of this sample of companies, HuffPost is the least trusted (39%) news brand. In 2012, the organization was the first commercially-run U.S. digital news website to win a Pulitzer Prize. In 2015 ownership moved when Verizon acquired AOL (which owned HuffPost). As of 2020, the company is now by Buzzfeed Inc.

    Fox News is the most polarizing brand listed, with an equal 43% share for “trust” and “don’t trust.” It is also the only listed outlet where more than 40% of those surveyed didn’t trust it.

    If you liked this article, check out Ranked: The Most Popular Paid Subscription News Websites for a list of news outlets subscribers are willing to pay for.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/19/2024 – 19:55

  • Existence Tax: The Vig Plus 3%
    Existence Tax: The Vig Plus 3%

    Authored by Tim Hartnett via LewRockwell.com,

    In the bad old days, before G-Men took down the mob, were urbanites getting a better deal? Does the betting man receive worse odds from state run lotteries than Vinny gave on the corner running numbers? Did businesses shaken down for “protection” have higher hopes of survival in mob clutches than in municipal ones? Was there more or less anxiety about making rent or the mortgage in 1974 than in 2024? Which is the greater fiscal peril, organized crime or uber-societal-organization? It has become a valid question.

    Gangsters had fingers in a lot of pies. Credit card racketeers, waging the present battle against physical currency, demand a slice of everything out of the oven. They’d gladly have us believe that paying for anything, without their supervision and cut, equals a criminally tainted transaction. Mobsters found their pecuniary prevalence legit in its way too. Transactions that jibed with their economic codes they called “kosher.” Other trading activity inside their ambit was deemed transgressive. Parasites tend to sound tiresomely alike. The difference is that the above ground finance industry finds no place outside its ambit.

    Street people’s encampments clutter cities all over the country. What pushed so many over the edge? And how many are treading that edge carefully now? We know that insanity is somewhat genetic, but scientific observation has yet to prove external factors can’t nudge innately inclined individuals into psychosis. Facts point that way.

    Should we harbor suspicion of so-called improvements in the finance system? The Bush-Obama era housing crisis arrived after the government gradually amped up its influence on the mortgage market. Once mortgages became de-localized and Wall Street joined in default skyrocketed and losses went international. Isn’t the NYSE supposed to make markets safer and more efficient? Have we seen anything like that coming out of financial centralization?

    The present squeeze goes on in commercial space. Businesses, particularly restaurants, are shutting down at disturbing rates. The biggest burden is rent. This goes on as city centers are awash in more empty commercial space than ever. Local government isn’t helping. While serenading us about how much they love love and hate hate, they stay busy inundating entrepreneurs with licensing fees, new taxes, permit demands and other hurdles that restrain new ventures from ever launching. If they somehow get going anyway the municipality lurks at every juncture. They’ll keep you from thriving when they can’t stop you altogether. Actions speak louder than words. What they “love,” in practice, is bleeding prey pale with revenue demands and entangling bureaucratic complications.

    In 1977 the minimum wage was $2.30 an hour. You could get nearly four Big Macs for that amount then. When the minimum went up to $12 on July 1st, the same earner only got two and one third double-deckers for his money. Losing 1.3 sandwiches an hour takes a big bite out of a working class lifestyle. 10.4 Mc-grubbings per eight-hour-day to be exact.

    One year after the bicentennial average rent in the US was about $160. An NYT article from 1973 said a family of four needed less than $12,000 a year to live “moderately” in NYC in 1973. The same amount must have been a somewhat comfortable living in flyover country. By 1977 average income was over $13,000. 47 years later, average rent is at least ten times higher. While only about 10% of the population earns $130,000 or more. Where did all the value go?

    Clearly, production is out of sync with consumption. What is the variable? Crops still grow at the same rate. Cargo travels at the same speed. Bricks are laid at the same pace. Chickens plop their eggs with the same regularity. Is anyone in the economy getting more than their fair share?

    Almost 103 billion in “official” currency was circulating in the US in 1977. As of today, that figure stands at nearly 2 trillion 340 billion. The population has increased by about 58%. The greenbacks flowing back and forth went up by over 2000%. Those figures describe a small fraction of the overall economy. Because banks can create spending power with credit, leaving out other fiscal legerdemain, hundreds of trillions are outstanding in fiscal reality. Federal tax revenue alone, will soon hit over 5 trillion so far this year. That’s over twice the official amount of currency in circulation.

    The Big Mac went from 65 cents to $5.17 in that time span. That’s about 700%. Minimum wage rose by about 450%. Watching these fiscal details we know at once that sparse fractions of all that new money is getting to where it is needed most – while we have no evidence it lands in hands that have created actual value. With everyone competing for resources and finished goods, these facts equal a devastating pay cut for many making far above minimum wage.

    The idea that people are taking out according to what they contribute simply doesn’t fly. We can start with where the money supply is expanded.

    A century ago banks were more accountable. They could make risky loans, as they did for Fritz Heinze, but doing so could still mean hell to pay. The series of events that shook the fiscal foundations of South Manhattan in 1907 remain mysterious over a century later. By 2007, banks were getting bailed out and it was everyone else who paid. How we got there is an intriguing conundrum of modern finance.

    Heinze was a mining engineer from New York who showed up in Butte, Montana in the 1890’s. The copper market was hot at the time. That rustic town was already swimming in East Coast toffs and class consciousness. Although born into wealth and circumstances, Augustus Heinze was above pretension and indifferent to “society.” He soon developed a smelting process that greatly expanded the profitability of low-grade copper ore. Rather than pocketing the plunder, his next step was cutting 2 hours off the miner’s workday. How did that go over in the part of Butte that ‘dressed for dinner’? About like The Declaration of Independence did with George III.

    Fritz couldn’t have cared less. The airs put on at posh WASP tables left the man impatient and bored. He did his excess boozing in public places where a man who’d spent the day 500 feet underground was at the next stool. Guys who loaded trams rarely bought a round with Heinze in the house.

    By 1895 he’d amassed the capital to purchase the Rarus copper mine. The new-coming city slicker literally hit paydirt. His holes were always filled with the best pick and shovel men Montana could provide. The swells he snubbed had to take what hired help they could get.

    An officer fraternizing with the enlisted class was high treason to mine owners of the aughts. Heinze was held in a kind of hostile awe. Butte gentry were unaccustomed to a guy who dared not to care if they liked him.  What’s an enraged starched collar to do? We’ll never be entirely sure. Deadly measures were far from uncommon in late 19th century mining strife. What happened to Heinze is one of the murkier mysteries of the robber baron era.

    J.D. Rockefeller’s brother, William, was a director of Anaconda Copper. That firm was run by people who’d never pop a cork with working stiffs. They were revolted by Augie’s effrontery. Their solution was one that has retained its financial force. Whether Heinze was bought out under duress, or sold out of his own volition in 1906 isn’t fully clear. What is known is that he returned to New York as a Wall Street plunger specializing in copper stocks. Using familial connections, and a personal fortune, Heinze got himself onto the boards of almost a score of NYC banks. When shares of United Copper were being shorted in a bear run, Fritz used his position to buy aggressively, borrowing heavily from the Knickerbocker Bank and other commercial lenders where he held sway.

    By October of 1907 the Heinze brothers thought they had cornered the market in United Copper. They demanded the shares from traders who were contractually short – falsely believing the bears would be forced to buy from them. It soon became clear that these shares were not hard to come by. Heinze’s bullishness ended in catastrophic loss rather than profit. This meant that he would default on loans of millions from each of over 15 NYC banks.

    The story, possibly apocryphal but true in effect, goes as follows. Knickerbocker was experimenting with 24 hour banking in 1907. The brainchildren of Wall Street met for dinner at an upstairs private dining room in Delmonico’s to discuss the coming cash crunch. Waiters for the event heard what was said in the meeting. They shared this knowledge with less connected patrons chowing down on the ground floor. A run on Knickerbocker began that night, by morning it had spread to every bank in town. The Panic of 1907 was instantly afoot.

    Soon banks all over Gotham were out of cash to meet a seismic wave of withdrawals. In no time connected institutions from further out were tapped too. JP Morgan famously locked every player he could muster into his mansion’s library to discuss solutions. A plan was worked out and widespread depression was averted. But the financial hierarchy of south Manhattan was far from done. Their next step entailed placing the money supply and credit generally into the possession of elite governors.

    This banking scandal ultimately resulted in the Federal Reserve Act that was passed December 23rd 1913. Whether it solved the problem or laid the foundation for larger ones has been debated since. Getting into the particulars of the statute became inconvenient with the legislature still in session so close to Christmas. ‘Fightin’ Bob LaFollette, gave in and failed to press for a more exacting bill he saw as necessary at the time. The ruckus over the bill’s details were mostly passed over as ‘conspiracy theory’ throughout the 20th century. That line held sway in economic academia for many decades. Scholarly reckoning always comes too late; there is little dispute the charter helped cause and make the Great Depression worse among “experts” today. We are commanded to defer to them with amps at 11. What they got wrong is reported by the same sources at about 2.5.

    Left unexamined is why the Heinze brothers misunderstood who held what in United Copper in 1907. Why did they mistakenly believe they had cornered the market? These were highly educated, seasoned men in the world of finance. How far would William Avery Rockefeller Jr. go to settle a score with Fritz Heinze? Was he cleverly stashing available shares in ostensibly immobile accounts to set up an ambush? The first generation of the Rockefeller fortune was not known to take financial affronts lightly. Is it possible, or more likely probable, William Avery had the means and motive to manipulate the market into this unlikely position?

    John D. Rockefeller Jr. married Abby Aldrich in 1901. Her father, Nelson Aldrich, was the driving senatorial force behind the Federal Reserve Act, although he left the Senate before its passage. The Rockefeller gang has been evangelizing the faith of centralization in everything for over a century. It started when JD Sr. practically accomplished that in the petroleum industry before the turn of the 20th century. If you think they were never capable of violent, gangland style treachery, fast your gaze on the Ludlow massacre of 1914.

    Can we measure the effect of centralization in the financial sector? By 2013 it had almost doubled its share of the economic pie since 1980. When their take went from 5% to 9% in 40 years it had to come at a loss for others at the table. Did the Fed have a role in this? And what justification is offered for doubling the squeeze?  As the economy grows so does the money industry’s cut, just as any salesman’s commission rises as the sales price is higher. Is South Manhattan insatiable? What explanation, other than parasitic predation, fits here?

    The idea of market liquidity and available credit is efficiency and a fluent trading place for financial wares. Theoretically, this is competitive and brings transactional costs down while driving transactional fluidity up. Have we seen any such thing? The NYSE and kin have become like those “clubs” everyone is forced to join avoiding rip-offs for groceries, lunch, medicine, movies etc. The difference is that Wall Street’s anti-rip-off club is exclusive. You are not invited.

    Where are we now? Exactly in the same place as when mobsters skimmed off the top in Vegas casinos, but far worse. The difference is that you get clipped without ever placing a bet or owning a share of a betting parlor. The south Manhattan mob is, supposedly, worth nearly 10% of all the action. What other slices of the take have widened with government intrusion and centralization? The mob focused its shakedowns on high rollers. Higher Ed goes after every kid hoping to drag letters behind his name. They call themselves “non-profits.” Does the description fit the beast?Disciplines of a Godly…Hughes, R. KentBest Price: $4.97Buy New $9.41(as of 01:52 UTC – Details)

    Finding university administrators at leisure is not a job for Columbo. Just head toward any resort, high-dollar fleshpot or country club where profiteers do their squandering. Educational altruists, financial “experts” and well-heeled bon vivants occupy the same weekend turf – as well as the same self-serving sphere of self-justification.

    The Rockefeller family was the largest private benefactor of that ultimate centralizing scheme, the UN. The patriarch, William Avery Rockefeller Sr., was an infamous snake oil salesman and bigamist. He’s not the Rocky the family likes to advertise. They are prouder of efforts to get around the principle of one-man-one-vote and rule the world from the modern equivalent of a royal court on a planetary scale. Make a list of plans to place more bosses overhead and move them further out of reach.  The UN, CFR, WEF, Bilderberg, Trilaterals – you name it and the progeny of that greasy grifter is in on it. And who would they place in charge? The very soul-suckers with their fangs in the US neck pulsing at Wall and Broad.

    We are not looking at an abstruse, undecipherable picture here. You can do differential equations, make “relative assumptions” and discuss monetary theory until you ascend to the meta-fiscal plane of Laputa. None of that supposed “understanding” leaves Joe Six-Pack with another square foot of living space or another Big Mac. Uber-economic organization, aka David Rockefeller’s so-called “more integrated world,” is a progressively feudalistic plot that – with the compliance of the un-fake-news industry – rarely experiences any setbacks.

    Shrinking buying power has a very simple explanation: a prim and proper syndicate that is more ubiquitous and avaricious than any criminal mob ever.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/19/2024 – 19:30

  • "Day Has Finally Come": Instagram Censors Team USA Rifle Shooter Ahead Of Paris Paralympics
    “Day Has Finally Come”: Instagram Censors Team USA Rifle Shooter Ahead Of Paris Paralympics

    Big tech’s crackdown on “gunfluencers” is nothing new, but policies at social media companies are becoming increasingly restrictive (read: here), leading to the demonetization of numerous channels. The latest victim of this aggressive censorship isn’t even the typical gun YouTuber but instead a competitive rifle shooter on Team USA for the Paralympics. 

    Just The News reports that McKenna Geer, a competitive rifle shooter, had her Instagram account censored before she heads to Paris for the Paralympic Games in late August. Next week, the Olympic Games are set to begin.

    Geer’s Instagram account, “kennageer10.9,” was reportedly censored by the social media company because of photos she posted with firearms at a qualifying competition. 

    “I have always feared the day the media would censor my sport and speech just because I use firearms,” Geer wrote on Instagram, adding, “That day has finally come.” 

    She continued, “This sport is life-changing because of its ability to unite both able-bodied and disabled athletes, young and old, foreign and domestic. Me and my fellow athletes rely on our social media accounts to spread the word about our sport, firearm safety, build our personal brand, and connect with potential sponsors. Many of us (myself included) are either not paid or paid very little for our involvement in this sport. Our social media presence can often be the avenue that pays for us to continue competing.”

    Geer posted a screenshot of an image that shows her account has been censored.

    “Your account and content won’t appear in places like Explore, Search, Suggested Users, Reels, and Feed Recommendations,” the Instagram notification reads.

    On Thursday, she told Just the News that Instagram flagged three of her four latest posts.

    When she informed the USA Shooting public relations team about the matter, they reached out to Instagram and received this response:

    “On Facebook and Instagram’s Help Center websites, we indicate that while some content may be allowable, it may not be eligible for recommendation, including certain regulatory goods that ‘impedes our ability to foster a safe community.’ Help Center entries do not explicitly reference firearms as a regulated good; however, it does include a link to the Community Standards, which identifies firearms as a regulated good.” 

    For Geer and gunfluencers who have been censored or demonetized by social media platforms with ‘trust & safety’ teams aligned with the censorship blob, try X. You might find some relief on Musk’s ‘free speech’ platform. 

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

  • The Federal Housing Agency Hasn't Gotten Its Economic House In Order, Under Both Parties
    The Federal Housing Agency Hasn’t Gotten Its Economic House In Order, Under Both Parties

    Authored by Bob Ivry via RealClearInvestigations,

    Paul Fishbein’s conviction on rent fraud charges in New York City last year was a feast for the tabloids. 

    The story was crazy enough to get readers to click. Prosecutors said that Fishbein, 51, somehow convinced local housing agencies that he owned dilapidated apartment buildings that he didn’t, enabling him to move in tenants and skim government rent subsidies meant for lower-income, disabled, and elderly residents. Fishbein kept the con going for more than years. His take: $1.8 million. 

    In February, a judge handed Fishbein 70 months in prison and ordered him to pay back roughly double what he’d taken. The case was a win for city investigators and federal prosecutors. But one agency was conspicuously absent from the celebration: the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a source of the taxpayer money that Fishbein stole. HUD had nothing to do with bringing to justice the fraudster who’d made off with its cash. It was an indictment of the agency’s decade-long resistance to fighting fraud — and a portent for any promise to tame the bureaucratic state, like the kind touted for a second Trump administration. 

    HUD’s lack of involvement in the Fishbein case isn’t necessarily a reflection on field investigators from the agency’s Office of Inspector General, a nationwide force of 140 sleuths who carry guns and badges and are armed with subpoena power. After all, also in February, HUD OIG investigators participated in a massive dragnet that busted 70 current and former New York City Housing Agency employees for soliciting bribes. HUD’s absence from the Fishbein affair was more a result of the agency’s inability to properly track rental-assistance money that, because of error or fraud, ends up in the wrong places — what the government calls improper payments. 

    HUD, like other agencies responsible for spending taxpayer money, is required to estimate improper payments and post the results. Auditing themselves in such a way is a sign that at least the agencies are following the money, even if a portion of it is lost to waste or crime. Most agencies are able to complete the task, but not HUD, which blames the failures on various snafus, both human and technological, and says the earliest it can start properly keeping tabs on the money is 2027, “dependent on funding.” 

    HUD’s internal watchdog has already spent the past 10 years hectoring the agency to improve its fraud detection. Fiscal 2023, which ended Sept. 30, marks the seventh consecutive year that HUD failed to report improper-payment estimates and the 11th year in a row that the inspector general found that HUD was not in compliance with improper-payment laws. Without changes, HUD Inspector General Rae Oliver Davis told the Cabinet Department in a January management alert, “HUD may miss opportunities to identify and eliminate fraud vulnerabilities, leaving its funds and reputation at risk.”

    That’s the watchdog’s gently diplomatic way of telling HUD to get its act together already. The lack of accountability spans the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations. There’s little doubt that it can be tough to track taxpayer money once it’s sent out into the world: HUD’s flows through 3,700 local housing authorities and countless landlords on its way to putting a roof over some 3 million American households. But those complications are also a convenient scapegoat for HUD, as is the lag in upgrading technology systems that could make the accounting job easier.

    Meanwhile, we’re talking about two rental assistance programs, which together constitute 68% of HUD’s annual budget. The programs’ combined fiscal budget for 2025, which starts Oct. 1, is slated to be $49.5 billion. Because the numbers are so high, undetected criminality can cause taxpayer losses in the multiple millions. 

    “Action is needed immediately,” Davis wrote in a January management alert addressed to acting HUD Secretary Adrianne Todman. 

    One Bright Spot

    There was one bright spot in the sometimes contentious relationship between HUD and its Office of Inspector General. Last month, HUD agreed to use a risk-management plan for fraud that the agency watchdog had put together during the COVID-19 pandemic. The inspector general said the move would improve monitoring in one of the two big rental assistance programs, laying the groundwork for improved fraud prevention.

    Congress created the two HUD programs – Project-Based Rental Assistance and Tenant-Based Rental Assistance – in an effort to stem homelessness. The $16.7 billion PBRA helps house 1.2 million lower-income families. About 49% of the households that receive PBRA are headed by an elderly person and 16% by the disabled. One-quarter of the recipients are families with children. The assistance is attached to certain rentals; an eligible tenant must live in a specific apartment to receive help. That contrasts with the $32.8 billion TBRA, which provides aid that follows a tenant from home to home. Both programs are administered by local housing agencies, whose cooperation with the federal government in tallying up payment errors sometimes lacks enthusiasm.

    Even though the law directs federal spending programs to estimate their improper payments, PBRA and TBRA aren’t the only ones that fail to do so. Among the transgressors are the Agriculture Department’s $111 billion Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which skipped filing estimates in 2015, 2016, 2020, and 2021, and the Department of Health and Human Services’ $31 billion TANF, or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. Both SNAP and TANF have blamed snags on a lack of coordination with the state and local agencies that manage the programs. 

    For fiscal 2023, improper payments across the entire government amounted to $236 billion, according to the Government Accountability Office, which compiles agencies’ estimates. While that number is the only one we have, it’s not accurate. The GAO said that it received a full accounting from only 14 of the 24 departments required to report. Historical numbers come with the same flaw. Since 2003, cumulative estimates of improper payments by executive branch agencies have reached $2.7 trillion, the GAO said. Even though that figure is low, because it’s missing numbers that agencies failed to report, it’s still equivalent to about 10% of America’s Gross Domestic Product. 

    Despite its failures in reporting improper payments, “HUD has oversight and monitoring in place to ensure the integrity of its rental-assistance programs,” an agency spokesperson said in an email statement. 

    The spokesperson said that local housing agencies and not HUD are responsible for determining whether tenants are eligible for the programs and how much assistance they qualify for, with HUD providing oversight directly or through the local housing agencies. 

    By reviewing compliance reports and audited financial statements, HUD is able “to ensure that improper payments are minimized and instances of non-compliance are identified and addressed,” the spokesperson said in the email. “In addition, HUD has requested more funding for system enhancements to modernize and improve HUD technology systems to support our oversight efforts.”

    Artificial intelligence might help HUD identify fraudsters such as Fishbein before his swindle can reach its seventh birthday, but as the HUD spokesperson said, that takes money. The Biden administration kept the agency’s budget steady at $72.1 billion from 2023 to 2024. Its proposed fiscal 2025 budget of $72.6 billion is a 0.6% bump.

    Joel Griffith said he knows where to find the money for expanding HUD’s computer-based fraud detection: the agency’s environmental programs. Griffith, a research fellow specializing in financial regulations for the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank responsible for Project 2025, recommends taking the $250 million earmarked for “climate resilience and energy efficiency” in HUD’s latest budget and spending it instead on upgrading information technology. Add the agency’s green retrofitting project – as much as $50,000 for each targeted housing unit – and that should add up to enough for HUD to prevent, rather than chase, a lot of rental-assistance fraud, he said.

    ‘Beef Up Enforcement’

    Donald Trump slashed the budget of HUD’s inspector general by 3.6% in 2021, the last year of his budget oversight, while President Joe Biden proposes hiking it by 10% for 2025. Regardless, Griffith urged the next president, “whoever he is,” to “beef up enforcement.”

    “Prevent fraud by prosecuting bad actors and publicizing it,” Griffith said. “Enforcing the law is a responsible use of taxpayer resources.”

    Though HUD’s Inspector General’s office may have missed out on the publicity surrounding the splashy Fishbein conviction, they’ve been busy. They helped lay the groundwork in Georgia for an October conviction of a Milledgeville Housing Authority payroll clerk who admitted she paid herself $575,014 more than she was entitled; helped secure a guilty plea from a San Francisco man who received $341,455 in fraudulent payments for a residence that turned out to be worth $2.4 million; and saw convictions on bribery and fraud charges of four Pennsylvania men, including the director of the Chester Housing Authority and his chief assistant.

    If those cases seem a tad small-fry for investigators hunting for misdeeds in the stereotypically shady rental industry – especially when solutions to systemic problems are called for – there’s the February arrest of 70 former and current New York City Housing Authority employees for bribery and solicitation of bribery. Prosecutors said the administrators pocketed a collective $2 million over 10 years in pay-for-play schemes to hand out work contracts at HUD-funded properties. The Department of Justice called it “the largest number of federal bribery charges on a single day in DOJ history.” 

    Though the arrests gave the tabloids an opportunity for a thorough public shaming of the accused – and were another example that there’s big money in poverty – they might have also pointed to a bigger issue: a possible reason why it’s been so difficult, at least in New York, for HUD to estimate improper payments.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/19/2024 – 18:40

  • These Are The Most Reliable Car Brands In The US
    These Are The Most Reliable Car Brands In The US

    Reliability is one of the most important aspects to consider when buying a new vehicle, especially as cars become ever more technologically complex…

    In this graphic, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu visualizes the results of J.D. Power’s 2024 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study, which ranked automakers by the number of problems per 100 vehicles (PP100).

    Data and Methodology

    To come up with this ranking, J.D. Power collected responses from 30,595 original owners of 2021 model-year vehicles after three years of ownership. Their study was fielded from August to November 2023, and covers nine categories of problems:

    • Exterior
    • Seats
    • The driving experience
    • Climate
    • Features/controls/displays
    • Interior
    • Infotainment
    • Powertrain
    • Driving Assistance

    The data shown in this infographic is also listed in table below. Note that Tesla was not included because it did not meet study award criteria.

    Brand Problems per 100 Vehicles
    🇯🇵 Lexus 135
    🇯🇵 Toyota 147
    🇺🇸 Buick 149
    🇺🇸 Chevrolet 174
    🇬🇧 MINI 174
    🇩🇪 Porsche 175
    🇯🇵 Mazda 185
    🇰🇷 Kia 187
    🇩🇪 BMW 190
    🇺🇸 Dodge 190
    🇺🇸 Jeep 190
    Average 190
    🇺🇸 Cadillac 196
    🇰🇷 Hyundai 198
    🇯🇵 Subaru 198
    🇯🇵 Nissan 199
    🇰🇷 Genesis 200
    🇺🇸 Ram 201
    🇺🇸 GMC 206
    🇯🇵 Honda 206
    🇺🇸 Acura 216
    🇩🇪 Mercedes-Benz 218
    🇯🇵 Infiniti 219
    🇺🇸 Ford 239
    🇸🇪 Volvo 245
    🇺🇸 Lincoln 251
    🇩🇪 Volkswagen 267
    🇬🇧 Land Rover 268
    🇩🇪 Audi 275
    🇺🇸 Chrysler 310

    From this dataset, we can declare Toyota and its luxury arm, Lexus, as the most reliable car brands in the United States.

    Compared to the other Japanese duos, Honda and Acura rank a distant 20th and 21st, with 206 and 216 PP100. Meanwhile, Nissan and Infiniti diverge, with the former ranking 16th (199 PP100) and Infiniti at 23rd (219 PP100).

    The least reliable automaker in this ranking is Chrysler, which was also the only brand to surpass 300 problems per 100 vehicles. It’s worthy to note that for the 2021 model year (basis of this study), Chrysler only offered two models: the Pacifica/Voyager minivan, and the 300 sedan.

    Infotainment Systems a Major Pain Point

    According to J.D. Power’s study, “Infotainment” was the most common type of problem experienced by owners, with nearly twice as many problems as the second-highest category, “Exterior”.

    Within the Infotainment category, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity was a frequent issue, as was built-in voice recognition.

    If you enjoyed this post, check out Charted: Automaker Sales by Region in 2023 to see which markets are the most important for major car brands.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/19/2024 – 18:15

  • UN Says Global Child Vaccination Rates Below Pre-Pandemic Levels
    UN Says Global Child Vaccination Rates Below Pre-Pandemic Levels

    Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

    Childhood vaccination rates stalled worldwide in 2023, the United Nations said in a new report, finding that some 2.7 million more children haven’t received vaccines as compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic.

    A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) issued on July 15 focused on vaccines targeting measles, as well as other illnesses targeted by childhood vaccines such as diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis—also known as whooping cough.

    Last year, some 84 percent of all children surveyed, or 108 million, received three doses of the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTAP) vaccine, according to the WHO and UNICEF. The 2023 rate was the same as the 2022 vaccination rate, the U.N. agencies stated, noting that the DTAP vaccination rate was 86 percent in 2019, a year before the pandemic started.

    The report found that the number of children who haven’t received a single dose of the DTAP vaccine, also known as DTP or DTP3, rose by 600,000 from 2022 to 2023, or an increase to 14.5 million from 13.9 million in 2022.

    Aside from those figures, about 6.5 million children worldwide didn’t receive a third dose of the DTAP vaccine, which the U.N. agencies say is “necessary to achieve disease protection” as an infant or a young child.

    Other than its DTAP findings, the U.N. agencies also stated that vaccination rates for measles “stalled” in 2023, leaving about 35 million children worldwide with “no or only partial protection.”

    About 83 percent of children around the world got their first measles vaccine in 2023 via routine health services, while the percentage of children getting a second measles vaccine dose was 74 percent last year, according to the U.N. agencies.

    “These figures fall short of the 95 percent coverage needed to prevent outbreaks, avert unnecessary disease and deaths, and achieve measles elimination goals,” the WHO said in a statement.

    Measles outbreaks have emerged in more than 103 countries over the past five years, the agencies noted, stating that “low vaccine coverage” of 80 percent or less was a “major factor.” Ninety-one countries that have more vaccine coverage didn’t report outbreaks of measles over the past five years, it found.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) earlier this year sent out a health alert over an increase in measles cases worldwide. It advised that American citizens traveling overseas “should be current” on their measles, mumps, and rubella, or MMR, vaccinations.

    “Many countries, including travel destinations such as Austria, the Philippines, Romania, and the United Kingdom, are experiencing measles outbreaks,” the agency stated at the time.

    In the United States, a significant portion of measles cases reported so far in 2024 have been connected to an illegal migrant shelter in Chicago, according to the CDC. Some 57 out of 167 cases reported in the United States this year are associated with the shelter, it stated.

    War-hit countries in particular saw a big jump in the number of children who weren’t immunized in 2023, officials with the two U.N. agencies said at a press conference last week, ahead of releasing the data.

    “As conflicts continue to impact children around the region, Sudan, Yemen, and Syria are home to nearly 87 percent of the total zero-dose children in the region, with Sudan alone contributing 42 percent of these zero-dose children,” UNICEF said in a statement, noting that in Gaza and the West Bank, the “impact of the conflict has already started to show” on vaccination rates.

    The U.N. agencies stated that there were some positives. For example, there were about 600,000 fewer “zero dose” children across the African region in 2023 than in 2022, and coverage of the HPV vaccine, which protects against cervical cancer, also improved globally. Ukraine also saw an improvement in vaccinations amid its war with Russia, officials said.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/19/2024 – 17:50

  • Impatient Zelensky After NATO Summit: Where Are My Jets?
    Impatient Zelensky After NATO Summit: Where Are My Jets?

    During the big NATO summit earlier this month, everyone from Antony Blinken to Lloyd Austin to President Biden touted the imminent delivery of US-made F-16 jet fighters to Ukraine. “American-made F-16 fighter jets are on their way to Ukraine” and they will be flying “this summer” – Secretary of State Blinken had vowed at the summit on July 10. But in a fresh interview with BBC on Thursday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked his Western backers: where are the jets? 

    He emphasized that Kiev has yet to receive them, now a year-and-half after the program was first announced. Up to 20 of the total nearly 80 pledged were expected to arrive this year from donor states: The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, and Norway.

    “It’s been 18 months, and the planes have not reached us,” Zelensky complained in the interview. He once again emphasized that the American jets are needed to “unblock the skies.” He’s also been complaining that his forces need many more Patriot and other anti-air defense systems.

    Zelensky has said he is ‘thankful’ for the warplanes but has still claimed the current pledged numbers will not be enough, and that Ukraine really needs at least 128 of the jets. Zelensky is also likely worried the program will be in further jeopardy if Trump gets into office. He stressed that working with the future Trump administration will be “hard work”.

    Interestingly, during the fresh interview Zelensky also reacted to some Ukraine commentary which has emerged during the Republican National Convention in the US, as BBC writes:

    Just days ago, Trump announced Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate in November’s vote. The 39-year-old has in the past said “he doesn’t care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.”

    The nomination has renewed fears that US commitment to Ukraine could fall away if Trump is returned to the White House in November’s election.

    Zelensky said he will work with US officials to ensure a potential future VP Vance understands the situation on the ground in Ukraine.

    “Maybe he really doesn’t understand what goes on in Ukraine, so we have to work with the United States,” Zelensky said in reference to Vance and a possible Trump administration after November.

    It is not just Ukraine that’s worried about Vance as Trump’s VP pic, but European officials as well. They too worry this could signal the start of waning US support to Kiev.

    During his address to the RNC Wednesday night, Vance at one point said “No more free rides for nations that betray the generosity of the American taxpayer.”

    He has also actually put in writing (in a Financial Times op-ed earlier this year) that “There is frankly no good reason that aid from the U.S. should be needed” given that “Europe is made up of many great nations with productive economies” and Ukraine in reality “needs more matériel than the United States can provide.”

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    Vance has also recently described Ukraine ceding territory to Russia as being in “America’s best interest” given that it could bring ceasefire and a lasting peace. He has also as a Senator been a rare vocal critic of Kiev’s crackdown on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (the bishops who remain in communion with the Moscow Patriarchate) and questions of religious freedom.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/19/2024 – 17:25

  • Tennessee Drag Show Ban Upheld After Appeals Court Reverses Ruling
    Tennessee Drag Show Ban Upheld After Appeals Court Reverses Ruling

    Authored by Zachary Steiber via The Epoch Times,

    A federal appeals court on July 18 reversed a lower court ruling as it upheld a law in Tennessee that bans performances featuring strippers or men dressed as women in locations where they could be viewed by children.

    A majority of a panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that a nonprofit theater group challenging the constitutionality of the Adult Entertainment Act (AEA) failed to prove it has standing.

    The group, Friends of George’s, sued Tennessee officials over the law, alleging it violated rights conferred by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

    U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker ruled in 2023 that the law is unconstitutional because it is too vague and overbroad.

    The appeals court panel reversed that ruling, finding that Friends of George’s has not provided evidence that it intended to violate the law.

    That means the group lacks standing, the judges said.

    Even if the organization alleged it intended to violate the law, it would need to show that a constitutional interest would be affected, according to the ruling.

    “But the law in this area is clear—there is no constitutional interest in exhibiting indecent material to minors,” U.S. Circuit Judge John Nalbandian wrote for the majority.

    He pointed to a previous ruling from the appeals court that found certain speech, “while fully protected when directed to adults, may be restricted when directed towards minors.”

    “The only constitutionally protected expressions implicated by the AEA are adult-oriented performances that can be constitutionally restricted from minors but not from adults—a narrow slice of speech,” Judge Nalbandian said.

    “And the statute doesn’t even ban these performances, merely restricting them to adult-only zones.”

    U.S. Circuit Judge Eugene Siler Jr. joined Judge Nalbandian in the ruling.

    U.S. Circuit Judge Andre Mathis said in a dissent that Friends of George’s has standing because it will likely hold shows that are affected by the law, leading it to face a threat of prosecution under the statute. He also said that the group’s shows, which have no age restrictions, appear to be protected by the First Amendment.

    The majority and dissent also diverged over particulars of the law. The majority said the law’s prohibition of shows “harmful to minors” refers “only to those materials which lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for a reasonable 17-year-old minor,” citing a 1993 ruling from the Tennessee Supreme Court. But the dissent said it bars shows to all minors, noting that no court has narrowed the law as written by state legislators.

    Friends of George’s said in a statement it was shocked and disappointed with the decision.

    “Instead of addressing the constitutionality of Tennessee’s drag ban, today’s ruling has left us and thousands of others in the LGBTQ+ community dangerously in limbo, with no clear answers as to how this ban will be enforced and by whom,” the group said in a social media post.

    The organization is consulting with legal counsel on the next steps in the case as it rehearses its next production, which is set to open on Aug. 2.

    Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement that the law has been repeatedly misrepresented since it was signed by Gov. Bill Lee.

    “As a state overflowing with world-class artists and musicians, Tennessee respects the right to free expression. But as the court noted, Tennessee’s ‘harmful to minors’ standard is constitutionally sound and Tennessee can absolutely prohibit the exhibition of obscene material to children,” he said. “The court of appeals focused on what the law actually says and ordered the case dismissed.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/19/2024 – 17:00

  • Fed F**kery Turns $23BN US Bank Deposit Outflow Into $34BN Inflow Ahead Of Stock Slump
    Fed F**kery Turns $23BN US Bank Deposit Outflow Into $34BN Inflow Ahead Of Stock Slump

    Money-market fund total assets rose last week (+9.6BN) back to record highs ($6.15TN) as stocks tanked…

    Source: Bloomberg

    In a breakdown for the period to July 17, government funds – which invest primarily in securities such as Treasury bills, repurchase agreements and agency debt – saw assets rise to $4.96 trillion, a $6.83 billion increase. 

    Prime funds, which tend to invest in higher-risk assets such as commercial paper, saw assets rise to $1.06 trillion, a $4.66 billion increase.

    The Fed’s balance sheet shrank modestly once again, to an interesting level…

    Source: Bloomberg

    …with utilization of the bank bailout scheme actually dropping $2.75BN to $103BN… still quite a chunk for banks to roll at some point when their 12-month loans expire…

    Source: Bloomberg

    After last week’s plunge, total US bank deposits (SA) rose a modest $9BN…

    Source: Bloomberg

    But, as we have grown accustomed to, on an NSA basis banks saw $27.6BN in outflows from deposits last week…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Which meant that, excluding foreign deposits, The Fed’s magic turned a $23BN deposit outflow (NSA) into a $34.5BN deposit inflow (SA)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Breaking that down, on an SA basis, large banks saw a $35BN surge in deposits with small banks a modest $0.5BN outflow. However, on an NSA basis both large (-$13.6BN) and small banks (-$9.4BN) saw sizable outflows.

    This was all to the week-ending 7/10 – so before the equity market carnage began.

    Loan volume rose overall during that week, thanks to a surge of $6.6BN from small banks (large bank saw volume shrink $0.6BN). Large bank loan volumes are down for four straight weeks…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Finally, US equity market cap may have started to catch back down to the reality of its tight historical relationship with bank reserves at The Fed…

    Source: Bloomberg

    …but it may be a little soon to call that.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/19/2024 – 16:40

  • Slowly… Then All At Once!
    Slowly… Then All At Once!

    Authored by James Howard Kusntler via Kunstler.com,

    “Biden has been jabbed at least four times. This is his third covid diagnosis. The shots are working great.”

    – Jeff Childers, Coffee & Covid

    There was a lot of talk about divine intervention at the Republican Convention this week. The country has witnessed a rush of seemingly providential events since the fateful night of June 27th when, to universal horror, “Joe Biden” was unmasked as The Phantom of the White House. The attempt on Donald Trump’s life Saturday, with its intimations of blob involvement, was only the latest of countless trips, hoaxes, capers, and ops that smacked of demonic inspiration laid on the public, so you can’t blame them for feeling that “God is among us now.”

    A huge piece of this dynamic has been the Right’s amazing impotence in the eight-year-long march of insults to the republic – especially the failure to find relief for any of that in the courts of law, until last month when the SCOTUS finally kneecapped Democratic Party lawfare operations. A paramount example of that impotence was being unable to find one jurisdiction willing to adjudicate election fraud in 2020 on the merit of the arguments.

    But there was much more, starting with collective helplessness in the drawn-out RussiaGate psychodrama, even when all the players and their many nefarious acts were exposed by the alt news media, and extending to the mendacious roguery of the two-year Mueller (Weissmann) Commission, followed by fifty-one former intel higher-ups labeling Hunter Biden’s laptop “Russian disinformation, followed by Rep. Adam Schiff’s Ukraine “whistleblower” prank featuring CIA/NSC/DOD/DOJ moles Eric Ciaramella, Colonel Vindman and IC Inspector General Michael Atkinson, and then the FBI-instigated J-6 riot with the ensuing  faked-up House J-6 committee . . . plus you can throw in the stupid Ukraine war, the drag queens in the kindergartens, the bumbling Durham investigation, ten million unvetted illegal migrants flowing into the country and this year’s four show-trials put on to finally break Mr. Trump.

    For many in this land, it has been like the classic nightmare of being paralyzed in the presence of evil. So, it’s no wonder that the Republicans came into their convention with a tremendous tailwind of relief when events suddenly broke their way in June. Now, everyone knows that the current president is a vindictive invalid who will be tossed overboard by his own terrified party in a matter of hours now. And the entire scaffold of lies supporting “Joe Biden” and his party is wobbling badly, too.

    You could see it in the deranged terror of Rachel Maddow’s increasingly contorted face last night as she rehearsed all the hoaxes she has helped to perpetrate, along with her mentally-ill posse of Jenn Psaki, Joy Reid, Nicole Wallace, and the strangely mute white male Ari Melber. It seemed that any minute Rachel’s head would spin and start spewing pea soup at the camera. When will an exorcist finally pay a visit to MSNBC?

    As the sun sets on “Joe Biden’s” career, what’s left of his campaign runs an ad in which he promises “to finish the job.”

    Sounds kind of sinister now, doesn’t it, like something a crime boss might tell his caporegimes? And for sure the country is suffering from this three-year-plus reign-of-terror against common sense and common decency.

    The wreckage is everywhere, all over this land. “Defending our Democracy,” my ass.

    The party big dawgs have paid their terminal visit to the old grifter bringing the sad news that it’s over. Of course, this excites several new headaches for them. Foremost: how can “JB” bow out of the election on account of mental infirmity but still remain president? Even if they call it something else, make some other excuse, the whole world knows now that the president is gone in the head. There are six months remaining to the end of his term and a lot of urgent issues requiring a president’s attention. You can be sure that pressure will rise to shove him out of office altogether. And it may come before the Democratic Convention in late August — if we want to be taken seriously by the rest of the world.

    Of course, that would elevate Kamala to the White House. Would getting to be the first female president of-color for six months be her consolation prize for graciously declining an automatic nomination to run in “JB’s” place, so that the party can stage an “open convention” free-for-all? Or would she better serve the party as a sacrificial goat to head the ticket and get buried in what’s shaping up to be an election landslide for the Republicans? Anyway, which of the various replacement politicians — Newsom, Whitmer, Pritzker, PA Gov. Shapiro —really wants to squander a political future in an election that’s as much a vote against the Democratic Party itself as any particular figure in it? Let the party go down so it can be purged of Green Woke Satanic mentally-ill communists and reorganized on a sane and decent basis.

    But then there’s always HRC.

    She’s been laying back alertly, waiting for an opening to swoop in on her leathery wings and cast a fresh spell over the batshit-crazy women who, in recent times, comprise the party’s base.

    At one point, not many years ago, the party was broke and had to be bailed-out by the Clinton Foundation. To what extent does that entity still own the DNC, and especially its cargo of super-delegates? I guess we’re going to find out.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/19/2024 – 16:20

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