• Who's Afraid Of An Alternative For Germany?
  Who’s Afraid Of An Alternative For Germany?

  Authored by Conor Gallagher via NakedCapitalism.com,

  The media describes them as far-right, anti-European Union, anti-immigrant, fascist, etc. But what exactly are the positions of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party? Why is it steadily gaining in public opinion polls, and why is the German establishment so afraid of them?

  

  Various AfD party members have made comments in recent years that, depending on your point of view, are offensive or were blown out of proportion by the media. I’m not going to review all those here but instead wanted to look at what policies are contained in the AfD platform. The party’s “Manifesto for Germany” is a 93-page document that covers just about everything, but I want to focus here on areas that the media most frequently focus on  – immigration, the EU, and nationalism, as well as the set of positions that I would argue is the real reason for hyperventilating over AfD’s rise: foreign policy.

  On the EU:

  We oppose the idea to transform the European Union into a centralised federal state. We are in favour of returning the European Union to an economic union based on shared interests, and consisting of sovereign, but loosely connected nation states.…

  We believe in a sovereign Germany, which guarantees the freedom and security of its citizens, promotes economic welfare, and contributes to a peaceful and prosperous Europe.

  Should we not succeed with our ideas of a fundamental reform within the present framework of the European Union, we shall seek Germany‘s exit, or a democratic disso- lution of the EU, followed by the founding of a new Euro- pean economic union.…

  European politics are characterised by a creeping loss of democracy. The EU has become an undemocratic entity, whose policies are determined by bureaucrats who have no democratic accountability.

  On the Euro currency:

  We call for an end to the Euro experiment and its orderly dissolution. Should the German Federal Parliament not agree to this demand, Germany’s continued membership of the single currency area should be put to a popular vote.…

  The Euro actually jeopardises the peaceful co-existence of those European nations who are forced into sharing a common destiny by the Eurocracy. The introduction of this currency has led to resentment and confrontation amongst countries in Europe. Countries incurring economic difficulties within the single currency area are forced to restore their competitiveness by such measures as internal devaluation and associated budgetary constraints (austerity policies), rather than exploiting the tool of currency adjustments. Tensions amongst European nation states can inherently be ascribed to the Euro.

  AfD doesn’t just oppose the Euro for altruistic reasons. The party also objects to any form of financial equalization between the richer and poorer euro countries and claims Germany shoulders an unfair burden in propping up the weaker members of the eurozone.

  The political programme provides very little on labor policy, but AfD does want to provide financial incentives for Germans to reproduce. Here is the party on low birth rates and immigration:

  In order to fight the effects of this negative demographic development, political parties currently in government support mass immigration, mainly from Islamic states, without due consideration of the needs and qualifications of the German labour market. During the past few years it has become evident that Muslim immigrants to Germany,in particular, only attain below-average levels of education, training and employment. As the birth rate is more than 1.8 children amongst immigrants, which is much higher than that of Germans, it will hasten the ethnic-cultural changes in society.

  The attempt to counteract these developments by increasing the rate of immigration will inevitably lead to the estab lishment of more parallel communities, particularly inlarge cities, where integration with the native population is already a problem. The spread of conflict-laden and multiple minority communities erodes social solidarity, mutual trust, and public safety, which all are elements of a stable commu- nity. The average level of education will continue to drop.

  Greater political support for parental work, as well as education and family policies which are focused on the needs of families and young couples wanting to start a family, will once again lead to birth rates at a self-sustaining rate in the medium to long-term. We regard the closing of the gap between the actual number of children being born, and the desire of 90% of young Germans to have children, as a central element of our political platform.

  The document goes on for many pages about protecting the nation’s culture and how Islam is not a good fit for Germany. What exactly  is that culture?

  The AfD is committed to German as the predominant culture. This culture is derived from three sources: firstly, the religious traditions of Christianity; secondly, the scientific and humanistic heritage, whose ancient roots were renewed during the period of Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment; and thirdly, Roman law, upon which our constitutional state is founded.

  Islam does not belong to Germany. Its expansion and the ever-increasing number of Muslims in the country are viewed by the AfD as a danger to our state, our society, and our values. An Islam which neither respects nor refrains from being in conflict with our legal system, or that even lays claim to power as the only true religion, is incompatible with our legal system and our culture. Many Muslims live as law-abiding and well-integrated citizens amongst us, and are accepted and valued members of our society. However, the AfD demands that an end is put to the formation and increased segregation by parallel Islamic societies relying
  on courts with shari’a laws.

  Here is the AfD immigration policy in a nutshell:

  Current German and European asylum and refugee policies cannot be continued as in the past. The ill-fitting term “refugee” used for all the people who enter Germany irregularly with the aim to stay here forever, is characteristic of this misguided policy. It is necessary to make a distinction between political refugees and people fleeing from war on the one hand, and irregular migrants on the other. It is the AfD’s view that true refugees should be granted shelter as long as there is war in the countries of origin. Irregular migrants, who are not persecuted, have no right to claim protection, contrary to refugees. Once the reasons for fleeing, such as an end to wars, or political and religious persecution, no longer applies, shall residence permits of refugees be terminated. These refugees need to leave Germany. Germany and its EU partner countries should provide incentives for those who have to leave. It is in the interest of domestic and foreign peace if refugees return to their home countries and contribute to the political, economic and social reconstruction of these countries.

  We advocate moderate legal immigration based on qualitative criteria where there is irrefutable demand, which can neither be satisfied from domestic resources, nor by EU immigration. The interests of Germany as a social, economic and cultural nation are paramount.

  On militarization,  foreign policy and the US:

  Currently, the operational readiness of the German Armed Forces is severely compromised. Due to poor political decisions and mismanagement, our armed forces have been severely neglected for over three decades. The operational readiness has to be fully restored so that the armed forces will be able to perform all their responsibilities. This is an essential prerequisite for the acceptance of Germany as an equal partner by NATO, the EU and the international community.

  Membership of NATO corresponds to Germany‘s interests with regard to foreign and security policy, as long as NATO’s role remains that of a defensive alliance. The AfD believes that predictability in meeting commitments towards NATO allies is an important goal of German foreign and security policy, so that Germany can develop more political weight to shape policies, and gain influence. We advocate that any engagement of NATO must be aligned to German interests, and has to correspond to a clearly defined strategy.

  Wherever German Armed Forces, as part of NATO operations, are involved beyond the borders of its Alliance partners’ territory, shall, in principle, only be carried out under a UN mandate, and only if German security interests are taken into account.

  On Germany’s occupation by allied troops (i.e., the US):

  …70 years after the end of World War II, and 25 years after the end of a divided Europe, the renegotiation of the status of Allied troops in Germany should be put up for discussion. The status of Allied troops needs to be adapted to Germany’s regained sovereignty. The AfD is committed to the withdrawal of all Allied troops stationed on German soil, and in particular of their nuclear weapons.

  And on Russia:

  The relationship with Russia is of prime importance, because European security cannot be attained without Russia’s involvement. Therefore, we strive for a peaceful solution of conflicts in Europe, whilst respecting the interests of all parties.

  Why Is AfD Surging in Popularity?

  AfD is a relatively new party – it was founded in 2013. It first began to gain a foothold among disenchanted voters in East Germany during the refugee crisis in 2017, but with the onset of the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis in Germany, their support has been growing and spreading. What originally made AfD so attractive in East Germany?

  According to Manès Weisskircher who researches social movements, political parties, democracy, and the far right at the Institute of Political Science, TU Dresden, AfD’s support in the East can be primarily traced to three factors:

  1. The neoliberal ‘great transformation,’ which has massively changed the eastern German economy and continues to lead to emigration and anxiety over personal economic prospects.

  2. An ongoing sense of marginalization among East Germans who feel they have never been fully integrated since reunification and resent liberal immigration policies in this context.

  3. Deep dissatisfaction with the functioning of the political system and doubt in political participation.

  Recent polling contains interesting findings with regards to the AfD. It shows that 44 percent of Germans supporting the party do not have far-right views, but they are more concerned with inflation (90 percent) and immigration (87 percent) than the general public (78 and 56 percent, respectively). A whopping 78 percent of those who said they would vote for AfD said they would do so to show they were unhappy with current policies.

  The rise of the AfD is rooted in the crisis of German neoliberalism, and the current war in Ukraine that accompanies it. The idea that the West would cause Russia to collapse, divide it into pieces and plunder its natural resources has spectacularly backfired.

  The German economy is instead the one in a freefall. In response, Berlin continues to liberalize immigration laws to attract more foreigners with the hope it will help the economy – this despite the fact that half of German citizens would like the country to take in fewer refugees than it currently does.

  A record high of 71 percent of the German public are not satisfied with the work of the federal government, according to a recent Deutschlandtrend survey. The current government is unresponsive to the concerns of working class voters. Foreign minister Annalena Baerbock famously summed up that reality last year:

  HANKE’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT: Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said she will put Ukraine first “no matter what my German voters think.” It’s very rare to hear a local politician publicly say she (or he) will ignore the WILL of their VOTERS.https://t.co/hFQrNwSJEW

  — Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) October 25, 2022

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  The AfD is the only party in Germany making the connection between Berlin’s bellicose policy towards Moscow (and increasingly Beijing as well) and the worsening economic conditions for Germans.

  The Greens, rather than examine their own failings, are blaming voters for not fully understanding their policies. They’ve launched a “charm” offensive to better explain their wisdom while simultaneously escalating their charges against the AfD. Tobias Riegel writes at NachDenkSeiten [machine translation]:

  The [Green] chairman of the Europe Committee in the Bundestag, [Anton] Hofreiter, is currently warning against the AfD and has accused it of treason. He also did not rule out a ban on the party, as reported by the media . Two sentences by Hofreiter are particularly striking. On the one hand:

  “You have to be aware of the incredible danger that the AfD poses to democracy and the rule of law, as well as to the prosperity of many people; that has not yet arrived in all parts of society.”

  And on the other hand:

  “There is also insufficient awareness of the danger that the AfD poses to our country’s external security in this difficult situation with increasingly aggressive dictatorships such as Russia and China. The AfD is predominantly a group of traitors who act not in the interests of our country but in the interests of opposing powers.”

  If you swap “AfD” for “Greens” and if you swap “Russia” for “USA”, you could almost think Hofreiter is talking about himself and his leading party friends in these quotes.

  Meanwhile, the country’s Left Party, which is considered a direct descendant of the Socialist Unity Party that ruled East Germany until reunification, has completely collapsed after abandoning nearly all of its platform in an attempt to appear “ready to govern.” Much like the bourgeoisie Greens, the Left increasingly stands for neoliberal, pro-war and anti-Russia policies. Former Left voters have increasingly switched to the AfD in response.

  As long as the AfD is the only party in Germany willing to connect the dots between US control over German foreign policy and the increasing toll that is taking on the citizens’ standard of living, it will likely continue to attract voters.

  Why Is There Such an Outcry Over AfD?

  For years now, the German establishment has been throwing the kitchen sink at the AfD. There are of course allegations of Russia connections. They hate the disabled. They are extremist and must be monitored.  A former AfD representative was also  allegedly part of a coup plan involving 25 geriatrics that were inspired by QAnon and were somehow going to take over the government. Stories on the coup plot almost always focus on the AfD link and warnings that they are getting “more extreme.”

  Most of these scare stories about the AfD originate from Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), which last year won the right to surveil AfD members after judges allowed the party to be branded a “suspicious entity.”

  German authorities are now able to monitor and intercept mail correspondence, phone calls and online conversations. It can also limit members’ ability to get employment in the public sector and make it more difficult to obtain licenses for weapons.

  (In the past, the BfV investigated members of the Left Party suspecting them of intending to replace the existing economic, political and social order with a socialist or communist system.)

  Much of this seems ripped straight out of the US playbook for dealing with Trump and unruly voters in general: ignore the voters, blame the voters, and then release spooks.

  The media hysteria over the AfD is reminiscent over the constant ringing of alarm bells over the election of the Italian Prime Minister and her Brothers of Italy party last year. Fascism was on the march, they declared. Well, Meloni has turned out to be a pretty run-of-the-mill corporate stooge who toes the line on the EU and NATO. Even her anti-immigrant rhetoric gave way to ensuring the arrival of a certain number in order to maintain the supply of cheap labor for Italian businesses. And the freak out over Meloni died down as soon as she proved her devotion to the EU and NATO.

  Let’s not pretend that any of the concern over the AfD is due to its proposed policies regarding German culture and immigrants. It is because the party is advocating for positions that are a direct threat to Brussels and Washington. If it went forward with efforts to get Germany off the euro or boot US troops out of the country, it would collapse the whole EU-NATO system.

  Despite the media and intelligence agency pressure, the AfD only seems emboldened. Beyond the party platform, AfD members have since gone further in their criticisms of the US.

  Here’s Member of the European Parliament Maximilian Krah:

  “It is certain that the German government was informed of the sabotage beforehand by the Americans. This is the only explanation for Scholz’s awkward silence. With the addition of a woke and irresponsible warmonger like [Foreign Minister Annalena] Baerbock, who declares that Germany is at war with Russia, nothing surprises me.

  The problem is that this is tearing the German economy to pieces and significantly impoverishes Germany. Moreover, the billions spent by Germany on this gas project, which ensured us cheap energy, are lost, but the coalition which governs Germany does not care. Officially, Scholz knows nothing. Apparently, we live in a democracy.”

  The AfD is also increasingly critical of Berlin’s stance towards China, which it believes is being driven by US interests and Germany’s detriment. From  Deutsche Welle:

  The AfD has positioned itself in opposition to the German government’s critical policy toward China. Berlin’s China Strategy, published in mid-July, for example, was denounced by Bystron, the AfD’s foreign policy spokesperson, as the “attempt to implement green-woke ideology and US geopolitical interests under the guise of a strategy for German foreign policy.”

  The description of China in the strategy as a rival — as well as a partner and competitor — was for Bystron “the consequence of the US’ confrontational course toward China. This confrontation and division are not in the interests of Germany as an export nation,” he said.

  For political scientist Wolfgang Schroeder from the University of Kassel, the AfD’s foreign policy positions demonstrate an attempt to set itself apart from the other German political parties. Geopolitically, said Schroeder, the AfD sees the traditional Western ties with the United States, which it regards as hegemonic, as having past their use-by date.

  “The AfD considers Washington to be more part of the problem than part of the solution to the challenges facing Germany,” he told DW. “That’s because the AfD considers the US an imperial actor whose vested interests cannot be reconciled with those of Germany.”

  The AfD is essentially calling for a return to the Angela Merkel foreign policy based on Wandel durch Handel (“transformation through trade”). It relied on cheap Russian gas imports and exports to its largest trading partner, China.

  There is now a central disconnect to Germany’s foreign policy and domestic policy. As Berlin follows the wishes of the US, lives for the citizens of Germany will  continue to worsen. How can Germany reconcile this?

  German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Zeitenwende was essentially a promise to the US that Germany will from now on take up its sword in defense of US hegemony and morally superior purposes (such as Baerbock’s feminist foreign policy that aligns neatly with Washington’s enemy list) against Russia, China, Iran, and whoever else threatens the “rules-based order.”

  The AfD, whether you agree or disagree with its other positions, is for now the sole German party standing against such an arrangement.

  The German state’s harassment of the Left Party appears to have worked in getting it to abandon its previously “radical” goals of empowering workers, dissolving NATO and getting US troops out of Germany. We’ll have to wait and see what path the AfD takes.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/05/2023 – 02:00

• "Unprecedented Levels" Of Theft In Nation's Capital Forces Supermarket Chain To Remove Name-Brand Items From Shelves
  “Unprecedented Levels” Of Theft In Nation’s Capital Forces Supermarket Chain To Remove Name-Brand Items From Shelves

  Walmart, Target, Kohl’s, Foot Locker, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Dollar Tree, to name a few, have all raised concerns about out-of-control thefts in their stores nationwide. The latest is supermarket chain Giant Food, which warned about “unprecedented levels” of “shrink” – the loss of inventory due to circumstances such as retail theft – at one of its stores in Washington, DC. 

  NBC Washington said the Giant Food, located at 1535 Alabama Ave SE, has already warned if rampant shoplifting continues, the supermarket will have to close its doors. 

  

  The Giant on Alabama Avenue SE is the only full-service supermarket in the area, and if it closes, it will create a food desert in Southeast DC. Instead of closing, it seems the grocery chain has come up with a solution:

  In a statement, Giant said it plans to remove national brand health and beauty care items and replace them with private label brands where possible. The new policy aims to reduce “unprecedented levels” of theft and make the store safer for shoppers and employees. 

  “None of the tactics we deploy is the ultimate solution to the problem we face, but we continue to invest in efforts that will improve safety for our associates and customers and reduce theft,” part of the statement read. –NBC Washington

  Replacing brand name items, such as Tide, Colgate, or Advil, with only private label products is a last-ditch effort to prevent the store from closing. 

  DC’s failed progressive social justice reform policies have only emboldened criminals, as AP News warned in July: “Violent crime is rising sharply, fueled by more homicides and carjackings.” 

  Major corporations who funded the ‘defund the police’ movement during the Covid era are getting what they deserve: A surge in thefts as soft on crime Democrats in control of many of the nation’s cities have only sparked a theft and violent crime wave. 

  Retailers sounded the alarm on the theft wave this past earnings season. The number of times CEOs mentioned “shrink” on earnings calls soared to a record high.  

  

  A new report last week drew a Mexican cartel connection in America’s retail theft epidemic that cost companies like Walmart, Target, Kohl’s, Home Depot, and Foot Locker, among others, tens of billions of dollars last year. Yet another failed Democrat policy to leave borders open. 

   Open borders are not so great after all… It’s time to reinforce law and order in the nation or face out-of-control theft waves now making it to suburbia. 

   

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/04/2023 – 23:45

• Kishida's Unpopularity Increases Risk Of BOJ Shift And Yen Intervention
  Kishida’s Unpopularity Increases Risk Of BOJ Shift And Yen Intervention

  By Masaki Kondo, Bloomberg markets live reporter and strategist.

  Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s falling popularity adds to the risk that the Bank of Japan may surprise investors again with a policy shift that will make voters happier.

  Political distress has emerged as a potential leading indicator for action in monetary and currency affairs since late 2022
  When Japan intervened to prop up the yen in October, it wasn’t just the currency that was falling — Kishida’s administration’s approval rating was also plumbing new lows.

  The blowback against the Japanese Lira begins.

  Let’s see how long Kishida allows the BOJ to cremate the JPY once Japan’s plummeting standard of living and his approval rating starts correlating to the yen pic.twitter.com/qcKAgvXukz

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 29, 2023

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  The government was drawing fire in opinion polls again in December, when the central bank unexpectedly raised the ceiling for yield-curve control. And when the BOJ caught investors off guard once more in July with a further adjustment to YCC, the PM’s popularity was yet again on the slide.

  This isn’t to deny that underlying economic and market pressures are the fundamental drivers of monetary and currency policy. Nobody is suggesting that the government directs the central bank, which has its independence enshrined in law.

  Yet there is a clear line that connects the weak yen to inflation, and inflation to unhappy voters. When it comes to the timing of actions that can take some of the sting out of inflation, recent history indicates opinion polls are at least worth watching.

  

  It may also pay to keep an eye on the periodic meetings between Kishida and the BOJ governor. Many traders can probably recount that the then-Governor Haruhiko Kuroda raised concern over the yen when he met the prime minister about a month before raising the YCC ceiling in December.

  Kazuo Ueda, who was chosen by Kishida to succeed Kuroda earlier this year, has also shown himself to be highly attuned to the plight of the yen. Ueda surprised BOJ watchers in July when he acknowledged that foreign-exchange volatility had been a factor in raising the YCC cap again.

  The most recent public record of a meeting between the pair is Aug. 22, when they discussed financial conditions ahead of the gathering of global central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

  That said, Kishida’s problems with voters go way beyond areas the BOJ can influence, even if he could bend the central bank to his will. The sources of dissatisfaction with the government range from a national ID card, to the country’s low birth rate, to the handling of waste water from the Fukushima nuclear plant.

  But maybe all these caveats are immaterial. The link between the yen and inflation, and what this means to the government and the BOJ, is clear to see. Keeping tabs on opinion polls may be prudent until someone can show that they don’t matter.

  

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/04/2023 – 23:00

• A Manufactured Hate
  A Manufactured Hate

  Authored by Paul Gottfried via American Greatness,

  Thomas Klingenstein recently delivered a speech at the Claremont Institute that notes what should be obvious to most Americans. 

  According to Klingenstein, racism in the US is now a “manufactured” problem,” and this tawdry invention allows the Democrats and the Left to increase their power by addressing a problem that they themselves have stirred up. Although Klingenstein does not deny that isolated cases of discrimination against blacks may occur, he regards these situations as sporadic but also gleefully played up by Democratic politicians and their media handservants.

  

  When Joe Biden complains that white Americans are practicing “systemic racism” against blacks and that the US is being convulsed by white supremacist terrorists, he is clearly lying. But he and his handlers are acting as they do for a reason, which is not that they believe what they’re saying. They know that what they are loudly deploring will help shore up their party’s base consisting of the perpetually aggrieved. Black politicians who loyally serve the Democratic Party, like Sheila Jackson Lee, Cori Bush, Hakeem Jeffries, and Maxine Waters tell us breathlessly that white America is racist. Hearing this accusation may make their voters feel better about their social failures and even result in getting further government social programs targeted at inner cities.

  Far more astonishingly, the never-ending invectives against “racist” white Americans doesn’t seem to upset most white voters. White Democrats in particular don’t mind being stigmatized as racists. Most white Americans may object to high gas prices and rising housing costs, but being attacked as racists for most of them (and here we have to exclude most Trump voters) may be like rain off a duck’s back.  According to a Harris Poll taken last year, 53% of white Americans believe for sure their race is systemically racist.

  For me, this defamation of whites is a shameless lie. Not only are white Americans overwhelmingly not racist bigots, but they lick the feet of those who are making false charges against them. The question is why so many white Americans seem content in their role as penitent “systemic racists.” They show no displeasure when TV stations feature predominantly black actors, even in advertisements, sometimes to the near exclusion of whites, and when more and more of their “entertainment” focuses on black victimhood. Although most American whites do not yet obsess over their inherited racist sins, some of them fund blatantly antiwhite organizations like BLM and Antifa. Further, some particularly troubled whites even join those antiwhite riots sponsored by richer adherents of their bizarre creed.

  An obvious reason why some whites behave so masochistically or weirdly is that they are conforming to what they think is expected of them. Those who run corporations, educational institutions, the media, wokeified churches and the deep state all push antiwhite racism; and this poisonous product determines social behavior, and even pseudo-religious conviction. Although this toxin may do incalculable damage to race relations, education, and even our entertainment, it does not usually affect the lives of those who mouth the required gibberish, at least not too directly.

  Parents may grouse that their offspring are kept out of a prestigious school because of a racial quota. But they try not to make too much noise lest they hurt themselves socially or professionally. In any case their kids have access to other overpriced citadels of “higher education” if a particular university keeps them out to fill a quota. Obviously white house owners don’t want BLM or other violent “social justice” organizations rioting in their neighborhood. But as long as the residents keep garish BLM signs on their front lawns, they should be ok. The signs function in a way similar to the garlic sack or crucifix that was supposed to ward off vampires, according to Romanian legend.

  Another reason that antiwhite racism is such a hot item is that it comes fused with other leftist targets.

  Opponents of manufactured white racism are usually enemies of Christianity, “patriarchy,” and homophobia. Leftist bugaboos come in clusters. If you buy into one of the items, you are expected to take home the rest. I often receive letters from correspondents who insist that woke leftists really hate one of the stated targets on their list of villains but not really the other ones. It seems to me that the Left has made war on all their targets simultaneously.  

  And if you want to hang with the powerful and influential, you’re going to have to pay lip service to all their madness. Otherwise, you might be mistaken for a Trumpite. Lately I’ve been impressed by how my former colleagues and younger relatives who belong to our state church belabor the now-ritualized observation: “Of course there’s systematic racism in this country.”

  Although their message sounds like lunacy, I’m sure there are others with more influence than I have who will be pleased with this credal recitation.

  The larger question is how such a loathsome, masochistic state religion got established in the first place.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/04/2023 – 22:30

• Beijing Is Ceding The Economic Race As Growth Slows
  Beijing Is Ceding The Economic Race As Growth Slows

  By George Lei, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and strategist

  Forecasts for China’s 2023 and 2024 economic growth have been slashed on Wall Street over the past few weeks. The world’s second-largest economy now risks missing Beijing’s own growth target for a second straight year and could expand at a sub-5% pace for three years in a row — something unheard of since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976.

  Stalling growth will surely have longer-term geopolitical implications. Odds are stacked against President Xi, who pledged last year to make China a “medium-developed country” by 2035. That’s also the time when China could dethrone the US to become the world’s No. 1 economy, if the stars are aligned. Such a prospect, however, looks increasingly out of reach given the current trajectories.

  China’s strong growth and subsequent currency appreciation meant the country’s output, measured in dollars, has grown much faster than the US for over two decades. The nation’s GDP was around $1.2 trillion at the turn of the century, less than one-eighth of the US. Its share of US GDP climbed toward 70% in 2020 and topped 72% in 2021. That was comparable with Japan, whose dollar-denominated output reached almost 73% of US levels in 1995, before embarking on a downtrend ever since.

  

  Last year was a watershed moment as China’s relative economic might versus the US declined after the second quarter, when a two-month lockdown of Shanghai wreaked havoc on sentiment and dented growth momentum. The nation’s GDP rose $1.3 trillion in 2022, compared with a $2.1 trillion gain in the US, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In the first half of 2023, Chinese GDP in dollar terms shrank — as the yuan lost almost 5% versus the greenback — while the US economy powered on, “opening a bigger gap in the global economic race” as my colleague Gerard DiPippo wrote. Chinese output as a share of the US now stands near 68%, on course for a second straight year of decline.

  

  At the October party congress, President Xi set the goal for China to become a “medium-developed country” by 2035, which implies doubling the size of its economy and per-capita GDP from 2020 levels, and requires an average annual growth rate of around 4.7%. The latest Bloomberg survey of economists saw Chinese output expanding 5.1% this year, before moderating to 4.5% in 2024 and 2025. Given last year’s 3% expansion, the four-year average between 2022 and 2025 will amount to less than 4.3%. That number is sure to fall if policymakers refrain from major stimulus and growth momentum keeps deteriorating.

  

  Two years ago, my colleagues Eric Zhu and Tom Orlik at Bloomberg Economics analyzed several scenarios and concluded that China will need 5%-plus growth as well as least a steady pace of reforms, and it also will need to avoid a full decoupling in order to economically dethrone the US in the next decade. Events since then have made their base case look optimistic, and the downside scenario more akin to reality. Beijing may choose to muddle through its present growth impasse and refrain from any “big bang” measures at the expense of never ascending to the pinnacle of the global economic competition.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/04/2023 – 21:30

• "Intensity Models Show Big Development Late Week": All Eyes On The Atlantic As Hurricane Season Nears Peak 
  “Intensity Models Show Big Development Late Week”: All Eyes On The Atlantic As Hurricane Season Nears Peak 

  Gert and Katia remain active systems churning in the Atlantic, but a new tropical wave off Africa caught the attention of the National Hurricane Center. 

  As of Monday morning, Invest 95-L was several hundred miles southwest of Africa’s Cabo Verde Islands, with a 90% probability of tropical formation in the next seven days and 70% in the next two days. 

  

  “Showers and thunderstorms continue to show signs of organization in association with a tropical wave located several hundred miles southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands. Environmental conditions are forecast to be conducive for further development, and this system is expected to become a tropical depression around midweek,” NHC wrote in an early Monday morning update. 

  NHC continued, “Additional strengthening is likely late this week while the system moves westward to west-northwestward at 15 to 20 mph over the central and western portions of the tropical Atlantic.” 

  Meteorologist Eric Burris from WELSH, a local media outlet in Daytona Beach, Florida, posted on X that the tropical wave’s new models show a potential track toward the Northeast Caribbean. 

  Brand new model data coming in for Invest #95L. This system looks to get strong by late week, but will it have the chance to re-curve and stay out to sea?

  That’s the hope, and just about all global models show it. Let’s just keep eyes on em for consistency to build confidence pic.twitter.com/5HJyB6b9Ic

  — Eric Burris (@EricBurrisWESH) September 4, 2023

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

  Burris posted an intensity model that suggests the storm could reach Category 1 status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale by the end of the week. 

  Intensity models are really starting to show big development late week…

  Here’s the newest data… pic.twitter.com/p6kQBbzBD9

  — Eric Burris (@EricBurrisWESH) September 4, 2023

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

  The hurricane season is nearing the peak. 

  

  The meteorologist said even though the models point to the Caribbean islands and perhaps the US East Coast. Some models show it could turn north and stay out to sea. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/04/2023 – 21:00

• Disease-X Is A High-Return Business Strategy
  Disease-X Is A High-Return Business Strategy

  Authored by David Bell via The Brownstone Institute,

  Fearistan, having done very well economically and provided its citizens a long lifespan, noticed that people were still occasionally dying in road accidents. Fearistanis were wealthy and really liked the freedom to travel. While road deaths were uncommon, any unnecessary death surely seemed worth avoiding.

  The road-building industry, working closely with government, came up with the idea of building 6-lane highways between cities. Soon the big cities were all connected, and experts from the University of Transport proved that the new highways had a 7 percent lower accident rate than normal roads. University modelers predicted that if 6-lane highways were built between every town in Fearistan, they would save thousands of lives. Experts predicted that they would even save more lives than were actually dying on the existing roads.

  The country followed the experts (they were, after all, renowned for building roads) and invested in 6-lane highways everywhere. While the country exhausted itself and most people could not afford to drive their cars anymore, they were rightly grateful that the road-builders were saving them. The near empty roads were now almost completely accident-free, proving the experts right.

  Eventually, the road-building industry faced a dilemma; they were running out of towns to which roads could be built. This was not what their investors needed. Then the road regulator and the road-builders met and identified an urgent need to build roads to towns that did not yet exist. Fearistan had vast areas of empty desert that were completely open to town-building. When such towns were eventually built, experts predicted an inevitable and devastating tsunami of road accidents. This would return Fearistan to the total carnage from which they had so narrowly escaped years before. The new Town-X roads (as they termed them) were brilliant examples of high-tech road construction. And everyone could see how important this work was, to keep the public safe. 

  In public health, we follow a similarly important business model. We call it ‘Disease-X.’

  

  Understanding pandemic risk from infectious disease

  Humans suffered for millennia from pandemics or ‘plagues.’ These killed up to a third of some populations. While causes in some cases remain unclear, such as the Athenian plague of 430 BC, the major plagues since Medieval times were mostly bacterial; particularly bubonic plague, cholera, and typhus. 

  Bacterial pandemics ceased in late 19th century Europe with improved sanitation, and elsewhere after the addition of antibiotics. Most deaths from the pre-antibiotic Spanish flu outbreak in the early 20th century are also thought to be untreated secondary bacterial pneumonia. Cholera remains an intermittent marker of extreme poverty and social disruption, whilst most deaths from malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS are associated with poverty, which restricts access to effective treatment.

  When indigenous populations long separated from the bulk of humanity encountered carriers of smallpox and measles, the effects were also devastating. Having no inherited immunity, whole populations were decimated, particularly in the Americas, Pacific Islands, and Australia. 

  Now the world is connected, and such mass death events don’t occur. Connectedness can be a strong defense against pandemics, contrary to what Disease X proponents claim, through its role in supporting early-age immunity and frequent boosting.

  These realities reflect orthodox public health but are poorly compatible with current business models. They are, therefore, increasingly ignored.

  A century of safety

  The past hundred years have seen two significant natural influenza pandemic events (in 1957-8 and 1968-9) and one major coronavirus outbreak (Covid-19) that appears to have arisen from gain-of-function research in a lab. The influenza outbreaks each killed less than currently die annually from tuberculosis, while the coronavirus outbreak was associated with mortality at average age above 75 years, with roughly 1.5 people per thousand dying globally.

  While the media fusses about other outbreaks, they have actually been relatively small events. SARS-1 in 2003 killed about 800 people worldwide, or less than half the number of children that die every single day from malaria. MERS killed about 850 people, and the West African Ebola outbreak killed about 11,300. Context here is important; tuberculosis kills over 1.5 million people every year while malaria kills over half a million children, and over 600,000 people die of cancer each year in the United States alone. SARS-1, MERS and Ebola may gain more media coverage than tuberculosis, but this is unrelated to actual risk.

  Why are we living longer?

  The reason behind increasing human lifespans is frequently forgotten, or ignored. As medical students were once taught, advancements came primarily through improved sanitation, better living conditions, better nutrition, and antibiotics; the same changes responsible for the reduction in pandemics. Vaccines came after most improvement had already occurred (with a few exceptions such as smallpox).

  While vaccines do remain an important addition, they are also of particular importance to pharmaceutical companies. They can be mandated, and together with the constant birth of children this provides a continuing, predictable, and profitable market. This is not an anti-vaccine statement. It is just a statement of fact. Facts are what health policy should be based on.

  So, we can be confident that, barring an intentional or accidental release of a pathogen engineered by humans, it is highly unlikely that a Medieval-style outbreak will affect anyone currently living. While poverty will reduce life expectancy, it will remain relatively high in wealthier countries. However, we can also be very confident that those half-million young children will die of malaria next year and that 1.5 million people, many of them children and young adults, will die of tuberculosis. 

  Over 300,000 women in low-income countries will also die agonizing deaths from cervical cancer because they cannot access cheap screening. We know this, because it happens every year – it is what international public health, particularly the World Health Organization (WHO), was supposed to prioritize.

  The ability to monetize an illusion

  The Covid-19 response demonstrated how the sponsors of international public health institutions have found a way to monetize public health. This business model involves promoting abnormal responses to relatively normal viruses. It employs behavioral psychology and media campaigns to instill inappropriate fear into the public, then ‘locking them down’ – prison terminology before 2020. The public may then regain a degree of freedom (e.g., fly to visit a dying relative, or work) if they agree to take a vaccine, which in turn directly benefits the original sponsors of the scheme. The heavy public investment in Covid-19 mRNA vaccine development enabled pharmaceutical companies and their investors to reap unprecedented returns.

  The major public-private partnership for vaccine development for pandemics, CEPI (inaugurated at the World Economic Forum in 2017), states that “The threat of Disease-X infecting the human population, and spreading quickly around the world, is greater than ever before.” 

  Health practitioners are quite susceptible to this propaganda (they are only human). Many also seek income from investments and patents from technologies that may help lock others down or make vaccine production quicker and cheaper. Basing their salaries and careers on loyalty to this pandemic industry, they join in vilifying and scapegoating those who speak against it. Shielded by their sponsors’ ‘greater threat than ever before’ claims, they can blind themselves to the major causes of ill health and act as if only pandemic risk matters.

  Why not rely on existing threats?

  Despite current efforts with yet another variant, Covid-19 is losing its ability to scare. Sustained fear is necessary for politicians in penetrated governments (as Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum notes) to provide this support. This business paradigm requires a continuing target. 

  The overall aim is for the public to think that only a corporate authoritarian (fascist) nanny-state can save them from a continuing threat.

  Major natural outbreaks being rare, and lab escapes also infrequent, Disease-X fills this need. It provides the material for the media and politicians to work with between variant or monkeypox events.

  Where to from here?

  For the public, diversion of resources to fairyland diseases will increase mortality by diverting funding for real threats and productive areas of investment. Of course, if increasing lab leaks of engineered pathogens are expected from ongoing and future research, that would be different. But then this would have to be explained plainly and transparently, and prevention may be more effective than a very expensive cure.

  Disease-X is a business strategy, dependent on a series of fallacies, dressed up as an altruistic concern for human welfare. Embraced by powerful people, the world they move in accepts amoral practice in public health as a legitimate path to their version of success. 

  If our primary aim is to channel taxpayer funding to development of biotechnologies that the public can then be mandated to buy, to their own detriment but at great benefit to the developers, then Disease-X is the road forward. This market model ensures that a relative few can concentrate wealth gained from the many, at virtually no risk to themselves. The public must decide whether they want to keep their part of this highly abusive bargain.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/04/2023 – 20:30

• The Next Auto Repossession Wave Could Involve Robots Doing The Work For Banks 
  The Next Auto Repossession Wave Could Involve Robots Doing The Work For Banks 

  As more consumers default on credit card and auto loan payments, financial strain intensifies as the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hiking campaign stands at two-decade highs, potentially leading to a surge in vehicle repossessions. 

  A recent Moody’s report showed new credit card delinquencies hit 7.2% in the second quarter, up from 6.5% in the first quarter. As for new auto loan delinquencies, the rate topped 7.3%, compared with 6.9% in the first quarter. 

  Moody’s expects new credit card and auto loan delinquencies to continue “rising materially” through the rest of the year and top sometime in 2024 at 9% and 10%, compared with 7% pre-Covid. 

  “The increase in delinquencies and defaults is symptomatic of the tough decisions that these households are having to make right now — whether to pay their credit card bills, their rent or buy groceries,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told The Washington Post. 

  A weakening labor market and tapped-out consumers, some of whom have $1,000 monthly auto payments, are finding it difficult to pay not just shelter costs, put food on the table, but service their car payments. We’ve outlined to readers in the last three quarters, “Massive Wave” Of Car Repossessions And Loan Defaults To Trigger Auto Market Disaster, Cripple US Economy and Negative Equity Surges: More Consumers Find Themselves In Underwater Auto Loans — and it’s only a matter of time before the repo wave begins. We noted in July that Repos From Auto Loans That Originated In 2020 And 2021 Are Skyrocketing. 

  “The Fed might look at this and say this is the whole purpose of raising rates, to make it more difficult” to make purchases, Zandi said, adding, “The bigger question is when the Fed will have succeeded in slowing down the broader economy, and how many consumers have to be impacted in a negative way.”

  Delinquency on auto loan payments is a sign that the Fed’s restrictive monetary policy might be working to quash inflation, which leaves the economy in a heightened period of macroeconomic uncertainty as low/mid-tier consumers appear to be financially cracking. 

  So, as per Moody’s report, auto loan delinquencies are set to rise even higher. In a world where robots are being integrated into every business model, we found one towing company in the UK using a robot to move illegally parked cars. 

  

  Although the video doesn’t show a repossession, a repo company can only imagine integrating robots into vehicle retrieval will provide much-needed relief to avoid unwanted confrontations with car owners. 

   

   

   

   

  View this post on Instagram

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  A post shared by Business Blurb™ (@businessblurb)

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  It’s only a matter of time before repo companies adopt these robots. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/04/2023 – 20:05

• SOCOM To Deploy Argus AI To Scour Social Media For Disinformation, Misinformation And Malinformation
  SOCOM To Deploy Argus AI To Scour Social Media For Disinformation, Misinformation And Malinformation

  Authored by Sundance via The Conservative Treehouse,

  Annnd… Here we go.  If you have not read the background {Go Deep}, you will not have the appropriate context to absorb the latest revelation about how the Dept of Defense will now conduct online monitoring operations, using enhanced AI to protect the U.S. internet from “disinformation” under the auspices of national security.

  

  Gee, who would have predicted that U.S. internet operations would suddenly have a totally new set of enhanced AI guardians at the gateways? 👀

  Read Carefully – Eyes Wide Open:

  The US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has contracted New York-based Accrete AI to deploy software that detects “real time” disinformation threats on social media.

  The company’s Argus anomaly detection AI software analyzes social media data, accurately capturing “emerging narratives” and generating intelligence reports for military forces to speedily neutralize disinformation threats.

  “Synthetic media, including AI-generated viral narratives, deep fakes, and other harmful social media-based applications of AI, pose a serious threat to US national security and civil society,” Accrete founder and CEO Prashant Bhuyan said.

  “Social media is widely recognized as an unregulated environment where adversaries routinely exploit reasoning vulnerabilities and manipulate behavior through the intentional spread of disinformation.

  “USSOCOM is at the tip of the spear in recognizing the critical need to identify and analytically predict social media narratives at an embryonic stage before those narratives evolve and gain traction. Accrete is proud to support USSOCOM’s mission.”

  But wait… It gets worse!

  [PRIVATE SECTOR VERSION] – The company also revealed that it will launch an enterprise version of Argus Social for disinformation detection later this year.

  The AI software will provide protection for “urgent customer pain points” against AI-generated synthetic media, such as viral disinformation and deep fakes.

  Providing this protection requires AI that can automatically “learn” what is most important to an enterprise and predict the likely social media narratives that will emerge before they influence behavior. (read more)

  Now, take a deep breath…. Let me explain.

  The goal is the “PRIVATE SECTOR VERSION.”  USSOCOM is the mechanical funding mechanism for deployment, because the system itself is too costly for a private sector launch. The Defense Dept budget is used to contract an Artificial Intelligence system, the Argus anomaly detection AI, to monitor social media under the auspices of national security.

  Once the DoD funded system is created, the “Argus detection protocol” – the name given to the AI monitoring and control system, will then be made available to the public sector.  “Enterprise Argus” is then the commercial product, created by the DoD, which allows the U.S. based tech sectors to deploy.

  The DoD cannot independently contract for the launch of an operation against a U.S. internet network, because of constitutional limits via The Posse Comitatus Act, which limits the powers of the federal government in the use of federal military personnel to enforce domestic policies within the United States.  However, the DoD can fund the creation of the system under the auspices of national defense, and then allow the private sector to launch for the same intents and purposes.   See how that works? 

  RESOURCES:

  Using AI for Content Moderation

  Facebook / META / Tech joining with DHS

  Zoom will allow Content Scraping by AI 

  AI going into The Cloud

  U.S. Govt Going into The Cloud With AI

  Pentagon activates 175 Million IP’s 👀**ahem**

  Big Names to Attend Political AI Forum

  

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/04/2023 – 19:40

• "The Way To Beat The End Boss": Chamath Palihapitiya Praises Tesla's Aggressive Price Cutting
  “The Way To Beat The End Boss”: Chamath Palihapitiya Praises Tesla’s Aggressive Price Cutting

  Canadian VC and self-labeled “SPAC Jesus” Chamath Palihapitiya was out over Labor Day weekend praising the speed and aggressiveness of Tesla’s price cuts, which we have been documenting at length since the beginning of 2023. 

  Praising Musk and Tesla, Palihapitiya tweeted out a chart of Tesla’s most recent price cuts, stating: “I was shocked when I saw this chart. The speed and aggressiveness with which $TSLA is cutting prices is the way to beat the End Boss. (Rapidly increasing price affordability) x (constantly improving hardware and software) = super maximized market demand.”

  “This is a lethal combination which we haven’t seen play out in any modern market before,” he added. 

  

  “Some companies cut prices, but most keep prices flat or increase them,” he added. “Some companies improve products quickly. But no one has actually given you more for less on such a big ticket purchase so frequently.”

  Tesla’s recent price cuts have been a topic of discussion since January because, so far, they have been effective in spurring demand and putting pressure on legacy automakers. Tesla continues to make aggressive cuts, as we wrote about just days ago. 

  Tesla cut prices on its Model S Plaid vehicle in China most recently, to 828,900 yuan from 1.03m yuan, a cut of about 19%. Bloomberg reported last week that Tesla was also cutting the price of its Model S to 698,900 yuan from 808,900 yuan, its Model X to 738,900 yuan from 898,900 yuan and its Model X Plaid to 838,900 yuan from 1.06m yuan.

  

  These cuts followed additional price cuts in China that took place only about two weeks ago. Recall we reported on August 16 that Tesla’s Model S price was being cut 6.7% to 754,900 yuan ($103,477) from 808,900 yuan prior and the company’s Model X was priced 6.9% lower at 836,900 yuan, down from 898,900, according to Reuters. 

  Earlier in August, news broke that Tesla was adding new, lower-range iterations of its Model S and Model X that would be priced $10,000 lower than previous base prices, Yahoo reported. The standard range Model S will start at $78,490 and will offer 320 miles of range and the standard range Model X will now be priced $88,490 and will have a range of 269 miles per charge, the report says. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/04/2023 – 19:15

• The Economist Who Cried Recession
  The Economist Who Cried Recession

  By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

  In the fairy tale, the boy who cried wolf was ultimately right, but no one listened by the time that the wolf was there. Too many mistakes led the villagers to doubt the boy, so they didn’t respond to the actual warning.

  I, like many economists, expected a recession earlier this year. I had to back off those calls as the data continued to come in better than expected. Any signs of the “lagged and variable” impact of rate hikes didn’t seem to materialize. Additionally, those who had doubted the recession got more confident and those still considering that a recession was possible had to reconsider. As all of this was occurring, the “soft landing” mantra took over.

  According to Google trends, “soft landing” started seeing increased interest in early July and peaked the week of August 20th. It has dropped steadily since then, and maybe it is time to start questioning how soft the landing will be.

  As we go through some data, you will see that it is not clear to me that we are destined to have some form of a recession, but I do think that we better be prepared to listen to any potential warnings. The villagers ultimately lost their flock because they didn’t listen when they should have. Maybe we need to be thinking about that possibility.

  For now, I like owning bonds and stocks. I think that the recent run-up in rates (which have already started to come down) will continue to come down, which will help risk assets (stocks and credit spreads).

  But, for the 10-year yield to get below 3.9%, it is going to require some recession fears to surface, which will not be good for stocks.

  Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

  Just two weeks ago, we highlighted Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics. In this report, we tried to identify some potentially “confusing” data.

  While some short-term trends in consumer credit are concerning, they don’t appear to be so bad in the long run. Which trend will win out?

  The China trade isn’t working and my belief (increasing in intensity almost daily) is that any major improvement in China will come at the expense of the U.S. (China selling their brands or pushing commodity prices higher – see China’s Next Move).

  Generative AI seems to be helping risk assets again (based on some market leaders), but for how long?

  If you missed our inaugural X Report, I recommend it because it is an intriguing take on AI and space.

  Jobs

  We touched on jobs in that report, and we had to mention “recession” in Friday’s instant reaction to the jobs data. Overall, we characterized the report as “Goldilocks”, but the fine line between a healthy and unhealthy slowing of the economy may be difficult to see ahead of time. Maybe those who need jobs are sensing that it is more difficult to find one, so they better start looking now.

  The Sahm Rule (I still don’t understand why economists insist on calling things “rules” that are at best conjectures) states that the U.S. is in a recession if the 3-month moving average of the unemployment rate rises by 0.5% or more from its 12-month low. The 3-month low was 3.5% at the end of April and is currently at 3.65% (so only a 0.15% increase). One thing about the Sahm Rule is that it supposedly doesn’t predict anything. It just tells us that we are likely already in a recession if the rise occurs.

  JOLTS was weak across the board. The PMI data, which came in better than expected overall, still signaled a contraction.

  The jobs data seems to fit well into the “economist who cried recession” theme as the data isn’t yet recessionary (not by a long shot), but the trend is not your friend here.

  Et Tu, Covid?

  I hoped never to have to think about COVID again, but I am hearing from people (who aren’t typically alarmists) that this new strain is something to watch. A new strain (that may have mutated so much that earlier vaccinations are less effective) could be problematic. The fact that it is ramping up as we head into the winter months could be another problem.

  Could this new strain slow down the return of “work from office”?

  I have felt that increased pressure to be in the office will help commercial real estate, which in turn helps the banks and the broader market. I’m keeping an eye out for any signs that this trend, which is gaining traction, gets derailed.
  Wanting to ignore Covid and being able to ignore it are two different things. For now, I’m watching it mostly because the warnings that I’ve heard are not from the people who cried wolf at every stage of the pandemic.

  India

  I need to do more work on this, but the “commodity super cycle” risk that I associate with a rapidly rising India seems to be generating more interest. It is far from my base case, but increasingly it seems difficult to fathom that we talk so much about inflation and so little about India. It is the most populous nation on earth and has a business sector that is benefitting from companies moving out of China.

  Bottom Line

  I like being long bonds and risky assets until the 10-year goes below 3.9%. By then, any squeeze should be over, and we can go back to fretting about the Fed and “higher for longer” and could see a resurgence of hard landing stories.

  I’m not crying recession yet, but I’m sensing that I soon will be.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/04/2023 – 18:50

• Biden 'Not Worried' About Major UAW Strike On Automakers 
  Biden ‘Not Worried’ About Major UAW Strike On Automakers 

  President Biden on Monday expressed that he wasn’t too concerned about the growing possibility of a labor strike from the United Auto Workers’ 146,000 members. They’re seeking a 46% salary hike, a 32-hour workweek, and restoration of traditional pensions from Detroit’s big three legacy automakers. 

  “I’m not worried about a strike. I don’t think it’s going to happen,” Biden told reporters ahead of his Labor Day appearance in Philadelphia. He is expected to celebrate good-paying unionized jobs, a move to continue the ‘Bidenomics’ promotion ahead of the 2024 presidential election cycle.

  

  General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., and Stellantis NV, maker of the Jeep and Chrysler brands and the UAW have until Sept. 14 to finalize a new four-year contract for union workers. Even UAW’s own president called demands “audacious” in a Facebook live video last week. 

  “Record profits mean record contracts. 

  “While big execs have used those extreme profits to pump up their pay, our members have fallen further and further behind. … The rich are getting richer while the rest of us are getting left behind,” UAW President Shawn Fain said. 

  Here are more of Fain’s “audacious” demands (list courtesy of Detroit Free Press): 

  • elimination of wage tiers

  • substantial wage increases

  • restoration of cost of living allowance increases

  • defined benefit pension for all workers

  • reestablishment of retiree medical benefits

  • the right to strike over plant closures

  • limits on the use of temporary workers

  • more paid time off

  • increased benefits to current retirees

  The Detroit News has described the demands as “the largest pay increase in recent memory.” 

  With a Sept. 14 deadline less than two weeks away, we have noted, “Automakers have historically resisted significant pay increases, especially this unusually large one.”

  Biden had previously urged Detroit’s big three legacy automakers to avoid plant closings if strikes were seen. 

  A recent Gallup survey revealed that approximately 75% of Americans favor auto workers and Hollywood film writers’ strikes.

  

  The sweetheart deal Teamsters got their workers at UPS appears to have emboldened other unions to do the same: strike. But as BofA CIO Michael Hartnett recently told clients (available to pro subscribers) in the latest weekly Flow Show, inflation appears to be stickier than previously believed because of the growing influence of labor unions. 

  Hartnett makes another tangent on why reflation is bound to be far stickier than the Fed expects, and it has to do with wages, and specifically the growing influence of labor unions: after the teamsters recently reached an agreement with UPS, which among other things included massive pay raises for both part-time and full-time workers, we are seeing strikes galore and labor unions aggressively negotiating for double-digit wage increases. The culmination of this is that, as Hartnett notes, a net 44% of Americans now support labor unions, the highest since ’72…

  

  Let the strike countdown begin — unless there’s a labor contract breakthrough between UAW and the automakers. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/04/2023 – 18:25

• Round Two Of A Foreign-Backed Plot To Fragment Syria
  Round Two Of A Foreign-Backed Plot To Fragment Syria

  Via The Cradle, 

  Thirteen years after the onset of the war on Syria, a domestic political eruption backed by foreign states has resurfaced, threatening to once again ignite conflict in the country despite years of relative calm. Economic woes today underpin the public grievances expressed on the street. The much-heralded May 2023 reinstatement of Syria in the Arab League has thus far failed to deliver any significant political or economic relief for the beleaguered Levantine state. 

  Instead, Syria’s economy continues to deteriorate with the devaluation of the national currency against the dollar. Concurrently, a renewed US initiative to partition and weaken Syria is gaining traction, as Washington strives relentlessly to undermine Damascus’ centrality as a pivotal regional state and geopolitical player.

  

  Underpinning all this is stifling western unilateral economic sanctions imposed on Syria, as well as the territorial encroachments of US, Turkish, and Israeli military forces. 

  The illegal occupation of Syrian lands, coupled with the loss and theft of vital oil, water resources, and agricultural bounty by foreign occupation troops and their local proxy militias, further compounds the crisis, as does the recurrent Israeli aggression and missile strikes targeting Syrian infrastructure. 

  Within the context of all this devastation, some tough-love decisions made by the central government in Damascus have unsurprisingly ignited a fresh wave of protests that have now assumed a distinctly “separatist” character.

  SDF backs Suwayda secession

  The initial protests emerged in Syria’s Suwayda governorate following the removal of fuel subsidies, which caused a hike in public transportation costs and raw material prices. These grievances rapidly evolved into political demands, centering on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2254 and policies of decentralization. 

  The latter concept implies a form of “self-administration” akin to the separatist Kurdish Autonomous Administration that receives support from the US in the northeastern region of the country.

  The Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), representing the political arm of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – bolstered by the US military occupation and the cover it provides – has overtly endorsed the Suwayda protests and their transformation from socio-economic aspirations into calls for secession. 

  The SDF openly seeks to attract western assistance to replicate its Kurdish self-governance model – but in Suwayda. Importantly, this isn’t the first time the SDF has attempted to exert political influence in Suwayda. In 2019, amidst ISIS assaults on the southern governorate, the SDF pursued relations with Druze leaders, engaging in both public and secret talks to garner support for the self-governance initiative in Suwayda.

  The initial protests in Suwayda were modest in scale, and attempts by Syrian government opponents to portray these as a massive uprising fell short. The numbers involved continue to be small in comparison to Suwayda’s total population, and have thus far failed to incite a broader nationwide wave. 

  Comparisons with the 2011 uprisings  

  Others tried to ride the Suwayda momentum. In the north of the country, at the very same time, Al-Qaeda affiliate Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) began to organize large-scale demonstrations in various cities and villages under its control in Idlib province – again, drawing parallels to the 2011 events that led to the Syrian war. 

  The people are out in the streets of Suwayda, Syria for a second Friday in a row.

  After the Friday prayers, they left the Mosques and gathered to protest against President al-Assad.

  They chanted “Hurry up and leave, Bashar”

  Growing protests in Syria pic.twitter.com/xsW0QXjiYG

  — Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) September 1, 2023

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

  In the southern governorate of Daraa, which borders Jordan, armed individuals took to the streets and launched attacks on a number of army positions, but these were rapidly quelled. In Suwayda, security forces monitored the movements without immediate reaction. 

  Today, the momentum of the protests has dwindled, and the situation across other governorates remains largely unchanged despite a rush of rumors about a potential reenactment of the 2011 events.

  A Syrian security source informs The Cradle that Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri played a pivotal role in Suwayda’s narrative shift from local demands to separatist aspirations. His discord with the Syrian government has led him to establish ties with parties in the Persian Gulf, while internally fostering support for Suwayda’s separation. However, Hijri has since backed off, reiterating the need to preserve the unity of Syria and supporting the legitimacy of the government in Damascus.

  According to the source, some local factions in Suwayda support “the process of transforming the protest movement into demands for secession, such as the traditional opposition close to the coalition, the so-called Ahrar al-Jabal movement, the Karama faction led by Sheikh Laith al-Balous and some smuggling gangs.” 

  After the protests spread in Suwayda and Daraa, participants demanded decentralization and the implementation of UN Resolution 2254 to end the 12-year war in Syria.

  Not a populist movement 

  Some clerics and “local factions” in Suwayda have expressed solidarity with the protesters’ demands, and local news outlets have described the protests as “civil disobedience.” But the clerics do not speak with one voice, as some refuse to turn the demands into political ones, a development which reportedly prompted Sheikh Hijri to tone down his separatist rhetoric.

  One website quoted an unnamed source as saying that “the slogans raised in all villages and towns of Suwayda carry political ideas far from economic demands, most notably the overthrow of the regime.” 

  Samira Moubayed, a member of the Syrian Constitutional Committee representing the civil society bloc, told North Press that “the movement will continue until security is achieved in southern Syria. This is part of the process of political change needed and necessary across Syria.” 

  This narrative introduced a regional aspect, positioning “the security of southern Syria” as distinct from that of Damascus and its surroundings. Riad Drar, co-chair of the SDF, countered this view more explicitly, asserting that Kurdish separatists endorse the popular movement and maintain direct communication with its leadership in the south.

  Drar urged protest leaders to safeguard the movement, liaise with Syrian territories outside Damascus’ control, and establish collaborative initiatives with northeastern Syria. He also offered up the US-backed Kurdish administration as a conduit to galvanize international support for a southern secessionist movement.

  The HTS-SDF crossover  

  The US role in Syria’s southern governorates is still unclear, unlike its overt military and financial roles in the country’s north. In June, Syrian opposition media outlets aligned with Turkiye disclosed a US-supported plan to integrate areas controlled by HTS in northwestern Syria with territories directly governed by the Turkish occupation army in the north (northern Aleppo countryside and parts of Raqqa and Hasakah countryside), as well as the Kurdish separatist domains in northeastern Syria, all under a single civilian administration.

  HTS has shown that it is willing to establish channels of communication with the SDF when common economic interests emerge. Confidential sources told Syria TV at the time that HTS had hosted several delegations from al-Hasakah in recent months, including security leaders from the SDF. 

  The talks touched on the possibility of forming a joint civilian administration between the two parties, if HTS gains control over areas held by the Turkiye-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) – previously known as the Free Syrian Army. The SDF, for its part, indicated that the US supports the unification of the northeastern and northwestern regions of Syria.

  In a revealing investigation for The Grayzone, journalist Hekmat Aboukhater detailed discussions within the Syrian opposition “lobby” in the US, where a former US official discussed the scenario of Syria’s division. This envisaged creating a “canton” in the northwest of the country under the administration of HTS, albeit with a different name to disassociate the group from its Al Qaeda origins.

  Earlier this month, HTS accused its second-in-command Abu Maria al-Qahtani, of unauthorized communication with the US-led “International coalition.” Qahtani was purportedly attempting to expand into areas controlled by the so-called SNA and the “eastern sector” within the organization. 

  Rebranding Al Qaeda, yet again  

  A Syrian security source tells The Cradle that this raised concerns within a faction of Turkish intelligence linked directly to HTS, which seeks to oversee the group’s activities and avoid involvement in US-led projects. 

  The actual intention, says the Syrian security source, is to rebrand the organization and reshape its structure, potentially for eventual integration into the Turkish-backed “SNA” confab, followed by discussions with the international coalition or other entities. It is worth noting that HTS has undergone several re-inventions, having previously been known as Jahbat al-Nusra, and, before that, Al Qaeda.

  Meanwhile, on Syria’s eastern border, the SDF has denied participating in military campaigns targeting the bordering (with Iraq) city of Albu Kamal in cooperation with US forces, but the recent visit of former US Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller to its areas suggests otherwise.

  Despite himself being illegally in Syria, Miller called for supporting stability in the region, and discussed with the Autonomous Administration the limitations it faces, the threats against it, and the necessity of supporting it economically and politically, according to a statement by the Department of Foreign Relations.

  Dogged pursuit of de facto division

  On August 27, a high-level delegation from the US Congress visited the Turkish-occupied areas in northwestern Syria, particularly the northern countryside of Aleppo. This visit seems to confirm Washington’s intentions to establish a de facto presence in Syrian territory. Concurrently, the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat published a report detailing a Turkish project aimed at the Turkification of northern Syria, which involves teaching the Turkish language to approximately 300,000 Syrian children.

  These developments collectively raise the possibility of the US administration supporting efforts to “impose a reality” that could lead to the division of Syria. This prospect could gain traction amid the economic challenges faced by Syria, the waning authority of the central state, and Ankara’s determination to remain in Syrian territory while engineering local demographics. 

  Turkiye has been constructing cities for refugees with Qatari funding, a move that lays the groundwork for scenarios similar to what’s transpiring in Suwayda – and mirroring the model of the US-funded Kurdish Autonomous Administration. Given the existing security, military, and political landscape in Syria, it becomes evident that returning to the 2011 model of popular protests, which eventually transformed into an armed rebellion, remains an uphill task for the US and its allies. 

  Despite their inability to overthrow the government through military means, these actors – comprising the US, its European partners, Turkiye, Qatar, and Israel – remain undeterred in pursuing a de facto division of Syria. 

  Their strategy entails surrounding and economically strangling key areas under the control of the central government in Damascus. Although this may not immediately threaten the government’s stability, it poses an existential threat to the integrity of the Syrian state itself.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/04/2023 – 18:00

• US Sanctions Fail Again: Huawei Unveils New Smartphone With Its Own Advanced Chip
  US Sanctions Fail Again: Huawei Unveils New Smartphone With Its Own Advanced Chip

  Huawei Technologies Co., which has faced several years of US semiconductor sanctions, unveiled a new smartphone with a cutting-edge 7-nanometer processor in China. While this processor matches the performance of Apple’s iPhones from 2018, it raises questions about the effectiveness of US sanctions in curbing China’s progress in chip technology. There are concerns this development could enrage Washington. 

  Bloomberg purchased a Huawei Mate 60 Pro. The handset was delivered to TechInsights for a complete teardown. They found a new Kirin 9000s chip manufactured in China by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. 

  TechInsights said SMIC had used existing equipment and applied its second-generation 7-nanometer process, known as the N+2 node, to manufacture the Kirin 9000s chip for the Mate 60 Pro. This phone with the new chip is on par with Apple’s iPhones launched in 2018. Currently, iPhone chips are made by the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, using a 4-nanometer process. 

  

  The unveiling of Mate 60 Pro with the new chip shows China’s advancements in areas such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors have yet to be hindered by US sanctions and suggests the world’s second-largest economy still has a lot of room to innovate. 

  “It’s a pretty important statement for China,” TechInsights Vice Chair Dan Hutcheson said, adding, “SMIC’s technology advances are on an accelerated trajectory, and appear to have addressed yield-impacting issues in their 7nm technology.”

  Paul Triolo, the technology policy lead at the Washington-based business consulting firm Albright Stonebridge Group, told The Washington Post, “This development will almost certainly prompt much stronger calls for further tightening of export control licensing for US suppliers of Huawei, who continue to be able to ship commodity semiconductors that are not used for 5G applications.” 

  China’s official broadcaster, CGTN, in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, said this is “Huawei’s first higher-end Kirin processor since 2020 after the US government restricted American businesses from selling their products or services to Huawei.” 

  The new Kirin chip is manufactured by #Chinese #semiconductor company #SMIC. It is Huawei’s first higher-end Kirin processor since 2020 after the U.S. government restricted American businesses from selling their products or services to #Huawei. #China #USsanctions #semiconductor https://t.co/uqE5wXEaow

  — CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) August 29, 2023

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

  “Huawei breaks free from US tech blockade,” The Global Times, a state-run communist newspaper in China, posted on X. We have reported: Huawei To Dodge US Sanctions With ‘Secret’ Network Of Chip Factories. 

  #GTCartoon: Huawei breaks free from US tech blockade. @_ValiantPanda_ pic.twitter.com/l19X7nDPfc

  — Global Times (@globaltimesnews) September 3, 2023

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

  SMIC shares in Hong Kong rose 6.1% on the new chip news. 

  

  In mid-Sept., Apple is expected to begin taking preorders for new iPhones built with 3-nanometer chips. Even though Mate 60 Pro is at 7-nanometer, the point is that Washington’s sanctions are failing to cripple China’s chip development.

  … where else in the world have we seen US sanctions fail to paralyze countries? Ah, yes, Russia. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/04/2023 – 17:35

• Chicago Teachers' Union President, Hater Of Private Schools And School Choice, Reportedly Sends Child To Private School
  Chicago Teachers’ Union President, Hater Of Private Schools And School Choice, Reportedly Sends Child To Private School

  By Mark Glennon of Wirepoints

  Stacy Davis-Gates is undoubtedly Illinois’ most prominent and rabid opponent of school choice — and pretty much everybody and everything associated with it, all of which she labels racist or worse. As president of the Chicago Teachers Union, she is at the forefront of its campaign to kill Illinois’ meager Invest in Kids Act, which currently gives about 9,000 disadvantaged kids scholarships to attend private schools. “It must be ‘game over’” for the program, the CTU says.

  But, as initially reported** by SubX News, she sends one of her kids to to Chicago’s De La Salle Institute, a private, Catholic high school.

  

  Consider that in light of some of what she has said against providing needy parents with the means to attend a private school like De La Salle through school choice programs [emphasis is added]:

  “I’m also a mother, my children go to the Chicago public school,” she said in a webinar. “These are things that help to legitimize my space within the coalition but also helps to amplify my voice as a leader in labor because a white dude whose kids go to school in the suburbs can’t really have that same voice in the same way.”

  When asked in an interview if she had concerns about school-choice and privatization supporters running for the school board, she said, “Yes, we are concerned about the encroachment of fascists in Chicago. We are concerned about the marginalization of public education through the eyes of those who’ve never intended for Black people to be educated. So we’re going to fight tooth and nail to make sure that type of fascism and racism does not exist on our Board of Education.”

  “I can’t advocate on behalf of public education and the children of this city and educators in this city without it taking root in my own household,” she told Chicago Magazine.

  On Twitter, she has said things like “School choice was actually the choice of racists. It was created to avoid integrating schools with Black children.” Private schools are “Segregation Academies,” she wrote on Twitter. “Call them private schools supported by taxpayer funds – vouchers – so your northern cousins understand better,” she said. And she linked to an article titled “The Racist Origins of Private School Vouchers.”

  De La Salle, where Davis-Gates sends one of her three kids, has long been a diamond in the rough of Southside high schools. But with tuition at $14,750 per year, it’s open only to those with some means, like Davis-Gates, and the few who are fortunate enough to get financial help.

  School choice is about getting that help to more of the poor –- creating equality of choice with those who have means. The Invest in Kids Act does that, though for too few students thanks to its paltry funding. Davis-Gates’ opposition to it and her statements about private schools, all while constantly claiming status as the poor’s heroine, are hypocrisy at its most revolting.

  In a Chicago mayoral endorsement of Brandon Johnson, she wrote she picked somebody who “values my intersections.”

  Her “intersections” include two faces.

  ** I have reached out to CTU for confirmation that Davis-Gates has a child enrolled in a private school and will update if I get a response. Numerous entries on Twitter have also asked her to respond, but no answers as of the time I wrote this.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/04/2023 – 17:10

• Biden Built 'Predictable' Loophole That Resulted In Flood Of Illegal "Family Units" Into US
  Biden Built ‘Predictable’ Loophole That Resulted In Flood Of Illegal “Family Units” Into US

  A change made to US immigration policy by the Biden administration led to a “predictable” rise in the number of “family units” attempting to cross into the US border.

  

  Based on a new report of preliminary Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) data, August was the highest month this year for overall migrant encounters – hitting 91,000. Policy experts say that was ‘entirely predictable’ due to a rule change which exempted ‘family units’ from being automatically denied asylum.

  “Notwithstanding the administration’s claim that they are refusing to consider asylum claims from people encountered between ports of entry, the rule they adopted has huge loopholes. Among those explicitly exempted are family units,” said Ira Mehlman, a spokesperson for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), in a Friday statement to Just the News.

  “So, guess what? We are seeing a surge in family units crossing the border illegally and it is not even clear if they really are family units. As we have seen in the past, there have been rent-a-kid schemes to help people take advantage of the laxer rules that apply to adults accompanied by children. The record number of family units encountered at the border was entirely predictable,” he added.

  Since May, immigrants seeking asylum at the U.S. border have been able to request appointments, up to 1,450 per day, CPB says, with immigration officials using the CBP One smartphone application. 

  Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, told Just the News that the immigrants who use the CBP One app to schedule appointments still have to make it to the border somehow. -Just the News

  “They still have to pay smugglers to get here and the whole thing is a boon for alien smugglers,” said Krikorian. “It’s supposed to only be for people who have made it to Mexico already and even that’s bad enough, because you have to pay a smuggler to get there but the smugglers have figured it out. They’re actually using it.”

  Krikorian also says that the increase in family units was predictable due to current DHS policy.

  “I don’t know what the administration thought was going to happen,” he continued.

  Hilariously, the White House is now claiming that President Joe Biden has “done more” to secure the border “than anybody else.”

  KJP: Joe Biden “has done more to secure the border and to deal with this issue of immigration than anybody else. He really has” 🤣

  pic.twitter.com/iXuimrV5vm

  — Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 31, 2023

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

  Secure it for who, exactly?

  According to the CBP, a family is defined as “group of two or more aliens consisting of a minor or minors accompanied by his/her/their adult parent(s) or legal guardian(s).”

  Last Thursday, the Washington Post reported that the number of family units seeking entry into the US hit a record high in August.

  

  The Post reports that the US Border Patrol “arrested at least 91,000 immigrants who crossed as part of a family group in August, exceeding the prior one-month record of 84,486 set in May 2019.”

  And how many didn’t they arrest?

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/04/2023 – 16:45

• Drunk Drivers Causing Parental Deaths Now Liable For Child Support In Texas
  Drunk Drivers Causing Parental Deaths Now Liable For Child Support In Texas

  Authored by Mimi Nguyen Ly via The Epoch Times,

  Drunk drivers who are convicted of intoxication manslaughter will now need to pay child support if they kill a parent or guardian of a child in a car crash, according to a new Texas law that went into effect on Sept. 1.

  

  The law was a bipartisan bill that Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed in June.

  “Any time a parent passes is tragic, but a death at the hands of a drunk driver is especially heinous,” Mr. Abbott said at the time.

  “I was proud to sign HB 393 into law this year to require offenders to pay child support for the children of their victims.”

  Advocates of the law view it as a way to discourage drunk driving.

  Under the law, Texas House Bill 393, the court shall order a person convicted of intoxicated manslaughter “to pay restitution for a child whose parent or guardian was the victim of the offense.”

  “[T]he court shall determine an amount to be paid monthly for the support of the child until the child reaches 18 years of age or has graduated from high school, whichever is later,” text of the legislation reads.

  The court will weigh several factors when deciding the restitution amount, such as the child’s financial situation and needs. If relevant, the finances of the surviving parent, guardian, or the Department of Family and Protective Services will be taken into account. The child’s standard of living, overall well-being, and any childcare costs due to a working surviving parent will also influence the decision.

  Intoxicated manslaughter in Texas has a potential penalty of up to two decades in prison.

  The person convicted of intoxicated manslaughter must start the child support payments within one year of being released. They can make a plan for the missed payments and must pay everything they owe, even if the payment was supposed to end while they were in jail.

  The payments will continue until each child of the victim turns 18.

  ‘Bentley’s Law’

  The law has been nicknamed “Bentley’s law.” It was created by Cecilia Williams, a Missouri woman who lost her son, daughter-in-law, and four-month-old grandson in a crash that involved a drunk driver on April 13, 2021.

  “I got up out of bed to an officer and a state trooper standing at my door,” Ms. Williams told KSDK-TV in an interview in August 2022.

  “They repeatedly told me that they had died in a fiery crash.”

  Ms. Williams said in a statement on the website of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD): “Bentley’s Law was created out of a tragedy that has affected the lives of two beautiful boys, Bentley and Mason, and the lives of our family. These crashes are totally preventable, and I will continue to fight for change for all who have suffered from impaired drivers. Many families like mine suffer such a loss every second of every day, and Bentley’s Law will bring change to hold the offender accountable for such horrific actions.”

  

  A police officer administers a breathalyzer test to a man at a sobriety checkpoint. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

  Tennessee became the first state to pass “Bentley’s Law” in July 2022.

  Similar laws are being considered in over 20 other states.

  Drunk Driving in Texas

  Texas has among the worst rates of drunk driving in the nation, ranking third according to a Forbes analysis in late 2022. Montana has the highest rate, followed by Wyoming.

  According to the analysis, Texas has the most underage drunk drivers involved in fatal crashes at approximately 1 per 100,000 residents.

  More than 8 drunk drivers per 100,000 were involved in fatal crashes, the second-highest number behind Montana, the report showed.

  And nearly 40 percent of all traffic fatalities in the state were caused by drunk drivers.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/04/2023 – 16:20

• Orange Man Disqualified? Adam Schiff Talks 14th Amendment
  Orange Man Disqualified? Adam Schiff Talks 14th Amendment

  Without outright saying so, Democrats have made no secret that their endgame with the various Trump prosecutions is to get him kicked off the 2024 ballot.

  To that end, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said on Sunday that a legal argument to disqualify the former president is “valid,” and that the part of the amendment that bans those who have “engaged in insurrection” from holding elected office “fits Donald Trump to a T.”

  

  Appearing on MSNBC, Schiff told former Biden Spox Jen Psaki that the 14th Amendment doesn’t even require someone to actually be convicted of insurrection in order to be barred from holding public office – only that they must have engaged in it.

  “I think it is a valid argument. The 14th Amendment, Section 3 is pretty clear. If you engage in acts of insurrection or rebellion against the government, or you give aid and comfort to those who do, you are disqualified from running,” said Schiff. “It doesn’t require that you be convicted of insurrection. It just requires that you have engaged in these acts.”

  Of note, Democrats have floated using another section of the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling.

  “It’s a disqualification from holding office again, and it fits Donald Trump to a T,” Schiff continued, adding that he imagines this legal theory could either be tested by a secretary of state, or a plaintiff challenging Trump’s name on the ballot – and that he expects the issue to potentially make it all the way to the Supreme Court.

  “I think this will be tested when a secretary of state either refuses to put him on the ballot, or puts him on the ballot and is challenged by a litigant. I would imagine it would go up to the Supreme Court, and that’s the big question mark through all of this, which is what will the Supreme Court do?” said Schiff, adding “There are prominent constitutional scholars, as well as prominent progressive scholars who believe that he should be disqualified.”

  And what does Schiff think that the conservative-biased Supreme Court will do?

  “Only time will tell, but I do think it is a very legitimate issue. By the clear terms of the 14th Amendment he should be disqualified from holding office.”

  Watch:

  .@RepAdamSchiff: “By the clear terms of the 14th Amendment, [Trump] should be disqualified from holding office.” pic.twitter.com/SYI4rrpSgC

  — Inside with Jen Psaki (@InsideWithPsaki) September 3, 2023

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

  And of course, looks like the memo went out.

  While there’s a “powerful argument to be made” that former Pres. Trump is disqualified from running again under the 14th Amendment, Sen. Tim Kaine predicts that the issue while be “resolved in the courts.” https://t.co/gLfhOlFr03 pic.twitter.com/KvpDBqrSAB

  — This Week (@ThisWeekABC) September 3, 2023

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

  We’re sure that whatever happens it will be conveniently scheduled for maximum election interference.

  Of course, as Andrew C. McCarthy noted in National Review in January, If Trump was not disqualified under the impeachment clause, a remedy that undeniably applied to him, he is not going to be disqualified under the 14th Amendment, which doesn’t.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/04/2023 – 15:55

• Zuckerberg's "Twitter Killer" App Struggles For Traction
  Zuckerberg’s “Twitter Killer” App Struggles For Traction

  Authored by Benjamin Kew via The Epoch Times,

  Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s microblogging platform Threads, launched to great acclaim as Instagram’s “Twitter Killer” in July, appears to be showing signs of struggle.

  The initial signs for Threads were extremely encouraging.

  The platform—nearly a carbon copy of Twitter, now known as X—pulled in a staggering 100 million sign-ups in less than five days.

  Forbes senior contributor John Koetsier outlined how Twitter had “imploded” under the leadership of Elon Musk and cited the “instant credibility” and “simplicity” of Threads as an alternative.

  

  Yet nearly two months on from its seemingly successful launch, Zuckerberg’s vision of stealing Twitter’s thunder may be little more than a pipe dream.

  Even NBC admitted on Aug. 24 that the platform is “struggling for traction.”

  “An analysis of Android users by Similarweb, a digital data and analytics company, estimated that daily active users on Threads’ Android app peaked at 49.3 million in early July and fell to 10.3 million after a month—a drop of nearly 80%,” the media outlet reported in mid-August.

  A week after its July 5 launch, daily active Threads users peaked at around 26.7 million, then gradually declined to around 13.5 million by month’s end, it said.

  “Some celebrities who joined the platform before it was available to the public, such as Jennifer Lopez and Tom Brady, haven’t posted at all since launch week. MrBeast, the YouTube star who was the first user to reach 1 million followers on Threads, stopped posting about a month ago.”

  One of the most common theories among conservatives for the platform’s underwhelming start is that while Twitter has finally embraced free speech, Threads is a platform governed by strict content moderation and politically driven censorship.

  Allum Bokhari, a senior technology reporter at Breitbart News and author of “Deleted: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase a Movement and Subvert Democracy,” told The Epoch Times that the weakness of Threads lies in its failure to attract subversive content.

  “Threads was touted as the polite, politically correct alternative to Elon Musk’s X. But when the selling point of your platform is inoffensiveness, you can’t be surprised when users simply get bored,” Mr. Bokhari explained.

  “X has become friendlier to edgy, dissident content that polite society would prefer to see banned, and that’s precisely why its users remain loyal.”

  

  This photo illustration shows the X logo (formerly Twitter) on a smartphone screen in Los Angeles, California, on July 31, 2023. (Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images)

  Free Speech Is Not the Only Concern

  Yet, issues of free speech are far from the only concern.

  Jake Denton, a research associate at the Tech Policy Center for The Heritage Foundation, told The Epoch Times that while X is moving forward with offering new features, Threads still provides a disappointing user experience.

  “While Zuckerberg and Meta were quick to boast about the early sign-up numbers for Threads, that momentum has rapidly dissipated, and the platform seems to be in free fall,” he said. 

  “What strikes me most is the stark contrast between the early promises of an exciting new platform and the underwhelming reality that one finds upon logging in.”

  Users eager for a fresh experience encountered “a feed saturated with interactions between mega-corporations and consumer brands as” Mr. Denton said, comparing it to “stumbling into a virtual networking event for their social media managers.”

  “Meta will truly need a miracle to save this platform from irrelevancy. If Zuckerberg can’t find a way to bring interesting content to the platform—content that people actually want to consume—Threads will be dead on arrival,” he predicted.

  Not everyone is as pessimistic about the company’s future.

  Mike Benz, executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, warned that Threads could be waiting for X to experience a crisis that it can take advantage of.

  “Threads doesn’t need to be as good as Twitter to dethrone it—all it needs to be is a close-enough substitute … [so] that when Twitter is destabilized and put into crisis, Threads can be there to catch the fall,” he told The Epoch Times. 

  “That crisis can come from several directions: financial, if advertiser boycotts ramp back up; legal, via bankrupting lawfare; and regulatory, via new regulations such as the EU’s new disinformation laws.

  “There are 2.3 billion Instagram users, versus only 450 million Twitter users. That’s a 5x size advantage Threads has to tap into in terms of the Facebook-Instagram-WhatsApp economy into which Threads is being installed. You can’t underestimate that or rule it out. Especially with government and institutional support,” Mr. Benz said.

  He added that, given Mr. Zuckerberg’s willingness to comply with the demands of the Biden administration, Threads may also benefit from being the app of choice for the U.S. national security state.

  “Zuckerberg has won back much of that support after doing the Biden admin’s bidding on all things content moderation ahead of the 2020 election and throughout this term,” Mr. Benz said. 

  “Because Zuckerberg has proven to be such a reliable ally to the Pentagon and State Department, I would not be surprised if Threads begins to be pushed by the U.S. government for dissident groups funded by the U.S. national security state to use while organizing revolutions or resistance movements abroad,” he said, likening it to the State Department promoting Telegram in 2020 for the attempted color revolution in Belarus.

  “It’s hard to predict at the moment,” Mr. Benz said. “… as the 2024 election approaches, or another pandemic scare, or some other crisis or high-stakes geopolitical event appears, the true nature of the threat posed by Threads will make itself more clear.”

  However, others believe that Threads’ commitment to censoring the political fringes will prove fatal to its long-term survival.

  Among them is former Harvard professor Robert Epstein, a senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, who argued that Zuckerberg’s best hope is that Elon Musk sabotages his own company.

  “I don’t see a way for Threads to overtake Twitter/X in the microblogging domain,” said Mr. Epstein.

  “By minimizing moderation—which Facebook can’t do on Threads—Twitter is attracting more extreme content than it ever has before, and extreme content draws traffic. I don’t see a way for Facebook to compete with that.”

  “Of course, it is always possible that Musk or his appointees will mismanage “X” so badly that the company just implodes,” he continued. “Perhaps Zuckerberg is counting on that.”

  Yet given Mr. Musk’s track record of building successful companies, most notably Tesla and SpaceX, some might argue that this possibility remains remote.

  Mr. Zuckerberg, meanwhile, remains publicly optimistic, insisting that he will spend the rest of the year developing its product and fighting to retain its users.

  “I’m very optimistic about how the Threads community is coming together. Early growth was off the charts, but more importantly, 10s of millions of people now come back daily … way ahead of what we expected,” he wrote in late July.

  “The focus for the rest of the year is improving the basics and retention. It’ll take time to stabilize, but once we nail that then we’ll focus on growing the community. We’ve run this playbook many times (FB, IG, Stories, Reels, etc) and I’m confident Threads is on a good path too.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/04/2023 – 15:30

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• Direct Government Censorship Of The Internet Is Here
  Direct Government Censorship Of The Internet Is Here

  Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

  Censorship of the Internet has been getting worse for years, but we just crossed a threshold which is going to take things to a whole new level. 

  On August 25th, a new law known as the “Digital Services Act” went into effect in the European Union.  Under this new law, European bureaucrats will be able to order big tech companies to censor any content that is considered to be “illegal”, “disinformation” or “hate speech”.  That includes content that is posted by users outside of the European Union, because someone that lives in the European Union might see it.  I wrote about this a few days ago, but I don’t think that people are really understanding the implications of this new law.  In the past, there have been times when governments have requested that big tech companies take down certain material, but now this new law will give government officials the power to force big tech companies to take down any content that they do not like. 

  Any big tech companies that choose not to comply will be hit with extremely harsh penalties.

  

  Of course mainstream news outlets such as the Washington Post are attempting to put a positive spin on this new law.  We are being told that it will “safeguard” us from “illegal content” and “disinformation”…

  New rules meant to safeguard people from illegal content, targeted ads, unwanted algorithmic feeds and disinformation online are finally in force, thanks to new regulation in the European Union that took effect this month.

  Doesn’t that sound wonderful?

  When this new law was first approved, NPR admitted that it will enable European governments to “take down a wide range of content”…

  Under the EU law, governments would be able to ask companies take down a wide range of content that would be deemed illegal, including material that promotes terrorism, child sexual abuse, hate speech and commercial scams.

  In addition to “illegal content” and “hate speech”, the Digital Services Act also applies to “hoaxes” and any material that is considered to be “disinformation”.  The following comes from the official website of the European Commission…

  At the same time, the DSA regulates very large online platforms’ and very large online search engines responsibilities when it comes to systemic issues such as disinformation, hoaxes and manipulation during pandemics, harms to vulnerable groups and other emerging societal harms.

  These new content rules are so vague that they could apply to just about anything.

  And that is precisely what they want.

  From this point forward, if you post something that they do not like, they will have the power to have it taken down.

  Even if you don’t live in the European Union, they can have your content taken down, because someone in the European Union might see it.

  So who will be doing the censoring?

  Well, it is being reported that “hundreds of unelected EU bureaucrats will decide what constitutes disinformation and instruct Big Tech firms to censor it”…

  Under this Orwellian regime, a team of hundreds of unelected EU bureaucrats will decide what constitutes disinformation and instruct Big Tech firms to censor it. The firms themselves, faced with reputational risk and financial penalties, will have little choice other than to comply. This can be done in all manner of ways: simply by human moderators removing content, by shadow-banning problematic creators to reduce their reach, by demonetising certain content, and by tweaking algorithms to favour or disfavour certain topics. And though, legally speaking, the DSA only applies in the EU, once installed inside Big Tech firms, this vast content-regulation apparatus will surely affect users in the rest of the world, too.

  In addition, the official website of the European Commission is telling us that big tech companies must “react with priority” to any content that has been reported by “trusted flaggers”…

  A priority channel will be created for trusted flaggers – entities which have demonstrated particular expertise and competence – to report illegal content to which platforms will have to react with priority.

  This means that far left organizations that have been set up to police content online will now be given extraordinary power to restrict speech on the Internet.

  Needless to say, the Internet is never going to be the same after this.

  Initially, this new law will apply to 19 very large online platforms…

  The online platforms affected are Alibaba AliExpress, Amazon Store, Apple AppStore, Booking.com, Facebook, Google Play, Google Maps, Google Shopping, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, X (listed as Twitter), Wikipedia, YouTube, the European clothing retailer Zalando, Bing and Google Search.

  If any of those large online platforms choose not to comply with the new law, the penalties could be extremely severe…

  A firm that does not comply with the law could face a complete ban in Europe or fines running up to 6% of its global revenue.

  Last month, X/Twitter said it was on track to generate $3bn (£2.4bn) in revenue. A fine of 6% would be the equivalent of £144m.

  Once we get to February 24th, 2024, the Digital Services Act will also apply to a vast multitude of smaller platforms.

  At that point, it will be very difficult to escape the reach of this new law.

  And just to make sure that they can keep a very close eye on things, the EU just established a brand new office in San Francisco on June 22nd…

  European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton cut the ribbon to commemorate the official launch of the European Union’s San Francisco office on Thursday, June 22, alongside Lieutenant Governor of California Eleni Kounalakis, California State Senator Scott Wiener, and Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs Adrian Vazquez.

  “I am very glad to be here today in Silicon Valley, a global centre for digital technology and innovation, to officially inaugurate the new European Union office in San Francisco,” Commissioner Breton said in his keynote address to an audience of business and technology sector leaders. “As like-minded partners who strive for reciprocity and common principles, all while respecting our respective democratic processes, our transatlantic ties are more relevant than ever in the area of technology.”

  For many years, the Internet was one of the last bastions for free speech.

  But now everything has changed.

  From this point forward, far left European bureaucrats will get to determine what is acceptable and what is not acceptable on our large online platforms.

  Direct government censorship of the Internet is here, and that is going to make it much more difficult to share the truth with a world that desperately needs it.

  These are such dark times, and they are getting darker with each passing day.

  *  *  *

  Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/03/2023 – 23:30

• Air Force Wants To Replace Highly Effective Modern A-10 With 'Flying Tinderbox'
  Air Force Wants To Replace Highly Effective Modern A-10 With ‘Flying Tinderbox’

  Authored by Mike Fredenburg via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  “By scrapping the A-10, the Air Force is guaranteeing more Gold Star families will be created,” according to Charlie Keebaugh, president of the largest group of tactical-air-control party airmen.

  

  The 2024 version of the National Defense Authorization Act (pdf) allows the Air Force to retire 42 A-10 Thunderbolt 2s in 2024, with the remaining 220 or so to be retired with prejudice by 2029. This retiring of the A-10 “Warthog” is predicated on the fantastical disproven idea that the A-10, which to this day is the most cost-effective plane in the Air Force’s inventory, can be replaced by the F-35.

  This power play by the Air Force is just another chapter in the long, ongoing saga of senior Air Force leaders using every tactic, including underhanded tactics, threats, and rigged testing, to justify retiring the A-10. It certainly isn’t about improving our country’s close air support (CAS) capabilities that have saved countless American lives. Instead, it’s about converting A-10 maintainers to F-35 maintainers in order to satisfy the F-35s endless, ravenous appetite for maintenance and support. And it’s about killing off the plane that will continue to show up the F-35 as long as it continues to fly.

  Before talking about the respective CAS capabilities of the A-10 and F-35, an understanding of what’s meant by CAS is necessary. Joint Western military doctrine defines CAS as “air action by fixed- and rotary-winged aircraft against hostile targets that are in close proximity to friendly forces and which require detailed integration of each air mission with the fire and movement of those forces.”

  More specifically, CAS pilots must be able to coordinate in real time and near real time with their certified joint terminal attack controllers (JTAC), to be able to dynamically adjust targeting and be able to relay enemy positions and movements back to their JTACs in real time. In a real CAS mission, the plane will be flying close enough to frontlines that even if it’s stealthy, it will still be seen on radar and by plain old human eyes.

  In terms of what you want in a CAS plane, the engineers and experienced CAS pilots who designed the A-10 in the mid-1960s concluded that a CAS attack plane must be able to operate near the frontlines from an austere airfield with short runways, have low maintenance requirements and high reliability, be able to carry a large weapons load including anti-armor capability, be tough enough to survive small arms fire and be resistant to the kind of anti-air weapons one will find at the frontline of a ground battle, have long range and endurance, have a speed of at least 350 knots, have great low-speed maneuverability, and have a low cost of acquisition so that the CAS planes that will inevitably be lost in combat can be quickly and cost-effectively replaced as needed.

  To say that the A-10 design team hit it out of the park is an understatement. And the heavily modernized A-10C, despite unsubstantiated Air Force claims, has the most sophisticated CAS capabilities of any plane in the world. Consequently, modernized A-10Cs, combining modern A-10-enabled tactics with its air defense capabilities, can operate in environments full of anti-air weapons that other aircraft, including the F-35, can’t. And, the Warthog, with its triple redundancy, twin engines, and titanium bathtub to protect its pilot, is the toughest plane in the world that gets its pilot home after sustaining many times the damage that would have downed any other aircraft.

  While the F-35 certainly can fly fast enough, it fails to meet any of the other CAS criteria. And while the F-35, a flying fuel tank, does have decent range when flying stealthily, its inability to fly out of austere air bases located near the frontlines means that it will spend most of its fuel flying back and forth from the battle. In contrast, the A-10, with its ability to fly from austere makeshift airfields with short, unimproved runways, can be based mere minutes from the frontlines and can spend hours in or near the battlefield. This, plus the fact that the A-10 can conservatively double the number of sorties per day of an F-35, means that an A-10 will minimally be able to spend four to eight times more time at or near the frontlines delivering lifesaving, mission-advancing support than an F-35.

  Adding insult to injury is that the A-10 can carry far more ordnance than an F-35 flying in stealth mode. And while the F-35 can swap out stealth mode for its “Beast Mode,” which allows it to carry more ordnance than the A-10, its operational range will be cut in half, meaning that it almost certainly will require infight refueling to be able to use its ordnance.

  So far, the F-35 isn’t looking so great as a CAS plane, but things only get worse, much worse.

  What About the Guns and ‘Danger Close’?

  One of the critical missions that a CAS plane needs to be able to execute is a “danger close” mission. This is an operation in which the CAS plane will be attacking enemy troops and equipment that are within 50 meters of friendly troops. Consequently, explosive ordnance use is restricted or not used out of fear of harming or killing friendlies. In these cases, the A-10’s fearsome GAU-8 Avenger 30-millimeter cannon is vastly superior to the 25-millimeter cannons that the F-35s mount. And much to the chagrin of enemy forces, the A-10 carries 1,174 rounds of ammunition, five to six times what the F-35 carries, allowing it to make multiple attack runs per sortie. However, these comparisons are pointless when it comes to the F-35A, whose gun is hopelessly inaccurate and damages the plane when it’s fired.

  Finally, equipment critical to protecting the F-35 from going up in flames was either stripped off or left off due to weight considerations (pdf). This arguably makes the F-35 the most fragile plane in the U.S. fighter inventory. Not only is the F-35 highly vulnerable to small fragments common to anti-aircraft artillery fire and near missile misses, but it can’t fly anywhere near lightning, while the A-10 is capable of flying in weather conditions that will ground all other aircraft.

  F-35 Will Be Able to ‘Fire and Flee,’ but Can’t Do Real CAS

  The F-35’s extreme vulnerabilities to weapons and weather, and its poor low-speed maneuverability, mean that it won’t be allowed to do genuine CAS; instead, it will fire extremely expensive weapons at ranges far enough from the frontline that the situation will often have changed dramatically by the time the glide bomb or missile reaches its target. The F-35 pilot won’t be able to dynamically adjust targeting second by second, as can an A-10 pilot who can actually see the battlefield, even when electronic jamming is present. Further, the F-35 pilot won’t be providing real-time information on enemy movements and positions as can the A-10 pilot.

  Col. William Smith, a retired Air Force pilot with more than 3,000 hours of A-10 flight time and 128 combat sorties, said in 2015, “We are regularly able to use something that other planes often cannot, the Mark I Human Eyeball, and sometimes there is no substitute for that,” and “we live in the armpit of the guy on the ground.”

  In sharp contrast, the F-35 pilot, in his fragile, flammable, flying tinderbox, will be firing and fleeing many miles away from the frontlines.

  In conclusion, the F-35—with its extreme fragility, high acquisition cost, high cost of support and maintenance, inability to operate near the frontlines, poor low-speed maneuverability, lack of an effective gun, poor sortie generation rate, short loiter times, and lack of ability to carry a large weapons payload without inflight refueling—is the antithesis of a CAS plane.

  Consequently, in canceling the A-10, the U.S. Air Force will be canceling the most important and effective plane it has to execute lifesaving, mission-advancing CAS. And it will be killing the only plane that can do danger close support. This could cost the lives of countless Marines and soldiers. But on the upside, the A-10 maintainers can be moved over to support the troubled, maintenance-hungry F-35s.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/03/2023 – 22:30

• 15 Years On, Google's Chrome Has Taken Over The World
  15 Years On, Google’s Chrome Has Taken Over The World

  When Google announced the release of its own web browser Chrome in 2008, many people asked themselves why Google was building a web browser.

  In retrospect, the better question would have been, why Google hadn’t built a web browser earlier. After all, the company’s entire business was people using a browser to access Google’s services.

  As a matter of fact, as Statista’s Martin Armstrong reports, the plan to make a Google web browser had existed for years, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt just hadn’t considered his company ready to enter the resource draining ‘browser wars’. By 2008, Google was making billions of dollars a year and had finally matured enough to go head to head with Microsoft and it’s market dominating Internet Explorer.

  15 years ago, on September 2, 2008, the first official release of Chrome was published and the open-source browser began its steady climb through the ranks. By the third quarter of 2009, Chrome had caught up with Apple’s Safari and set its sights on the next contender: Firefox. It took a bit longer to catch up with Firefox, but in the fourth quarter of 2011, Chrome’s share of global web browsing surpassed that of Firefox. Less than a year later, Chrome became the world’s number one browser, overtaking Microsoft’s Internet Explorer which had utterly dominated the market just five years earlier.

  Remarkably, Chrome’s ascent came almost entirely at the expense of Microsoft’s browser. Since the third quarter of 2008, Internet Explorer’s market share dropped from 68 to 25 percent, while Chrome’s soared from zero to 43 percent. Today, Internet Explorer’s successor, Edge, commands just 5 percent of the global market, while Chrome is sitting at the top of the pile with a slice of the pie consistently and securely above the 60 percent mark – the nearest competitor being Safari with 20 percent in August 2023.

  According to data from web-tracking firm StatCounter, Chrome is the world’s number 1 internet browser. Between July and August 2023, Chrome was used by 63.6 percent of internet users worldwide. Safari ranked in second place, having been used by just under 20 percent of the world’s online community. Edge (5.4 percent), Firefox (2.9 percent), Opera (2.7 percent) and Samsung (2.3 percent) trail much further behind.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Regionally, Chrome is particularly popular in South America where it has a browser market share of 78.9 percent. In Europe and North America, the share is comparatively lower, at 58.6 percent and 53.1 percent, respectively. The United States’ Chrome market share was only marginally below North America’s regional average, with the browser seeing a 51.7 percent use rate, followed by Safari (30.8 percent), Edge (8.4 percent), Opera (3.5) percent, Firefox (3.5) percent and Samsung Internet (1.1 percent).

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Safari ranks as the most prevalent web browser in a number of smaller countries and islands, including North Korea (90.99 percent), Bermuda (92.7 percent), the Faroe Islands (78.52 percent) and Andorra (56.9 percent), while Armenia is one of the only countries worldwide to favor Firefox (Firefox was 55 percent of the online population, Chrome 31.9 percent and Safari 8.7 percent).

  Africa is the only continent where Safari does not take second place, but is pushed to third after competitor Opera.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/03/2023 – 22:00

• Conflicting Dates In Trump Trials Unfair, Must Be Resolved, Experts Say
  Conflicting Dates In Trump Trials Unfair, Must Be Resolved, Experts Say

  Authored by Lawrence Wilson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The spiderweb of conflicting court dates in cases involving President Donald Trump places unfair pressure on defense lawyers and must be untangled, according to legal experts.

  

  The former president is scheduled to appear in a pair of major trials, one in Washington and the other in Florida, beginning just 77 days apart. Those are just two of the seven, possibly eight, criminal and civil trials for which President Trump is scheduled during the 12 months prior to the 2024 presidential election, in which he is the leading Republican candidate.

  Stacking the trials virtually on top of one another is unfair to the defendant, according to Kevin J. O’Brien, a New York-based trial lawyer and former assistant U.S. attorney who specializes in white-collar criminal cases.

  “It’s an awfully burdensome responsibility placed on the defense. And in fairness, it really shouldn’t be placed upon them. It should have been the government’s job and the courts’ job to sort these things out and make sure there’s reasonable time between cases,” Mr. O’Brien told The Epoch Times.

  President Trump has maintained his innocence and repeatedly said the criminal cases against him are politically motivated.

  “Keep Indicting your Political Opponent, it makes no difference for what, or why. Keep him off the ‘campaign trail’ and in the courthouse instead. Don’t think of his Rights, the Constitution, or Liberty. Sit back and WATCH AMERICA CRUMBLE!” President Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social on Sept. 1.

  President Trump announced his campaign to return to the White House nine months ago. He has consistently led the field of more than a dozen challengers for the Republican nomination by some 40 percentage points.

  In the end, one or more of the trials will have to be rescheduled in the interest of justice, Mr. O’Brien believes.

  Spiraling Calendar

  President Trump’s legal troubles have snowballed since March when he was indicted in state court in New York on charges of falsifying business records related to payments made to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. Judge Juan Merchan scheduled that trial for March 25.

  In June, the former president was indicted in federal court in Florida on charges related to classified documents kept at his residence, Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach. Additional charges were added in July. Judge Aileen Cannon initially set that trial to begin on Aug. 15 but agreed to delay it until May 20 at the request of the defense.

  In August, President Trump was indicted in Washington, on federal charges for allegedly conspiring with six unnamed, unindicted co-conspirators to overturn the 2020 election results in events culminating on January 6, 2021.

  Special Counsel Jack Smith, the prosecutor in the Florida and Washington cases, asked Judge Tanya Chutkan to schedule the Georgia case to begin Jan. 2. Judge Chutkan set the trial date for March 4.

  Later in August, President Trump and 18 others were indicted in a Georgia state court on charges concerning an alleged conspiracy to overturn that state’s 2020 presidential election results.

  Two co-defendants in the Georgia case, former campaign lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, have asked that their trials begin on Oct. 23, citing their right to a speedy trial. President Trump has asked to sever his case from that of his co-defendants. Judge Scott McAfee has not ruled on either request.

  In New York, President Trump is named in three civil lawsuits with trials scheduled to begin on Oct. 2, Jan. 25, and Jan. 29.

  Complications for the Defense

  Though the two federal criminal trials will begin 11 weeks apart, other court deadlines overlap, creating a nearly impossible challenge to mounting a defense.

  “It is not a ‘March 4’ trial,” Attorney William Shipley said, referring to the Washington trial.

  “This schedule has the defense attorneys filing motions in December. They have 4 months to review millions of pages of discovery, do their own investigation of matters contained in that discovery—including interviewing witnesses (both [government] witnesses and others who were not part of [government] investigation)—and formulating their own defense plan,” Mr. Shipley, who has represented a number of defendants in cases related to the events of January 6, wrote on the social media platform X on Aug. 30.

  “This is at the same time there are pretrial proceedings already scheduled in the Florida case involving the documents.”

  The schedules for both trials list more than a dozen deadlines for filing motions or other documents. Many of those filings will require a response from the other party, creating the possibility of submitting hundreds of pages of legal documents to each court through the fall and early winter.

  Speaking of Judge Chutkan’s scheduling choice, Mr. Shipley wrote, “What she has done indirectly is derail the FL case—a tactical move to reduce the influence of decisions by the judge in that case that might cause problems for SCO Smith.”

  The proposed trial schedules simply cannot be met, according to Mr. O’Brien. Court cases tend to lengthen as attorneys wrangle over pre-trial questions. And life itself is too complicated to bank on the clockwork precision required to manage even one trial on schedule, let alone eight.

  “I’ve been in big cases before. Scheduling dates have a habit of slipping. Issues come up. Discovery disputes, motions, appeals, lawyers who get sick, witnesses who are unavailable, fights over every issue under the sun—all these things can wreak havoc and even the best-laid plans,” Mr. O’Brien said.

  “Even in the Washington trial lasts until the end of April, it’s still unfair. That’s not nearly enough time to get ready for the second trial,” Mr. O’Brien added. “[The Florida trial] is going to have to be pushed back many, many months to make it a fair process.”

  Solutions

  Judge Cannon could try to resolve the scheduling conflict between the two federal criminal cases by ordering Mr. Smith to state his rationale for requesting a date for the Washington trial that conflicts with the Florida case, according to Mr. Shipley.

  “She could issue an [order to show cause] to the government asking for them to explain why they sought a schedule in that case that interfered with the schedule she already issued in her case. When the [government] doesn’t have a good answer, she could cite [the Department of Justice] for contempt,” Mr. Shipley wrote.

  “What might happen after that would be anyone’s guess.”

  The more likely resolution, according to Mr. O’Brien, is that the judges in the two federal criminal cases will confer to arrange a compromise on the schedules.

  “I suspect this process is just starting. There’s going to be jawboning and discussions behind the scenes with at least the two federal judges. Who knows how it’s going to go, but I think the push is going to be made for the January 6 case to go first,” he said, because the case involves the Constitution and the transfer of presidential power.

  That appears to be Mr. Smith’s intention, evidenced by his requesting an early trial date and by streamlining the case to include only President Trump and not his alleged co-conspirators.

  However, judges, not prosecutors, schedule trials. So the resolution will likely come after a consultation between Judges Cannon and Chutkan, Mr. O’Brien said, and there’s no telling what each might do.

  “[Judge Cannon] has shown that she is willing to buck the norms, to put it mildly, in making decisions involving this case,” Mr. O’Brien said.

  In 2022, prior to President Trump’s indictment, Judge Cannon appointed a third party to review documents seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago. The 11th U.S. Court of Appeals reversed that order and dismissed a lawsuit filed by President Trump to shield documents from federal investigators.

  Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is prosecuting the criminal case against President Trump in New York, has said that he will defer to the wishes of Judge Merchan regarding the Mar. 25 trial.

  “Ultimately, the judge sets the schedule, and we will follow the court’s lead, but we’ll take a broad look at what justice requires,” Mr. Bragg said in a July 25 radio interview with WNYC.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/03/2023 – 21:30

• Japan Seeks Record Defense Budget Amid Threats From China, North Korea
  Japan Seeks Record Defense Budget Amid Threats From China, North Korea

  Authored by Andrew Thornebrooke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Japan’s defense ministry is submitting a record spending request as part of a larger plan that will double Japan’s total defense spending over five years.

  

  The ministry’s FY24 request for more than $52 billion would bring the Pacific nation closer to realizing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s plan to bring defense spending up to a total of two percent of Japan’s gross domestic product in the coming years.

  Mr. Kishida’s administration aims to raise defense spending to a total of about $68 billion by 2027. The move will bump Japan from being the ninth largest military spender in the world to the third, after only the United States and communist China.

  The most recent budget request was approved by Japan’s defense ministry on Aug. 31 and sent to the finance ministry for negotiations.

  If adopted, the request would add more than $6 billion to the defense budget for the second year in a row, and augment Japan’s defense forces with considerable new firepower.

  The budget request includes billions of dollars worth of investments that would fill out Japan’s defense forces with warships, cruise missiles, and hypersonic warheads.

  Among the proposed expenditures is more than $6 billion to secure ammunition and weapons, $4 billion to strengthen logistics capabilities needed to deploy weapons throughout the island chain, $2 billion for new landing ships, transport helicopters, and a new specialized transport team, and another $2 billion to buy 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles to deploy on new and existing ships by 2027.

  Smaller amounts will also contribute to jointly developing weapons systems with the United States, UK, and Italy. These include new interceptor missiles designed to counter hypersonic warheads and new fighter jets.

  Japan Eyes Threats From China, North Korea

  The new weapons and platforms present the latest in a major pivot away from the pacifism that has defined Japan’s post-war defense investments. Such investments are increasingly viewed by the Kishida administration as necessary, however, as Japan faces increasing hostility from the communist regimes of China and North Korea.

  Communist China has flown spy balloons through Japan’s airspace and launched missiles into the waters of Japan’s exclusive economic zone in recent years.

  North Korea, meanwhile, has made repeated threats of nuclear terror against Japan, South Korea, and the United States.

  Japan has thus undertaken historic steps to build up its ability to deter conflict and defend itself and its allies and partners from such actors.

  Japan announced in 2021, for example, that it will deploy 500 to 600 military personnel to the southwestern island of Ishigaki, which is near Taiwan, in a move that experts say will solidify the country’s commitment to defending Taiwan from Chinese communist aggression.

  In January of this year, Japan and the United States signed new commitments regarding defense spending, military modernization, and a new agreement that will extend their mutual defense treaty to apply to space.

  Those deals followed a flurry of activity between the two nations at numerous levels of government, which also resulted in an overhaul in the U.S.–Japan defense posture and strategy, to include an expansion of Japanese forces and a restructuring of the U.S. Marine Corps forces stationed on and around Okinawa.

  Accompanying these actions has been a swift detente with South Korea, through which Mr. Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol have worked to ease historic tensions dating to Japan’s occupation of Korea in the first half of the 20th century.

  Those efforts are now bearing fruit. In February, Japan, South Korea, and the United States agreed to increase their security cooperation and “push back” against China and North Korea’s malign activity in the Pacific. Later, in August, leaders from the three nations met in Delaware for the first-ever stand-alone trilateral summit between the three powers.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/03/2023 – 21:00

• DeSantis Super PAC Halts Voter Canvassing In 4 States To Refocus Resources Elsewhere
  DeSantis Super PAC Halts Voter Canvassing In 4 States To Refocus Resources Elsewhere

  Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

  A super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s 2024 run for the White House said it’s pausing voter canvassing in four states and investing some of the freed-up field resources into three early-voting states.

  

  Never Back Down, the PAC supporting Mr. DeSantis’s presidential bid, is suspending door-knocking operations in Nevada, California, Texas, and North Carolina, The Epoch Times has learned.

  Instead, the PAC will be refocusing its efforts and investing some of those field resources into Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina—three early-voting states.

  “We want to reinvest in the first three, we see real opportunities,” PAC spokeswoman Erin Perrine told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement, referring to Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.

  “The first three are going to set the conditions for the March states,” she added. California, North Carolina, and Texas hold their primaries in March 2024, according to the GOP primary calendar, while Nevada, an early-voting state, holds its primary in February.

  However, Nevada faces what Ms. Perrine described as a volatile situation, where the state Republican Party has announced plans to hold its own party-run presidential caucus in addition to a statewide primary.

  “When you have that kind of uncertainty about how the election’s going to be conducted, that becomes a pretty unstable environment to be investing the kind of resources that we’re investing,” Ms. Perrine said.

  “Nevada is heading to a lawsuit,” she added.

  Turbulence in California, Nevada

  Nevada Republicans insist on holding their own caucus despite a new state law calling for a primary election.

  Some say that the competing contests could confuse some voters and it seems that the Republican primary wouldn’t count as the party-run caucus plans to decide which candidate will receive the state’s delegates.

  While it’s not yet clear when the Nevada caucus will take place, reports suggest it will be around the same time as the Feb. 6, 2024, primary, which falls after the Iowa caucus and primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

  Ms. Perrine told The Epoch Times that the Nevada GOP’s move is meant to favor former President Donald Trump’s chances at winning in 2024. Other officials at Never Back Down have made similar comments.

  “The situation in Nevada is very clear. They’re eliminating important grassroots processes which doesn’t benefit voters, but it does benefit one person: Donald Trump,” Jess Szymanski, deputy communications director of Never Back Down, told the Washington Examiner.

  “Nevada Republicans continue to lose elections with Trump at the top of the ticket, yet state GOP leaders are so obsessed with appeasing Trump that they’ve rigged their primary to prioritize Trump above their own voters,” Ms. Szymanski added.

  Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald, who was heavily involved in the process of maintaining the state’s GOP caucus, told ABC News that it’s a long-standing tradition that is “bigger than Gov. DeSantis” or “anybody that’s running for office.”

  Ms. Perrine told The Epoch Times that the situation with the primaries in California is similar to what’s happening in Nevada.

  “A similar situation in California, where they eliminated the California Republicans’ say in their own primary as well as making grassroots involvement impossible,” she said.

  “Now the central committee will have a convention and a vote at the end of September, which could alter that. But that was a Trump-inspired rigging as well,” Ms. Perrine added.

  In July, California Republicans changed delegate rules (pdf) in a way that a number of political pundits have said makes it less competitive and benefits President Trump.

  Under the new rules, a Republican presidential candidate who receives over 50 percent of the vote in the state’s primary election will be awarded all 169 of the state’s delegates.

  The old rules let Republican presidential candidates win three delegates in each congressional district, letting them target specific areas rather than focusing on expensive statewide campaigns, while allowing multiple candidates to get at least some delegates.

  “When they changed it to a proportional, statewide winner-take-all, that completely eliminated the opportunity for grassroots campaigning,” Ms. Perrine said. “Literally a landmark decision they made with breathtaking speed.”

  “And so with neither state having a fair process, the door knockers that were in Nevada and California, we decided to make them kind of refocus into the first three,” she explained.

  By contrast, California GOP Chairwoman Jessica Patterson argued that the new rules would encourage candidates to campaign more extensively and put forward their proposal to a broader swathe of voters.

  “Republican presidential candidates will not only be encouraged to spend real time campaigning in our state and making their case to voters, but Republican voters will equally be encouraged to turn out to support their chosen candidate to help them win delegates,” Ms. Patterson said in a statement.

  ‘Scam’ PAC Closes

  Elsewhere, Mr. DeSantis’s presidential campaign said recently that the closure of the Ron to the Rescue super PAC was “welcome news,” while calling the PAC a “scam.”

  “We’ve made clear from the beginning that this was a scam PAC looking to grift off Ron DeSantis, and it comes as welcome news they are no longer attempting to fleece our donors,” Andrew Romeo, communications director for the campaign, said in a statement.

  “Ron DeSantis outraised both [President Joe] Biden and [former President Donald] Trump last quarter, and we look forward to continuing our fundraising success as we capitalize on his strong debate performance and momentum in the early states,” Mr. Romeo added.

  Republican strategist John Thomas launched the Ron to the Rescue super PAC last fall to urge Mr. DeSantis to enter the 2024 presidential race.

  In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Mr. Thomas said he and the committee’s donors had become disenchanted with the governor following his botched campaign launch on Twitter, now X.

  “We were hoping to do like a formal TV campaign of air support when DeSantis officially launched,” he told the outlet.

  “But the problem with that is, with the Twitter Spaces blunder, like almost from the get-go, all of our major donors said, ‘Let’s just see how this plays out.’”

  According to Federal Election Commission filings, the Ron to the Rescue PAC raised just over $1,600, of which more than $1,200 was disbursed to Mr. Thomas’s political consulting firm, Thomas Partners Strategies, for “PAC strategy consulting.”

  Now, Mr. Thomas said he and his donor network intend to shift their support to President Donald Trump, who had surprised him with “a level of campaign savvy and discipline” that he had not previously seen from him.

  “We’re going to see, after the reporting period of Sept. 30, how Trump’s cash on hand is, and then we’re going to try to determine where we can fill in gaps, if it’s needed.”

  Since announcing his third presidential bid, President Trump has maintained his position as the clear frontrunner in the primary contest, with Mr. DeSantis consistently polling in second place.

  According to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls, the 45th president holds a commanding 39-point lead over Mr. DeSantis and is supported by 53.6 percent of Republicans.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/03/2023 – 20:30

• Oklahoma School Hires Drag Queen Principal Once Arrested For Child Porn, Drugs
  Oklahoma School Hires Drag Queen Principal Once Arrested For Child Porn, Drugs

  Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness,

  A “drag” performer arrested 22 years ago for possessing both child pornography and illicit drugs has been hired to be the school principal of an Oklahoma City elementary school, and the school district is defending its decision.

  

  Dr. Shane Brent Murnan, 52, the new elementary school principal at John Glenn Elementary, had his personal devices confiscated by police in 2001 on suspicion of possession of child pornography, V1SUT reported on Substack. Almost 20 years later, he was investigated for another crime, according to a 2020 court filing.

  Meet Shane Murnan- elementary principal at @wh_isd.

  Shane is a drag queen who performs for children and reads books about gender to kids while dressed in drag.

  Shane was also previously arrested on child porn charges.

  Would you want this person in charge of your kid’s school? pic.twitter.com/yNuZyt3HRK

  — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 30, 2023

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

  Police arrested the then-30-year-old in August 2001 after a Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) search recovered four deleted images of children engaged in sex acts, according to court records. Police also found 6 grams of marijuana in his home. Murnan, at the time, was a fifth-grade teacher at Stillwater’s Will Rogers Elementary School. After the arrest, school officials suspended Murnan and he resigned in May 2002.

  “From there, some unexplainable legal wrangling began in which Payne County Special Judge Phillip Corley ruled that prosecutors had not proven Murnan had possessed child pornography, claiming it could not be definitively proven the children in the photos were underage,” V1SUT reported.

  Payne County prosecutors appealed Corley’s decision and prevailed in the Payne County Appeals Court.

  In direct contradiction to the earlier ruling, Appeals Court Judge Dave Allen stated in his decision: “It is clear from a review of the pictures that they do represent child pornography”.

  Later on, however, Payne County District Judge Donald L. Worthington reversed the reversal, dismissing the child porn charge.

  Payne County prosecutors gave up, choosing not to appeal. In the end, it appears there was never any disagreement about the existence of the pornographic photos on Murnan’s computer, yet the charge was dropped. Was this a behind-the-scenes plea agreement to allow Murnan to accept only the drug charge (marijuana) and retain his teaching certificate?

  Murnan’s record was expunged in October of 2003 after his short probation period on the drug charge. He spent the next several years creating his “Shantel Mandalay” persona and entering crossdressing pageants such as Miss Gay Oklahoma, V1SUT reported.

  

  Last April, he posted a picture of himself dressed like the Easter Bunny on his “Shantel Mandalay” Facebook page with a message about his previous bad choices and the joys of being an educator.

  

  On his drag queen Facebook page, Murnan posts many pictures of himself in and out of drag cavorting with other drag queens and young homosexuals at drag events and in gay bars.

  

  “When my little sister wants a present for her birthday, I do my best to make it happen,” Murnan wrote in the caption for the picture below.

  

  From 2007-2015, Murnan was back in the classroom, teaching at a small elementary School in Norman, Oklahoma, V1SUT reported. From there, he moved to the much larger Oklahoma City Public Schools district as teacher, teacher trainer/instructional coach, and eventually assistant principal at Prairie Queen Elementary School.

  Prairie Queen is an underperforming school that serves a population that is 82.3 percent Hispanic and 96.5 percent economically disadvantaged. Most parents speak limited English and 69 percent of students are English language learners. These are vulnerable kids.

  In 2018, Murnan reportedly cofounded Oklahoma City Drag Queen Story Hour, Inc. and began promoting the child-grooming library events throughout the state.

  The organization teamed with the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Library System during the COVID pandemic and Murnan’s Shantel Mandalay persona was featured online reading to a target audience of young  children through the library’s Facebook events.

  

  In September of 2020, during Murnan’s time at Prairie Queen Elementary School, the state entered a Criminal Probable Cause Initial Filing for an undisclosed crime with Murnan as the defendant. That case was assigned to Judge Kevin C. McCray.

  

  Now, three years later, the Oklahoma City Public Schools district hired Murnan to be in charge of John Glenn Elementary School in the Western Heights School District (WHSD) in the southwest part of the OKC metro area.

  The district of approximately 2,750 students has been in turmoil since 2021 when the state temporarily took over due to years of financial mismanagement and noncompliance. To simplify, the district gets a lot of funds, spends significantly more than the state average and continues to fail children.

  

  The student population at John Glenn Elementary School is “majority Hispanic, English language learners and overwhelmingly economically disadvantaged,” according to V1SUT.

  In a letter to the school’s parents, Brayden Savage, superintendent of Western Heights Public Schools, addressed the district’s controversial hiring decision.

  “I am writing to address a concern you may read about on social media,”  Savage wrote in the letter obtained by the Daily Caller. “We understand the situation may cause concerns and questions among parents, staff, and community members.”

  According to news reports at the time, those charges were dismissed by the court, and the record of the charges has been expunged,” the letter continues. “Since that time, Dr. Murnan has continued to be certified as an elementary school teacher and principal, including having his certificate renewed in April of 2023 and signed by State Superintendent Ryan Walters. The State Department of Education would have conducted another felony background check upon renewing his certification.”

  Savage said that at the time of “recommendation,” the district gave its school board “all of the information” it had regarding Murnan and the board then voted to approve his hiring.

  He told parents that the district followed “usual hiring practices” in vetting Murnan, checking references and conducting a felony criminal background check.

  “Please know we are aware of the situation and handling this matter with the utmost attention and care,” Savage wrote.

  In a statement to Crisis in the Classroom (CITC) Thursday, the Oklahoma State Department of Education said “anything that might expose kids to inappropriate sexual content at school is cause for serious concern to parents,” and that the department is “looking into all accusations and will take any necessary action to protect kids.”

  Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters issued a strong statement on X Friday condemning WHSD’s hiring of Murnan.

  “This is completely unacceptable,” Walters said. “We know that radical gender theory has been a direct assault on our kids and we can’t allow this in our schools.”

  The superintendent said school districts need to do a better job vetting educators to make sure they reflect “Oklahoma values.”

  “No one want’s to send their kid to school knowing that they could be exposed to this radical gender theory in any capacity,” he added. “This woke war on our kids has to stop.”

  Drag queens in schools do not = Oklahoma values. pic.twitter.com/XQzpNIUnLw

  — Superintendent Ryan Walters (@RyanWaltersSupt) September 1, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/03/2023 – 20:00

• "Screw Your Face Diapers!!" Mask Mandate Return Sparks 'We Will Not Comply' Trend
  “Screw Your Face Diapers!!” Mask Mandate Return Sparks ‘We Will Not Comply’ Trend

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

  A number of people on social media have declared that “we will not comply” with COVID-19 mask mandates as some hospitals and businesses have moved to reinstate such rules in recent weeks.

  

  Notably, former President Donald Trump released a video addressing “every COVID tyrant who wants to take away our freedom.”

  “Hear these words: We will not comply. So don’t even think about it,” he said. “We will not shut down our schools. We will not accept your lockdowns. We will not abide by your mask mandates and we will not tolerate your vaccine mandates.”

  “Amen, Mr. President. WE WILL NOT COMPLY!” wrote Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake on X, or Twitter.

  While the former president had no authority to issue lockdowns, officials under his administration came up with national guidelines in early 2020—when the virus first arrived on U.S. soil—in a bid to deal with COVID-19. Later in 2020, President Trump declared that he opposes lockdowns and mandates, saying that “lockdowns are killing countries all over the world” and called on “Democrat governors” to “open up” their states.

  “Just a reminder. We will not comply. Ever again. Screw your face diapers!! #masks,” wrote Fox News’ Tomi Lahren days before on X.

  Former “Saturday Night Live” actor Rob Schneider had a similar message as an Atlanta college confirmed it would reinstate masking. “Regarding your precautionary mask mandate… I have a precautionary Foot I’d like to shove up your [expletive]! But don’t worry, it’s just for the next 14 days! For your own protection! Ps. Students WAKE UP, SHEEPLE! SAY NO!” he wrote.

  “We will not adhere to lockdowns. We will not submit to mandates,” wrote Dr. Simone Gold, the head of anti-mandate America’s Frontline Doctors.” “We will not wear masks. We will not close down schools. We will not comply to COVID tyranny.”

  Conservative journalist Kyle Becker added that people should “make it clear” to businesses that implement mask mandates that “they will not only lose your business but that of anyone you know Put the word out: We will not comply.”

  Reinstated Mandates

  The anti-mandate messaging comes as some hospitals in several states have moved to reinstate mask mandates, although some have only made it mandatory for doctors, nurses, and staff. But some have forced the rule on patients and visitors, too.

  This week, Samaritan Health Facilities announced that it would require masking for staff, patients, and visitors. A public relations official with the hospital, Leslie DiStefano, claimed it is being done because “we know is that [masking] absolutely works,” despite hundreds of studies showing otherwise.

  Earlier this month, United Health Services in Binghamton, New York, confirmed that it would again require masks for patients, visitors, staff, and doctors. “Because of an uptick in COVID-19 cases, masks are once again required in all clinical areas at UHS Wilson Medical Center, UHS Binghamton General Hospital, UHS Chenango Memorial Hospital and UHS Delaware Valley Hospital, as well as primary and specialty care sites,” United Health Services stated on its website.

  The policy, imposed last week, is “in effect immediately for all patients, visitors, employees, medical staff, volunteers, students and vendors.” It added: “Masks are required at nurses’ stations and in conference rooms within clinical departments, including areas where patients register, wait, transport through, or receive testing and care.”

  Masks will also be mandated in “common spaces,” the announcement added. That includes hospital lobbies, hallways, stairwells, cafeterias, and patient care units.

  Elsewhere in New  York, Auburn Community Hospital in Auburn, located upstate, said on Aug. 19, about a month after its previous mask mandate ended, that it would again be requiring masks on-site. That applies to anyone going inside the facility, regardless of vaccination status.

  “Face coverings are mandatory inside our facilities, regardless of your immunization status,” the statement reads. “If you do not arrive with one or yours is deemed inappropriate, a mask will be provided to you. It must be worn at all times and must cover your nose and mouth.”

  Also in mid-August, University Hospital in Syracuse, New York, reinstated masking for everyone entering the building. The hospital’s mandate was only lifted a few months prior to that, in late April.

  Last week, UMass Memorial in Worcester, Massachusetts, again instated its mask policy, but only for staff, doctors, and nurses, according to local reports.

  “We have continued to see a dramatic increase in the number of COVID-19 positive employees over the past two weeks, which has led to exposures of both fellow caregivers and patients,” the company said. “In response to this, as a protective measure for our staff and patients, effective immediately we are requiring mandatory caregiver masking for all patient encounters in all licensed clinical areas.”

  The college that Mr. Schneider mentioned,  Morris Brown College in Atlanta, said in August that it would mandate masks after an uptick in COVID-19 cases on a larger campus in Atlanta where the college is located.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/03/2023 – 19:30

• "Black Lives Don't Seem To Matter When Taken By Black Lives": Maher, Rogan Go Off
  “Black Lives Don’t Seem To Matter When Taken By Black Lives”: Maher, Rogan Go Off

  Joe Rogan and ‘old school Democrat’ Bill Maher have had it with progressive policies towards crime and policing, and the hypocrisy over ‘black lives’ when blacks are killing each other.

  

  “Murders have been happening way out of control in Chicago among the African-American Community for far too long and not really reported in the same way they should be,” lamented Maher in an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience which aired on Saturday, adding “It’s amazing how black lives don’t seem to matter when they’re taken by black lives,” pointing to the MSM’s asymmetric reporting.

  “Their idea was like go in arrest the big kingpins and then we’ll clean up the city. It didn’t work at all.“

  Maher then asks ‘where are the leaders of the community? The people who have such cache among those young African American men, to say ‘cut it out! What the fuck are you doing to each other?’

  

  (Yes Bill, it would be nice if everything was an episode of the A-Team where ex-gangsters are high-fiving each other over paint rollers as they clean up the graffiti they just made & drug dealers flush their stashes because kingpins finally spoke out).

  According to Rogan, “Austin defunded the police and refunded it far more than they defunded it because they course corrected,” adding “They realized this was not working, and we have to do something to fix it. Which makes me happy because there’s a lot of crime.” (via KanekoaTheGreat).

  “Liberalism was never ‘shoplifting is progressive,'” Maher responded. “And we weren’t interested in legalizing shoplifting, but after the George Floyd murder and riots, there was a movement to disband a lot of the police… And what happened was, of course, crime went up in certain areas, and a lot of the officers who were fired or let go, were hired as private security by the rich people, and their neighborhoods stayed safe. That wasn’t exactly a victory for Liberalism.”

  Watch:

  Bonus: Rogan goes off on the anti-Ivermectin crowd…

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/03/2023 – 19:30

• 'Mudpocalypse' Hits Burning Man, 73,000 Trapped In 'Toxic' Lake Bed In Nevada Desert
  ‘Mudpocalypse’ Hits Burning Man, 73,000 Trapped In ‘Toxic’ Lake Bed In Nevada Desert

  Update (1925ET):

  On Sunday evening, a White House official said President Biden was briefed on the situation at the Burning Man festival located in one of the harshest environments on Earth.

  President Biden has been briefed on the situation at the Burning Man festival, according to a White House official… via @CNN

  — Jim Acosta (@Acosta) September 3, 2023

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  As of Sunday evening, 73,000 attendees are still trapped in the toxic desert full of alkaline mud after a rainstorm transformed the dried-out lake bed into a swamp. Event organizers said, “The Gate remains closed. Please stay off of Gate Road — rain and mud make it impassable at the moment. We will update you when conditions improve. Stay safe!”

  The Gate remains closed. Please stay off of Gate Road — rain and mud make it impassable at the moment. We will update you when conditions improve. Stay safe!

  — Burning Man Traffic (@bmantraffic) September 3, 2023

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  It’s a muddy hellhole. 

  Lot of stuck vehicles trapped by mud about a mile out attempting to exit from Burning Man. I just walked by about 30 various RVs and cars that can’t move. pic.twitter.com/cqoUag0dTR

  — Lee Fang (@lhfang) September 3, 2023

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  Despite the circumstances, there’s a general sense of calm at #BurningMan

  Rain on Sunday *again* delayed the opening of the roads to leave

  Some are growing impatient as they run out or short on food & water, getting vehicles stuck in clay-like mud@NBCLA @nbcbayarea @NBCNews pic.twitter.com/yc04TYuDF7

  — Chase Cain (@ChaseCainNBC) September 3, 2023

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  👀🔥Burning Man festival gets hit with torrential rainfall. they have blocked the entrance and the exits everyone’s supposed to shelter in place. they can’t make it in with fuel for all the generators. There’s 6 inches of mud everywhere and they’re expecting more rain tonight. pic.twitter.com/NYW6xTaiYv

  — Todd Paron🇺🇸🇬🇷🎧👽 (@tparon) September 3, 2023

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  *   *   * 

  Food and fuel are running low for the tens of thousands of attendees (and tech bros) trapped at the Burning Man festival located in one of the harshest environments on earth (high desert, on a dried-up alkaline lake bed) in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. The situation deteriorated early Saturday when a rainstorm drenched the lake bed, transforming the area into a ‘mudpocalypse.’ 

  Since early Saturday, all entry and exit points of the Burning Man festival remained closed due to the thick, alkaline mud. As of 0900 ET Sunday, event organizers said, “The gate and airport in and out of Black Rock City remain closed. Ingress and egress are halted until further notice. No driving is permitted except emergency vehicles.” 

  Organizers continued to advise the 73,000 attendees to “conserve food and water, and shelter in a warm space.” 

  The gate and airport in and out of Black Rock City remain closed. Ingress and egress are halted until further notice. No driving is permitted except emergency vehicles. If you are in BRC, conserve food and water, and shelter in a warm space. More updates to come. Stay safe!

  — Burning Man Traffic (@bmantraffic) September 3, 2023

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  The Independent confirmed local officials had reported at least one death but have not released details on the suspected cause of death. A major concern is that the toxic alkali dust that makes up the lake bed is now three inches of mud, and if attendees aren’t wearing socks and closed shoes, it can cause chemical burns called “Playa Foot.” 

  All fun & games until that alkaline rich mud sucks the moisture right out of the skin. Those porta johns are filthy and can’t be emptied. On a sunny day it takes 11hrs to commute into this remote barren lake.
  Burning Man 2023 pic.twitter.com/qrwsSQMSH2

  — Mr. Maverick (@TheMan2Day) September 3, 2023

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  This person really explained burning man so well..like that is a legit safety hazard.. pic.twitter.com/uWNs7VDBHw

  — UghGiveRespect 🇨🇩🇿🇦 (@KANA9371) September 3, 2023

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  More footage of the geniuses who decided to party in a toxic dry lakebed only to find out it occasionally rains in the desert. 

  Burning Man is a mess. Upward of 60,000 people are literally stuck in mud and have been ordered to stay put.

  Food and water running low. pic.twitter.com/HKRZSwkTCY

  — Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) September 2, 2023

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  🔥☔ Mudpocalyptic at Burning Man!

  A challenging situation unfolds as the desert festival site turns into a sea of mud due to unexpected rain, leaving Burning Man attendees trapped. Stay safe, resilient, and support one another, Burners! 🌄🌧️ #BurningMan #RainyDesert… pic.twitter.com/QCVPCeFg3D

  — FlashFactsHub (@FlashFactsHub) September 3, 2023

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  ⚠️BREAKING: More than 73,000 people are trapped in mud at Burning Man in Nevada due to major flooding pic.twitter.com/t7asFadYnK

  — Everything you need to know (@Everything65687) September 3, 2023

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  Not everyone’s feeling sorry for all the rich folk stuck in the mud at Burning Man [via @YahooNews] https://t.co/zZi3Cu9ONM pic.twitter.com/9CQsTlSIfN

  — Ńasser 1️⃣ Million Tweets 🐦 (@nasser_mo3gza) September 3, 2023

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

  And who attends this drug-infested event? The rich tech bros. 

  

  … rich white tech bros. 

  

  Surely, these ‘informed’ folks who are now stuck in a swamped toxic lake bed understood it was an El Nino year… 

  

  Probably not. They were fixated on the corporate media headlines hyping a non-existent climate crisis (well, that’s according to these 1,600 scientists). 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/03/2023 – 19:25

• "Election Interference!" Trump Slams NY Attorney General Over 'Targeted' Prosecution
  “Election Interference!” Trump Slams NY Attorney General Over ‘Targeted’ Prosecution

  Former President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Friday to accuse New York Attorney General Leticia James of election interference.

  

  “In the NYS A.G. Letitia James case, I was targeted, given no jury, no extensions, no commercial division, no constitutional rights, no anything! The Democrat judge hates Trump with a passion,” he wrote – only in all caps that we won’t burn your eyes out with.

  “The thing I have is a great case based on phenomenal numbers that show a net worth of billions of dollars more than she viciously & falsely claimed, very little debt, big cash, a powerful disclaimer clause, paid off loans, no defaults, ‘happy’ banks, great assets. I was defamed by NYS—election interference!”

  James is suing Trump and two of his children in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit which claims he falsely inflated the value of his properties to obtain more favorable loans. She’s seeking to bar Trump and family from doing business or engaging in real estate acquisitions in New York for five years.

  James is also seeking to bar Trump and his children from serving in any high-level executive roles in any company in New York.

  Oh, and she wants $250 million in penalties too.

  On Wednesday, James asked a judge to render a summary judgement on one of the seven claims brought against Trump, arguing that an “overwhelming amount of evidence” proves that Trump committed fraud and submitted false statements to bankers – inflating his wealth between $812 million and $2.2 billion each year.

  “While this is just the tip of a much larger iceberg of deception Plaintiff is prepared to expose at trial–which would result in carving off billions more from Mr. Trump’s net worth–it is more than sufficient to permit this Court to rule as a matter of law that each SFC from 2011 to 2021 was false or misleading,” reads the filing.

  As the Epoch Times notes, also on Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers released, in a court filing, the nearly 500-page transcript of a seven-hour-long interview the former president gave when he was deposed for the case in April.

  In the hours-long deposition, the former president was questioned about the management and dealings of the Trump Organization, where he detailed the value of several of his properties.

  “I never got a default notice. I paid interest every quarter, every month even before it was due, if it came on a holiday,” he said, testifying that the banks and lawyers they worked with had profited and were satisfied with the deals.

  He told the prosecutors that his “brand” value increased during the years he was president, but he purposely refrained from doing any deals, not because it would have been illegal, but because he felt it was unethical, adding that he took his example from George Washington who kept two desks, separating business and state matters.

  President Trump’s lawyers asked for the case to be dismissed, arguing that the statute of limitations have run out and that the prosecution had not brought forth proof of harm.

  “The undisputed record further establishes his companies timely paid hundreds of millions of dollars in interest to their lenders and never defaulted on a loan or even been late on a loan payment during the entire 15+ year time period the NYAG has sought to scrutinize in this action,” they wrote, arguing there was no intent to defraud lenders or insurers.

  President Trump, who declared his intention to run for office last November, has maintained that he has done nothing wrong in the several cases brought against him, decrying the legal actions as election interference.

  Several court dates are expected to interfere with his campaign schedule, with another civil case in New York brought against him by writer E. Jean Carroll over accusations of defamation beginning Jan. 15, 2024, the same day as the Iowa Republican caucus.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/03/2023 – 19:00

• Pharmacists Continuing To Refuse Ivermectin Prescriptions, Raising Ethical Concerns
  Pharmacists Continuing To Refuse Ivermectin Prescriptions, Raising Ethical Concerns

  authored by Matthew Lysiak via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The continued refusal of pharmacists nationwide to fill prescriptions for controversial COVID medications has raised questions over medical autonomy and who ultimately has control over patient care, according to a prominent doctor.

  

  Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, a practitioner and founder of Coalition of Health Freedom, told The Epoch Times that many pharmacists nationwide are still refusing to fill prescriptions issued for ivermectin issued to patients for the treatment of COVID, despite statements from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) affirming that right to doctors.

  

  “This needs to come to an end. In telling my patients what medicines they can and cannot have access to, we effectively have a large group of pharmacists practicing medicine without a license,” said Dr. Bowden. “They have no accountability for this yet they are allowed to dictate patient care.”

  “I see it every single day. Enough is enough,” Dr. Bowden added.

  Ivermectin has been around for decades but became the center of controversy in 2020 after medical opinion became divided over its effectiveness as a treatment for COVID. In the aftermath, many pharmacists refused to fill prescriptions for the medication.

  By 2023, the issue had made its way into a courtroom when on Aug. 8 a lawyer representing the FDA confirmed that doctors were free to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID.

  “FDA explicitly recognizes that doctors do have the authority to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID,” Ashley Cheung Honold, a Department of Justice lawyer representing the FDA, told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

  The government lawyer made the statement in defense of the FDA’s repeated calls for people to not take ivermectin for COVID. The FDA on Aug. 21, 2021, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”

  On Aug. 17, the FDA issued clarification, this time stating that while it had approved ivermectin for certain uses in humans and animals, it had not issued any statement affirming the safety or effectiveness of the drug for treating COVID. However, the agency again affirmed that it would be left to individual doctors whether or not to prescribe the medication for the treatment of COVID.

  “Health care professionals generally may choose to prescribe an approved human drug for an unapproved use when they judge that the unapproved use is medically appropriate for an individual patient,” the FDA said.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/03/2023 – 18:30

• California Lawmakers Advance Bill To Let Killers Serving Life Without Parole Request Reduced Sentence
  California Lawmakers Advance Bill To Let Killers Serving Life Without Parole Request Reduced Sentence

  California lawmakers have advanced legislation that would allow killers serving life sentences without parole to request a re-sentencing.

  California Senate Bill 94 now heads to the floor for a full vote by the California Assembly. It would open the possibility of judicial review to reduce sentences for some felons accused of serious crimes, including murder, if the offense occurred before June 5, 1990, and they’ve completed at least 25 years of their sentence.

  Those who were convicted of first-degree murder of a police officer would not qualify, while those who do qualify would now have the opportunity to appear before a parole board, which could deny their release.

  

  California state Sen. Dave Cortese (D) introduced the bill, saying on social media that he was “thrilled that these key bills of mine passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee.”

  Republicans are appalled

  “I’d like to say I am shocked Senate Bill 94 passed out of the Democrat-controlled Assembly Appropriations Committee, but I’m not,” said Jessica Millan Patterson, chair of the California Republican Party, said in a statement reported by Fox News. “California Democrats continue to send a crystal-clear message to all Californians: they would rather protect violent murderers than focus their efforts on true public safety and protecting victims.”

  GOP assemblyman Bill Essayli, a former federal prosecutor, said that people sentenced for heinous crimes should serve their full prison term, even if that’s life without the possibility of parole.

  “Killing two individuals with aggravating circumstances isn’t enough to justify a LWOP sentence? Being an accomplice to a mass murderer isn’t?,” he asked. “Killing a peace officer is sufficiently heinous, but killing a firefighter or other public official isn’t? These exclusions are purely political.”

  “LWOP sentences are promises to the victim’s families that they need never fear the person will be let out of prison,” Essayli added. “This will permit a large percentage of LWOP offenders to be re-sentenced to standard first-degree murder and eligible for parole immediately.“

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/03/2023 – 18:00

• Florida Doctor Reinstated After Losing Board Certification For Criticizing COVID-19 Vaccines
  Florida Doctor Reinstated After Losing Board Certification For Criticizing COVID-19 Vaccines

  Authored by Natasha Holt via The Epoch Times,

  A Florida physician known for being outspoken about COVID-related topics has regained his board certification that was stripped because he publicly criticized COVID vaccines.

  

  Now, Dr. John Littell is moving forward from the experience with plans to help future physicians defend themselves when disciplined for voicing viewpoints that are not in the majority, he told The Epoch Times.

  Dr. Littell, a longtime family physician in Ocala and a medical school professor, began posting videos sharing his thoughts about COVID-19 testing, treatments, and vaccines early in the pandemic. He was frustrated to find his content often was pulled down from his YouTube channel.

  But he fought against what he saw as censorship by moving the content to other platforms, such as Rumble, he said.

  Then, in January 2022 and again five months later, he received warning letters from the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM), the organization that issued his certification for his medical specialty.

  The letter stated that his videos on YouTube and Rumble spread “medical misinformation” and could put his board certification in jeopardy, he said.

  The ABFM declined to comment on the matter because the board’s “policy indicates we are unable to comment about professionalism cases,” an unidentified spokesperson said in an email to The Epoch Times.

  The ABFM is the third largest of the 24 boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties. More than 100,000 family medicine doctors are certified by the board, according to its website.

  

  Protesters concerned about treatment of people who died while being treated for COVID-19 stand outside a board meeting at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Fla., on Feb. 21, 2023. (Courtesy of Tanya Parus)

  To keep their certification, physicians must uphold the board’s ethical standards and “guidelines for professionalism, licensure, and personal conduct,” the website states.

  In letters from the board, Dr. Littell was told his public statements violated those guidelines. Dr. Littell responded to the letters and continued to speak publicly and post videos about the subjects, he said.

  Months later, when he didn’t hear back, he said he thought the threat was gone.

  “I was very happily under the radar,” he said.

  Outrage Over Ivermectin

  That changed after he was escorted out of a Sarasota Memorial Hospital board meeting in February for approaching a board member behind the dais. He wanted to thank the board member, he said, for letting him speak at the meeting. He didn’t realize that move would be seen as inappropriate, he said. 

  Though he’s cared for many patients in hospitals, he’d never attended a hospital board meeting, let alone a contentious one, he said.

  That day, medical freedom activists filled the boardroom to speak against the public hospital’s policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many were angry their loved ones were denied the opportunity to try ivermectin, an antiparasitic for humans and animals widely used by some in treating COVID-19, and other treatments. 

  Dr. Littell spoke cordially to board members from the podium, an Epoch Times reporter confirmed. He told board members how treating patients with ivermectin had been his key to success in helping them recover. And he praised hospital personnel for their work during the pandemic.

  Shortly after that, security guards escorted him outside.

  

  Retired Army Gen. Michael Flynn, who served briefly as national security advisor for former President Donald Trump, attended a board meeting of Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Fla., on Feb. 21, 2023 (Chris Nelson for The Epoch Times)

  A video of Dr. Littell’s removal from the meeting by security guards was posted to social media and received millions of views and media coverage. And that thrust him back in the spotlight as a doctor vocal about COVID-19 policies.

  “I had a target on my back,” he said.

  He questioned whether someone else would have been removed for the same reason.

  Many doctors have faced consequences for questioning the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines and for advocating for the use of medicines such as ivermectin in the treatment of the disease.

  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wrote in one social media post about ivermectin: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.” It linked to a page entitled “Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19.”

  Three doctors sued the FDA over the statements, saying it had no power to tell doctors which drugs to prescribe.

  On Sept. 1, a federal court ruled that the agency likely overstepped its authority when it told Americans to “stop” using ivermectin against COVID-19. The FDA can inform, but has “no authority” to recommend consumers “stop” taking medicine, U.S. Circuit Judge Don Willett wrote in the ruling.

  Accused of ‘Spreading False’ Information

  The month after Dr. Littell spoke in Sarasota, the board sent a letter saying he’d been de-certified for “spreading false, inaccurate, and misleading materials about COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccination, and treatment and mitigation of the virus,” The Epoch Times confirmed. 

  A letter reviewed by The Epoch Times stated that if Dr. Littell appealed the decision within 20 days, he would continue to be represented by the board, pending a review of his case by the professionalism committee of the ABFM board of directors.

  The reason for the decision to review his record was because of his past suggestions the COVID-19 vaccine was a product of genetic engineering, causing deaths in children and causing the rise of the Delta variant, the letter indicated. It also referenced “false” statements made by Drs. Ryan Cole and Robert Malone, who spoke at a medical freedom conference Dr. Littell organized in October 2022.

  In the letter, the board also criticized Dr. Littell for “offering to provide medical exemptions from vaccination” to patients across the country and “publicly comparing the U.S. public health system’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic to Nazi Germany.”

  After receiving the troubling letter, Dr. Littell sought the help of attorney Jeff Childers, a business attorney in Gainesville, Florida. Since the COVID-19 lockdowns began, Mr. Childers has become active in lawsuits around the country related to medical freedom. He authors a daily blog called Coffee and Covid, which started by chronicling COVID-19 issues and now tracks other social and political issues, as well. 

  Mr. Childers crafted a 64-page appeal to the board, dissecting every accusation made against Dr. Littell, an Epoch Times reporter confirmed. And as word of the threat to Dr. Littell’s board certification spread—a move that would prevent him from practicing medicine—medical freedom activists rose up to take his side.

  A GiveSendGo.com campaign was started to collect donations to fund his legal fees. More than 6,400 people donated almost $255,000. And more than 1,900 pledged to pray for Dr. Littell. 

  The Global Covid Summit, an international group of doctors focused on medical freedom in COVID-19 treatment, sent a letter signed by 169 doctors to the ABFM in support of Dr. Littell. In the letter, they argued that the board was false in every accusation made against Dr. Littell.

  Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo also voiced support for Dr. Littell.

  “What they’re doing is being a bully,” he said in an interview with The Floridian. “It’s not going to age well.

  “I read the letter from the Board, and it’s dripping with political animosity.”

  Both Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) and Dr. Littell’s congresswoman, Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) sent letters in his defense to the board, Dr. Littell said.

  “I’ve got to believe it’s not in the dozens, but probably in the hundreds of people who called and sent letters to the American Board of Family Medicine,” Dr. Littell said.

  “I never asked them to, but that is what was happening.”

  In July, Dr. Littell received word that the board had reviewed his case and retroactively de-certified him for three months, from March 16 to June 16. He never stopped seeing patients.

  “It’s like a slap on the wrist so they’d feel good about it, but wouldn’t, presumably, have to face any legal action,” he said. 

  His attorney agreed.

  “They did it in a very face-saving way,” Mr. Childers said. 

  But ultimately, he’s pleased with the decision.

  “We were really surprised and gratified that we were able to achieve that result,” Mr. Childers said. 

  Dr. Littell credits it to being  “a God thing” that he was able to keep caring for patients and face a decertification period only retroactively. 

  “If they had said I was decertified, I would not have been able to do what I was doing. I mean, especially with the hospital care patients. I could have gotten into big trouble.”

  He still may face consequences for having the blemish on his record, he said. He’ll have to report it to the hospitals at which he works and explain what happened, he said.

  “Every time I go up for privileges with a hospital or any other institution, they’re going to say, ‘Well, has your license ever been suspended or revoked, and has your board certification ever been revoked?’ So, it’s still an issue. It’s not like you can just forget about it.”

  He’s been advised by some other doctors, such as cardiologist Peter McCullough, to pursue legal action for the disciplinary measure they feel was wrong, he said. 

  Continuing to Speak Out

  Dr. Littell continues to speak out about the same topics. So he suspects he’ll face retribution again, he said. 

  “The way I read the letter, it’s sort of like a warning,” Dr. Littell said.

  The board, he said, seemed to be sending the warning, “If you act up again, we know it’s a privilege to have this board certification, and it can be removed at any time.”

  And the next time, the punishment is likely to escalate. 

  “The implication is that if it happens again, it’s going to be more than just three months,” Mr. Childers said.

  Around the country, a slew of doctors had board certifications removed and licensure threatened for sharing their COVID-related opinions.

  “Most people would probably be surprised to find out there’s a lot of this going on, now that the pandemic is over,” Mr. Childers said.

  “From what I’ve heard, there’s probably more challenges to doctor licensing right now than at any other time.”

  But because most doctors aren’t vocal about receiving discipline, it’s hard to know exactly how often it’s occurring, he said.

  Doctors who have been active on social media seem to be targeted more often by medical authorities, he said.

  

  Dr. Peter McCullough speaks in the Mississippi capitol building on COVID-19 vaccine adverse events. (Courtesy of Charlotte Stringer Photography)

  Doctors who were not actively posting their thoughts about COVID-19 on social media “should feel very confident that if they follow a similar approach to what Dr. Littell did, they could hope for a good result at this point,” he said. 

  Obtaining good legal advice is key, he said. It also helps to spread the word.

  “All too often doctors either ignore these kinds of letters until it’s too late because they’re embarrassed, or they try to handle it on their own,” he said. 

  “It’s important that people know when this happens. And if they’ll let folks know, they’ll find that they get a lot of support.”

  Dr. Littell has no plans to keep quiet about what he feels went wrong during the COVID-19 pandemic

  “I’m not letting up,” he said. 

  He’s organizing his third annual medical freedom summit in November called “Food, Family & Medical Freedom” in Ocala, Florida at the World Equestrian Center.

  Helping Future Doctors 

  He intends to use the remaining money donated to his legal fund to help others respond to similar licensure problems, especially threats faced by medical students, he said.

  He’s trying “to come up with a legal, legislative, and public relations strategy that helps future physicians,” he said. When they see practicing doctors disciplined and “raked over the coals” for speaking out about medical freedom issues, it deters good people from pursuing a degree in medicine, he said.

  “I would like the medical freedom fighters, as I’m calling them, to create a sanctuary for pre-med, especially, and medical school students.”

  “Early on, even in the colleges, they weed out the physicians who dare to question the narrative or challenge it,” he said, of those who insist that doctors decrees made by federal health agencies.

  But asking questions and challenging prevailing thought is important to the goal of continually improving medical treatments, he said.

  “And that intellectual curiosity is what we’re so desperately lacking now in medicine, and in most professions.”

  He also envisions the network expanding to help connect like-minded educators in colleges, universities, and medical schools to share their ideas without fear of being in opposition to “woke” ideology, he said. 

  He hopes to see that network push back against “lockstep mentality” and help students who are suffering because of it.

  Medical students taught by Dr. Littell often tell him how difficult it is to be entering the field of medicine at this time, he said.

  One student told him that his second-year class was forced to be vaccinated for COVID-19, he said. Classmates were told by their university they’d be “thrown out” of medical school in two weeks if they didn’t comply, Dr. Littell said.

  

  Medical freedom activists upset about COVID-19 vaccines and other issues gather to voice concerns to lawmakers on the first day of the Florida Legislature’s annual regular session at the Capitol in Tallahassee on March 7, 2023. (Courtesy of Justin Harvey)

  The student told him that, although more than half the class didn’t want the vaccine, they felt they had no other option, Dr. Littell said. Weeks later, the mandate was lifted. But it was too late—many students already had submitted to getting the shot they didn’t want.

  “It’s like they [university officials] were playing games,” he said. “And the students didn’t know any better.

  “They just don’t have enough support,” Dr. Littell lamented. “They want to say things, but they’re afraid they’re going to get disciplined if they speak out.”

  He sees bringing people together to unite in their pushback against prevailing opinions as a revolutionary concept.

  “It’s really no different than what our Founding Fathers did,” Dr. Littell said.

  “They realized that they were victims of repression. But there also were people comfortable with the status quo. That’s what is in our medical schools right now and is what we all need to fight against.

  “People should be allowed to question and use their God-given intellect, and not be censored or disciplined for doing so.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/03/2023 – 17:30

• GOP Lawmaker Questions DOJ About $280 Billion In Lost COVID Relief
  GOP Lawmaker Questions DOJ About $280 Billion In Lost COVID Relief

  Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), the chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, wants to know what the U.S. Department of Justice is doing to recover an estimated $280 billion in U.S. COVID-19 relief spending that allegedly flowed to criminals inside and outside the United States.

  

  On Tuesday, Mr. Wenstrup sent a letter (pdf) to Attorney General Merrick Garland, asking that he and the DOJ provide a full account of all current and past investigations into the misallocation of U.S. taxpayer funds as part of COVID-19 pandemic relief programs. Mr. Wenstrup cited a June Associated Press analysis, which estimated that around $280 billion of U.S. COVID-19 relief spending was lost to fraudulent schemes carried out both inside and outside the country.

  Mr. Wenstrup further cited a 2021 NBC News report, claiming much of the COVID relief that was lost to fraud went to Russian, Chinese and Nigerian criminal organizations.

  “Some of these fraudulent actors were based outside the United States and may involve international criminal organizations. Estimates imply that at least half of all stolen COVID-19 relief funds went to Russian, Chinese, and Nigerian criminals,” he wrote.

  The U.S. government has been working to account for more than $4 trillion in COVID-19 relief spending. In addition to the $280 billion the Associated Press believes was lost to fraud, the media publication estimated another $123 billion was simply wasted or misspent.

  In a March 2022 press release, the DOJ announced it had recovered about $8 billion worth of COVID-19 relief funds lost to fraud through a combination of criminal prosecutions and civil enforcement actions. That DOJ fund recovery effort amounts to about three percent of the money that may have been lost to fraud, and Mr. Wenstrup said it’s unclear just how much the DOJ has recovered from criminal actors living abroad.

  “It is highly concerning that possibly billions of taxpayer dollars intended to help Americans suffering the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were stolen by organized criminal rings in foreign countries,” the Republican lawmaker wrote. “Therefore, we write today to better understand the full scope of this problem and what actions the Department has taken to investigate international COVID-19 relief program fraud and hold these foreign actors accountable.”

  Mr. Wenstrup requested the DOJ provide a country-by-country account of all current and closed COVID-19 fraud cases and dollar value estimates of COVID-19 relief spending they believe went missing in these fraud cases.

  The DOJ is continuing to bring new cases to recover COVID-19 relief funds. Last week, the department announced it had conducted a nationwide enforcement effort resulting in 718 enforcement actions against 371 defendants, for alleged fraud offenses that resulted in the misallocation of around $836 million.

  Even with this latest DOJ effort, the U.S. is still well short of recovering all of the funds that are likely missing as a result of COVID-19 fraud schemes. It could take years to recover all of those funds, assuming they can all eventually be recovered.

  “The COVID-19 public health emergency may have ended, but the Justice Department’s work to identify and prosecute those who stole pandemic relief funds is far from over,” Mr. Garland said upon announcing the latest DOJ anti-fraud efforts last week.

  Legislation extending the statute of limitations to prosecute pandemic-era fraud cases has enjoyed broad bipartisan support.

  During last week’s anti-fraud announcement, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced the department had started a new COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Strike Force in Colorado and another one in Delaware.

  “The two new Strike Forces launched today will increase our reach as we continue to pursue fraudsters and recover taxpayer funds, no matter how long it takes,” Ms. Monaco said.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/03/2023 – 16:30

• Corporate Media Gripped A Nation In "Climate Anxiety" Despite Scientists Who Say 'No Emergency'
  Corporate Media Gripped A Nation In “Climate Anxiety” Despite Scientists Who Say ‘No Emergency’

  Politicians ‘north of Richmond’, corporate media outlets, climate crusaders like Greta Thunberg, and new and improved ‘Greta 2.0’ (Sophia Kianni) cheerleaded fuzzy ‘climate math’ at the peak of the Northern Hemisphere summer to warn heat and extreme weather events were alarming milestones of impending climate disaster. 

  In mid-July, when the Northern Hemisphere summer began to peak, ABC, The New York Times, Axios, and Bloomberg cited questionable climate math from a computer model that enabled them to declare “hottest day ever.” However, the math was so fuzzy that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration couldn’t even stand behind the claim, telling AP News, “Although NOAA cannot validate the methodology or conclusion of the University of Maine analysis, we recognize that we are in a warm period due to climate change.”

  Remember the flood of climate doom headlines in July? 

  

  Such propaganda from corporate media would’ve had anyone believe the Earth was on the brink of a climate disaster — but it wasn’t. Just hysteria pushed with fake news. 

  Bloomberg data shows temperature across the Lower 48 versus a 30-year mean didn’t deviate excessively higher than the norm — clearly a different story than what was pitched by corporate media and climate alarmists. In fact, temperatures have been sliding across the country since early August. 

  

  We penned a note weeks ago titled Climate Experts Criticize Alarmist Rhetoric Over Summer Temperatures. Just last week, 1,609 scientists and professionals worldwide signed a declaration, including 321 from the US, to dismiss the existence of a climate crisis and insist that carbon dioxide benefits Earth, contrary to the popular alarmist narrative.

  One inconvenient truth the corporate media failed to cover this summer: wildfires across the US burned the lowest amount of acres in a decade. 

  Bjorn Lomborg, president of the Copenhagen Consensus and visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, said where have you seen this reporting in the news? … nowhere. 

  “Have you seen that reported anywhere?” he asked, referring to Copernicus’ wildfire data is absent from corporate presses. It’s an inconvenient truth that destroys the climate change narrative.

  Data:

  Fire has burned 𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙨𝙩 area in the US in a decade

  Have you seen that reported anywhere?

  Yes, Canada burned much more (constantly reported), but the US, Europe, Africa, Asia burned 𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨

  In total, world burned 𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨

  🧵 and refs belowhttps://t.co/scZCc2cFi9 pic.twitter.com/ZpxW6BokPI

  — Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) August 23, 2023

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

  Looking ahead, Peter Geiger, editor of the Farmer’s Almanac, published a note explaining the latest extended weather forecast for the winter 2023-24 season shows cold temperatures, snow, and damp conditions across the Lower 48. 

  

  Geiger wrote in the note, “The ‘brrr’ is coming back! We expect more snow and low temperatures nationwide.”

  Meanwhile, corporate media is responsible for producing a young generation that suffers from “climate anxiety.” 

  “The cover of Newsweek tells ‘a generation gripped by climate anxiety.'”🙄

  Brainwashed and brain-damaged young people ought to be suing Big Media not Big Oil.

  Media should be our bulwark against BS. Instead, it is BS.https://t.co/ZKDpa4ROMQ

  — Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) September 3, 2023

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

  Don’t worry. Corporate media will attribute the changing of seasons from warm to cold to ‘climate change.’ For some context, these climate doomers once spewed the Earth would move into a new ice age by the 21st century.

  It’s big businesses to spread climate misinformation. Just ask Al Gore. 

  

  They’re routinely wrong and have zero accountability.

  

  Remember Greta’s 2018 tweet?

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/03/2023 – 16:00

• Turley: Biden's Use Of Fake Names In Email Could Cost Him
  Turley: Biden’s Use Of Fake Names In Email Could Cost Him

  Authored by Jonathan Turley, Op-Ed via The Hill,

  Last year, at an event at the White House, former president Barack Obama jokingly referred to the current president as “Vice President Biden.”

  At the time, it was described as the more popular politician “reminding Biden who’s boss.” Yet, this needling carried an added bite, given reports of Obama’s private doubts about Biden’s judgment.

  In 2020, Obama had famously warned fellow Democrats, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f— things up.”

  

  Obama is now being asked to bail Biden out from another debacle of his own making, going back to his time in Obama’s administration. Various committees and private groups are seeking more than 5,000 emails from Biden in which he used an array of aliases during the Obama administration.

  Under the Presidential Records Act, Obama has 30 days to bar the release of the emails and to help shield his former vice president in a growing corruption scandal over the influence-peddling operation run by Biden’s son, Hunter.

  Recently, it was learned that Joe Biden went by a variety of code names and false names, including Robin Ware. Robert L. Peters, JRB Ware, Celtic and “The Big Guy.” House investigators believe that may only be a partial list. For many Americans, it is understandably unnerving to learn that their president has more aliases than Anthony Weiner. However, while the number seems unusual, the practice is not unprecedented.

  Top officials have used such aliases in the past for emails, including former Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. During the Obama administration, the practice was defended by then-White House press secretary Jay Carney, who assured the public that any such emails would still be subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and congressional inquiries. He added, “We do not use and should not use private email accounts for work.”

  The problem is that there was “work” being discussed on some of these emails, including official foreign travel plans and the hiring of associates of Hunter for high-level positions. More importantly, some emails are relevant to the clients of Biden’s son. Biden has previously lied that he knew nothing of these dealings, but these emails could reveal even more about his knowledge and involvement.

  Congress is investigating more than $20 million that was transferred to members of the Biden family from foreign sources through a labyrinth of shell companies and accounts. Even the Washington Post has been forced to admit that the president has lied in the past about aspects of Hunter’s dealings.  Devon Archer recently confirmed that Joe Biden’s long-standing denial of any knowledge of their business dealings is “categorically false.”

  Most reporters now admit that Hunter was clearly engaging in influence-peddling, Washington’s favorite form of corruption. Yet in the face of this growing evidence, Democrats insist that Hunter and his associates were merely selling “the illusion of influence,” not actual access or influence over Joe Biden.

  Obviously, these foreign clients believed that they were buying more than an illusion for the millions they spent. One corrupt Ukrainian figure said that Hunter Biden was dumber than his dog, but that he paid him anyway for access to his father.

  There are indications that these clients did receive more than illusion. For example, Archer described how Burisma executives were worried about the anti-corruption investigation being conducted by Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin. Archer testified that Hunter immediately “called D.C.” in response to the plea. Shokin was later fired at Joe Biden’s demand.

  The House Oversight Committee has hit a wall in trying to get material from the Bidens and the administration on these past dealings. It has also learned that the president communicated with this son through alias accounts. That led them to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which has resisted the release of the emails. It has been over a year since a group requested these documents, and the NARA review is expected to take years at this pace — until after the next election.

  Both Biden and Obama could easily allow the release of these emails to Congress. After all, the use of aliases has been defended on the basis that these emails are trivial or personal matters. If so, transparency will put all the allegations to rest. If it is not true, it would mean that Biden was using false names to convey important information to third parties, and the question would be why.

  In one email from Hunter’s laptop, Biden associate James Gilliar explained the rules to Tony Bobulinski, then a business partner of Hunter. He was not to speak of the former veep’s connection to any transactions. “Don’t mention Joe being involved,” he wrote, “it’s only when u [sic] are face to face, I know u [sic] know that but they are paranoid.”  Instead, they referred to the Big Guy or Celtic.

  Likewise, a trusted FBI source said that a Ukrainian businessman had said that he paid a bribe to Joe Biden, but noted that they were told to avoid using his name and to transfer the money through a complex series of accounts.

  Moreover, the request of Congress followed the discovery that staffers had used Biden’s fake government account, Robert.L.Peters@pci.gov, to send a message about meeting then-Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko with a cc to Hunter Biden.

  Once again, there may be innocent explanations for such emails and the use of the alias. However, given the other evidence of corruption and influence peddling, it seems obvious that the information must be reviewed.

  That brings us to the confrontation with NARA.

  The agency could rely on the PRA statute to enforce the refusal of Biden and Obama to allow Congress to review the evidence. Biden actually is supposed to be consulted twice under the law: as the former vice president and as the current president. Both Joe Bidens are likely to have the same negative reaction to exposing his emails.

  However, special access to presidential records is expressly allowed under the PRA “to…Congress” and “to the extent of matter within its jurisdiction, to any committee…if such records contain information that is needed for the conduct of its business and that is not otherwise available.” A refusal would deny Congress critical evidence into a corruption scandal and also a possible impeachment inquiry.

  The added resistance to the review of the emails only adds to an already strong case for an impeachment inquiry. Such an inquiry does not mean that impeachment is inevitable. Rather, there is enough evidence to warrant an investigation into whether the Bidens were selling the illusion or the reality of influence. By acting under its impeachment authority, the power of Congress would be at its apex in forcing these disclosures and finding answers on the alleged corrupt practices.

  None of this should be necessary, of course. Biden could remove these obstacles instantly to assure the public that his aliases were innocent, even playful, pseudonyms. “JRB Ware” may be a pun, but it is not necessarily the next “Carlos Danger.” We simply do not know, but there should be no reason why the president would not want to clear the record, particularly in an election year.

  Otherwise, the effort to withhold this evidence could itself prove damaging, if material evidence of corruption or false statements are found. As Obama would say, one should never underestimate that prospect when it comes to his former vice president.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/03/2023 – 15:30

• Alaska Military Base Eyes ESG-Friendly Micro-Nuclear Reactors for De-Carbonized Future 
  Alaska Military Base Eyes ESG-Friendly Micro-Nuclear Reactors for De-Carbonized Future 

  The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, on behalf of the US Air Force, is serious about decarbonizing a military base in Alaska. Surprisingly, the focus is on something other than solar or wind but on mini-nuclear reactors.

  According to a press release from Santa Clara-based Oklo Inc., the USAF issued a Notice of Intent to Award a contract for micro-reactors to supply power and heat to Eielson Air Force Base. 

  “This project represents a significant stride towards ensuring a clean and resilient energy supply for critical national security infrastructure,” the company said

  The timeline for the installation wasn’t specified, and Oklo’s design still awaits the green light from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC):

  This selection initiates the acquisition process to potentially award a contract to Oklo. Oklo would obtain a license for its power plant from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, construct the power plant, and operate it to deliver both electricity and steam to the Eielson Air Force Base under a long-term power purchase agreement executed by the Defense Logistics Agency Energy. –Oklo

  “We are honored to be at the forefront of increasing resilience and reducing emissions, while driving national security forward,” said Jacob DeWitte, Co-Founder and CEO of Oklo.

  USAF previously announced Eielson AFB would be the preferred location to pilot next-generation energy technology, such as micro-reactors, to supply upwards of 15 megawatts of power. 

  

  Because of its small size, micro-reactors can be constructed cheaper and faster than traditional, giant, light-water reactors, such as the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia that opened this summer, where delays and cost overruns were in the years and billions of dollars. 

  Oklo is one of a dozen companies developing micro-reactors. Earlier this year, NRC cleared NuScale Power’s design for light-water small modular nuclear reactors for a carbon-free future. 

  Besides these small reactors potentially powering a military base, basically a small town, there has been a push for huge data centers to be powered by this on-demand reliable ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) friendly power source. 

  The push for nuclear power comes as a new Pew Research Center survey shows that most Americans now want atomic power. 

  

  We presented a bull nuclear thesis to readers in December 2020, recommending uranium on the belief that nuclear power would eventually be incorporated into the ESG framework, as highlighted in our article “Is This The Beginning Of The Next ESG Craze,” which is proving to be accurate.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/03/2023 – 15:00

• A Dire Warning: The US Plan To Make Ukraine Into Europe's 'Big Israel'
  A Dire Warning: The US Plan To Make Ukraine Into Europe’s ‘Big Israel’

  In his famous anti-Vietnam War speech, the late senator from South Dakota George McGovern told fellow Congressional leaders, “This chamber reeks of blood.” On Saturday, journalist Max Blumenthal opened a hard-hitting talk at the Ron Paul Institute’s “Which Way America…?” conference in D.C. by quoting those words, but applied them to the US proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

  Blumenthal said that in Ukraine, Washington continues “wasting the lives and bodies of over 150,000 men, and that’s according to the Pentagon.” Citing recent studies on the immense numbers of Ukrainians who have lost limbs after a year-and-a-half of fighting (which could be surpassing WWI rates), he said the true Ukraine casualty count could be closer to 500,000 – which marks a monumental tragedy and disaster.

  

  The GrayZone journalist then said of today’s Congress that “this chamber” not only “reeks of blood” but.. “they have wasted Ukrainian society on the mantle of anti-Russia hysteria” – as lawmakers in lockstep with the Biden administration continue to sink billions into Kiev.

  Beltway liberal elites, Blumenthal asserted, still think Russia must be punished given they see Moscow as having brought the “bad orange man” to power in 2016. This is a big ideological aspect to what motivates the hawks, he said.

  Further, Blumenthal explained that what’s happening here is that the US ruling class has “militarized the culture wars while depicting Ukraine as the ‘woke side’ vs. Russia as backwards and oppressive.”

  But more importantly, the real “victors” are the major US defense contractors and their appendages like the K street neocon lobbying firms. Blumenthal highlighted that these, and the Biden administration, are operating with the bigger vision in mind of turning Ukraine into Europe’s “big Israel”. 

  By this is meant a permanently militarized ‘Spartan’ wartime state, which is funded and weaponized by Washington in perpetuity, and possesses all the latest cutting edge Western defense tech. But like with the state of things long evident inside Israel (in particular oppression of both Palestinians and Israeli political dissenters), democracy must be eroded at home for this to happen. Still, the defense tech peddlers in the military-industrial complex will ‘win’ no matter how much Ukrainian society and its people are sacrificed. 

  “In order to defend democracy in Ukraine, democracy must be curtailed at home,” Blumenthal emphasized, drawing lessons from current examples of oppression of free speech in the West, particularly related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

  

  He noted here that his own investigative media outlet, The GrayZone, has had the bulk of its funding frozen by the popular platform GoFundMe. The outlet explained days ago [emphasis ZH]:

  By this point, we had raised over $90,000 from over 1100 contributors. The generous contributions from our audience were accompanied by hundreds of messages of effusive support for our factual journalism holding imperial power to account.

  And now, Gofundme is holding the donations hostage, refusing to transfer them to us, while failing to inform donors that it has effectively seized their money. The for-profit site has similarly refused to explain its freezing of their donations, issuing nothing more than a vague allusion – “some external concerns” – to pressure from powerful outside forces.

  Gofundme’s financial sabotage follows the de facto sanctions imposed by Venmo and Paypal on our managing editor, Wyatt Reed, after he reported on the Ukrainian military’s targeting of civilians from the separatist side of the Donbas region.

  Again, this is why Blumenthal could draw on recent personal experience in telling the Ron Paul conference audience that “democracy must be curtailed” in America in order to keep unlimited taxpayer dollars flowing into the Zelensky government’s coffers.

  Blumenthal continued… but “now Russia has no incentive to negotiate” given they have the clear military momentum amid a failing Ukraine counteroffensive. The US and UK likely had a window of opportunity in the initial months of the war to more easily open up serious diplomatic peace negotiations, but this was actively thwarted. 

  “We cannot have peace negotiations while war is being incentivized [by Washington interests] to this point,” he continued while also referencing neocons like Bill Kristol, who has been leading a charge to silence any dissenting views from among Republican nominees and politicians on Ukraine.

  

  “These operatives need constant opportunities” which a permanent proxy war in Europe enables, Blumenthal continued – just like with the constant and historic billions in aid flowing to Israel, which serves to cyclically fuel the accompanying global reach and outsized influence of the Israel lobby.

  On this question of whether negotiations are possible even from Kiev’s perspective, Zero Hedge asked Blumenthal what he thinks would happen in the unlikely scenario that Zelensky himself suddenly pursued peace talks with the Russians. Blumenthal responded as follows:

  “If Zelensky were to pursue peace talks now before he’s re-elected… due to the kind of social forces that have been unleashed by Maidan, he will face a far-right Nazi insurgency in his own country, and he will become public enemy number one among some of the most violent and militarized forces.

  …Which is why he went and met with Andriy Biletsky, the founder of Azov. Zelensky was elected on a platform of peace by 73% of the population because you still had the ethnic Russian population participating in Ukrainian society. They have been completely driven out and the constituency he’s working with is completely different now.”

  Below: Last month, Ukrainian President Zelensky held court with one of the most notorious neo-Nazis in modern Ukrainian history, Azov Battalion founder Andriy Biletsky.

  

  Turning Ukraine into “a big Israel” will involve long-term funding to shape and place “America’s unsinkable aircraft carrier not in the Middle East but in Europe,” Blumenthal said.

  But as Ukrainians continue to be slaughtered, it won’t be a happy situation for a country to become a “big Israel”, Blumenthal concluded.

  * * *

  Former US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro (from 2011 to 2017) is helping to push this Ukraine as “big Israel” concept forward, Blumenthal pointed out.

  

  A partial list of key elements of Shapiro’s road map for Ukraine was previously published by The Atlantic Council as follows:

  • Security first: Every Israeli government promises, first and foremost, that it will deliver security—and knows it will be judged on this pledge. Ordinary citizens, not just politicians, pay close attention to security threats—both from across borders and from internal sources— and much of the public chooses who to elect by that metric alone.
  • The whole population plays a role: The Israeli model goes further than Zelenskyy’s vision of security services deployed to civilian spaces: Most young Israeli adults serve in the military, and many are employed in security-related professions following their service. A common purpose unites the citizenry, making them ready to endure shared sacrifice. Civilians recognize their responsibility to follow security protocols and contribute to the cause. Some even arm themselves (though under strict supervision) to do so. The widespread mobilization of Ukrainian society in collective defense suggests that the country has this potential. In his comments, Zelenskyy reflected this reality when he said security would “come from the strength of every house, every building, every person.”
  • Self-defense is the only way: If there’s any single principle that animates Israel’s security doctrine, it’s that Israel will defend itself, by itself—and rely on no other country to fight its battles. The tragedies of Jewish history have embedded that lesson deep in the nation’s soul. Ukraine’s own trauma, forced to fight alone against a larger aggressor, reinforces a similar conclusion: Don’t depend on the guarantees of others.
  • But maintain active defense partnerships: Self-defense doesn’t mean total isolation. Israel maintains active defense partnerships, chiefly with the United States, which provides generous military assistance, but also with other nations with whom it shares intelligence, technology, and training. While Ukraine will probably not join NATO any time soon, it can deepen security partnerships with Alliance members and receive aid, weaponry, intelligence, and training to bolster its self-defense.
  • Intelligence dominance: From its earliest days, Israel has invested deeply in its intelligence capabilities to ensure that it has the means to detect and deter its enemies—and, when needed, act proactively to strike them. Ukraine will need to upgrade its intelligence services to compete against Russian capabilities and ensure that it’s prepared to prevent and repulse Russian attacks.
  • Technology is key: Although it relies on US assistance, Israel also chooses homegrown technology solutions for many of its greatest challenges. Multi-layer rocket and missile defenses, counter-drone systems, and tunnel detection technology are just recent examples. Ukraine—already home to bright technological minds—will know what threats it faces more than any partner; investing in its own solutions will allow it to be most responsive and adapt to new threats.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/03/2023 – 15:00

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• These Are The Richest Billionaires In Each US State
  These Are The Richest Billionaires In Each US State

  The number of billionaires in the U.S. increased 5% compared to last year, going from 720 super wealthy individuals to 775.

  As Visual Capitalist’s Avery Koop details below, the richest of the rich are concentrated in states like Texas, California, and New York, but there is almost one billionaire in every single state.

  

  This map uses data from Forbes to showcase the wealthiest billionaire in each state.

  The State-by-State Breakdown

  According to Forbes, just four states are home to 61% of the country’s billionaires: California (179), New York (130), Florida (92), and Texas (73).

  Here’s a closer look at the data on who takes the title of the richest in each state:

  Name	State	Residence	Net Worth (Est.)	Source of Wealth
  Jimmy Rane	Alabama	Abbeville	$1.2 B	Lumber
  Arturo Moreno	Arizona	Phoenix	$4.8 B	Billboards, Los Angeles Angels
  Jim Walton	Arkansas	Bentonville	$64.4 B	Walmart
  Larry Page	California	Palo Alto	$105.0 B	Google
  Philip Anschutz	Colorado	Denver	$10.8 B	Energy, sports, entertainment
  Ray Dalio	Connecticut	Greenwich	$19.1 B	Hedge funds
  Ken Griffin	Florida	Miami	$32.7 B	Hedge funds
  Dan Cathy, Bubba Cathy, and Trudy Cathy White	Georgia	Atlanta	$11.0 B	Chick-fil-A
  Larry Ellison	Hawaii	Lanai	$146.0 B	Oracle
  Frank VanderSloot	Idaho	Idaho Falls	$3.2 B	Nutrition, wellness products
  Lukas Walton	Illinois	Chicago	$22.9 B	Walmart
  Carl Cook	Indiana	Bloomington	$10.3 B	Medical devices
  Harry Stine	Iowa	Adel	$6.9 B	Agriculture
  Charles Koch	Kansas	Wichitia	$56.9 B	Koch Industries
  Tamara Gustavson	Kentucky	Lexington	$7.3 B	Self storage
  Gayle Benson	Louisiana	New Orleans	$4.7 B	New Orleans Saints
  Susan Alfond	Maine	Scarborough	$2.7 B	Shoes
  Annette Lerner & family	Maryland	Chevy Chase	$6.3 B	Real Estate
  Abigail Johnson	Massachusetts	Milton	$21.0 B	Fidelity
  Daniel Gilbert	Michigan	Franklin	$19.5 B	Quicken Loans
  Glen Taylor	Minnesota	Mankato	$2.6 B	Printing
  Thomas Duff & James Duff	Mississippi	Hattiesburg	$2.3 B	Tires, diversified
  John Morris	Missouri	Springfield	$8.3 B	Sporting goods retail
  Dennis Washington	Montana	Missoula	$6.4 B	Construction, mining
  Warren Buffet	Nebraska	Omaha	$117.0 B	Berkshire Hathaway
  Mirian Adelson & family	Nevada	Las Vegas	$36.2 B	Casinos
  Rick Cohen & family	New Hampshire	Keene	$18.8 B	Warehouse automation
  Rocco Commisso	New Jersey	Saddle River	$8.0 B	Telecom
  Ron Corio	New Mexico	Albuquerque	$1.7 B	Solar
  Michael Bloomberg	New York	New York City	$94.5 B	Bloomberg LP
  James Goodnight	North Carolina	Cary	$9.3 B	Software
  Gary Tharaldson	North Dakota	Fargo	$1.2 B	Hotels
  Lex Wexner & family	Ohio	New Albany	$6.0 B	Retail
  Harold Hamm & family	Oklahoma	Oklahoma City	$18.5 B	Oil & gas
  Phil Knight & family	Oregon	Hillsboro	$41.8 B	Nike
  Jeff Yass	Pennsylvania	Haverford	$28.5 B	Trading, investments
  Jonathan Nelson	Rhode Island	Providence	$3.1 B	Private equity
  Robert Faith	South Carolina	Charleston	$5.2 B	Real estate management
  T. Denny Sanford	South Dakota	Sioux Falls	$2.0 B	Banking, credit cards
  Thomas Frist Jr. & family	Tennessee	Nashville	$22.3 B	Hospitals
  Elon Musk	Texas	Austin	$230.0 B	Tesla, SpaceX
  Gail Miller	Utah	Salt Lake City	$4.2 B	Car dealerships
  John Abele	Vermont	Shelburne	$1.9 B	Healthcare
  Jacqueline Mars	Virginia	The Plains	$39.4 B	Candy, pet food
  Jeff Bezos	Washington	Medina	$149.0 B	Amazon
  John Menard Jr.	Wisconsin	Eau Claire	$18.1 B	Home improvement stores
  John Mars	Wyoming	Jackson	$39.4 B	Candy, pet food

  Many billionaires in the U.S. are extremely well-known, such as California’s Larry Page, New York’s Michael Bloomberg, or Washington state’s Jeff Bezos.

  Interestingly, Bill Gates doesn’t take the top spot as the richest billionaire in Washington because Bezos has a higher net worth—$149 billion vs. Gates’ $104 billion—although they do live in the exact same town of Medina, WA.

  Nearly every state is home to at least one billionaire, some far wealthier than others, like Nebraska’s Warren Buffett ($117 billion), compared to Alabama’s Jimmy Rane ($1.2 billion). Some new states, which gained billionaires this year include Alabama, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

  Billionaire Wealth

  The number of billionaires globally is following a different trend than the one in the U.S., declining year-over-year, and seeing billionaire wealth overall decrease by $500 billion.

  The U.S. is home to almost 30% of all the world’s billionaires and while a few like Sam Bankman-Fried and Kanye West lost their billionaire status this year, many continue to get richer. In addition to Ron Corio, New Mexico’s first ever billionaire, eight other individuals on the U.S. list gained billionaire status in the last four years.

  Finance and investments, food and beverage, fashion and retail, and technology are the top sources of wealth for U.S. billionaires, with almost 50% of them gaining their fortunes from these specific industries.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/02/2023 – 23:00

• Pentagon Extends Troop Deployment At US-Mexico Border Through September
  Pentagon Extends Troop Deployment At US-Mexico Border Through September

  Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

  The U.S. Defense Department said Thursday that it will extend the deployment of up to 400 active-duty American troops at the U.S. southern border with Mexico until at least the end of September.

  

  The Pentagon had pulled 1,100 troops from the border last month but extended the deployment of the remaining 400 soldiers.

  “On Aug. 24, 2023, the secretary of defense approved an extension of up to 400 personnel providing support to Customs and Border Protection on the southwest border through Sept. 30, 2023,” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Devin Robinson told NBC News on Sept. 1.

  Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin approved in May the deployment of 1,500 active-duty troops to the southern border for 90 days to assist border officials with a possible influx of illegal immigration at the border.

  The Pentagon said the troops will “fill critical capability gaps, such as ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support” but will not directly participate in law enforcement activities.

  The troops were intended to help back up border officials dealing with the end of Title 42, which allowed U.S. authorities to quickly expel tens of thousands of migrants from the country in the name of protecting Americans from COVID-19.

  Spike in Illegal Border Crossings

  Data released by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Aug. 18 showed that the U.S. Border Patrol recorded 132,652 encounters between ports of entry along the southwest border in July, up from 99,545 in June.

  

  Migrants seeking asylum wait for U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to allow them enter the United States at the San Ysidro crossing port on the US-Mexico border, as seen from Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico on May 31, 2023. (Guillermo Arias/AFP via Getty Images)

  According to CBP data, the U.S. Border Patrol encountered an average of 2,016 single adults per day in July alone, marking a 66 percent decrease from the 6,164 they encountered per day in the first 11 days of May.

  “CBP’s message for anyone who is thinking of entering the United States without authorization or illegally along the southwest border is simple: don’t do it. When noncitizens cross the border unlawfully, they put their lives in peril,” it stated.

  CBP One App

  The latest numbers also reflect a sharp increase in use of the CBP One mobile app through which up to 1,450 migrants can get appointments at land crossings with Mexico to seek asylum. CBP processed more than 44,700 individuals with CBP One appointments at ports of entry in July.

  CBP One is for people of any nationality in central and northern Mexico entering the United States by land and seeking asylum or humanitarian parole.

  Migrants must book an appointment through the app and show up to the appointment at U.S. ports of entry. If they don’t have an appointment, they would be turned away.

  Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) said on July 26 at the House Judiciary Committee hearing that the influx of people at the border has not decreased, noting that the CBP One app “allows migrants to bypass the southern border and enter directly in the United States’ ports of entry.”

  “Instead of bringing them to the southern border, you’re bringing them directly to ports of entry,” Mr. McClintock said.

  

  Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton makes a statement at his office in Austin, Texas, on May 26, 2023. (Eric Gay/AP Photo)

  Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Biden Administration on May 23 to challenge a rule that encourages illegal immigrants to use CBP One app to seek entry into the United States.

  Mr. Paxton said the app encourages illegal immigration to the United States because it “cannot verify that an illegal immigrant would qualify for an exception, which would prevent them from being deported.”

  “The Biden Administration deliberately conceived of this phone app with the goal of illegally pre-approving more foreign aliens to enter the country and go where they please once they arrive,” he said in a press release.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/02/2023 – 22:30

• Where Smoking Breaks The Bank (& Where It Doesn't)
  Where Smoking Breaks The Bank (& Where It Doesn’t)

  Australia is the world’s most expensive country in which to be a smoker, with one pack alone tearing a hole of almost US$26 in an Australian smoker’s wallet. Australia’s neighbor New Zealand is almost as pricey with a 20 pack of Marlboros costing upwards of US$22. The third most expensive country in the ranking was Ireland, where the identical pack costs the equivalent of more than US$16, according to Numbeo.

  As Katharina Buchholz reports, the most expensive countries for smokers stayed the same since 2019, with the Norway and the UK rounding off the top 5.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  France – known to be a nation not opposed to smoking – has also upped its prices from $8.88 in 2019 to $11.70 in 2021 and is now contemplating raising prices again.

  Cigarette prices in the U.S. have been rising more slowly – from $7.43 a pack in 2019 to $8.00 a pack in 2021 and $9.00 in 2023.

  Australia’s, as well as New Zealand’s smokers, are probably jealously eyeing Turkish people’s smoking expenses.

  There, they could get almost an entire pack of cancer sticks for the price of one, meaning that Australians pay about as much for a single smoke as people in Turkey do for a whole pack.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/02/2023 – 22:00

• San Francisco Records More Than A Dozen Suspected Overdose Deaths In One Day
  San Francisco Records More Than A Dozen Suspected Overdose Deaths In One Day

  Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times,

  Videos from San Francisco posted on social media Aug. 30 show morgue vans loading bodies amid scenes of widespread addiction, with people folded up and contorted in unnatural positions in what many describe as dystopian settings on the streets of downtown.

  

  Posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, repeatedly shared by locals indicated that as many as 18 overdose deaths took place in San Francisco throughout the day, but a spokesperson for the chief medical examiner’s office told The Epoch Times by email Aug. 31 that 13 deaths occurred and are currently under investigation.

  “Today, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner initiated examinations on 13 cases received within the past twenty-four hours,” the spokesperson wrote.

  “The case and manner of death for these decedents remain under review.”

  No toxicology results are yet available, and the examiner’s office had no further comment.

  Approximately 2,500 people have died from overdose in San Francisco since 2020, according to medical examiner statistics (pdf) including the first seven months of 2023.

  More than 81 percent of such cases revealed fentanyl during toxicology testing.

  While deaths dipped slightly last year, numbers are now on the rise and on pace to set a record, as more than 500 have occurred in the city so far, with 71 accidental overdose deaths in July alone, according to the medical examiner’s data.

  Overdose locations are spread throughout the city and concentrated in certain areas, based on medical examiner records.

  Known for high crime and open-air drug markets, the Tenderloin accounts for approximately 18 percent of deaths, with the SOMA area, which is short for South of Market located blocks from Union Square, and Polk/Russian Hill—known for curvy, picturesque Lombard Street—each accounting for 20 percent.

  

  Homeless people gather near drug dealers in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco on Feb. 22, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

  Fentanyl is responsible for the majority of deaths this year, according to testing results released by the medical examiner.

  Odorless, tasteless, and highly toxic, the insidious nature by which fentanyl poisonings occur in unsuspecting victims is leading to rising numbers of overdose deaths, according to experts.

  New synthetic analogs—drugs that are similar chemically but not identical to fentanyl— and other tranquilizers including Xylazine and Isotonitazine further complicate matters, as they are resistant to opioid reversal medications like naloxone, better known as Narcan. Xylazine is responsible for at least 16 deaths in San Francisco in 2023, according to the report, and isotonitazine is reportedly 20 times stronger than fentanyl, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.

  Victim advocates and family members of those lost to addiction wrote thousands of names in chalk on the sidewalk outside City Hall that night, as the deaths occurred one day before San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston held a gathering to bring attention to International Overdose Awareness Day on Aug. 31.

  “Overdoses are at crisis levels,” Mr. Preston wrote on X the same day.

  “Today & every day, I’ll continue to work to ensure our city is using every evidence-based tool at our disposal—including overdose prevention, treatment on demand, recovery resources—to reduce overdoses [and] save lives.”

  Supervisors have faced scrutiny on social media, as concerned residents express disappointment in the public safety issues plaguing the city, and many questioned Mr. Preston’s post with comments about perceived policy failures.

  

  A drug user displays fentanyl in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco on Feb. 23, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

  At the drug awareness gathering, one advocate for harm reduction—which focuses on education and overdose prevention as opposed to prosecution—was pictured at the event waving a sign declaring “Downtown is for drug users,” and another wore a “police are terrorists” shirt.

  Responsible for nearly 6,000 deaths a year in California, as of the latest statistics from the Department of Public Health covering 2021, fentanyl is drawing attention from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

  Bipartisan bills seeking to increase penalties for fentanyl distribution were met with resistance in the Legislature, with members of public safety committees in both houses voicing preference for rehabilitation and overdose prevention.

  Some lawmakers voiced reluctance to advance any proposals that include punitive measures, including incarceration, arguing that doing so would be extending the “failed War on Drugs.” Subsequently, eight of nine such bills were killed earlier this year.

  California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in May a joint operation between California Highway Patrol and the National Guard to disrupt fentanyl distribution in San Francisco.

  Since then, hundreds of arrests have been made and enough fentanyl seized in two neighborhoods—56 kilograms—to kill nearly the state’s entire population, according to San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s office released Sept. 1.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/02/2023 – 21:30

• These Are The Highest-Earning Creators Of The Internet Content Machine
  These Are The Highest-Earning Creators Of The Internet Content Machine

  At the 2023 Streamy Awards which aired Sunday night on YouTube, content creator MrBeast aka Jimmy Donaldson won the main category Creator of the Year as well as the award for Best Collaboration (with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson). The 25-year-old who grew up in North Carolina was the only winner taking home multiple awards, showing the resounding success he has had with his YouTube channel focused on over-the-top challenges (and the occasional grand gesture).

  As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, the latest release of Forbes’ list of the most successful internet creators lists Donaldson as the highest-earning of them all – at a yearly gross of $54 million. The MrBeast channel was also the second-most followed on YouTube as of August 2023 – up from rank 4 at the beginning of the year. In this time span, Donaldson has attracted attention for paying for operations making 1,000 blind people see and 1,000 deaf people hear.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  YouTubers generally ranked high among the best-paid content creators. One aspect of this is sponsored posts as well as ads earning more if they are in a video format. According to Forbes, Donaldson is in fact capitalizing on this aspect. However, many creators who have earned millions as social media personalities have done so by outside business deals. Third-ranked Jake Paul who started out as a comedy and music creator on Vine and later YouTube has pivoted to boxing and merchandise sales. Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal of channel Rhett & Link have branched out from YouTube sketch comedy and other entertainment content to live appearances and merch sales. Mark Edward Fischbach, known as Markiplier on YouTube, initially uploaded gaming videos, but now also earns most of his cash with, again, merch sales as well as podcast and TV deals.

  Elliot Tebele might have come the longest way from posting memes on Tumblr to running a media company that includes notable Instagram accounts like FuckJerry, TV productions, consulting and even board games. Jerry Media has worked or is working with notables like Michael Bloomberg (during his 2020 presidential run), Seth Phillips (“Dude With Sign”) and the Instagram egg. Tebele’s brand Jaja Tequila is also bringing in money.

  The highest-earning female content creator (at least in 2021) was Danielle Bregoli aka Bhad Bhabie, making her millions on OnlyFans – a platform with a straightforward monetizing strategy. The 20-year-old actually started out as a meme herself, after a video clip and pictures of her 2016 appearance on TV show Dr. Phil went viral and made her the Cash-me-outside girl at just 13 years old. Bregoli built a sizable music career in the years that followed and has been cashing out on OnlyFans since turning 18 in March 2021. Alexandra Cooper of the Call Her Daddy podcast and TikTok’s biggest name Charli D’Amelio also make the top 10.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/02/2023 – 21:00

• Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds Tries To Scrub Her Lockdown Record
  Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds Tries To Scrub Her Lockdown Record

  Authored by Kathleen Sheridan via The Brownstone Institute,

  It seems that everyone is running from the lockdowns they once supported, and that includes former presidents and governors, and probably mayors too. Apologies would be better so we can at least have an honest accounting rather than an attempt to rewrite the history that everyone knows. 

  

  Jack Phillips of Epoch Times alerts readers in his article of August 31, 2023, of Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds’ recent statement on the subject of lockdowns. The Iowa State Government’s website says the following:

  “Since news broke of COVID-19 restrictions being reinstated at some colleges and businesses across the U.S., concerned Iowans have been calling my office asking whether the same could happen here. My answer—not on my watch. In Iowa, government respects the people it serves and fights to protect their rights. I rejected the mandates and lockdowns of 2020, and my position has not changed.” 

  Governor Reynolds “rejected” the mandates and lockdowns of 2020?

  She did?

  Her position has remained the same? It has?

  Could it be the Governor has forgotten her “orders?” On March 17, 2020, Governor Reynolds issued her first “Public Health Disaster Emergency.” Following her long list of “whereas’s,” she ordered the following:

  • Restaurants and bars: Closed to the “general public”

  • Fitness centers/health clubs, spas, aquatic centers: Closed

  • Theaters/performance centers: Closed

  • Casinos/gaming facilities: Closed

  • Churches: Closed

  • Social, community, spiritual, religious, recreational, leisure, and sporting gatherings and events of more than 10 people, including but not limited to parades, festivals, conventions, and fundraisers: Prohibited. 

  • Senior citizen and adult daycare centers: Closed

  • Salons/barber shops: Closed

  A few weeks later on April 6, 2020, she doubled down. In this second proclamation, the Governor extended the timeline and expanded what she now says she “rejected.” To add insult, she also formally called on law enforcement to “assist in the enforcement of these ‘mitigation efforts’.”

  To wit: 

  “To encourage further social distancing and mitigation efforts, the proclamation orders additional closures effective at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, April 7th until Thursday, April 30th”: (Highlight and underline added)

  • Malls 

  • Tobacco or vaping stores

  • Toy, gaming, music, instrument, movie, or adult entertainment stores

  • Social and fraternal clubs, including those at golf courses

  • Bingo halls, bowling alleys, pool halls, arcades, and amusement parks

  • Museums, libraries, aquariums, and zoos

  • Race tracks and speedway.

  • Roller or ice skating rinks and skate parks

  • Outdoor or indoor playgrounds or children’s play centers

  • Campgrounds

  Should we afford the Governor the benefit of the doubt? That she “rejected” “mandates and lockdowns” all the way through Mar 16, 2020? Then changed her mind? Hence, rejecting them before implementing them? 

  Should we resist the impulse to accrue to the Governor a little bit of gaslighting in her August 30, 2023 statement? Will she insist that businesses she ordered closed and the behaviors she prohibited* – to be enforced by law enforcement – weren’t “mandated” “lockdowns?” That they were instead “mitigation efforts” as spelled out in her “orders?” That all this merely carried the weight of suggestion? This…so that she can now say that she “rejected” mandates and lockdowns? 

  At best – at best – this PR stunt strains credulity. Especially when simple searches can recall those pesky things called facts. On the record.

  At worst? At worst, why, some might suggest it describes a woman whose actual status rhymes with “fire.” 

  Maybe the Governor needs a chance to explain herself, including her definition of “rejected.” I can just hear her now: “I did reject the lockdowns before I didn’t.” I daresay that would make for some really great reading. 

  In the meantime, some of us who rejected all the unlawful nonsense, who were never fooled by any of these fools, who never cooperated and gave up all – remain unfooled – even when the likes of a Kim Reynolds attempts to rewrite history. 

  I have attached both of Governor Reynolds’ “mitigation effort” orders.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/02/2023 – 20:30

• Burger King Must Defend Misleading Whopper Lawsuit, Judge Rules
  Burger King Must Defend Misleading Whopper Lawsuit, Judge Rules

  Fast food chain Burger King finds itself in a flame-broiled fiasco.

  A U.S. judge ruled this week that a lawsuit alleging the company cheated its customers by misrepresenting the size of its Whopper sandwiches, would not be dismissed, per the chain’s request. 

  The ruling came from U.S. District Judge Roy Altman in Miami, Reuters reported this week. The lawsuit alleges that Whopper sandwiches on menu boards in stores mislead customers, creating a breach of contract. The suit is also pursuing negligence-based and unjust enrichment claims, Reuters reports. 

  The class action lawsuit alleges that the burgers appear 35% larger on menu boards, with ingredients that “overflow over the bun”. The suit also alleges that the burgers on the menu boards have “more than double” the meat that the chain actually serves. 

  

  In its response the fast food chain argued that it didn’t need to serve up food that looked “exactly like the picture”. Altman, however, ultimately decided that it would be up to a jury to “tell us what reasonable people think.”

  In a statement, Burger King said: “The plaintiffs’ claims are false. The flame-grilled beef patties portrayed in our advertising are the same patties used in the millions of Whopper sandwiches we serve to guests nationwide.”

  For those looking to follow along with the action at home, the docket is “Coleman et al v Burger King Corp, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, No. 22-20925”.

  In Brooklyn, New York federal court, both McDonald’s and Wendy’s face similar suits, Reuters noted. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/02/2023 – 20:00

• There Is No Fed Magic Trick To Achieve A Soft Landing
  There Is No Fed Magic Trick To Achieve A Soft Landing

  Authored by Mihai Macovei via The Mises Institute,

  Economic growth in the United States accelerated to a 2.4 percent annualized rate in the second quarter of 2023, picking up from 2.0 percent in the first quarter, and climbing well above the 1.8 percent rate predicted by economists. Many analysts are surprised that the US economy has continued to expand at a robust pace despite the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) aggressive tightening on monetary policy.

  

  The Fed raised interest rates by more than 500 basis points (bps) since March 2022. And yet, the labor market remains tight with a very low unemployment rate at 3.6 percent while the Standard and Poor 500 stock index is up almost 20.0 percent since the beginning of the year. Economists are optimistic that the Fed could deliver a soft landing by reducing inflation close to the 2.0 percent target while avoiding a recession. But will the Fed’s magic really work?

  Insufficient Monetary Tightening

  Since the financial crisis of 2008, the Fed had followed an “easy money” policy, but during the pandemic, the Fed leaned even further into this stance. As Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation accelerated toward 5.0 percent, Fed Chair Jerome Powell belatedly admitted that inflation wasn’t transitory and shifted course. In March 2022, the Fed started raising interest rates but could not prevent inflation from surging to a peak of 9.1 percent in June 2022.

  In 2022, it became apparent that the Fed’s tightening on monetary policy was not hawkish enough and that it was more concerned with avoiding a recession and instability of the financial sector. The interest rate hikes were piecemeal, and largely insufficient, as the real interest rate (the difference between the federal funds rate and the inflation rate) remained negative until April 2023 (figure 1).

  The current positive real interest rate of about 2.0 percent is still rather low by historical standards and likely continues to artificially stimulate growth. Headline CPI inflation, helped by declining energy prices, may have decelerated to 3.1 percent in June but remains above the Fed’s 2.0 percent target. Moreover, core inflation—which excludes volatile food and energy prices—was at a sticky 4.8 percent in June as wage increases sustained strong consumer spending and second-round inflationary effects.

  Figure 1: Federal funds rate and CPI

  

  Source: Data from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

  Most important, the Fed cannot rely only on interest rate hikes to tighten monetary policy. It needs to also shrink its balance sheet via quantitative tightening (QT) to reverse its previous quantitative easing, a policy of massive purchases of Treasury and mortgage-backed securities to boost commercial banks’ reserves and liquidity while lowering longer-term interest rates. Quantitative easing made the Fed’s balance sheet explode to a whopping $9 trillion, as of May 2022 (figure 2), and analysts agree that by reducing bank reserves, QT should exert upward pressure on interest rates while curtailing lending.

  Figure 2: Total Fed assets (millions)

  

  Source: Data from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

  In June 2022, the Fed started implementing its QT policy by shedding its holdings of US Treasuries and mortgaged-backed securities at a rate of $95 billion per month. But this process was undermined by the need to provide liquidity to the banking sector after banks, such as the Silicon Valley Bank, experienced hefty deposit runs. As a result, the Fed’s balance sheet declined by around $600 billion (or about 8.0 percent) from its peak to about $8.3 trillion by the end of July 2023, although the volume of held securities outright dropped by about $900 billion over the same period.

  Still Abundant Bank Reserves

  Some analysts claim that the Fed can use QT while also providing additional liquidity to select banks in distress (i.e., have its cake and eat it too). This is obviously not true. The main purpose of QT is to withdraw bank reserves via asset sales to reduce the banks’ lending capacity. But what we see is that bank reserves remained at historically high levels (figure 3) despite the Fed’s attempts at monetary tightening. Since the Fed’s Board of Governors reduced reserve requirement ratios on net transaction accounts to 0.0 percent as of March 2020, these reserves are de facto excess reserves on top of which banks can multiply credit. This means that banks still have ample room to lend even if the Fed has hiked the federal funds rate, which may also explain the uneven rise of loan interest rates and resilience of credit activity.

  Figure 3: Total bank reserves

  

  Source: Data from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

  Impact on Interest Rates and Credit

  Market interest rates went up since the Fed started its monetary tightening (but not proportionally), reflecting lending maturities and other credit market specificities. The Fed hiked the federal funds rate by 525 bps between March 2022 and July 2023. The bank prime loan rate, which is one of several base rates used by banks to price short-term business loans, mirrored the increase in the Fed’s key rate almost one to one (figure 4).

  On the other hand, although longer-term ten-year US Treasury yields rose above 4.0 percent, they went up by less than 200 bps over the same period. The same goes for other bank loan interest rates such as five-year car loans (which went up on average by 330 bps until May 2023), two-year personal loans (which increased by 210 bps), and fifteen- and thirty-year fixed mortgage rates (which rose by close to 300 bps).

  Figure 4: Market interest rates

  

  Source: Data on the bank prime loan rate, the federal funds rate, the ten-year Treasury yield, and the finance rate on new auto loans from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

  This shows that a majority of large and well-capitalized US banks increased loan interest rates much less than the Fed while also paying close to zero interest rates on bank deposits. They can afford it because they have plenty of reserves and liquidity, which the Fed did not mop up, and they continue to lend to the economy. Although the annual growth in total bank credit decelerated from close to 7.0 percent in 2022 to −0.9 percent in the second quarter of 2023, it was primarily driven by the decline in credit to the government, or investment in Treasury securities. At the same time, consumer and real estate loans grew annually by more than 6.0 percent and 5.0 percent respectively in the second quarter of 2023, while commercial and industrial loans recorded a small dip and remained flat in the first half of 2023 (figure 5). As lending to the private sector remained positive, it is unsurprising that economic output also continued to expand.

  Figure 5: Private sector credit

  

  Source: Data on consumer loans, real estate loans, and commercial and industrial loans from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

  Conclusion

  The Fed’s magic trick to achieve a soft landing while aggressively tackling inflation is only smoke and mirrors. The Fed’s piecemeal interest rate hikes were not only insufficient to slow the economy down, but they also received very little support from quantitative tightening (i.e., the withdrawal of the liquidity that was previously injected into the system). Left with plenty of reserves, banks helped the economy to grow by continuing to lend while also refraining from increasing lending rates as much as the Fed. As a result, taming inflation is not yet a done deal, as core inflation remains sticky and well above the Fed’s target.

  The money supply shrinkage signals economic trouble ahead when the monetary overhang is likely to be worked out in earnest. The Fed’s dovishness has just pushed forward a day of reckoning. Moreover, a steady deterioration of fiscal deficits alongside Gargantuan public projects to boost domestic demand and spur high-tech green infrastructure investment magnify recession risks as the Fed may be forced to further tighten to reduce inflation pressures. Fitch’s recent downgrade of the US’s long-term credit rating over rising public debt and deterioration of governance is just another confirmation that macroeconomic policies have been unsound for too long.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/02/2023 – 19:30

• Civil Unrest Fears Grow As Youth Unemployment Accelerates
  Civil Unrest Fears Grow As Youth Unemployment Accelerates

  In nearly every country in the world, youth unemployment is much higher than general unemployment.

  Unfortunately, the pandemic only exacerbated matters. During a crucial stretch of their early careers, young adults were locked out of entry-level jobs, destroying their ability to pick up work experience and potentially impacting their long-term earnings.

  Now, nearly three years after COVID-19 first hit, young adults from some countries, like China, are struggling to find jobs. Using data from the OECD and the National Bureau of Statistics of China, Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao and Niccolo Conte chart out the youth unemployment rate for 37 countries.

  

  Ranked: Countries With the Highest Youth Unemployment

  At the top of the list, Spain has the highest youth unemployment in the OECD, with nearly one in three young adults unable to find a job.

  ℹ️ Unemployed people are those who report that they are without work, are available for work, and have taken active steps to find work in the last four weeks. The youth unemployment rate is calculated as a percentage of the youth labor force.

  A mismatch between educational qualifications and the labor market has been cited as a significant reason for Spain’s lack of employed adults between the ages of 15–24.

  Meanwhile, the country’s reliance on temporary contracts and dependence on seasonal sectors—like tourism—to generate jobs are some of the many reasons for its persistently high reported unemployment across demographic groups.

  Listed below is the youth unemployment rate for all the OECD countries, and China, as of the second quarter of 2023.

  Rank	Country	Average Youth Unemployment Rate
  1	🇪🇸 Spain	27.4%
  2	🇨🇷 Costa Rica	27.1%
  3	🇸🇪 Sweden	24.9%
  4	🇬🇷 Greece	23.6%
  5	🇨🇳 China	21.3%
  6	🇮🇹 Italy	21.3%
  7	🇨🇱 Chile	19.8%
  8	🇱🇺 Luxembourg	19.6%
  9	🇸🇰 Slovakia	18.8%
  10	🇨🇴 Colombia	18.7%
  11	🇵🇹 Portugal	17.2%
  12	🇹🇷 Türkiye	17.0%
  13	🇫🇷 France	16.9%
  14	🇫🇮 Finland	15.8%
  15	🇪🇪 Estonia	15.6%
  16	🇧🇪 Belgium	13.9%
  17	🇱🇹 Lithuania	13.8%
  18	🇨🇿 Czech Republic	13.7%
  19	🇭🇺 Hungary	13.3%
  20	🇬🇧 United Kingdom	11.4%
  21	🇱🇻 Latvia	11.0%
  22	🇵🇱 Poland	10.3%
  23	🇳🇴 Norway	10.2%
  24	🇨🇦 Canada	10.2%
  25	🇦🇹 Austria	9.6%
  26	🇩🇰 Denmark	9.3%
  27	🇳🇱 Netherlands	8.3%
  28	🇺🇸 United States	8.0%
  29	🇦🇺 Australia	7.8%
  30	🇮🇪 Ireland	7.4%
  31	🇮🇸 Iceland	7.3%
  32	🇩🇪 Germany	6.1%
  33	🇸🇮 Slovenia	5.6%
  34	🇰🇷 Korea	5.4%
  35	🇮🇱 Israel	5.3%
  36	🇲🇽 Mexico	5.2%
  37	🇯🇵 Japan	4.2%

  Announced in June, China’s youth unemployment rate has climbed to 21.3%, a meteoric rise since May 2018, when it was below 10%. The Chinese economy is in the midst of a slowdown and its steadily climbing youth unemployment prompted the government to suspend age-specific unemployment data for the near future.

  On the other side of the spectrum, in Japan, only 4.2% of young adults are without a job. A key reason for this is Japan’s shrinking and aging population that’s made for a tight labor market.

  Youth Unemployment: Men vs Women

  In most OECD countries, it’s common to see young men experiencing a higher unemployment rate compared to young women.

  This contrasts with the trend across all age groups in the OECD, where the unemployment rate is 6.3% for women and 6% for men.

  We visualize the countries in the dataset with the biggest gaps in youth unemployment below.

  

  There is no singular reason that explains this common gap.

  Across the OECD, more young women opt for tertiary education than young men, which may lead to better employment prospects. At the same time women are overrepresented in the health and social welfare sectors—both growing rapidly thanks to an aging population—that may make it easier for them to find jobs.

  Why Does Tracking Youth Unemployment Matter?

  Aside from being an indicator of general opportunities within a country, youth unemployment is a key metric to track, because it can be a bellwether for future economic prospects.

  High rates of youth unemployment also correlate to brain drain within a country, as young adults move elsewhere to find better jobs.

  Finally, large increases in unemployed youth have historically led to the potential of civil unrest, which makes it a politically-charged metric to identify and monitor for governments.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/02/2023 – 19:00

• A World Running On Empty: The Decline Of Fossil Fuel Supply
  A World Running On Empty: The Decline Of Fossil Fuel Supply

  Authored by Gail Tverberg via Our Finite World blog,

  • Analysis of 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy data shows constrained global supplies of fossil fuels like oil, coal, and natural gas, particularly in inter-regional trading.

  • Constraints in supply are affecting energy prices, making them highly variable and less affordable for consumers, thereby affecting the global economy, including industries like manufacturing.

  • The cost-intensive infrastructure needed for long-distance natural gas exports is becoming increasingly unsustainable, posing risks to both investors and consumers.

  For many years, there has been a theory that imports of oil would become a problem before there was an overall shortage of fossil fuels. In fact, when I look at the data, it seems to be clear that oil imports are already constrained.

  

  Figure 1. Interregional trade of fossil fuels based on data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

  As I look at the data, it appears to me that coal and natural gas imports are becoming constrained, as well. There was evidence of this constrained supply in the spiking prices for these fuels in Europe in late 2021 and early 2022, starting well before the Ukraine conflict began.

  Oil, coal, and natural gas are different enough from each other that we should expect somewhat different patterns. Oil is inexpensive to transport. It is especially important for the production of food and for transportation. Prices tend to be worldwide prices.

  Coal and natural gas are both more expensive to transport than oil. They tend to be used in industry, in the heating and cooling of buildings, and in electricity production. Their prices tend to be local prices, rather than the worldwide price we expect for oil. Prices for importers of these fuels can jump very high if there are shortages.

  In this post, I first look at the trends in the overall supply of these fuels, since a big part of the import problem is fossil fuel supply not growing quickly enough to keep pace with world population growth. I also give more background how the three fossil fuels differ.

  After this introductory material, I provide charts and some analysis of fossil fuel imports and exports by region, based on data from the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy. Theoretically, the total of regional imports should be very close to the total of regional exports. This analysis gives a little more insight into what is going wrong and where.

  [1] On a worldwide basis, total supplies of both oil and coal seem to be constrained.

  

  Figure 2. World consumption of oil, coal, and natural gas based on data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

  Figure 2 shows that world supplies of all three fossil fuels follow the same general pattern: They tend to rise in close to parallel lines, with oil supply on top, coal next, and natural gas providing the least supply.

  The total supply of fossil fuels needs to be shared by the world’s population. It therefore makes sense to look at supply on a per capita basis.

  

  Figure 3. World per capita consumption of oil, coal, and natural gas, based on data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

  On Figure 3, the top line, oil supply per capita, is almost perfectly level, suggesting that having a greater supply of oil enables having a larger world population. This relationship makes sense because oil is used to a significant extent in growing today’s food, and shipping it to market. Oil products also make herbicides, insecticides, and drugs for animals that enable the growing supply of food needed to feed today’s population. Oil products are also helpful in road making, and in providing lubrication for machinery of all kinds.

  We might conclude that oil supply is essential to the growth of human population. It is only by way of a huge change in the economy, such as the one that took place in 2020, that there is a big dip in oil usage. Even now, some of the changes are “sticking.” Some people are continuing to work from home. Business travel is still low. People are still not buying fancy clothing as much as before 2020. All these things help reduce fossil fuel usage, particularly oil usage.

  Figure 3 also shows that on a per capita basis, coal supply has fallen by 9% since its peak in 2011. This fact, plus the fact that coal prices have been spiking around the world in recent years, leads me to believe that coal supply is already constrained, even apart from the export issue.

  [2] The share of oil traded interregionally is more than double the share of coal or natural gas traded interregionally.

  The reason why oil is disproportionately high in Figure 1 compared to Figure 2 is because a little over 40% of oil is shipped between regions. In comparison, only about 18% of coal production is traded with other regions, and about 17% of natural gas production is shipped interregionally. Oil is much easier (and cheaper) to transport between regions than either coal or natural gas. Shipping costs tend to escalate rapidly, the farther either natural gas or coal is shipped.

  Natural gas has a second problem over and above the high cost of shipping: It requires storage (which may be high cost) if it is not used immediately. Storage is needed for both natural gas and coal because both fuels are often used for heat in winter, either by direct burning or by creating electricity that can be used to heat buildings. Storage for coal is close to free because it can be stored in piles outside.

  Besides heat in winter, coal is also used to provide electricity for air conditioning in summer, so its demand curve has peaks in both summer and winter. Natural gas is much more of a winter-heat fuel in the US, so it has a large peak corresponding to winter usage (Figure 4).

  

  Figure 4. Coal and natural gas consumption by month based on data of the US Energy Information Administration.

  Storage for natural gas needs to be available in every area where users expect to use it for winter heat. The cost of this storage will be low if there are depleted natural gas caverns that can be used for storage. It is likely to be high if above ground storage is required. Natural gas importing areas often do not have suitable caverns for storage. The easy approach is to try to get by with a bare minimum of storage, and hope that imports can somehow make up the difference.

  The big question for any fuel is, “Can consumers afford to pay a high enough price to cover all the costs involved in getting the fuel from endpoint to endpoint, at the time it is needed?“

  Citizens become very unhappy if the cost of winter heat becomes extremely expensive. They demand subsidies and rebates from the government, in order to keep costs down. This is a sign that prices are too high for the consumer.

  Both coal and natural gas are also heavily used in manufacturing. Their prices vary greatly from location to location and from time to time. If coal or natural gas prices rise in a particular location, the cost of manufactured goods from that location will also tend to rise. These higher prices will particularly hurt a manufacturing country, such as Germany, because its manufactured goods will become less competitive in the world marketplace. GDP growth will be reduced, and the profitably of manufacturers will tend to fall.

  Because of these issues, long-distance trade in both coal and natural gas tend to hit barriers that may be difficult to see simply by looking at the trend in world production.

  [3] Natural gas exports may already be becoming constrained, even though the total amount extracted still seems to be rising.

  A huge amount of investment is needed to make long-distance sale of natural gas possible. Such investment includes:

  • The cost of developing a natural gas field for export use, usually over many years.

  • Pipelines covering every inch traveled by the natural gas, other than any portion of the trip for which transfer as liquefied natural gas (LNG) is planned.

  • Special ships to transport the LNG.

  • Facilities to chill natural gas, so it can be shipped overseas as LNG.

  • Regasification plants, to make the natural gas ready to ship by pipeline after it has been transferred as LNG.

  • Storage facilities, so that sufficient natural gas is available for winter.

  Not all of these investments are made by the same organizations. They all need to provide an adequate return. Even if “only” very long-distance pipelines are used, the cost can be high.

  Pipelines work best when there is no conflict among countries. They can be blown up by another country that seeks to raise natural gas prices, or that wants to retaliate for some perceived misdeed. For this reason, most growth in natural gas exports/imports in recent years has been as LNG.

  Organizations investing in high-cost infrastructure for extracting and shipping natural gas would like long-term contracts at high prices in order to cover their costs. Without a stable long-term supply contract, natural gas purchase prices can be extremely variable. Japan has tended to buy LNG under such long-term contracts, but many other countries have taken a wait-and-see attitude toward prices, hoping that “spot” prices will be lower. They don’t want to lock themselves into a long-term high-priced contract.

  There are two different things that tend to go wrong:

  • Spot prices bounce up above even what the long-term contract price would have been, creating a huge high-price problem for consumers.

  • Spot prices, on average, turn out to be too low for natural gas exporters. As a result, they cut back on investment, so that the amount of future exports can be expected to fall.

  I believe that there is a significant chance that natural gas exports are now reaching a situation where prices cannot please all users simultaneously. Not all investors can get an adequate return on the huge investments that they have made in advance. Some investments that should have been made will be omitted. For example, there might be enough natural gas storage for a warm winter, but not for a very cold winter in Europe.

  A prime characteristic of a fossil fuel (or any resource) that is not economic to extract is that the industry has difficulty paying its workers an adequate wage. Recently, there has been news about a union strike against Chevron at an Australian natural gas extraction site used to provide gas for liquefied natural gas (LNG) export. This suggests that natural gas may already be hitting long-distance export limits. Prices can’t stay high enough for producers to pay their workers an adequate wage.

  [4] Oil imports by area suggest that the rapidly growing manufacturing parts of the world are squeezing out the imports desired by high-wage, service-oriented countries.

  Because oil is so important in international trade, I looked at the amounts two ways. The first is based on trade flows, as reported by the Energy Institute:

  

  Figure 5. Oil imports by area based on the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

  The second is based upon a comparison of reported production and consumption for the same year, using the assumption that if consumption is higher than production, the difference must be attributable to imported oil. The problem with this later approach is that it can easily be distorted by changes in inventory levels. There may also be difficulties with my approach of netting out flows in two different directions, especially if the flows are partly of crude oil and partly of “oil products” of various types.

  

  Figure 6. Oil imports based on production and consumption data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute. Amounts adjusted to include “Refinery Gain,” as reported by the US Energy Information Administration.

  In both charts, imports for China, India, and Other Asia Pacific are clearly much higher in recent years, while imports for the US, Japan, and Europe are down. The peak year for imports (in total) was about 2016 or 2017. Imports were about 3.5 million barrels a day lower in 2022, compared to peak, with both approaches.

  [5] Oil imports by area indicate that nearly all oil exporters around the globe are having difficulty maintaining export levels.

  Here, again I show two indications, using the same methods as for oil imports. Since trade is two sided, I would expect total import indications to more or less equal the total of all amounts exported.

  

  Figure 7. Oil exports by area using trade flows based on data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

  On Figure 7, peak oil exports (in total) occur in 2016, with the runner up year being 2017. US oil exports are shown to be nearly zero, even in recent years, because US imports and US oil exports more or less cancel out.

  

  Figure 8. Oil exports based on production and consumption data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute. Amounts adjusted to include “Refinery Gain,” as reported by the US Energy Information Administration.

  The indications of Figure 8 show that apart from Canada, the amount of oil exported for all the other export groupings shown is lower in recent years than it was a few years ago. This is also evident in Figure 7, but not as clearly.

  To some extent, the lower production in recent years is related to the cutbacks announced by OPEC+ (including what I call Russia+). While these cutbacks are “voluntary,” they reflect the fact that based on current oil prices, and based on investments made in recent years, these countries have made the decision to cut back production. No oil exporter would dare mention that it is running short of oil that can be extracted without considerably more investment.

  On Figures 7 and 8, “Mexico+South” refers to all the oil being produced from Mexico southward. Besides Mexico, this includes Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Columbia, Ecuador, and a number of other small producers. Most of them are experiencing falling production. Brazil is doing a bit better, but it does not seem to be experiencing much growth in exports.

  Africa’s peak year for oil exports seems to have been in 2007 (both approaches), with recent exports at a much lower level.

  With respect to Russia+, its exports seem to be down from their peak in 2017 or 2018, but not any more than for oil producers from the Middle East. The European Union oil embargo doesn’t seem to have had much of an impact.

  The star performer seems to be Canada, with its rising production and exports from the Canadian Oil Sands.

  In this analysis, I have “netted out” imports and exports. On this basis, the US hasn’t moved into significant oil exporter status yet. I am sure that there are some people hoping that the oil production of the US will continue to increase, but whether this will happen is unclear. The growth of US oil production in recent years has helped offset (and thus hide from view) the falling exports of many countries around the world.

  [6] Coal exports appear to have peaked about 2016. Europe has reduced its imports of coal, leaving more for other importers.

  

  Figure 9. Coal imports by area using trade flows based on data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

  The peak in coal imports seems to have occurred about 2016. In particular, Europe’s imports of coal have fallen significantly since 2006. At the same time, coal imports have risen for many Asian countries, including China, India, South Korea, and Other Asia Pacific. Even Japan seems to have been able to obtain a fairly consistent level of coal imports for the 22-year period shown on Figure 9.

  

  Figure 10. Coal exports by area based on trade flow data from the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

  One thing that is striking about coal exports is that they are disproportionately from countries in the Far East. Even the coal exports of the US and Canada are from North America’s West Coast, across the Pacific. Russia’s coal exports tend to be from Siberia.

  The coal exports of South Africa have declined significantly since 2018, and other African countries are eager for their imports. Today’s largest source of coal exports is Indonesia. Coal exports from Russia+, at least until 2021, have been been a source of coal export growth.

  A major share of the delivered price of coal is transportation cost, which tends to be fueled by oil, particularly diesel. Overland transit is particularly expensive. The real reason for Europe’s decline in coal imports since 2006 (shown in Figure 9) may be that there are practically no affordable coal exports available to it because it is too geographically remote from major exporters. Of course, this is not a story politicians care to tell voters. They prefer to spin the story as Europe’s choice, to prevent climate change.

  [7] Natural gas imports and exports have only recently started to become constrained.

  

  Figure 11. Natural gas exports by area based primarily upon production and consumption data from the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

  Figure 11 shows that natural gas exports from Russia+ (really Russia, with a little extra production from other countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States) have stayed fairly level, except for a big drop-off in 2009 (probably recession related) and in 2022.

  The overall level of natural gas exports has been rising because of contributions from several parts of the world. Africa was an early producer of natural gas exports, but its exports have been dropping off somewhat recently as local gas consumption rises.

  More importantly, exports have increased in recent years from the Middle East, Australia, and North America. With this growing supply of exports, it has been possible for importers to increase their imports.

  

  Figure 12. Natural gas imports by area based upon production and consumption data from the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

  Europe was able to maintain a fairly stable level of natural gas imports between 1990 and 2018, and even to increase them by 2021. China was able to ramp up its natural gas imports. Even Japan was able to ramp up its natural gas imports until about 2014. It has tapered them back since then. India and Other Asia Pacific both have been able to add a small layer of imports, too.

  [8] What lies ahead?

  The countries that have the greatest advantage in using fossil fuel imports are the countries that don’t heat or cool their homes, and that don’t have large numbers of private citizens with private passenger automobiles. Because of their sparing use of fossil fuel imports, their economies can afford to pay higher prices to import these fossil fuel imports than other countries. Thus, they are likely to be winners in the competition for fossil fuel imports.

  Europe stands out to be an early loser of imports. It is already losing oil and coal imports, and it also seems to be an early loser of natural gas imports. However, for all its talk about preventing climate change, the reduction in European imports of fossil fuels hasn’t made much of a dent in global carbon dioxide emissions (Figure 13).

  

  Figure 13. CO2 emissions for Europe and the Rest of the World, based on data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

  I am afraid that no country will really come out ahead. In some sense, the United States is better off than many countries because it is producing slightly more fossil fuels than it consumes. But it still depends on China and other countries for many imported goods, including computers. Given this situation, the United States likely cannot continue business as usual for very long, either.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/02/2023 – 18:30

• Biden Admin To Provide "Up To $12 Billion" To Retrofit Auto Plants To Produce EVs
  Biden Admin To Provide “Up To $12 Billion” To Retrofit Auto Plants To Produce EVs

  Automakers are looking to finish the week with strength after it was announced on Thursday that the Biden administration would be making “up to $12 billion” available to retrofit facilities to make both EVs and hybrids.

  The money will include $10 billion from a US Energy Department loan program for clean vehicles and an additional $3.5 billion in financing to expand domestic battery manufacturing, according to Bloomberg. 

  The United Auto Workers, currently in negotiations with Detroit, has argued that a shift to EVs will cost the industry union jobs. US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Thursday that the funding would help Detroit retain workers.

  However, we’ve seen this “bailout” business model to save jobs before – at banks and during Covid, to name two examples – and it always winds up turning into a company cash grab before ultimately firing workers regardless. The UAW will try to prevent such a situation from taking place as it negotiates.

  

  UAW President Shawn Fain “cautiously” welcomed the news after warning earlier this month that the White House should not push an EV agenda if it means the loss of jobs in Detroit. 

  Almost like the government should stay out of the auto industry as a whole, right? But that would make too much sense. 

  “The EV transition must be a just transition that ensures auto workers have a place in the new economy,” Fain said this week. Meanwhile, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a Washington lobby group that represents most Detroit automakers, said this week the funding “will further advance the domestic automotive supply chain and globally competitive battery manufacturing platform that automakers have already made sizable investments.”

  Instead, Bloomberg calls the move the Biden administration “doubling down on efforts to support carmakers’ transition to EVs”. In a statement this week, President Biden said: “This funding will help existing workers keep their jobs and have the first shot to fill new good jobs as the car industry transforms for future generations.”

  The Biden administration continues to aim for half of all vehicles on the road being EVs by 2030. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/02/2023 – 18:00

• An Important Lesson From Chicago On Confronting The Enemies Of Free Speech
  An Important Lesson From Chicago On Confronting The Enemies Of Free Speech

  Authored by Mark Glennon via Wirepoints.org,

  The modern left’s assault on free speech is perhaps the most terrifying element of the madness we have succumbed to for the simple reason that democracy is meaningless without it. The assault has been largely successful. Voices that should be heard are muzzled and, more insidiously, countless other voices are frightened into silence.

  We see that suppression routinely.

  Too often, readers here tell us of being intimidated into silence by the cancel mob, a mob now controlling much of our government. The iron boot of government on one’s throat is no small matter: Fear of the cost of litigating against a government intent on suppressing free speech is particularly intimidating.

  That intimidation must come to an end. Help is often available – a resource you should prize.

  A number of law firms specializing in free speech are now available, pro bono – free or at reduced cost. And they are winning, thanks to federal courts that still recognize the First Amendment right to free speech.

  A Chicago company’s free speech case is an illustration.

  

  Townstone Financial is a smallish, Chicago-based home mortgage originator. It marketed itself primarily through a weekly one-hour show on AM 560 called The Townstone Financial Show. They discussed issues of interest to homebuyers and offered advice to listeners and callers, sometimes getting into topics like crime, policing, movies and the like.

  In 2020, the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) sued Townstone claiming that the company violated a fair lending law by discriminating against African-Americans.

  However, the CFPB never alleged any case of Townstone discriminating on mortgage applications.

  Instead, the CFPB said Townstone discriminated through its marketing in its radio show by “discouraging” applications from Blacks. The CFPB’s evidence was a handful of comments on the show made over a four-year period representing perhaps 10 minutes of air time out of about 10,000 minutes.

  Some of those comments might be regarded as offensive or in bad taste. They referred to a particular Jewel food store at Clark and Division Streets in Chicago as “Jungle Jewel” and included talk of certain Black areas having “hoodlum weekend” and approaching “a real war zone” or as “crazy” and places “to be driven through quickly” while avoiding eye contact.

  But the CFPB did not produce even one example of anybody being discouraged from applying with Townstone. Nor, according to Townstone’s lawyers, has the company ever received any complaint about its show.

  The comments from the show cited by the CFPB were taken out of context and meant little, Townstone believed. For example, the “Jungle Jewel” was commonly called that by people in the area, and referred to as such even by a Black blogger, who called it “a socioeconomic nightmare and a haven for street crazies.”

  As Towntone’s lawyers later argued, if speech like Townstone’s is illegal, what wouldn’t violate the law? “Are creditors permitted to talk about crime at all? Education? Homelessness? Welfare? Poverty? Income distribution? Are they permitted to criticize the Black Lives Matter movement? Support the police? Criticize the Catholic Church about child abuse scandals? Support the BDS movement? Criticize the BDS movement? Support abortion rights? Oppose immigration?”

  The lawsuit threatened to entirely destroy Townstone.

  Its owner decided to fight.

  But how do you fight against the government, which has unlimited resources?

  Enter the Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit with free speech expertise, which represented the company.

  A federal court in Chicago threw out the CFPB’s lawsuit in February.

  However, the ruling was based mostly on the court’s conclusion that the CFPB had authority only to regulate actual discrimination in lending, not marketing conduct that might be deemed “discouraging.” The court therefore didn’t need to get to the First Amendment defense.

  However, the CFPB has now appealed to the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, so the free speech defense is being raised again, and Townstone is getting still more help. Among the other firms filing amicus — friend of the court — briefs are Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, America’s Future, Free Speech Coalition, Free Speech Defense and Education Fund, U.S. Constitutional Rights Legal Defense Fund, and Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund.

  Lawyers from one of those firms, Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, were guests on our podcast last year discussing legal issues with the University of Illinois’ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies and Gov. Pritzker’s gas tax signage law.

  It’s amicus brief in Townstone’s case summarizes it nicely: “Congress has not deputized CFPB as the ‘Tasteful Joke Police,’ nor would the First Amendment permit that delegation…. By conflating candid discussions of crime with the disparagement of African-American communities, CFPB seeks to do just that. Under the First Amendment, it cannot.”

  If you think Townstone’s case or other First Amendment cases you’ve heard about are isolated examples, you are dangerously uninformed.

  The assault on free speech is massive. Much of the government, social media and the press are partners in the Censorship Industrial Complex. That term was coined by Michael Shellenberger, who laid out 56 pages of evidence in congressional testimony last year. The Missouri v Biden case, now on appeal and likely to go to the U.S. Supreme Court, is already blowing the lid off much of the unholy alliance. Read about the massive evidence of record, discussed in the trial court’s Independence Day order.

  And if you think the assault on free speech isn’t ongoing in Illinois, you are again dangerously uninformed. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul essentially thumbed his nose at the First Amendment when he personally drafted the Illinois law targeting alleged pro-life “misinformation” given out by crisis pregnancy groups near abortion clinics. A federal judge ridiculed it and enjoined its enforcement earlier this month. Chalk up that victory to another of the pro bono law firms available to help on First Amendment issues, the Thomas More Society.

  Gov. JB Pritzker “is gaining a reputation as a hard-left culture warrior who is happy to silence political opponents,” as the Wall Street Journal recently said. “Pritzker apparently thinks that invoking the name Trump is a justification to get away with saying or doing anything. Not under the U.S. Constitution,” wrote the Journal.

  He told CNN, “There ought to be a private right of action for anybody that’s dissuaded or told something that’s false, that’s the important thing.” That would be flagrantly unconstitutional.

  Under the guise of banning book bans, the General assembly passed and Pritzker signed a bill delegating control over what books libraries carry to a group run by an open Marxist. Most recently, they passed an “anti-doxing” law that flies in the face of textbook First Amendment law, as we explained here.

  Illinois Senators Durbin and Duckworth have been among the progressives jawboning tech platforms to do more censorship. And Illinois Congressman Sean Casten introduced a bill to strip courts of the power of judicial review — their power to declare laws invalid as violations of the First Amendment, or anything else.

  Do not stand silent when your right to free speech is suppressed. Know that quality legal firms are often available for free. There are more beyond those I’ve mentioned here.

  The assault on free speech must be defeated at all cost. Do your part.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/02/2023 – 17:30

• A Dire Warning: The US Plan To Make Ukraine Into Europe's 'Big Israel'
  A Dire Warning: The US Plan To Make Ukraine Into Europe’s ‘Big Israel’

  In his famous anti-Vietnam War speech, the late senator from South Dakota George McGovern told fellow Congressional leaders, “This chamber reeks of blood.” On Saturday, journalist Max Blumenthal opened a hard-hitting talk at the Ron Paul Institute’s “Which Way America…?” conference in D.C. by quoting those words, but applied them to the US proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

  Blumenthal said that in Ukraine, Washington continues “wasting the lives and bodies of over 150,000 men, and that’s according to the Pentagon.” Citing recent studies on the immense numbers of Ukrainians who have lost limbs after a year-and-a-half of fighting (which could be surpassing WWI rates), he said the true Ukraine casualty count could be closer to 500,000 – which marks a monumental tragedy and disaster.

  

  The GrayZone journalist then said of today’s Congress that “this chamber” not only “reeks of blood” but.. “they have wasted Ukrainian society on the mantle of anti-Russia hysteria” – as lawmakers in lockstep with the Biden administration continue to sink billions into Kiev.

  Beltway liberal elites, Blumenthal asserted, still think Russia must be punished given they see Moscow as having brought the “bad orange man” to power in 2016. This is a big ideological aspect to what motivates the hawks, he said.

  Further, Blumenthal explained that what’s happening here is that the US ruling class has “militarized the culture wars while depicting Ukraine as the ‘woke side’ vs. Russia as backwards and oppressive.”

  But more importantly, the real “victors” are the major US defense contractors and their appendages like the K street neocon lobbying firms. Blumenthal highlighted that these, and the Biden administration, are operating with the bigger vision in mind of turning Ukraine into Europe’s “big Israel”. 

  By this is meant a permanently militarized ‘Spartan’ wartime state, which is funded and weaponized by Washington in perpetuity, and possesses all the latest cutting edge Western defense tech. But like with the state of things long evident inside Israel (in particular oppression of both Palestinians and Israeli political dissenters), democracy must be eroded at home for this to happen. Still, the defense tech peddlers in the military-industrial complex will ‘win’ no matter how much Ukrainian society and its people are sacrificed. 

  “In order to defend democracy in Ukraine, democracy must be curtailed at home,” Blumenthal emphasized, drawing lessons from current examples of oppression of free speech in the West, particularly related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

  

  He noted here that his own investigative media outlet, The GrayZone, has had the bulk of its funding frozen by the popular platform GoFundMe. The outlet explained days ago [emphasis ZH]:

  By this point, we had raised over $90,000 from over 1100 contributors. The generous contributions from our audience were accompanied by hundreds of messages of effusive support for our factual journalism holding imperial power to account.

  And now, Gofundme is holding the donations hostage, refusing to transfer them to us, while failing to inform donors that it has effectively seized their money. The for-profit site has similarly refused to explain its freezing of their donations, issuing nothing more than a vague allusion – “some external concerns” – to pressure from powerful outside forces.

  Gofundme’s financial sabotage follows the de facto sanctions imposed by Venmo and Paypal on our managing editor, Wyatt Reed, after he reported on the Ukrainian military’s targeting of civilians from the separatist side of the Donbas region.

  Again, this is why Blumenthal could draw on recent personal experience in telling the Ron Paul conference audience that “democracy must be curtailed” in America in order to keep unlimited taxpayer dollars flowing into the Zelensky government’s coffers.

  Blumenthal continued… but “now Russia has no incentive to negotiate” given they have the clear military momentum amid a failing Ukraine counteroffensive. The US and UK likely had a window of opportunity in the initial months of the war to more easily open up serious diplomatic peace negotiations, but this was actively thwarted. 

  “We cannot have peace negotiations while war is being incentivized [by Washington interests] to this point,” he continued while also referencing neocons like Bill Kristol, who has been leading a charge to silence any dissenting views from among Republican nominees and politicians on Ukraine.

  

  “These operatives need constant opportunities” which a permanent proxy war in Europe enables, Blumenthal continued – just like with the constant and historic billions in aid flowing to Israel, which serves to cyclically fuel the accompanying global reach and outsized influence of the Israel lobby.

  On this question of whether negotiations are possible even from Kiev’s perspective, Zero Hedge asked Blumenthal what he thinks would happen in the unlikely scenario that Zelensky himself suddenly pursued peace talks with the Russians. Blumenthal responded as follows:

  “If Zelensky were to pursue peace talks now before he’s re-elected… due to the kind of social forces that have been unleashed by Maidan, he will face a far-right Nazi insurgency in his own country, and he will become public enemy number one among some of the most violent and militarized forces.

  …Which is why he went and met with Andriy Biletsky, the founder of Azov. Zelensky was elected on a platform of peace by 73% of the population because you still had the ethnic Russian population participating in Ukrainian society. They have been completely driven out and the constituency he’s working with is completely different now.”

  Below: Last month, Ukrainian President Zelensky held court with one of the most notorious neo-Nazis in modern Ukrainian history, Azov Battalion founder Andriy Biletsky.

  

  Turning Ukraine into “a big Israel” will involve long-term funding to shape and place “America’s unsinkable aircraft carrier not in the Middle East but in Europe,” Blumenthal said.

  But as Ukrainians continue to be slaughtered, it won’t be a happy situation for a country to become a “big Israel”, Blumenthal concluded.

  * * *

  Former US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro (from 2011 to 2017) is helping to push this Ukraine as “big Israel” concept forward, Blumenthal pointed out.

  

  A partial list of key elements of Shapiro’s road map for Ukraine was previously published by The Atlantic Council as follows:

  • Security first: Every Israeli government promises, first and foremost, that it will deliver security—and knows it will be judged on this pledge. Ordinary citizens, not just politicians, pay close attention to security threats—both from across borders and from internal sources— and much of the public chooses who to elect by that metric alone.
  • The whole population plays a role: The Israeli model goes further than Zelenskyy’s vision of security services deployed to civilian spaces: Most young Israeli adults serve in the military, and many are employed in security-related professions following their service. A common purpose unites the citizenry, making them ready to endure shared sacrifice. Civilians recognize their responsibility to follow security protocols and contribute to the cause. Some even arm themselves (though under strict supervision) to do so. The widespread mobilization of Ukrainian society in collective defense suggests that the country has this potential. In his comments, Zelenskyy reflected this reality when he said security would “come from the strength of every house, every building, every person.”
  • Self-defense is the only way: If there’s any single principle that animates Israel’s security doctrine, it’s that Israel will defend itself, by itself—and rely on no other country to fight its battles. The tragedies of Jewish history have embedded that lesson deep in the nation’s soul. Ukraine’s own trauma, forced to fight alone against a larger aggressor, reinforces a similar conclusion: Don’t depend on the guarantees of others.
  • But maintain active defense partnerships: Self-defense doesn’t mean total isolation. Israel maintains active defense partnerships, chiefly with the United States, which provides generous military assistance, but also with other nations with whom it shares intelligence, technology, and training. While Ukraine will probably not join NATO any time soon, it can deepen security partnerships with Alliance members and receive aid, weaponry, intelligence, and training to bolster its self-defense.
  • Intelligence dominance: From its earliest days, Israel has invested deeply in its intelligence capabilities to ensure that it has the means to detect and deter its enemies—and, when needed, act proactively to strike them. Ukraine will need to upgrade its intelligence services to compete against Russian capabilities and ensure that it’s prepared to prevent and repulse Russian attacks.
  • Technology is key: Although it relies on US assistance, Israel also chooses homegrown technology solutions for many of its greatest challenges. Multi-layer rocket and missile defenses, counter-drone systems, and tunnel detection technology are just recent examples. Ukraine—already home to bright technological minds—will know what threats it faces more than any partner; investing in its own solutions will allow it to be most responsive and adapt to new threats.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/02/2023 – 17:00

• The Left's Relentless War On Donald Trump And Everyone Who Disagrees With Them
  The Left’s Relentless War On Donald Trump And Everyone Who Disagrees With Them

  Authored by Allen Mashburn via American Greatness,

  It’s never been about Trump… it’s about forcing Americans into submission…

  

  In the tumultuous landscape of American politics, one name has become emblematic of the Left’s unyielding battle: Donald Trump. His presidency ignited a firestorm of opposition, revealing not just a political clash, but a broader war against those who hold opposing beliefs. As the dust settled on his term, it became evident that the Left’s war on Trump is just one facet of a broader campaign that aims to silence any dissenting voices. To preserve our freedoms, there must be an issued call to arms for patriotism, courage, and bravery from all citizens—willing to rise to protect the futures of their children and grandchildren.

  The Left’s relentless pursuit of Donald Trump transcends mere political opposition. Every step he takes is scrutinized, every word analyzed, and every policy decision met with fervent resistance. Trump, in his own way, emerged as a representative man of the common people – an unconventional politician who resonated with those who felt unheard by the political establishment—and he is a master at rallying his troops. This made him a lightning rod for the Left’s ire, a symbol of everything they sought to dismantle. Yet, beneath the surface, this battle is not solely against a single individual; it is a struggle against any opposition to their ideological agenda. The political spectrum forever changed in America with the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States. The Left’s hand has been shown by his antics of unfiltered communication with America—which got him de-platformed from social media. His call for American independence from foreign entities goes totally against the sellout agenda of the Left that pushes America towards globalism, risking our national sovereignty. He has become a rock in the proverbial shoe of the establishment elites and leftists. He challenges their motives, logic, and their allegiance to Country—for that they hate him vehemently.

  The war against Donald Trump is but one example of the broader campaign the Left wages against anyone with opposing beliefs. Their goal is not only to marginalize Trump and his supporters but to ensure that anyone who dares dissent is castigated and suppressed. This phenomenon is not confined to the political realm; it permeates everyday conversations, social media, and public discourse. As we witnessed during Trump’s presidency, the Left’s intolerance of opposing viewpoints extends far beyond the political elite and directly affects ordinary citizens who dare to voice their opinions.

  This intolerance for differing beliefs is a dangerous precedent for the future of our Republic. A healthy society thrives on a diversity of opinions, encouraging open debates that lead to thoughtful and balanced decision-making. However, when one side seeks to silence the other, it not only weakens the deliberative process but threatens the very foundations upon which the nation was built.

  The call for patriotism, courage, and bravery is not an abstract notion; it is a rallying cry for ordinary citizens to stand up for their country and its principles. As the Left’s war against opposing beliefs rages on, it is not just politicians and activists who must defend these ideals, but every American who values the preservation of freedom. Just as soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy with unwavering tenacity, citizens must stand firm against attempts to suppress their voices. Multitudes have had to die to provide us with this freedom. If it is to be passed to future generations, then it must be conserved through the strength and perseverance of the citizenry.

  The erosion of the First Amendment stands at the heart of this struggle. The right to freedom of speech, expression, and assembly is the bedrock of America, enabling citizens to voice their concerns, challenge the status quo, and hold those in power accountable. However, over the last decade, we have witnessed a steady encroachment on these rights. Online censorship, the suppression of dissenting viewpoints, and the vilification of opposing voices have all contributed to a chilling effect on free speech.

  The dismantling of our First Amendment rights is not a distant possibility; it is a present reality. Just as the Left relentlessly pursues Donald Trump, they also are chipping away at the very liberties that ensure a robust nation. This trend affects all Americans, regardless of political affiliation, and it poses a grave threat to the multiplicity of thought that is essential for a healthy society.

  To combat this erosion of rights and preserve our freedoms, every American must be willing to put everything on the line. The fight for freedom is not for the faint-hearted; it requires courage, determination, and an unyielding commitment to the principles that define our nation. Just as soldiers displayed incredible bravery while fighting in the communist jungles of Vietnam, citizens must exhibit the same courage to defend their rights against ideological tyranny.

  Ordinary citizens, irrespective of their backgrounds or beliefs, must recognize the urgency of this fight. As we seek to secure the futures of our children and grandchildren, we must stand united against any attempts to silence, suppress, or marginalize the voices of conservatism and common sense.

  The Left’s relentless war against Donald Trump is emblematic of a broader campaign aimed at stifling dissenting voices and eroding the founding principles of our nation. This battle is going to require resolve, and love for our families and country. We have no choice. We are at war. It has never been about Donald Trump—it’s about forcing Americans into submission. The sooner we realize it, the sooner you will begin to fight, and win.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/02/2023 – 16:30

• 'Election Variant' Prompts NYC Mask Advisory
  ‘Election Variant’ Prompts NYC Mask Advisory

  New York health authorities are asking residents to mask up during Labor Day weekend amid the latest wave of Covid-19 cases, and a broader resurgence of hysteria over the disease which generally laughs at face masks & kills less than 0.01% of those who contract it – with newer strains generally weaker than their predecessors, as tends to happen.

  

  And according to the CDC, the latest variant of the virus – BA.2.86, “may be more capable of causing infection in people who have previously had COVID-19 or who have received COVID-19 vaccines,” but notes “At this point, there is no evidence that this variant is causing more severe illness.”

  

  NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan and NY Gov. Kathy Hochul have teamed up to urge extra precautions this weekend, including “proven prevention tools” such as masks.

  According to the latest data from the New York City Health Department, there have been 825 daily cases of COVID-19 on average over the past week. While this is several times higher than the seven-day average of 230 cases reported on July 4, it is far lower than the 2,000-plus cases around this time in 2022.

  Even though overall COVID-19 indicators are much lower than a year ago, some institutions have started to adopt mask mandates, sparking pushback in some circles and a “we will not comply” trend on social media. –Epoch Times

  Former President Donald Trump has openly called fear-monger over new COVID-19 variants nothing more than a ploy to force vote-by-mail in order to rig another election.

  “We will not shut down our schools. We will not accept your lockdowns. We will not abide by your mask mandates, and we will not tolerate your vaccine mandates,” Trump said in a video posted on Truth Social.

  Read the NYC advisory below (via The Conservative Treehouse),

  

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/02/2023 – 16:00

• "Remarkably Dishonest" DA Fani Willis Violates The Law
  “Remarkably Dishonest” DA Fani Willis Violates The Law

  Authored by Techno Fog via The Reactionary (subscribe here),

  Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has gone from criminalizing court filings to committing crimes with respect to her own court filings.

  

  Georgia law makes it unlawful to knowingly file a court document “knowing or having reason to know that such document is false or contains a materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation.” Ga. Code Ann. § 16-10-20.1(b)(1).

  DA Willis is well-aware of this law; she charged a number of Defendants – including Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and John Eastman – with a violation of that law for filing in a document that contained a “materially false statement in federal court.” And she just violated it this week.

  

  For background, Georgia law allows for a speedy trial demand in accordance with the Sixth Amendment, which provides that “the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial.” Two Defendants, Kenneth John Chesebro and Sidney Powell, have made that request pursuant to Georgia law.

  DA Willis responded to these speedy trial demands with an utterly false Motion to Advise to inform the Court and the Defendants of the “consequences” of their requests for a speedy trial. This Motion was a violation of § 16-10-20.1(b)(1). By no means are we making a stretch – the statutory violations are clear and obvious. DA Willis and her team invented legal theories and misled the Court about relevant caselaw that allegedly supported her position. Let us explain.

  DA Willis made four main assertions in her Motion (quoted in full below):

  

  All of these statements are demonstrably false.

  First, DA Willis alleges that because of Defendants’ speedy trial demand, they “cannot now argue that they are entitled to the State’s discovery responses ten (10) days in advance of trial. Smith v. State, 257 Ga. App. 88, 90 (2002); Ruff v. State, 266 Ga. App. 694, 695 (2004)”.

  This is not true. Georgia law requires DA Willis to produce a broad spectrum of evidence “no later than ten days prior to trial.” Ga. Code Ann. § 17-16-4. A Defendant’s request for speedy trial does not waive this obligation.

  Furthermore, the Defendants are not precluded from arguing they are entitled to evidence under Georgia law by the mere fact they requested a speedy trial. Those cases DA Willis cites in support of her position? They do not apply, they do not stand for the claim DA Willis says they do. The Smith case involved a criminal defendant that requested a continuance. The Ruff case had to do with a defendant rejecting a continuance offer from a trial court where the State did not disclose witnesses in a timely manner. Neither case precludes the ability of a defendant to object to late disclosure of evidence.

  Second, and DA Willis states “The Defendants cannot now argue that they are entitled to notice of the State’s similar transaction evidence ten (10) days in advance of trial. Brown v. State, 275 Ga. App. 281, 287 (2005)”.

  Again, this is false. Rule 31.1 requires DA Willis to provide notice of intent to present similar transactions to be “given and filed at least 10 days before trial unless the time is shortened or lengthened by the judge.”

  The Defendants did not waive that obligation to benefit DA Willis. It still exists, and it still binds DA Willis. The case DA Willis cites – Brown v. State – does not stand for the proposition that this requirement is waived by a request for a speedy trial. In fact, both the Brown case and Rule 31.1. contemplate the necessity of briefing and arguments where the 10 day notice is violated.

  Third, DA Willis alleges the request for a speedy trial precludes the Defendants “from calling any witnesses whose statements were not provided to the State at least ten (10) days in advance of trial. Clark v. State, 271 Ga. App. 534, 536 (2005).”

  Another falsehood. Georgia law allows for this 10 day witness statement requirement to be shortened or lengthened “as the court permits.” Ga. Code Ann. § 17-16-7. Whether witnesses are excluded for a violation of the notice rule is up to the Judge; there is no outright preclusion, as alleged by DA Willis.

  And again, the case DA Willis cites just doesn’t stand for what she says it does. Clark v. State involved a criminal defendant who violated that 10 day witness statement requirement. The trial judge in Clark gave the defendant the option of not calling the witness or the ability to continue his case to a later date so that the witness could testify. There is no outright prohibition from calling a witness where the statement was produced with less than 10 days for trial, as maintained by DA Willis.

  Fourth, Willis claims “The Defendants cannot now complain that they received less than seven (7) days notice of the trial date in this case. Linkous v. State, 254 Ga. App. 43, 47 (2002).”

  False. Rule 32.1 requires notice of a trial date “not less than 7 days before the trial date or dates.” This notice requirement, which falls on the Court, exists to protect the due process rights of a criminal defendant. (The surprise of a trial date means an attorney cannot effectively represent their client.) It does not go away where speedy trial demand.

  And as you might have guessed, the case cited by DA Willis does not stand for the proposition that a speedy trial demand means a criminal defendant waives the 7 day trial notice. The case cited by DA Willis is Linkous v. State, which concerns the remedies where there is a violation of Rule 32.1. It doesn’t excuse non-compliance with Rule 32.1.

  At a minimum, the motion from DA Willis was deserving of sanctions. The trial judge, however, denied the motion without full briefing from the Defendants. He wasn’t concerned with accountability.

  Finally, you might be curious about the purpose of the filing from DA Willis. Here’s our guess: DA Willis plans to violate her discovery obligations. She doesn’t want to take these cases to trial within the timeline the speedy trial demands afford. (Chesebro is set for trial on October 23, 2023.) Thus, she will violate her discovery and notice requirements, putting the Defendants in the tenuous position of either (1) proceeding to trial without adequate notice; or (2) having to continue the case to another date so that they may adequately prepare for trial.

  This is nothing more than dishonest gamesmanship, a violation of Georgia law and an affront to prosecutorial ethics. If DA Willis wants to punish false statements to a court, she should turn herself in.

  Read more from Techno Fog at The Reactionary

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/02/2023 – 15:30

• Calls Grow For Staten Island To Secede From NYC As Illegal Immigrant Crisis Escalates
  Calls Grow For Staten Island To Secede From NYC As Illegal Immigrant Crisis Escalates

  Authored by Matthew Lysiak via The Epoch Times,

  Growing safety concerns over the city’s bussing of illegal immigrants into the outer boroughs have intensified efforts from Staten Island to break away from the Big Apple.

  

  “The values of New York City are not in line with those of Staten Island and they haven’t been for a long time and that divide is only growing larger,” Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella told the Epoch Times.

  “There is this very real sense that the city won’t listen to our concerns and that we have reached a boiling point.”

  “The people feel like we are on a tugboat attached to the Titanic,” Fossella said.

  “The people can see that the city is sinking, and unless we are okay with sinking too, there is a need to separate.”

  

  Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella (at right, wearing black shirt and white pants) at a protest outside a Catholic school that was converted into a shelter for illegal immigrants on Aug. 29, 2023. (Courtesy of the Office of the Staten Island Borough President)

  Staten Island, long known as the forgotten borough, has often flirted with the idea of breaking off from the rest of the city. It has always been an outlier within the five boroughs, with a majority conservative Republican population that is often at odds with the rest of the city. Despite New York City’s status as a blue stronghold, the borough mostly voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020. However, in recent years, many residents have reached a breaking point over increases in crime and, more recently, the bussing of illegal immigrants into residential neighborhoods, according to Mr. Fossella.

  “They dump these individuals into our neighborhoods and to my knowledge none of them have been vetted,” said Mr. Fossella.

  “One of these migrant shelters is located directly across the street from two elementary schools and they just expect the people to take it. Why would we want to take that risk?

  “The concern is legitimate. We are not as safe as we should be and the people are fed up.”

  Staten Island is facing the consequences of a growing surge of illegal immigrants into New York City, the only locality in the state considered to be a “Sanctuary City.” Where to put the influx of new illegal immigrants has become an issue of controversy and inter-party tensions.

  The city has long claimed a legal obligation to provide housing for every resident under the so-called “right to shelter” law, which was first established in 1981. The rule came into existence after advocates for the homeless claimed the right to shelter in a lawsuit. The city agreed with the homeless advocates, signing a “consent decree,” which pledged to provide shelter to anyone suffering “physical, mental, or social dysfunction.”

  City officials claim an estimated influx of 100,000 illegal immigrants has strained the city’s resources and services. Mayor Adams has insisted that New York City can’t sustain the numbers of new illegal immigrants, even by utilizing the outer boroughs, and has called on the rest of the state to help ease the burden.

  “Governor Hochul has been a partner on subway safety, on crime, on a host of things, but I think on this issue the governor is wrong,” Adams told students during an Aug. 22 appearance at New York Law School.

  “She’s the governor of the state of New York. New York City is in that state. Every county in this state should be part of this.”

  Governor Kathy Hochul has pushed back on sharing the burden, declaring during a speech last week that “we cannot and will not force other parts of our state to shelter migrants, nor are we going to be asking these migrants to move to other parts of the state against their will.”

  In preemptive motions, upstate county leaders have issued their own emergency orders to block Adams’s attempts to ship illegal immigrants into their communities. The Adams administration is challenging the legality of the emergency orders in court.

  Staten Island officials understand that as long they remain part of the city, the busloads of illegal immigrants entering the borough will continue unimpeded.

  “Almost no one here wants this, but there is nothing we can do,” said Mr. Fossella. “No one will listen.”

  The Staten Island battle for independence faces an uphill climb. Any chance of secession depends on the approval of both the New York City Council and the state Legislature. However, despite the long odds, a growing chorus of local officials are determined to keep fighting for the borough’s right to self-determination.

  At an Aug. 29 protest outside the former Catholic school where the city has set up a migrant shelter, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) called for Mr. Adams to allow the island to secede.

  “What we’re simply asking is, for common sense. We want the mayor to end this. Stop doing what you’re doing and listen. Secure the damn border. We do not have a border. We do not have a nation,” Ms. Malliotakis said during the protest, according to her office.

  “If you’re not going to do your job, mayor, then let Staten Island secede.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/02/2023 – 14:30

• Hoax-Funding LinkedIn Founder Introduced Jeffrey Epstein To Trump's Inner Circle To Meet 'Top Russian Diplomat'
  Hoax-Funding LinkedIn Founder Introduced Jeffrey Epstein To Trump’s Inner Circle To Meet ‘Top Russian Diplomat’

  Was Jeffrey Epstein involved in a plot to tie the 2016 Trump campaign to Russia?

  A disturbing new report in the Wall Street Journal reveals that LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman introduced Trump’s inner circle to Jeffrey Epstein, who then introduced them to a ‘top Russian diplomat.’

  

  As a reminder, Hoffman;

  • Bankrolled an online disinformation hoax against Roy Moore, conducted by a former Obama administration official – who also created the “Hamilton 68” propaganda website purporting to track Russian bots. Hoffman later apologized when caught.
  • Bankrolled Trump rape accuser E. Jean Carroll.
  • Gave $600,000 to a legal defense fund for Fusion GPS – the opposition research firm which prepared documents for the infamous ‘Trump Tower’ setup meeting with Don. Jr. and facilitated the Hillary Clinton-funded Steele Dossier.
  • Was a major Hillary Clinton supporter during the 2016 US election.

  According to the Journal, Hoffman emailed people in Trump’s orbit to introduce them to Epstein, who then invited one of them – Peter Thiel – to meet with Russia’s ambassador to the UN!

  In March 2014, fellow billionaire and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman, a major donor to Democrats, emailed Thiel to introduce Epstein and arrange a meeting at Thiel’s San Francisco home. 

  “Meet one of the guys who invented derivatives, Jeffrey Epstein?” Hoffman wrote, echoing an inaccurate claim Epstein sometimes made. Hoffman wrote that Epstein was “mostly fun, very interesting guy, you may find him perverse, but very smart on biology, computation, macro econ.” 

  Hoffman said he regrets all his interactions with Epstein and that he made the introduction to help fundraise for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

  …

  Epstein scheduled lunches with venture capitalist Peter Thiel and real-estate investor Thomas Barrack in 2016, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. At the time, both were high-profile financial backers of Trump’s campaign. 

  Epstein invited Thiel and Barrack to separate meetings with Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations. Churkin, who died of an apparent heart attack in early 2017, had at least eight meetings scheduled with Epstein between 2015 and Churkin’s death, the documents show. -WSJ

  So, Epstein – pal to the Democrats and a prolific pedophile, had extensive dealings with a Russian diplomat that he tried to connect with Trump’s inner circle?

  The report also notes that “The documents, which include thousands of pages of emails and schedules from 2013 to 2017, don’t make reference to any meetings or conversations between Trump and Epstein,” and “don’t specify Epstein’s purpose in scheduling meetings with Trump’s associates or the Russian ambassador.”

  Notably, these Epstein-Russia meetings happened when the Russiagate hoax was in full swing with the FBI’s involvement.

  Yet, according to Thiel, the October 2016 meeting with Epstein and Churkin featured “nothing memorable.”

  

  “I was rather naive,” Thiel told the outlet, “and I didn’t think enough about what Epstein’s agenda might have been.”

  Meanwhile, a Trump campaign spokesman said: “None of these people were Trump campaign officials, and in fact President Trump banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago.“

  As the Journal further notes:

  Epstein met with and donated to Democrats more often than Republicans, according to the documents and campaign donation records. The Journal has reported that his schedules included meeting several people who had served in the Clinton and Obama administrations. In his townhouse, Epstein hung a painting that depicted Bill Clinton wearing a blue dress and red heels. 

  In 2019, a spokesman for Bill Clinton said the former president had cut off ties more than a decade before and didn’t know about Epstein’s alleged crimes. The spokesman said then that Bill Clinton took four flights on Epstein’s plane and once visited the townhouse, each time with his Secret Service team and for reasons related to the Clinton Foundation’s work. The spokesman declined to comment for this article.

  Public records show Epstein donated to Hillary Clinton’s 2000 campaign for the Senate, and tax records indicate he donated $25,000 in 2006 to what is now the Clinton family’s global philanthropic foundation. A spokeswoman for Hillary Clinton declined to comment.

  After his conviction, Epstein maintained connections with some former members of Bill Clinton’s cabinet, including Lawrence Summers, who served as Treasury secretary, and Bill Richardson, who served as energy secretary. He also met with Clinton alumni leaving the Obama administration, including Ruemmler and the current head of the Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns.

  Which begs the question, was Epstein just another prong in the Democrats’ attempts to tie Trump to Russia in 2016?

   

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/02/2023 – 14:00

• US, Israel To Conduct Joint Drills Simulating Attacks On Iran
  US, Israel To Conduct Joint Drills Simulating Attacks On Iran

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  The US and Israel will simulate striking Iranian nuclear facilities as part of a series of joint military exercises that will be held in the coming months, The Times of Israel reported Wednesday, citing Israeli TV.

  Back in January, the US and Israel conducted the Juniper Oak exercises, which were the largest-ever joint drills between the two nations. The Israeli military said Juniper Oak was just the first of a series of drills that the US and Israel will hold this year.

  

  Israel’s Channel 12 reported one of the upcoming drills would simulate Israel facing a multi-front missile attack that will involve the US deployment of Patriot missile systems. Another drill will rehearse a joint US-Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.

  The plan to simulate attacks on Iran has not been publicly confirmed by the US or Israel, but the two nations have previously rehearsed bombing Iran, including during drills that were held over the Mediterranean Sea in November 2022.

  While nuclear facilities would be the target in the simulated drills, there’s no sign Iran is looking to build a nuclear weapon, which was affirmed by a recent US intelligence report.

  Often missing from the conversation about Iran’s civilian nuclear program is the fact that Israel has a secret nuclear weapons program and an arsenal of nukes that the US does not acknowledge exists.

  The report comes amid heightened tensions between the US and Iran in the Persian Gulf. The US seizure of a tanker carrying Iranian oil in April provoked two Iranian tanker seizures, and the US responded by beefing up its military presence in the region.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/02/2023 – 13:30

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Newly-Released Top Secret Docs Show Nixon's Intel Briefings On US-Backed Chilean Coup
  Newly-Released Top Secret Docs Show Nixon’s Intel Briefings On US-Backed Chilean Coup

  Authored by Conor Freeman via The Liberarian Institute,

  Two fifty-year old documents related to the coup in Chile were released by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the State Department last week. The democratically elected, left wing government of President Salvador Allende was overthrown in 1973 by the Chilean military, with covert CIA backing. A US-supported dictatorship led by General Augusto Pinochet was subsequently installed.

  President Richard Nixon’s daily briefs related to the coup on September 8th as well as the 11th – the day the Chilean military seized control of the government – were released. This declassification followed repeated calls for increased transparency by progressive members of Congress, human rights groups, and Santiago.

  

  Nixon and then National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger strongly opposed the leftist Allende government and attempted to prevent its rule. George Washington University’s National Security Archive issued a statement which says “[the documents] contained information that went to President Nixon as a military takeover that he and [Kissinger] had encouraged for three years came to fruition.”

  Nixon’s daily brief for September 8, 1973 reads “a number of reports have been received… indicating the possibility of an early military coup… Navy men plotting to overthrow the government now claim army and air force support.”

  The document – written three days before the coup – continues with a discussion of how a fascist paramilitary group “has been blocking roads and provoking clashes with the national police, adding to the tension caused by continuing strikes and opposition political moves. President Allende earlier this week said he believed the armed forces will ask for his resignation if he does not change his economic and political policies.”

  On September 11th, Nixon’s daily brief said “Plans by navy officers to trigger military action against the Allende government are supported by some key army units… The navy is also counting on help from the air force and national police.”

  After Allende’s initial refusal to resign, tanks opened fire, Air Force aircraft launched rocket attacks and bombed the presidential palace. Troops stormed in and Allende shot himself.

  “What followed [the coup] was a vicious, decades-long reign of terror and repression during which tens of thousands of Chileans were killed, tortured, or disappeared by the Pinochet regime, which continued to receive support from the CIA,” as Common Dreams’ Jake Johnson has written.

  Indeed, in 2000, the CIA conceded that “many of Pinochet’s officers were involved in systematic and widespread human rights abuses… Some of these were contacts or agents of the CIA or [US] military.”

  The Coup In Chile: CIA Releases Top Secret 9/11/1973 President’s Daily Brief

  – The two PDBs are among the most historically iconic of missing records on the September 11, 1973, military coup https://t.co/gZUFjmdYJP

  — NatlSecurityArchive (@NSArchive) August 26, 2023

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  Peter Kornbluh, a Chile specialist for National Security Archive, said “I’m happy that the Freedom of Information Act, together with some positive diplomacy by the Chilean government, broke a secrecy barrier that has kept us from knowing this history for 50 years.” He added that he hopes the White House will soon be “releasing all the [US records on Chile relating to the coup and its aftermath] that, inexplicably, remain secret after all this time.”

  As the Los Angeles Times noted, the US government “favored Pinochet, who for most of his 17 years of rule had good economic and military ties with Washington as he repressed many of his own people.”

  Throughout Latin America, during the Cold War, the CIA was involved in overthrowing governments, while fueling a series of proxy wars and civil wars, as well as waging terror campaigns against others. To this day, the US maintains a more than 60-year old embargo on Cuba as well as a notorious torture prison at Guantanamo Bay.

  During recent years, the US has supported coups against governments in Venezuela and Bolivia. The US currently imposes sanctions on Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba. In Venezuela, Washington’s economic war led to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths between 2017 and 2018 as a result of vital medicines being deprived.

  Additionally, among GOP presidential candidates, there is substantial support for a potential military invasion of Mexico to ostensibly counter drug trafficking.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 23:40

• Marijuana Is the Sixth Biggest Cash Crop In The US
  Marijuana Is the Sixth Biggest Cash Crop In The US

  According to the Leafly Cannabis Harvest Report 2022, marijuana was the sixth most valuable wholesale crop in the United States last year at a $5 billion worth, trailing only corn, soybeans, hay, wheat and cotton.

  The calculation includes only crops in states where state-sanctioned sales of legal weed are already up and running and exclude production in medical marijuana-only states.

  Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports that 2022 saw a cannabis harvest of 2,834 metric tons, up 24 percent from 2021.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  While the count of states having legalized marijuana stands at 23, only 15 had at the time of the release of the report come as far as opening state-licensed retail stores, mainly due to a flurry of legalization since 2021 affecting nine states. The 15 states where dispensaries are open are tied to more than 13,000 active and legal cannabis farms, according to Leafly.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  California had the biggest share in the harvest, producing marijuana at a wholesale value of $1 billion, followed by Colorado at $687 million, Michigan at $551 million and Oregon at $500 million.

  At wholesale crop values of between $124 million and $362 million, marijuana was also the number one cash crop in New Jersey, Alaska and Massachusetts.

  In its report, Leafly criticized that despite its prominent role, marijuana crops are not included in statistics by the USDA and are not generally considered agricultural products, which leads to marijuana farmers paying higher taxes, being ineligible for disaster relief and often have trouble finding adequate financial services.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 23:20

• "Even One Firearm Sale" Could Land You In Jail Under Biden's New ATF Rule
  “Even One Firearm Sale” Could Land You In Jail Under Biden’s New ATF Rule

  Submitted by Gun Owners of America,

  We hate to say we told you so, but it’s official. The Justice Department announced a new rule to amend ATF regulations and expand the definition of a firearms dealer to include those who sell even a single firearm. 

  The original rumors of the rule suggested anyone who sold five or more firearms could have to register as an FFL and conduct background checks, however the official released version says selling even ONE FIREARM without a license would be illegal.🤯 pic.twitter.com/U1s9SUFm2q

  — Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) August 31, 2023

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  While earlier versions of the rule leaked to the public via the Biden administration’s allies in the corporate media hinted at a target of about five firearms sold without a license before requiring an individual to register as an FFL, the published rule seems more restrictive. Those who have sold or even “offer to engage” in a single transaction could be prosecuted for unlicensed activities.

  That’s not all. The rule is also full of unclear language that gives ATF wiggle room to prosecute gun owners as they please. Examples of actions that ATF could use to define activity as operating as an unlicensed dealer are listed, but ATF notes that the list of examples is not exhaustive. This creates a system where gun owners must prove they are not dealers to be able to sell a firearm legally.

  Just in case you thought the ATF was going to be clear and concise on this rule, think again!

  Here are four pages of what you CAN’T do and then a catch all sentence that says it is “not exhaustive.”🙄

  Well. We’re exhaustED. pic.twitter.com/1dUexIsY8Y

  — Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) August 31, 2023

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  We can’t stress this enough: this ATF Rule is a direct result of Republican–backed gun control. Specifically, it’s called the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, or the Cornyn-Murphy compromise. GOA and our grassroots membership warned Sen. Cornyn and his colleagues that the act could be used in this exact manner; unfortunately, our warnings fell on deaf ears, and the gun control bill became law last year.

  And, of course, the rule itself isn’t about safety. It’s about building the ATF’s illegal firearm registry. With a massive digital registry of out-of-business records that GOA has covered in-depth, this rule only expands on who is subject to information collection on their firearms purchases.

  Oops! @giffords_org said the quiet part out loud!🙄

  This rule isn’t about “safety.” It’s about knowing who has what guns and building the ATF’s illegal registry. https://t.co/5z7LHP7BK1

  — Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) August 31, 2023

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  Consider that on top of this new rule, Biden’s ATF has adopted a “Zero Tolerance” policy for Federal Firearms Licensees. Under this policy, gun stores can be shut down for even a single minor mistake on paperwork.

  Another ATF rule. Another lawsuit. https://t.co/m5uSKw1TZZ

  — Gun Owners Foundation (@GunFoundation) August 31, 2023

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  Gun Owners of America stands ready to oppose this new ATF rule by any means necessary.

  *   *   * 

  We’ll hold the line for you in Washington. We are No Compromise. Join the Fight Now.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 23:00

• Brazil Displaces US As Corn-Exporter King As Trade Winds Shift
  Brazil Displaces US As Corn-Exporter King As Trade Winds Shift

  It appears that a new world order is emerging, with BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization offering trade alternatives to the hegemonic West. The latest example of a multi-polar world is the US being displaced by BRICS country Brazil as the world’s top corn supplier. 

  The US held the crown for fifty years as the world’s top corn exporter. A new Blomberg report, citing data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), shows the five-decade reign is over:

  In the 2023 harvest year, the US will account for about 23% of global corn exports, well below Brazil’s nearly 32%, US Department of Agriculture data show. Brazil is seen holding onto its lead in the 2024 planting year that begins Sept. 1, too. Only once in data going back to the Kennedy administration did America drop out of first place before: for a single year in 2013 following a devastating drought. The US corn-exporting industry has never before spent two back-to-back years in second place — until now.

  It’s not corn. Brazil has also displaced American farmers in both soybean and wheat exports. Bloomberg explained more: 

  Losing its lead in corn exports may feel familiar to American farmers, who in the last decade have also relinquished the top spot in both soybean and wheat exports. Soy was the first to go, with Brazil definitively taking the lead in 2013. The next year, the US lost its wheat dominance, too, with the European Union, then Russia, beginning to elbow out American farmers in the global market.

  The export ag market share slide is troubling news for the domestic industry that exported $200 billion in farm products in 2022. Sliding dominance may suggest that farmer incomes may slide in the years ahead.

  

  Stephen Nicholson, global grains and oilseeds sector strategist with Rabobank, an agricultural lender, told Reuters:

  “When we look at US corn demand long term, we wonder where new demand is coming from. 

  “Brazil is likely taking a bigger share of the global market, ethanol has likely peaked and animal protein is likely not going to grow fast enough.” 

  The reason for the shift is a rejiggering of China’s ag trade away from the US to Brazil. China signed a deal with Brazil last year to increase gain purchases. 

  “Brazil has the ability to ramp that planting area up to meet Chinese demand in a way that the United States doesn’t,” said Matthew Roberts, senior grain analyst with consultancy Terrain.

  Plus, the Chinese are steering clear of US trade because lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been in a frenzy to weaponize the dollar and trade against Beijing. 

  “The US reminds me of the frog being slowly boiled,” Ann Berg, an independent consultant and veteran trader who started her career at Louis Dreyfus Co. in 1974, told Bloomberg. 

  Berg said, “It’s lost its dominance, but it took 40 years.”

  We’ve outlined that the emergence of BRICS as an alternative to Western hegemony will cause the global economy to evolve in three phases. For more on that, read “Breaking Dollar Hegemony, BRICS Nations Are Leading The World To Hyperbitcoinization.” Also, read “A Multi-polar World Is Emerging.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 22:40

• Conflicting Evidence Of mRNA Technology Raises Serious Concerns About Rush For Use In New Vaccine Development
  Conflicting Evidence Of mRNA Technology Raises Serious Concerns About Rush For Use In New Vaccine Development

  Authored by Megan Redshaw via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The U.S. government and pharmaceutical companies are investing a substantial amount to develop new mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases and cancer, fueling a lucrative mRNA platform valued at $136.2 billion.

  

  A newly established White House program announced on Aug. 23 that it is granting a total of $25 million over three years to Emory University, Yale School of Medicine, and the University of Georgia to develop personalized therapeutic vaccines against cancers and emerging infections, similar to how COVID-19 mRNA vaccines target SARS-CoV-2. They aim to use mRNA—an essential element in COVID-19 vaccines developed to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infections—to program a unique class of immune cells called dendritic cells to initiate a desired immunological response.

  Pharmaceutical companies such as Moderna, BioNTech, and CureVac are conducting clinical trials using mRNA-based vaccines with advanced melanoma, ovarian, colorectal, and pancreatic cancers. The National Institutes of Health is partnering with BioNTech to develop a personalized vaccine for pancreatic cancers. In addition to COVID-19 and cancer, other mRNA-based vaccines in development target influenza, genital herpes, respiratory viruses, and shingles.

  Although mRNA platforms are appealing because they reduce costs and shorten the vaccine development timeline, evidence and experience suggest the mRNA technology used for novel COVID-19 vaccines is associated with various harms and neither prevents COVID-19 nor its transmission.

  Evidence Challenging Vaccine ‘Safe and Effective’ Narrative

  The unprecedented rates of adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination overshadow the benefits, according to researchers from Australia who say the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, whether from the virus or created from genetic code in mRNA and adenovectorDNA vaccines, is toxic and causes a wide array of diseases.

  In their recently published paper published in Biomedicines titled, “‘Spikeopathy’: COVID-19 Spike Protein Is Pathogenic, from Both Virus and Vaccine mRNA,” the researchers explored peer-reviewed data countering the “safe and effective” narrative attached to new technologies used to develop mRNA and adenovectorDNA vaccines at “warp speed” to end the pandemic.

  Spike protein pathogenicity, termed “spikeopathy,” describes the ability of the spike protein to cause disease, and the researchers say it can affect many organ systems.

  Researchers noted the following key problem areas:

  • Spike protein toxicity (spikeopathy) from both the virus and when produced by gene codes in people vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccines.
  • Inflammatory properties in specific lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) used to transport mRNA.
  • Long-lasting action caused by N1-methyl pseudouridine in the synthetic mRNA—also referred to as modRNA.
  • Widespread distribution of mRNA and DNA codes via the LNP and viral vector carrier matrices, respectively.
  • Human cells produce a foreign protein that can cause autoimmunity.

  Now that vaccines utilizing mRNA technology have been available and widely distributed for several years, data show these vaccines produce foreign antigens in human tissues and increase the risk of autoimmune, neurological, cardiovascular, inflammatory disorders, and cancers, especially when the vaccine ingredients do not remain localized at the injection site. An antigen is any substance that stimulates an immune response. If the immune system encounters an antigen that is not found on the body’s own cells, it will launch an attack against that antigen.

  Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data show the design of the mRNA and adenovectorDNA COVID-19 vaccines allow uncontrolled biodistribution, durability, and persistent bioavailability of the spike protein inside the body after vaccination. Pharmacokinetics is the study of how the body interacts with administered substances for the entire duration of exposure. Pharmacodynamics assesses the drug’s effect on the body more closely.

  This may explain the unprecedented number of adverse events that appear to be associated with the spike protein produced by the gene-based technologies employed by Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson, as well as the viral vector DNA technology used by other countries, researchers said.

  mRNA Vaccines Are Gene Therapy and May Cause Harm

  Gene-based COVID-19 vaccines are therapeutic products that actually fit within the FDA’s definition of gene therapy because they cause the cells of the vaccinated person to produce antigens for transmembrane expression that invokes an immune response. By design, these novel vaccine platforms risk tissue damage secondary to autoimmune responses raised against cells expressing foreign spike antigens, researchers said.

  The FDA was aware of the pathogenicity of spike proteins before releasing COVID-19 vaccines to the public. In an October 2022 meeting with its vaccine advisors, the FDA presented a highly accurate list of potential adverse events associated with COVID-19 vaccines, including neurological, cardiovascular, and autoimmune “possible adverse events.”

  React19, an organization that provides financial, emotional, and physical support to those experiencing long-term injuries from COVID-19 vaccines, provided a list of over 3,400 published papers and case reports of injuries affecting more than 20 organ systems. More than 432 peer-reviewed papers relate to papers and case reports of myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, myocardial infarction, hypertension, aortic dissection, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), tachycardia, and conduction disturbance—a problem with the electrical system that controls the heart’s rate and rhythm.

  The most common group of adverse events reported following COVID-19 vaccination to both pharmacovigilance databases and Pfizer involve neurological disorders. According to the paper, neurological symptoms and cognitive decline with accelerated neurodegenerative disease are features of acute COVID-19 vaccine injuries and, to some extent, long COVID syndrome. Research suggests (pdf) LNPs transporting the mRNA to make spike proteins can cross the blood-brain barrier and cause neurotoxic effects.

  Lipid Nanoparticles Are Toxic and Pro-Inflammatory

  It’s not just the spike protein that can cause disease. LNPs that serve as the delivery method are also toxic and pro-inflammatory.

  Research from 2018 showed even small amounts of nanoparticles taken up by the lungs can lead to cytotoxic effects. Ingested nanoparticles have been shown to affect lymph nodes, the liver, and the spleen, while when injected as a drug carrier, they can pass any barrier and translocate to the brain, ovaries, and testes, mainly after phagocytosis by macrophages, which help distribute them across the body. The effects on the reproductive system suggest lipid nanoparticles can be cytotoxic and damage DNA.

  According to the authors, two components in the mRNA lipid nanoparticle complexes, ALC-0315 and ALC-0159, are concerning, as they have never been used in a medicinal product and are not registered in either the European Pharmacopoeia or in the European C&L Inventory database. A question posed to the European Parliament in December 2021 pointed out that the manufacturer of the nanoparticles specifies the nanoparticles are for research only and not for human use. The European Commission responded that the excipient in Pfizer’s Comirnaty vaccine “has been demonstrated to be appropriate … in compliance with the relevant EMA scientific guidelines and standards.”

  Still, this could explain the root cause of numerous post-vaccination adverse events, researchers said.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 22:20

• Shell Quietly Ditches Failed Carbon Credit Scheme
  Shell Quietly Ditches Failed Carbon Credit Scheme

  Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, has quietly shelved the world’s largest corporate plan to develop carbon offsets, after CEO Wael Sawan laid out an updated strategy for the company that included cutting costs and doubling down on profit centers (oil and gas) – which notably omitted any mention of the company’s prior commitment to spend up to $100 million per year to build a ‘pipeline’ of carbon credits as part of the firm’s promise to achieve ‘net zero’ emissions by 2050, Bloomberg reports.

  

  The pullback reflects both Sawan’s renewed commitment to the oil-and-gas business that generates most of Shell’s profits, and an admission that the prior goals were simply unattainable. Over the past two years, Shell barely made a dent. It spent $95 million, less than half of its initial budget, to build or invest in a portfolio of carbon projects from Western Africa to the Brazilian Amazon to Australian farmlands. They’ve generated few if any offsets, and Shell has struggled to find projects that meet its standards for quality.

  According to investigations by Bloomberg Green (how cute), many offset programs don’t deliver the environmental benefits they promise. In announcing their now-shelved programs, Shell sought to solve that problem with stringent requirements, deep pockets, and engineering expertise. What they learned was something any idiot could have told you: there’s no effective way to maintain a large enough offset program to make a difference.

  “It’s really hard to get scale from high-quality credits,” said Carbon Market Watch’s Gilles Dufrasne. “The two forces,” being volume and quality, “work against each other.”

  Shell’s carbon debacle was inspired by a 2017 Nature Conservancy paper which suggested that nature-based solutions would be a cost-effective means to offset carbon.

  And – surprise, the academics were wrong again…

  For example, four years into a plan to partner with Forestry and Land Scotland to plant over a million trees to generate “pending issuance units” (unborn carbon credits), they’ve accrued less than 0.02% of their initial goal in terms of carbon sequestration.

  And in Canada, Shell’s efforts to secure land for credits has turned into a total disaster despite the company bragging about the endeavor on its website. The company has also failed to hit its $100 million investment target, spending only about $69 million last year, which accounts for less than 1% of its total capital expenditure.

  

  Another project to restore mangrove trees in Senegal, which began in 2019 and has been operated by Belgian nonprofit WeForest, won’t even start producing carbon credits until 2025. Shell has also walked away from potential goldmines like the Delta Blue Carbon Project in Pakistan which would cover an area roughly twice the size of London. While the ‘fundamentals were sound,’ per Bloomberg, the company had concerns over the integrity of the project’s local partners, as well as the origins to the land rights.

  A spokesperson for Indus Delta Capital, which runs the project, said shareholders and directors in the project have been subjected to rigorous due diligence and the process by which licenses and permissions were granted is “in line with the rules of business” prescribed by both the national and regional governments. -Bloomberg

  Shell has also broken ties with a Montana grasslands project run by Vermont-based Native Energy due to disagreements over deal structures and the potential use of credits to label fossil fuels as carbon neutral.

  For Native’s part, chief executive officer Jeff Bernicke said it terminated discussions with Shell because “there was not a fit between their plan and Native’s goals and values.” There was also a concern that the credits would be used to label fossil-fuels as carbon-neutral. A spokesman for Shell said the company has a robust due diligence process and it does not comment on specific projects or the contractual agreements.

  Shell’s strategy now seems more attuned to secrecy and selective partnership. The company keeps some ventures under wraps, like its involvement in the Peruvian Amazon and an Indonesian forestry venture dubbed “Sun Bird,” perhaps to ward off competition from oil industry peers who are also elbowing their way into the carbon-credit market.

  Backup plan?

  While Shell’s expensive quagmire into carbon credits may have crashed and burned, the company has a backup plan – appease climate alarmists by simply buying ‘low-quality’ carbon credits to achieve its lofty goals of becoming ‘carbon neutral’ by 2050.

  

  In the words of Adam Matthews, chief responsible investment officer at the Church of England Pensions Board, “They’re no longer aligned with trying to navigate the transition in the same way that we had previously perceived.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 22:00

• FBI Data On Active Shootings Is Misleading: John Lott Jr.
  FBI Data On Active Shootings Is Misleading: John Lott Jr.

  Authored by John R. Lott Jr. via RealClear Wire,

  Americans are constantly debating policing and gun control. But to discuss these issues, we have to depend on government crime data. Unfortunately, politics has infected the data handling of agencies such as the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control.

  

  Last year, the CDC became the center of controversy when it removed its estimates of defensive gun uses from its website at the request of gun control organizations. For nearly a decade the CDC cited a 2013 National Academies of Sciences report showing that the annual number of people using guns to stop crime ranged from about 64,000 to 3 million. The CDC website listed the upper figure at 2.5 million.

  Mark Bryant, who runs the Gun Violence Archive, wrote to CDC officials after a meeting last year that the 2.5 million number “has been used so often to stop [gun control] legislation.” The CDC’s estimates were subsequently taken down and now lists no numbers.

  The FBI is also susceptible to political pressure. Up until January of 2021, I worked in the U.S. Department of Justice as the senior advisor for research and statistics, and part of my job was to evaluate the FBI’s active shooting reports. I showed the bureau that many cases were missing and that others had been misidentified. Yet, the FBI continues to report that armed citizens stopped only 14 of the 302 active shooter incidents that it identified for the period 2014-2022. The correct rate is almost eight times higher. And if we limit the discussion to places where permit holders were allowed to carry, the rate is eleven times higher.

  The FBI defines active shooter incidents as those in which an individual actively kills or attempts to kill people in a populated, public area. But it does not include shootings that are deemed related to other criminal activity, such as robbery or fighting over drug turf. Active shootings may involve just one shot being fired at just one target, even if the target isn’t hit. 

  To compile its list, the FBI hired academics at the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University. Police departments don’t collect data, so the researchers had to find news stories about these incidents.

  It isn’t surprising that people will miss cases or occasionally misidentify them when using news stories, but the FBI was unwilling to fix its errors when I pointed them out. My organization, the Crime Prevention Research Center, has found many more missed cases and is keeping an updated list. Back in 2015, I published a list of missed cases in a criminology publication.

  Unfortunately, the news media unquestioningly reports the FBI numbers. After 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken used his legally-carried concealed handgun to stop what would have been a mass public shooting, an Associated Press headline noted: “Rare in US for an active shooter to be stopped by bystander.” A Washington Post headline proclaimed: “Rampage in Indiana a rare instance of armed civilian ending mass shooting.”

  The CPRC’s numbers tell a different story: Out of 440 active shooter incidents from 2014 to 2022, an armed citizen stopped 157. We also found that the FBI had misidentified five cases, usually because the person who stopped the attack was incorrectly identified as a security guard.

  We found these cases on a budget of just a few thousand dollars. Though we found that armed citizens had stopped eight times as many cases as the FBI claims, I make no assertion that we unearthed all of these stories. It is quite possible that the news media itself never covers many such incidents.

  While the FBI claims that just 4.6% of active shootings were stopped by law-abiding citizens carrying guns, the percentage that I found was 35.7%. I am more confident that we have identified a higher share of recent cases, and our figure for 2022 was even higher – 41.3%.

  The FBI doesn’t differentiate between law-abiding citizens stopping attacks where guns are banned and where they are allowed, but you can’t expect law-abiding citizens to stop attacks where it is illegal to carry guns. In places where law-abiding citizens are allowed to carry firearms, the percentage of active shootings that were stopped is 51%. For 2022, that figure is a remarkable 63.5%.

  In order to follow the FBI’s definition, we excluded 27 cases because a law-abiding person with a gun stopped the attacker before he was able to get off a shot.

  In an email I received in 2015, a bureau official acknowledged that “the FBI did not come across this incident during its research in 2015, but it does meet the FBI’s active-shooter definition.” The official noted they will miss active-shooter cases because the reports “are limited in scope.” Yet, the FBI database never added the incident.

  When the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler reached out to the FBI for comments on our earlier work up through 2021, they emailed: “We have no additional information to provide other than what is provided within the active shooter reports on our website.”

  However, a researcher at Texas State University did respond to two of the cases we had identified in our earlier work. He argued that one case involving a shooting at a dentist office was excluded because it involved a domestic dispute and another at a strip club because it was a “retaliation murder.” We list 14 examples where the FBI list includes shooting resulting from domestic disputes and three others where a shooting started after someone was denied entry to a lounge or bar. So why the double standard? Domestic disputes and “retaliation murders” are only included when they don’t involve permit holders stopping the attacks.

  The FBI data on active shootings is missing so many defensive gun uses that it’s hard to believe it isn’t intentional. Errors can happen, but the failure to fix past reports shows a troubling disregard for the truth. The reality is that armed, law-abiding citizens are unsung guardian angels.

  John R. Lott Jr. is a contributor to RealClearInvestigations, focusing on voting and gun rights. His articles have appeared in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, USA Today, and Chicago Tribune. Lott is an economist who has held research and/or teaching positions at the University of Chicago, Yale University, Stanford, UCLA, Wharton, and Rice.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 21:40

• Fired Professor Wins Key Victory In Free Speech Case Over Mask, Vaccine Policy
  Fired Professor Wins Key Victory In Free Speech Case Over Mask, Vaccine Policy

  A professor who was fired from the University of Southern Maine for challenging COVID-19 mandates has won a critical courtroom victory, after a district judge ruled that her First Amendment lawsuit against the institution can proceed.

  

  Patricia Griffin, who says she was fired for asking valid questions about mask and vaccination policies on campus during the COVID-19 pandemic, was granted the narrow win after the university filed a motion to dismiss the case in part. US District Judge Jon Levy ruled that while Griffin’s First Amendment claim can proceed, other charges were dismissed.

  On Aug. 18, 2021, the University of Main announced a mandatory mask policy. Six days later, Griffin took part in a luncheon meeting via Zoom, where the speaker was Glenn Cummings, president of the university. Griffin says Cummings wasn’t wearing a mask at the time.

  Later that day she sent an email to the Dean of the College of Management and Human Service, claiming that she had been following “science, data, and evidence” related to the pandemic. Griffin said in the email that she was “searching for anything that will support wearing a mask while indoors as well as vaccinating an entire school population as the optimal method for stopping the transmission of the virus. The reality is that my research has found no evidence to support these measures.“

  She attached a document to her email summarizing the results of her research, which did not find “any overwhelming support for the wearing of masks nor the mandating of vaccines, especially since the overall survival rate is 99.7 percent if infected with Covid. And finally, from a legal perspective, asking for my vaccination status is a violation of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).”

  She then met with the Dean in another Zoom meeting, in which she says she never refused to wear a mask, or violate university policy.

  Then, her fall semester classes were canceled. In a subsequent disciplinary conference, she was allegedly told that she wouldn’t be allowed to teach her courses 100% online unless she resigned an accepted a part-time position.

  On Sept. 8, 2021, she received a letter from Cummings notifying her that she had been suspended, and the university had moved to terminate her. She says the letter falsely stated that she refused to comply with university policy and wouldn’t wear a mask.

  She was formally terminated on Sept. 22.

  For those who enjoy deep legal dives Jonathan Turley opines further:

  We now have a positive ruling for free speech out of the District of Maine where Chief Judge Jon Levy has ruled in favor of a professor terminated by the University of Southern Maine for questioning mask and vaccination policies.

  Judge Levy’s decision in Griffin v. University of Maine System is balanced and fair. He does not offer a full-throated endorsement of the claim by Professor Patricia Griffin, but rules that she has a right to a trial on the free speech claim.

  Here are the basic facts.

  On August 18, 2021, the Chancellor of the University of Maine System announced a mandatory mask policy.  On August 24, University President Glenn Cummings held a a luncheon meeting via Zoom. Notably, Cummings was not wearing a mask. After the meeting, Griffin sent an email to the Dean of the College of Management and Human Service that read in part:

  “I first want to say how much I love teaching at [the University of Southern Maine] as well as working with such a great faculty. It really has been the highlight of my career and I owe a lot to you for sticking with me. The reason for this email is because I have been following the science, data, and evidence regarding SARS-CoV-2 and searching for anything that will support wearing a mask while indoors as well as vaccinating an entire school population as the optimal method for stopping the transmission of the virus. The reality is that my research has found no evidence to support these measures. I wanted to share the information I gathered and relied upon when making my decision regarding these mandates before the start of classes next Monday to see that my decisions are science, evidence, and data based. However, I do not want to cause any issues, especially for you, if I come to campus on Monday morning to teach my one face to face class so I wanted to give you enough time.”

  Griffin attached a letter addressed to the Dean on her own research and objections to the policies. She concluded:

  “In conclusion, I have followed the science, data, and evidence and cannot find any overwhelming support for the wearing of masks nor the mandating of vaccines, especially since the overall survival rate is 99.7% if infected with Covid. And finally, from a legal perspective, asking for my vaccination status is a violation of HIPAA.

  My expectation is the University of Southern Maine will appreciate a faculty member who embraces critical thinking and applies both inductive and deductive reasoning rather than emotions when making decisions. I am teaching three courses this fall, two online and one face to face. I welcome any evidence you can provide to the contrary of what I have found which will convince me that my conclusions about the efficacy of wearing a mask and vaccinating an entire population are wrong.”

  What followed quickly went from bad to worse for Griffin, who met with the Dean and again asked for the data supporting the University’s Policy and vaccination requirement.  While universities attacked academics who questioned these policies as opposed to “the science,” they largely refused to share the basis for the policies.

  Despite the firing or sanctioning of academics who questioned pandemic policies, many have recently admitted that the efficacy of masks (particularly the common surgical masks) were radically overstated and unsupported. Moreover, studies have shown that critics were right in claiming that natural immunities from prior bouts with Covid offered as good or better protection than the vaccine. Nevertheless, the media participated in the demonization of these experts who were disciplined at universities and denied key positions in their fields.

  In this case, Griffin alleged that immediately following the Zoom meeting, her fall semester courses were removed from the fall class list. She still did not back down and continued to ask for the data. She alleged that school officials then told her that she would not be allowed to teach courses 100% online unless she resigned and accepted a part-time position. On September 8, 2021, Cummings sent a letter to Griffin suspending her and informing her that the University would be moving to terminate her employment. Griffin alleges that the letter falsely asserted that she had refused to comply with the policies and included other false assertions.

  The issue for the court was whether Griffin was speaking as a public employee or as a citizen.

  “The “threshold inquiry” to determine whether a public employee engaged in protected speech is “whether [the employee] spoke as a citizen on a matter of public concern.” O’Connell v. Marrero-Recio, 724 F.3d 117, 123 (1st Cir. 2013). If the answer is no, the employee has no First Amendment retaliation claim. If the answer is yes, then the possibility of a First Amendment claim arises. Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410, 418 (2006). “In order to survive a motion to dismiss, a plaintiff need not conclusively establish that her speech was made as a citizen; ‘it is sufficient that the complaint alleges facts that plausibly set forth citizen speech.’” Cannell v. Corizon, LLC, No. 1:14-cv-405-NT, 2015 WL 8664209, at *8 (D. Me. Dec. 11, 2015) (quoting Decotiis v. Whittemore, 635 F.3d 22, 34-35 (1st Cir. 2011)).”

  The court found that there were factors under the relevant tests that cut both ways on whether Griffin was speaking as an employee or a citizen. However, given the governing standard for review, JudgeLevy read this evidence in her favor and the right to a trial on free speech claims (though he curtailed other aspects of her complaint):

  Here, Griffin has pleaded sufficient facts to make it more than merely possible that once fully developed, the facts will support the conclusion that although Griffin’s speech related to her official duties as a public employee, the subject matter of her speech pertained to a matter of great public concern and was outside the scope of her duties as a professor of marketing. Whether the same conclusion may be true after the parties have completed discovery is another matter for another day. “[I]t is entirely possible that additional facts might show” that Griffin is not entitled to the relief that she seeks, but “absent factual development, dismissal is unwarranted” at this stage….

  Putting aside the merits for trial, what should be clear is that, if the underlying facts are proven, the university acted in an abusive and capricious manner. Faced with a dissenting faculty member, the school opted to seek her termination rather than defend its policies or allow a dialogue on these measures.

  As a public university, the Maine legislature should take note of this case and the need to reinforce free speech protections in the system. The level of intolerance for opposing views alleged in this complaint is chilling. If these facts are proven, there were grounds for termination but it was not the termination of Professor Griffin.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 21:20

• Watch: Pastor Forcibly Removed From School Board Meeting For Reading Aloud Porn Book From Kids' Library
  Watch: Pastor Forcibly Removed From School Board Meeting For Reading Aloud Porn Book From Kids’ Library

  Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

  A pastor in Florida was forcibly removed from a school board meeting when he attempted to read aloud pornographic passages from a book that was available to children.

  

  The man was one of around 30 parents at the Monday meeting at the Indian River County School Board.

  Pastor John K. Amanchukwu Sr. began to read from the book titled 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher, but he only got one sentence in before the board shut him down.

  “As if letting him finger me was going to cure all my problems,” the pastor read, prompting one board member to yell into the microphone “Sir, I’ll stop you there.”

  Amanchukwu’s mic was then cut off and security was called as he attempted to continue to read.

  Watch:

  GRAPHIC: A citizen read from a pornographic book available to students in @IRCSchools and was SHUT DOWN by the board then REMOVED by security.

  Too graphic for the board to hear but perfectly ok for middle schoolers!

  Make it make sense pic.twitter.com/Zof0JuJgcU

  — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 29, 2023

  As Fox News reports, other parents at the meeting were also cut off when reading from different books, all available to school children.

  However, Governor Ron DeSantis instituted a rule earlier in the year that that states parents “shall have the right to read passages from any material that is subject to an objection.”

  The rule also decrees that if parents are prevented from doing so then the materials they are objecting to must be immediately removed and discontinued from use in the school.

  BREAKING: Florida school voted to remove dozens of pornographic books after parents read from these books out loud and one was even escorted out by security. Huge W https://t.co/0ltfLD47Y5 pic.twitter.com/np52UoPUJq

  — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 1, 2023

  Indian River County School Board member Jacqueline Rosario told Fox News that she was the only member to vote to remove the books last year and that until the new rule was instantiated, other board members ignored laws on pornographic, obscene, or sexually explicit content and continued to make the books available in school libraries. 

  “The difference now is, HB 1069 has allowed parents to read explicit books at board meetings. And if they get shut down, then the book is immediately removed. This is a good thing,” Rosario noted.

  “It is the litmus test for acceptable age appropriate and standards driven library books. If you can’t read them at a board meeting, then you can’t have them in our schools. All that is needed now is for a “passage” to be read and the book can be removed immediately,” she continued.

  Rosario added that “The superintendent and board members refused to acknowledge the gross content made available to kids until now. Finally, they don’t have a choice. It’s about time the truth be made known. Explicit, sexually graphic, pornographic, and obscene material does not belong in any school.”

  Related:

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  In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch.  We need you to sign up for our free newsletter here. Support my sponsor – Summit Vitamins – super charge your health and well being.

  Also, we urgently need your financial support here.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 21:00

• Russia Puts Its Longest Range Nuke-Capable Missile On Combat Duty, Nicknamed 'Satan II'
  Russia Puts Its Longest Range Nuke-Capable Missile On Combat Duty, Nicknamed ‘Satan II’

  Russia has on Friday announced its Sarmat ICBMs are on “combat duty”. RIA has quoted the head of the country’s space agency Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, to confirm: “the Sarmat strategic complex has been put on combat duty.”

  The nuclear-capable Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile system was previously touted by President Putin as being capable hitting “any target on Earth” – and is widely believed to be by far the longest-range missile in Russia’s arsenal (or in the world for that matter). It’s been nicknamed by NATO the “Satan II”. 

  

  The Sarmat, which is in a “superheavy” class of missiles, has a short initial boost phase which gives it better ability to elude all conventional anti-missile defense systems, given this results in a much smaller window of time to track it.

  By design, its super long-range gives it the ability to reach targets thousands of missiles away in the United States or Europe.

  According to its specifications, it’s by far the heaviest missile Russia possesses – at over 200 tons – and heavier than all foreign competitors: 

  This allows it to carry around 15 warheads, up to 750kt. (The bomb US dropped on Hiroshima was 15kt.)

  This would be enough to wipe out a country the size of France. It can also carry hypersonic missiles, rendering most missile defense systems ineffective.

  It has reportedly been in development since 2009, and has been in testing phase for several years, some test flights of which may have failed. The Sarmat has been touted as being able to reach speeds of nearly 16,000 mph.

  Last year, after a successful test, Putin described: “The new complex has the highest tactical and technical characteristics and is capable of overcoming all modern means of anti-missile defense. It has no analogues in the world and won’t have for a long time to come.”

  

  “This truly unique weapon will strengthen the combat potential of our armed forces, reliably ensure Russia’s security from external threats and provide food for thought for those who, in the heat of frenzied aggressive rhetoric, try to threaten our country,” Putin added at the time.

  Without doubt, the timing of Friday’s announcement is also meant to spook Western leaders, as nuclear rhetoric related to the Ukraine war continues to rise, particularly in the context of Moscow having recently positioned tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 20:45

• Federal Judge Blocks ATF's 'Tyrannical Overreach' Of Labeling Forced Reset Triggers As Machine Guns
  Federal Judge Blocks ATF’s ‘Tyrannical Overreach’ Of Labeling Forced Reset Triggers As Machine Guns

  Rare Breed Triggers (RBT), originally from Florida and currently headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota, along with the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR), secured a “major victory” in their legal battle against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in the case National Association for Gun Rights vs. Garland in federal court in the Northern District of Texas.

  On Thursday, federal Judge Reed O’Connor issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against President Biden’s ATF’s attempt to classify Forced Reset Trigger (FRT-15) as an illegal machine gun. RBT’s email about the judge’s ruling said:

  “Federal Judge, Reed O’Connor issues a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the DOJ/ATF related to their tyrannical overreach of the FRT-15 and other Forced Reset Triggers.”

  Judge O’Connor stated, “[T]he court finds that the Plaintiffs have demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on the merits… It is substantially likely that the ATF’s regulation containing a broadened definition of ‘machinegun’ exceeds the scope of its authority under the GCA [Gun Control Act of 1968].”

  

  The TRO is maintained until “either September 27, 2023, or such time that the Court rules on Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction (ECF No. 22), whichever is earlier,” according to the court.

  NAGR argued that the 5th Circuit’s recent ruling ‘bump stocks are not machine guns‘ should be applicable here. O’Connor agreed with NAGR: 

  “The Fifth Circuit’s recent analysis of the exact statutory language at issue here shows that Plaintiffs [NAGR] are very likely to succeed on the merits… Because FRTs do not enable a weapon to automatically fire multiple rounds with a single function of the trigger itself, the court finds that FRTs most likely are not machineguns under Cargill’s reasoning.”

  Owner of RBT, Lawrence DeMonico, explained in a video response: “If we win on forced reset triggers — we also win on pistol braces, bump stocks, 80% lowers, so-called assault weapons, and just about everything else the ATF is trying to ban by executive fiat right now.” 

  

  DeMonico continued, “It’s no secret that Joe Biden and his ATF want to persecute and prosecute every person that has purchased an FRT trigger.” 

  He noted the TRO only applies to the three plaintiffs in the case, adding, “Based on the language of the TRO — I think our chances are extremely good to get this extended to a full preliminary injunction that would protect all of NAGR’s members.” 

  DeMonico said NAGR is suing on behalf of its members, which means if the court grants a preliminary injunction — anyone who is a member (and owns an FRT-15) “should have civil and or criminal protection from the federal government until a final decision is made in this case.”

  We got a RESTRAINING ORDER against the ATF!

  Lawrence DeMonico of Rare Breed Triggers is here to tell you about the temporary restraining order against the ATF in the lawsuit with NAGR against their unconstitutional ban on FRTs.

  Join the fight: https://t.co/Wg7fIHdqs8 pic.twitter.com/upUBktWLU0

  — National Association for Gun Rights (@NatlGunRights) August 31, 2023

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

  Commenting on NAGR’s case is Defense Distributed, which also has a case in the 5th Circuit for ‘ghost guns’ said:

  After the Fifth Circuit’s “Cargill” and “VanDerStok” decisions, this court and others have been able to sharply limit the ATF’s power to invent new regulations. This is a personal vindication for Mr. DeMonico as well, who has had to suffer DOJ’s weaponization of the courts against him and FRT innovation in New York.

  For the last few years, we’ve thoroughly covered the ATF’s battle against RBT’s FRT-15 triggers that were once legally sold as a drop-in trigger for the AR-15-style rifle that forces the trigger to reset at such a high speed that it increases the weapon’s fire rate. However, the ATF felt it was necessary to arbitrarily label them as ‘machine guns’. 

  • ATF Now Labels FRT-15 A Machine Gun, Turning Law-Abiding Citizens Into Criminals
  • Rare Breed Triggers Fires Back At ATF, Says “Will Not Comply” ​​​​
  • Rare Breed Triggers Responds To Alleged Leaked ATF Memo To Seize FRT-15s From Dealers
  • ATF Declares Some FRT-15 Triggers “Prohibited Machineguns”
  • Rare Breed Triggers Cancels Customers’ Orders After “ATF Raided Vendor”

  Even to the extent that ATF agents were showing up at the homes of RBT customers to seize the trigger. 

  Remember last summer when this video went viral after ATF agents tried to conduct an inventory audit of a man who legally bought firearms? 

  ATF agents and a #Delaware state officer showed up to a man’s house without a warrant demanding to see his #firearms. #2A pic.twitter.com/DKuRd8UtKt

  — Sarah Fields (@SarahisCensored) July 20, 2022

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

  NAGR’s donation page for funding the lawsuit said, “At the request of Rare Breed Triggers, your donation will initially go towards counting you as an NAGR and NFGR member if we get an injunction against this Trigger Ban.”

  They added: “We’re helping to defend our friends at Rare Breed Triggers with a lawsuit against the ATF to protect our members and supporters who own FRTs from the ATF’s reign of terror.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 20:40

• Pornhub Wins Free Speech Challenge To New Verification And Warning Laws
  Pornhub Wins Free Speech Challenge To New Verification And Warning Laws

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  There is an interesting free speech ruling in Texas in favor of the adult entertainment site, Pornhub. Senior U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled that a Texas law requiring age-verification and warning labels about the alleged dangers of porn contravenes the First Amendment.

  

  Pornography sites have long been a target for politicians with a unique alliance of religious conservatives and feminists seeking to ban or limit access to material.

  In American Booksellers Association, Inc., et al. v. Hudnut, 771 F. 2nd 323 (1985), the Seventh Circuit issued an important ruling striking down an Indianapolis ordinance that was the product of one such campaign by feminist scholars who argued that pornography leads to violence and denigration of women.

  The ordinance declared such films as obscene due to “the graphic sexually explicit subordination of women, whether in pictures or in words.”

  On the other side, there is obviously a sizable number of citizens.

  Pornhub and Xvideos are ranked in the top ten most visited sites. However, the huge number of consumers for these sites are the least likely to publicly oppose efforts to curtail or bar their availability to the general public.

  The lawsuit challenged the Texas law, which was set to go into effect Sept. 1, 2023, and would have required sites to use “reasonable age verification methods” to “verify that an individual attempting to access the material is 18 years of age or older.” In addition, pornography sites would have been forced to display a “Texas Health and Human Services Warning” in at least 14-point font. One of those warnings reads, “Pornography increases the demand for prostitution, child exploitation, and child pornography.” The warning must be accompanied by a national toll-free number for people with mental health disorders.

  Judge Ezra ruled that “H.B. 1181 is unconstitutional on its face.” The court found that “the statute is not narrowly tailored and chills the speech of Plaintiffs and adults who wish to access sexual materials . . .  [it] is not narrowly tailored because it substantially regulates protected speech, is severely underinclusive, and uses overly restrictive enforcement methods.”

  Notably, the court recognizes that “the state has a legitimate goal in protecting children from sexually explicit material online.” Moreover, the court accepts that there are “viable and constitutional means to achieve Texas’s goal, and nothing in this order prevents the state from pursuing those means.”

  The decision is well analyzed and well supported. While the age verification presents a closer question, I am particularly concerned over the compelled speech element of the warnings. Notably, many conservatives supported the challenge in 303 Creative v. Elenis, where the state of Colorado required a website design to not only offer services to same-sex couples but to remove a statement on her website that was not consistent with the state’s views. Just as religious persons have free speech rights in refusing to adhere to certain policies, non-religious or secular persons (or companies) have free speech rights in pursuing their own counter values. Here businesses are being told to express views with which they disagree. Indeed, these statements have been contested for years.

  The court also addresses the continued use of vague obscenity standards to curtail adult material. While pornography is not the preferred subject for free speech advocates, it is an area that has long raised free speech issues. Governments often target the least popular forms of speech. While these sites appear very popular, few want to be publicly seen as supporting sites widely seen as sinful or sexist.

  I do view this law as containing unconstitutional elements. However, this is likely to be just the start to a long series of challenges and appeals. These laws have been enacted in other states, including Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia and Utah.

  Here is the opinion: Free Speech Coalition v. Colmenero

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 20:20

• Watch: Chicago Residents Rage As Illegal Migrant Housing Takes Over Their Neighborhoods
  Watch: Chicago Residents Rage As Illegal Migrant Housing Takes Over Their Neighborhoods

  Cook County, the home of the city of Chicago and Hyde Park township, voted with an astonishing 74% of the population in favor of the Democrat Party in the last presidential election.  The city has also been what progressives describe as a “sanctuary city” since at least 1985, which means that the city government refuses to enforce national immigration laws and often actively tries to interfere with federal agencies like ICE when they seek to detain illegal immigrants.  In this way, leftist governments have sought to undermine US border security by incentivizing migrants to enter the country without going through the proper vetting process.

  For decades conservatives and even some moderates have warned that the open border policies of the political left would lead to social and economic disaster.  Democrats happily ignored these arguments and chose instead to dismiss criticisms of illegal immigration as “racism.”  The reasons why are varied.  Some leftists believe that opening the borders is just a precursor to a sweeping amnesty for illegals who will then become a dedicated voting block for Democrats.  Others see the US as a “white patriarchy” that needs to be dismantled and replaced using a Cloward-Piven approach.  Others just want to see America burn.   

  While often holding up the cause of “empathy” for “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” the progressive position always smelled of opportunism and dishonesty.  Now we have the proof.  With all the pontificating about how “asylum is not illegal” and “America is a melting pot”, leftist regions are finally beginning to face the consequences of their own weaponization of the border, and they really don’t like it.   

  Chicago appears to be the next in line to get a dose of karma.  Former mayor Lori Lightfoot attacked Texas Governor Greg Abbot over his relocation of migrants to the city in May, calling the move “inhumane” and “dangerous.”  Lightfoot cited a “lack of communication” with the city government, with buses of illegals arriving unannounced.  She did not seem to grasp the irony; open border policies and broad asylum regulations mean red states are constantly under siege with no way of knowing how many migrants are coming at an given time.  Federal government interference means states have limited tools to “legally” react to the invasion.  

  Cook County has been hit with at least 13,500 migrants in the past year, with hundreds being housed in Hyde Park neighborhoods, increasing tensions in an already crime addled metropolis.  The thing is, this is what residents voted for.  The Utopian fantasy of an open border society that is still able to maintain its economy and its inherent cultural structures is naive at best.  All those virtuous feelings go out the window once their neighborhoods are overrun and their city welfare programs are tapped out.  Soon, those same compassionate progressives are threatening violence.

  Woodlawn, Chicago residents blow up over illegals in the neighborhood:

  “They disrespect us, rob us, harass us”

  “We’re gonna take over. Nobody is gonna be able to stop us from what we’re gonna to do them.” pic.twitter.com/8bO5u86WSX

  — End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 27, 2023

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  New York City and Washington DC have faced similar results.  While border towns deal with millions of migrants per year (2.79 million in 2022 alone), all it took was 10,000 – 15,000 migrants to grind NY and DC into a panic.  In July, NY Mayor Eric Adams warned that the city was “out of room” and that migrant housing costs could exceed $12 billion.  DC Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a state of public emergency.  The bottom line?  These sanctuary cities don’t want any more migrants, and neither do the residents, but they continue to keep the same old policies in place. 

  So where does that leave them?  In a self perpetuating death spiral.  They’ll never admit their ideological views were unrealistic because that would be admitting conservatives were right.  So, they will continue taking in migrants and destroying their own local economy and security.  They will ride this atomic bomb all the way to ground zero.     

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 20:00

• Woman Says Her Daughter Was Sex Trafficked After School Hid Gender Transition
  Woman Says Her Daughter Was Sex Trafficked After School Hid Gender Transition

  Authored by Matt McGregor via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A woman has filed a lawsuit against a Virginia school district alleging its clandestine support of her daughter’s decision to change her gender identity resulted in her being threatened, bullied, and ultimately trafficked by sexual predators.

  

  Michele Blair, biological grandmother and adoptive mother of 16-year-old Sage Blair, alleges in the lawsuit (pdf) filed in August that staff at the Appomattox County High School directed Sage—who has a history of mental health issues and early childhood trauma—to change her name and pronouns and to use the boys’ bathroom, all the while keeping it a secret from Mrs. Blair.

  While attending school identifying as a boy named “Draco,” Sage faced abuse from the other students because of the actions of the staff to transition her, Mrs. Blair told The Epoch Times.

  “She was being verbally, physically, and sexually harassed, with constant threats of rape from the male students, and despite this, the school still encouraged her to use the boys’ bathroom,” Mrs. Blair said.

  Among the defendants named in the lawsuit are two counselors—Dena Olsen and Avery Via—and Maryland public defender Aneesa Khan.

  According to the lawsuit, Ms. Olsen and Mr. Via played a key role in deliberately concealing Sage’s transition while engaging in inappropriate psychotherapy methods to facilitate Sage’s belief that she was a boy, which later led to increased trauma and her decision to run away in August 2021.

  Sage—identified as “S.B.” in the lawsuit—was kidnapped, drugged, and raped by an adult male who later drove her to Washington, where she was left with two brothers who drugged and raped her again before driving her to Maryland, where she was then left with a registered sex offender who kept her in a locked room only to be trafficked to other men, the lawsuit states.

  After Sage had gone, law enforcement found a note she left for her parents which read, “You’ve done your job, Jesus loves you. … I’m afraid of what is to come if I stayed. Be on your guard. There are bad people around here. … All my love,” the complaint states.

  ‘An Ideological Agenda’

  Though law enforcement rescued Sage on Sept. 2, 2021, Mrs. Blair was not allowed to take her home because Ms. Khan, who was assigned as Sage’s public offender, alleged neglect at home, an allegation that was supported by Ms. Olsen and Mr. Via based on the supposition that Mrs. Blair and her husband weren’t acknowledging Sage as a male.

  “She went with her own ideological agenda because of her belief that I was not adequately supporting Sage,” Mrs. Blair said. “We got into a courtroom, and she came up on a big Zoom screen. I called her name, saying, ‘I love you, Sage,’ and she replied, ‘I love you, Nana,’ and that was it. The public defender shut it down and convinced the judge that I was abusive because I didn’t call her by her boy name.”

  Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Robert Kershaw at one point had Mrs. Blair’s husband removed from the courtroom for forgetting to use Sage’s masculine pronouns, she said, and the judge refused to acknowledge Sage’s need for trauma care, Mrs. Blair said.

  Ms. Khan, with the assistance of Ms. Olsen and Mr. Via, had successfully convinced Judge Kershaw to have Sage put in the custody of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services (DJS) where, at Ms. Khan’s insistence, she was housed with high-risk adolescent males who, again, sexually assaulted her, the lawsuit states.

  “I just don’t understand why he went along with it,” Mrs. Blair said.

  A month later in November, Sage fled to Texas to meet someone she’d met online who she believed was 16, but the person turned out to be another sex trafficker.

  This time, Texas authorities were able to intervene and get her back to Mrs. Blair, where she remains after having been away from home for over a year.

  “This all could have been avoided if the school had informed me of what was going on instead of keeping me in the dark,” Mrs. Blair said. “Sage would not have a lifetime complex PTSD diagnosis she will struggle with the rest of her life.”

  Sage had already spent several months in the foster care system before she was adopted by the Blairs when she was 2 years old after her father died and her mother was unable to care for her.

  “She had a history of mental health issues from early childhood trauma,” Mrs. Blair said.

  Sage has good days and bad days, Mrs. Blair said.

  “It’s a long road, but where there’s life, there’s hope, and I’m so grateful she’s alive,” she said.

  The Lawsuit

  Mary McAlister, senior litigation counsel with Child & Parental Rights Campaign, the firm representing Mrs. Blair, told The Epoch Times that they are suing school staff and the public defender for several causes of action, the first being the violation of the fundamental parental right of a parent to direct the upbringing of the child and a second being a violation of civil rights.

  “By depriving Plaintiff of critical information regarding S.B.’s gender identity and sexual harassment and assaults at school, Defendants Olsen and Via have infringed Plaintiff’s fundamental right to direct S.B.’s upbringing in that Plaintiff did not have the information necessary to make reasoned decisions regarding how to respond to S.B.’s announcement of a male gender identity and the sexual harassment she suffered in the way most appropriate for protecting S.B.’s mental health and keeping her safe,” the complaint states.

  They are suing for violation of Title IX for “deliberate indifference to sexual harassment” because, according to the complaint, school staff failed to take corrective measures when Sage reported she was being sexually assaulted.

  “As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ deliberate indifference to the severe, pervasive and objectively offensive sexual harassment suffered by S.B.,” the lawsuit states, Sage will “continue to suffer significant physical and psychological trauma, educational disruption, and emotional distress.”

  The lawsuit alleges that Ms. Olsen, Mr. Via, and Ms. Khan violated Mrs. Blair’s fundamental right to custody of Sage because of a “perceived viewpoint about affirming an incongruent gender identity in her daughter.”

  “Mrs. Blair is informed and believes that while S.B. was in custody in Baltimore Ms. Khan asked S.B. whether S.B.’s parents called her a boy at home, to which S.B. answered no,” the complaint states. “Upon hearing that answer, Ms. Khan determined, without taking into account any of S.B.’s mental health history or life circumstances and without having any contact with Mrs. Blair, that Mrs. Blair had an unfavorable viewpoint of S.B.’s assertion of a male gender identity, and that her perceived viewpoint constituted abuse and neglect.”

  Alleged Abuse

  According to the complaint, Ms. Khan met with Ms. Olsen and Mr. Via and determined that Mrs. Blair was guilty of abuse, though they never discussed Sage’s gender identity with Mrs. Blair.

  “Despite only speaking with Mrs. Blair briefly on two occasions in August 2021, and not about S.B.’s asserted male gender identity, Mr. Via presented false sworn testimony that Mrs. Blair and her husband had been verbally abusive, emotionally abusive, and unsupportive to S.B.,” the lawsuit states. “Mr. Via also acted to provide Ms. Khan with mental health records for S.B., including the August 5, 2021 psychiatric evaluation showing a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, a diagnosis of which Mrs. Blair was not aware.”

  Mrs. Blair is additionally suing Ms. Khan for legal malpractice.

  “Ms. Khan knowingly and intentionally presented that false testimony to the Maryland court to secure an order of temporary custody with Maryland DJS so as to prevent Mrs. Blair from regaining custody and returning S.B. to Virginia,” the lawsuit states.

  The Epoch Times contacted the Maryland Office of the Public Defender for comment.

  ‘Sage’s Law’

  To see that this doesn’t happen to any more parents, Mrs. Blair got involved in telling her story to push for legislation titled “Sage’s law,” which would prohibit school staff from hiding gender identity choices from the parents.

  In January, Mrs. Blair gave her testimony before the Pre-K-12 Subcommittee of the Virginia House of Delegates, where she advocated for the passage of the bill.

  Ms. McAlister said after the bill was introduced in the 2023 legislative session, it passed the Republican-controlled House of Delegates, but when it got to the Democrat-controlled Senate, it died.

  “Every Democrat serving in the General Assembly voted against it, which is a sad commentary,” Ms. McAlister said. “But Virginia is having elections this November and the entire General Assembly is up for reelection, so if the makeup of the Legislature changes to be more Republican, then there’s great hope this law could be passed, and we’re certain Gov. [Glenn] Youngkin will sign it.”

  Since telling her story, Mrs. Blair said she’s discovered she’s not alone.

  Government agendas to separate children from their parents based on gender ideologies have ramped up since 2020, but it’s the job of the parents to be the voice of reason for their children, Mrs. Blair said.

  “We are the ones to make important personal and mental health decisions for our children,” Mrs. Blair said. “That’s not the role of the school.”

  Now, Mrs. Blair is telling other parents that they’re not alone.

  “Keep fighting for your children because we love them more than any school or court system ever could,” she said.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 19:40

• New Migration Data Reveals Urban Exodus Continues Despite Frozen Housing Market
  New Migration Data Reveals Urban Exodus Continues Despite Frozen Housing Market

  Despite the worst housing affordability crisis in decades and a frozen housing market, the latest migration data reveals a clear pattern: Americans continue to ditch California’s urban centers, Chicago, and Northeastern cities, flocking to Sun Belt and Southwest US cities. 

  A new report from John Burns Real Estate Consulting shows Houston, Jacksonville, Charlotte, San Antonia, Fort Worth, and Nashville still had strong inbound migration, while the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Orange County, San Diego, San Jose, Miami, Washington, DC, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco had very negative outbound migration flows. 

  

  To determine migration trends, the team analyzed current postal address change forms within a few months, explaining that this data “has given us far more conviction in expressing” migration trends nationwide. 

  Here’s a snapshot of the report:

  The winners: Strong housing demand

  Strong migration continues in:

  1. Houston
  2. Jacksonville
  3. Charlotte
  4. San Antonio
  5. Fort Worth
  6. Nashville

  Previously strong migration is now trending less strong than one year ago in:

  1. Dallas
  2. Atlanta
  3. Tampa
  4. Boise
  5. Orlando
  6. Raleigh-Durham

  Previously strong migration is now trending to barely positive migration in:

  1. Phoenix
  2. Austin
  3. Las Vegas

  The losers: Weak housing demand

  Previously strong in-migration is now trending negatively in:

  1. Sacramento
  2. Riverside-San Bernardino

  Previously small out-migration is now trending as a big out-migration in:

  1. Denver
  2. Salt Lake
  3. Philadelphia
  4. Seattle

  Very negative domestic out-migration continues, which is likely somewhat offset by strong international migration, in:

  1. East Bay Area
  2. Orange County
  3. San Diego
  4. San Jose
  5. Miami
  6. Washington, DC
  7. Boston
  8. Chicago
  9. San Francisco

  The team noted the data excludes international migration. There was no mention of specific drivers pushing people out of metros, such as San Francisco, Chicago, and other Northeast cities. However, one can only assume that out-of-control violent crime and soaring shelter costs have something to do with it. 

  Migration patterns that took root in the Covid era remain persistent. We expect once the 30-year fixed mortgage rate, now hovering over 7%, hits its peak and reverses due to a worsening economic outlook or a potential U-turn in the Fed’s hiking strategy, the frozen housing market might come alive once more, resulting in even more Americans exiting progressive-run cities that have become nothing more than crime-infested hellholes. 

  Some Americans are ditching metro areas all together: Americans Panic Search “Live Off Grid” As Housing Crisis Worsens And Democrat Cities Implode. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 19:20

• Amid Massive Drought, Arizona Lawmaker Calls Out Saudi 'Theft' Of State's Water
  Amid Massive Drought, Arizona Lawmaker Calls Out Saudi ‘Theft’ Of State’s Water

  Via Middle East Eye

  A US lawmaker from the state of Arizona has introduced legislation in Congress that would impose a 300 percent tax on the sale of water-intensive crops grown by foreign companies in the state, in a bid to curb the extensive use of water in the drought-stricken state.

  The bill, titled the Domestic Water Protection Act of 2023, was introduced by Ruben Gallego, a Democrat who in a press release announcing the measure directly called out Saudi Arabia.

  

  “Arizona’s water and crops belong in Arizona, not Saudi Arabia,” Gallego said in his statement. “No longer should foreign governments and companies be given sweetheart deals that leave Arizonans worse off.”

  “I’m proud to lead the Domestic Water Protection Act to stop these entities from stealing our state’s water.”

  Arizona has been leasing farmland to a Saudi company called Fondomonte, which uses the state’s groundwater to grow alfalfa, which is then exported to feed cows in the country.

  There is no firm data on exactly how much water the company uses, but a State Land Department report states that Fondomonte is estimated to be using as much as 18,000 acre-feet (22 million cubic metres) each year, which is enough water to supply 54,000 single-family homes.

  The estimated cost of that much water is between three to four million dollars a year.

  In one area, the Butler Valley in Arizona, Fondomonte pays only $25 per acre for the water that it uses, which is one-sixth of the market price for the land, Middle East Eye reported in November, citing a realtor in the area.

  In addition to Saudi Arabia’s Fondomonte, the United Arab Emirates company al-Dahra grows 30,000 acres (12,000 hectares) of alfalfa, garlic and onion in Arizona and California, according to the company’s website.

  The exporting of “virtual water” – water embedded in products such as produce and crops – also has a huge environmental impact on the local communities.

  And as Saudi and Emirati companies continue to pump out water from aquifers, scientists worry that they are pumping at such a rate that they will not be able to be replenished. Amid the massive drought the region is facing, with dwindling surface water supplies, these aquifers are the area’s last option for water.

  Arizona’s water and crops belong in Arizona–not Saudi Arabia.

  That’s why I introduced the Domestic Water Protection Act so foreign companies stop stealing our state’s resources.https://t.co/YvXZQMdWjz

  — Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) August 30, 2023

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  A 2020 Arizona Department of Water Resources report found that groundwater levels in the Willcox basin in southeastern Arizona dropped roughly 2.5 metres a year in some areas from 2008 to 2018. A 2018 report estimated that at least roughly 221.8 billion litres were drawn out of the aquifer each year from 1995 to 2015.

  “As our communities in Arizona feel the intense effects of the climate crisis and prolonged drought, we are simultaneously being stripped by Saudi-owned companies of our most precious resource – our water,” Raul Grijalva, a cosponsor of the legislation, said in a press release.

  Recently, leaders in the state of Arizona have signalled their intentions to end the lease with Fondomonte, which would effectively stop the company from pumping more groundwater.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 19:00

• Nancy, He's Not: Uniparty McCarthy Won't Pull Trigger On Biden Impeachment Without Doubtful House Vote
  Nancy, He’s Not: Uniparty McCarthy Won’t Pull Trigger On Biden Impeachment Without Doubtful House Vote

  You know how Democrats are highly coordinated when it comes to things like spying on Trump, framing Trump with a hoax dossier, then impeaching Trump after a fat Ukraine simp named Vindman (who was offered the role of Ukraine’s Secretary of Defense) tattled on the former president for asking about Biden corruption that obviously happened? Uncanny isn’t it.

  

  And how was that first impeachment inquiry launched against Trump (not the other one for ‘inciting’ January 6th)?

  Nancy Pelosi simply drew out her pen and pulled the trigger, willing it into existence.

  So what about an impeachment inquiry into Biden for said obvious corruption Trump was impeached for asking about?

  Not so fast.

  On Friday, Kevin ‘Uniparty’ McCarthy decreed that he hasn’t the spine to launch an impeachment inquiry unless the entire House signs off on it. And given the GOP’s slim margins in the chamber, he can only lose four votes.

  “To open an impeachment inquiry is a serious matter, and House Republicans would not take it lightly or use it for political purposes. The American people deserve to be heard on this matter through their elected representatives,” McCarthy said in a statement to Breitbart. “That’s why, if we move forward with an impeachment inquiry, it would occur through a vote on the floor of the People’s House and not through a declaration by one person.”

  McCarthy’s comment came days after CNN reported that Republicans weren’t sure if an impeachment inquiry would have the full support of the House.

  “Leadership recognizes that the entire House Republican conference is not yet sold on the politically risky idea of impeachment,” reads the report, which was countered by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL).

  

  “I don’t believe that a vote of the House is required to open an impeachment inquiry,” said Gaetz, who supports a Biden impeachment and sits on the House Judiciary Committee.

  So the top Republican in the House – who’s in charge of the House, won’t use his power to try and impeach an obviously corrupt President, while the top Republican in the Senate is now glitching on a monthly basis.

  This is what ‘Rich Men North of Richmond‘ skyrocketed to #1 on iTunes.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 18:40

• Busing Illegal Immigrants To Blue America Is Working
  Busing Illegal Immigrants To Blue America Is Working

  Authored by Jarrett Stepman via The Epoch Times,

  Republican border-state strategy to send illegal immigrants to Democrat-run cities and states is paying off.

  

  On Thursday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul sent a letter to President Joe Biden begging for federal aid. Importantly, she finally acknowledged where the problem is coming from.

  “This is a financial burden the city and state are shouldering on behalf of the federal government,” Hochul, a fellow Democrat, said of the illegal immigrants pouring into New York.

  “I cannot ask New Yorkers to pay for what is fundamentally a federal responsibility,” the governor wrote. “And I urge the federal government to take prompt and significant action today to meet its obligation to New York State.”

  In a press conference following release of the letter, Hochul further complained about illegal immigrants released into the country by the Biden administration.

  NY Gov. Hochul complains the state has “shouldered the burden” of processed and released migrants coming from the southern border for “far too long,” pointing to the billions of dollars they have spent to take care of the daily arrivals. pic.twitter.com/KUBSHwtKtM

  — Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) August 24, 2023

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

  What happened to all are welcome, no exceptions?

  This is an interesting pivot from the New York governor. Until now, Democrat politicians mostly have been unwilling to criticize the White House in any way on the border security issue, or even suggest that the Biden administration is where the problem originates.

  If you want to know the reason for the sudden pivot, a new poll sheds light. The Siena College poll released Tuesday shows that New Yorkers are deeply discontented about the surge of illegal immigrants in their state and mostly blame Democrat leaders.

  “New Yorkers—including huge majorities of Democrats, Republicans, independents, upstaters and downstaters—overwhelmingly say that the recent influx of migrants to New York is a serious problem for the state,” Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said.

  Now, this may seem meaningless in the sense that New York is unlikely to become a red state any time soon. But keep in mind that the crime issue didn’t just swing seats from Democrat to Republican in the 2022 midterm elections, it likely also gave the GOP overall control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

  Discontent over lawless Democrat policies is much worse now, and New York voters are heaping the blame on Hochul, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and, most of all, Biden.

  Open borders and the idea that all immigration—whether legal or illegal—is a positive good is a matter of faith for Democrat Party activists. That’s less likely to be true with rank-and-file voters and independents.

  “There is no question in my mind that the politics of this is a disaster to Democrats,” said Howard Wolfson, a former deputy and political adviser to former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in an interview with The New York Times.

  “This issue alone has the potential to cost Democrats the House, because it is such a huge issue in New York City and the coverage of it is clearly heard and seen by voters in all of these swing districts in the suburbs,” Wolfson said.

  He described the issue as a “ticking time bomb” for Democrats.

  I’d say the bomb already has gone off.

  Since Biden entered the White House in January 2021, a historic stream of illegal immigrants has poured across the U.S. southern border. This has had catastrophic consequences for many swamped communities in Texas and Arizona especially. They’ve shouldered the burden of the border crisis for years, so it’s a little rich for New York to be throwing a pity party.

  It obviously would be better if the federal government was doing its job and enforcing our laws, but until that time there’s little border states can do to “fix” the situation. All they can do is mitigate the damage.

  The Biden administration has done all it can to make sure that the border remains nice and open, er, “secure.”

  The administration’s actions have made it clear that Biden and his top officials want to flood the country with illegal immigrants.

  This is completely insane.

  Biden’s DOJ is suing @elonmusk‘s SpaceX because they only hired American citizens instead of refugees and asylum seekers and wants to force them to give full back pay to non-citizens that they choose to not hire. pic.twitter.com/IzB3GVj252

  — Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 24, 2023

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

  And that’s where border-state busing comes in.

  Instead of carrying the entire burden of the Biden-led border disaster, Republican governors such as Greg Abbott in Texas, Ron DeSantis in Florida, and Doug Ducey in Arizona decided to ship illegal immigrants to places such as Chicago, New York, the District of Columbia, and, most amusingly, Martha’s Vineyard.

  This is hardly ideal. But if the federal government is going to foist open borders on the country, why not at least force the people who voted for this nonsense to pay more of the price for it?

  Of course, Democrats in those destinations pointed fingers at the Republican governors for their newfound troubles, and some left-wing political commentators tried to say that shipping illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard—a posh, liberal vacation destination—was akin to Nazism.

  Biden’s trusty allies in the legacy media have done all they can to “contextualize” the immigration issue to protect the president from criticism.

  However, much like with the crime surge, it’s hard to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people forever when they literally see the consequences of bad policies in their neighborhoods.

  Thanks to Biden, the bill for once low-cost, sanctuary-city virtue signaling has come due.

  I suggest that if Democrat politicians want federal aid to care for illegal immigrants, they should demand that the White House work to restore the policies of the previous administration and actually attempt to get control of the border. The excuses have run out, the border crisis has become a national crisis, and blame for this mess falls on the “big guy” in the Oval Office.

  Democrats’ demands for more money should be met with a resounding “no” until the actual problem is fixed at its source.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 18:20

• NYPD To Send Drones Over Backyard Barbecues This Weekend
  NYPD To Send Drones Over Backyard Barbecues This Weekend

  Want to throw a barbecue in NYC this weekend? The NYPD’s got you covered – with drones.

  

  According to AP, the city plans to pilot the unmanned aircraft in response to complains about large gatherings over labor day weekend – including private events.

  “If a caller states there’s a large crowd, a large party in a backyard, we’re going to be utilizing our assets to go up and go check on the party,” said assistant NYPD Commissioner, Kaz Daughtry.

  Privacy advocates, and anyone who’s not down with bullshit police surveillance, naturally flipped their lid at the announcement.

  “It’s a troubling announcement and it flies in the face of the POST Act,” said privacy and technology strategist Daniel Schwarz of the NY Civil Liberties Union, referring to a 2020 city law that requires the NYPD to let people know about their surveillance tactics. “Deploying drones in this way is a sci-fi inspired scenario.”

  The move was announced during a security briefing focused on J’ouvert, an annual Caribbean festival marking the end of slavery that brings thousands of revelers and a heavy police presence to the streets of Brooklyn. Daughtry said the drones would respond to “non-priority and priority calls” beyond the parade route.

  Like many cities, New York is increasingly relying on drones for policing purposes. Data maintained by the city shows the police department has used drones for public safety or emergency purposes 124 times this year, up from just four times in all of 2022. They were spotted in the skies after a parking garage collapse earlier this year and when a giveaway event devolved into teenage mayhem. -AP

  Mayor Eric Adams, no surprise, wants the NYPD to embrace the “endless” potential of drones, citing Israel’s use of them after visiting last week. 

  

  Privacy advocates say that regulations aren’t sufficient to deploy mass drone surveillance, and opens the door to spying that would be illegal if conducted by a human cop.

  “One of the biggest concerns with the rush to roll out new forms of aerial surveillance is how few protections we have against seeing these cameras aimed at our backyards or even our bedrooms,” said Albert Fox Cahn, the executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP).

  According to the report, approximately 1,400 police departments nationwide are using drones in some form, according to the ACLU.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 18:00

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• German Museum Denies White People Entry To Colonial Exhibit On Saturdays, Only BIPoC Allowed Inside
  German Museum Denies White People Entry To Colonial Exhibit On Saturdays, Only BIPoC Allowed Inside

  Authored by John Cody via ReMix News,

  

  A German museum of industrial heritage in Dortmund only allows “Black, Indigenous and People of Color” to enter the museum on Saturdays between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. for the “That’s Colonial” exhibition, with the prohibition sparking claims of racism.

  The Zollern Colliery museum argues it is a “safer space” intended to protect people of color from “further discrimination.”

  The exclusive access is “an offer for BIPoC and black people to be able to withdraw and exchange ideas openly,” reads the museum’s website. “For BIPoC, such safe spaces are rarely found in everyday life or in museum rooms.”

  The exhibit partly focuses on racial grievances, with the introduction to the exhibition on the website writing: “The morning cup of coffee, a street name or certain prejudices: Colonial history is still present in our everyday lives – even in Westphalia.”

  A small team belonging to Antenne Frei radio station filmed themselves trying to enter the museum, but were blocked because they are White people.

  The employees struggled to explain why their prohibition was not racism when confronted by a host from the radio station.

  Wenn Weiße in Deutschland zu bestimmten Zeiten nicht ins Museum dürfen….

  Rassismus in Dortmund. Unfassbar. #ZecheZollernhttps://t.co/XwcWshXwjuhttps://t.co/qDaDKdg7a8 pic.twitter.com/nH0NVWj5aP

  — Joana Cotar (@JoanaCotar) August 29, 2023

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  “If there’s a People of Color in there now, and he says I don’t want that White guy in here, then you must go out,” said a male employee. The host then asked, “Because we have the wrong skin color?”

  The employee responded: “I can’t explain that. I can’t explain that.” When he was told that he should know because he works there, he repeated that he could not explain how or why the rule was in place.

  “But that’s racism,” responded the radio host.

  Inside the museum building, the radio host said: “If we turn it around now and say Blacks are not allowed in, can you imagine what an impression that would make? Now, it’s the case that the Whites can’t go in…”

  A female employee responded: “There’s nothing to say.” The host then said, “You don’t want to say anything,” to which she responded, “I don’t want to.”

  He then stated he wanted his entry fee back since he did not find the policy appropriate, and the female employee agreed.

  The Zollern Colliery museum is one of the LWL museums, which are funded by taxpayers. The official website states: “The LWL museums bring together the history of the Westphalia-Lippe region in the areas of industry, handicrafts, technology, art, natural history, archaeology, monastic and everyday culture. They take on current topics and present attractive and lively exhibitions for people of all generations.”

  Similar anti-White policies are spreading throughout the West. For example, a Black artist collective in Switzerland occupied a theater last year and demanded a non-White theater space, arguing that “there is no racism against Whites.” The group managed to collect hundreds of thousands of francs from the Swiss government despite openly discriminating against Whites.

  Many Whites across the West are growing increasingly concerned, and despite claims that racism against Whites does not exist, polling shows that 80 percent of French say that anti-White racism exists.

  In that country, a “Blacks only” Christmas market caused widespread controversy in 2021.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 02:00

• Escobar: NATOstan Robots Versus The Heavenly Horses Of Multipolarity
  Escobar: NATOstan Robots Versus The Heavenly Horses Of Multipolarity

  Authored by Pepe Escobar,

  The entire West is waiting at the room at the station with black curtains – and no trains.

  

  We will all need plenty of time and introspection to analyze the full range of game-changing vectors unleashed by the unveiling of BRICS 11 last week in South Africa.

  Yet time waits for no one. The Empire will (italics mine) strike back in full force; in fact its multi-hydra Hybrid War tentacles are already on display.

  Here and here I have attempted two rough drafts of History on the birth of BRICS 11. Essentially, what the Russia-China strategic partnership is accomplishing, one (giant) step at a time, is also multi-vectorial:

  – expanding BRICS into an alliance to fight against U.S. non-diplomacy.

  – counter-acting the sanctions dementia.

  – promoting alternatives to SWIFT.

  – promoting autonomy, self-reliance and instances of sovereignty.

  – and in the near future, integrating BRICS 11 (and counting) with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to counter imperial military threats, something already alluded to by President Lukashenko, the inventor of the precious neologism “Global Globe”.

  In contrast, the indispensable Michael Hudson has constantly shown how the U.S. and EU’s “strategic error of self-isolation from the rest of the world is so massive, so total, that its effects are the equivalent of a world war.”

  Thus Prof. Hudson’s contention that the proxy war in Ukraine – not only against Russia but also against Europe – “may be thought of as World War III.”

  In several ways, Prof. Hudson details, we are living “an outgrowth of World War II, whose aftermath saw the United States establish international economic and political organization under its own control to operate in its own national self-interest: the International Monetary Fund to impose U.S. financial control and dollarize the world economy; the World Bank to lend governments money to bear the infrastructure costs of creating trade dependency on U.S. food and manufactures; promoting plantation agriculture, U.S./NATO control of oil, mining and natural resources; and United Nations agencies under U.S. control, with veto power in all international organizations that it created or joined.”

  Now it’s another ball game entirely when it comes to Global South, or Global Majority, of “Global Globe” real emancipation. Just take Moscow hosting the Russia-Africa summit in late July, then Beijing, with Xi in person, spending a day last week in Johannesburg with dozens of African leaders, all of them part of the new Non-Aligned Movement (NAM): the G77 (actually 134 nations), presided by a Cuban, President Diaz-Canel.

  That’s the Russia-China Double Helix in effect – offering large swathes of the “Global Globe” security and high-tech infrastructure (Russia) and finance, manufactured exports and road and rail infrastructure (China).

  In this context, a BRICS currency is not necessary. Prof. Hudson crucially quotes President Putin: what’s needed is a “means of settlement” for Central Banks for their balance of payments, to keep in check imbalances in trade and investment. That has nothing to do with a BRICS gold-backed supra-national currency.

  Moreover, there will be no need for a new reserve currency as increasingly more nations will be ditching the U.S. dollar in their settlements.

  Putin has referred to a “temporary” accounting unit – as intra-BRICS 11 trade will be inevitably expanding in their national currencies. All that will develop in the context of an increasingly overwhelming alliance of major oil, gas, minerals, agriculture and commodities producers: a real (italics mine) economy capable of supporting a new global order progressively pushing Western dominance into oblivion.

  Call it the soft way to euthanize Hegemony.

  All aboard the “malign China” narrative

  Now compare all of the above with that piece of Norwegian wood posing as NATO secretary-general telling the CIA mouthpiece paper in Washington, in a unique moment of frankness, that the Ukraine War “didn’t start in 2022. The war started in 2014”.

  So here we have a designated imperial vassal plainly admitting that the whole thing started with Maidan, the U.S.-engineered coup supervised by cookie distributor Vicky “F**k the E” Nuland. This means that NATO’s claim of a Russia “invasion”, referring to the Special Military Operation (SMO) is absolutely bogus from a legal standpoint.

  It’s firmly established that the spin doctors/ paid propagandist “experts” of Atlanticist idiocracy, practicing an unrivalled mix of arrogance/ignorance, believe they can get away with anything when it comes to demonizing Russia. The same applies to their new narrative on “malign China”.

  Chinese scholars which I have the honor to interact with are always delighted to point out that imperial pop narratives and predictive programming are absolutely useless when it comes to confronting Zhong Hua (“The Splendid Central Civilization”).

  That’s because China, as one of them describes it, is endowed with a “clear-minded, purposeful and relentless aristocratic oligarchy at the helm of the Chinese State”, using tools of power that guarantee, among other issues, public safety and hygiene for all; education focused on learning useful information and skills, not indoctrination; a monetary system under control; physical assets and the industrial capacity to make real stuff; first-class diplomatic, supply chain, techno-scientific, economic, cultural, commercial, geostrategic and financial networks; and first-class physical infrastructure.

  And yet, since at least 1990, Western mainstream media is obsessed to dictate that China’s economic collapse, or “hard landing”, is imminent.

  Nonsense. As another Chinese scholar frames it, “China’s strategy has been to let sleeping dogs lie and let lying machines lie. Meanwhile, let China surpass them in their sleep and cause the Empire’s demise.”

  Poisons, viruses, microchips

  And that bring us full circle back to the New Great Game: NATOstan versus the Multipolar World. No matter the evidence provided by graphic reality, NATOstan in advanced seppuku mode – especially the European sector – actually believes it will win the war against Russia-China.

  As for the Global South/Global Majority/”Global Globe”, they are regarded as enemies. So their mostly poor populations should be poisoned with famine, experimental injections, new modified viruses, implanted microchips as in BCI (Brain Computer Interface) and soon NATO As Global Robocop “security” outfits.

  The coming of BRICS 11 is already unleashing a new imperial wave of deadly poisoning, brand new viruses and cyborgs.

  The imperial master issued the order to “save” the Japanese seafood industry – a few scraps as quid pro quod for Tokyo acting as a rabid dog in the imperial Chip War against China, and dutifully pledging alliance at the recent Camp David summit side by side with the South Korean vassals.

  The EU vassals, in synch, lifted Japan food import rules just as Fukushima nuclear wastewater was to be pumped into the ocean. That’s yet another instance of the EU continuing to dig its own grave – as Japan is set to suffer a Typhoon Number Ten type of blowback.

  Radiation spread across the world through the Pacific will breed endless cancer patients around the world and simultaneously destroy the economy of several small island nations relying heavily on tourism.

  In parallel, Sergey Glazyev, Minister of Macroeconomics at the Eurasian Economic Commission, part of the EAEU, has been among the very few warning about the new trans-humanist frontier: the Nanotechnology Injection craze ahead – something quite well documented in scientific journals.

  Quoting Dr. Steve Hotze, Glazyev in one of his Telegram posts explained what DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has been doing, “injecting nanobots in the form of graphene oxide and hydrogel” into the human body, thus creating an interface between nanobots and brain cells. We become “a receptor, receiver and transmitter of signals. The brain will receive signals from the outside, and you can be manipulated remotely.”

  Glazyev also refers to the by now frantic promotion of “Eris”, a new Covid variety, named by the WHO after the Greek goddess of discord and enmity, daughter of the goddess of night, Nykta.

  Those familiar with Greek mythology will know that Eris was quite angry because she was not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. Her vengeance was to plant at the feast a golden apple from the gardens of Hesperides with the inscription “Most Beautiful”: that was the legendary “apple of discord”, which generated the Mother of All Catfights between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. And that eventually led to no less than the Trojan War.

  In the White Room, with black curtains

  It’s oh so predictable, coming from those “elites” running the show, to name a new virus as a harbinger of war. After all, The Next War is badly needed because Project Ukraine turned out to be a massive strategic failure, with the cosmic humiliation of NATO just around the corner.

  During the Vietnam War – which the empire lost to a peasant guerrilla army – the daily briefing at the command HQ in Saigon was derided by every journalist with an IQ above room temperature as the “Saigon follies”.

  Saigon would never compare with the tsunami of daily follies offered on the proxy war in Ukraine by a tawdry moveable feast at the White House, State Dept., Pentagon, NATO HQ, the Brussels Kafkaesque machine and other Western environs. The difference is that those posing as “journalists” today are cognitively incapable of understanding these are “follies” – and even if they did, they would be prevented from reporting them.

  So that’s where the collective West is at the moment: in a White Room, a simulacrum of Plato’s cave depicted in Cream’s 1968 masterpiece, partly inspired by William Blake, invoking pale “silver horses” and exhausted “yellow tigers”.

  The entire West is waiting at the room at the station with black curtains – and no trains. They will “sleep in this place with the lonely crowd” and “lie in the dark where the shadows run from themselves”.

  Outside in the cold, long distance, under the sunlight, away from the moving shadows, across roads made of silk and iron, the Heavenly Horses (Tianma) of the multipolar world gallop gallantly from network to network, from Belt and Road to Eurasia and Afro-Eurasia Bridge, from intuition to integration, from emancipation to sovereignty.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/01/2023 – 00:00

• Jordan Launches Rare Airstrike On Alleged Syrian Captagon Factory
  Jordan Launches Rare Airstrike On Alleged Syrian Captagon Factory

  Previously we described how what’s been dubbed “poor man’s cocaine” at as little as $3 a pill is threatening to proliferate across the Middle East and into Europe. The synthetic stimulant Captagon has been popular for years in parts of the Middle East and North Africa, and was big during ‘Arab Spring’ protests, but mainstream media of late has blamed the Assad government and allied militias for its now rapid spread.

  Gulf countries and allies have especially stepped up the pressure on Damascus of late, accusing it of being behind state-backed trafficking which also allegedly involves Lebanese Hezbollah. On Thursday, Jordan appears to have taken the most drastic move yet to tap down on the Captagon trade, sending its air force to bomb an alleged drug factory in southern Syria, in a rare cross-border raid.

  

  The large strike was in the village of Um Rumman, and no casualties were reported, with The Associated Press citing anti-Assad opposition activists to say a Captagon production plant was destroyed.

  Syrian state media said that only a farm was blown up, thus denying the allegation it was a drug factory, while others said “the target was also used as a narcotics warehouse where smugglers would prepare and package illegal drugs before smuggling them across the southern border into Jordan.”

  The village near where the strike to place is just near the Jordanian border. Apparently drug smugglers have frequently used the area for their drug trade logistics operations.

  The Jordanians have seen the southern Syrian region of Sweida as a big problem, particularly ever since the Assad government put down the decade-long rebellion which put the country in the grips of war and instability, as the AP details of a prior incident:

  In May, an airstrike over a village in the southern Sweida province killed a well-known Syrian drug kingpin and his family, which activists believe was conducted by the Jordanians. Amman has been concerned by militias’ drug smuggling across the Syrian border into the kingdom, most notably highly addictive Captagon amphetamines, which have turned into an estimated multi-billion-dollar industry in war-torn Syria.

  Saudi Arabia and Gulf nations have reportedly been urging President Assad to stem the flow of Captagon from Syria as part of restored diplomatic ties, also at a moment Damascus has been re-embraced by the Arab League. 

  The drug was produced in the 1960s in the Germany, and in its medical form typically treats ailments like attention deficit disorders and narcolepsy. 

  It is certainly ironic and dubious that the West now widely blames the Assad government for the proliferation of Captagon, given that for much of the last decade it was anti-government insurgents known to be the heaviest users. At one point the pill even became known as “the drug of jihad”.

  Jordan strikes Iran-linked drugs factory in southern Syria | Reuters
  📍 Jordan carried out 2 raids on 2 drug sites in southern Syria
  📍 The first raid targeted a Captagon factory in Daraa
  📍 The 2nd raid killed the most wanted drug smuggler Marai AlRamthan who is closely related… pic.twitter.com/0kF4mfD3KZ

  — Ayman Abdel Nour (@aabnour) May 8, 2023

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  Reuters has previously detailed, “It was discontinued but an illicit version of the drug continued to be produced in eastern Europe and later in the Arab region, becoming prominent in the conflict that erupted in Syria following anti-government protests in 2011.”

  The same report noted its prominence on the anti-Assad or “rebel” side. “The illicit version – also nicknamed ‘the drug of jihad’ or ‘poor man’s cocaine’ – is thought to be made of a mix of fenethylline, caffeine and other fillers. It generates focus and staves off sleep and hunger,” Reuters wrote. But now blame and pressure has been ramped up on the Syrians, as well as ‘pro-Iranian’ groups including Hezbollah.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/31/2023 – 23:20

• Sen. Johnson Claims CDC 'Abused Authority,' Engaged In 'Censorship Campaign' Of COVID-19 Vaccine Posts
  Sen. Johnson Claims CDC ‘Abused Authority,’ Engaged In ‘Censorship Campaign’ Of COVID-19 Vaccine Posts

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

  Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has accused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of working with Big Tech to censor his social media posts about COVID-19 vaccines.

  

  In an Aug. 28 letter to CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen, the Republican lawmaker said he is continuing to review the health agency’s alleged efforts to “coordinate with social media companies to censor COVID-19 vaccine information.”

  Mr. Johnson stated that, based on information he has allegedly received from Elon Musk’s X Corp., along with documents made public through the discovery process of state-led lawsuits against the Biden administration, “it is clear that CDC abused its authority by engaging in a censorship campaign to suppress and discredit certain viewpoints it labeled as ‘misinformation.'”

  The Wisconsin senator, who has been a vocal advocate for people who claim to have been injured by COVID-19 vaccines, went on to cite the censorship of his own Jan. 3, 2022 post on X, formerly known as Twitter, in which he highlighted data from the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Reporting System (VAERS) database.

  In that post, Mr. Johnson wrote: “Sadly, we passed two milestones on VAERS. Over 1 million advisers events and over 21,000 deaths, 30 percent of those deaths occurred on day 0, 1, or 2 following vaccination.

  “When will federal agencies start being transparent with Americans? Why do they continue to ignore early treatment?” he concluded.

  The post, which included a screenshot of the data from VAERS, was labeled “misleading” in a note explaining that health officials consider COVID-19 vaccines to be “safe for most people.”

  According to Mr. Johnson, who is the ranking member on the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, all replies, shares, or likes of the post were subsequently blocked.

  The lawmaker claims he later questioned officials at Twitter—prior to Mr. Musk’s takeover—as to why his post had been labeled “misleading” but received no response.

  He was later told by the platform’s new leadership that executive branch officials, particularly from the CDC, “communicated with social media companies, including Twitter, about ‘COVID vaccine misinformation.'”

  

  Sen. Johnson Demands Answers

  “The information Twitter provided showed a clear and concerted effort by the CDC to censor those who tweeted about VAERS data,” Mr. Johnson wrote.

  Concluding his letter, the senator asked the CDC to hand over documents and information detailing interactions between all its employees and those at X—as well as other social media platforms including Facebook, and YouTube—regarding 10 specific people who expressed skepticism over the vaccines and lockdowns, starting Dec. 1, 2019.

  The 10 individuals include Brianne Dressen, a former preschool teacher in Utah who was left severely injured after participating in AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine clinical in November 2020, renowned Stanford epidemiologist John Ioannidis, Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., critical care physician Pierre Kory, Alabama-based Army surgeon Lt. Col. Theresa Long, Robert Malone, cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough, professor of epidemiology Dr. Harvey Risch, and Aaron Siri, an attorney who has led multiple high-profile cases against vaccine manufacturers and federal health agencies since the pandemic began.

  Mr. Johnson also asked that the CDC hand over any communications regarding him.

  Additionally, the lawmaker requested all documents pertaining to CDC communications with both private sector companies and federal agencies regarding the censorship of online speech or COVID-19 misinformation policies, and a list of all the social media posts that were flagged by the CDC as “containing misinformation, disinformation, or generally disfavored speech.”

  He gave the CDC until Sept. 11 to hand over the documents.

  The Epoch Times has contacted the CDC for comment.

  Earlier this month, Mr. Johnson raised concerns over the “alarming” decision by a small number of firms, hospitals, and schools to reinstate mask mandates again amid reports of several new COVID-19 variants, including one that the CDC believes could potentially evade vaccines.

  Also this month, the senator urged the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general to launch an investigation into whether or not government scientists concealed critical information about COVID-19 from the public.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/31/2023 – 23:00

• Indeed Out-Wokes Corporate America With $10,000 Relocation Checks For Trans Employees
  Indeed Out-Wokes Corporate America With $10,000 Relocation Checks For Trans Employees

  Austin-based online job search platform, “Indeed,” aims to ‘out woke’ corporate America by offering transgender employees or those with transgender children a $10,000 relocation payment. Both Bloomberg and Axios confirmed the relocation payment program. 

  Before we discuss relocation payments, it’s important to note that Indeed proudly states on its website that it had the wokest corporate policies in America in 2018. It said its 2018 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), a national benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) workplace equality, score “received a perfect score of 100 percent.” 

  For some context, CEI is administered by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ political lobbying group in the world. HRC has received millions of dollars in funding from George Soros’ Open Society Foundation.

  

  Indeed’s executives appear to have one objective in mind: rank the highest on the CEI index this year (we all remember earlier this year what happened to Bud Light when they tried that on TikTok). One way execs are attempting to achieve a high score is to offer a relocation program to trans workers, cutting them a $10,000 check to cover ‘travel-related expenses’ out of conservative states (or areas where they don’t feel comfortable) to safer grounds. 

  “While Indeed introduced the program to its employees in July, until now, the company has not discussed it publicly,” Bloomberg said. 

  Indeed provided further details about the program to Axios:

  • It’s for US-based employees and immediate family members who seek gender-affirming care and live in a location where state laws or government-issued directives criminalize or restrict access to such medical care.

  • It also applies to those who live in places that attempt to restrict support for children who are gender non-conforming, transgender or non-binary. 

  • Eligible employees will receive approval to relocate to a state or jurisdiction where they will be able to access the care and support they need, as well as a $10,000 flat-rate benefit to support their relocation expenses.

  None of this comes as a surprise given Indeed’s mission since 2018 has been to ‘out woke’ corporate America in its pursuit of a high CEI score. But why? 

  Some netizens were confused by Indeed’s move considering the Bud Light backlash earlier this year after a white privileged liberal executive believed the brewer was time for a change. However, its customer base thought otherwise, nuking the beer as demand has since crashed. 

  “Kinda weird that companies never did stuff like this for black people or disabled people,” one netizen asked. 

  (Kinda weird that companies never did stuff like this for black people or disabled people.)

  Amid conservative efforts targeting transgender rights & gender-affirming care for minors, some companies are stepping up to offer support for their trans workershttps://t.co/0qy60PD3Pw

  — DomPachino101 (@DomPachino101) August 30, 2023

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  Another asked, “Does Indeed offer any relocation money for women who live in particularly misogynistic states? Of course not. “

  Does Indeed offer any relocation money for women who live in particularly misogynistic states? Of course not

  — MeowTransBillyBragg🏁🦖🇺🇦#Corpse #GenderFree 🦜 (@MMMMeowwwwwww) August 31, 2023

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  Someone else pointed out:

  

  We wonder if Indeed will have an increase in the number of trans workers trying to capitalize on the free money. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/31/2023 – 22:40

• "An Unconstitutional Set Of Laws" Costs DC $5.1 Million After 2A Violations
  “An Unconstitutional Set Of Laws” Costs DC $5.1 Million After 2A Violations

  Submitted by Gun Owners of America,

  Concluding a years-long lawsuit, US Judge Royce C. Lamberth gave preliminary approval to a settlement agreement due to Washington DC’s mishandling of six different gun owners, all of whom were arrested between 2012 and 2014 on gun–related charges.

  According to a report from the Washington Post, Lamberth had previously ruled in 2021 that DC arrested, jailed, prosecuted, and seized guns from six people “based on an unconstitutional set of laws” and violated their Second Amendment rights.

  One of the examples cited in that same Washington Post report on the settlement details a Maryland resident who was commuting home from his job in Virginia with a gun locked in a safe in the trunk of his car. He was jailed for two nights on gun charges and lost his job as a result.

  Oh? An anti-gun city is using taxpayer dollars to pay their fines for blatant anti-gun policies?👀

  Talk about taxation without representation.💸 https://t.co/QsoiMxVLBc

  — Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) August 30, 2023

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

  Washington, DC, will now have to pay out 5.1 million dollars due to the lawsuit. With $300,000 each to the six plaintiffs and $1.9 million in attorney fees, the leftover $1.4 million will be set aside for a large number of people who are estimated to qualify for the class action suit.

  DC’s gun laws have been the subject of multiple high-profile lawsuits. In 2008 the landmark gun rights case District of Colombia v. Heller (a GOA-backed case) affirmed that the 2nd Amendment is an individual right, and no government could impose a ban on firearms within the home, as Washington DC had done prior to Dick Heller filing suit.

  Then, in 2014, Palmer v. District of Colombia struck down DC’s ban on carrying handguns in public with a permit.

  Finally, in 2017, Wrenn v. District of Colombia (another GOA case) struck down the district’s “good and substantial reason” clause in its permitting process. Fearing an outcome that could make a concealed carry permit easier to acquire nationwide, DC did not appeal Wrenn to the Supreme Court. Gun rights advocates would have to wait another five years for the landmark decision in NYSRPA v. Bruen to finally abolish anti-gun bans on concealed carry masquerading as “may-issue” permitting regimes.

  So, what was the District of Colombia’s defense during the suit? Apparently, those arrested should have done their research on DC gun laws or attempted to license the firearms before passing through the district. But interestingly, the judge in the suit found that there were no actions that the plaintiffs could have taken during the time period in question that would have allowed them to legally carry a gun for self-defense in the District of Colombia.

  We’re sure that Dick Heller, now Gun Owners of America’s Senior Policy Advisor, couldn’t be more pleased with this ruling.

  *   *   *

  We’ll hold the line for you in Washington. We are No Compromise. Join the Fight Now.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/31/2023 – 22:20

• China Cuts FX Reserve Ratio To 4%, Unlocking $19BN, In Most "Visible" Step Yet To Prop Up Slumping Yuan
  China Cuts FX Reserve Ratio To 4%, Unlocking $19BN, In Most “Visible” Step Yet To Prop Up Slumping Yuan

  Following the news two weeks ago that China had suffered the largest FX outflow in a year…

  

  … when in July, China suffered $25BN in net outflows via onshore outright spot transactions, offset by $14BN inflows via freshly entered and canceled forward transactions and further outflows via the SAFE dataset on “cross-border RMB flows” which amounted to another $16BN in the month, resulting in net total of $26BN in July outflows, the most since Sept 22, Beijing started taking the accelerating collapse in the yuan very seriously.

  So seriously that it not only declared war on yuan bears with the first ever 1000+ pip gap between the yuan fix and estimates, one which has persisted for the past two weeks culminating with a near record gap of 1,092 moments ago…

  

  … but a few days later, the PBOC orchestrated the biggest offshore liquidity crunch in hopes of sparking a short squeeze, when the Hong Kong’s offshore yuan interbank rate climbed to the highest since 2018, making holding on to a short yuan position extremely painful.

  

  Neither did much, and the yuan continued to drift not too far from its lowest level on record, just as Citi strategists Philip Yin and Gaurav Garg correctly predicted:

  “A CNH funding squeeze could be a tactical tool and a signaling device, but unlikely the go-to tool in isolation. Overall, the combination of rate cut and other FX tools suggest that fundamental-driven yuan weakness is allowed but the pace is managed.”

  So fast forward just a few more week, when Beijing revealed the latest tool in its devaluation-fighting arsenal (as the Fed is still stuck in “higher for longer” mode courtesy of the “strong” fake data published daily by the Biden admin and revised lower just a month later) when in the most visible step yet to prop up the bleeding yuan, China reduced the amount of foreign currency deposits banks are required to hold as reserves for the first time this year, to 4% from 6%, effective on Sept. 15.

  Cutting FX reserve requirements has been a key part of the China’s playbook to support the yuan over the past two years. It last deployed the tool in September.

  The move – which followed a bolder-than-expected deposit rate cut to alleviate potential CNY pressure – boosts the amount of foreign currency available in the local market, making it relatively more appealing for traders to buy the yuan. According to UBS estimates, a 2% cut in the FX RRR will unlock around $19Bn. The resulting increase in USD supply should cause USDCNH lower and so it did, although it is worth noting that after the previous September RRR cut, CNH strengthened by around 1% initially before weakening by 3% over the subsequent three weeks.

  “Previous experience suggested that the yuan will be supported briefly by similar measures, but it has not been a step to turn around the direction of dollar-yuan in the medium-to-long term,” said Becky Liu, Head of Greater China Macro Strategy at Standard Chartered. “It is a widely expected move.”

  China’s currency slid toward its weakest level since 2007 against the dollar in August, after a surprise interest-rate cut failed to boost investor sentiment damaged by ongoing economic weakness, but certainly weakened the currency further. The currency has fallen around 5% this year amid China’s yawning rate divergence with the US and is among Asia’s worst performers next to the yen and Korean won.

  The offshore yuan rose 0.3% to around 7.255 per dollar after the news.

  

  The PBOC has ramped up support for the currency via tools such as setting stronger-than-expected daily reference rate, prompting state banks to sell dollars and tightening offshore yuan liquidity to squeeze shorts. The moves are part of a series of stimulus measures, the latest of which was a reduction in down payments for mortgages to help the country’s under-pressure residential property market.

  Becky Liu, head of China macro strategy at Standard Chartered, said that the PBOC’s latest move to reduce the required reserve ratio for foreign currency deposits will support the yuan (if only briefly): “It reaffirmed PBOC’s decisive stance to stabilize the CNY, and will not be a singular move”, and yes – the market demands much more.

  “This is a very small amount and won’t be sufficient to narrow interest rate differential between CNY and USD by itself” she said adding that previous experience suggested that the CNY will be supported briefly by similar measures, but it has not been a step to turn around the direction of USD/CNY in the medium to long term.

  “USD/CNH upside is now largely capped at 7.33-7.35, and we should expect a period of stabilization of the pair near term”

  “We see this as a bid by authorities to improve FX funding onshore and to further lower the US-CH rate gap,” said Eddie Cheung, Senior emerging market strategist at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong. “The rate gap has also narrowed since the macro-prudential adjustment coefficient for cross border financing but this is a step further.”

  Alas, as with all the other modest, piecemeal steps implemented by the PBOC in recent weeks, any initial strength in the yuan will quickly fizzle as nothing short of a “whatever it takes” bazooka stimulus will be seen by markets as sufficient to prop up the economy, the currency or local markets.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/31/2023 – 22:18

• Ukraine's Defense Chief Expected To Be Sacked Next Week Amid Corruption Probe
  Ukraine’s Defense Chief Expected To Be Sacked Next Week Amid Corruption Probe

  Significant rumors are once again swirling over the possible imminent sacking of Ukraine’s defense minister, with Bloomberg also reporting.

  Defense chief Oleksiy Reznikov has overseen a series of embarrassing military corruption scandals at a time Kiev is trying to tout its democratic and corruption reform credentials. He could be dismissed from the top post as early as next week, and given a new role as ambassador to the United Kingdom.

  

  But the decision is “not finalized” according to sources speaking to Kyiv Post, which names Rustem Umerov – currently head of the State Property Fund – as a likely candidate to replace Reznikov.

  DM Reznikov has overseen Ukraine’s military and defense strategy since the start of the Feb. 2022 invasion, but the much-hyped counteroffensive launched at the start of the summer has been widely seen as a failure, despite tens of billions of dollars of Western aid and weaponry.

  Reznikov is now front and center in an anti-graft probe, Bloomberg writes, citing local Ukrainian media:

  President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s anti-graft crackdown is fueling speculation that he may dismiss Ukraine’s defense minister following accusations of corruption linked to procuring military supplies.

  The Ukrayinska Pravda newspaper, citing sources it didn’t name, said on Thursday Minister Oleksii Reznikov may be replaced as early as next week. The report followed accusations from anti-corruption activists and media that under his leadership the ministry has purchased food and uniforms at inflated prices. It also coincides with comments from a lawmaker that Reznikov may be shifted to the post of Kyiv’s ambassador to the UK.

  Additionally, parliament’s People’s Deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak, wrote in a Thursday Telegram post that “…Rustem Umerov will be nominated for the position of Minister of Defense.” 

  Kyiv Post has detailed the latest scandal as follows:

  The latest scandal was exposed by Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Nikolov who, citing sources at the State Customs Service of Ukraine, reported that the Ministry of Defense had acquired 233,000 winter jackets for $20 million from a Turkish firm.

  Documentation from customs regarding one shipment unveiled a startling increase in cost for a batch of 4,900 jackets en route from Turkey to Ukraine.

  The price had tripled, soaring from $142,000 to $421,000 (a per-unit rise from $29 to $86). Furthermore, it was revealed that the jackets, despite being marketed as winter wear, turned out to be lightweight.

  Ukraine Rocked By Corruption Scandal, Wave Of Top Officials Resign: Sports Cars, Mansions & Luxury Vacations As People Suffered https://t.co/5gvsXbIkNx

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 24, 2023

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  High-ranking military officers and Kiev officials have for months come under scrutiny for driving expensive luxury cars and acquiring expensive villas. 

  The Ministry of Agriculture has also recently been under fore for inflated pasta purchases, which caused a reported loss for state coffers of at least $1.7 million, and triggering suspicions that corrupt officials lined their pockets.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/31/2023 – 22:00

• Trump Says Fear-Mongering About New COVID Variants A 'Lunatic' Ploy To Rig 2024 Election
  Trump Says Fear-Mongering About New COVID Variants A ‘Lunatic’ Ploy To Rig 2024 Election

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

  

  Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused “left-wing lunatics” of fear-mongering about new COVID-19 variants in order to justify the reintroduction of their left-wing lockdown and mandate policies, which included the use of drop boxes and mail-in ballots in 2020, in a bid to rig the 2024 election.

  President Trump made the remarks in a video posted on Aug. 30 on Truth Social, saying that his message should serve as a warning to every COVID-19 “tyrant” who not only wants to “take away our freedom” but who would be playing into the hands of those wanting to exploit COVID-19 restrictions to interfere in next year’s election.

  “The left-wing lunatics are trying very hard to bring back COVID lockdowns and mandates with all of their sudden fear-mongering about the new variants that are coming,” President Trump said in the video.

  Recently, there’s been a torrent of media reports about a new COVID-19 variant circulating, while President Joe Biden said last week that all Americans would likely be advised to get another booster.

  In his video message, President Trump said that his political opponents are eager to leverage COVID-19 “hysteria” for political ends.

  “They want to restart the COVID hysteria so they can justify more lockdowns, more censorship, more illegal drop boxes, more mail-in ballots, and trillions of dollars in payoffs to their political allies heading into the 2024 election,” the former president said.

  He charged that “they rigged the 2020 election and now they’re trying to do the same thing all over again by rigging the most important election in the history of our country, the 2024 election, even if it means trying to bring back COVID.”

  President Trump has maintained that he believes he was was robbed of victory in 2020, due in part to last-minute changes to election rules that removed some guardrails for mail-in ballots and, at least in theory, made it easier to cheat.

  While the former president lost nearly all of his election-related lawsuits, many were dismissed not on merit but on technicalities like the doctrine of laches, which basically says that a legal challenge was brought too late and prejudiced the defendant.

  ‘We Will Not Comply’

  A number of conservative commentators have pointed to the sharp rise of COVID-19-related media reporting in recent weeks, while pointing to the threat of renewed restrictions for civil liberties—and the upcoming election.

  Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk has claimed there’s a plot to push “COVIDian tyranny” and “lock you down again just in time for the election” and facilitate the launch of a “Marxist-type revolution.”

  Former member of Congress Ron Paul penned an op-ed on LewRockwell.com saying that the threat supposedly posed by the new COVID-19 variant is being amplified across media platforms “just in time for election season.”

  “Why are they coming back around for another round of Covid tyranny?” Mr. Paul wrote. “Fear is a weapon to gain control.”

  “Last time around, they generated fear to radically change how America voted. Suddenly, everyone was mailed ballots. How closely were they checked? No one knew and no one dared ask. The people who did ask about the election are now facing jail terms,” Mr. Paul wrote, presumably referring to some Jan. 6 defendants.

  “They want us to shut up while they do it again. Will we?” Mr. Paul asked.

  In his message, President Trump delivered a forceful response to this question, which has been expressed in one form or another by numerous conservative commentators.

  “Don’t even think about it,” President Trump said, addressing his remarks to “every COVID tyrant who wants to take away our freedom.”

  “Hear these words: We will not comply!” the former president continued. “We will not shut down our schools, we will not accept your lockdowns, we will not abide by your mask mandates, and we will not tolerate your vaccine mandates.”

  The former president then said that if elected president in 2024, he would use every available authority to push back on mask and vaccine mandates, giving as an example cutting federal funding to any college or airline that imposes such mandates.

  “They will fail because I will not let it happen,” the former president said.

  ‘Likely To Be Recommended’

  President Trump’s remarks comes as COVID-19 hospitalizations have been on the rise across the country, with three new variants of the disease said to be spreading.

  Multiple drug companies, including Pfizer, Novavax, and Moderna, have introduced new vaccines they say will be effective to protect against the COVID-19 variant of interest EG.5, or Eris—although the vaccines do not protect against transmission.

  President Biden told reporters in South Lake Tahoe, California, on Aug. 25 that he had asked for more funding for a new COVID vaccine.

  “I signed off this morning on a proposal we have to present to the Congress, a request for additional funding for a new vaccine—that is necessary, that works,” President Biden said.

  “And tentatively, not decided finally yet, tentatively it is recommended—it is likely to be recommended—that everybody get it, no matter whether they got it before,” he added.

  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials recently told reporters that the vaccines are expected to become available to the public in mid-September, though they are still pending approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

  An independent CDC advisory committee is scheduled to meet on Sept. 12 to vote on recommended guidelines for eligibility for the new COVID-19 shots.

  Nathan Worcester contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/31/2023 – 21:40

• Why You Are Feeling So Much Poorer
  Why You Are Feeling So Much Poorer

  Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via The Epoch Times,

  We are living through the largest pillaging of the American middle class in a half-century. It’s not in the headlines. This is extremely strange. In fact, this might be the first and only article you have read about it. This could be for a reason. If people knew what was happening to them, they would begin to feel very restless, even furious. Some people among the ruling class do not want that.

  The Biden administration trumpets its economic achievements. It’s mind-boggling. Call it trolling. Call it gaslighting. Call it whatever you want but you know it is untrue.

  

  Let’s look at the facts.

  What do you spend money on month-to-month? It’s rent or your mortgage, food at home or out, utilities, and gas. Those are the basic categories. The Consumer Price Index includes far more than that, some items you do not purchase and some that are going up far less than others. So let’s look at government numbers on what you actually purchase; that is, the items and services that you consume that dominate part of your income. And let’s stretch that back three years.

  Everything is going up and up and has been for three years. Looking at the items on which you actually spend money, we find increases between 18-plus percent to 22-plus percent. Let’s say we average it all out at 20 percent.

  Now let’s look at real disposable income, which is income left over after expenses adjusted for inflation. That result is an increase of a pathetic 3 percent compared with three years ago. The stimulus payments felt great at the time but those are long gone, essentially a head fake. So your income demands are up 20 percent whereas your leftover cash is barely up at all. That’s essentially a disaster for your standard of living.

  In short, you have been robbed.

  

  The causal reasons are many but mainly trace to the 43 percent increase in the money supply in the same period, which ate the value of the dollar with a lag. On top of that, supply chains broke, industry was consolidated, commercial freedom wrecked, and labor markets were forcibly disrupted.

  Now, let’s compare this to what everyone recognizes as the great inflationary disaster of the postwar period, which is 1978 to 1982. These were the times when the Fed and government pillaged the public, drained away the value of savings and capital, and forced a reorganization of family life. At the end of this period, the average American household went from living off of one income—realizing the American dream—to having two incomes in the household. That happened in 1985 when two-income households became the norm.

  At the time, this was called emancipation of women but, looking back, we can see that this was clearly propaganda to cover up an economic disaster. Gender discrimination in the workplace hasn’t really been a major issue for most of the 20th century. Back in the mid-1920s, if you look at unmarried women without children after the age of 18, the employment rate in the city was generally 80 percent. These women left the workforce upon marriage to focus on children and the household whereas the men bore the obligation of providing for the whole.

  That was the way we lived until the great inflation. That’s what changed everything. After that, households had to have two incomes to live well instead of one, meaning that one partner had to go to the office rather than tend to the household or otherwise pursue the good life. That the ruling class was able to fob this off as some kind of new liberty (for women) is a tribute to the power of ideologically driven lies.

  How do our times compare to then? Well, in three years, we’ve seen the value of the dollar fall 20 percent in terms of what you actually spend money on while income has barely gone up at all. During the great disaster of 43 years ago, this exact same phenomenon occurred over two years rather than three like our own times. In other words, the mass thievery in our times is taking place 50 percent slower than it happened last time. But it is happening nonetheless.

  Is it any better if the bus rolls over you slowly or more quickly? It happens either way. That you lose 17 percent of your income in three years or two, what does it really matter? It is only valuable to our ruling-class masters in terms of the extent to which the public complains. A population pillaged slowly—like the frog boiling slowly—is very liable to complain a bit less. Still, the reality is the same.

  The great inflation fundamentally changed life in America. We were never the same, economically or culturally. And that raises the real question: what is the current round of thievery going to do to this generation? I wish I had the answers. I don’t really know but we are seeing population-wide demoralization, ill-health, lack of ambition, substance abuse, and widespread despair. However this ends, it’s not going to be good.

  Can this be turned around? Yes, but it won’t be easy. It will require massive changes in public administration the likes of which we’ve never experienced. No candidate for office at any level is prepared for what is necessary to reduce the debt, contain the Fed, defang the administrative bureaucracy, reduce the tax burden, and make the American dream affordable again. We are nowhere near speaking the truth at this point.

  The emergency, however, is real. A people dealing with growing and relentless improvement, from powers out of their control, can be unpredictable. At a very minimum, it means more crime, more cultural anomie, more distrust, and growing anger. Some leader needs to channel this into a positive and constructive direction else we are doomed to suffer another round that will make the great inflation of the late 1970s look like a mere foreshadowing.

  Jeffrey A. Tucker is the founder and president of the Brownstone Institute, and the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press, as well as 10 books in five languages, most recently “Liberty or Lockdown.” He is also the editor of The Best of Mises. He writes a daily column on economics for The Epoch Times and speaks widely on the topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/31/2023 – 21:00

• Female Rapper's Wardrobe Malfunction At Saudi Concert Triggers Charges Of 'Prostitution, Blasphemy'
  Female Rapper’s Wardrobe Malfunction At Saudi Concert Triggers Charges Of ‘Prostitution, Blasphemy’

  A popular Australian rapper, Iggy Azalea, is being accused by Saudi clerics and authorities of “blasphemy” for a concert she performed last Friday in the capital of Riyadh.

  The occasion was the Gamers8 Esports tournament for which she was invited as a special performer. Controversial songs included Goddess, in which she asked the audience to “bow down to a goddess” – and also there was the moment she exclaimed “Ladies, make some noise, it’s a woman’s world!”

  

  Of course, this is ultra-male dominated Saudi society, where women are told by Islamic law they must wear the full Muslim veil and that unmarried women shouldn’t go out without a male family escort—all of his enforced by Sharia law courts and ‘morality police’.

  The whole performance is being accused of being anti-Islamic, especially for lines from her lyrics which seemed directed at Islam or monotheistic religions in general like “…preaching about prophets, it ain’t no one man can stop us, bow down to a goddess.”

  But given these song lyrics, and the full set, was already known in advance – it’s a wonder that Iggy was invited to give a concert in the ultra-conservative kingdom in the first place. 

  At one point, quite ironically, there was even a wardrobe malfunction wherein she exposed more flesh than what the kingdom allows. It was merely her pantleg that ripped, exposing her… (gasp!) leg, up to part of her thigh, during which time a staffer frantically tried to toss her a towel to cover it up.

  Showing a little leg: watch the wardrobe malfunction which temporarily stopped the show…

  Iggy Azalea kicked off stage as wardrobe malfunction upsets Saudi Arabia authorities https://t.co/52WCdDsvQr pic.twitter.com/I0TldL9iLW

  — HipHopDX (@HipHopDX) August 27, 2023

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  As Middle East Eye points out, both the host country and performer should have understood the “risks” involved in Iggy performing in Riyad: 

  On X, Azalea revealed that despite the fact she changed her outfit, Saudi authorities halted the concert due to her lyrics, which, she said, sent them “over the edge”.

  Social media users were quick to criticise not just the organizers of the concert, but those attending too.

  One user stated “this is kufr [unbelief], blatant shirk [idolatry] being said on stage, and the Muslims were repeating it in the audience”. 

  Users also noted that Azalea and her team should have known the extent and danger of the repercussions of performing in Saudi Arabia.

  Most of the hate directed at the rapper came from conservative Muslims and anonymous Saudi accounts online, which charged her with ‘prostitution’ and ‘blasphemy’. Another post said the following:

  Saudi Arabia just sentenced the user of an anonymous Twitter account with 10 followers to death for criticizing Mohammed Bin Salman. Meanwhile, Iggy Azalea performed a concert in Riyadh where she mocked Allah and his Prophets in front of thousands. It seems as though Madkhalis…

  — Mr. Popalzai (@JournalismPopal) August 30, 2023

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  One wonders what would have happened if her relatively minor clothing mishap had been on the level of Janet Jackson’s during that infamous Super Bowl halftime performance.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/31/2023 – 20:40

• STVR/Airbnb Has Destroyed America's Resort Towns
  STVR/Airbnb Has Destroyed America’s Resort Towns

  Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

  It turns out society isn’t just the sum total of the Fed goosing “maximizing shareholder value.” People actually have to live in the corrupt, bifurcated, distorted ghetto the Fed and “maximizing shareholder value” have created.

  It’s an old story, manifesting now in new ways. The rich, buoyed by inherited wealth and access to credit, find a locale with the qualities they desire, and buy the choicest properties for their own use, and a surrounding band of nearby properties so they won’t be bothered by the bottom 99%.

  This story has a new far more destructive chapter, generated by the boom in STVRs–short-term vacation rentals. The uber-wealthy don’t need more money but they’re trained, like hamsters in a lab, to seek ways to maximize their income and capital gains. STVRs–Airbnb et al.–are highly attractive investments to the wealthy and their money-managers–the hedge funds, private equity managers, family-wealth advisors, et al.

  Residential real estate that can be converted to STVRs is well within reach of the top 10% households, who own between 80% and 90% of all income-producing assets such as housing rentals, stocks, bonds and business equity.

  

  As the Federal Reserve has distorted credit markets with historically unprecedented low interest rates and “excess liquidity,” the resulting asset bubbles widened the income-wealth gap between the top 10% who already owned most of the assets soaring in value and the bottom 90% who at best owned a family home with a mortgage.

  

  The top 10% saw super-low mortgage rates and the plump returns on STVRs and rushed to snap up any properties that could be converted from long-term rentals to short-term vacation rentals to get their share of the post-pandemic price-insensitive “revenge spending” we-need-a-vacation bonanza.

  This mass conversion of long-term rentals for workers into vacation rentals has social and economic consequences. It’s bifurcated America’s desirable towns into luxe enclaves for the “haves” and ghettos for the working “have-nots.” It was all fun and games seeking to “maximize shareholder value” and ride the next bubble to ever greater wealth and income, but the consequence is the destruction of the nation’s social and economic fabric.

  I asked longtime correspondent W.S., who has witnessed the transformation in Colorado over the decades, to describe the reality generated by the mass conversion of long-term rentals to STVRs. Here is his account:

  “Airbnb has devastated Colorado’s resort towns.

  It’s always been expensive to live in places that wealthy people decided they wanted to visit regularly.

  Real estate speculators figure out where the money is quickly enough, buy up property, subdivide it and sell lots to their friends, who build second homes, like the single family castles in Beaver Creek and Vail. They build condos and duplexes and sell them to less wealthy folks who want to live in these places and to small investors who rent them to the people who do the actual work in these communities; our teachers, police and fire fighters, hotel and restaurant and small business operators and their staff, the ‘essential services’ folks that nobody thinks much about until one day, a pandemic comes along.

  In Colorado, the attraction for the past 50 years has been downhill skiing and while rents always were higher than most places, the folks that moved up to the mountains and worked at the skico and surrounding small businesses generally skied for free – a season pass was a more common benefit than a healthcare plan – and the ‘locals’ lived to ride. Snowboards. Skis. It was a worthwhile trade off.

  That era ended completely with AirBnb.

  Over the past few years virtually all of the ‘locals’ housing in Vail, the duplexes in nearby Eagle Vail, the houses in Edwards – everything in the upper Eagle River Valley where locals lived – has been purchased – often sight unseen – by hedge funds, private capital and wealthy full and part time homeowners. It has all immediately been turned into short term rental properties (STVRs) – Airbnb, VRBO, etc.

  Why rent a two bedroom apartment to a teacher for $1,500 a month when you can Airbnb the same 40 year old unit for $2,500 a week?

  Except now, there are literally no housing units available.

  Ok, a few pop up now and then but for $3,750 to $4,000 a month, since the work at home class has bid up the price of everything in resort towns with fast internet, and all of them have it. Even if they don’t, Starlink is $120 a month for 50-200 MBPS connectivity. (I have it, it’s flawless.)

  Local teachers with masters degrees start at $45,000 a year, fresh out of school.

  A $3,750 per month rental requires about $11,000 to move in, first and last plus the security deposit. The annual rent comes to $45,000. Thats the gross pay for new hires, which we need annually as our experienced educators retire, or sell their homes they bought a few years ago for huge gains and move elsewhere.

  We can’t hire teachers.

  We can’t hire snow plow operators, who are sort of essential in the high country.

  Can’t hire substitute teachers at $100 a day.

  Can’t hire bus drivers.

  Nobody making under $250,000 can buy a house and live here anymore. Wendy’s pays $19 an hour to start – but you can’t work there unless you live with your folks or 4 roommates (maybe).

  It’s so bad in Eagle County that the school district is bringing new teachers, fresh graduates from the Philippines. The district is building 37 apartments for them to live in, dorm style. Teaching has become a job only workers imported from other countries can afford to do here, like picking vegetables.

  Sure, house prices have gone up a lot because of the influx of work at homers. They’ll probably stay, as heat refugees from the southwest begin to migrate to higher altitudes. But the 20-30 year old former rental units the locals started off in? Sorry. They’re Airbnb.

  With no working people to staff the grocery stores, these mountain towns might not be the refuge the heat refugees seek.”

  Thank you, W.S., for this insightful on-the-ground report. 

  Is it really that surprising that those who still have to work for a living resent being crammed into ghettos while America’s elite class enjoys their Fed-bubble generated wealth and soaring income?

  

  Is it really that surprising that towns swamped with an influx of visitors and wealthy owners are being fouled as their infrastructure is overwhelmed and their natural wealth exploited / stripmined to “maximize shareholder value”?

  The Wealthy Are Not Like You and Me–Our Terminally Stratified Society (8/3/23)

  Development In A Wealthy Montana Boom Town Is Fouling A World-Class Trout River

  There’s Gonna be a War in Montana

  It turns out society isn’t just the sum total of the Fed goosing “maximizing shareholder value.” People actually have to live in the corrupt, bifurcated, distorted ghetto the Fed and “maximizing shareholder value” have created.

  

  *  *  *

  My new book is now available at a 10% discount ($8.95 ebook, $18 print): Self-Reliance in the 21st Century.  Read the first chapter for free (PDF)

  Become a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

  Subscribe to my Substack for free

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/31/2023 – 20:20

• Fox "Is Run By Small-Minded, Fearful Women", Trump "Broke A Lot Of People's Brains" – Tucker & Portnoy Talk Politics, PENN, & Pizza-Fights
  Fox “Is Run By Small-Minded, Fearful Women”, Trump “Broke A Lot Of People’s Brains” – Tucker & Portnoy Talk Politics, PENN, & Pizza-Fights

  Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy joined Tucker Carlson for a ‘Tucker On X’ discussion that ranged from “the greatest business deal in history” to the problems businesses have dealing with regulatory bureaucracy (once its clear they don’t like you) to a fight with a pizza store owner to media bias and finally, Tucker reflected on his exit from Fox.

  

  Having sold Barstool Sports to PENN Entertainment, and pocketing $100 million, Portnoy recently took his company back for the princely sum of $1 and tries to explain what led PENN to make this decision.

  “We underestimated the regulators… how difficult they could make this,” given that they did not like some of the things that Barstool was saying.

  “Everything we did was met with resistance so it made it really hard for this PENN-Barstool relationship to prosper and I think PENN got to the point where they said we are not getting the results we wanted,” he added

  The powerful, appointed (not elected) regulators seemed to have a clear agenda against Barstool, perhaps, Portnoy says, because they did not know who we were.

  “It’s very hard to get truthful information… everything’s so political, everything’s got an agenda.”

  Portnoy, who interviewed President Trump during his term in office, said the liberal media makes him out to be “Hitler,” even more so after he strongly opposed the COVID lockdowns.

  “The rise of Trump has exasperated how people think in this country, He’s broken a lot of people’s brains.”

  “I was very pro-Trump when he started running because I thought he would break the political system,” and that was that, the media proclaimed “you’re pro-Trump, doesn’t matter what you say for the rest of your life.”

  The media “crucified” him, he says, “you went on Tucker, you must be this… you interviewed Trump, you must be this… people don’t listen, they just make snap judgments… it’s a sad state of affairs.”

  Portnoy brings up the issue when Business Insider tried to smear him, “they just made shit up about me, there’s zero truth about anything they said about me.” The reason was simple, he explained, “they were a sinking ship, run by a crook” – referring to Henry Blodgett (“the greatest scumbag of all time”) of dot-com-bubble-analyst-fraud infamy, “and they just needed subscriptions.”

  Portnoy also shared a video of him getting into a fight with a pizza restaurant owner – over a bad review that the Barstool boss gave him (around 31: 30 in the clip)…

  “This is my spot. I hope you enjoy your pizza. But I don’t appreciate what you do to small businesses,” the owner said.

  “Fuck you,” Portnoy responded, raising his middle finger. “Fuck you.

  Then the pair discussed Tucker’s exit from Fox, “I’m not exactly sure what I said that was bad… and one day for whatever reason they’d had enough.”

  Carlson says the Murdochs “were always nice to me… they never got in my way” but noted that he “was not expecting it,” and added that “there were small minds… it’s a company run by fearful women… second-tier people who would hassle my producers.”

  Carlson notes “my view on the war on Ukraine was really hated,” explaining that he was never pro-Russian, but took the view that “this is not our fight, this is not good for us… we should put an end to the war, because people die in war.”

  That was considered “crazy pro-Kremlin propaganda, and they were very very mad about that.”

  Finally, Portnoy brings up Mitch McConnell’s recent ‘glitch’, and asks “how are these people running our country?”

  Watch the full interview below:

  Ep. 21 Dave Portnoy founded Barstool Sports and just completed the most impressive business transaction of our lifetime. He also just got into an epic fight and shared the video with us first. Watch. pic.twitter.com/W7AJ10kZni

  — Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 31, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/31/2023 – 20:00

• Sweetened Drinks Are Linked to Chronic Liver Disease And Liver Cancer
  Sweetened Drinks Are Linked to Chronic Liver Disease And Liver Cancer

  Authored by Flora Zhao via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Do you find yourself drinking a sweetened beverage every day? Be cautious, as this habit could increase the risk of chronic liver disease and even liver cancer.

  It is widely known that consuming sweetened drinks can contribute to obesity and insulin resistance. A recent prospective cohort study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has further revealed detrimental health effects linked to sweetened drinks, particularly concerning liver disease. The study showed that individuals who regularly consume sweetened drinks face an astonishing 85 percent higher likelihood of developing liver cancer and a 68 percent higher risk of mortality from chronic liver disease than those who consume fewer sweetened drinks.

  

  Elevated Risks of Liver Cancer and Liver Disease

  This study was led by scientists from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and it drew data from a comprehensive prospective clinical database in the United States: the Women’s Health Initiative. The database has been gathering information from a cohort of over 160,000 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79. The information collection concluded in 2020, spanning a follow-up period of approximately 21 years.

  “Epidemiological studies on dietary factors and liver cancer and chronic liver disease mortality are limited,” the researchers emphasized in the report. “To our knowledge, this is the first study to report an association between sugar-sweetened beverage intake and chronic liver disease mortality.”

  Participants completed the survey questionnaire detailing their consumption of sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened drinks, excluding fruit juices. These individuals were divided into three groups:

  • Women who consumed three servings or less per month.
  • Women who drank one to six servings per week.
  • Women who drank one or more servings per day (with one serving equivalent to 12 ounces or 355 milliliters, roughly the size of a standard beverage can).

  The findings revealed that women who consumed one or more servings of sweetened drinks daily had an 85 percent higher risk of developing liver cancer than those who drank three servings or less per month. Additionally, their mortality rate due to chronic liver disease was 68 percent higher.

  In the study, “chronic liver disease” refers to conditions like nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, cirrhosis, liver fibrosis, alcoholic liver disease, and chronic hepatitis. During the calculation, potential factors that could influence liver disease, including age, ethnicity, education level, smoking and alcohol consumption habits, and body mass index, were taken into account.

  Known risk factors for liver cancer include hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) infections, metabolic disorders, excessive alcohol consumption, and foods contaminated with aflatoxins, such as peanuts and corn. “However, approximately 40% of patients with liver cancer do not have these risk factors. … Therefore, it is important to identify dietary risk factors for liver cancer and chronic liver disease mortality,” the researchers stated in the report.

  The Impact of Sweetened Drinks on the Liver

  Other studies have also corroborated the damaging effects of sweetened drinks on the liver.

  A prospective European cohort study revealed that individuals who consume over six servings of soft drinks per week face a notably higher risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (the most common form of liver cancer) by 83 percent compared to those who consume fewer than one serving. The risk increases by 6 percent for each additional serving per week. Another study conducted in the United States indicated that drinking sugar-sweetened soda is associated with an 18 percent increase in the risk of liver cancer.

  Research has also demonstrated a link between sweetened drink consumption and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease onset. A systematic review and meta-analysis published in the European Journal of Nutrition revealed that individuals who consumed the highest amounts of sugar-sweetened drinks had a 40 percent increased odds of developing nonalcoholic fatty liver disease compared to those who consumed the least. Another study in 2022 proposed that individuals who frequently consume sugar-sweetened drinks have 2.53 times increased odds of developing nonalcoholic fatty liver disease compared to those who rarely drink such beverages.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/31/2023 – 19:40

• Ukraine's FM Tells Critics Of Counteroffensive To "Shut Up" After NYT Piece
  Ukraine’s FM Tells Critics Of Counteroffensive To “Shut Up” After NYT Piece

  In angry words which sound more like something one would hear on an elementary school playground, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Thursday lashed out at critics of Kiev’s failing counteroffensive by telling them to… “shut up”. Here’s Reuters reporting the unusual statement:

  Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba hit out on Thursday at critics of Kyiv’s tactics in its counter-offensive against Russia’s invasion, saying they were spitting in the faces of Ukrainian soldiers and should “shut up”.

  “Criticizing the slow pace of (the) counter-offensive equals … spitting into the face of (the) Ukrainian soldier who sacrifices his life every day, moving forward and liberating one kilometeter of Ukrainian soil after another,” Kuleba told a press conference at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Toledo, Spain.

  

  He then sarcastically urged all critics to go to Ukraine themselves and fight if they think they can do it better. Standing alongside Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares at the Thursday presser, he said:

  “I would recommend all critics to shut up, come to Ukraine and try to liberate one square centimeter by themselves.”

  Ironically he appeared to be responding to his biggest backer – Washington, in a “bite the hand that feeds you” moment.

  Last week, The New York Times published a scathing critique of Ukraine’s battlefield tactics and overall strategy. The report was based on anonymous US officials who complained that Ukraine’s leaders weren’t heeding the Pentagon’s advice.

  “American strategists say Ukraine’s troops are too spread out and need to concentrate along the counteroffensive’s main front in the south,” the Times wrote, in what amounted to an explainer on why the counteroffensive is failing.

  The report also complained that Ukraine (like Russia) fights “under old Soviet Communist war doctrine” in a clear swipe. The theme of the criticism centered on Kiev rejecting Pentagon guidance, hence a stalled and losing counteroffensive:

  But some analysts say the progress may be too little too late. The fighting is taking place on mostly flat, unforgiving terrain, which favors the defenders. The Russians are battling from concealed positions that Ukrainian soldiers often see only when they are feet away. Hours after Ukrainians clear a field of mines, the Russians sometimes fire another rocket that disperses more of them at the same location.

  Under American war doctrine, there is always a main effort to ensure that maximum resources go to a single front, even if supporting forces are fighting in other areas to hedge against failure or spread-out enemy defenses.

  🎥 Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has told critics of his country’s counter-offensive to “shut up” and compared criticism of the offensive’s pace to “spitting into the face” of the Ukrainian soldiers sacrificing their lives. pic.twitter.com/Fu73LK3BUw

  — DW Europe (@dw_europe) August 31, 2023

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

  So clearly, based on this new outburst of Kuleba in telling external critics to “shut-up”, the Ukrainians were outraged upon seeing the Times article which highlighted the complaints of US officials. It also serves as confirmation that indeed the battlefield situation is quite dire for Ukraine.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/31/2023 – 19:20

• Don’t Look Up! 'Orwellian' AI Traffic Cameras Raise Privacy Concerns
  Don’t Look Up! ‘Orwellian’ AI Traffic Cameras Raise Privacy Concerns

  Authored by Matthew Lysiak via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Existing traffic cameras set up across America to find speeding and red light scofflaws are being replaced by smarter, artificial intelligence-fueled versions equipped with upgraded software that for the first time gives the government the ability to monitor behavior inside of private vehicles, raising the alarm of privacy advocates.

  “The public should be rightly concerned,” Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Policy Analyst Matthew Guariglia told The Epoch Times. “Congress has completely abdicated their responsibility to protect people’s privacy.”

  

  The Biden administration’s 2022 $2.2 trillion infrastructure legislation has led to a dramatic rise in new traffic cameras after federal guidance issued after the bill became law allowed many states to invest in surveillance equipment. Previously, transportation funds allocated to states were limited to fund infrastructure projects, such as repairing roadways and bridges, with the spending of federal funds for cameras only permitted for school zones. However, the Biden administration authorized states to utilize up to 10 percent of the bill’s $15.6 billion highway safety funds to purchase cameras and other “automated traffic enforcement” tools—and many did just that.

  The most recent data compiled last year by Comparitech, a consumer advocacy group focused on cybersecurity, found that the number of cameras on American streets has exploded, with the average city having around six cameras per 1,000 people while the most-watched city, Atlanta, Georgia, has nearly 50 cameras per 1,000 people. Data revealing the current number of traffic cameras is unavailable, but is expected to be significantly larger.

  The decision to open the infrastructure funding to traffic cameras came as an attempt to decrease traffic-related deaths, according to officials.

  “Almost 95 percent of our Nation’s transportation deaths occur on America’s streets, roads, and highways, and they are on the rise,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in the National Roadway Safety Strategy release following passage of the legislation.

  However, many see the increase in surveillance technology as a cash grab for cities trying to make up for post COVID budget shortfalls. In March, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser proposed adding hundreds of new traffic cameras to city streets to compensate for a projected drop in revenue of nearly $400 million. Priya Sarathy Jones, deputy executive director of the Fines and Fees Justice Center, told Reuters that cameras monitoring traffic are “one of the easiest things for us to turn to and generate revenue quickly.”

  Further, software upgrades that allow for the ability to analyze the inside of vehicles and the behaviors of the drivers and passengers have raised concerns among privacy advocates of an increasingly intrusive government that would have seemed straight out of a dystopian science fiction novel to past generations.

  In the United Kingdom, authorities have already issued hundreds of fines to drivers after AI traffic cameras were used to detect violations such as not wearing a seatbelt.

  United Kingdom Civil Liberties campaigner Jake Hurfurt, of Big Brother Watch, told the newspaper The Sun, “This kind of intrusive and creepy surveillance which treats every passer-by as a potential suspect is excessive and normalizing. It poses a threat to everyone’s privacy.”

  “People should be free to go about their lives without being analyzed by faceless AI systems.”

  In July, local governments in Australia installed new phone-detection cameras along roads to spot drivers who are texting on their mobile devices.

  In America, cities like Seattle, Tacoma, and San Francisco, and Reno have also adopted AI traffic cameras with the stated goal of improving the flow of traffic. Los Angeles and New York have also discussed utilizing the technology.

  While the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution offers protection against video searches conducted by the police, there are currently no general, legally enforceable rules to limit privacy invasions.

  Mr. Guariglia warns that the ethical lines between the need for public safety and an Orwelian police state can sometimes become blurred with advances in technology.

  “I can definitely see it coming where cameras are doing analytics on passengers inside of a car,” said Mr. Guariglia. “This could make citizens susceptible to police surveillance in giving up the knowledge of where they worship, what lawyer they are going to see, or which reporters they are talking to.”

  In at least one other country, residents have already begun fighting back against the technology.

  After London rolled out an expansion of its Ultra Low Emission Zone program, which uses AI traffic cameras to identify and fine drivers of older vehicles who enter the city, many citizens showed their outrage through acts of vandalism. Police say this month hundreds of intelligent cameras have been damaged, disconnected, or stolen by a vigilante group who call themselves the Blade Runners.

  “The cameras are going to keep coming down,” Nick Arlett, an organizer of the protests, told CBS News. “People are angry.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/31/2023 – 19:00

• Proud Boys Leader Joseph Biggs Sentenced To 17 Years In Prison As 'Terrorist' Over Role In J6
  Proud Boys Leader Joseph Biggs Sentenced To 17 Years In Prison As ‘Terrorist’ Over Role In J6

  A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Proud Boys leader Joseph Randall Biggs to 17 years in prison – more than a lot of murderers receive – after calling the destruction of a fence on US Capitol property during the January 6, 2001 Capitol breach an act of terrorism.

  

  The 39-year-old Biggs is the first of the Proud Boys leaders sentenced after being found guilty of seditious conspiracy in May along with five other charges related to the event.

  Which reminds us – instigator Ray Epps, who’s totally not a fed, remains free to this day.

  Biggs was also convicted of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to use force, intimidation, or threats to prevent officers of the United States from discharging their duties, interference with law enforcement during civil disorder, and destruction of government property.

  The sentence, handed down by US District Judge Timothy Kelly, followed the DOJ’s recommendation to add a terrorism enhancement, which greatly increased his potential prison time. That said, Kelly opted for roughly half the prison time the DOJ had sought.

  “I know that I messed up that day. But I’m not a terrorist. I know I have to be punished, and I understand,” said Biggs in an emotional statement to Kelly.

  According to Kelly, Biggs and the other Proud Boys were part of a “mob that brought an entire government branch to heel” on January 6th.

  More via the Epoch Times,

  In a sentencing memo filed with the court on Aug. 17, defense attorney Norman Pattis anticipated the terrorism-enhanced sentence, although in court he described it as “shocking” and a “grotesque overreach” that is designed to chill dissent.

  ‘Not Terrorists’

  “The defendants are not terrorists,” Mr. Pattis wrote. “Whatever excesses of zeal they demonstrated on January 6, 2021, and no matter how grave the potential interference with the orderly transfer of power due to the events of that day, a decade or more behind bars is an excessive punishment.”

  Addressing Judge Kelly on Aug. 31, Mr. Pattis said: “The conundrum is often speech is used to explain the crime. In this case, the crime was used to explain the speech.”

  Mr. Pattis said Mr. Biggs’s destruction of a $32,000 Capitol fence shouldn’t be considered terrorism because the fence was a “means to an end,” not an attempt to influence the government.

  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough defended the government’s recommended 33-year prison sentence.

  “It is justified,” Mr. McCullough said. “These are very serious crimes.”

  In its sentencing memorandum for Mr. Biggs, prosecutors called him “a vocal leader and influential proponent of the group’s shift toward political violence.”

  

  “More than perhaps any other, Biggs appreciated the tactical advantage that his force had that day, and he understood the significance of his actions against his own government,” prosecutors wrote. “Biggs understood that the outnumbered forces attempting to hold the Capitol would be powerless due to his side’s overwhelming numbers.”

  “Biggs’s guidelines range—after the application of the adjustment for Biggs’s crime of terrorism—rightly reflects the seriousness of his assault on our government and Biggs’s leading role in it,” prosecutors wrote. “Biggs’s conduct warrants a sentence of 33 years of incarceration.”

  Prosecutors said Mr. Biggs and his co-defendants felt they were leading a second American revolution.

  “Biggs arrived at the Capitol to lead a revolution against a government that he viewed as illegitimate,” prosecutors wrote. “Like [Enrique] Tarrio and [Ethan] Nordean, Biggs viewed himself and his movement as a second American revolution where he and the other ‘patriots’ would retake the government by force.”

  Prosecutors said Mr. Biggs—perhaps more than any other defendant—”promoted the use of force against the government.”

  “Beginning in the days after the election, Biggs declared that the country could face ‘civil war’ because the ‘left’ was ‘radicalizing people by stealing [the] election,’” prosecutors wrote. “Biggs told his followers that it was ‘time for [expletive] War if they steal this [expletive].’ … Biggs steadily escalated his calls for political violence.”

  Judge Kelly’s sentence continued a trend that started with Oath Keepers defendants by doling out prison terms far short of those sought by the DOJ. In July, federal prosecutors appealed eight sentences given out by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta.

  Proud Boys chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio had been scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 30, but his sentencing hearing was moved to Sept. 5 when Judge Kelly became ill.

  The sentencing of Proud Boys defendant Ethan Nordean was moved to Sept. 1 in Judge Kelly’s courtroom. Zachary Rehl was set for an Aug. 31 sentencing, and defendant Dominic Pezzola will be sentenced on Sept. 1.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/31/2023 – 18:40

• Why Won't COVID Lockdown Tyrants Admit They Were Wrong?
  Why Won’t COVID Lockdown Tyrants Admit They Were Wrong?

  Authored by Stephen Moore via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  COVID mania just won’t go away. The deadly strains of the virus have been gone for two years now, and yet the recent outbreak of a mild flu-like variant is again stoking panic on the Left.

  

  Nearly 100 universities are requiring masks this fall.

  Lionsgate movie studios in Los Angeles and Atlanta-based Morris Brown College this week stated they are reinstating not just mask mandates but social distancing measures and contact tracing.

  CNN, which led the panic in 2020 and 2021—causing manic school, restaurant, and business shutdowns and vaccine mandates—recently put out a headline on its website that encouraged its readers not to go outside without a mask on. Really? The latest evidence finds this is less dangerous than a normal flu virus and tracking data suggest that the wave has already peaked.

  What’s even more disturbing here is that the leftist medical community and the media aren’t renouncing their calls for mitigation strategies that were catastrophically wrong in the panic era of 2020 and 2021—but instead calling for more of these assaults on freedom in the future.

  It is one thing for well-meaning medical experts to have disagreed about how to best combat a once-in-a-half-century deadly virus. We didn’t know exactly what we were dealing with. But now we know with concrete scientific evidence that most mandates and lockdowns had a small impact on the spread of the virus and on fatalities. It turns out there was almost no difference in death rates in states with strict lockdowns and no lockdowns at all. The same is true of cross-country evidence.

  Healthy children were never at risk from COVID (something we knew early on), so shutting down schools for one or two years was a sop to the teachers unions but a disaster for this generation of kids. Test scores are the worst in 30 years.

  Before the pandemic, only 15 percent of public school students were chronically absent—more than 18 or more days a year.

  Stanford University education professor Thomas Dee’s data shows an estimated 6.5 million additional students are now chronically absent. In Connecticut and Massachusetts, chronic absenteeism remains double its pre-pandemic rate.

  But polls show that Democrats—even those that are highly educated—generally still support the lockdowns that were mandated. These are the same people who lecture about “following the science.” The most comprehensive study by experts at Johns Hopkins University found death rates from lockdowns were reduced by 0.1 percent. But how many people died from the isolation of lockdowns, delayed health screening from cancer, the increase in drug overdoses?

  Biden’s vaccine mandates only made Americans more resistant to get pricked. They backfired.

  Worst of all, Anthony Fauci, who remains a hero of the Left, recently not only refused to admit the errors of his advice but said the “lockdown was absolutely justified.”

  Why does this bizarre rewrite of recent history matter? Because the fearmongering Left can’t wait to install new lockdowns every time we have a new flu virus and health scare. They’ve even started putting out feelers for occasional climate change economic shutdowns.

  Those who love freedom must strenuously resist this coming tyranny.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/31/2023 – 18:20

• Open Border Blowback: Report Warns "Cartel-Run Theft Rings" Supercharge America's Retail Shrink Epidemic
  Open Border Blowback: Report Warns “Cartel-Run Theft Rings” Supercharge America’s Retail Shrink Epidemic

  In a shocking but not surprising twist, a new report reveals a Mexican cartel connection in America’s retail theft epidemic that cost companies like Walmart, Target, Kohl’s, Home Depot, and Foot Locker, among others, $100 billion last year. Amid the chatter on earnings calls, the number of times CEOs mentioned “shrink” – the loss of inventory due to circumstances such as retail theft – surged to a record high. Yet again, this is another consequence of failed open border policies pushed by radicals in the Biden administration that flooded the nation with millions of illegal aliens. 

  

  We’ve all seen the videos posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, of masked criminals raiding retailers. Now, the Washington Examiner explains some of those thieves are tied to Mexican cartels:

  Mexican cartels are behind the spike in organized retail crime and are deeply entrenched in every level of the process, according to the federal government’s chief investigative agency.

  Retailers nationwide sustained nearly $100 billion worth of losses in 2021, the highest year on record, according to the National Retail Federation report published in September 2022. The growing number of cartel-run theft rings around the country drove that figure up from $70 billion in 2019.

  “Organized retail crime exploded over the last few years as criminals exploited the anonymity of third-party online marketplaces to fence billions in stolen products,” RILA Senior Executive Vice President of Public Affairs Michael Hanson said in a statement.

  Cartels appear to have big presence in Democrat-controlled cities. 

  

  One reason for the explosion is those criminal gang units are emboldened by failed social justice reform pushed by radical leftists in crime-ridden metro areas, such as ones in San Francisco, where shoplifting merchandise valued under $950 is now only a misdemeanor. Cartels recognized this opportunity: 

  These retail crimes are perpetrated by people who work as part of a crime ring run by cartels. In recent years, cartels have gone from illicit drug manufacturing and smuggling, human smuggling and trafficking, and illegal firearm smuggling to commandeering crime in the retail environment.

  Cartels are involved in every level of retail crime, from in-store theft and listing items in online marketplaces to shipping stolen merchandise worldwide and using US financial institutions to hold their profits. –Washington Examiner 

  Texas alleges that Biden’s open borders have flooded the nation with 6 million- more than the total population of Denmark or Finland or Norway Or New Zeland or Costa Rica- since he first took office in early 2021.

  Still to this day, the Biden administration, with no regard for the safety of its own taxpayers, continues to flood the nation with illegals ahead of the 2024 presidential election cycle. The latest stunt was welding border gates wide open. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/31/2023 – 18:00

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• AI Vs. Humans: Which Performs Certain Skills Better?
  AI Vs. Humans: Which Performs Certain Skills Better?

  With ChatGPT’s explosive rise, AI has been making its presence felt for the masses, especially in traditional bastions of human capabilities – reading comprehension, speech recognition and image identification.

  In fact, as Visual Capitalist’s Mark Belan and Pallavi Rao show in the chart below, it’s clear that AI has surpassed human performance in quite a few areas, and looks set to overtake humans elsewhere.

  

  How Performance Gets Tested

  Using data from Contextual AI, we visualize how quickly AI models have started to beat database benchmarks, as well as whether or not they’ve yet reached human levels of skill.

  Each database is devised around a certain skill, like handwriting recognition, language understanding, or reading comprehension, while each percentage score contrasts with the following benchmarks:

  • 0% or “maximally performing baseline”
    This is equal to the best-known performance by AI at the time of dataset creation.

  • 100%
    This mark is equal to human performance on the dataset.

  By creating a scale between these two points, the progress of AI models on each dataset could be tracked. Each point on a line signifies a best result and as the line trends upwards, AI models get closer and closer to matching human performance.

  Below is a table of when AI started matching human performance across all eight skills:

  

  A key observation from the chart is how much progress has been made since 2010. In fact many of these databases—like SQuAD, GLUE, and HellaSwag—didn’t exist before 2015.

  In response to benchmarks being rendered obsolete, some of the newer databases are constantly being updated with new and relevant data points. This is why AI models technically haven’t matched human performance in some areas (grade school math and code generation) yet—though they are well on their way.

  What’s Led to AI Outperforming Humans?

  But what has led to such speedy growth in AI’s abilities in the last few years?

  Thanks to revolutions in computing power, data availability, and better algorithms, AI models are faster, have bigger datasets to learn from, and are optimized for efficiency compared to even a decade ago.

  This is why headlines routinely talk about AI language models matching or beating human performance on standardized tests. In fact, a key problem for AI developers is that their models keep beating benchmark databases devised to test them, but still somehow fail real world tests.

  Since further computing and algorithmic gains are expected in the next few years, this rapid progress is likely to continue. However, the next potential bottleneck to AI’s progress might not be AI itself, but a lack of data for models to train on.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/31/2023 – 02:45

• Expanded BRICS Set To De-Dollarize The World, Control Global Energy Supply
  Expanded BRICS Set To De-Dollarize The World, Control Global Energy Supply

  Authored by Darren Taylor via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  “The expansion of BRICS has made it clear that the de-dollarization of the international finance system is inevitable.” 

  This view, from economist William Gumede—who’s also executive chairperson of the Democracy Works Foundation in South Africa—has been echoed around the world since BRICS leaders announced the expansion of the bloc on Aug. 24 at a summit in Johannesburg.  

  

  Current BRICS members are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

  In January, BRICS—originally established in 2009 to represent the world’s strongest emerging market economies—will add Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to its ranks.  

  Mr. Gumede, one of South Africa’s leading academics and thought-leaders, has been researching the potential impacts of de-dollarization since 2014. 

  He told The Epoch Times the average per capita GDP of the G7 economies was currently six times that of BRICS economies. But, the unexpectedly swift expansion of BRICS would increase the trade bloc’s share of the global economy much faster than earlier predictions. 

  “These forecasts did not take into account that BRICS would expand its membership very quickly. A larger BRICS will mean the world will increasingly use U.S. dollars less,” he said. 

  Mr. Gumede said the bigger BRICS alliance would eventually rival the Group of Seven (G7) large industrial economies of the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, France, Japan, Italy, and Canada, which together are home to 16 percent of the world’s population and account for 62 percent of the global economy. 

  Welcoming the new members in Johannesburg last week, Brazil’s President Lula da Silva said their addition would mean BRICS would represent 46 percent of the global population and 37 percent of the world GDP. 

  The expansion means BRICS now consists of some of the globe’s largest oil producers: Russia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Egypt. Nigeria, another major oil exporter, is set to join when the bloc gets even bigger, probably at its next summit in Russia in 2024.  

  “BRICS is going to dominate the world’s energy supply,” said Mr. Gumede. “The strength of the U.S. dollar is also partially based on the currency as underpinning oil trade—the so-called petrodollar—and members of OPEC (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) settle their accounts in U.S. dollars.

  “Therefore, enlarging BRICS to also include the oil producers and persuading them to use a new BRICS currency, rather than the U.S. dollar, to settle their accounts, will be a game-changer. It is likely to accelerate the de-dollarization of the world.”

  Jakkie Cilliers, Head of the African Futures and Innovation program at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, attributed the unexpectedly rapid expansion of BRICS, and its moves towards de-dollarization, to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its consequences.  

  “BRICS has seen the West hit Russia with all kinds of financial sanctions, and threaten sanctions against South Africa for supposedly supporting Russia, and as a result it wants to end, or at least ease, its dependence on the dollar,” he told The Epoch Times. 

  “De-dollarization, first mooted by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, is a potent symbol of a shift away from a Western-led global order towards a new era of more uncertain and fluid multipolar connections. Change is in the air, and the next three decades will see the steady unfolding of this trend.” 

  Mr. Cilliers said BRICS was “cloaking itself in resentment” against the West. 

  “It’s quite easy for Russia and China to take advantage of the ill-feeling that still exists across much of the developing world because of colonialism, imperialism and sanctions by leading Western countries.

  “Never mind the fact that Russia and China show similar imperialistic tendencies,” he commented. 

  He said the Global South was “particularly unhappy” with international finance institutions, and with the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank. 

  “When the Fed hikes interest rates, it sometimes sends smaller economies into turmoil. They’re subjected to shocks for no domestic reason. So they see the dollar as providing the United States with a very powerful weapon to use in its interests,” said Mr. Cilliers. 

  “This is what unites BRICS in its desire to move away from the dollar-backed international financial system.” 

  But, he added, de-dollarization was going to be a slow process. 

  “Trade among BRICS countries is too small to sustain a common currency, and it only makes sense to trade in national currencies if the trade balance between the countries is more or less equal, which it most definitely is not likely to be in the near future,” said Mr. Cilliers. 

  Mr. Gumede pointed to a recent example of Russia selling a lot of oil to India. 

  “They dealt in rupees. But because India exports much less to Russia than it imports, Moscow now sits with rupees it cannot spend or convert, except to buy goods from India.” 

  Mr. Cilliers said China’s renminbi also wasn’t sufficiently convertible and lacked deep capital markets, market transparency, independent central banks and supporting financial institutions of Western banks. 

  He said there were also “perceptions of risk” associated with China’s future. 

  “It is, after all, a repressive autocracy. It’ll battle to maintain stability in the face of slower economic growth. I’d also be very surprised if India supported a common BRICS currency, given its concerns about China as a regional and potential global competitor.” 

  Mr. Gumede added: “The euro, a common currency, is stable because it’s underpinned by stable political regimes in a stable part of the world. Wherever you look in BRICS, there’s instability, like in Russia because of the Ukraine war. What would happen to the BRICS currency if China invades Taiwan?” 

  Mr. Cilliers predicted that rather than a single alternative to the dollar, “new currency blocs” would emerge. 

  “These will be based on bilateral and multilateral trade among the Middle East and China, South America, West Africa and elsewhere. And so we’ll see the power of the dollar slowly wane,” he said. 

  Mr. Cilliers said the most important shift in the power of the greenback would happen once oil and gas prices were no longer set in U.S. dollars. 

  “This is probably the motivation behind the inclusion of Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the expanded BRICS,” he postulated. 

  Mr. Gumede said demand for U.S. dollars would remain high as long as U.S. GDP was close to 25 percent of the global economy.

  He said President Putin—supported by China’s leader Xi Jinping—was pushing so hard for de-dollarization “because it’s key to the economic survival of Russia” following Western sanctions. 

  The West froze $300 billion of Russia’s foreign trade reserves after it invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and its foreign trade transactions, including those with some emerging markets, have been blocked. 

  Seven of Russia’s banks have been excluded from the world’s leading international payment messaging system, SWIFT. The ban means Russian banks cannot do digital cross-border transactions.

  However, Russian banks doing transactions connected to oil and gas are exempt from the SWIFT ban, and this is preventing the Russian economy from collapsing, said Mr. Gumede. 

  Russia is the world’s third-largest oil producer, but its the largest exporter of oil.

  “BRICS countries have been buying oil and gas from Moscow, insulating Russia against isolation by the United States and the EU,” Mr. Gumede explained. 

  For example, Indian imports of Russian oil in May 2023 reached record levels of about 1.95 million barrels per day.

  According to the International Energy Agency, China and India bought 80 percent of Russia’s oil in May 2023, with China buying 2.2 million barrels per day.

  Leslie Maasdorp, Chief Financial Officer of the BRICS financial mechanism, the New Development Bank, told The Epoch Times BRICS countries were prepared to conduct business with one another in domestic currencies. 

  But, he added, they were not yet ready to issue a common currency that could challenge the dollar. 

  “The creation of a global alternative currency to the dollar is a medium-to-long-term ambition, rather than an immediate possibility,” said Maasdorp.

  “Even the Chinese renminbi is very far from becoming a global reserve currency.” 

  Mr. Cilliers said it was also likely that intensifying rivalry between China and India would slow de-dollarization. 

  “India has already said it wants to focus on strengthening its own currency ahead of anything else,” he said.  

  Mr. Cilliers suggested that the expansion of BRICS, now and in the future, should not be seen as an “automatic sign” that developing countries were uniting behind a “simplistic, common vision” of overthrowing the West. 

  “Many people have this view that if Russia and China, in particular, snap their fingers and say, ‘de-dollarize now,’ that other BRICS countries are just going to listen to the master’s voice.

  “Believe me, there is deep resentment within BRICS and within the wider Global South about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the harm it continues to sow in developing countries, causing inflation spikes, for example, and even grain shortages. 

  “Countries’ motivations for wanting to join BRICS differ but what stays the same is that few, if any, Global South nations will exchange one hegemon with another.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/31/2023 – 02:00

• We, The Targeted: How Government Weaponizes Surveillance To Silence Its Critics
  We, The Targeted: How Government Weaponizes Surveillance To Silence Its Critics

  Authored by John and Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

  “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”

  – President Harry S. Truman

  Ever since Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his groundbreaking “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963, the Deep State has been hard at work turning King’s dream into a living nightmare.

  The end result of the government’s efforts over the past 60 years is a country where nothing ever really changes, and everyone lives in fear.

  Race wars are still being stoked by both the Right and the Left; the military-industrial complex is still waging profit-driven wars at taxpayer expense; the oligarchy is still calling the shots in the seats of government power; and the government is still weaponizing surveillance in order to muzzle anti-government sentiment, harass activists, and terrorize Americans into compliance.

  This last point is particularly disturbing.

  Starting in the 1950s, the government relied on COINTELPRO, its domestic intelligence program, to neutralize domestic political dissidents. Those targeted by the FBI under COINTELPRO for its intimidation, surveillance and smear campaigns included: Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, the Black Panther Party, John Lennon, Billie Holiday, Emma Goldman, Aretha Franklin, Charlie Chaplin, Ernest Hemingway, Felix Frankfurter, and hundreds more.

  In more recent decades, the powers-that-be have expanded their reach to target anyone who opposes the police state, regardless of their political leanings.

  Advances in technology have enabled the government to deploy a veritable arsenal of surveillance weapons in order to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize” perceived threats to the government’s power.

  Surveillance cameras mounted on utility poles, traffic lights, businesses, and homes. License plate readers. Ring doorbells. GPS devices. Dash cameras. Drones. Store security cameras. Geofencing and geotracking. FitBits. Alexa. Internet-connected devices. Geofencing dragnets. Fusion centers. Smart devices. Behavioral threat assessments. Terror watch lists. Facial recognition. Snitch tip lines. Biometric scanners. Pre-crime. DNA databases. Data mining. Precognitive technology. Contact tracing apps.

  What these add up to is a world in which, on any given day, the average person is now monitored, surveilled, spied on and tracked in more than 20 different ways by both government and corporate eyes and ears.

  

  Consider just a small sampling of the ways in which the government is weaponizing its 360 degree surveillance technologies to flag you as a threat to national security, whether or not you’ve done anything wrong.

  Flagging you as a danger based on your feelings. Customs and Border Protection is reportedly using an artificial intelligence surveillance program that can detect “sentiment and emotion” in social media posts in order to identify travelers who may be “a threat to public safety, national security, or lawful trade and travel.”

  Flagging you as a danger based on your phone and movements. Cell phones have become de facto snitches, offering up a steady stream of digital location data on users’ movements and travels. For instance, the FBI was able to use geofence data to identify more than 5,000 mobile devices (and their owners) in a 4-acre area around the Capitol on January 6. This latest surveillance tactic could land you in jail for being in the “wrong place and time.” Police are also using cell-site simulators to carry out mass surveillance of protests without the need for a warrant. Moreover, federal agents can now employ a number of hacking methods in order to gain access to your computer activities and “see” whatever you’re seeing on your monitor. Malicious hacking software can also be used to remotely activate cameras and microphones, offering another means of glimpsing into the personal business of a target.

  Flagging you as a danger based on your DNA. DNA technology in the hands of government officials completes our transition to a Surveillance State. If you have the misfortune to leave your DNA traces anywhere a crime has been committed, you’ve already got a file somewhere in some state or federal database—albeit it may be a file without a name. By accessing your DNA, the government will soon know everything else about you that they don’t already know: your family chart, your ancestry, what you look like, your health history, your inclination to follow orders or chart your own course, etc. After all, a DNA print reveals everything about “who we are, where we come from, and who we will be.” It can also be used to predict the physical appearance of potential suspects. It’s only a matter of time before the police state’s pursuit of criminals expands into genetic profiling and a preemptive hunt for criminals of the future.

  Flagging you as a danger based on your face. Facial recognition software aims to create a society in which every individual who steps out into public is tracked and recorded as they go about their daily business. Coupled with surveillance cameras that blanket the country, facial recognition technology allows the government and its corporate partners to identify and track someone’s movements in real-time. One particularly controversial software program created by Clearview AI has been used by police, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to collect photos on social media sites for inclusion in a massive facial recognition database. Similarly, biometric software, which relies on one’s unique identifiers (fingerprints, irises, voice prints), is becoming the standard for navigating security lines, as well as bypassing digital locks and gaining access to phones, computers, office buildings, etc. In fact, greater numbers of travelers are opting into programs that rely on their biometrics in order to avoid long waits at airport security. Scientists are also developing lasers that can identify and surveil individuals based on their heartbeats, scent and microbiome.

  Flagging you as a danger based on your behavior. Rapid advances in behavioral surveillance are not only making it possible for individuals to be monitored and tracked based on their patterns of movement or behavior, including gait recognition (the way one walks), but have given rise to whole industries that revolve around predicting one’s behavior based on data and surveillance patterns and are also shaping the behaviors of whole populations. One smart “anti-riot” surveillance system purports to predict mass riots and unauthorized public events by using artificial intelligence to analyze social media, news sources, surveillance video feeds and public transportation data.

  Flagging you as a danger based on your spending and consumer activities. With every smartphone we buy, every GPS device we install, every Twitter, Facebook, and Google account we open, every frequent buyer card we use for purchases—whether at the grocer’s, the yogurt shop, the airlines or the department store—and every credit and debit card we use to pay for our transactions, we’re helping Corporate America build a dossier for its government counterparts on who we know, what we think, how we spend our money, and how we spend our time. Consumer surveillance, by which your activities and data in the physical and online realms are tracked and shared with advertisers, has become a $300 billion industry that routinely harvests your data for profit. Corporations such as Target have not only been tracking and assessing the behavior of their customers, particularly their purchasing patterns, for years, but the retailer has also funded major surveillance in cities across the country and developed behavioral surveillance algorithms that can determine whether someone’s mannerisms might fit the profile of a thief.

  Flagging you as a danger based on your public activities. Private corporations in conjunction with police agencies throughout the country have created a web of surveillance that encompasses all major cities in order to monitor large groups of people seamlessly, as in the case of protests and rallies. They are also engaging in extensive online surveillance, looking for any hints of “large public events, social unrest, gang communications, and criminally predicated individuals.” Defense contractors have been at the forefront of this lucrative market. Fusion centers, $330 million-a-year, information-sharing hubs for federal, state and law enforcement agencies, monitor and report such “suspicious” behavior as people buying pallets of bottled water, photographing government buildings, and applying for a pilot’s license as “suspicious activity.”

  Flagging you as a danger based on your social media activities. Every move you make, especially on social media, is monitored, mined for data, crunched, and tabulated in order to form a picture of who you are, what makes you tick, and how best to control you when and if it becomes necessary to bring you in line. As The Intercept reported, the FBI, CIA, NSA and other government agencies are increasingly investing in and relying on corporate surveillance technologies that can mine constitutionally protected speech on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in order to identify potential extremists and predict who might engage in future acts of anti-government behavior. This obsession with social media as a form of surveillance will have some frightening consequences in coming years. As Helen A.S. Popkin, writing for NBC News, observed, “We may very well face a future where algorithms bust people en masse for referencing illegal ‘Game of Thrones’ downloads… the new software has the potential to roll, Terminator-style, targeting every social media user with a shameful confession or questionable sense of humor.”

  Flagging you as a danger based on your social network. Not content to merely spy on individuals through their online activity, government agencies are now using surveillance technology to track one’s social network, the people you might connect with by phone, text message, email or through social message, in order to ferret out possible criminals. An FBI document obtained by Rolling Stone speaks to the ease with which agents are able to access address book data from Facebook’s WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage services from the accounts of targeted individuals and individuals not under investigation who might have a targeted individual within their network. What this creates is a “guilt by association” society in which we are all as guilty as the most culpable person in our address book.

  Flagging you as a danger based on your car. License plate readers are mass surveillance tools that can photograph over 1,800 license tag numbers per minute, take a picture of every passing license tag number and store the tag number and the date, time, and location of the picture in a searchable database, then share the data with law enforcement, fusion centers and private companies to track the movements of persons in their cars. With tens of thousands of these license plate readers now in operation throughout the country, affixed to overpasses, cop cars and throughout business sectors and residential neighborhoods, it allows police to track vehicles and run the plates through law enforcement databases for abducted children, stolen cars, missing people and wanted fugitives. Of course, the technology is not infallible: there have been numerous incidents in which police have mistakenly relied on license plate data to capture out suspects only to end up detaining innocent people at gunpoint.

  Flagging you as a danger based on your political views. The Church Committee, the Senate task force charged with investigating COINTELPRO abuses in 1975, concluded that the government had carried out “secret surveillance of citizens on the basis of their political beliefs, even when those beliefs posed no threat of violence or illegal acts on behalf of a hostile foreign power.” The report continued: “Groups and individuals have been harassed and disrupted because of their political views and their lifestyles… Intelligence agencies have served the political and personal objectives of presidents and other high officials.” Nothing has changed since then.

  Flagging you as a danger based on your correspondence. Just about every branch of the government—from the Postal Service to the Treasury Department and every agency in between—now has its own surveillance sector, authorized to spy on the American people. For instance, the U.S. Postal Service, which has been photographing the exterior of every piece of paper mail for the past 20 years, is also spying on Americans’ texts, emails and social media posts. Headed up by the Postal Service’s law enforcement division, the Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) is reportedly using facial recognition technology, combined with fake online identities, to ferret out potential troublemakers with “inflammatory” posts. The agency claims the online surveillance, which falls outside its conventional job scope of processing and delivering paper mail, is necessary to help postal workers avoid “potentially volatile situations.”

  Now the government wants us to believe that we have nothing to fear from these mass spying programs as long as we’ve done nothing wrong.

  Don’t believe it.

  As Matthew Feeney warns in the New York Times, “In the past, Communists, civil rights leaders, feminists, Quakers, folk singers, war protesters and others have been on the receiving end of law enforcement surveillance. No one knows who the next target will be.”

  The government’s definition of a “bad” guy is extraordinarily broad, and it results in the warrantless surveillance of innocent, law-abiding Americans on a staggering scale.

  Moreover, there is a repressive, suppressive effect to surveillance that not only acts as a potentially small deterrent on crime but serves to monitor and chill lawful First Amendment activity, and that is the whole point.

  Weaponized surveillance is re-engineering a society structured around the aesthetic of fear.

  As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, the police state wants us silent, servile and compliant.

  They definitely do not want us to engage in First Amendment activities that challenge the government’s power, reveal the government’s corruption, expose the government’s lies, and encourage the citizenry to push back against the government’s many injustices.

  And they certainly do not want us to remember that we have rights, let alone attempting to exercise those rights peaceably and lawfully, whether it’s protesting police brutality and racism, challenging COVID-19 mandates, questioning election outcomes, or listening to alternate viewpoints—even conspiratorial ones—in order to form our own opinions about the true nature of government. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/30/2023 – 23:40

• Money Is The Biggest Point Of Contention In Relationships, New Survey Shows
  Money Is The Biggest Point Of Contention In Relationships, New Survey Shows

  Today in “completely heathy relationship behavior”, it’s being reported that many Millennials and Gen Zers are now doing research on their dates to try and ascertain how much money they make while they’re dating them.

  The revelation comes as part of a Bloomberg wrap up of a Credit Karma study that highlighted the fact that young people in relationships are fighting about money more than any other topics. 

  About 33% of people who responded to the survey said they had ended a relationship over money and more than 40% said they fight about finances on a monthly basis, the report said. 

  Money becomes a point of contention in relationships moreso than spending time together, chores or intimacy, the report says, noting that “red flags” around money including one person expecting the other to pay for everything and reckless spending. 

  

  Brittany Wolff, founder of Wolff Financial in South Carolina says arguments about money aren’t necessarily a bad thing and can lead to both people being more transparent about their financial situations and feelings. She says couples should have a “money date” regularly where they can sit together and talk about their financial goals. 

  Dan Slagle, founding partner of Fyooz Financial Planning, adds that the date should be in a “neutral location” and offers up the perfunctory advice that “Making it fun can help keep conversations light and productive”. 

  Right. And we guess how well you’ve been earning determines exactly how the end of the date goes…

  Meanwhile, 35% of Gen Z and 25% of Millennials said they research the job of the person they are dating to estimate how much money they make, the report says. 

  Brandon Gregg, financial advisor at BBK Wealth Management in Indiana, concluded: “Problems around money are going to happen — it’s a part of life. When they do, make sure that lines of communication are open. Taking the steps to understand each other’s values and communicating regularly early on will lessen the issues.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/30/2023 – 23:20

• What If Biden Backs Out Of The Race?
  What If Biden Backs Out Of The Race?

  Authored by Charles Lipson via RealClear Wire,

  President Biden has declared he’s running for a second term, but it’s far from certain he actually will. His infirmity and low poll numbers raise serious doubts. His physical decline shows when he walks or climbs the stairs of Air Force One. His cognitive decline shows when he refuses to hold press conferences or answer even the simplest questions, like how he feels about the devastating fires in Maui. His decline in the public’s estimation shows when pollsters ask Americans how they’re doing. Four out of five answer, “Not good. Not good at all.”

  

  Voters also say they don’t want another general election choice like the last one. So many votes in 2020 were negative ones “against the worse candidate,” not in favor of the better one. They don’t want another grudge match between two unpopular candidates.

  Biden’s dismal poll numbers form a somber backdrop for his reelection campaign. That backdrop is even darker now that his health problems are so visible. These mounting problems may not prevent him from running, but they do lessen the chances. True, he keeps saying he is running. But, like all politicians, he may be deceiving the public or himself. The biggest “tell” is that Biden is avoiding the very things active candidates do. He’s not campaigning. He’s not attending a lot of small events with big donors. He’s not running ads. He’s not using the White House’s bully pulpit to address the nation on our challenges and his response to them.

  Still, those signs are not definitive. Biden might be lying low because the Republicans are fighting among themselves. Why get in their way? Better to wait until late autumn to ramp up his campaign.

  He might be unsure if he really is running, uncertain if he is up to the arduous task, physically and mentally.

  Or he might have already decided, privately, that he will not run but is delaying the announcement since it would immediately turn him into a powerless lame duck.

  At this point, it’s impossible to know what he has decided. He might not know himself. But it is well worth considering the implications if Biden limits himself to one term and waits until late fall or early spring to make the announcement.

  The first implication is that a late withdrawal favors some Democratic candidates over others. It favors those with high name recognition, existing campaign operations, and the ability to fund expensive national efforts, either from outside donations or their own pockets. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has already established his campaign-in-waiting and can raise lots of money, especially from big donors in his home state. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is a billionaire who can fund his own run and has begun setting up a national team. Michigan’s Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, by contrast, would be several steps behind and would need to raise a lot of money quickly to become a viable candidate. So would Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, or others who might step into the wide-open race. One candidate who is already running, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., would stay in the race, trading on his family name rather than his conspiracy-fueled ideas.

  Interestingly, no one in the Biden cabinet seems poised to make a run. That lackluster group is the faceless front of the administrative state. The only name even mentioned is Pete Buttigieg, and that very seldom. The one-time darling of the media has faded from consideration amid his troubled tenure at the Transportation Department. He’s the Beto O’Rourke of this round.

  The second consequence of a Biden withdrawal would be a fight over the future of Kamala Harris. She is the least popular vice president in polling history, and for good reason. Voters think she’s incompetent, inauthentic, and inarticulate, an empty-calorie word salad without any policy achievements. She’s the living embodiment of the “Peter Principle,” where people keep getting promoted until they reach their level of incompetence. She has reached that lofty level, just as Dan Quayle did during George H.W. Bush’s presidency.

  Kamala’s bleak showing in the polls is particularly striking because she took office with enthusiastic support from every legacy media outlet. They loved her, even though ordinary Democratic voters did not. In fact, those voters were so sour on Kamala that she withdrew before the first primary or caucus in 2020. She was polling near zero. She could raise money, at least initially, but she couldn’t raise enthusiasm or votes. She still can’t. With each failure, she tries to reintroduce herself to the public. It hasn’t worked.

  Unfortunately for Democrats, Kamala’s presence as second-in-line poses a thorny problem, whether Biden runs or not. If he runs, she’s an albatross on the ticket because voters are worried Biden might not make it through a full second term. They really, really don’t want to see Harris step into the Oval Office by default.

  If Biden decides not to run, Harris poses a different problem. She is the country’s highest-ranking African-American officeholder in a party built around identity politics and strong turnouts by blacks, especially black women. That dependence on black votes is why Biden picked her in the first place (remember, he promised to pick a black woman), and it’s why he cannot drop her from the ticket. If Biden doesn’t run and Harris sinks to the bottom in an open primary, the result could alienate a vital constituency and depress turnout in that crucial group.

  The third implication concerns Hunter’s legal troubles, which touch on other family members and the patriarch himself. The president could solve the legal peril instantly by pardoning family members who face criminal exposure. Biden’s press secretary rejected the possibility. Asked if Hunter might receive a presidential pardon, Karine Jean-Pierre replied with a single word: “No.”

  The White House knows the uproar – and political damage – a pardon would cause. It would imply guilt, impede a full disclosure of all criminal acts, gut the very notion of unbiased justice, and appear nakedly self-serving.

  The Bidens’ political and legal problems are not merely that family members made a lot of money, but that they made it while Joe Biden was vice president and made it without any visible business skills. Equally important, the money came from foreign businesses in the very countries where he directed U.S. foreign policy, at President Obama’s behest. The family leveraged Biden’s official position for some $20-40 million, funneled through an opaque web of LLCs. They were selling political connections and access, not business expertise. The LLCs were formed when Joe Biden was vice president and had no legitimate business purpose.They were designed to hide to sources and distribution of income.

  The president’s direct involvement in these schemes is still murky. Proving he knew, or worse, aided them, is the goal of Republican House investigations and a possible impeachment inquiry.

  Whether or not any felonies can be proven, such as money laundering or Hunter’s failure to register as a foreign agent, is an open question. Not that the Department of Justice has pursued them vigorously. Quite the contrary. Their lax treatment of the president’s family and suppression of the IRS investigation is a scandal in its own right.

  If President Biden does eventually pardon his family, the ensuing uproar would end his administration’s political life and lead inexorably to an impeachment vote. That’s why the president would be well advised to wait beyond the November election before giving his family a “get out of jail free” card. Even then, it would trash his legacy.

  What about Republicans? What would Biden’s withdrawal mean for them? At this stage, it’s impossible to know. It’s too early to tell if it would hurt or help Trump, either in the primaries or the general election. One possibility is that a new face on the Democratic side would encourage Republicans to pick a new face themselves. But there are still too many unknowns to have any confidence in a prediction.

  One thing we do know is that Biden’s promise to run for a second term does not guarantee he will stay in the race. He could still decide he’s too old, too infirm, or too unpopular to make the arduous uphill climb. And we know one more thing: If Joe Biden does pull out, his decision will send shockwaves across the American political landscape.

  Charles Lipson is the Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Political Science Emeritus at the University of Chicago, where he founded the Program on International Politics, Economics, and Security. He can be reached at charles.lipson@gmail.com.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/30/2023 – 23:00

• Russia, North Korea 'Actively Advancing' Arms Deal For Ukraine War: White House
  Russia, North Korea ‘Actively Advancing’ Arms Deal For Ukraine War: White House

  The White House is again accusing Moscow of importing North Korean weapons for use in its military operation in Ukraine, at a moment tensions with Pyongyang are mounting, which has led to tit-for-tat exchanges of nuclear rhetoric.

  White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Wednesday stopped short of saying there’s smoking gun evidence for arms transfers already accomplished, instead strongly suggesting potential sales in the near future. “We urge the DPRK to cease its arms negotiations with Russia and abide by the public commitments that Pyongyang has made to not provide or sell arms to Russia,” Kirby said.

  

  Presidents Putin and Kim Jong Un recently exchanged cordial letters expressing a desire for closer cooperation on multiple fronts, also after North Korea has blasted NATO ‘imperialism’ for causing the Ukraine conflict to erupt. Russia sent a delegation to the north last month, headed by the foreign minister.

  Kirby referenced new intelligence which he said shows both pariah leaders (in the West’s eyes) are “actively advancing” high-level talks for more weapons.

  He further claimed that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu while in Pyongyang late last month was there “to try to convince Pyongyang to sell artillery ammunition to Russia.” 

  “Following these negotiations, high-level discussions may continue in coming months,” Kirby said, alleging the two sides are negotiating over “significant quantities and multiple types” of weapons to use in Ukraine.

  Washington has over the course of the Ukraine conflict at various points accused North Korea of supplying the Russian military with additional artillery ammo. US intelligence has in the recent past alleged that train shipments between the two countries included covert ammo supplies, but something which has not been proven.

  The two countries actually share a small border. More recently, there have been accusations that Wagner Group, which is now on the outs with Moscow in the wake of the mutiny in June, purchased large quantities of arms and equipment from the Kim Jong-Un government.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/30/2023 – 22:40

• 100 Former Clerks Of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Speak Out
  100 Former Clerks Of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Speak Out

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

  More than 100 former clerks for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas signed an open letter defending his independence and integrity amid media reports that suggest he received improper gifts from a Texas billionaire.

  “As his law clerks, we offer this response. Different paths led us to our year with Justice Thomas, and we have followed different paths since. But along the way, we all saw with our own eyes the same thing: His integrity is unimpeachable,” their letter said (pdf).

  

  The 112 individuals who signed the letter include three circuit court judges, including Judge David Stras of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, Judge James Ho of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and Judge Allison Rushing of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

  “And these stories are malicious, perpetuating the ugly assumption that the Justice cannot think for himself. They are part of a larger attack on the Court and its legitimacy as an institution,” the letter also stated. “The picture they paint of the Court and the man for whom we worked bears no resemblance to reality.”

  “His independence is unshakable, deeply rooted seven decades ago as that young child who walked through the door of his grandparents’ house for a life forever changed,” they continued.

  The former clerks then described Justice Thomas’ upbringing in Alabama and how he was destined to become a priest before the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy in the 1960s, which made him decide to pursue law instead.

  “He is a man of unwavering principle. He welcomes the lone dissent. He is also a man of great humor and warmth and generosity. Walk the halls, and you’ll hear his laugh. Call, and he answers,” the letter continued. “His grandfather’s sayings become our sayings. His chambers become our chambers—a place fueled by unstoppable curiosity and unreturned library books, all to get every case just right.”

  The letter went on to make reference to Justice Thomas’s upbringing and education, how he was changed by life in the segregated South, and how he had been destined for the priesthood before the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. led him to the law instead.

  Reports from ProPublica, a left-leaning media outlet, have claimed that the Supreme Court justice accepted at least 38 vacations, 26 private jet flights, 12 VIP passes to sporting events, and two resort trips during his time as a justice.

  “While some of the hospitality, such as stays in personal homes, may not have required disclosure, Thomas appears to have violated the law by failing to disclose flights, yacht cruises and expensive sports tickets, according to ethics experts,” the report in August said.

  But the letter, in addressing those reports, asserted that they’re part of a broader series of attacks on the Supreme Court itself.

  “Lately, the stories have questioned his integrity and his ethics for the friends he keeps. They bury the lede. These friends are not parties before him as a Justice of the Court. And these stories are malicious, perpetuating the ugly assumption that the Justice cannot think for himself,” the letter said, according to Fox News, which obtained the document. “They are part of a larger attack on the Court and its legitimacy as an institution. The picture they paint of the Court and the man for whom we worked bears no resemblance to reality.”

  Congressional Democrats have said the reports call into question whether Justice Thomas followed the high court’s ethics rules and have vowed to make changes to the Supreme Court. They have also called on the associate justice, an appointee of former President George H.W. Bush, to recuse himself from certain cases.

  “Justice Thomas has brought shame upon himself and the United States Supreme Court with his acceptance of massive, repeated and undisclosed gifts,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in mid-August. “No government official, elected or unelected, could ethically or legally accept gifts of that scale. He should resign immediately.”

  Other than Mr. Lieu, four other House Democrats have said Justice Thomas should resign from the bench. They include Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Bill Pascrell (D-N.J), Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), and Hank Johnson (D-Ga.).

  In response to the reports, Justice Thomas has said he “endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines,” adding that the “guidelines are now being changed, as the committee of the Judicial Conference responsible for financial disclosure for the entire federal judiciary just this past month announced new guidance.”

  “And, it is, of course, my intent to follow this guidance in the future,” he added in a statement.

  Meanwhile, Harlan Crow, whose friendship with Justice Thomas was the subject of the ProPublica reports, issued a comment to The Atlantic earlier this year saying that it “would be absurd to me to talk to Justice Thomas about Supreme Court cases, because that’s not my world.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/30/2023 – 22:20

• Rare Uprising Against US-Backed Forces In Syria Leaves Many Killed
  Rare Uprising Against US-Backed Forces In Syria Leaves Many Killed

  There’s been a rare armed uprising in a region of Syria currently occupied by American forces, which has resulted in dead and wounded. Regional reports have tallied at least 13 to as many as 25 people, both militants and civilians, have been killed.

  It happened Wednesday in Deir Ezzor province, which for years has had some 1,000 or more US soldiers occupying what is Syria’s only oil and gas rich province. The US has trained and supported Kurkish-led “Syrian Democratic Forces” while also cutting off Damascus and most of the Syrian population from its own resources. 

  

  Al Jazeera reports of the Wednesday violence, “Clashes in eastern Syria between Arab tribal fighters and US-backed Kurdish-led fighters have left several people, including civilians, dead and others wounded, opposition activists and pro-government media have said.”

  It’s being called the worst violence there since 2015, when there were still fierce counter-terror operations against ISIS. 

  According to more details: 

  The clashes first broke out on Monday, a day after the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) detained the commander and several members of the Deir Az Zor Military Council, a group that had been allied with the SDF, at a meeting they invited them to in the northeastern city of Hassakeh.

  The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported that 10 Arab tribesmen and three SDF fighters were killed in clashes in the villages of Hrejieh and Breeha.

  Additionally there were reports of at least eight civilians, including a child, killed in the village of Hrejieh. 

  Much of the Arab component of the US-backed forces in the region has long been in tension with the area’s Kurdish leadership. The Syrian Kurds dominate the SDF, while the Arabs tend to be made up of remnant “Free Syrian Army” factions. While Washington has long sought to present the SDF as a broad coalition of anti-Assad “opposition” fighters, the reality is that the Kurds and their interests totally dominate.

  🇸🇾 #Syria – #Rojava: Clashes have allegedly broken out between the SDF and tribal groups in Deir ez-Zor after the SDF arrested Deir ez-Zor Military Council (DeZMC) leader Abu Khawla.

  Tribes affiliated with Abu Khawla have since given the SDF a 12-hour ultimatum to release the… pic.twitter.com/3GHbIqHtM2

  — POPULAR FRONT (@PopularFront_) August 29, 2023

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

  This has led to fears among the tribes near the Iraq border that the SDF and US will in the end “erase” the eastern region’s “Arab identity.”

  There’s also the possibility that pro-Assad forces are covertly encouraging the Arab tribes to rise up and throw off the American occupation. For years, the Pentagon’s chief enemy in the region has been ‘pro-Iran’ and Shia aligned forces, but if there’s a broader push to overthrow the US occupation from the Arab tribes, Washington’s days occupying Syria are numbered.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/30/2023 – 22:00

• Over 1,600 Scientists Sign 'No Climate Emergency' Declaration
  Over 1,600 Scientists Sign ‘No Climate Emergency’ Declaration

  Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  International scientists have jointly signed a declaration dismissing the existence of a climate crisis and insisting that carbon dioxide is beneficial to Earth, contrary to the popular alarmist narrative.

  

  “There is no climate emergency,” the Global Climate Intelligence Group (CLINTEL) said in its World Climate Declaration (pdf), made public in August. “Climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific. Scientists should openly address uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassionately count the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of their policy measures.”

  A total of 1,609 scientists and professionals from around the world have signed the declaration, including 321 from the United States.

  The coalition pointed out that Earth’s climate has varied as long as it has existed, with the planet experiencing several cold and warm phases. The Little Ice Age only ended as recently as 1850, they said.

  “Therefore, it is no surprise that we now are experiencing a period of warming,” the declaration said.

  Warming is happening “far slower” than predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

  “Climate models have many shortcomings and are not remotely plausible as policy tools,” the coalition said, adding that these models “exaggerate the effect of greenhouse gases” and “ignore the fact that enriching the atmosphere with CO2 is beneficial.” For instance, even though climate alarmists characterize CO2 as environmentally-damaging, the coalition pointed out that the gas is “not a pollutant.”

  Carbon dioxide is “essential” to all life on earth and is “favorable” for nature. Extra CO2 results in the growth of global plant biomass while also boosting the yields of crops worldwide.

  CLINTEL also dismissed the narrative of global warming being linked to increased natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, and droughts, stressing that there is “no statistical evidence” to support these claims.

  “There is no climate emergency. Therefore, there is no cause for panic and alarm. We strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy proposed for 2050. Go for adaptation instead of mitigation; adaptation works whatever the causes are,” it said.

  “To believe the outcome of a climate model is to believe what the model makers have put in. This is precisely the problem of today’s climate discussion to which climate models are central. Climate science has degenerated into a discussion based on beliefs, not on sound self-critical science. Should not we free ourselves from the naive belief in immature climate models?”

  Climate Models and Sunlight Reflection

  Among the CLINTEL signatories are two Nobel laureates—physicists John Francis Clauser from the United States and Ivan Giaever, a Norwegian-American.

  Mr. Clauser has made a significant addition to climate models to dismiss the narrative of global warming: the visible light reflected by cumulus clouds which, on average, cover half of the earth.

  

  Current climate models vastly underestimate this aspect of cumulus cloud reflection, which plays a key role in regulating the earth’s temperature. Mr. Clauser previously told President Joe Biden that he disagreed with his climate policies.

  In May, Mr. Clauser was elected to the board of directors at the CO2 Coalition, a group focusing on the beneficial contributions of carbon dioxide in the environment.

  “The popular narrative about climate change reflects a dangerous corruption of science that threatens the world’s economy and the well-being of billions of people,” Mr. Clauser said in a May 5 statement.

  “Misguided climate science has metastasized into massive shock-journalistic pseudoscience. In turn, the pseudoscience has become a scapegoat for a wide variety of other unrelated ills.”

  “It has been promoted and extended by similarly misguided business marketing agents, politicians, journalists, government agencies, and environmentalists. In my opinion, there is no real climate crisis.”

  False Doomsday Predictions, a Presidential Issue

  CLINTEL’s declaration against the climate change narrative counters propaganda spread by climate alarmists who have long predicted doomsday scenarios triggered by global warming—none of which have ever come true.

  In 1970, some climate scientists predicted that the earth would move into a new ice age by the 21st century. Pollution expert James Lodge predicted that “air pollution may obliterate the sun and cause a new ice age in the first third of the new century,” according to The Boston Globe.

  

  In May 1982, Mostafa Tolba, then-executive director of the United Nations environmental program, said that if the world did not change course, it would face an “environmental catastrophe which will witness devastation as complete, as irreversible, as any nuclear holocaust” by 2000.

  In June 2008, James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Sciences, said that within five to 10 years, the Arctic would have no ice left in the summer.

  As climate alarmists continue to spread propaganda about global warming, the topic has become an issue in the 2024 presidential race, with multiple candidates openly dismissing it.

  In a July 13 post on X, Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that climate change “is being used to control us through fear.”

  “Freedom and free markets are a much better way to stop pollution. Polluters make themselves rich by making the public pay for the damage they do,” he said.

  During the first 2024 GOP presidential debate, candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called climate change a “hoax.”

  “The reality is, the anti-carbon agenda is the wet blanket on our economy. And so the reality is, more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate change,” he said.

  High Temperatures, Biden’s Appliance Crackdown

  Climate activists have insisted that global warming is responsible for the soaring temperatures across the United States, even claiming that temperatures are hitting record highs.

  In a recent interview with The Epoch Times, John Christy, a climatologist and professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, dismissed the narrative of record high temperatures.

  “Regionally, the West has seen its largest number of hot summer records in the past 100 years, but the Ohio Valley and Upper Midwest are experiencing their fewest,” he said.

  “For the conterminous U.S. as a whole, the last 10 years have produced only an average number of records. The 1930s are still champs.”

  Climate change policies have been used to justify sweeping lifestyle changes across the United States by the Energy Department, like restricting home appliances, and sometimes, even outright banning them.

  In June, the Energy Department proposed rules that would require ceiling fans to become more energy efficient, a development that could lead to manufacturers having to shell out $86.6 million per year in “increased equipment costs.”

  In February, the DOE proposed energy efficiency rules targeting gas stoves that would affect half of all new models of such stoves sold in the United States while making most of the existing ones noncompliant.

  In July, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission proposed a policy that would remove nearly all existing portable gas generators from the market.

  The Biden administration has already implemented a ban on incandescent light bulbs, which came into effect on Aug. 1.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/30/2023 – 21:40

• FEMA To Blast All Smartphones , TVs, Radios With Mass Alert Test On October 4
  FEMA To Blast All Smartphones , TVs, Radios With Mass Alert Test On October 4

  On Oct. 4, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will push mass alerts across the nation on every television, smartphone, and radio with a notice that USA Today said would read:

  “This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, covering the United States from 14:20 to 14:50 hours ET. This is only a test. No action is required by the public.”

  FEMA’s last test occurred in 2021 during the Covid pandemic. At the time, the emergency agency sent test alerts nationwide, causing all phones, televisions, and radios to blast an annoying sound. 

  Here’s what to expect via a smartphone next month:

  “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”

  

  USA Today said the nationwide test comes “in the wake of the horrific fires on the island of Maui on Aug. 8, when warning sirens that might have alerted people to the danger weren’t deployed, it’s a reminder of what systems are in place should they be needed.”

  Some on social media said the upcoming test will sound like “The Purge.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/30/2023 – 21:20

• Colorado Controversy Raises Questions Over The Meaning Of The Gadsden Flag
  Colorado Controversy Raises Questions Over The Meaning Of The Gadsden Flag

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  The historic Gadsden flag is at the heart of a controversy involving a twelve-year-old boy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

  The child was removed from the school due to a patch on his backpack featuring the flag.

  The school district defended the action and claimed that, despite its historical symbolism, it is now considered racist and connected to slavery.

  Not only is the flag a historical image originally unconnected to slavery, but the action (in my view) contravenes core free speech protections.

  

  The flag was designed by Christopher Gadsden of South Carolina in 1775 as a symbol of the defiance of colonists to British rule. (Some trace the origins of the flag earlier to a design by Benjamin Franklin). Featuring a timber snake, it affirmed the view of the colonists that they would not be stepped on by overbearing British officials and troops.

  While Gadsden would become a brigadier general in the Continental Army, he gave the flag to Commodore Esek Hopkins who later adopted it as his flag as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Navy.  For the revolutionaries, it embodied the essence of the war: they were the victims of the British overstepping their authority and treading upon the rights of the colonies.

  The historic image is still cherished by many, including those who see it as a symbol of defiance of individual citizens to overreaching government action.

  That was the view at The Vanguard School in Colorado Springs. A video on the social media platform X, shows the 12-year-old elementary school student being removed from class.

  A staff member explained that the image is now deemed “disruptive to the classroom environment” and that it has “origins with slavery.” The boy’s parent is told that the child must remove the patch before he can return to school.

  The staffer tells the parent to speak with Jeff Yocum, the director of operations at the school.

  Yocum reportedly cited research by a graphic design professor at Iowa State University Paul Bruski, who declared the flag as now a symbol of hate: 

  “Because of its creator’s history and because it is commonly flown alongside ‘Trump 2020’ flags, the Confederate battle flag and other white-supremacist flags, some may now see the Gadsden flag as a symbol of intolerance and hate – or even racism.”

  

  Yocum also reportedly cited a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruling involving a Postal worker, which found that while the flag “originated in the Revolutionary War in a non-racial context,” despite its “historic origins and meaning of the symbol, it also has since been sometimes interpreted to convey racially-tinged messages.”

  We previously discussed how the EEOC reinstated a case in 2016 of an employee objecting to another employee wearing a cap with the symbol.

  Clearly, symbols can have different meanings for different people. I disagree with Professor Bruski, but respect his right to raise such objections. The question is whether others respect the right of those with opposing views, including viewing this flag as an important and inspiring symbol of the American Revolution.

  The censorship of the image strikes me as a clear denial of free speech rights for this student. I obviously do not agree with the historical interpretation, but I am far more concerned about the constitutional interpretation of the school district allowing such censorship of images.

  It is an ironic moment for a flag that symbolized the resistance to overbearing government actions and the denial of core rights in the American Revolution.

  *  *  *

  Update: Today the school district reversed its decision and will now allow the student and the flag back into the school:

  From Vanguard’s founding we have proudly supported our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the ordered liberty that all Americans have enjoyed for almost 250 years.

  The Vanguard School recognizes the historical significance of the Gadsden flag and its place in history.

  This incident is an occasion for us to reaffirm our deep commitment to a classical education in support of these American principles.

  At this time, the Vanguard School Board and the District have informed the student’s family that he may attend school with the Gadsden flag patch visible on his backpack.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/30/2023 – 21:00

• Poor Americans Skip Meals, Can't Afford Power Bills, Miss Rent Payments, In Era Of 'Bidenomics'
  Poor Americans Skip Meals, Can’t Afford Power Bills, Miss Rent Payments, In Era Of ‘Bidenomics’

  Amidst the chaos and disinformation being pumped out of the White House and echoed by corporate media cheerleaders, we all remember this headline: 

  

  We all know every politician lies. Some tell half-truths, while others, such as the Biden administration, attempt to convince folks it is daylight while it’s midnight. An increasing number of Americans can see right through the propaganda, hence why Oliver Anthony’s blue-collar anthem “Rich Men North Of Richmond” continues to rank number one on Billboard Hot 100. 

  

  Or that is why President Biden’s approval ratings remain cratered. 

  

  This leaves us with a Bloomberg report citing fintech startup Propel, an app aimed at Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients, that reveals an increasing number of Americans are struggling to pay rent and put food on the table. 

  Among households using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s boosted pandemic benefits, 42% skipped meals in August and 55% ate less because they couldn’t afford food, more than double last year’s share, according to a Wednesday report from Propel Inc., a benefits software developer.

  

  Bloomberg said:

  The data also highlight that households were worse off in August from just a month ago. Since July, an increasing share of low-income households had utilities shut off, couldn’t afford the prior month’s utility bill or couldn’t afford rent. More than two-thirds of those surveyed who were receiving boosted SNAP payments said they had some form of debt.

  Propel’s alarming report is an eye-opener, considering we’ve pointed out that mid/low tier consumers have depleted savings and racked up insurmountable credit card debt to make ends meet in the era of ‘Bidenomics’ inflation. Factor in a cooling labor market (read: Job Openings Crater, Prior Data “Unexpectedly” Revised Sharply Lower). These folks have limited safety nets as social support expires. Just wait until student loan payments kick in in several weeks.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/30/2023 – 20:40

• Rise In Crime: Nordstrom Closes Shop In SF, Dollar Store Locks Up Merchandise
  Rise In Crime: Nordstrom Closes Shop In SF, Dollar Store Locks Up Merchandise

  Authored by Bryan Jung via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

  

  A nationwide crime wave is forcing many retailers, large and small, to close their doors or lock up their merchandise.

  One example is Nordstrom, which made an announcement in May that it’s closing its flagship store in downtown San Francisco after 35 years in business.

  The location inside Westfield Mall said goodbye to its last customers on Aug. 27, after opening in October 1988.

  The store at the corner of Fifth and Market Streets once occupied five floors and spanned more than 312,000 square feet but is now closing like many other retailers because of a surge in crime and poor sales.

  San Francisco Centre has suffered from a rise in shoplifting, homelessness, and public drug use.

  A Popular 35-Year Store Location Closes Its Doors

  A former shopping staple in downtown San Francisco, the neighborhood’s “unsafe conditions for customers, retailers and employees,” made operations difficult to sustain, a member of the city’s Board of Supervisors, Matt Dorsey, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

  The now-empty Nordstrom location has been described by local media outlets as desolated with countless empty displays and mannequins packaged away.

  Other major retailers in the area, including Old Navy Whole Foods, AT&T, Anthropologie, AmazonGo, Office Depot, and Saks Off Fifth Avenue, closed earlier this summer.

  Remaining stores have been forced to lock up their stock to deter shoplifters.

  Nordstrom Rack, across the street from the flagship location, shut down operations in June.

  Even the Westfield Mall announced in June that it would be closing, after operating on Market Street for more than 20 years, local TV news station KRON4 reported.

  The future viability of the San Francisco Centre shopping district is uncertain.

  San Francisco Swamped With Crime And Empty Store Fronts

  In addition to the rampant drug use, homelessness, and crime, the city has lost thousands to remote work after the COVID-19 pandemic, which has decimated vast areas of its commercial neighborhoods.

  Office vacancies in San Francisco reached a record high of 31 percent in May, enough space for 92,000 workers, according to the Daily Mail.

  The loss of office workers is expected to contribute to a budget shortfall of $1.3 billion in five years, while a decline in property tax revenue alone may cost nearly $200 million per year, according to the city’s chief accountant.

  Sales tax revenue for South of Market, or SoMA, where the stores were located, has seen a 25 percent decline from the first quarter of 2019.

  Ms. Breed’s office announced that it was working on changing laws and tax reforms that would bring more businesses to the area.

  IKEA’s opening of a new location at 945 Market Street on Aug. 23 was touted as a sign by Ms. Breed that things weren’t too bad, calling IKEA’s move “a game changer.”

  Mr. Dorsey said that the city will “have some serious issues to work on.”

  “San Francisco has always had ups and downs, but I’m going to tell you we always come back,” he said. “And I’m not going to lose my optimism about my district or my city.”

  Last week, city authorities announced 17 new pop-up shops that will move into empty storefronts in the downtown Financial District in late September, according to ABC7 News in San Francisco.

  Shoplifting Hits Democrat-Run Regions Across the US

  Shoplifting has become a problem for retailers in major metropolitan regions nationwide, with even discount stores being hit.

  On Aug. 24, Dollar Tree Chairman and CEO Rick Dreiling said the discount retailer would start locking up items to prevent growing theft.

  Mr. Dreiling has blamed shrink, an industry term for stolen items and damages, for causing the company to miss its earnings forecasts and cut its outlook in May.

  The retailer’s gross profit margins tumbled to 29.8 percent in the second quarter of 2023 from 32.7 percent in the second quarter of 2022.

  “We are now taking a very defensive approach to shrink,” Mr. Dreiling said, noting that inventory losses had “advanced a little further than what we had anticipated.”

  The spree of store theft has already forced larger stores such as CVS and Target to lock up entire isles of items.

  The CEO also suggested that some items with the highest rates of theft would be removed from stores altogether but wouldn’t specify any in particular.

  Representatives for Dollar Tree and Nordstrom didn’t respond by press time to requests by the Epoch Times for comment.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/30/2023 – 20:20

• Half Of Americans Live In States Where Weed Is Legal, Health Officials Push To Ease Restrictions
  Half Of Americans Live In States Where Weed Is Legal, Health Officials Push To Ease Restrictions

  This week in August 2013, the U.S. government cleared the way for the legalization of marijuana in the country, as the Justice Department stated in a press release that it was not going to enforce federal law prohibiting the drug’s use in states that were launching recreational cannabis programs at the time.

  

  Ten years down the line, half of Americans live in states where marijuana is legal and another 80 million have access to medical marijuana.

  As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz notes, this means that almost three quarters of U.S. residents live in a state with some sort of legal weed.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  In 2013, it was Colorado and Washington which were gearing up to legalize marijuana after successful ballot initiatives as part of the November 2012 elections.

  But the federal government’s policy statement was also relevant for another 18 states and the District of Columbia, which at the time had already legalized medical marijuana.

  Data from the Census Bureau shows that between 2012 and 2014, a substantial number of people continued to gain access to medical marijuana as larger states like Massachusetts and Illinois passed measures.

  After that year, shifts to recreational weed legislation dominate the statistic with significant legalizations in California (2016), Michigan (2018), New Jersey (2020) and New York (2021), effectively lowering the number of people under medical marijuana legislation only.

  Despite this, a total of 14 states have passed medical marijuana ballots or legislation after 2015, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Utah and most recently Kentucky.

  And today, Bloomberg reports that US health officials are recommending easing restrictions on marijuana, a move that sets the stage for potentially expanding the cannabis market.

  A top official at the Department of Health and Human Services wrote Drug Enforcement Agency Administrator Anne Milgram calling for marijuana to be reclassified as a Schedule III drug under the Controlled Substances Act, according to a letter dated Aug. 29 seen by Bloomberg News.

  With the health department’s recommendation in hand, the DEA must now conduct its own review process before coming to a decision.

  Should the DEA reclassify marijuana, it would mark a critical shift away from its status as a Schedule I substance, which includes drugs with high abuse risk, like heroin, LSD and ecstasy. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/30/2023 – 20:00

• Naval Aviation Commanders Could Receive Up To $105,000 In Bonus
  Naval Aviation Commanders Could Receive Up To $105,000 In Bonus

  By Diana Correll of NavyTimes

  Active duty commanding officers of aviation units are now eligible for a $105,000 retention bonus for three more years of service.

  

  The deal is a total of $5,000 more than what they were offered the past three fiscal years under the Aviation Command Retention Bonus program, which aims “to retain those officers with the capabilities and command experience in our primary warfighting missions that are critical for the future of our service,” according to a naval administrative message.

  Commanders under this year’s offer will receive $35,000 annually, with their obligation ending after 22 years of cumulative service, the NAVADMIN said.

  Additionally, the Navy is also offering a $35,000 retention bonus for an additional two years of service — an option that wasn’t offered last year. Those officers will receive $17,500 annually, and complete at least 21 years of cumulative service.

  Once the CO tour wraps up, those who agreed to the bonus must serve in a post-command commander tour lasting between 24 and 36 months.

  “The minimum [Aviation Command Retention Bonus] obligation ends after 21 years of commissioned service, the projected rotation date of the assigned [post-command commander[ tour, or 2 years from the contract acceptance date, whichever is later and depending on contract length,” the NAVADMIN said.

  Those eligible to apply must have screened during the Aviation Command Screen Board as the commanding officer of an eligible operational, operational training, or special mission commander command.

  Applications are open until the end of the month.

  In March, the Navy announced reserve officers were eligible for $100,000 through the Training and Administration of the Reserve Aviation Command Retention Bonus program.

  Officers under that program would receive an initial payment of $34,000, followed by two additional annual payments of $33,000 for at least another three years of service that includes a post-command commander tour.

  The Navy emphasized the significance of retention bonuses in its budget request released in March as the service navigates challenges keeping and recruiting new sailors and officers.

  “Retention has … been difficult with a strong national economy, so bonuses and incentives to retain our current naval force [are] a priority,” the budget document said.

  Even so, the Navy surpassed its retention goals for FY22. As of February, the service was ahead of its FY23 monthly retention targets, Navy Times previously reported.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/30/2023 – 19:40

• Canada Issues 2SLGBTQI+ "Travel Advisory" For The U.S., Whatever That Means
  Canada Issues 2SLGBTQI+ “Travel Advisory” For The U.S., Whatever That Means

  The genius bureaucrats in Canada have issued either a “LGBTQ2S+” or “2SLGBTQI+” travel advisory for the United States, depending on which news source you pull your information from and which acronym is popular this week. 

  The country has “updated its international travel advisories to warn members of the LGBTQ+ community that they may face discrimination if they travel to some places in the United States,” according to CTV News. 

  The advisory was put into place after at least 18 U.S. states “passed laws that limit or ban certain things relevant to the community, including gender-affirming medical care for minors and teaching about sexual orientation in schools”.

  We don’t get it. So in other words, be careful driving on a highway in Florida, because you can’t pull over and give your minor child a sex change?

  The travel advisory follows the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s warning in May about “threats of violence” against the LGBTQ+ community. There’s been no word on whether or not the Homeland Security warning included the “2S” and “I” portions of Canada’s acronym. 

  

  “Some states have enacted laws and policies” that affect LGBTQ+ travellers, Global Affairs Canada said Tuesday. The warning “doesn’t specify which states, or which of their laws or customs, are of concern,” CTV added.

  “Carefully consider whether you are comfortable visiting a destination where the laws and social customs affecting (LGBTQ+) people differ from those in Canada,” the Canadian government warns. 

  Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday: “Even as we work hard on that government-to-government relationship, every Canadian government, very much including our government, needs to put at the centre of everything we do the interests and the safety of every single Canadian and every single group of Canadians.”

  Recall back in May the NAACP issued a travel advisory for the state of Florida, stating: “Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.” 

  In an accompanying statement, the 114-year-old organization said the travel advisory “comes in direct response to Governor Ron DeSantis’ aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/30/2023 – 19:20

• Pfizer To Restart Production At Damaged North Carolina Facility In Q4
  Pfizer To Restart Production At Damaged North Carolina Facility In Q4

  By Kate Magill of Manufacturing Drive,

  Pfizer plans to restart production at its damaged Rocky Mount, North Carolina manufacturing site by Q4 of this year, the company announced Monday.

  

  The drugmaker reopened the site on Aug. 7 and said efforts to restart production are on track, with several areas of the site now operational, including its Incoming Materials, Chemical and Biological Quality labs, packaging and inspection operations and supply chain and warehouse.

  Pzifer has been scrambling to get production back on track at Rocky Mount after a tornado ripped through the facility last month, causing extensive damage to its warehouse. All 40,000 pallets of packaging supplies and finished goods in the company’s warehouse were damaged.

  The shutdown of the site — which produces nearly 50 types of drugs, including about a quarter of Pfizer’s sterile injectable drugs such as painkillers and anesthesia — sparked worry about shortages across the country. The site produces 8% of U.S. supply of sterile injectable drugs.

  In a move to mitigate future issues, the company is working to release any product that was not impacted and passes inspection to distribution channels. It also secured the use of a temporary warehouse.

  “Pfizer is also working on knowledge and documentation transfers for product manufacturing (tech transfers) to other sterile injectable sites in the network to accelerate the supply of its products,” the company said in its announcement.

  “This includes working with regulatory bodies to ensure compliance and to obtain approvals.”

  As part of its strategy to avoid shortages, earlier this month drugmaker released a list of 12 drugs put on its emergency ordering list, meaning they can only be ordered directly from Pfizer and in capped quantities.

  The company also noted in an earlier update that it is exploring the use of alternative manufacturing sites at other U.S. locations in its network.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/30/2023 – 19:00

• Chicago News Crew Robbed At Gunpoint While Reporting On String Of Robberies
  Chicago News Crew Robbed At Gunpoint While Reporting On String Of Robberies

  Today in “too sad to be ironic” news, a Chicago television news crew doing a report on a string of robberies this week wound up getting robbed at gun point themselves by three armed men wearing ski masks. 

  A reporter and photographer for spanish-language station Univision Chicago were filming around 5AM in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood, AP/ABC reported, when three masked men held them at gunpoint and robbed them of their television cameras “and other items”. 

  Luis Godinez, vice president of news at Univision Chicago, commented: “They were approached with guns and robbed. Mainly it was personal items, and they took a camera.”’

  “They’re OK, and we’re working on it together as a team,” he said of his crew.

  The story was specifically on robberies in the West Town community where the robbery took place. The spot was supposed to run on the morning news but footage that was shot was “in the stolen camera” and, as a result, the report never made it to air.

  

  ABC/AP reported that the victims were a 28-year-old man and 42-year-old man and that the armed robbers fled in the vehicles they showed up to the scene in: a gray sedan and black SUV.

  “The offenders then took the victims’ belongings before returning to the vehicles and fleeing,” a police spokesperson told the Washington Post. 

  Astonishingly, this is now the second robbery this month involving a television news crew after a WLS-TV photographer was robbed and assaulted earlier this month while preparing to cover a story on Chicago’s West Side. 

  The corresponding union for the reporters, the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians Local 41, has now issued a warning about growing safety threats to those in the field covering the news. 

  The union’s president said: “Our news photographers and reporters provide a very important public service in keeping our community informed. We are committed to making sure that their safety comes first.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/30/2023 – 18:40

• An Important Lesson From Chicago On Confronting The Enemies Of Free Speech
  An Important Lesson From Chicago On Confronting The Enemies Of Free Speech

  Submitted by Mark Glennon of Wirepoints

  The modern left’s assault on free speech is perhaps the most terrifying element of the madness we have succumbed to for the simple reason that democracy is meaningless without it. The assault has been largely successful. Voices that should be heard are muzzled and, more insidiously, countless other voices are frightened into silence.

  We see that suppression routinely. Too often, readers here tell us of being intimidated into silence by the cancel mob, a mob now controlling much of our government. The iron boot of government on one’s throat is no small matter: Fear of the cost of litigating against a government intent on suppressing free speech is particularly intimidating.

  That intimidation must come to an end. Help is often available – a resource you should prize. A number of law firms specializing in free speech are now available, pro bono – free or at reduced cost. And they are winning, thanks to federal courts that still recognize the First Amendment right to free speech.

  A Chicago company’s free speech case is an illustration.

  Townstone Financial is a smallish, Chicago-based home mortgage originator. It marketed itself primarily through a weekly one-hour show on AM 560 called The Townstone Financial Show. They discussed issues of interest to homebuyers and offered advice to listeners and callers, sometimes getting into topics like crime, policing, movies and the like.

  In 2020, the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) sued Townstone claiming that the company violated a fair lending law by discriminating against African-Americans.

  However, the CFPB never alleged any case of Townstone discriminating on mortgage applications.

  Instead, the CFPB said Townstone discriminated through its marketing in its radio show by “discouraging” applications from Blacks. The CFPB’s evidence was a handful of comments on the show made over a four-year period representing perhaps 10 minutes of air time out of about 10,000 minutes.

  Some of those comments might be regarded as offensive or in bad taste. They referred to a particular Jewel food store at Clark and Division Streets in Chicago as “Jungle Jewel” and included talk of certain Black areas having “hoodlum weekend” and approaching “a real war zone” or as “crazy” and places “to be driven through quickly” while avoiding eye contact.

  But the CFPB did not produce even one example of anybody being discouraged from applying with Townstone. Nor, according to Townstone’s lawyers, has the company ever received any complaint about its show.

  The comments from the show cited by the CFPB were taken out of context and meant little, Townstone believed. For example, the “Jungle Jewel” was commonly called that by people in the area, and referred to as such even by a Black blogger, who called it “a socioeconomic nightmare and a haven for street crazies.”

  As Towntone’s lawyers later argued, if speech like Townstone’s is illegal, what wouldn’t violate the law? “Are creditors permitted to talk about crime at all? Education? Homelessness? Welfare? Poverty? Income distribution? Are they permitted to criticize the Black Lives Matter movement? Support the police? Criticize the Catholic Church about child abuse scandals? Support the BDS movement? Criticize the BDS movement? Support abortion rights? Oppose immigration?”

  The lawsuit threatened to entirely destroy Townstone.

  Its owner decided to fight.

  But how do you fight against the government, which has unlimited resources?

  Enter the Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit with free speech expertise, which represented the company.

  A federal court in Chicago threw out the CFPB’s lawsuit in February. However, the ruling was based mostly on the court’s conclusion that the CFPB had authority only to regulate actual discrimination in lending, not marketing conduct that might be deemed “discouraging.” The court therefore didn’t need to get to the First Amendment defense.

  However, the CFPB has now appealed to the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, so the free speech defense is being raised again, and Townstone is getting still more help. Among the other firms filing amicus — friend of the court — briefs are Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, America’s Future, Free Speech Coalition, Free Speech Defense and Education Fund, U.S. Constitutional Rights Legal Defense Fund, and Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund.

  Lawyers from one of those firms, Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, were guests on our podcast last year discussing legal issues with the University of Illinois’ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies and Gov. Pritzker’s gas tax signage law.

  It’s amicus brief in Townstone’s case summarizes it nicely: “Congress has not deputized CFPB as the ‘Tasteful Joke Police,’ nor would the First Amendment permit that delegation…. By conflating candid discussions of crime with the disparagement of African-American communities, CFPB seeks to do just that. Under the First Amendment, it cannot.”

  If you think Townstone’s case or other First Amendment cases you’ve heard about are isolated examples, you are dangerously uninformed.

  The assault on free speech is massive. Much of the government, social media and the press are partners in the Censorship Industrial Complex. That term was coined by Michael Shellenberger, who laid out 56 pages of evidence in congressional testimony last year. The Missouri v Biden case, now on appeal and likely to go to the U.S. Supreme Court, is already blowing the lid off much of the unholy alliance. Read about the massive evidence of record, discussed in the trial court’s Independence Day order.

  And if you think the assault on free speech isn’t ongoing in Illinois, you are again dangerously uninformed. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul essentially thumbed his nose at the First Amendment when he personally drafted the Illinois law targeting alleged pro-life “misinformation” given out by crisis pregnancy groups near abortion clinics. A federal judge ridiculed it and enjoined its enforcement earlier this month. Chalk up that victory to another of the pro bono law firms available to help on First Amendment issues, the Thomas More Society.

  Gov. JB Pritzker “is gaining a reputation as a hard-left culture warrior who is happy to silence political opponents,” as the Wall Street Journal recently said. “Pritzker apparently thinks that invoking the name Trump is a justification to get away with saying or doing anything. Not under the U.S. Constitution,” wrote the Journal.

  He told CNN, “There ought to be a private right of action for anybody that’s dissuaded or told something that’s false, that’s the important thing.” That would be flagrantly unconstitutional.

  Under the guise of banning book bans, the General assembly passed and Pritzker signed a bill delegating control over what books libraries carry to a group run by an open Marxist. Most recently, they passed an “anti-doxing” law that flies in the face of textbook First Amendment law, as we explained here.

  Illinois Senators Durbin and Duckworth have been among the progressives jawboning tech platforms to do more censorship. And Illinois Congressman Sean Casten introduced a bill to strip courts of the power of judicial review — their power to declare laws invalid as violations of the First Amendment, or anything else.

  Do not stand silent when your right to free speech is suppressed. Know that quality legal firms are often available for free. There are more beyond those I’ve mentioned here.

  The assault on free speech must be defeated at all cost. Do your part.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/30/2023 – 18:20