• The Road To Totalitarianism, Part 3: CJ Hopkins' Trial (& Sentencing) For 'Thoughtcrimes'
  The Road To Totalitarianism, Part 3: CJ Hopkins’ Trial (& Sentencing) For ‘Thoughtcrimes’

  Authored by CJ Hopkins via The Consent Factory,

  So, the Germans are putting me on trial for my thoughtcrimes, and, apparently, I’ve already been found guilty and sentenced. Bear with me and I’ll try to explain.

  

  The Berlin District Court has issued a so-called “penalty order” or “order of punishment,” in which I am advised that I am now officially a criminal in Germany, for tweeting two Tweets. According to my attorney, a trial will now be scheduled, at which my attorney will argue the case before the judge that just issued the “order of punishment.” At this trial, the judge will listen attentively to the arguments my attorney has already made in writing, consider them carefully, and find me guilty, again. Then the judge will reaffirm the “order of punishment.”

  Go ahead, read that paragraph again.

  After my Kafkaesque trial has concluded, my attorney will file a series of appeals, which will fail, at which point I will have to decide whether to pay a fine of 3,600 Euros or go to German prison for 60 days.

  This process will take months, if not years, and will cost me God knows how much money in attorney’s fees, court costs, and then the €3,600 fine. Yes, I’m going to pay the fine. I am not going to German prison for 60 days. Life is too short, and I am getting older, and it wouldn’t really accomplish anything except making a narcissistic spectacle of myself.

  However, what will accomplish something (I don’t know how much, but something) is if I see the whole process through to the end, and shine as much light on it as I possibly can, because my case is just one of many such cases, and the real story here is not about me, it is about the crackdown on political dissent that is being carried out, not just here in Germany, but also in other countries all throughout the West.

  There are not many outlets reporting this story, not outlets with any significant reach. If you are reading this column, you’re probably aware of various alternative media outlets that are, but most of these outlets are quarantined off where “normal” people never have to see them, and are delegitimized as “unreliable sources” and purveyors of “misinformation,” and so on.

  There are a few bigger sources covering the story, which are also increasingly being branded “illegitimate,” Matt Taibbi’s Racket News, Michael Shellenberger’s Public, Glenn Greenwald’s Locals operations, and I’m sure I’m forgetting a few more, forgive me.

  The point is, unless you’re a charter member of the “science-denying, conspiracy-theorizing, hate-speech-speaking, anti-vaxxing, misinforming left-or-right extremist” club — i.e., people who read weird “malinformationist” publications like The Grayzone, OffGuardian, ZeroHedge, Dissident Voice, and Unlimited Hangout, and who are planning to vote for Bobby Kennedy, or, God help them, Donald Trump — you probably have no idea what I mean when I refer to “the crackdown on dissent” … or you do, and you think it’s just hunky-dory.

  I won’t mince words. The folks who think it’s hunky-dory are totalitarians. They’re fascists. They applaud the crackdown on dissent. They applaud the criminalization of dissent. They applaud the censorship of political speech, of any speech they do not agree with. They want their political opponents in prison. They want everyone who disagrees with them punished. They want people who offend them cancelled. They want anyone who refuses to conform to their official ideology erased.

  I have been calling these people “totalitarians” and “fascists” for a number of years now. I do not enjoy doing that. I’m not doing it gratuitously. Some of these people were my friends. I’m doing that, calling these people “fascists,” and comparing the nascent totalitarianism that is erupting all throughout the West to other, earlier totalitarian systems, like Stalinism (sorry, Marxist friends), and, yes, to fucking Nazi Germany, because, despite the fact that there are numerous differences, a lot of it is textbook totalitarianism. Naked textbook totalitarianism. There isn’t another, nicer word for it … or for those who are enthusiastically embracing it.

  I’m not going to present the evidence for that assertion again. I have done that ad nauseam, much of it in my latest book, which is banned by Amazon in several countries, and which bears a warning on other Amazon sites to “visit the WHO, the CDC,” or your local national health authority, “for the latest information on Covid-19 and vaccines” before you consider buying it, and the cover art of which is about to make me an official “hate criminal,” with a criminal record.

  That’s right, as I explained at greater length in a previous column, the pretext for this so-called “hate crime” prosecution is two Tweets I tweeted almost exactly one year ago of the cover art of that very same book, which just happens to document the rollout of the “New Normal” (i.e., the new totalitarianism) in 2020 and 2021.

  Here are the two Tweets that constitute my “hate crimes.”

  

  The one on the left reads, “The masks are ideological-conformity symbols. That is all they are. That is all they have ever been. Stop acting like they have ever been anything else, or get used to wearing them.” The one on the right is a quote by Karl Lauterbach, the Minister of Health of Germany. It reads “The masks always send out a signal.” The image is the cover art of my book.

  

  Say what you want about me and my writing. I can be “provocative,” and some of my political satire is bombastically over-the-top, but, as Matt Taibbi put it in a recent Racket News piece …

  “No amount of drugs exist that if consumed would allow a rational person to conclude that the writing of C.J. Hopkins furthers ‘the aims of a former National Socialist Organization.’ Agree with him or not, and I increasingly do, he used his imagery to compare the sweeping declarations of emergency power that were common around the world during the pandemic (and were particularly authoritarian in Germany) to Nazi tactics.”

  And that is what I am being accused of, and “punished” for doing, by the German authorities, i.e., “furthering the aims of a National Socialist Organization” … basically, promoting Nazism, for tweeting those two Tweets above.

  There is no complex legal issue here. Yes, swastikas are banned in Germany if you’re a Nazi or promoting Nazism or Fascism, but they are permitted for the purposes of “civic education, countering anti-constitutional activities, art, science, research and education, coverage of historic and current events,” and similar purposes, according to German law. Do you seriously believe that the German hate-crime police and the prosecutor and the judge do not understand that? Of course they understand that. They’re not complete imbeciles. They know the charges are just a pretext. And they know we know the charges are just a pretext. They do not care. They do not have to. They don’t even have to pretend to be following the rule of law. Not anymore. Because they know the majority of the masses are with them.

  The point of prosecutions like this (and much more serious and significant prosecutions, like that of Julian Assange, for example) is to send a message. The naked disregard for the rule of law, the blatant absurdity of the charges, the open contempt for democratic principles, is all part of the message. It’s not a message about the law. It’s a message about power. Who has it, and who doesn’t. And what happens to those who refuse to bow down to it.

  The message is not intended for me, or for more important figures like Julian Assange, or the many other less well-known dissidents that are being made examples of currently. We’re just the medium that conveys the message. We’re the delivery service. The message is for you.

  I’m pretty sure you’re getting the message. The question is … how are you going to respond?

  I do not mean by “storming” your capitol. Please do not go out and get yourself shot. I mean, are you going to help shine a light on where we are headed? Because it’s pretty fucking dark. Folks are offering to send me money to help with my legal costs, and I’m extremely grateful, because I’m going to need it (and here’s how to do that), but what I think we need to do is a little harder, and costs more, and is much more important.

  We need to talk to the totalitarians … yes, the ones who wanted to put us in camps. If we can’t get through to them, we’re probably screwed. And there is a window of opportunity to do that now. It’s not 2020 or 2021. The mass hysteria has worn off for a lot of people. I know, not all of them, but for some of them, a lot of them. Some of them are finally reachable.

  Take a chance, talk to them, the ones you know, or used to know. Try to get through to them. Not the bug-eyed, fanatical, foaming-at-the-mouth types who can’t wait for the return of the “emergency measures.” The other ones … you know the ones I mean. The ones who want out. You can see it in their eyes. Take a chance. Talk to these people. Totalitarianism, fascism, it is not an identity. It’s a mindset. No one is born a fascist. People can be deprogrammed. Some of them can. And, at this point, we need all the help we can get.

  So, if you’re one of the kind and generous folks who have been asking what you can do to help and offering to send me money, sure, go ahead and send me the money — thank you, I’ve been overwhelmed by your messages, and I’m sorry that I can’t personally respond to all of them — but also consider what I’m suggesting, if you can possibly bring yourself to do it. If you can’t, I completely understand. Trust me, I am still just as angry as you are. I am hurt. I feel betrayed and abandoned. I have a feeling that some of you feel that way too. So I know what I’m asking when I ask you to talk to the New Normal totalitarians, the ones who might be reachable.

  If you can’t yet, don’t. But if you’re able to, try.

  Don’t try to convince them that you were right and they were wrong. Just shine a light on the road we’re on. Try to get them to recognize where we’re headed. Regardless of who was right and who was wrong about whatever, we are all going down this road together.

  Personally, I’d rather not ride it all the way to the end and face what is down there this time.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/26/2023 – 00:00

• AI Humanoid Pilot Might be Able To Solve Pilot Shortage
  AI Humanoid Pilot Might be Able To Solve Pilot Shortage

  Our readers know there’s yet to be a quick solution to the US pilot shortage, which may linger until 2032. Current data shows a staggering 17,000-pilot gap. This shortfall can be attributed to several factors:

  • Early retirements spurred by the pandemic.

  • The unyielding retirement age of 65.

  • A dwindling number of pilots from the military.

  • The unappealing prospect for civilians to embark on a pilot career. 

  Airlines can only train 1,500 to 1,800 pilots a year. The deficit has triggered all sorts of flight disruptions, with the latest from American Airlines. 

  However, South Korean researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) developed “Pibot,” a life-sized humanoid robot that can fly planes and understand complex flight controls. 

  Flight news website Airways Magazine explains more about Pibot’s capabilities:

  As the world continues to adapt to the growing trend of Artificial Intelligence (AI), South Korean scientists have unveiled a humanoid robot capable of piloting an aircraft.

  Named Pibot, the life-sized robot, measuring 160 cm tall and weighing in at 65 kg, is capable of gripping the controls, memorizing aircraft manuals, and even responding to emergency situations. It is fitted with multiple cameras capable of monitoring the aircraft’s systems and operational conditions.

  

  Currently under development by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST), researchers utilized Al chatbots such as ChatGPT to create ways for PiBot to learn the pilot manuals for various aircraft. The robot can then be changed onto an alternative airframe by clicking the type. It can also memorize worldwide Jeppesen aeronautical navigation charts, an impossible task for its human equivalent.

  PiBot can also communicate with air traffic control (ATC) and other humans on the flight deck, meaning it can operate via a Captain or First Officer. This has been done using Voice synthesis. By plugging the robot into the aircraft, it can communicate directly with the airframe.

  Airways Magazine explained the humanoid pilot has already demonstrated it can control an aircraft safely. 

  While it’s clear a robo-pilot is not something the US Federal Aviation Administration would clear anytime soon — it might catch the agency’s attention amid the worst pilot shortage ever. 

  US airlines have been quietly lobbying Congress to allow them to use just one pilot in the cockpit instead of two. But with an increasing number of pilot deaths — some even in mid-air — one has to wonder: Is the FAA open to considering a mix between human and robot pilots in the cockpit? 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 23:30

• The State Protects Itself While Crime Against Ordinary People Surges
  The State Protects Itself While Crime Against Ordinary People Surges

  Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

  In all the media and regime frenzy over the January 6 riots and the Pentagon Leaker in recent months, it is interesting to examine the contrast between how the regime treats “crimes” against its own interests, and real crime committed against ordinary private citizens. 

  

  Witness, for example, how the Biden administration and corporate media have treated the January 6 riot as if it were some kind of military coup, demanding that draconian sentences be handed down even to small-time vandals and trespassers. Regime paranoia has led the Justice Department to ask for a 30-year sentence for Enrique Tarrio, a man who was convicted of the non-crime of “seditious conspiracy” even though he wasn’t even in Washington on January 6. In recent months, Jacob Chansley, the “QAnon Shaman,” received a sentence of three-and-a-half years, even though prosecutors admit he did nothing violent. Riley Williams was given three years for simply trespassing in Nancy Pelosi’s office. Members of the Capitol Police force have been lionized in the media as great protectors of “sacred” government buildings, and any threat to the property or persons of Washington politicians has been equated with an assault on “democracy.” 

  Yet, had these supposed insurrectionists inflicted these same actions against an ordinary private individual, there’s a good chance the perpetrators would not even be arrested, let alone given years of prison time. Consider, for example, the mobs that ransack private businesses in American cities, stealing tens of thousands of dollars of merchandise while police and prosecutors consider it all to be low priority.  Violent crime and property crime surge in many areas of the United States, with violent crime rising 30 percent in New York City in 2022. Unsolved murders in the US are at a record high. Meanwhile, progressives and social democrats are looking for ways to reduce criminal penalties against violent criminals. Police departments often devote only tiny portions of their budgets to homicide investigations, and if your property is stolen, odds are good you can forget about ever seeing it again. 

  The situation is quite different when it comes to protecting the state, its agents, and its property from any threat. During urban riots, such as those which occurred in Ferguson, Missouri and Minneapolis, Minnesota, the police went to great lengths to protect themselves and government property. If you were just a private shopkeeper or ordinary citizen, however, you were on your own. At the Uvalde School shooting in 2022, hundreds of law enforcement officers from all levels of government chose to protect themselves rather than the children who were being murdered inside. When Uvalde parents demanded the police act, the police attacked the parents. 

  We find similar phenomena at the federal level. There are, of course, special federal laws against violence perpetrated against federal employees. Ordinary taxpayers receive no such consideration. Note how federal agencies move to arm themselves to the teeth while also seeking to disarm the private-sector. Federal agents will spare no expense finding someone who put his feet up on Nancy Pelosi’s desk, but it’s another matter entirely when we’re talking about serious violent crime against regular people.  Federal agents, of course, allowed 9/11 to occur right under their noses, they refused to investigate known rapist Larry Nasser, and shrugged off reports about the man who would end up slaughtering children at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Contrast this with how long the federal government has been conniving to get revenge on Julian Assange for merely telling the truth about US war crimes.  

  Naturally, law enforcement officers rarely face any sanctions for their failures to bother themselves with private property, life, or limb. The federal courts have made it clear that law enforcement officers are not obligated to actually protect the public. In other words, the taxpayers must always pay taxes to hold up their end of the imagined “social contract” or face fines and imprisonment. But the other side of that “contract,” the state, has no legal obligation to make good on its end. This, of course, is not how real contracts work. 

  The state’s fastidious devotion to protecting itself, compared to its casual concern for the safety of mere taxpayers, illustrates an important principle of state behavior. In his essay The Anatomy of the State, Murray Rothbard notes 

  We may test the hypothesis that the State is largely interested in protecting itself rather than its subjects by asking: which category of crimes does the State pursue and punish most intensely—those against private citizens or those against itself? The gravest crimes in the State’s lexicon are almost invariably not invasions of private person or property, but dangers to its own contentment, for example, treason, desertion of a soldier to the enemy, failure to register for the draft, subversion and subversive conspiracy, assassination of rulers and such economic crimes against the State as counterfeiting its money or evasion of its income tax. Or compare the degree of zeal devoted to pursuing the man who assaults a policeman, with the attention that the State pays to the assault of an ordinary citizen. Yet, curiously, the State’s openly assigned priority to its own defense against the public strikes few people as inconsistent with its presumed raison d’etre.

  This double standard has been repeatedly on display in recent years as the regime has increasingly been consumed with paranoia over threats to itself—propagandistically termed “threats to democracy”—while attention given to real crime against private citizens is apparently not a priority at all. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 23:00

• The Most Flown Private Jet In The US Is… 
  The Most Flown Private Jet In The US Is… 

  In a rapid shift in private aviation among millionaires, cent-millionaires, and billionaires, Textron Inc.’s Cessna Citation, the most popular and most flown private jet in the US, which held that record for 15 years, has just been dethroned. 

  Bloomberg reports new monthly flight data from the Federal Aviation Administration shows Brazil’s Embraer Phenom 300, a medium-sized jet that seats around nine passengers, had 360,000 takeoffs and landings at US airports in the 12 months through August, 1,200 more than the Citation Excel family of jets. 

  

  Brian Foley, a private aviation consultant, said the biggest reason behind the surge in popularity of the Phenom 300 is fuel efficiency, which burns one-third less than the Citation Excel. He said cheaper fuel costs offset the Phenom 300’s smaller cabin space.

  For some context, at cruising speed, the two Pratt & Whitney turbofans of the Citation Excel burn around 225 gallons per hour of Jet A fuel. 

  

  Meanwhile, the Phenom 300 is around 158 gallons of Jet A fuel per hour. 

  

  Even though Phenom 300s are being flown more, Cessna still dominates private jet deliveries. 

  

  Textron told Bloomberg, “One of every three business jets worldwide is a Cessna Citation, and product upgrades like these continue to give customers new reasons to choose us for our proven performance, leading technology and unmatched cabin experience.” 

  Despite the ‘climate change’ cheerleading, private jet demand soared to new heights in recent years, though mounting macro uncertainty and the highest interest rates in two decades led to a cooling in private jet flights earlier this year. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 22:30

• Democrats Have Broken America: Where’s The Outrage?
  Democrats Have Broken America: Where’s The Outrage?

  Authored by J. Peder Zane via RealClear Wire,

  The Democrats have an ace in the hole in their relentless war on the Constitution – conservative America’s reverence for the concept of the rule of the law.

  

  Only their steadfast commitment to this traditional ideal explains why conservatives are allowing   Democrats to flagrantly corrupt our judicial system to destroy their opponents and protect themselves. For all their huffing and puffing, conservatives have effectively taken a let the system play itself out attitude while Democrats nakedly politicize that system through their partisan indictments of former President Trump and their Potemkin Village probes of the Bidens. These are not statements of opinion. These are facts.

  Part of me is glad that so many legal analysts have spilled so much ink exposing these charades. But we degrade our country and ourselves when we treat this unspeakable behavior with anything other than horrified contempt. Every good-faith critique normalizes and legitimizes this profoundly un-American conspiracy.

  Viewing the obvious forest rather than the tangled trees, the cases against Trump are a continuation of the deceitful effort by Democrats and their deep state allies, especially in the DOJ, to annihilate their chief political opponent. That effort began even before his election when Hillary Clinton’s campaign manufactured false claims that Trump had conspired with Vladimir Putin to steal the 2016 election. When that sham was exposed, they almost immediately made Trump only the third president in the country to be impeached for asking Ukraine’s leader to look into the Biden family’s influence-peddling schemes. They set aside almost every rule and order of business by rushing to impeach him once again after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. While that was going on, Democrats insistently rained down other bogus concerns – that he was violating the Emoluments Clause because wealthy foreigners continued to stay at his hotels, that his alleged mental instability made him unfit – to remove him from office.

  The hypocrisy is beyond belief: The party that assails Republicans for questioning the integrity of the highly irregular 2020 election spent years and vast government resources to undo the results of 2016.

  The charges Trump now faces are part of the ongoing campaign by Democrats to subvert the rule of law to delegitimize what they see as the greatest threat to their power.

  In the meantime, Democrats are blatantly using the criminal justice system to protect President Biden. It is now beyond dispute that Biden lied to the American people when he said he never discussed foreign business with his son Hunter and when he claimed during his final 2020 debate with Trump that Hunter’s laptop, which contained evidence of those corrupt dealings, was a “Russian plant.” Has a candidate ever peddled more consequential falsehoods?

  In fact, the president was not only aware of his son’s influence-peddling schemes, whose sole selling point was the connection to his vast power. He was an active participant through phone calls and meetings with clients. Irony does not capture the deviousness of the Democrats’ decision to impeach Trump for asking Ukraine to look into this corruption.

  The cover-up of the Bidens’ conduct is equally disturbing. The U.S. attorney in Delaware assigned to the case, David C. Weiss, is a former colleague of Biden’s late son Beau. Although the tax avoidance charges involved are straightforward, Weiss spent more than five years allegedly looking into them – allowing the statute of limitations to run out on millions of unreported earnings Hunter generated in 2014 and 2015. Note that even as the president calls on Americans to pay their fair share, neither he nor his allies have demanded that Hunter pay his.

  Indeed, we only know about Weiss’ corruption because of two courageous IRS whistleblowers. In response, Weiss quickly struck a deal with Hunter to settle the matter, crafting a sweetheart deal that would have let him off the hook with a slap on the wrist. All might have been forgiven but for the presiding judge, who rejected the deal last month as “not standard” and potentially unconstitutional.

  In response to this scandal, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss as special counsel to look into the mess. This move is beyond brazen – Weiss is now apparently in charge of probing his own misconduct. The goal is obvious: Protect the president, and let the statute of limitations run out on other alleged crimes while shutting down any questions about the “ongoing investigation.”

  The arrogance is jaw-dropping; the lawlessness is in plain sight. Democrats are not even trying to hide their malfeasance – which is part of their method. If they can make us accept their authority to twist the system so that it is no longer a means of justice but a tool of their political power, then their possibilities are unlimited.

  Imagine if the roles were reversed: What if Republican prosecutors had indicted a former Democratic president, who was also the party’s leading candidate in the next election, in four separate cases on 91 questionable charges while a GOP-controlled Department of Justice simultaneously protected its sitting-president boss, who was seeking reelection, by slow-walking a probe of his family’s alleged crimes?

  The corporate media would be in high dudgeon about this assault on the Constitution and the streets would be filled with left-wing protestors who would make the BLM riots, the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and the harassment of Supreme Court justices in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade seem mild.

  Here’s the conundrum. While no one wants conservatives to start engaging in direct action, their passivity is allowing Democrats to weaponize the government. On the one hand, I admire their faith in our system. Even Trump, for all his barking, has largely submitted to his gross mistreatment.

  But our system is shattered. The rule of law is now more concept than fact. Where’s the outrage?

  J. Peder Zane is a RealClearInvestigations editor and columnist. He previously worked as a book review editor and book columnist for the News & Observer (Raleigh), where his writing won several national honors. Zane has also worked at the New York Times and taught writing at Duke University and Saint Augustine’s University.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 22:00

• 'Bidenomics' Fail: Food Stamp Bonanza Sends Grocery Bills Soaring 15%, Study Finds
  ‘Bidenomics’ Fail: Food Stamp Bonanza Sends Grocery Bills Soaring 15%, Study Finds

  In a classic move by those on the left — democrats, socialists, and everyone in between with seemingly no grasp of what sparks inflation — championed the Biden administration’s move in 2021 to increase food stamp spending by the most in history, hiking benefits by an average of 27%. 

  In 2022, the Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) spending hit a record high of $119 billion, a sixfold increase over the last two decades. In 2019, taxpayers were on the hook for $4.5 billion per month on food stamp benefits. By December 2022, monthly food stamp spending soared to $11 billion. 

  

  According to findings from the government watchdog Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), previewed by Fox News, the administration’s massive expansion of food stamp benefits could be responsible for a 15% spike in grocery store prices. 

  FGA called Biden’s rush to increase SNAP benefits an “unlawful expansion—which bypassed Congress—will cost taxpayers $250 billion over the next decade and has heavily contributed to soaring grocery prices.”  

  “Congress should repeal President Biden’s unlawful food stamp expansion and ensure this type of executive overreach cannot happen again. In doing so, Congress could save taxpayers more than $193 billion over the next decade,” it added. 

  The good news is the emergency allotments expired earlier this year, but food stamp spending remains $8.6 billion in March. The Congressional Budget Office estimates SNAP spending will cost taxpayers nearly $1.1 trillion over the next decade. 

  “USDA cooked their books to hike food stamp benefits by 27% — the largest permanent increase in program history. And they bypassed Congress to do it,” said Jonathan Ingram, Vice President of Policy and Research at the Foundation for Government Accountability.

  Ingram noted, “Data show the Biden administration’s overreach led to massive spikes in grocery prices. They’re feeding inflation, not stopping hunger.”

  The index for food at home (groceries) has skyrocketed ever since Biden increased SNAP benefits. 

  

  As food inflation soared, Biden’s officials, seemingly detached from economic reality, pointed the finger at food companies for raging food inflation. 

  Remember this?

  

  If FGA is correct, this is another sign that ‘Bidenomics’ has been a disaster for low/mid-tier consumers drowning in inflation. 

  

  It’s one giant EBT party…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 21:30

• 371 Charged for COVID-19 Fraud Totaling $836 Million: DOJ
  371 Charged for COVID-19 Fraud Totaling $836 Million: DOJ

  Authored by Samantha Flom via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  

  The Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched two new COVID-19 fraud strike forces, the department said Wednesday in announcing the filing of criminal charges against 371 people in relation to the theft of more than $836 million in pandemic relief funds.

  “The Justice Department has now seized over $1.4 billion in COVID-19 relief funds that criminals had stolen, and charged over 3,000 defendants with crimes in federal districts across the country,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

  “This latest action, involving over 300 defendants and over $830 million in alleged COVID-19 fraud, should send a clear message: 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,” he added.

  The charges are the result of a COVID-19 fraud enforcement sweep that took place nationwide from May through the end of July.

  According to the DOJ, of the 371 defendants charged, 119 either pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial, and more than $57 million in court-ordered restitution was imposed.

  The sweep involved a total of 718 law enforcement actions, including 117 civil matters yielding more than $10.4 million in judgments.

  Many cases involved charges related to pandemic unemployment insurance benefit fraud and fraud against the Small Business Administration’s two largest pandemic programs: the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans.

  Together, prosecutors and law enforcement worked to secure the forfeiture of more than $231.4 million.

  Announcing the results at a roundtable meeting of senior DOJ, law enforcement, and Office of the Inspector General officials, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the department was also launching two new strike forces to assist in its ongoing crackdown on pandemic-related fraud.

  “The law enforcement actions announced today reflect the Justice Department’s focus—working with our law enforcement partners nationwide—on bringing to justice those who stole from American businesses and families at a time of national emergency,” Ms. Monaco said. “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.”

  According to the Associated Press, it is possible that more than $280 billion in pandemic relief funds was stolen by fraudsters, while another $123 billion was wasted or misspent.

  The attorney general established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force in May 2021 to help prevent, investigate, and prosecute cases of COVID-19 fraud. In September 2022, the DOJ added to those efforts by launching three strike force teams at the U.S. attorney’s offices in the Eastern and Central Districts of California, the Southern District of Florida, and the District of Maryland.

  The new strike forces will operate out of the U.S. attorney’s offices for the District of Colorado and the District of New Jersey.

  “I applaud the hard work of our prosecutors around the country,” said Michael C. Galdo, acting director of COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement. “However, this announcement is not a victory lap. Our mission is not complete.

  “We know from our investigative partners that identifying those who committed pandemic relief fraud and recovering stolen funds is difficult work. But the Justice Department, including our strike forces, U.S. attorneys’ offices, and the Criminal and Civil Divisions, is committed to using our criminal, civil, and forfeiture tools to hold these fraudsters accountable.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 21:00

• "I Just Want To Sell Titty Pictures": Sex Workers F**ked By Crypto
  “I Just Want To Sell Titty Pictures”: Sex Workers F**ked By Crypto

  Sex workers – who frequently face financial discrimination, losing access to payment apps and banking apps such as PayPal, Venmo and CashApp due to their profession – began using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin as an alternative for payments, which bypass traditional banking systems and avoid service fees from platforms such as OnlyFans.

  According to data by the Free Speech Coalition, 2/3 of sex workers have lost access to a bank account or financial service, with 40% having an account closed within the last year, Wired reports.

  “I just want to sell titty pictures,” said Allie Eve Knox, a professional dominatrix and fetish performer. “I never wanted to be an expert in financial discrimination.”

  🖕 pic.twitter.com/21WPZJUSbB

  — Allie Eve Knox (@allieeveknox) August 23, 2023

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

  After starting out in sex work in 2014, Knox, like others in the field, has become something of a financial pariah. The first to ban her were the payment apps—PayPal, Venmo, and CashApp—which prohibit the sale of adult content as policy. But then Knox lost her bank account too. It took a week to recover her money.

  Nine years on and 30-plus bans later, Knox is jaded: “I don’t want to have to know how to run money to different places. I don’t want to deal with any of this bullshit.” -Wired

  Another sex worker, Allie Rae, an ICU worker by training, began posting on OnlyFans when her husband was placed on work furlough. After a short period of time, she was making nearly $500,000 per month more than her day job – but she says she quickly ran into trouble.

  After her OnlyFans account was discovered by her employer, she was fired. She also found that realtors shunned her, lenders refused to extend a mortgage and accountants ghosted her. Rae eventually established a corporation to run her business through, however no major bank would open a business account.

  POV: You just picked me up, now where we going? pic.twitter.com/CwYCRHhCvG

  — The Allie Rae ®️ (@MrsAllieRae) August 24, 2023

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

  “Left and right, it’s been a struggle,” she told the outlet. “I was very naive—I didn’t understand the magnitude of the discrimination.”

  In short, in a world that embraces the gig economy, where YouTubers and Instagram influencers can become millionaires, sex workers have found themselves in a peculiar form of exile.

  Crypto: false hope

  Given the systemic discrimination throughout the banking sector, many sex workers have turned to cryptocurrencies as a means of both storing wealth and accepting payment. For a while, things were great. Digital currencies allowed customers to pay discreetly without supplying personal information, while sex workers now had a way to bypass the banking system entirely.

  Knox, for example, began accepting crypto in 2014 – holding up a QR code through which viewers could tip her in crypto.

  Another sex worker, former escort-turned-porn star Lira Roux, told the outlet that she began to accept crypto in 2015 at the request of clients. Initially, she would exchange the crypto for dollars, however when new laws came into effect – after which many adult-friendly advertising sites were barred from accepting regular money – she began to pay for ads with crypto too.

  “By and large, crypto is useful for people that aren’t being taken care of properly by the government,” Roux said. “For sex workers, who aren’t well-served by banks, it becomes a useful option.”

  Now, thanks to regulatory scrutiny which has gone into overdrive since the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, sex workers are ‘bumping up’ against limitations – and are finding that ‘decentralized’ crypto is no more detached from the banking system than traditional currency – as sex workers are finding it increasingly difficult to convert crypto into dollars. Typically, this is done via an exchange, which then allows one to withdraw to a traditional bank account. Sex workers are now being banned from crypto exchanges.

  “You get on an exchange for as long as you can, until they shut your ass down,” said Knox. “You quickly [run out of exchanges], so you sit on a lot of useless money. The whole ‘crypto is permissionless and censorship-resistant’ thing is a bunch of bullshit.”

  In the US, full-service sex work (also known as prostitution) is illegal in every state but Nevada, but pornography and online sex work are legal under the First Amendment. Irrespective of this distinction, banking access has been a problem for the entire sex work community since at least the 1960s, says Mike Stabile, director of public affairs at the FSC, and has only become more acute.

  The issue was exacerbated a decade ago by a program launched by the Obama administration, under which banks were warned that a collection of industries posed an “elevated risk” of fraud, including pornography. Now known as Operation Chokepoint, the initiative was found by investigators not to have constituted a deliberate attempt to disrupt disfavored businesses, but is nonetheless said to have led banks to sever ties with the adult sector.

  …

  (Knox suspects she has ended up on a blacklist at Plaid, a provider of technology plumbing to large crypto exchanges like Gemini, Kraken, and Robinhood, leading to the repeated bans. Freya Petersen, spokesperson for Plaid, says no such list exists, but that all firms that wish to use its services are subject to a standard risk assessment process, factoring in the industry in which they operate.) -Wired

  When banks blacklist sex workers, they rarely justify their actions. In one case, porn star Alana Evans, president of the Adult Performance Artists Guild (APAG) was told by Wells Fargo that her account – opened in the mid-1990s, would be closed as part of “ongoing reviews” related to the bank’s responsibility to “manage risks.”

  After being a customer since 1993, and NEVER GOING NEGATIVE ONCE, @WellsFargo sent me this letter today.

  After 30 years, they are closing my accounts.

  What is going on? I’m being removed for being a sex worker.

  In one week, I’m fired from a vanilla job AND losing my bank pic.twitter.com/siYgb5EDlr

  — Alana Evans XBIZ BEST MILF CAM Winner!! (@alanaevansxxx) September 2, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThe industry lockout means that sex workers can’t enjoy the convenience factors provided by Venmo or other payment platforms, and forces them to rely on OnlyFans and Fansly, which handle payouts but not before taking a sizable chunk of their income.

  Given this environment, many sex workers turn to friends or spouses (or pimps) to act as a custodian of their finances, exposing them to potential abuse.

  “One of the ways traffickers control victims is by controlling their finances,” said Jessica Van Meir, founder of MintStars, an adult-friendly NFT subscription platform, and a PhD candidate at Harvard specializing in women’s informal labor. “The irony is that banks exclude sex workers largely for fear of liability for sex trafficking, but by discriminating against sex workers, they put them at higher risk of sex trafficking.”

  How fucked is that?

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 20:30

• Biden Targets Schools: Pulls Plug On Archery & Hunting Programs
  Biden Targets Schools: Pulls Plug On Archery & Hunting Programs

  Submitted by Gun Owners of America,

  The disastrous consequences of the Republican-backed Bipartisan Safer Communities Act keep adding up.

  The law, passed last year through a compromise between Democrat Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas, encouraged the Biden administration to pass universal background checks via executive order and more.

  Now, the latest gun control comes in the form of funding cuts for school hunting and archery training programs, just in time for the new school year.

  

  The Department of Education cut off this funding due to the agency’s interpretation of a provision in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that bans taxpayer funds from being used towards “training in the use of a dangerous weapon.” The Department of Education seems to think that Hunting and Archery meet that qualification.

  Ironically, Senator Cornyn wrote to the Department of Education this month expressing concern over the interpretation of this provision.

  The writing is on the wall.👏

  The Biden administration’s ultimate goal is to reduce participation in hunting and shooting sports, both by halting the use of cheap traditional ammunition on public lands and by cutting funding to our schools. https://t.co/rRgOSMewie

  — Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) August 21, 2023

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

  While the Republicans who helped introduce and pass this legislation remained confused about the outcome, Gun Owners of America has been diligently warning members of Congress about the consequences of passing new gun control.

  When Congress passes ambiguous laws, it allows anti-gun administrations such as the Biden administration to step in and interpret as they please.

  According to the International Hunter Education Association, Hunter Education courses certify over half a million students annually. Their website details that hunting-related injuries have decreased drastically because of this education.

  It’s obvious that the Biden Administration has a vested interest in cutting these programs from schools. Any program that could create responsible, law-abiding gun owners goes against their anti-gun agenda.

  This is why Gun Owners of America is working diligently in Congress to introduce legislation that repeals exactly these type of anti-gun laws.

  We worked with Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado to introduce the Shall Not Be Infringed Act. This act specifically repeals the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, as well as other gun control measures passed by the 117th Congress.

  Just recently, we secured a major victory for veterans, stopping the VA from disarming veterans simply because they use a fiduciary to manage their finances, overturning a Clinton-era rule.

  And that’s just the start. We’re fighting every day for your rights on Capitol Hill and throughout the courts nationwide.

  *   *   *

  We’ll hold the line for you in Washington. We are No Compromise. Join the Fight Now.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 20:05

• 'Rich Men North of Richmond' Artist Laughs At GOP Debaters For Mentioning Viral Song
  ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ Artist Laughs At GOP Debaters For Mentioning Viral Song

  The first Republican primary debate this week featured the viral song “Rich Men North of Richmond,” currently topping the Billboard 100 and iTunes charts. 

  “As we sit here tonight [Wednesday], the No. 1 song on the Billboard chart is called ‘Rich Men North of Richmond.’ It is by a singer from Farmville, Virginia, named Oliver Anthony. His lyrics speak of alienation, a deep frustration with the state of government and this country,” co-moderator Martha MacCallum said. 

  “Washington D.C. is about 100 miles north of Richmond,” MacCallum continued. “Why is this song striking such a nerve in this country right now?” 

  Responding to the question, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the country “cannot succeed when the Congress spends trillions and trillions of dollars” and that those “rich men north of Richmond have put us in this situation.”

  Days later, on Friday, Oliver Anthony (real name Christopher Anthony Lunsford), the unknown artist who was once a factory worker living in forgotten Appalachia, published a YouTube video saying it was “funny seeing it [song] at the presidential debate because it’s like I wrote that song about those people.” 

  “So for them [DeSantis and all the other Republican candidates] to have to sit there and listen to that that cracks me up uh but it was funny kind of seeing the response to it like that song has nothing to do with Joe Biden you know it’s a lot bigger than Joe Biden um that song is written about the people on the on that stage and a lot more too not just them.” 

  He continued, “I hate I do hate to see that song being weaponized like I see I see the right trying to characterize me as one of their own and I see the left trying to um trying to discredit me I guess in retaliation uh that shit’s gotta stop if you watch the response videos on YouTube to this song it’s not conservative people responding to the song it’s not even necessarily Americans responding to the song um I don’t know that I’ve seen anything get such positive response from such a diverse group of people and I think that terrifies the people that I sing about in that song and they’ve done everything they can the last two weeks to make me look like a fool to spend my words to try to stick me in a political bucket and they can keep trying but I’m just going to keep on writing and I’ve got a lot of words to put down on paper.”

  And this is why the establishment is scared by the song… Unity. 

  Watching people from all walks of life connect with Rich Men North of Richmond reminds me that we are not alone in the struggles that we’re facing. Nothing scares them more than us unifying against them.
  pic.twitter.com/b9nKEp1tQE

  — TaraBull (@TaraBull808) August 17, 2023

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

  While establishment Republican presidential candidates duked it out on stage this week, the front-runner, former President Trump, ditched Fox for a Tucker Carlson interview, which might have stolen the show with over 255 million views and counting. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 19:40

• Transgender Surgeries In US Nearly Tripled In 3 Years
  Transgender Surgeries In US Nearly Tripled In 3 Years

  Authored by Mary Gillis via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Transgender surgeries nearly tripled in the United States between 2016 and 2019, with breast and chest procedures accounting for 56.6 percent of all operations, results of a study published Wednesday in the JAMA Network Open show.

  

  Close behind was genital reconstruction, making up 35.1 percent, followed by facial and cosmetic procedures at 13.9 percent. The greatest number of procedures overall were undergone by women, 19- to 30-year-olds, people with private insurance, and people with higher incomes. Most procedures occurred in the West and were performed in urban teaching hospitals.

  When divided into subgroups, breast and chest procedures comprised more of the surgical interventions in younger patients. Genital procedures were higher in older patients.

  About 15 percent of the over 48,000 respondents examined indicated mental health or addiction problems, including drug and alcohol abuse, depression, and psychosis.

  “These findings suggest that there will be a greater need for clinicians knowledgeable in the care of transgender individuals with requisite expertise to perform gender-affirming procedures,” the study authors wrote.

  What Are the Dangers of Transgender Surgery?

  Transgender surgeries do not come without potential dangers. Evidence concerning regret rate, long-term medical complications, effects of hormonal therapy, and the link between surgeries and depression and suicide rates require further study.

  Side Effects 

  A 2021 study found reoperations due to long-term complications following breast augmentations do happen. Implant ruptures, capsular contractures (an immune response to breast implants resulting in scar tissue), and aesthetic problems can occur anywhere from 30 days to 5.5 years after surgery.

  According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, side effects of reconstructing male genitalia to female genitalia, known as transfeminine bottom surgery, include the following:

  • Bleeding.
  • Infection.
  • Poor incision healing.
  • Hematoma.
  • Nerve injury stenosis of the vagina.
  • Inadequate vaginal depth.
  • Urinary tract injury.
  • Abnormal connections between the urethra and the skin.
  • Painful intercourse.

  Suicide Risk and Attempts

  A study published in PLOS One highlighted the alarming rates of suicide and suicide attempts in people who underwent sex-reassignment surgery. Experiment results by researchers in Sweden found people who underwent sex reassignment were 4.9 times more likely to attempt suicide and 19.1 times more likely to die of suicide than the controls.

  “Persons with transsexualism, after sex reassignment, have considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behaviour, and psychiatric morbidity than the general population,” the authors wrote. “Our findings suggest that sex reassignment, although alleviating gender dysphoria, may not suffice as treatment for transsexualism, and should inspire improved psychiatric and somatic care after sex reassignment for this patient group.”

  Updated Recommendations

  Hormone therapy is recommended and sometimes required for some patients before breast and chest surgery.

  However, evidence supporting hormone therapy for transgender individuals is inconclusive.

  The Tavistock Centre in London, characterized as a clinic for young people facing gender identity difficulties, is slated to close by the end of 2023 after an independent review (pdf) cited a lack of conclusive evidence supporting routine recommendations of hormone therapies such as puberty blockers, among other complications in running the clinic.

  The clinic closure comes on the heels of Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare’s 2022 updated recommendations. Board officials concluded there was insufficient scientific evidence on “gender-affirmative” care, calling for caution and restraint in hormonal interventions for minors.

  “The update to the Swedish treatment guidelines represents an impressive step toward safeguarding the growing numbers of gender dysphoric youth from medical harm arising from inappropriate gender transition,” health officials wrote in the recommendations.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 19:15

• Putin Signs Law Forcing Wagner Fighters To Swear Oath
  Putin Signs Law Forcing Wagner Fighters To Swear Oath

  Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told reporters on Friday that in a legal sense, Wagner group doesn’t exist. This came as he announced a new presidential decree signed by President Putin on the same day, which stipulates that all Russian paramilitary fighters will be required to swear an oath to the Russian flag and nation.

  Fighters, including from Wagner, must pledge “their loyalty to the Russian Federation… strictly follow their commanders and superiors’ orders, and conscientiously fulfill their obligations,” according to the new decree.

  

  The decree was described as aiming to form “the spiritual and moral foundations for the defense of the Russian Federation” and applies to all mercenary outfits which are “contributing to the execution of tasks given to the armed forces.”

  And there was this, according to The Moscow Times: 

  Asked about the future of Wagner, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that “legally the Wagner private military group does not exist.”

  Private military companies are officially outlawed in Russia.

  This fresh decree appears aimed squarely at Wagner fighters, given it also comes just two days following the jet downing which took Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s life (something still being verified as Russian investigators examine DNA).

  This week there have been reports of Wagner mercenaries leaving Belarus in droves, while there are elsewhere conflicting reports they’ve been allowed to stay.

  Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has meanwhile commented on the whole Prigozhin matter in a newly published interview. He revealed that he personally told Yevgeny Prigozhin to “watch out” for threats to his life. Apparently this happened not long before the plane crash. And more:

  Mr Lukashenko said that the Wagner leader had never asked him for security guarantees. “I don’t have to ensure Prigozhin’s safety… the conversation was never in that vein.”

  Lukashenko also denied that Putin was behind the killing of the Wagner leader: 

  A close ally of Mr Putin, the Belarusian president said that he believed the plane crash was “just too rough and unprofessional a job” for the Russian leader to be involved. “I know Putin: he is calculating, very calm, even tardy,” Lukashenko said. “I cannot imagine that Putin did it, that Putin is to blame.”

  Putin appeared cheery after Russian media reported Prigozhin was dead, opening remarks at an event with a broad smile.

  “Devotion to the homeland and loyalty to the military oath is what unites all participants of the special military operation,” he said. https://t.co/aworTOa4Ow

  — POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) August 24, 2023

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

  This is something which the Kremlin itself said on Friday, calling Western assertions that Putin was behind the assassination of Prigozhin “absolute lies”. But it should also be noted that the death of he and his top commanders aboard the same plane happened two months to the day of the June 23-24 mutiny and armed ‘march on Moscow’.

  All of this does appear to be President Putin engaged in some serious post-mutiny house cleaning and muscle-flexing. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 18:50

• Quinn: "The Entire World Is Nothing But A Racket"
  Quinn: “The Entire World Is Nothing But A Racket”

  The Burning Platform’s Jim Quinn unloads a truck-full of uncomfortable realities in this brief comment:

  The entire world is nothing but a racket.

  Just call it a war and the funding is never ending.

  

  Why would any politician or general ever want peace?

  Their funding would stop.

  Why would Big Pharma and their media co-conspirators ever want to cure cancer or any disease created by other mega-corporations?

  Their riches would evaporate.

  The war on terror must never be won, because the Department of Homeland Security and all the parasites that live off that bloated cow need your money.

  Joe Rogan points out the same narrative when it comes to homelessness. 

  Joe Rogan On The Homelessness Problem In California 🚨🚨🚨

  🔊

  “The people managing these homeless programs for the state are making $250,000 per year and have no incentive to solve it. If they solve it, they are out of a job. So they just manage it and ask for more funding.… pic.twitter.com/9HqPvHkjei

  — Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) August 24, 2023

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

  Bureaucrats and departments in all these Democrat shitholes don’t want to solve the homelessness problem. They would be out of jobs.

  Everything is a racket.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 18:25

• Musk Slams 'Black Supremacist' AG Going After SpaceX For Not Hiring Refugees
  Musk Slams ‘Black Supremacist’ AG Going After SpaceX For Not Hiring Refugees

  On Thursday, Biden’s DOJ slapped SpaceX with a lawsuit for not hiring refugees and asylum seekers, one day after Musk announced he was suing organizations funded by George Soros for lying about ‘hate incidents’ on X (formerly known as Twitter).

  

  And while there’s no obvious link between the two, the timing couldn’t be more suspicious.

  Anyhoo, following the absurd shot at SpaceX – which is bound by the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which regulates the export of regulated technologies, such as rocket parts – curious internet denizens discovered that the Assistant Attorney General spearheading the case, Kristen Clarke, appears to be a total black supremacist.

  

  On Thursday night, venture capitalist Max Meyer tweeted: “FLASHBACK: Assistant AG for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke, who is suing @elonmusk  and @SpaceX  for “discriminating against asylum seekers” was an avowed black supremacist while at Harvard University,” referring to a 1994 letter to the Harvard Crimson claiming that blacks are genetically superior to whites for various reasons. The letter was a response to “Defending The Bell Curve,” which argues that human intelligence is a combination of both inherited and environmental factors.

  Included is a quote from the Black Students Association, which Clarke was president of at the time, which reads: “Melanin endows Blacks with greater mental, physical and spiritual abilities.“

  FLASHBACK:

  Assistant AG for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke, who is suing @elonmusk and @SpaceX for “discriminating against asylum seekers” was an avowed black supremacist while at Harvard University

  “Melanin endows Blacks with greater mental, physical and spiritual abilities”

  🧐 pic.twitter.com/raEsZ8N6kL

  — Max Meyer (@mualphaxi) August 25, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThe letter is attributed to “no writer,” however it ends with “Kristen Clarke ’97′” and “Victoria Kennedy ’97,” with a note reading “Clarke is president of the Black Students Association.” Clark clearly wrote, co-wrote, or at minimum endorsed, its message.

  The entire letter is reproduced below in its entirety (emphasis ours)

  In response to those who defend The Bell Curve (“Defending The Bell Curve,” Opinion, Oct. 24, 1994), please use the following theories and observations to assist you in your search for truth regarding the genetic differences between Blacks and whites.

  One: Dr. Richard King reveals that at the core of the human brain is the “locus coeruleus” which is a structure that is Black because it contains large amounts of (neuro) melanin which is essential for its operation.

  Two: Black infants sit, stand, crawl and walk sooner than whites.

  Three: Carol Barnes notes that human mental processes are controlled by melanin–that same chemical which gives Blacks their superior physical and mental abilities.

  Four: Some scientists have revealed that most whites are unable to produce melanin because their pineal glands are often calcification or non-functioning. Pineal calcification rates with Africans are five to 15 percent, Asians 15 to 25 percent and Europeans 60 to 80 percent. This is the chemical basis for the cultural differences between Blacks and whites.

  Five: Melanin endows Blacks with greater mental, physical and spiritual abilities–something which cannot be measured based on Eurocentric standards.

  We can readily admit that an abused child is less likely to achieve academically than a child that has grown up in a supportive atmosphere. Black children, whether rich or poor, grow up with an added abuse which white children never have to face. Imagine the message that misguided information like The Bell Curve would send to a Black child who is trying to find her place in school. It’s degrading, belittling and outrageously false.

  Attacks on Black people such as those in The Bell Curve are not unique. Black children face this abuse daily through television shows, jokes aired on the radio, textbooks with truncated history, etc. Liberal whites underestimate the damage which racism causes on the minds of Black children, and conservative whites know all too well how to enlarge that damage. No matter how rich or supportive a Black person’s home might be, by the time she is ready to take the SAT or apply to college, she has struggled far more extensively than any white person of the same social and economic background.

  In addition, it is completely naive to say that Blacks have achieved economic equality with whites. It seems that whites have grown tired of hearing about racism. So, some have turned to measures such as The Bell Curve to relieve themselves of blame.

  It’s just ridiculous. Black people are not asking for political correctness, but truthfulness, fairness and an end to this abuse. Kristen Clarke ’97   Victoria Kennedy ’97

  Clarke is president of the Black Students Association.

  In response, Musk tweeted “She is super racist and proud of it.”

  She is super racist and proud of it

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 25, 2023

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

  Of course…

  Ah, the Tucker Carlson Rule.

  “Whatever they accuse you of, they have already done.”

  — Joshua Lisec | The Ghostwriter (@JoshuaLisec) August 25, 2023

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

  About time “Black supremacist” became an acceptable term in race relations discourse.

  — Amit Schandillia (@Schandillia) August 25, 2023

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

  It does look that way.

  — babcia1 (@wieslawawy) August 25, 2023

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

  Any racism is racism.
  Now imagine ANY white person saying it?

  So equally treated racism must be whoever it comes from!

  — NeutrinoInlovetweet (@NeutrinoInlove) August 25, 2023

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

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 18:00

• Saudi Arabia Weighs China Bid To Build Nuclear Power Plant
  Saudi Arabia Weighs China Bid To Build Nuclear Power Plant

  By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

  Saudi Arabia is considering a bid from a Chinese state firm to build a nuclear power plant, which could give the Kingdom leverage in possible talks for U.S. assistance for establishing a civil nuclear industry, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, quoting Saudi officials with knowledge of the matter.

  

  Saudi Arabia has been actively seeking help with expertise in nuclear energy to develop its own civil nuclear generation capacity. The U.S. has been an obvious first choice among potential partners, but Washington has taken a cautious approach. The United States has made it clear that it would only help Riyadh develop nuclear generation capabilities if any agreement includes preventing the enrichment of uranium or reprocessing of plutonium from the reactors, to prevent the weaponization of nuclear power.

  Now Saudi Arabia is evaluating a bid from China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) to build a nuclear power plant in an Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, close to the border with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Saudi officials told the Journal.

  Those officials also admitted to the WSJ that the idea to consider the Chinese bid was an attempt to gain leverage in talks with the U.S. about its help for Saudi Arabia’s civil nuclear program, and potentially extract some compromise on the non-proliferation issues.

  The Middle East is not known for its nuclear power generation capabilities. With all its oil wealth, the region has traditionally relied on fossil fuels to meet its electricity needs.

  In 2020, the first nuclear power plant in the Arab world began operating in the UAE. Plans are to expand it to a facility that would meet a quarter of the country’s electricity demand.

  However, observers warn any expansion of nuclear capabilities in the sensitive Middle Eastern region could lead to a nuclear arms race that could end in disaster.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 17:40

• Watch: Maui Residents Turned Back By Police Barricades Recount Their Brush With Death
  Watch: Maui Residents Turned Back By Police Barricades Recount Their Brush With Death

  After Joe Biden’s recent delayed visit to Maui in which he fell asleep during a ceremony honoring the people killed during the terrible event and chuckled about almost “losing his wife, his corvette and his cat” in a fire, many questions about the calamity remain unresolved. Without any obvious pressure from the federal government to get answers, Hawaii’s Democrat leadership is left to its own devices.  They are even attempting an information blackout instead of begging Maui citizens for their forgiveness.  

  Multiple reports from Lahaina indicate that West Maui residents ran into government barricades while trying to flee the rapidly expanding fire; with the survivors being forced to disobey the blocks and bypass police.  It’s yet another bizarre occurrence in a long list of disastrous decisions made by Hawaiian officials that likely cost hundreds (if not thousands) of lives.  

  The government gave no warning siren, denied access to water for fighting back the blaze, and set up barricades which stopped people from escaping.  It’s almost as if the state government did not care about a high body count…

  The following video is an overview of first hand footage recorded by Maui citizens, recounting their brush with death after they barely slipped past the rushing fire only to be turned back into the inferno by police blockades.  Luckily they lived, some only by running into the ocean to wait out the fires.  The question remains – Why did this happen?  How could a place surrounded by water be allowed to burn so easily with families being chased into the sea?  How did Hawaiian officials make the worst possible decisions at every turn?  Was it incompetence, or, something else?

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 17:20

• A Startling Compilation: 'Neither Safe Nor Effective'
  A Startling Compilation: ‘Neither Safe Nor Effective’

  Authored by Linda Weigenfeld via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  

  A section of Dr. Colleen Huber’s introduction to her very important book, “Neither Safe Nor Effective 2nd Edition: The Evidence Against the COVID Vaccines,” is worth quoting before looking at the book as a whole:

  “Dr. Peter McCullough, an American cardiologist, called the COVID vaccines, ‘the worst pharmaceutical development idea in the history of mankind.’”

  “It often comes as a surprise to people that mRNA-type medical interventions and coronavirus vaccines had plenty of red flags through their history prior to December 2020. The ingredients used were already known to be toxic: Cationic lipids injure the nervous system, lungs and liver, as well as cell membranes throughout the body. Polyethylene glycol was never used for injections, due to safety concerns. mRNA had already been shown to change DNA. Previous attempts at coronavirus vaccines had all failed and killed the test animals. So inflicting the world’s population with a new, mostly untested vaccine for which its components already had so many safety warnings was the most widespread reckless experiment in human history.”

  

  Dr. Huber exposes the deaths, injuries, and the lack of desired results left in the wake of the COVID vaccines. She backs up her words with over 700 references to medical studies and government webpages.

  A Little Background

  Dr. Colleen Huber’s clinic in Tempe, Arizona, has provided cancer care by naturopathic physicians for its 16 years of existence. In 2014, Dr. Huber authored the largest and longest study in medical history on sugar intake in cancer patients.

  Since the spring of 2020, Dr. Huber’s research interests have focused on the health hazards of masks and the COVID vaccines, as well as early treatments for COVID. As a medical expert in court cases related to vaccine safety concerns, she has, to prepare testimony for trials, compiled vital statistics, data from vaccine manufacturers, and other data from the United States and governments from around the world.

  While parts of Dr. Huber’s book are quite technical and others unpleasant (to say the least), without access to a book with data such as this, the health of those receiving vaccines could be further jeopardized and lives lost. The documentation is complete and comprehensive, supporting Dr. Huber’s intention to expose the truth about the COVID vaccinations.

  

  A Lack of Public Scrutiny

  Dr. Huber discusses how the naïve public was required to allow Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson to inject substances on pure faith—without any scientific results backing up the company’s products.

  Each of the manufacturers were inadequately scrutinized by the public prior to widespread use of the vaccines. Yet there was reason to thoroughly examine these companies. Pfizer had the distinction of paying the largest criminal fine in history for fraud, and Moderna had never produced anything before, much less a medical treatment. Johnson and Johnson had recently been convicted of asbestos contamination in its talcum powder. Thus, the three main manufacturers of the COVID vaccines each had a history that should have alarmed people.

  There was also an assumption by the public that the vaccines would be better than the disease. Perhaps, in part, this assumption was due to a heavily financed and carefully choreographed COVID fear campaign.

  Dr. Huber says that an emergency experimental vaccine cannot be assumed to be safer than a virus with a very high survival rate such as COVID.

  Vaccine Side Effects

  Dr. Huber documents the effects of COVID vaccinations. For example, the vaccine may cause blood clotting which can cause strokes, heart attacks, and pulmonary embolisms.

  The vaccine turns the body into a spike-protein factory. These spike proteins then damage blood vessels and cells throughout the body, including cells in the heart.

  Uveitis, an eye inflammation, is a common complaint within a few days following a COVID vaccination.  This manifests as blurred vision, floaters, pain, redness and/or light sensitivity.  Injuries to the retina and clouding of the vitreous humor (the clear gel that we see through) have also been reported.

  By August 2022, data analyst Raimond Hagemann had compiled information on birth rate changes in 19 European countries and produced an extremely important paper. Nine months after the peak of COVID vaccinations, birth rates sharply declined and stayed down.

  Cancers, especially aggressive cancers, have increased enormously since peak COVID vaccine uptake in spring of 2021.

  Demyelinating disorders, that is, conditions that damage a layer of cells that protect the nerves, have been reported following the vaccinations.  These include multiple sclerosis, Guillain-Barre, seizures, encephalopathies, and encephalitis.

  

  Other Chapters of Interest

  Dr. Huber has a chapter giving a review of the immune system, and another explains why vaccines for respiratory diseases cannot work. There is also a chapter demonstrating with graphs that the more vaccines (boosters) a person receives, the more damage that can occur.

  Offering suggestions for healing the vaccine injured, Dr. Huber adds the disclaimer that she cannot guarantee any of her advice will even partially heal the injured but some of it may prove effective in some cases. She mentions Vitamin D with its long and very successful history against viral infections, as well as agmatine, phosphatidyl serine, and nattokinase.

  She also advises looking to Africa for solutions. Africa has been a beacon of light against an otherwise bleak global map. The continent has the distinction of having very little incidence and deaths from COVID when compared to the rest of the populated world. Africa also had an extraordinarily low vaccination rate. Instead, of vaccines, ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine have been widely used throughout equatorial Africa for about a half century as they happen to be very useful against endemic parasites.

  Dr. Huber includes a chapter on legal cases that are pertinent to bodily autonomy. She includes a link to each case, including some in which she was not involved, with quotes from each ruling judge.

  She also talks about how to obtain religious and medical exemptions to COVID vaccines—providing a letter which asserts civil rights and supports bodily autonomy.

  Speaking to the Author

  Colleen Huber provided some insights as to why she wrote “Neither Safe Nor Effective.”

  

  Fearing a pandemic may happen again, Dr. Huber worried about the almost blind acceptance of COVID vaccines. She hopes her book will help stop mandatory COVID vaccination for all people because one size does not fit all. The bodies of people are different and react in different ways to drugs, vaccines, and even food. Thus, she hopes her book will provoke second thoughts in those who are thinking of getting COVID injections in the future.

  She also wants to dispense information that empowers people. By publishing her data now, she shows what happens when a government and social-media companies collude to stifle a free exchange of medical information. It’s become clear that problems with the COVID vaccines would have been easier to prevent before they were administered than to treat the problems they’ve created afterwards.

  And, of course, she wants to provide resources to help the vaccine injured.

  Dr. Huber’s reasons for her writing the book are the very reasons that you should buy the book. Knowledge is power.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 17:00

• US Bank Deposits Plunged Last Week As Fed Rescue Funding Usage Hits New Record High
  US Bank Deposits Plunged Last Week As Fed Rescue Funding Usage Hits New Record High

  For the first time in 6 weeks, US money market funds saw outflows (admittedly a tiny $1BN)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The outflows were driven by institutional funds – the first in 6 weeks. Retail funds saw inflows for the 18th straight week..

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Also of note is that usage of The Fed’s emergency funds rose yet again (admittedly only $144MN) to a new record high…

  

   

  Source: Bloomberg

  Meanwhile, total bank deposits (on a seasonally-adjusted basis) fell for the second week in a row, plunging last week by $49BN…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Which leaves the divergence between bank deposits and money market funds wide but perhaps starting to narrow…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The big drop in deposits was driven by foreign bank outflows (-$31BN) but Large ($13BN) and Small banks ($4.6BN) also saw notable outflows on a SA basis. However, on a non-seasonally-adjusted basis Large (+$14BN) and Small banks (+$1.4BN) saw  deposit inflows.

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  So, we have the now ubiquitous ‘baffle em with bullshit’ measures showing domestic US banks had $15BN of inflows (NSA) but $18BN of outflows (SA)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Despite the outflows, Large ($13.7BN) and Small ($6.3BN) banks saw loan volumes increase last week…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Finally, US equity market cap remains divergent from bank reserves at The Fed…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  So what exactly are the banks going to do in 6 months when The Fed’s BTFP funding expires? That’s a $107BN balance sheet hole that will need to be fixed…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 16:40

• Kunstler: The Party Of Chaos Is Running Scared
  Kunstler: The Party Of Chaos Is Running Scared

  Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

  “Georgia could determine who is our next president. A TEAM of lawyers needs to watch them count every single vote. They can start in Fulton County where we are having water leaks.”

  – Fulton County DA Fani Willis, Nov. 4, 2020

  What to make of this mugshot? Serious as a heart attack? I’d hate to be you on that fateful day? Table turner? Energy shift? Game on? Daddy’s in da house? Good career move? You can run but you can’t hide? Please, Br’er Fox, don’t fling me in that-there briar patch…

  

  Good luck trying this case, DA Fani Willis. And by all means roll the TV cameras in the courtroom. You are about to supplant the Scopes trial of 1925 as the most notoriously ridiculous piece of legal work in US history. That one, over in Tennessee, was called “the Monkey Trial” when a high school teacher named John Scopes was charged with teaching the theory of evolution in his biology class. It got the national news spotlight for the duration. The state enlisted three-time Democratic presidential nominee Williams Jennings Bryan as a special prosecutor. Poor Bryan, famously sweating in the southern July heat, was made a fool of by Chicago lawyer for the defense Clarence Darrow. Bryan died of a stroke days after the conclusion of the trial. It also killed what remained of his reputation.

  This week, DA Willis staged the circus parade of bookings, forcing the large cast of indictees – most of them attorneys for Mr. Trump – to submit to the finger-printing and mugshot ceremony in the county jail, in case any of them had thoughts of decamping to Uruguay. The cable news peanut gallery went berserk with glee at the humiliation of election denial celebrities Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell especially. On Thursday, attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who advised Georgia GOP officials on the process of assembling alternate electors in the case of election fraud under Georgia law, demanded a speedy trial.

  Under Georgia’s speedy trial law, Mr. Chesebro’s trial would have to take place this fall. (Such are the guiles of the law.) The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper called it, “an aggressive filing.” Ms. Willis had hoped to try all 19 defendants together during the 2024 presidential primary season, to support her RICO charges. Meanwhile, three other defendants, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, filed to have their cases removed to the federal court, in so far as the actions they are accused of taking happened while they worked in the service of the US government. Mr. Meadows is accused of seeking by email to get the phone number of a Pennsylvania election official.

  Ms. Willis’s case hinges on a number of novel propositions. First, that it is somehow against the law to object to the outcome of an election. And second, that the process for relief in such a case, as provided in Georgia’s election contest law and the US Electoral Count Act of 1887, does not apply to Mr. Trump and his lawyers. Anyone who intends to challenge the outcome must necessarily assemble a panel of alternate electors if state officials cannot certify the election properly and in good faith. Ms. Willis refers to these erroneously as “fake electors.” Mr. Trump and his co-defendants will necessarily have to present evidence that the Georgia presidential election of 2020 was not certified properly or in good faith.

  Will the defendants be allowed to present evidence of serious irregularities in the 2020 Georgia election results? If not, would that not be grounds for dismissal. So far, Democrats in charge of the machinery of law all over the country have skated on mere assertions that the 2020 election was fair. In Georgia, none of the principals involved in the dispute have been subject to cross-examination, the best instrument for truth-finding in the American legal system. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Sec’y of State Brad Raffensperger may not be so hot for an airing of what actually went on Nov 3, 2020 and the days after, especially the validity of over 100,000 mail-in ballots in a state where “Joe Biden’s” margin of victory was a mere 11,799 votes.

  Mr. Trump seems to be thriving under the tribulation of four court cases brought against him as he runs for election in 2024. Each new set of charges boosts his poll numbers. It helps him hugely that the cases are transparently idiotic and mendacious. If he is initially convicted in any of them, he can still run for president and be elected, even if he’s jailed — as Eugene Debs did in 1920 getting 913,693 votes running on the Socialist Party from the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, where he was jailed under the 1917 Espionage Act for speaking out against America’s entry into the First World War.

  The Party of Chaos is running scared. Everybody knows that “Joe Biden” can’t possibly run for another term and yet the public debate is so grotesquely disabled that nobody will talk about it. Most particularly, they will not talk about who might take his place.

  All they are really demonstrating with this barrage of prosecutions against their chief adversary is how broken, craven, and degenerate the party is, and what a menace it is, as they like to say, to our democracy.

  *  *  *

  Support his blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 16:20

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Spain Is The Most Worried About Data Use Online
  Spain Is The Most Worried About Data Use Online

  In August 1991, the world’s first ever web page was published online.

  Now, more than three decades later, the internet is estimated to serve some 5.16 billion people, with a global internet penetration rate of 64.4 percent.

  But, as Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, along with the many benefits of the online world and our increased interconnectivity also come risks.

  This includes phishing, when bad actors try to obtain private data such as banking details from users by sending bogus emails that impersonate companies or public bodies, as well as attempts to breach and leak databases that hold personal information for subsequent identity theft or scams using credit cards.

  The following chart uses data from Statista’s Consumer Insights survey to show where the question of the misuse of their personal data is a common concern.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  It reveals that out of the selected countries, a bigger share of Spanish respondents were concerned (56 percent) than the other polled countries, followed by Chile (50 percent), and Mexico (48 percent).

  Meanwhile, under a third of respondents shared the same concern in the United States (27 percent), South Africa (28 percent) and the United Kingdom (28 percent).

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 02:45

• Britain's Asylum Backlog Hits Record 175,000 As Applications Last Year Reached Two-Decade High
  Britain’s Asylum Backlog Hits Record 175,000 As Applications Last Year Reached Two-Decade High

  Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

  There are more than 175,000 people living in Britain awaiting a decision on their asylum applications, the highest figure reported since records began in 2010, Home Office data published on Thursday showed.

  

  The asylum backlog had extended to 175,457 individuals awaiting an initial decision by the end of June this year, up 44 percent from June 2022.

  Similarly, the number of asylum applications submitted this year reached a two-decade high, with 78,768 applications relating to 97,390 people, up 19 percent from the previous year.

  “This is higher than at the time of the European migration crisis (in 2016) and is the highest number of applications for two decades,” the Home Office stated.

  The most common nationality of applicants was Albanian with 11,790 applications, followed by Afghans with 9,964 applications, double the number received from the country in the previous year.

  A total of 71 percent of all decisions made in the year to June granted refugee status or humanitarian protection, more than double the percentage granted prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

  Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to clear the legacy asylum backlog — i.e., asylum applications made up to June last year — by the end of this year, but Home Office officials have only cleared an average of 2,061 cases a month.

  With another 67,870 cases remaining, the government faces the seemingly impossible task of processing over 11,000 cases every month for the rest of the year to meet its target.

  And the gap grows bigger by the day… 😡 pic.twitter.com/dG7ofTj8nq

  — Migration Watch (@MigrationWatch) August 24, 2023

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

  Irregular immigration into Britain has also skyrocketed this year, with 52,530 migrants detected entering the U.K. without permission in the year ending June 2023, up 17 percent from the previous year. A total of 85 percent of these arrived via small boats across the English Channel.

  The vast majority of these are being accommodated in hotels across the country, with an estimated cost of £6 million per day to U.K. taxpayers. A total of 47,518 migrants were being housed in hotels in March 2023, rising to 50,546 by June despite the government making pledges to reduce this figure.

  According to the Home Office data, the government’s annual spending on asylum has almost doubled from £2.12 billion in 2021-2022 to £3.97 billion in 2022-2023.

  “The Tories have failed us all on immigration,” conservative broadcaster Nigel Farage posted in response to the figures, while Labour’s Shadow Immigration Minister Stephen Kinnock said the statistics “set out in stark terms the complete chaos the Tories have created in the immigration and asylum system.

  “Only 1 percent of last year’s 45,000 small boats cases have received a decision, and the number of failed asylum seekers being returned is also down a whopping 70 percent since 2010. This is a disastrous record for the prime minister and home secretary,” he added.

  Despite Labour’s protestations, the party has regularly refused to commit to reducing immigration levels should they come to power as expected at the next general election.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/25/2023 – 02:00

• Visualizing The Future Global Economy By GDP In 2050
  Visualizing The Future Global Economy By GDP In 2050

  According to a recent report from Goldman Sachs, the balance of global economic power is projected to shift dramatically in the coming decades.

  More specifically, analysts believe that Asia could soon become the largest regional contributor to world GDP, surpassing the traditional economic powerhouses grouped together in the Developed Markets (DM) category.

  In the graphic below, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu visualizes Goldman Sachs’ real GDP forecasts for the year 2050 using a voronoi diagram.

  

  Data and Highlights

  The following table includes a regional breakdown of expected real GDP in 2050. All figures are based on 2021 USD.

  

  Based on these projections, Asia (ex DM) will represent 40% of global GDP, slightly ahead of Developed Markets’ expected share of 36%. This would mark a massive shift from 50 years ago (2000), when DMs represented over 77% of global GDP.

  Asia

  Focusing on Asia, China and India will account for the majority of the region’s expected GDP in 2050, though growth in China will have tapered off significantly. In fact, Goldman Sachs expects annual real GDP growth in the country to average 1.1% through the 2050s. This is surprisingly slower than America’s expected 1.4% annual growth during the same decade.

  The fastest growing economies in Asia during the 2050s will be India (3.1% annually), Bangladesh (3.0% annually), and the Philippines (3.5% annually). These countries are expected to thrive thanks to their high population growth rates and relatively low median age, which translates into a larger work force.

  Latin America

  Turning our attention to Latin America, we can see that the region will account for a relatively small 7% of global GDP in 2050. According to Goldman Sachs’ previous projections from 2011, many Latin American countries have underperformed over the past decade. For example, Brazil’s real GDP shrank from $2.7 trillion in 2010, to $1.5 trillion in 2020.

  Because of these setbacks, Goldman Sachs believes Indonesia will be able to overtake Brazil as the world’s largest emerging market before 2050.

  That said, Brazil’s economic ranking is still expected to climb above France and Canada by then, if these projections prove to be accurate.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/24/2023 – 22:45

• "Election Interference": Trump Returns To Twitter After Georgia Booking
  “Election Interference”: Trump Returns To Twitter After Georgia Booking

  Update (2145ET): After more than two-and-a-half years without tweeting, Trump has finally returned to the platform following Thursday’s booking in Georgia.

  https://t.co/MlIKklPSJT pic.twitter.com/Mcbf2xozsY

  — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2023

  Meanwhile, Trump’s already selling t-shirts with the mugshot. Great job Fani, you may have just cost Biden the election.

  And the meme magicians are already at it…

  

  

  Next-level https://t.co/E81JKWTJPS

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 25, 2023

  *  *  *

  Update (2025ET): After about 20 minutes to take a mugshot Trump left the Fulton County jail.

  

  “It’s election interference. … I want to thank you for being here. We did nothing wrong at all. And we have every right, every single right to challenge an election that we think is dishonest. So we think it’s very dishonest,” he told reporters at Atlanta’s airport, before leaving.

  🚨#BREAKING: Trump speaks with the press before departing from Georgia calling this a very sad day for America pic.twitter.com/yniKO5zlMk

  — R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) August 25, 2023

  *  *  *

  Former President Donald Trump surrendered at the Fulton County jail on Thursday on state charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

  According to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, Trump is 6’3″ and 215 lbs (which he was allowed to pre-report to ‘speed up the process,’ so who knows).

  https://t.co/bgUgGFbnc7

  — Merissa_Hansen🇺🇸 (@merissahansen17) August 24, 2023

  We are watching the republic die before our eyes pic.twitter.com/9dBMP3KYqb

  — Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) August 24, 2023

  🔥🚨BREAKING: President Trump has arrived at the Fulton County Jail. pic.twitter.com/VVyL0nESus

  — Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) August 24, 2023

  Donald J. Trump
  Height: 6’ 3”
  Weight: 215 pic.twitter.com/sYNXyJu8QO

  — Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) August 24, 2023

  Watch Live:

  Meanwhile, Trump supporters have been waiting for hours outside the jail:

  ‘Blacks for Trump’ group outside the Fulton County Jail ahead of Trump’s surrender in Atlanta today pic.twitter.com/bG1PIpMY8P

  — Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) August 24, 2023

  ‘Blacks for Trump’ group shares why they are supporting Trump outside the Fulton County Jail pic.twitter.com/Ox3AtyeLSy

  — Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) August 24, 2023

  MUST WATCH: #FultonCounty Sheriff’s officers are violating the First Amendment right of Trump supporters and the media who showed up to the Fulton County Jail today ahead of President Trump’s arrest.

  Officers with black masks and guns placed barricades up in the location where… pic.twitter.com/1KoxBdc3OI

  — Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) August 24, 2023

  Trump and 18 other people were indicted last week after being accused by Fulton County DA Fani Willis of participating in a scheme to flip the results of the election – many of whom have already turned themselves in, including Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis on Wednesday and John Eastman and Mark Meadows on Tuesday.

  Mark Meadows mugshot: pic.twitter.com/wL8a5HsUtW

  — Will Steakin (@wsteaks) August 24, 2023

  As the Washington Times reports;

  the scene outside the jail was anything but normal Thursday.

  It included supporters of the former president such as Cliff MacMorris, 66, from Naples, Florida, who held a flag that read, “Trump Won Save America.”

  He and his wife, Georgine, spent the night in Atlanta.

  “You don’t have the right to persecute somebody unjustly,” Cliff MacMorris said.

  His wife said the indictments against the former president were politically motivated because of the four years of “prosperity, safety, freedom” that Trump achieved in the White House.

  “They must be worried about him for some reason,” she said.

  Sharon Anderson, 67, from east Tennessee, was outside the jail for a second straight day. She had spent the night in a car with the air conditioning running.

  “I’m here to support Donald J. Trump. I want him to see some of the millions that show up at the polls for him.”

  Trump faces 13 separate counts in Georgia, including a racketeering charge and several fraud and false statement count. Trump had until Friday to turn himself in.

   

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/24/2023 – 22:25

• "Yet Another Case Of Weaponization": Musk Responds After DOJ Sues SpaceX For Not Hiring Refugees
  “Yet Another Case Of Weaponization”: Musk Responds After DOJ Sues SpaceX For Not Hiring Refugees

  On Wednesday, Elon Musk threatened to sue organizations funded by left-wing financier George Soros for falsely claiming “hate incidents” are on the rise, in order to justify censorship. Less than a day later, Biden’s ‘not weaponized’ DOJ slapped SpaceX with a lawsuit for not hiring asylum seekers and refugees.

  

  According to the lawsuit – which has been brewing since 2020, the DOJ found that “SpaceX failed to fairly consider or hire asylees and refugees because of their citizenship status and imposed what amounted to a ban on their hire regardless of their qualification, in violation of federal law,” according to Kristen Clarke, assistant AG of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.

  

  “SpaceX recruiters and high-level officials took actions that actively discouraged asylees and refugees from seeking work opportunities at the company,” according to the complaint.

  According to data SpaceX provided, the DOJ said that over a nearly four period and across more than 10,000 hires, the company “hired only one individual who was an asylee and identified as such in his application.”

  That lone hire came about four months after the DOJ notified SpaceX of its investigation.

  SpaceX did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. The suit was filed in the Executive Office for Immigration Review, a division of the DOJ that adjudicates immigration cases. –CNBC

  SpaceX and other rocket companies have for years asserted that its hiring practices were dictated by the  International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR) law, which regulates the export of regulated technologies, such as rocket parts. An “export” is deemed to have occurred if technology is disclosed to a foreigner, even in the U.S.

  Musk responded Thursday night, tweeting “SpaceX was told repeatedly that hiring anyone who was not a permanent resident of the United States would violate international arms trafficking law, which would be a criminal offense,” adding “This is yet another case of weaponization of the DOJ for political purposes.”

  Exactly.

  SpaceX was told repeatedly that hiring anyone who was not a permanent resident of the United States would violate international arms trafficking law, which would be a criminal offense.

  We couldn’t even hire Canadian citizens, despite Canada being part of NORAD!

  This…

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 25, 2023

  The Biden administration’s lawsuit seeks to win “fair consideration and back pay for asylees and refugees who were deterred or denied employment at SpaceX due to the alleged discrimination,” along with civil penalties and policy changes from the company.

  Will the DOJ go after Northrop, Lockheed and Boeing for the same thing?

  Instead of punishing @elonmusk for hiring American citizens over non-citizens, we should be celebrating him for putting our people first. This is all really just about the Dem thugs in the Biden DOJ being furious that Elon ended the censorship and brought Freedom of Speech to @X. https://t.co/3SKixKHQcY

  — Bernie Moreno (@berniemoreno) August 24, 2023

  Read the lawsuit below:

  DOJ SpaceX Lawsuit Aug. 24,… by CNBC.com

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/24/2023 – 21:55

• Catholic School System Asks Students To Use Biological Pronouns And Names
  Catholic School System Asks Students To Use Biological Pronouns And Names

  Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  

  A Catholic school system in Massachusetts under the Diocese of Worcester is asking students to behave in accordance with their sex, including while using pronouns and names.

  “All students are expected to conduct themselves at school in a manner consistent with their biological sex,” the Diocese said in an Aug. 15 announcement. “School practice shall consider the gender of all students as being consistent with their biological sex, including, but not limited to, the following: participation in school athletics; school-sponsored dances; dress and uniform policies; the use of changing facilities, showers, locker rooms, and bathrooms; titles, names, and pronouns; and official school documents.”

  Official documents, including school records, transcripts, and diplomas shall reflect the student’s biological sex as determined at the time of their birth and enrollment.

  The new policy prohibits students from engaging in advocacy, celebration, or expression of same-sex attraction in ways that cause “confusion or distraction” to the function of the school like classes, events, and other activities.

  It also prohibits bullying, harassment, threats, or acts of violence against students on the basis of their perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

  “While some schools had policies in place, others did not. Individual situations were arising which underscored a need for a single policy which clearly states Church teaching and provides consistent application of that teaching across all our schools,” said David Perda, superintendent of Catholic Schools for the diocese.

  The new policy, titled “Catholic Education and the Human Person,” was approved by Bishop Robert McManus in late June and was sent to all Catholic schools to include them in school handbooks this fall. The Diocese is located roughly 45 miles west of Boston.

  Some Schools Not Implementing New Rules

  The Diocese of Worcester’s new policy is expected to affect 21 Catholic schools in Worcester, with over 5,000 students coming under the purview. However, some schools have indicated that they may not adopt the new guidelines.

  In an Aug. 11 letter to Bishop McManus, Xaverian Brothers General Superior Brother Daniel Skala and Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Sister Patty Chappell said that the boards of trustees of their religious orders had reviewed the policy, according to Patch.

  

  The boards have decided not to implement the new policies in student handbooks at the two schools the orders sponsor—the all-girls Notre Dame Academy in Worcester and all-boys St. John’s in Shrewsbury.

  “We support our respective boards’ recent determination to uphold their established practices, guided by the principles of our Church and Religious Orders, instead of incorporating the [new policies] into their handbooks,” the letter stated.

  Schools under the Diocese of Worcester that do not follow the new policy on gender ideology could face punishment.

  Last year, Bishop McManus stripped the affiliation of Nativity School in Worcester, asking that it stop identifying itself as a Catholic school after the institution refused to take down LGBT and Black Lives Matter flags.

  Bishop McManus had also prohibited the school from performing Mass ceremonies.

  Pope Mixes Messaging

  The Diocese of Worcester’s new policy is based on various Biblical sources and references the Catechism of the Catholic Church as well as the teachings of Pope Francis.

  Pope Francis has “repeatedly stressed the importance of a proper understanding of our sexuality, warning of the challenge posed by ‘the various forms of an ideology of gender that denies the difference and reciprocity in nature of a man and a woman and envisages a society without sexual difference,’” the policy states.

  “As Pope Francis notes, we must always respect the sacred dignity of each individual person, but that does not mean the Church must accept the confused notions of secular gender ideology.”

  Though the policy cites Pope Francis while dismissing gender ideology, the Pope has given mixed messages regarding the issue over the past years.

  Back in 2013 when asked about the sexual orientation of priests, the Pope replied, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” according to AP.

  In 2015, Pope Francis criticized gender ideologies, comparing such theories to nuclear weapons and genetic manipulation.

  In 2021, Pope Francis came under criticism from the gay community after the Vatican stated that the church cannot bless same-sex unions. In an interview with AP in January this year, the Pope said homosexuality was “not a crime,” but that it is a “sin.”

  The Diocese of Worcester’s decision to ban preferred pronouns comes as several institutions are imposing pronoun use and punishing people who do not comply with such measures. Teachers have been expelled from schools for not using such pronouns due to their religious beliefs.

  In a recent interview with The Washington Examiner, Tyson Langhofer, a senior counsel at advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), suggested that as the issue of pronoun use becomes widespread, SCOTUS may have to intervene.

  “I do believe that the Supreme Court is going to have to weigh in on this if schools continue adopting these policies, which it appears that they’re doing,” he said.

  “This issue is very [common] … And I think it’s because there’s a lot of misinformation out there from outside advocacy organizations, which are pressuring schools, telling them what they can and can’t do.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/24/2023 – 21:30

• Pentagon To Send Ukrainian Pilots For F-16 Training To Texas & Arizona
  Pentagon To Send Ukrainian Pilots For F-16 Training To Texas & Arizona

  A US official has informed The New York Times on Thursday that the Pentagon plans to begin training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets inside the US, as part of a program which could start as early as September.

  Already a program has been kicked off in the Netherlands and Denmark, which Kiev has complained has been too slow to get off the ground, also given it only includes six Ukrainian pilots. At this rate, the expected date that Ukraine could be piloting the US-made jets in battle keeps getting pushed back – from estimates of next summer to now perhaps end of 2024.

  

  “[We’re] open to training existing pilots if capacity is reached in Europe,” a Pentagon spokesperson had initially previewed days ago, on Monday.

  “That’s the condition. So, if Denmark and the Netherlands are taking the lead on training, if they just do not have the capacity … to train as many pilots as Ukraine wants to send or plans to send, then we will… help train stateside,” the earlier statement added.

  But on Thursday more details have come out, apparently with a fuller US commitment, which will see training locations which includes Texas and Arizona.

  The NY Times details, “The pilots will first receive English language training in Texas and then begin months of flight training in Arizona, said the U.S. official who addressed the issue on Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss future training plans.”

  Currently Denmark and the Netherlands have pledged quantities of their own Lockheed produced F-16s. The Biden White House earlier this month made the key decision to allow export of its fighters from third-parties, but has yet to commit its own, which could still be coming.

  Ukrainian officials have all along bitterly complained it’s becoming too little, too late in terms of F-16s aiding the failing counteroffensive. Kiev very obviously lacks any level of air superiority, which would be strategically necessary toward liberating territory. Many analysts are seeing the F-16 program as more about Ukraine’s future defense, post-war.

  Given the Europe-based pilot training program has a mere half-dozen Ukrainian pilots enrolled, it’s not expected that the US program will host a large group of potential pilots.

  As for precise location within Texas, the Ukrainians would likely be placed somewhere at one of the multiple Air Force facilities in San Antonio. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/24/2023 – 21:05

• Not All Legislators Use The Poor And Minorities For Political Gain
  Not All Legislators Use The Poor And Minorities For Political Gain

  Authored by Dave Trabert via RealClear Wire,

  

  Hypocrisy — claiming to have beliefs to which one’s behavior does not conform — has long been a defining characteristic of many politicians. But a few brave souls recently have bucked the official party line to stand up for their beliefs and constituents.

  Georgia state legislator Mesha Mainor recently announced she is leaving the Democrat party to become a Republican, saying, “For far too long, the Democrat Party has gotten away with using and abusing the black community. For decades, the Democrat Party has received the support of more than 90% of the black community. And what do we have to show for it?  I represent a solidly blue district in the city of Atlanta. This isn’t a political decision for me. It’s a moral one.”

  Minor says her Democrat colleagues crucified her when she decided to stand up for disadvantaged children in support of school choice.  

  Kansas Democrat Marvin Robinson hasn’t changed party affiliation, but he is taking a lot of abuse from Democrats for supporting school choice for disadvantaged kids and protecting biological women’s right to compete in the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. He says one female Democrat in the Legislature told him he should die.

  Mainor says, “The most dangerous thing to the Democrat Party is a black person with a mind of their own.”  

  Kansas Democrats also pressure members to vote against children and for the unions.  

  Rep. Brad Boyd, an Olathe, Kansas Democrat who serves on the Olathe School Board, says school choice “targets black and brown kids, who can’t afford to attend some of these prestigious private institutions when we take money away from public schools.”

  School choice programs do target minorities and low-income students, but quite the opposite of how Boyd contends. First, seven of the eight studies on the effect of choice programs on integration found positive impacts; the other showed no visible impact. That’s because minorities comprise a disproportionate share of student enrollment in choice programs.  Second, most studies show that public school students have better outcomes after the introduction of choice programs.

  Despite these irrefutable facts, Rep. Boyd and other choice opponents want to keep students trapped in public schools and condemn them to a lifetime of underachievement because that is the will of the teacher unions and other education officials. Only 13% of Black high school students in Boyd’s Olathe district are proficient in math, and more than half are below grade level.  

  Shockingly low proficiency for Black students isn’t just a Kansas issue; it runs rampant nationwide. The 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shows 62% of Black eighth-graders are below basic in math, and only 9% are proficient, for example.

  Kansas Republican Mark Schreiber justifies his opposition to choice by saying the state should focus on providing more early childhood education programs. That might seem plausible at face value, but people like Schreiber who are familiar with the workings of the Kansas public school system know that won’t help low-income kids. Legislators have provided more than $5 billion in incremental funding to help those kids since 2005, but state audits consistently find that public school officials refuse to spend that money as state law requires. And the State Board of Education lets them get away with it.

  Kansas legislators who oppose school choice know that the public system is consciously leaving behind poor kids in general and Black students in particular, but they refuse to talk about it. State Rep. Valdenia Winn (D-Wyandotte) sees it firsthand as a member of the Kansas City, Kansas, school board, which refuses to follow state law on spending at-risk funding and conducting student needs assessments. Sill, she contends that choice would “kill public education.”  

  Choice has existed in states like Florida and Arizona for decades and has not ‘killed’ public education. Just look at 4^th-grade reading results for low-income kids. Florida students were trailing the national average in 1998; today, they have the highest proficiency level in the nation. Arizona students were three points below the national average, but now they meet the national average.

  Politicians know that the public education system harms the low-income families they purport to represent and who would benefit from school choice. Yet they use them as pawns to protect the party and institutional interests.

  School choice is perhaps the most bipartisan issue in the nation today, with solid support from parents of all political persuasions. Legislators in both parties should stop protecting education systems and pass universal school choice in every state so that students can get a good education and succeed in life.

  Dave Trabert is CEO of Kansas Policy Institute, a nonprofit research and education organization that promotes economic and educational freedom and protects constitutional rights.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/24/2023 – 20:40

• Visualizing All Of China's Trade Partners
  Visualizing All Of China’s Trade Partners

  China stands as a formidable player in the global trade arena, wielding its influence as the world’s largest goods exporter.

  With a complex network of trade partnerships spanning more than 200 countries, regions, and territories, the world’s second-largest economy has significant economic relationships with both allies and adversaries.

  By using 2022 trade data from China’s General Administration of Customs, this chart from Visual Capitalist’s Truman Du and Omri Wallach breaks down the nation’s top trading partners through imports and exports by destination.

  
  

  China’s Imports and Exports by Country in 2022

  Over the course of 2022, China saw exports totaling $3.57 trillion and imports totaling $2.71 trillion, giving it a massive trade surplus of $857 billion.

  ℹ️ Note: For products manufactured in two or more countries, China records the place where the last substantial working or processing occurred as the place of origin, including China itself.

  Country	Imports (2022 USD)	Exports (2022 USD)	Balance (2022 USD)
  🇺🇸 United States	$177.7B	$578.8B	+$401.1B
  🇭🇰 Hong Kong	$7.8B	$295.2B	+$287.4B
  🇳🇱 Netherlands	$12.5B	$117.4B	+$104.9B
  🇮🇳 India	$17.5B	$117.7B	+$100.3B
  🇲🇽 Mexico	$17.4B	$77.3B	+$59.8B
  🇬🇧 United Kingdom	$21.8B	$81.0B	+$59.2B
  🇻🇳 Vietnam	$88.0B	$144.4B	+$56.4B
  🇸🇬 Singapore	$33.9B	$80.0B	+$46.1B
  🇵🇭 Philippines	$23.0B	$63.9B	+$40.9B
  🇵🇱 Poland	$5.1B	$38.0B	+$32.9B
  🇪🇸 Spain	$9.8B	$41.6B	+$31.9B
  🇹🇷 Türkiye	$4.5B	$33.9B	+$29.4B
  🇧🇪 Belgium	$8.7B	$35.5B	+$26.7B
  🇧🇩 Bangladesh	$1.0B	$26.7B	+$25.7B
  🇮🇹 Italy	$27.0B	$50.5B	+$23.6B
  🇹🇭 Thailand	$56.5B	$77.7B	+$21.1B
  🇳🇬 Nigeria	$1.6B	$22.1B	+$20.5B
  🇵🇰 Pakistan	$3.4B	$22.9B	+$19.5B
  🇪🇬 Egypt	$1.0B	$17.1B	+$16.0B
  🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan	$0.1B	$15.3B	+$15.3B
  🇨🇿 Czechia	$5.4B	$18.2B	+$12.8B
  🇰🇭 Cambodia	$1.8B	$14.0B	+$12.2B
  🇬🇷 Greece	$0.8B	$12.9B	+$12.1B
  🇵🇦 Panama	$1.2B	$12.6B	+$11.4B
  🇨🇦 Canada	$42.3B	$53.4B	+$11.1B
  🇫🇷 France	$35.6B	$45.5B	+$9.9B
  🇨🇴 Colombia	$7.0B	$15.5B	+$8.5B
  🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates	$45.4B	$53.5B	+$8.1B
  🇰🇪 Kenya	$0.3B	$8.2B	+$7.9B
  🇱🇷 Liberia	$0.0B	$7.5B	+$7.5B
  🇮🇱 Israel	$9.0B	$16.4B	+$7.4B
  🇹🇿 Tanzania	$0.5B	$7.7B	+$7.1B
  🇸🇮 Slovenia	$0.6B	$6.8B	+$6.3B
  🇬🇭 Ghana	$2.3B	$7.8B	+$5.5B
  🇭🇺 Hungary	$5.0B	$10.5B	+$5.4B
  🇺🇿 Uzbekistan	$2.3B	$7.4B	+$5.1B
  🇩🇿 Algeria	$1.1B	$6.2B	+$5.1B
  🇯🇴 Jordan	$0.7B	$5.7B	+$4.9B
  🇲🇦 Morocco	$0.9B	$5.7B	+$4.8B
  🇩🇪 Germany	$111.4B	$115.9B	+$4.5B
  🇩🇰 Denmark	$5.7B	$10.2B	+$4.4B
  🇷🇴 Romania	$3.1B	$7.4B	+$4.3B
  🇦🇷 Argentina	$8.6B	$12.7B	+$4.1B
  🇲🇴 Macao	$0.1B	$4.2B	+$4.1B
  🇬🇹 Guatemala	$0.6B	$4.3B	+$3.8B
  🇩🇴 Dominican Republic	$0.5B	$4.3B	+$3.7B
  🇸🇳 Senegal	$0.3B	$4.0B	+$3.7B
  🇲🇭 Marshall Islands	$0.0B	$3.5B	+$3.5B
  🇱🇰 Sri Lanka	$0.5B	$3.7B	+$3.2B
  🇩🇯 Djibouti	$0.1B	$3.2B	+$3.1B
  🇮🇷 Iran	$6.4B	$9.4B	+$3.0B
  🇹🇬 Togo	$0.2B	$3.1B	+$2.9B
  🇵🇹 Portugal	$3.0B	$6.0B	+$2.9B
  🇨🇮 Cote d’Ivoire	$1.0B	$3.5B	+$2.5B
  🇨🇲 Cameroon	$0.7B	$3.1B	+$2.5B
  🇱🇧 Lebanon	$0.1B	$2.5B	+$2.4B
  🇸🇪 Sweden	$9.1B	$11.4B	+$2.2B
  🇻🇪 Venezuela	$0.8B	$3.0B	+$2.1B
  🇾🇪 Yemen	$0.6B	$2.8B	+$2.1B
  🇭🇷 Croatia	$0.2B	$2.3B	+$2.1B
  🇲🇿 Mozambique	$1.3B	$3.2B	+$1.9B
  🇲🇲 Myanmar	$11.5B	$13.4B	+$1.9B
  🇹🇯 Tajikistan	$0.4B	$2.2B	+$1.8B
  🇵🇾 Paraguay	$0.1B	$1.9B	+$1.8B
  🇪🇹 Ethiopia	$0.5B	$2.2B	+$1.8B
  🇱🇹 Lithuania	$0.1B	$1.8B	+$1.7B
  🇳🇵 Nepal	$0.0B	$1.6B	+$1.6B
  🇹🇳 Tunisia	$0.3B	$1.9B	+$1.6B
  🇧🇬 Bulgaria	$1.3B	$2.8B	+$1.6B
  🇭🇳 Honduras	$0.0B	$1.6B	+$1.5B
  🇧🇭 Bahrain	$0.3B	$1.8B	+$1.5B
  🇰🇿 Kazakhstan	$14.8B	$16.3B	+$1.5B
  🇧🇾 Belarus	$1.8B	$3.2B	+$1.4B
  🇧🇯 Benin	$0.3B	$1.7B	+$1.4B
  🇸🇻 El Salvador	$0.2B	$1.7B	+$1.4B
  🇲🇹 Malta	$0.6B	$2.0B	+$1.4B
  🇸🇩 Sudan	$0.9B	$2.0B	+$1.1B
  🇨🇾 Cyprus	$0.0B	$1.2B	+$1.1B
  🇬🇪 Georgia	$0.1B	$1.2B	+$1.1B
  🇸🇴 Somalia	$0.0B	$1.0B	+$1.0B
  🇦🇿 Azerbaijan	$0.1B	$1.1B	+$1.0B
  🇯🇲 Jamaica	$0.0B	$1.0B	+$1.0B
  🇺🇬 Uganda	$0.1B	$1.1B	+$1.0B
  🇲🇺 Mauritius	$0.0B	$1.0B	+$0.9B
  🇷🇸 Serbia	$1.4B	$2.2B	+$0.8B
  🇲🇬 Madagascar	$0.6B	$1.4B	+$0.8B
  🇰🇵 Korea, DPR	$0.1B	$0.8B	+$0.7B
  🇳🇮 Nicaragua	$0.0B	$0.7B	+$0.7B
  🇪🇪 Estonia	$0.3B	$0.9B	+$0.7B
  🇱🇻 Latvia	$0.4B	$1.0B	+$0.6B
  🇭🇹 Haiti	$0.0B	$0.6B	+$0.6B
  🇦🇱 Albania	$0.2B	$0.7B	+$0.5B
  🇦🇫 Afghanistan	$0.0B	$0.6B	+$0.5B
  🇲🇱 Mali	$0.1B	$0.6B	+$0.5B
  🇫🇯 Fiji	$0.0B	$0.5B	+$0.5B
  🇲🇻 Maldives	$0.0B	$0.4B	+$0.4B
  🇸🇾 Syria	$0.0B	$0.4B	+$0.4B
  🇬🇲 Gambia	$0.0B	$0.4B	+$0.4B
  🇧🇫 Burkina Faso	$0.1B	$0.5B	+$0.4B
  🇧🇸 Bahamas	$0.0B	$0.4B	+$0.4B
  🇳🇪 Niger	$0.3B	$0.7B	+$0.4B
  🇨🇷 Costa Rica	$2.0B	$2.4B	+$0.4B
  🇷🇼 Rwanda	$0.1B	$0.4B	+$0.3B
  🇧🇿 Belize	$0.0B	$0.3B	+$0.3B
  🇸🇷 Suriname	$0.0B	$0.3B	+$0.3B
  🇲🇼 Malawi	$0.0B	$0.3B	+$0.3B
  🇷🇪 Réunion	$0.0B	$0.2B	+$0.2B
  🇱🇺 Luxembourg	$0.3B	$0.5B	+$0.2B
  🇧🇴 Bolivia	$0.9B	$1.1B	+$0.2B
  🇲🇪 Montenegro	$0.0B	$0.2B	+$0.2B
  🇧🇹 Bhutan	$0.0B	$0.2B	+$0.2B
  🇵🇸 Palestine	$0.0B	$0.2B	+$0.2B
  🇵🇫 French Polynesia	$0.0B	$0.2B	+$0.1B
  🇹🇱 Timor-Leste	$0.1B	$0.3B	+$0.1B
  🇧🇧 Barbados	$0.0B	$0.2B	+$0.1B
  🇲🇩 Moldova	$0.1B	$0.2B	+$0.1B
  🇼🇸 Samoa	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🇮🇸 Iceland	$0.2B	$0.3B	+$0.1B
  🇻🇬 British Virgin Islands	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🇧🇮 Burundi	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🌏 Other Oceanian Territories	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🇦🇬 Antigua and Barbuda	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🇸🇨 Seychelles	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🇨🇻 Cabo Verde	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🇻🇺 Vanuatu	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🇧🇲 Bermuda	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🇸🇿 Eswatini	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🇬🇵 Guadeloupe	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🇰🇲 Comoros	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🇦🇼 Aruba	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina	$0.1B	$0.2B	+$0.1B
  🇨🇼 Curaçao	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🇾🇹 Mayotte	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🇹🇴 Tonga	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🇲🇰 North Macedonia	$0.2B	$0.2B	+$0.1B
  🇰🇾 Cayman Islands	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🌎 Other Latin American Territories	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🇵🇼 Palau	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.1B
  🇲🇶 Martinique	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇰🇮 Kiribati	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇬🇫 French Guiana	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇱🇸 Lesotho	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.0B
  🇱🇨 Saint Lucia	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇩🇲 Dominica	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇹🇻 Tuvalu	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇫🇲 Federated States of Micronesia	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇨🇫 Central African Republic	$0.0B	$0.1B	+$0.0B
  🇧🇶 Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇬🇩 Grenada	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇦🇩 Andorra	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇻🇨 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇬🇮 Gibraltar	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇸🇹 Sao Tome and Principe	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🌍 Other European Territories	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇰🇳 Saint Kitts and Nevis	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇳🇷 Nauru	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇨🇰 Cook Islands	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇹🇨 Turks and Caicos Islands	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇲🇫 Saint Martin	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🌏 Other North American Territories	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇸🇲 San Marino	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🌍 Other African Territories	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇮🇨 Canary Islands	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇼🇫 Wallis and Futuna	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇳🇫 Norfolk Island	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇪🇭 Western Sahara	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🌏 Other Asian Territories	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇲🇸 Montserrat	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇪🇺 Ceuta	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇻🇦 Holy See	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇪🇺 Melilla	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇵🇲 Saint Pierre and Miquelon	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇧🇶 Bonaire	$0.0B	$0.0B	+$0.0B
  🇲🇨 Monaco	$0.0B	$0.0B	-$0.0B
  🇨🇺 Cuba	$0.5B	$0.4B	-$0.0B
  🇳🇦 Namibia	$0.6B	$0.6B	-$0.0B
  🇸🇸 South Sudan	$0.2B	$0.2B	-$-0.1B
  🇸🇧 Solomon Islands	$0.3B	$0.2B	-$-0.1B
  🇫🇴 Faroe Islands	$0.1B	$0.0B	-$-0.1B
  🇱🇮 Liechtenstein	$0.2B	$0.1B	-$-0.1B
  🇧🇼 Botswana	$0.4B	$0.2B	-$-0.2B
  🇿🇼 Zimbabwe	$1.3B	$1.1B	-$-0.2B
  🇸🇱 Sierra Leone	$0.8B	$0.6B	-$-0.2B
  🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago	$0.8B	$0.5B	-$-0.2B
  🇲🇷 Mauritania	$1.2B	$0.9B	-$-0.2B
  🇦🇲 Armenia	$0.8B	$0.5B	-$-0.3B
  🇪🇷 Eritrea	$0.5B	$0.1B	-$-0.3B
  🇵🇷 Puerto Rico	$1.3B	$1.0B	-$-0.3B
  🇬🇱 Greenland	$0.4B	$0.0B	-$-0.4B
  🇪🇨 Ecuador	$6.8B	$6.3B	-$-0.6B
  🇱🇾 Libya	$2.9B	$2.4B	-$-0.6B
  🇫🇮 Finland	$5.3B	$4.5B	-$-0.7B
  🇬🇾 Guyana	$1.3B	$0.6B	-$-0.7B
  🇹🇩 Chad	$1.1B	$0.3B	-$-0.8B
  🇺🇦 Ukraine	$4.3B	$3.3B	-$-1.1B
  🇱🇦 Laos	$3.4B	$2.3B	-$-1.1B
  🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea	$1.5B	$0.2B	-$-1.3B
  🌏 Unknown Countries (Territories)	$1.4B	$0.0B	-$-1.4B
  🇧🇳 Brunei	$2.2B	$0.8B	-$-1.4B
  🇺🇾 Uruguay	$4.5B	$3.0B	-$-1.5B
  🇳🇨 New Caledonia	$1.9B	$0.2B	-$-1.7B
  🇬🇳 Guinea	$4.5B	$2.3B	-$-2.3B
  🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea	$3.8B	$1.4B	-$-2.4B
  🇳🇴 Norway	$8.0B	$5.2B	-$-2.8B
  🇦🇹 Austria	$8.2B	$5.1B	-$-3.1B
  🇸🇰 Slovakia	$7.7B	$4.4B	-$-3.3B
  🇬🇦 Gabon	$3.9B	$0.6B	-$-3.4B
  🇨🇬 Congo	$5.6B	$1.0B	-$-4.6B
  🇿🇲 Zambia	$5.7B	$1.0B	-$-4.8B
  🇲🇳 Mongolia	$9.3B	$2.9B	-$-6.5B
  🇳🇿 New Zealand	$16.0B	$9.1B	-$-6.8B
  🇮🇩 Indonesia	$77.9B	$70.9B	-$-7.0B
  🇿🇦 South Africa	$32.4B	$24.0B	-$-8.4B
  🇹🇲 Turkmenistan	$10.3B	$0.9B	-$-9.5B
  🇵🇪 Peru	$24.1B	$13.4B	-$-10.7B
  🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of Congo	$16.6B	$5.1B	-$-11.5B
  🇯🇵 Japan	$184.4B	$172.5B	-$-11.9B
  🇮🇪 Ireland	$18.1B	$5.7B	-$-12.4B
  🇲🇾 Malaysia	$109.9B	$92.2B	-$-17.7B
  🇶🇦 Qatar	$22.6B	$3.9B	-$-18.6B
  🇦🇴 Angola	$23.2B	$4.0B	-$-19.2B
  🇰🇼 Kuwait	$26.5B	$4.9B	-$-21.6B
  🇨🇱 Chile	$44.4B	$22.4B	-$-22.0B
  🇮🇶 Iraq	$39.4B	$13.8B	-$-25.6B
  🇴🇲 Oman	$36.2B	$4.2B	-$-32.1B
  🇰🇷 Republic of Korea	$199.1B	$161.3B	-$-37.8B
  🇷🇺 Russia	$114.4B	$75.6B	-$-38.7B
  🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia	$78.1B	$37.7B	-$-40.4B
  🇨🇭 Switzerland	$49.7B	$7.6B	-$-42.1B
  🇧🇷 Brazil	$109.4B	$61.8B	-$-47.6B
  🇦🇺 Australia	$142.1B	$78.5B	-$-63.6B
  🇨🇳 China	$121.9B	N/A	-$-121.9B
  🇹🇼 Taiwan	$237.2B	$81.5B	-$-155.8B

  China had individual trade surpluses with the overwhelming majority of its trade partners: 174 of the 234 countries and territories listed.

  These trade surpluses are especially visible in China’s trade relationships with many of the world’s largest economies, including the U.S. and India, with $401.1 billion and $100.3 billion surpluses respectively.

  Meanwhile, a good sum of the country’s trade deficits are with major Asian economies. Its largest deficit is with Taiwan, primarily coming from integrated circuit imports. China also has deficits with Japan (-$11.9 billion) and South Korea (-$37.8 billion), the region’s second and fourth-largest economies respectively, largely due to electronics and machinery imports.

  The country’s other trade deficits stem from fulfilling strategic needs. For example, China has deficits with oil-producing countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia. It also has a trade deficit with Australia, a key supplier of raw goods such as iron, gold, lithium, and liquefied petroleum gas.

  China’s Evolving Trade Partner Relationships

  China’s trade relationships extend far beyond just economic considerations; they reflect historical, geopolitical, and strategic factors as well.

  Taiwan’s major role in the semiconductor market, for example, makes it both a valuable trade partner and a contentious rival. China considers Taiwan a part of its territory, while Taiwan operates as a separate, self-governed entity.

  Likewise, China’s increasing investments in infrastructure across parts of Asia and Africa are starting to reflect growing trade balances with developing countries set to become major trade partners in the future.

  As the Chinese economy evolves (and potentially weakens), its relationships with both allies and potential enemies may only grow more complex.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/24/2023 – 20:15

• Governor Josh Shapiro's Wrong Approach To Grid Reliability
  Governor Josh Shapiro’s Wrong Approach To Grid Reliability

  Authored by Gordon Tomb via RealClear Wire,

  

  Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has asked regional power grid operators to enhance the electricity system’s dependability—and he’s got ideas about how to do it. But his premises are flawed, and his suggestions misguided. Shapiro wants reliable power, yet he’s banking on unreliable sources to provide it. That approach isn’t just wrongheaded; it’s a recipe for failure.

  “Here in the Commonwealth, we are embracing the advantages that cheaper, lower carbon fuel sources offer,” Shapiro wrote in a letter to the management of PJM Interconnection, the non-profit which maintains the electric grid for Pennsylvania and a dozen other states.

  The governor was referring to wind and solar power, which aren’t cheaper than traditional fossil fuel plants and can, in some cases, increase overall carbon emissions. In short, they add costs for consumers and undermine reliability. This scenario has played out dramatically in places like Europe and California, where power outages and soaring prices are undisputed facts. Pennsylvanians have, so far, avoided the worst of this because wind and solar still account for only a small amount of PJM’s power supply—low single-digit percentages.

  That changes if Shapiro gets his way. His letter effectively urges PJM to expedite the installation of new wind and solar projects to prevent shortages caused by the expected retirement of coal-fired power plants—closings currently accelerated by the governor’s refusal to remove the threat of a carbon tax on fossil fuels.

  PJM sees its surplus generating capacity, reserved for meeting peak demand, falling significantly below the federal requirement in the coming years. PJM has warned that energy rationing might become necessary by 2026 to manage supply shortages. In other words, Pennsylvanians could expect rolling blackouts in the near future.

  While Shapiro is right to worry about the power grid, his solution worsens the problem because wind turbines and solar panels are woefully inadequate replacements for coal, natural gas, or nuclear plants.

  David Stevenson, an energy analyst with the Caesar Rodney Institute, explains that each lost gigawatt of baseload electricity generated by coal and natural gas—as well as by nuclear fuel—requires three gigawatts of wind and solar to replace it. To replace the 40 gigawatts of baseload generation to be retired by 2030, we’d need to build 120 gigawatts of wind or solar power.

  That’s far more than the 94 gigawatts in the pipeline.

  “PJM experts report that wind and solar projects entering the queue for acceptance into the grid historically have only a one in twenty chance of being built,” said Stevenson. “Developers literally submit 20 projects when only one is planned for construction because of uncertainties of available transmission capacity and uncertain local zoning approval. PJM currently has 94 gigawatts of wind and solar awaiting approval, but only about five gigawatts will likely be built—or about two gigawatts of baseload power.”

  In other words, plans exist for only 2% of the new “renewable” generation needed.

  Wind and solar require many times the material and land area to produce equivalent amounts of electricity from traditional sources. Expecting to replace efficient, reliable sources of electricity with expensive, unreliable technologies is a “lopsided” transition that defies logic.

  Shapiro also calls on PJM to reform market procedures for reliability but ignores a fundamental flaw that prevents the most reliable energy sources—baseload fossil fuel plants and nuclear power—from adequate compensation. Annual payments to ensure reliability have collapsed from $8.3 billion to $2.2 billion in the last three years. Meanwhile, penalties for just one day of non-performance during a cold spell last December were $1.8 billion, nearly equal to an entire year of capacity revenue.

  The decline in these revenues is largely the result of state and federal policies that provide subsidies to wind and solar, and the long-term impact of those policies is emerging.

  PJM’s failure to “keep the lights on” with as little drama as reasonably possible during December’s cold snap is just the beginning of the reliability issues Pennsylvanians will face if the grid operator continues to accommodate more “renewable energy” while endorsing policies that speed the retirement of nuclear or fossil fuel baseload capacity.

  Meredith Angwin, in her book Shorting the Grid, explains mandates for renewable energy “will not succeed in building grids that are 100% renewable” but instead will make “the grid more fragile and more expensive.”

  Decades of programs like Pennsylvania’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards, which subsidize expensive and unreliable energy and discourage the development of reliable fossil fuels, are failing Pennsylvanians. Shapiro should end energy subsidies and allow free markets to determine the path to cheap, clean, and sustainable power.

  Gordon Tomb is a Senior Fellow with the Commonwealth Foundation, Pennsylvania’s free-market think tank, and a senior advisor with the CO2 Coalition in Arlington, VA.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/24/2023 – 19:50

• Americans Panic Search "Live Off Grid" As Housing Crisis Worsens And Democrat Cities Implode
  Americans Panic Search “Live Off Grid” As Housing Crisis Worsens And Democrat Cities Implode

  What’s piqued our interest is the sudden panic by some Americans searching ‘live off grid’ on the internet, hitting the highest level in five years. The driving force behind finding a rural piece of land for dirt cheap, buying or building a tiny home, installing solar panels, and sourcing your own food and water might have to do with the worst inflation storm in a generation while Democrat cities implode under the weight of soaring violent crime. 

  

  We’re not going to speculate on the exact cause, but we’ll give readers an understanding that a combination of the worst housing affordability crisis in decades plus out-of-control crime in progressive-run cities could be some of the largest drivers pushing people to explore living in the ‘sticks.’ 

  

  With the introduction of SpaceX’s Starlink in 2019, remote workers no longer have to live in crowded, dirty, and dangerous metro areas — many found this out during the exodus of major cities during Covid. 

  

  Capitalizing on off-the-grid living is Home Depot, which now sells tiny homes called “Getaway Pad.”

  

  We’ve also seen the RV Industry Association report multiple times this year that parked mobile home shipments are surging on a monthly basis versus the same months last year — yet another indication of housing affordability issues. 

  Living off the grid can have many benefits, including financial independence, self-sufficiency, preparedness, and security, as well as promoting an active lifestyle, better sleep, and a healthier diet (no need for a Peloton bike or Eli Lilly’s fat drug “Ozempic”). 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/24/2023 – 19:25

• 200 Million & Counting… Trump Triumphant, Ramaswamy Runner-Up, DeSantis Dud
  200 Million & Counting… Trump Triumphant, Ramaswamy Runner-Up, DeSantis Dud

  Update (1235ET): Make that over 200 million views and still going…

  

  Watch:

  Ep. 19 Debate Night with Donald J Trump pic.twitter.com/ayPfII48CO

  — Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 24, 2023

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

  *  *  *

  Authored by Paul Ingrassia and Matthew Boose via American Greatness,

  “Focus on the signal, not the noise,” is a phrase that might as well have been coined by Steve Bannon given how frequently he and his acolytes make use of it. At this stage in the game, it should be the mantra of the MAGA movement writ large; for the hour is already late, there is a mountain of work left to do to haul President Trump over the finish line: navigating a corrupt, weaponized justice system; dealing with rigged election procedures; combatting both soft and overt censorship by mainstream networks and social media – and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

  Which is why – given the enormity of the collective hole we have dug ourselves in – the idea of a normal politics-as-usual primary season was ridiculous from the start. The 2020 presidential election was undeniably the most unfair election in modern history – it necessarily produced an illegitimate outcome. That Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, Chris Christie (and the rest) are behaving as if all of that does not matter, or that somehow the problems that got us in this dire situation as a country would miraculously vanish if Trump were removed from the picture is the ultimate indictment of their credentials. The other candidates are not serious contenders for the presidency for the simple purpose that they do not seriously care about America’s interests: if they realized the gravity of the crisis, they would have immediately stepped aside and thrown whatever miniscule political capital they harness upon the 45th President, knowing that he alone has a shot at achieving the near-insurmountable feat of winning the presidency.

  In short, the primary process – personified above all by Ron DeSantis and his pitiful excuse for a campaign – is a colossal distraction and timewaster from where our focus needs to be.

  Poll after poll has Trump with leads of 30, 40, 50+ points above his nearest competitor.

  Even in the absolutely most competitive primary states, like Iowa, Trump’s lead is well over the 20-point mark, the largest such lead for that state’s Republican caucus in over two decades. Trump won this battle before the first shot was ever fired because grassroots voters can viscerally intuit just how high the stakes are this time around; that for America, 2024 is truly the make-or-break moment.

  

  The candidates who did appear on the debate stage in Milwaukee last evening presented an image of betrayal to the American people. That the first debate was on Fox News, the network responsible for prematurely and recklessly calling Arizona for Biden in 2020, added a poetic touch to the general feeling of impotence surrounding the whole spectacle.

  Perhaps even more poetic was who Trump instead chose to spend the evening with: Tucker Carlson, the most famous talk show host in America before he was sent to the slaughterhouse earlier this year by the powers-that-be at Fox in a sacrificial offering to the woke deities. Both Trump and Carlson are unified in being corporate media pariahs – maybe the only person more detested by the Murdoch’s than Donald Trump is Tucker Carlson; the fact that the two combined their influences against their shared enemy in Fox, which is now bloodletting viewership seemingly by the day now, is a powerful signal to the forces in this country that otherwise hope to shut down Donald Trump, and the populist furor both he and Carlson represent, for good. 

  Those who tuned into Wednesday night’s debate received a depressing look into the GOP’s past – and what lies in its future without Trump: timid, boring, and ineffectual “leaders.” The frontrunner’s absence was keenly felt in the lack of energy, vigor, and vision on the stage.

  

  Vivek Ramaswamy was the only spark of life.

  The candidates smothered viewers with platitudes about new leadership, stopping Putin, liberal tax and spend policies, and how bad Biden is – something all Republicans already agree on. It could have been a debate from 2012. Fox beclowned itself with a segment on climate change, and dedicated just a few minutes to the issue of the day: the persecution of the opposition leader, Donald Trump.

  On that question, the only candidate to defend Trump was Ramaswamy.

  DeSantis and Tim Scott dodged with abstractions about “the weaponization of justice,” all without mentioning public enemy number one. DeSantis refused to say whether Mike Pence was correct to certify Biden’s bogus victory. Instead, DeSantis said Biden loves that Republicans are still talking about January 6th, and it’s time to move on. The political prisoners languishing in the D.C. gulag would like a word.

  On Ukraine, Vivek was, again, the only candidate to unequivocally state that America must not prioritize the European backwater over its own people.

  DeSantis continued to muddy waters on this key foreign policy issue. Across the board, the bogus tough guy persona fell apart, and DeSantis showed himself to be serpentine, weak and equivocating. When the issue of supporting Trump as the nominee came up, DeSantis scanned the stage and then half-heartedly raised his hand, only after seeing Ramaswamy had done so.

  DeSantis, after weeks and weeks of crashing and burning, desperately needed to make a recovery. But he was an afterthought.

  No one bothered attacking him. He didn’t attack anyone either, only briefly jabbing at Trump on COVID, although he was too timid to use Trump’s name. He grabbed a hold of the words “American decline” and never let go.

  [ZH: “August 23 2023 in Milwaukee, Wis., is the day that the DeSantis for President campaign died,” senior Trump adviser Chris LaCivita said. “You can’t win a debate by making a cameo appearance.”]

  Pence and Scott took turns gushing with hokey optimism about an America that no longer exists.

  

  The insincerity and fundamental lack of seriousness of the whole spectacle was overpowering – between Nikki Haley’s girlboss routine, Tim Scott’s Martin Luther King impression, and DeSantis’ fake bravado.

  We’ve heard a lot about “Trumpism after Trump.” The GOP without Trump looks a lot like the GOP before him. Coming on the very same day that Rudy Giuliani had his mugshot taken, and just a day before Trump is expected to endure the same humiliation with his arraignment in Georgia, the debate could not have been a more out of touch spectacle.

  Meanwhile, Trump’s decision to ditch the debate and Fox News for Tucker Carlson on X (formerly known as Twitter) proved to be an act of political genius. 

  As of this publication, Tucker Carlson’s interview garnered more than 150 million views within hours of being posted. This already ranks the Trump interview as the most watched television interview in history, breaking the record set by Carlson and Andrew Tate from earlier this summer.

  

  This fact alone shows Trump’s pulse is on the cultural trajectory of this country in ways that cannot be replicated by the other candidates. Indeed, despite the unfortunate news of this latest arraignment, Trump’s poll numbers are higher than ever: his margins over his nearest opponents now are upwards of 50 percentage points or higher, making his famous prophecy from earlier this month – that he would only need “one more indictment” to win the 2024 election true. Indeed, even the legacy media seems to be coming around to this conclusion: both CNN and Time Magazine ran pieces over the last week gearing their readers for the possibility – perhaps inevitability – of another Trump administration.

  Trump is the protagonist of this evil chapter of American history.

  His inconsequential challengers, lacking the talent to become forces in history themselves, fancy themselves above the “drama” of history, when the truth is they are pursuing a station destiny has closed off to them. They play off their inertness and aversion to “drama” as a virtue.

  But Trump’s war with the Deep State, which now threatens to destroy the very foundations of the republic, is inextricably woven with the nation and its fate. It is the main event, as even his enemies must acknowledge. Should the worst-case scenario happen and his mugshot be taken, hardly anyone will remember the sideshow in Milwaukee. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/24/2023 – 19:11

• States Unite To Protect Minors From Brain-Altering Pornography
  States Unite To Protect Minors From Brain-Altering Pornography

  Authored by Jackson Elliott via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  

  Graphic, violent, deviant, and harmful online pornography that can permanently affect brain development can be easily accessed by children.

  And the federal government is doing little to stop it, experts and lawmakers told The Epoch Times.

  Although showing pornography to children is illegal under federal law, federal rules don’t require porn websites to verify the age of users.

  But recently, bipartisan efforts in state legislatures have intervened to protect children in a handful of states.

  It’s important—and urgent—because watching violent porn damages children, therapist Jon Uhler and psychologist Amy Sousa told The Epoch Times.

  “Being shown violence alongside a reward system is incredibly problematic because it is sending the body a signal that this violence is pleasurable,” Ms. Sousa said.

  By teaching children to associate sexual pleasure with pain, she said, pornography can rewire a viewer’s brain to want pain or want to inflict pain.

  This rewiring undoes the body’s natural response of feeling distressed when seeing someone get hurt, she explained.

  And porn-watching is more common than many might realize.

  Porn gets more yearly “watch hours” than all Hollywood, Netflix, and Viacom programming combined, Ms. Sousa said.

  

  Normalizing Violence, Creating Psychopaths

  “Eighty-eight percent of porn videos contain violence against women, which basically translates to 5.1 billion of those visits per month,” Ms. Sousa said.

  “Porn represents a massive propaganda arm that is normalizing and desensitizing violence against women.”

  Viewing pornography teaches men to see women as objects, said Mr. Uhler, who has 15 years of counseling experience and thousands of hours of experience in treating sex offenders.

  Children who admit to watching porn also admit to feeling guilty about it, he said.

  Over time, repeatedly engaging in behavior that violates one’s conscience can turn a person into a psychopath, he said.

  “As you impact conscience, you will negatively impact remorse and empathy,” he said. “Those three things are the basis of psychopathy.”

  And this, he said, can open the gateway to becoming a sexual predator.

  In counseling thousands of sexual predators, Mr. Uhler has seen a pattern. For all of his patients, the road to sexual deviancy involved viewing porn, he said.

  “A lot of good researchers have looked at the effects that pornography has on the brain,” Mr. Uhler said.

  “It’s identical to drugs, literally in terms of the impact on the structure itself and the way it processes.”

  With an unprecedented number of boys watching violent porn, Mr. Uhler said, the future will likely yield a massive crop of men who have learned from childhood to defy their conscience.

  “We are in uncharted territory.”

  Conflicting Views on Restrictions

  Despite these dangers, the federal government has done little to prevent children from accessing online porn, Sousa, Uhler, and lawmakers said.

  “The federal law [banning pornography access for children] is not enforced,” Utah state Sen. Todd Weiler, a Republican, told The Epoch Times.

  Ian Andrews, a spokesman for Pornhub, told The Epoch Times that the company supports measures to restrict children from viewing porn by verifying the age of users. But he doubts new laws requiring age verification of users will help protect minors. Pornhub is the world’s 12th-most-visited website, with more than 2.5 billion visitors yearly, according to the consumer research firm Similarweb.

  Mr. Andrews argued that the laws may have the opposite effect.

  “We hypothesized for years that, if only certain platforms were forced to verify user age, or if a law is not regulated properly, the results would see users flocking to the platforms that do not verify age,” he said.

  “This is no longer hypothetical. Since we became one of the few platforms in Louisiana to comply with the law and institute mandatory age verification, we have seen an approximately 80 percent drop in our traffic in the state.”

  Amping Up Laws

  Lawmakers in some states are determined to amend state laws to block children from viewing porn. 

  In May, Utah passed a law requiring pornographic websites to verify that users from that state are at least 18. Louisiana, which enacted a similar law in 2022, was the first state to demand age-verification measures to access pornographic websites, Mr. Weiler said.

  “We made a few minor tweaks, but we basically copied Louisiana’s” law in Utah, he said.

  The Louisiana law demands that porn websites perform “reasonable age-verification methods” for Louisiana users.

  For Mr. Weiler, the fight to protect children from porn websites began in 2016.

  “I ran the first resolution in the country to declare pornography to be a public health crisis,” he said.

  While the resolution declared that child viewing of pornography was a public health crisis, resolutions don’t have the force of law or any law enforcement effects.

  “And since that time, about 15 other states have basically copied” the resolution, Mr. Weiler said.

  Five states have joined Utah and Louisiana in going farther.

  Virginia, Mississippi, Texas, Montana, and Arkansas have added age-verification laws for pornography websites.

  Arizona, California, South Carolina, Minnesota, and New Jersey all have bills for age verification under consideration, according to data gathered by the Free Speech Coalition (FSC).

  Support for the bills is largely bipartisan, Mr. Weiler said.

  “This is not just a Republican issue,” he said. “I think many Democrats agree that children shouldn’t be viewing this content.“

  Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, South Dakota, West Virginia, Missouri, Alabama, and Tennessee have considered bills requiring age verification for porn users, but they failed to pass, according to FSC. 

  Relying on Honest Answers

  According to federal law, the crime of  “knowingly” using computer services to display obscenity to minors is punishable with imprisonment, fines, and sex offender registration.

  But the word “knowingly” provides a loophole, Mr. Uhler said.

  Under federal law, if a teen lies about his or her age to access porn, porn distributors can’t be blamed for believing the age verification information provided by the child, he said.

  “Like a kid who wants to access porn is going to be honest,” Mr. Uhler said wryly.

  This system puts the responsibility on minors to be truthful, rather than on porn website operators to ascertain the truth, Mr. Weiler said.

  Companies have “taken steps to make sure that 14-year-old girls in Topeka, Kansas, aren’t accessing online gambling sites,” he said. “They’ve taken steps to make sure that 14-year-old girls in Topeka, Kansas, aren’t buying vaping and nicotine products online. And those companies are not directly shipping wine to 14-year-old girls.”

  But the porn industry hasn’t received the same regulatory pressure to protect children from its products, he said.

  Any company actually interested in blocking minors from accessing the porn it offers could use a third-party company to screen users before they’re allowed to access the site.

  “The technology’s there,” Mr. Weiler said. “It would take about 30 seconds” to verify a would-be user’s identity and age.

  Utah’s laws demand that verification on porn websites require more proof than simply a user’s assertion that he or she is 18 or older.

  Still, there are ways tech-savvy children can get around it, Mr. Weiler said.

  But even if new measures don’t stop all minors from accessing porn, he said, it will at least protect the youngest and most vulnerable children from seeing graphic images that can do them permanent harm. 

  A Generation of Porn-Watchers

  Pornhub works like YouTube, the online video-sharing platform. Anyone can upload videos, and anyone can watch them. In 2021, the company says it removed more than 53,000 videos because they contained child sex abuse, 6,000 videos that included incest, more than 1,000 videos for animal abuse, and more than 5,000 videos for other obscene content too graphic to describe.

  To her horror, sexual-abuse victim Victoria Galy discovered that footage of her rape had been posted to Pornhub and viewed 8 million times.

  Ms. Galy told the Canadian House of Commons ethics committee in February that Pornhub made it difficult for abuse victims to take down videos of crimes against them.

  To delete some of the videos, she testified, Pornhub requested a copyright infringement notification from her.

  According to Pornhub’s policy, anyone asking for a video’s removal must give the site his or her name, postal address, telephone number, and email address.

  Teens often are the consumers viewing pornographic videos, according to a survey by Common Sense Media. Researchers found about 70 percent of teens ages 13-17 admitted to watching porn online.

  The survey asked more than 1,300 participants in that age group about their experience with porn. The average teen admitted to encountering porn by the age of 12, the survey found. Some started watching as young as 10.

  A majority of porn-viewing teens have watched violent porn showing rape, choking, or pain, survey results showed.

  While 45 percent of teens said that porn gives “helpful information about sex,” about 50 percent reported feeling ashamed about the porn they watch, the survey found.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/24/2023 – 19:00

• Netanyahu Forbids Israeli Defense Chief From Meeting Biden Officials During US Trip
  Netanyahu Forbids Israeli Defense Chief From Meeting Biden Officials During US Trip

  Via The Cradle,

  Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has been forbidden from meeting with US government officials during his current trip to Washington by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Israeli media reports.

  Gallant set off for the US capital overnight on Thursday where, according to his official agenda, he will meet with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan.

  

  “Minister Gallant will hold a security briefing for the ambassadors of the member states of the UN Security Council and will visit the procurement delegation of the Ministry of Defense in New York,” Galant’s office said in a statement. 

  However, no meetings with US officials are part of Gallant’s agenda, as Netanyahu reportedly imposed a veto with the directive, “if I’m not invited to Washington, no one gets a meeting there.”

  Since his return to power late last year, Netanyahu has been left out in the cold by US President Joe Biden, who has refused to invite the Israeli premier to the White House in a public show of discontent with the policies pursued by Jewish supremacist authorities from Israel’s governing coalition.

  Israel’s Channel 12 news reported in March that Netanyahu vetoed two US visits to which Gallant was invited as he awaited his own invite.

  Nonetheless, Gallant has previously met with senior US officials, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, on the sidelines of a NATO gathering in Brussels in June and earlier in the year in Israel. He also met with the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, in Israel this week.

  No information was made available about their discussion; however, last week, western media reports revealed that Milley was traveling to Israel to “assess the army’s fitness and readiness” in the wake of widespread mutiny by volunteer reservists who oppose Tel Aviv’s planned judicial overhaul.

  Meanwhile on the extreme opposite side of Biden’s Israel snub…

  Nikki Haley is America Last:

  “It’s not that Israel needs America, America needs Israel!” pic.twitter.com/91TnNsEsg5

  — Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) August 24, 2023

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

  Gallant and Netanyahu publicly butted heads over the judicial overhaul in March, as Gallant publicly called on the premier to scrap the contentious legislation. One day later, Netanyahu announced his decision to dismiss the defense minister.

  However, Netanyahu had to walk back his decision two weeks later. “I decided to put the differences we had behind us,” he said during a televised speech on 10 April. “Gallant remains in his position and we will continue to work together for the security of the citizens of Israel.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/24/2023 – 18:40

• Military Members Kicked Out For Refusing COVID Vaccine Seek To Have Their Discharges Upgraded
  Military Members Kicked Out For Refusing COVID Vaccine Seek To Have Their Discharges Upgraded

  Authored by J.M. Phelps via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  

  Service members who received general discharges when separated from the military for their refusal to obey the vaccine mandate say their transition to civilian life has been hampered because they were not given honorable discharges.

  The majority of service members kicked out over their refusal to get vaccinated received general discharges. With a general discharge, service members lose all educational benefits, reemployment rights, and civil service retirement credit.

  Hayden Robichaux, donor relations coordinator for the Mighty Oaks Foundation, is one such service member. He had to build a career in the Marine Corps. He spent his initial two years serving as the military equivalent of a firefighter. But life as a Marine was interrupted by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s announcement of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate in August 2021, he told The Epoch Times.

  Robichaux refused the vaccine and sought religious exemption.

  “But it seemed like everybody who sought religious exemption was denied,” he said. Months later, a leaked June 2021 memo by the Pentagon watchdog revealed the department may have been violating standards in its process of denying religious exemption requests for the COVID-19 vaccine.

  In addition to his religious conviction against the vaccine, he took objection to the fact that the only vaccines offered to service members at the time were labeled as authorized for emergency use, rather than having full FDA approval. This argument stems from the wording of the Pentagon’s vaccine mandate, which covers “COVID-19 vaccines that receive full licensure from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in accordance with FDA-approved labeling and guidance.” Robichaux and others believe that this means the mandate did not apply to any vaccines issued under emergency use authorization (EUA), such as the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

  They argue that the military mainly offered service members EUA Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, rather than the FDA-approved Cominarty vaccine, and thus could not compel personnel to take them. They also argued that a Pentagon policy that says the Cominarty and EUA Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are interchangeable was illegal.

  “With each denial,” Robichaux said, “I kept putting in appeals and each was denied; they were brushed off.” As he continued to refuse the vaccine, he said his leadership became “pissed.” In October 2021, he was given 10 days to get the jab. He soon faced the threat of Article 15, a form of nonjudicial punishment that can be imposed by a commander, that would “put a stain” on his career.

  “Because of this,” he said, “I almost changed my mind, telling them that I was going to get it.” Members of his immediate family have collectively served in the military for over 80 years since the Vietnam War. “And I wanted to continue the legacy that we have under our name,” he said.

  In the end, Robichaux maintained his religious objection to the vaccine and did not take it. Not only did he receive an Article 15, but he was also denied a promotion to corporal. While he admits he may have disobeyed the command to take the vaccine, he said, “I don’t believe it was a lawful command, as I should have never been forced to take an EUA product.”

  Robichaux was discharged from the Marine Corps in February 2022. “My commanding officer recommended me for an honorable discharge, but once it went up the chain of command, it came back as a general discharge,” he said. His discharge was characterized as being connected to the commission of a serious offense. Domestic battery, murder, rape, terrorism, and drug use are considered typical commissions of a serious offense.

  Since leaving the Marine Corps, he said, “I’ve only met one person that received an honorable discharge.” This, he said, is concerning when one considers the thousands of service members who were separated from the military. One day, Robichaux would like to have his discharge upgraded.

  More of the Same

  The Epoch Times also spoke to Private First Class Derrick Wynne, who joined the Army in July 2020. Nearly two years later, he was discharged from service for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine once mandated by Defense Secretary Austin.

  Wynne described himself as a “hard refusal,” as he didn’t apply for an exemption. He refused because “they were offering vaccines issued under emergency use authorization,” which he considered as legally distinct from the fully FDA-approved vaccines service members were mandated to take.

  In November 2021, for refusing to get the jab, he received a General Officer Memorandum of Reprimand, an administrative letter of reprimand placed on his service record. In addition, he was also told by several people in leadership and many of his peers that “they were going to make my life hell for refusing the vaccine.”

  At this time, Wynne was informed that he would be discharged for refusing to take the vaccine.

  “When they finally kicked me out on June 28, 2022, it began as a long, drawn-out process, but when it finally happened, I was only given a two-week notice,” Wynne said. “Many of the programs put in place to aid me in a healthy, successful transition to civilian life were pushed to the side.”

  “It was a general discharge, labeled under the violation of a serious offense,” Wynne said. “To anyone who doesn’t know the whole story,” he said, “I sound like I was the one who knowingly broke the law.” But he argued that it was the military that was offering an illegal vaccine by only providing vaccines issued under EUA.

  “After skimming through my chapter (administrative separation) packet four or five times before speaking with Trial Defense Services, I noticed that there was no option for an honorable discharge.” When he mentioned this to his legal counsel, he also “made a note in the packet for brigade legal to, at least, add the option for an honorable discharge.”

  Brigade legal told him that once his commanding officer gave his recommendation, they would add the option for an honorable discharge before sending it up to the next level of decision. To his surprise, he said, “After my Commander gave his recommendation for an honorable discharge, once it went up the chain of command, there was no option for it.”

  When he realized there was no chance for an honorable discharge, Wynne said he was not surprised due to what he described as the department’s recent history of “shady coercion tactics.” He said that “at the time, the military was doing everything they could to paint us [vaccine refuses] as criminals who were knowingly disobeying ‘lawful’ orders, without even taking the time to hear out our legitimate grievances.” For Wynne, “There was a blatant heavy hand on the scale, coming from the top down.”

  The Epoch Times spoke to other service members who agree with Wynne. Some of them are being processed out of the military, today, for disobeying a “lawful” order mandated nearly two years ago. Most of them are receiving general discharges. The vaccine mandate was officially rescinded in January, but this did not affect the thousands of service members who had already been discharged over the vaccine.

  Demand for Congressional Action

  Once he was forced to leave the Army, Wynne’s reason for separation was labeled, like Robichaux, as a “misconduct (serious offense),” making subsequent job interviews more difficult, he said.

  “The lack of an honorable characterization ripples outwards and is affecting thousands of us [service members] as a whole—not just from a bureaucratic perspective, but from a moral, principled aspect as well,” he said.

  “I lost the education benefits I earned through my service, which would come in handy during my new career search,” he said. Within two months of being discharged, Wynne appealed the Army’s decision to the Army Discharge Review Board.

  “Nearly nine months have gone by, and I’ve heard nothing,” he said. “I know Congress has the power to put in an inquiry and help soldiers like myself.”

  Over the course of the last several months, wanting to address the issue of FDA-approved vaccines versus those made available through Emergency Use Authorization, Wynne has reached out to multiple congressmen to no avail.

  “I was passed around from one elected official to another for months, and no one wanted to do anything to get answers to my questions,” Wynne said. “Every time a politician refuses to help me,” he said, “I feel like I’m being told: you’re a piece of trash; you should have gotten the vaccine.”

  Proposed Legislation

  In April 2022, Wynne was put in contact with Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Tex.) office. Although he remains frustrated about the lack of action in holding the Department of Defense (DOD) to account for the vaccine mandate, Wynne became aware of the Senator’s effort to ensure that those discharged under a General discharge could be designated as Honorably discharged through the AMERICANS Act.

  Sen. Cruz and 18 original cosponsors introduced the Allowing Military Exemptions, Recognizing Individual Concerns About New Shots (AMERICANS) Act of 2023 (S.29) in January. The bill would require the department to offer reinstatement to service members who were separated for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.

  For Wynne, Robichaux, and the multitude of other service members like them, it also states “any administrative discharge of a member on the sole basis of a failure to receive a COVID-19 vaccine must be categorized as an honorable discharge, and DOD is prohibited from taking any adverse action against such a member for that reason.”

  A spokesperson for Cruz told The Epoch Times the senator is fighting for passage of his AMERICANS Act [to] bring justice to servicemembers terminated or otherwise punished because of their COVID-19 vaccine status.”

  “He is also fighting for them legislatively, authoring the statutory language to ban the Department of Defense’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which became law in December 2022,” the spokesperson said.

  The senator “has taken the lead in calling out the Biden administration for COVID-19 overreach and fighting to protect Texas servicemembers from vaccine mandates,” the spokesperson added.

  Marine Corps and Department of the Army officials did not return requests for comment from The Epoch Times.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/24/2023 – 18:20

• Corporate America Panics As 'Student Loan' Chatter Hits Record On Earnings Calls
  Corporate America Panics As ‘Student Loan’ Chatter Hits Record On Earnings Calls

  Corporate America is panicking this earnings season as the prospect of more than 40 million Americans carrying student debt will have to start making payments in October after a three-year-long payment forbearance that had artificially boosted disposable incomes by tens of billions of dollars.  

  Using the ‘Document Search’ function on Bloomberg, the phrase “student loan” in all second-quarter earnings calls soared to a record high of 151 mentions. 

  

  During earnings calls, companies in the financials, consumer discretionary, and consumer staples sectors had the most mentions. Consequently, these sectors are poised to face the greatest exposure when consumer spending decreases.

  

  In June, Barclays economist Adirenne Yih wrote in a note to clients (available to pro subscribers in the usual place), explaining the restart of student loan payments would be a $15.8 billion monthly headwind — or a $190 billion per year — to the US economy as the average student debt holder sees an incremental monthly payment of — $390 beginning this fall.

  With the return of these payments for 40 million Americans, the threat of consumer spending sliding is high. We’ve asked: Student Loan Repayments – Will It Start The Recession?

  … and comes as the latest revolving credit (i.e., credit card debt) data shows consumers are nearing a breaking point as the spending binge wanes with interest rates at 22-year highs. 

  

  Analytics company Earnest Insights wrote in a note that Frontier Airlines, Pleoton, and Old Navy will be some of the hardest-hit companies come October. 

  Student loan payers who suspended payments during Covid will have to resume those payments come October. That cohort of shoppers made up more than 10% of spending at several national brands in 2022 (above the dotted line). Their spending also outperformed non-borrowers at several brands (left of the solid line), suggesting that their lack of payments may have buoyed their spending in recent years. That leaves dozens of national brands that benefited meaningfully from the pause in student loans, and that may be more exposed to that shopper base as payments resume.

  Within Travel, Frontier Airlines was the most sensitive to the Covid-Suspended cohort in 2022, with 11% share and 2 points of outspending from the cohort. In contrast, Alaska Airlines and United Airlines both had 7% share and 10 points of under-spending. Airbnb had a high 11% share from the cohort but with 4 points of underspending.

  Within the Home sector, Peloton was most sensitive, with 13% share and 11 points of outspending from the Covid-Suspended cohort; Sherwin Williams had 6% share and 10 points of under-spending. IKEA, Ashley, HomeGoods, Wayfair, and Lowe’s all had 10%+ share from the cohort but the cohort also underspent Non-Borrowers by ~5 points. 

  Most Apparel and Department Stores had over 10% share from the Covid-Suspended cohort: Old Navy had the highest share at 14%; Nordstrom Full Price had the lowest share at 8%. Old Navy and Burlington each had 3 points of outspending from the cohort, while most others saw minimal to underspending. 

  Earnest shows companies in the top left quadrant are most exposed to the student loan-paying cohort.

  

  Company execs have already warned investors what’s about the incoming spending cliff:

  Target’s CFO Michael Fiddelke

  “The upcoming resumption of student loan repayments will put additional pressure on the already strained budgets of tens of millions of households … We remain cautious in our planning.”

  Levi’s CEO Chip Bergh

  “It’s not going to help us … The consumer is already under pressure and this is just going to ratchet that up even further.”

  Macy’s CFO Adrian Mitchell

  “The expiration of student loan forgiveness beginning in October, higher interest rate levels, and lower new job creation are all new pressures on the consumer.” 

  A looming consumer spending cliff has corporate America in a panic. This seems deflationary.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/24/2023 – 18:00

• US Approves $500 Million Arms Sale To Taiwan
  US Approves $500 Million Arms Sale To Taiwan

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  The State Department on Wednesday approved a potential $500 million arms sale to Taiwan for infrared search and track systems for the island’s F-16 fighter jets.

  The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said the sale is to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, Taiwan’s de facto embassy in the US, as Washington and Taipei don’t have formal diplomatic relations. The principal contractor for the deal is Lockheed Martin.

  

  The State Department’s approval begins a period where Congress could block the potential deal, but there is widespread bipartisan support for arming Taiwan and virtually no opposition.

  The approval came almost a month after the Biden administration provided Taiwan with $345 million in military aid using the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), which allows the US to send weapons straight from Pentagon stockpiles, the primary way the US has been arming Ukraine.

  Using the PDA to arm Taiwan is unprecedented as the US has sold weapons to Taiwan since Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979 but has never financed the purchases or provided arms free of charge. China issued several stern rebukes to the new form of US support for Taiwan.

  The deal approved on Tuesday will also draw a rebuke from Beijing as China opposes all US arms sales to Taiwan. In 1982, the US and China issued a third joint communiqué on their freshly normalized ties regarding US arms sales to Taiwan.

  The communiqué said that the US government intended “gradually to reduce its sale of arms to Taiwan, leading, over a period of time, to a final resolution.” But US officials at the time made clear they were leaving the commitment open to their own interpretation.

  On the same day the communiqué was issued, President Reagan said in an internal memo that “the US willingness to reduce its arms sales to Taiwan is conditioned absolutely upon the continued commitment of China to the peaceful solution of the Taiwan-PRC [People’s Republic of China] differences. It should be clearly understood that the linkage between these two matters is a permanent imperative of US foreign policy.”

  In recent years, China has increased military pressure on Taiwan, but the activity has primarily been a response to the US increasing its diplomatic and military support for Taiwan, which Beijing views as a violation of the conditions of the US-China normalization.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/24/2023 – 17:40

• Forget CPI: Inflation In Necessities Has Skyrocketed Since 2020
  Forget CPI: Inflation In Necessities Has Skyrocketed Since 2020

  When mainstream economists and politicians cite “improvements” to the inflation problem in the US in recent months, what they are commonly referencing are changes to the Consumer Price Index (CPI).  However, the CPI is not a measure of total inflation, rather, it is a median snapshot of prices at a particular point and time.  True inflation is cumulative – A 10% increase one year and a 5% increase the next year is not a win, it means that you are now paying 15% more on average for everything you buy in the span of only two years.   

  When CPI falls this does not mean that prices on goods and services are going down, it only indicates that prices are rising slower than they were the month or the year before.

  Another misconception about CPI is that it measures the inflation rate accurately for regular consumers on common purchases.  In reality, the CPI represents mean average price rate increase for a vast basket of goods; over 94,000 items and services with over 200 separate categories.  Most of these items and services you will never use or rarely purchase in the span of a year.  In other words, inflation declines in uncommon goods can dilute the numbers, making it seem like inflation is dropping while prices on daily necessities continue to spike.  

  

  The CPI is weighted according to consumer spending patterns, which is where the calculations can be “adjusted” to a certain extent in an arbitrary manner.  Then there is outright government manipulation through various means.  As we witnessed recently with the Biden Administration’s claims that “Bidenomics” has defeated the inflation threat, what these reports don’t mention is that Biden has been dumping US strategic oil reserves on the market for the past year.  And since energy prices effect the inflation of so many other categories, Biden has artificially manipulated the CPI down using one key resource.  

  Now that his ability to dump oil reserves has ended, CPI will rise once again along with energy prices.

  The point is, it’s impossible to get a sense of the real damage from inflation without looking at the cumulative inflation in necessities (the goods and services that people are required to purchase on a regular basis to live day to day).  If we throw out the CPI distraction and look at common necessities since 2020, the economic picture is far more bleak.  

  Overall food prices have soared by 25%-30% in only three years (again, this means that you are now paying 30% more this year for food than you were paying at the beginning of 2020). Chicken is up from $3 per pound to $4 per pound.  Beef is up from $3.50 to $6 per pound.  Corn is up from $3.50 per pound to $4.70 per pound.  Wheat is up from $5 per pound to $7 per pound.  In 2019 the average American household was spending $8100 on food annually; with a 30% increase, in 2023 Americans will be spending at least $10,500 per household.          

  By the end of 2019, the average rental price of a single family home was around $1450 per month.  This year the price is around $2000 per month.  At the beginning of 2020, the median cost of a home was $320,000; by 2023 the price skyrocketed to an average of $416,000.  

  For gasoline, the price in early 2020 was around $2.50 per gallon.  The price has fluctuated dramatically due to Biden’s manipulation of the market using strategic reserves, but still remains high today at $3.80 per gallon.  

  The cost of electricity has risen swiftly, holding steady around .13 cents per kilowatt hour for a decade, then spiking to at least .17 cents per kilowatt hour by 2023.

  Remember, most of these costs are static and are difficult to reduce through household spending cuts.  These are not items that are easily removed from a monthly budget and the expenditures add up to considerable pressure on consumer accounts.  This is probably why around 74% of the public in polls say that the economy is getting worse, not better.  It’s because government statistics are not highlighting the true inflationary crisis.

  When we look at the cumulative climb of prices in necessities since before the inflation crisis officially began, the truth is that Americans now have to increase their wages by at least 25%-30% on average to maintain the same standard of living they had three years ago.  This is a disaster not seen since the stagflationary event of the 1970s and early 1980s.  If you have a strange feeling like your bank account is being rapidly drained in recent months, that’s because it is.    

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/24/2023 – 17:20

• Double Jeopardy
  Double Jeopardy

  Authroed by Paul Ingrassia via Paul Ingrassia’s Substack (subscribe here…)

  The following article is an excerpt from a series offering a comprehensive legal analysis discussing the second Jack Smith indictment against President Donald Trump.

  Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution reads “[t]he executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” Therefore, President Donald Trump had executive power vested in him through his presidential office. From that power flows certain privileges and indeed executive immunities. Among these privileges are those expressly delineated in the Constitution itself. The impeachment process, for example, as stated in Article II, Sec. 4, requires that for all “high Crimes and Misdemeanors,” the President “shall be removed from Office.” 

  

  In other words, the Constitution lays out a process by which presidents of the United States are to be prosecuted—through impeachment. The reason impeachment, rather than traditional prosecution (and attendant punishments like incarceration), applies to the president is because of the uniqueness of the office itself. The president exposes himself to outsized publicity, controversy, and risk as a result of his office. Therefore, the punitive measures that uniquely attach to the executive officeholder are consonant with the duties and powers of the office itself. In addition, there is a special constitutional prerogative, one might say, in safeguarding the integrity of the presidential office, no matter the character and fitness of its occupant. Specifically, that would mean not imprisoning the officeholder or former occupants of the office based on alleged criminality done within the officeholder’s official capacities as president. It is for this reason that the Department of Justice has confirmed, “to wound [the President] by a criminal proceeding is to hamstring the operation of the whole governmental apparatus, both in foreign and domestic affairs.” (Memorandum from Robert G. Dixon, Jr., Asst. Att’y Gen., O.L.C., Re: Amenability of the President, Vice President, and Other Civil Officers to Federal Criminal Prosecution While in Office 30 [Sept. 24, 1973]). How far-reaching the scope of those capacities cover while in office should give way to a liberal construction due to the catastrophic impact such charges would necessarily have on the political fabric of the country.

  In any event, and for the purposes of what is relevant in Jack Smith’s two indictments, the factual grounds on which President Trump allegedly committed crime(s) within his official duties as president have already been twice considered by the House of Representatives, for which the President—in conformance with Article II, Sec. 4—was acquitted both times by the Senate. Because the Senate voted not to convict President Trump of his alleged crimes, any and every remedial measure afforded by the constitutional process has already been exhausted. Therefore, to continue to bring charges against the President for the asserted crimes on which he has already been prosecuted is by definition an abuse of the judicial power and an expressed violation of the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment: “…nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb…” 

  Notably, the Impeachment Judgment Clause of the Constitution, Art. I Sec. 3, reads as follows: “a person convicted upon an Impeachment, shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law.” A plain reading of the clause allows for the subsequent indictment after a person is convicted and convicted only. This is in agreement with the longstanding judicial canon of construction, expressio unius est exclusio alterius, “the expression of one is the exclusion of others,” which provides that because the text excludes the term “acquittal” from the relevant clause, the framers’ intent was that only convicted officeholders would be open to additional prosecution, and not officeholders that were already acquitted based on constitutional procedure for their alleged crimes, therefore exhausting the constitutional remedy in toto. United States v. Wells Fargo Bank, 485 U.S. 351, 357 (1988). 

  This construction is likewise supported by common sense: any officeholder who is convicted while in office, based on constitutional procedure, is necessarily removed from office – it is inconceivable that any officeholder would remain in office after being convicted of a crime. But the reason a post-conviction prosecution, as opposed to an acquittal, runs a lesser risk of being in violation of double jeopardy, and is therefore expressly licensed by Article I, Sec. 3, is because, upon removal from office, there is a natural continuity in the prosecutorial function – indeed, additional time may be required to prosecute the case to the fullest extent of the law. The conviction, pursuant to constitutional procedure, is just the first step of the criminal trial. In contrast, if an officeholder were acquitted for an alleged crime and served the remainder of his or her term in office, it would not make sense to resume a criminal trial based largely on the same factual grounds on which the acquittal was based, once the acquitted officeholder left his or her post – in particular, after some time elapsed in which the officeholder was acquitted, served out the duration of his or her term, and then became a private citizen – only then to resume the criminal trial for which that officeholder had been acquitted. The latter scenario poses an obvious risk to double jeopardy (and flies in the face of common sense). 

  While the question is still occasionally debated, there is a great deal of support for the latter view in several important early legal commentaries and court decisions. For example, St. George Tucker, an editor of Blackstone’s Commentaries, raises the strong possibility that because “a conviction upon an impeachment is no bar to a prosecution upon an indictment, so perhaps, an acquittal may not be a bar.” (1 St. George Tucker, Blackstone’s Commentaries 337 & n* [Philadelphia, William Y Burch et al. 1803, reprint 1996]). Even stronger authority for this view is found in Justice Story’s 1833 Commentaries on the Constitution, wherein Justice Story expresses his conviction in the above stated construction of double jeopardy: “In case of an acquittal,” he wrote, “there cannot be another trial of the party for the same offence in the common tribunals of justice.” (2 Story’s Commentaries). This point of view agrees with other state charters that predate the federal Constitution, but nevertheless provided interpretative guidance, such as the 1784 New Hampshire Constitution, which contained the first bill of rights to explicitly adopt a double jeopardy clause. Within the New Hampshire constitution’s double jeopardy clause, acquittal – which extended to acquittal by the Senate – is accounted for: “No subject shall be liable to be tried, after an acquittal, for the same crime or offence.” Art. I, Sec. XCI, 4 F. THORPE, THE FEDERAL AND STATE CONSTITUTION, reprinted in H.R. Doc. No. 357, 59th Congress, 2d Sess. 2455 (1909). 

  More recently, an OLC memo from 2000 acknowledges that an acquittal by constitutional impeachment exhausts every single legal remedy for redressability, and therefore, to subsequently bring charges against that officeholder runs in flagrant violation of double jeopardy. On this theory, the OLC memo conceded: “Even if one took the view that the Impeachment Judgment Clause’s reference to ‘the party convicted’ implied that acquitted parties could not be criminally prosecuted, that implication would naturally extend only to individuals who had been impeached by the House and acquitted by the Senate.” (Whether a Former President May Be Indicted and Tried for the Same Offense for Which He Was Impeached by the House and Acquitted by the Senate, 24 Op. O.L.C. 110, 112 n.2 [2000]).

  The Supreme Court has affirmed “the Double Jeopardy Clause prohibits merely punishing twice, or attempting a second time to punish criminally, for the same offense.” Helvering v. Mitchell, 303 U.S. 391, 399 (1938). Because the President has already been prosecuted—twice—for the asserted crimes underlying both of Jack Smith’s indictments, the legal remedy has already been applied: there is simply no other form of legal redress that is tolerable under the Constitution. 

  In conclusion, Jack Smith’s claims are ill founded; to the extent they have any merit at all, they have already been prosecuted to the fullest extent the Constitution allows, and on each count, President Trump has already been acquitted of any and all criminal wrongdoing. 

  Order your Patriot Cigars today at mypatriotcigars.com and use Promo Code: TRUMPWON for 15% OFF!

  A slightly modified version of this piece was originally published in The American Mind, and can be found here.

  Paul Ingrassia is a Law Clerk at The McBride Law Firm, PLLC. He graduated from Cornell Law School in 2022 and is on the Board of Advisors of the New York Young Republican Club. He was also a two-time Claremont Fellow. Follow him on Twitter @PaulIngrassia, Substack, Truth Social, and Rumble.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/24/2023 – 17:00

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• Abortion: The Republican Party's Albatross
  Abortion: The Republican Party’s Albatross

  Authored by Bill King via RealClearPolitics.com,

  Polling has shown that for nearly five decades, slightly over half the American people have believed that abortion should be legal in some circumstances. Just over a quarter believe it should be legal in all circumstances, and about 17% believe it should be illegal under any circumstance. The opinions of the American people have been remarkably stable. However, since the repeal of Roe, there has been an uptick in those who believe it should be legal in any circumstance and a downtick in those who believe it should be illegal in any circumstance. In the last polls conducted by Gallup, only 13% of Americans said that abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.

  A poll by Pew found about a dozen states where a majority believed that abortions should be illegal in “all or most circumstances.”

  I have not been able to find any poll in any state where there is anywhere close to a majority that believes it should be illegal in all circumstances. Recent Texas polling has the number of Texans with that view in the low teens.

  

  Yet, Republicans in state legislatures across the country are pushing abortion restrictions that are clearly out of step with the nation’s mood. Why? Because typically only about 10% of voters show up for the Republican primaries, and virtually all of the 10-15% of Americans who believe abortion should be illegal in any circumstance vote in the Republican primaries. And because gerrymandering has made most November general elections irrelevant, Republican legislators must toe the line or face angry primary voters.

  It is a dilemma for which the Republican Party has no solution and which is unlikely to be resolved anytime in the foreseeable future. For most Americans who believe a fetus at the time of conception has all the rights of a person, their belief is a fervent religious belief, which means that they are not persuadable to moderate their view and they cannot compromise on the issue. And because the Republican agenda includes this and other positions that are largely out of step with the majority of the American people, it is unlikely that the party is going to be able to expand its primary voting base to dilute the fervent anti-abortion voters.

  The depth of the Republican abortion problem was on full display in Ohio’s referendum last week to raise the percentage needed to amend its constitution from 50% to 60%. The referendum was engineered by anti-abortion legislators attempting to improve their odds in another referendum this fall, which would prevent the Ohio legislature from prohibiting abortion before fetal viability and guarantee an exception for the health of the mother. Ohio voters, who clearly favor this constitutional amendment, saw through the transparent attempt to derail it and trounced the proposal by a 14-point margin (57-43).

  That margin is even more impressive than it may seem at first blush, because the election was a special election with only a 38% turnout. Anti-abortion activists typically overperform in low turnout elections. When Ohioans vote in November on the actual abortion amendment and turnout is up, the amendment will probably win by 20 points or more. Keep in mind that Trump won Ohio by eight points.

  The Ohio results come in the wake of voters in the red states of Kansas, Kentucky, and Montana solidly defeating ballot measures that were advanced by anti-abortion activists.

  In two blue states, California and Vermont, ballot measures ensuring certain abortion rights passed overwhelmingly.

  As long as the Supreme Court had state legislatures handcuffed with the Roe ruling, Republican members of those bodies could demur to primary voters that they were powerless to restrict abortion.

  But after Roe was overturned, they were forced to act to survive potential primary voters, which alienated general election voters in the process.

  The 2022 election was the first test of whether swing voters would be swayed by Roe being overturned and move them toward Democratic candidates. Many pundits have attributed the no-show of the Republican red wave in 2022 to the abortion issue, and some exit polls seem to confirm that was probably a significant factor. It is important to keep in mind that Roe was only overturned in June, just four months before the election and, critically, before many state legislatures began to crack down on abortions.

  Historically, abortion has been listed by relatively few voters among their most important issues. But that is probably because most viewed the issue as settled by Roe. However, with abortion back on the agenda in many states, this is likely to change, especially with those all-important white suburban women who lean Republican but are also willing to switch sides. Most of these women are not “pro-abortion,” but they also know from personal experience the complexity many women face with their pregnancies, and they resent rigid state laws limiting the options women have.

  The only thing that will keep the Republican Party from suffering a real free fall from its extreme anti-abortion agenda next November is that swing voters also view the Democratic Party as driven to extremes by its ideologues. Or, as one of my friends likes to say, “The only thing keeping the Republican Party afloat is how god-awful the Democratic Party is.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 23:50

• Mexican Cartels Increasingly Use Drone-Dropped And Roadside Bombs
  Mexican Cartels Increasingly Use Drone-Dropped And Roadside Bombs

  Behaving more and more like a military force, Mexican drug cartels have greatly increased their use of improvised explosive devices in their combat with authorities and rival criminal gangs, the Mexican army said on Tuesday.  

  Already this year, 42 police officers, soldiers and others have been wounded, nearly triple the count in 2022. Fatalities have included a National Guard officer and several police officers. 

  

  “All of these explosive devices are homemade, based on tutorials that can be found on the internet,” said Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval. Most of the them use either readily-purchased black powder, or explosives stolen from Mexican mines. They’re deployed in a variety of ways — including roadside bombs, car bombs, and bombs dropped from drone aircraft. 

  Drone-bombings are surging: The tactic wasn’t seen before 2020, but 260 such attacks have been tallied this year. “Even that number may be an underestimate: residents in some parts of the western state of Michoacan say that attacks by bomb-dropping drones are a near-daily occurrence,” reports Associated Press. 

  

  The bombs often fail to explode, but when they do, the results can be catastrophic. July brought one of the most spectacular set of bombings yet — as a coordinated series of seven road bombs killed four police and two civilians in what the governor of Jalisco called “a trap” targeting law enforcement. Four vehicles were destroyed and 14 people were injured by bombs so strong that they cratered the highway. 

  A majority of the explosive deployments have been recorded in Michoacán state, where the Jalisco cartel has long been at war with a federation of local gangs. 

  Bombings almost seem charming in contrast to a godawful cartel video that circulated from Mexico this week. It depicted the decapitation slaughter of five kidnapping victims. Traveling to attend a festival in Jalisco, they were apparently lured with a bogus employment opportunity, with the intent of forcing them to work for the cartel. Authorities believe they refused. Most horrifically, the video seemed to depict one of the victims being forced to bludgeon and decapitate another, before being killed himself. 

  For Mexicans, the video resurrected memories of a 2010 incident in which abducted men who refused to serve the cartel were forced to fight each other until death with sledgehammers. Let’s pray these horrors stay south of the border.  

  Open floodgates at Arizona border allowing thousands of migrants to walk into the country
  🔥🔥🔥

  🔊 pic.twitter.com/RaZRYAVf7S

  — Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) August 23, 2023

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

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 23:30

• Will You Comply?
  Will You Comply?

  Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

  There are new mask mandates in Southern California and talk of them coming back in various spots around the country, including a university in Atlanta. Contact tracing too is back, even though that never works for respiratory viruses. Rumors are swirling about new lockdowns for some new variant that is being touted by the World Health Organization (WHO). The predictable CNN is interviewing Pfizer employees about the glories of their new booster just rubber-stamped by the FDA.

  And Fauci is out and about defending lockdowns and suggesting that we could have more.

  

  The first time is tragedy, said Karl Marx, and the second time is farce.

  We might be headed into the realm of farce, as masks that everyone knows don’t work are mandated and shots that everyone knows don’t work to stop the spread are widely encouraged. Mandates for them could easily be next. In fact, not one government policy from the entire pandemic period achieved anything but destruction.

  Now we see the problem with the failure to have a real reckoning over the COVID response. It means that the whole panoply of failed and brutal policies could come back again.

  As NPR reminds us on a daily basis, we now “have the tools” necessary to combat another pandemic or even the spread of seasonal viruses—and never mind that none of these tools actually work and all of them demoralize the population.

  At the same time, the hashtag #donotcomply is trending. Many people swear that they will not go along this time. Maybe that’s right but I’m not prepared to predict mass refusal. There were many times during the last lockdowns and masking that I refused to comply but that can create awkward situations.

  The store owner and I agreed that masks are dumb and we both went without. The next time I went in, he told me to put one on. I asked why. He said that passersby were looking through the windows and noticing we were not wearing masks and reported the store to the local government. The health inspectors arrived demanding answers.

  That was enough to convince him. He was not going to risk the well-being of his shop in what he considered to be a trivial issue of mask compliance. He would not die on this hill.

  I totally get it. I respect very much people who swear that they will not go along but I also understand those who comply. It’s a tragedy but not everyone wants to be a martyr for the cause of freedom. To be sure, if no one went along, all the lockdown regulations would effectively be null and void. There aren’t enough enforcers to bring about compliance if the whole population doesn’t go along.

  But that’s not usually how it works. Typically in these cases, the government can always count on a portion of the population to do the work of coercion for them. That’s why it is called totalitarianism: the whole of society involves itself in its own self-destruction. We saw it under China’s Cultural Revolution where the Red Guard did most of the killing, and we saw it in the COVID lockdowns when average people felt moved to rat out their fellow citizens to the health police.

  All of this takes me back to the writings of Étienne de la Boétie and his important essay “The Politics of Obedience.”

  The author is a French aristocrat and the year of writing was 1552.

  It’s as powerful then as it is now.

  “I should like merely to understand,” he wrote, “how it happens that so many men, so many villages, so many cities, so many nations, sometimes suffer under a single tyrant who has no other power than the power they give him; who is able to harm them only to the extent to which they have the willingness to bear with him; who could do them absolutely no injury unless they preferred to put up with him rather than contradict him. Surely a striking situation! Yet it is so common that one must grieve the more and wonder the less at the spectacle of a million men serving in wretchedness, their necks under the yoke, not constrained by a greater multitude than they.”

  Perhaps it is cowardice? Boétie answers:

  “If a hundred, if a thousand endure the caprice of a single man, should we not rather say that they lack not the courage but the desire to rise against him, and that such an attitude indicates indifference rather than cowardice? When not a hundred, not a thousand men, but a hundred provinces, a thousand cities, a million men, refuse to assail a single man from whom the kindest treatment received is the infliction of serfdom and slavery, what shall we call that? Is it cowardice? … When a thousand, a million men, a thousand cities, fail to protect themselves against the domination of one man, this cannot be called cowardly, for cowardice does not sink to such a depth. … What monstrous vice, then, is this which does not even deserve to be called cowardice, a vice for which no term can be found vile enough.”

  Instead, he counsels mass non-compliance or civil disobedience. He says that even the most powerful government is rendered powerless by the mass refusal of the public to go along. If that happens, government simply ceases to have authority and power. All the guns and weaponry are rendered useless. The state lives off the people’s willingness to be bullied. If they stop being willing, the state simply falls.

  “Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces.”

  That’s a powerful and brilliant vision, one that has inspired me for a very long time. In addition, the 20th century saw some powerful implementations, particularly those led by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

  But how plausible is it that something like this can happen in our time? Government does everything in its power to make sure that it does not happen. The most important tool is propaganda. That can take many forms. It could be preachers yelling about eternal damnation of the refuseniks but it could also be fancy Pfizer executives calmly explaining how a new potion will protect the population against a pathogen. In both cases, the government is able to tap into the mortal fears of the public.

  And to make sure that only one message gets out, censorship becomes an imperative.

  This is why the CDC and NIH, along with the DHS and the CIA, involved themselves so heavily in social media and search engines to make sure that the public did not hear any voices of dissent. This way people will be discouraged from resisting.

  Also important is restricting gatherings.

  This was the real point of “social distancing” restrictions, not to protect you against viruses but rather to stop people from meeting others who were similarly incredulous. The goal was to isolate people so that they become demoralized and feel like crazy people.

  A major problem for all of the non-compliers this time is that we are still very much in the minority. This is partly owing to the propaganda. Google and YouTube, which make up 90 percent of both search and video traffic, are heavily censored by government. YouTube has even stated that it will not allow any content that contradicts the World Health Organization, which is the entity that started all this lockdown stuff to begin with.

  I commend everyone who swears they will not go along. But every circumstance is different.

  It is not always so easy to refuse. Everyone has jobs and income needs. People also seek social approval and thus cave when it matters most. Like Étienne de la Boétie,

  I long for a time of mass non-compliance. We are closer to that point now that we were three and a half years ago but I seriously doubt we are there just yet.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 23:10

• Hedge Funds Dump Record Amounts Of Chinese Stocks In Longest Selling Stretch On Record
  Hedge Funds Dump Record Amounts Of Chinese Stocks In Longest Selling Stretch On Record

  Not too long ago, investors – especially “smart”, fast money – loved plunking money in China, especially during painful drawdowns.

  Not this time: according to Bloomberg, global investors have sold China’s blue-chip stocks during the longest stretch of outflows on record, signaling that even the nation’s “blue chip” leaders are falling out of favor as the neverending rout deepens.

  According to the latest flow data on individual stocks available on Bloomberg, foreign investors sold 6.2 billion yuan ($851 million) of liquor giant Kweichow Moutai during Aug. 7-18, making China’s largest liquor maker the most heavily sold stock via trading links with Hong Kong. It was followed by 4.7 billion yuan of selling each for leading renewables stock LONGi Green Energy Technology Co. and major lender China Merchants Bank.

  The 10 most-sold stock by foreigners in the latest rout were among the 50 largest ones on the CSI 300. Major distiller Wuliangye Yibin, Ping An Insurance Group of China, and EV maker BYD saw selling of at least 2.9 billion yuan each through Aug. 18.

  

  In total, overseas funds offloaded the equivalent of $10.7 billion in Chinese shares in a thirteen-day run of withdrawals through Wednesday – the longest since Bloomberg began tracking the data in 2016 – as they fled the mainland market. The departures comes as a prolonged housing slump raises the risk of broader financial contagion, making the nation’s equity benchmark among the worst global performers this month with a nearly 8% loss.

  Goldman’s Prime Brokerage group made a similar observation, finding that hedge funds net sold Chinese stocks for 3 straight sessions and in 12 of the 16 days MTD. In cumulative notional terms as seen on the Prime book, this month’s net selling in Chinese equities – onshore and offshore combined – is approaching record levels vs. monthly net flows of the past decade.

  Importantly, long liquidations accounted for more than 70% of the notional net selling MTD. This month’s notional long selling already exceeds the levels seen in Aug ’21 and Jul ’15 and is on track to be the largest over the past decade.

  

  Including the August MTD activity, hedge funds have now reversed all of the cumulative notional net buying in Chinese stocks from Nov ’22 to Jan ’23 (aka “the reopening trade”). Since the start of February, ~56% of the cumulative notional net selling has ben driven by A-shares with the remainder roughly split between H-shares and ADRs.

  

  Chinese equities collectively now make up ~7.6% of global net market value on the Prime book, vs. 9.5% at the start of August and 11.2% at the start of 2023, the lowest level since early November and in the 14th percentile vs. the past five years.  Aggregate long/short ratio in Chinese equities now stands at ~2.2 (vs. ~2.7 at the start of 2023), also at the lowest level since November and in the 14th percentile vs. the past five years.

  

  The CSI 300 Index is now trading at its lowest since November as optimism of another stimulus following the July Politburo meeting quickly evaporated, even as China’s social mood is turning uglier by the day amid record youth unemployment which is rising by one percent every two months. Foreigners had moved into the market en masse back then, only to leave again now in droves as economic data continue to disappoint and stimulus fails to impress.

  A separate Bloomberg analysis showed that emerging market funds have also turned more bearish on Chinese stocks, deepening their average underweight position to almost 100 basis points as of the second quarter from 24 basis points three months earlier. They were overweight by 40 basis points as of end-2022.

  The selling streak is showing little sign of cooling, and on Wednesday overseas funds shed another 10.5 billion yuan. A top-performing Chinese macro hedge fund blamed global capital for sinking the country’s stocks, calling them a “bunch of aimless flies” that stir up market volatility. The silver lining is that foreign funds own less than 4% of total A-shares outstanding, according to a report this month from China International Capital Corp. Of course, by the time they are gone, the financial assets of the Chinese population will be worth a fraction of what it is now.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 22:50

• Watch Live: 8 GOP Presidential Candidates Battle For A Participation Trophy
  Watch Live: 8 GOP Presidential Candidates Battle For A Participation Trophy

  Eight Republican candidates gather on stage to battle it out for the world’s greatest participation trophy as former President Trump – the far and away frontrunner in the race – is interviewed simultaneously by Tucker Carlson on X.

  Candidates needed to meet certain requirements set by the RNC to be able to participate in Wednesday’s debate. In addition to polling requirements, to qualify, they needed at least 40,000 separate donors to their presidential campaign committee, with at least 200 from 20 or more states and territories.

  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum qualified for the debate.

  We note that Burgum injured himself playing basketball on Tuesday, his campaign confirmed, and it was unclear if that would prevent him from participating.

  

  DNC chair Jamie Harrison on Wednesday said that the first GOP primary debate will be a circus while briefing reporters ahead of it in Milwaukee.

  “I don’t know if it’s going to be a debate but more like a circus,” he said, adding that all the candidates in the field, including former President Trump, are “extreme.”

  Of course, no one asked him if President Biden will be having a debate? RFK Jr is ready.

  Watch the debate live here (due to start at 2100ET):

  *  *  *

  As The Epoch Times’ Nathan Worcester detailed earlier,as the first Republican presidential debate approaches, many may wonder how the various hopefuls are getting ready—and how the American people will receive their pitches against the backdrop of the absence of former president Donald J. Trump.

  In a series of interviews, campaign representatives and knowledgeable analysts shared insights on the coming spectacle.

  

  DeSantis, Ramaswamy, and ‘Trump in Absentia’

  Last week, a debate memo published on the website of a firm linked to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis offered some initial clues as to what observers should expect at the event, which will take place in Milwaukee on Aug. 23.

  The memo suggested Mr. DeSantis could “hammer Vivek Ramaswamy in a response.”

  “Take a sledge-hammer to Vivek Ramaswamy: ‘Fake Vivek’ Or ‘Vivek the Fake,’” it reads.

  In addition, it advises him to attack both President Joe Biden and the media repeatedly and “defend Donald Trump in absentia in response to a Chris Christie attack.”

  

  The Pence campaign did not respond to requests for comment from The Epoch Times.

  When asked how Mr. Ramaswamy is preparing for the Aug. 23 debate, a spokesperson for his campaign directed The Epoch Times to a 45-second clip the candidate recorded with ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh.

  Mr. Ramaswamy told Ms. Walsh he didn’t want to be “overly prepared.”

  He said the event would be his “first time ever” participating in such a primary debate, setting him apart from his competitors.

  “It’ll be something of a warmup for me,” Mr. Ramaswamy added.

  The millennial entrepreneur and anti-woke investor generated a little more pre-debate publicity on Aug. 21, posting an RFK, Jr.-style video of himself playing tennis shirtless, with the caption, “Three solid hours of debate prep this morning.”

  

  Trump’s ‘Smart Move’

  Mr. Trump’s absence from Wednesday’s debate, and prospective appearance with Mr. Carlson on another medium, has elicited a range of responses.

  While Mr. Christie accused his competitor of “running scared,” a Ramaswamy’s campaign representative told The Epoch Times that the former president “should do whatever he wants!”

  “Having counter-programming during the debate is a smart move by both Carlson and Trump since it will help distract from the debate and attract attention, which is their goal,” said Kevin Tober, a news analyst with the Media Research Center, in an email interview with The Epoch Times.

  “We can expect Trump’s absence to loom large over the debate. Many of the questions, if not most, will end up having to do with him or about him,” Mr. Tober predicted.

  

  Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University, said he thinks Mr. Trump will ultimately “overshadow everything the seven candidates on the stage do, and thus will undermine the ability of all of them to achieve their respective goals due to the fewer number of eyeballs watching the debate and the less intense media coverage of the debate.”

  “At the end of the day, the Republican candidate Democrats most want to face in 2024 is Donald Trump, since they believe Biden can beat Trump but would have a much more difficult time beating DeSantis, Scott, Haley, etc.” Mr. Jones told The Epoch Times via email.

  Timothy Head, executive director of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, told The Epoch Times that Mr. Trump’s rivals for the presidential slot are in a delicate position.

  “Not only do you attack Trump at your own peril of being retaliated against by Trump himself, but even more importantly for the other candidates is trying to court Trump voters,” Mr. Head said in a telephone interview.

  Both Mr. Tober and Mr. Jones expect Mr. DeSantis to be the most mercilessly scrutinized candidate on stage.

  “Due to some recent missteps from the DeSantis campaign, you can expect some tough questions to come his way. That’s expected, though, since he’s the leading candidate among those participating,” Mr. Tober said.

  Mr. Jones said he anticipates Mr. DeSantis “will try to set himself clearly apart as the only viable option to Trump without being seen as overtly anti-Trump.”

  He suggested that Mr. DeSantis’s rivals will go after the governor “with the goal of freeing up his donors and voters”—a prediction in line with what other insiders have told The Epoch Times about the intra-GOP scramble for the presidential nomination.

  “The lane is for Trump and a non-Trump candidate. That’s an oversimplification, but sometimes a simple story is right,” Daron Shaw, a presidential campaign veteran and professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin, told The Epoch Times in a July interview.

  

  According to Mr. Head, a very big question will loom over the debate: “Which candidate can establish themselves as the Trump alternative?”

  He said he’s paying close attention to which candidates succeed in connecting with the electorate.

  That holds true even for candidates who have strong records on the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s central issues—parental rights, religious liberty, and abortion.

  While he argued that Mr. Pence’s “political and policy backgrounds could hardly be any stronger” for religious voters, he acknowledged that there is a “personality equation” as well.

  ‘Not Afraid of Hard Questions’

  Other 2024 hopefuls shared some details about what to expect in Milwaukee with The Epoch Times.

  An advisor to former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley told The Epoch Times that the candidate has “been preparing for six months on the campaign trail answering unscripted questions from voters across New Hampshire, Iowa, and South Carolina.”

  “She’s not afraid of the hard questions. She’ll always fight for what she believes in,” the advisor added.

  

  A campaign spokesperson for Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) told The Epoch Times that the presidential hopeful “will share his positive, conservative message on the debate stage in Milwaukee.”

  “This debate is another opportunity to connect with millions of voters across the country and show why Tim has faith in America and why he is the strongest candidate to beat Joe Biden,” the spokesperson continued.

  The Epoch Times contacted the presidential campaign of North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum. The campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

  Jackson Richman contributed to this report

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 22:45

• Macleod: The Global Bank Credit Crisis
  Macleod: The Global Bank Credit Crisis

  Authored by Alasdair Macleod via GoldMoney.com,

  Globally, further falls in consumer price inflation are now unlikely and there are yet further interest rate increases to come. Bond yields are already on the rise, and a new phase of a banking crisis will be triggered.

  This article looks at the factors that have come together to drive interest rates higher, destabilising the entire global banking system. The contraction of bank credit is in its early stages, and that alone will push up interest costs for borrowers. We have an old fashioned credit crunch on our hands.

  A new bout of price inflation, which more accurately is an acceleration of falling purchasing power for currencies, also leads to higher interest rates. Savage bear markets in financial and property values are bound to ensue, driving foreign investors to repatriate their funds. 

  This will unwind much of the $32 trillion of foreign investment in the fiat dollar which has accumulated in the last fifty-two years. And BRICS’s deliberations for replacing the dollar as a trade settlement medium could not come at a worse time.

  

  Global banking risks are increasing

  Gradually, the alarm bells over credit are beginning to ring. Monetarist and Austrian School economists are hammering the point home about broad money, which almost everywhere is contracting. It is overwhelmingly comprised of deposits at the commercial banks. And this week, even China’s command economy has had credit problems exposed, with another large property developer, Country Garden Holdings missing bond payments.

  A global cyclical downturn in bank credit is long overdue, and that is what we currently face. Empirical evidence of previous cycles, particularly 1929—1932, is that fear can spread though the banking cohort like wildfire as interbank credit lines are cut, loans are called in, and collateral liquidated. The question arising today is whether the current credit cycle downturn is more acute than any of those faced by our fiat currency world since the 1970s, or whether timely expansions of central bank liabilities can come to the rescue again.

  The problem with using monetary policy to avert a financial crisis is that there is bound to come a time when it fails, particularly when it is driven by bureaucrats whose starting point is an assumption that banks are adequately capitalised for an economic downturn. This ignores unproductive debts from previous cycles which have simply accumulated into a potential tsunami of defaults. When it overwhelms the banks, the policy response can only be so destructive of the currency that the cure exacerbates the problem. And with bond yields rising again, there are good reasons to believe that a tipping point is now upon us.

  Credit, which is synonymous with the towering mountains of debt is all about faith: faith in monetary policy, faith in the currency, and faith in a counterparty’s ability to deliver. Before we look at risks faced by the fiat currency cohort, it is worth listing some of the factors that can lead to the collapse of a credit system:

  • Contracting bank credit. Contracting bank credit is the consequence of the bankers recognising that lending risks are escalating. It is an acute problem when bank balance sheet leverage is high, magnifying the potential wipe-out of shareholders’ capital arising from bad and doubtful debts. Consequently, both normal and overindebted borrowers whose cash flow has been hit by higher interest rates are denied loan facilities, or at the least they are rationed at a higher interest cost. Therefore, the early stages of a credit downturn see interest rates rising even further leading to business failures. Essentially, the central banks lose control over interest rates.

  • Interbank counterparty risks. There is a long history of banks suspecting that one or more of their number has become overextended or mismanaged and is therefore a counterparty risk. Banks have analytical models in common to determine these risks, so there is a danger that the majority of banks will share the same opinion on a particular bank at the same time, leading to it being shut out of wholesale markets. When that happens, it cannot fund deposit outflows, is forced to turn to the central bank for support, or it suddenly collapses. Recently, this was the fate of Silicon Valley Bank. A downgrade by a credit agency, such as S&P or Fitch, could trigger an interbank lending crisis, either at a local or international level in the case of a country downgrade. These downgrades have now started.

  • Rising bond yields. Banks usually stock up on government debt, redeploying their assets when they are cautious about lending to the private sector. Therefore, an increase in bond holdings tends to be countercyclical with reference to the credit cycle, with exposure limited to maturities of only a year or two. This pattern has been broken by central banks suppressing interest rates to or below the zero bound at a time of prolonged economic stagnation. Again, Silicon Valley Bank serves as an example of how this can go horribly wrong. It was able to fund bond purchases at close to zero per cent to buy Treasury and agency debt of longer maturities to enhance the credit spread. When interest rates began to rise, the bank’s profit and loss account took a hit, and at the same time, the market values of their bond investments fell substantially, wiping out its balance sheet equity. The Fed has taken on this risk by creating the Bank Term Funding Programme, whereby the Fed takes in Treasuries at their redemption value in return for cash in a one-year swap. Essentially, the problem in the US is covered up and accumulating on the Fed’s balance sheet instead — though this is not reflected in the Fed’s accounting practices. The draw-down in this facility is currently $107 billion and rising.

  • Quantitative tightening. Collectively, the major central banks (the Fed, ECB, BoJ, and PBOC) have reduced their balance sheets by some $5 trillion since early-2022. This QT has been put into effect by not reinvesting the proceeds of maturing government debt. Nearly all of the reduction in the central banks’ balance sheets is reflected in commercial bank reserves, which are balances recorded in their accounts as assets. Accordingly, the commercial banking system as a whole comes under pressure to reinvest the released reserves into something else, or to reduce its combined liabilities to depositors, bondholders, and shareholders. Initially, the commercial banking system can only respond by increasing holdings of three and six months treasury bills, which is an unstable basis for government funding.

  • Collateral liquidation. All the charts of national bond yields scream at us that they are continuing to rise, instead of stabilising and eventually going lower as the majority of market participants appear to beleive. Furthermore, with oil and other energy prices now rising strongly, the prospect of yet higher interest rates driven by contracting bank credit (as detailed above) along with a number of other factors discussed in this article point to significantly higher bond yields driving a bear market in financial assets and property values. Where banks hold collateral against loans, there will be increasing pressure on them to sell down financial assets before their values fall further.

  • Property liabilities. Bank lending for residential and commercial property will have to absorb substantial write-offs from the consequences of interest rates driven higher by price inflation and contracting bank credit. The Lehman crisis was about lending and securitisation of mortgage debt. This time, higher interest rates will add commercial real estate into the equation.

  • Shadow banks. Shadow banks are defined as institutions which recycle credit rather than create it for which a banking licence is required. It includes pension funds, insurance companies, brokers, investment management companies, and any other financial entity which lends and borrows stock or deals in derivatives and securities. All these entities present counterparty risks to banks and other shadow banks. Some of the risks can emerge from unexpected quarters, as was illustrated by the pension fund blow-up in the UK last September.

  • Derivatives. Derivative liabilities come from global regulated markets, which are assessed by the Bank for International Settlements to have an open interest of about $38 trillion last March with a further $60 trillion notional exposure in options. Markets in unregulated over-the-counter derivatives are far larger, at an estimated $625 trillion at end-2022 comprised of foreign exchange contracts ($107.6 trillion) interest rate contracts ($491 trillion) equity linked ($7 trillion), commodities ($2.3 trillion), and credit including default swaps ($9.94). All derivatives have chains of counterparty risk. We saw how a simple position in US Treasuries undermined Silicon Valley Bank: a failure in the derivative markets would have far wider consequences, particularly with regulators being unaware of the true risk position in OTC derivatives because they are not in their regulatory brief.

  • Repo markets. In all banking systems, some more than others, banks depend on repurchase agreements to ensure their liquidity. Low interest rates and the availability of required collateral feature in this form of funding. Particularly in Europe, repo quantities outstanding have built up in various currencies to over €10.4 trillion equivalent according to the International Capital Markets Association. Essentially, these amounts represent imbalances within the financial system, which being collateralised have become far larger than the traditional overnight imbalances settled in interbank markets. Even though repos are collateralised, the consequences of a counterparty failure are likely to be far more concerning to the stability of the banking sector as a whole. And with higher interest rates, a bear market in collateral values seems set to dry up this liquidity pool.

  • Central bank balance sheets. Central banks which have implemented QE have done so in conjunction with interest rate suppression. The subsequent rise in interest rates has led to substantial mark to market losses, wiping out their equity many times over when realistically accounted for. Central banks claim that this is not relevant because they intend to hold their investments to maturity. However, in any rescue of commercial banks, their technical bankruptcy could become an impediment, undermining confidence in their currencies.

  Looking at all these potential areas for systemic failure, it is remarkable that the sharp rise in interest rates so far has not triggered a wider banking crisis. The failures of Credit Suisse and a few regional banks in the US are probably just a warm-up before the main event. But when that time arrives, it becomes an open question as to whether central banks and their governments’ treasury ministries will pursue bail-in procedures mandated in G20 members’ laws in a knee-jerk response to the Lehman crisis. Or will they resort to bailouts as demanded by practicalities? Lack of coordination on this issue between G20 nations could jeopardise all banking rescue attempts.

  Additionally, while technicians in central banks have some understanding of credit and the practicalities of banking, the same cannot be claimed of bank regulators. They rarely have hands-on experience of commercial banking. They devise stress tests, the starting assumption of which is that banks regulated by them will survive. Otherwise, they will be demonstrated to have failed in their duties as regulators. It is noticeable how the economic assumptions behind prospective banking stresses are almost always unrealistically mild.

  When the muck hits the fan, the bureaucratic imperative is to deflect all blame of the failure to the commercial banks themselves, away from their own incompetence.

  The US banking system’s weak points

  As the reserve currency for the entire global fiat currency system, the dollar and all bank credit based upon it is likely to be the epicentre of a global banking crisis. If other currencies weaken or fail, there is likely to be a temporary capital flight towards the dollar before financial contagion takes over. But if the dollar fails first, all the rest fail as well.

  The condition of the US banking system is therefore fundamental to the global economy. There are now signs that not only is US bank credit no longer growing but is contracting as well.

  

  The chart above is the sum of all commercial bank deposits plus reverse repurchase agreements at the Fed. While the latter are technically not in public circulation, they have been an alternative form of deposits for large money market funds that otherwise would be reflected in bank deposits. Recently, having soared from nothing when the Fed permitted certain non-banks to open repo accounts with it in 2021, to a high of $2,334.3 billion last September, the facility has subsequently declined by $543 billion. Adding this change into the bank deposits figures shows the true contraction of bank credit to be $1,203 billion, which is 5.9% of the high point earlier this year. Some of the difference in bank liabilities has been taken up by an increase in loans to commercial banks ($556 billion) which is understandable when depositors earn virtually nothing on their deposits compared with fixed loans to a bank. 

  When these factors are considered, total assets are not yet significantly below their peak, indicating that so far banks have been only rearranging their assets with a view to controlling risk. Therefore, the credit crisis it is still in its early stages, which the potential to increase significantly.

  The chart below indicates why in a deteriorating lending environment banks are sure to contract their balance sheet totals.

  

  Over the last three decades, the ratio of total assets to tier 1 risk capital has grown from just under eight times, which historically was considered as normal, to a recent fourteen times. It is this leverage ratio that threatens to wipe out shareholders’ capital if the combined level of non-performing loans and mark-to-market write-offs on financial investments increases from here.

  A second weak point is the US’s dependency on foreign dollar short-term holdings including bank deposits, which according to the US Treasury totalled $7,122 billion last May. Of that total, $2,367 billion are bank deposits, being 13% of the total in the US banking system. But to the total of short-term holdings must be added long-term holdings of $24,788 billion for a grand total of short and long-term investments of almost $32 trillion. This is substantially in excess of US GDP and has accumulated as a result of two related factors. Since the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944, the dollar has been the reserve currency, and internationally commodity prices have always been quoted and dealt in with dollars.

  Within living memory, accumulation of dollars in foreign hands became excessive once before. It led to dollars being redeemed for gold, reducing US gold reserves from 21,682 tonnes in 1948 to 9,070 tonnes in 1971, when the run on gold led President Nixon to suspend the Bretton Woods Agreement. Following the abandonment of Bretton Woods, to date the dollar has lost 98% of its purchasing power measured in real, legal, international money which is gold. Due to its reserve currency status and persistent US trade deficits, the proportion of foreign ownership of dollars to US GDP has continued to grow. But recent geopolitical events are threatening to reverse that trend.

  As dollar bond yields rise, undermining the capital values of the $32 trillion of foreign-owned financial assets and bank deposits, foreigners are bound to sell their dollar assets to avoid mounting losses. And already, we see many foreign nations which are not allied with America beginning to take evasive action. It is rumoured that next week there will be up to 60 nations attending the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, all seeking an alternative to the dollar’s hegemony. Russian state media has clearly stated that a new gold-backed trade settlement currency is on the summit’s agenda, calling an end to the dollar’s fiat currency regime.

  Whatever comes out of the summit, it is clear that the fiat dollar regime has almost run its course. The withdrawal of credit from the US economy will undermine the currency, increase the rates of US producer and consumer price inflation, and therefore drive up bond yields. Financial asset and property values which have become dependent on cheap finance will take a massive hit, serving to encourage additional foreign selling of non-financial assets. The losses for banks, not just in the US, are set to rapidly escalate.

  Undoubtedly, banks will come under pressure to bail out the US Government from a further deterioration of its finances at a time when foreigners are more interested in selling US Treasuries than buying them. To an extent, substituting dodgy loans to the private sector for government debt is attractive to the banks, but only with very short-term maturities. The consequence will be that government financing of maturing Treasuries and of new issues will be facilitated by 3-month and 6-month T-bills, which can be regarded as near-cash. The inflationary consequences are one thing, but the impact of rising interest rates due to the dollar being sold down by foreign agents will intensify the debt trap by rapidly increasing debt funding costs.

  As if this is not enough, at the same time the collapse of bank credit is bound to act negatively on derivative obligations. The table below is a snapshot of OTC obligations for the top twelve US banks.[i]

  

  For the reader losing count of all the noughts, it should be noted that for the top nine their exposure is in the trillions. While it is true that some OTC derivatives, such as credit and credit default swaps are not obligations for their notional amounts, others such as foreign exchange derivatives, commodity, and equity-linked contracts ($117 trillion) are extinguished for the full amount. But they are only recorded on bank balance sheets as insignificant contract values. 

  For example, in the BIS derivative estimates quoted earlier in this article, the notional value of foreign exchange OTC contracts last December was $107.576 trillion with a gross market value of $4.846 trillion. It is the latter figure which is the basis recorded in bank balance sheets. But even that total is further reduced by being listed as a net balance of purchase and sold obligations, reducing apparent exposure to an even smaller figure. Essentially, over $107 trillion of assets and liabilities are made to disappear.

  According to the BIS’s 2022 triennial OTC derivatives survey, the US dollar is a component of 88.5% of this FX position. Other than offshore trading between non-US banks in Eurodollars, which is a minor proportion of the total, all dollar contracts have US banks as counterparties. This gives rise to two systemic threats. The first and most obvious is counterparty failure with a foreign bank or shadow bank. Obviously, with rising interest rates and collapsing financial asset values in collateral, the risk of counterparty failure from outside the US banking system will increase. The second counterparty failure comes from contracts between two US banks or shadow banks.

  We can be sure that central bankers (if not bank regulators) are fully aware of these risks, refusing to draw public attention to them. For confirmation, we saw the Fed rescue AIG in September 2008 in an $85 billion bailout. AIG was the world’s largest insurance company at that time, and an originator of credit default swaps and other derivative obligations. There were other factors involved, such as securities lending. But clearly, for the Fed to rescue an insurance company must have reflected the Fed’s concerns about AIG’s failure as a counterparty in the CDS market.

  The new BRICS gold currency

  Next week, we will know more about the proposal being presented at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg. All the indications are that this new settlement currency will be denominated in a quantity of gold, such as gold grammes. The return of gold backed credit is an important development for the growing BRICS family and all the member nations, dialog partners and associates of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation seeking a better alternative to the US dollar. Furthermore, it is now in Russia’s strong interest to undermine the US dollar, lifting oil and gas dollar prices to stabilise a falling rouble. 

  The extent to which the plan for a new gold denominated currency is credible seems set to undermine the dollar’s value expressed in commodities, goods, and services externally in addition to the domestic economic and monetary factors mentioned above. The foreign exchanges will begin to anticipate that dollar reserves held by central banks in the growing BRICS camp will become increasingly redundant, to be replaced with the new gold trade settlement currency. Sovereign wealth funds are bound to follow by reducing their dollar balances, as will international commodity dealers and importers.

  Not only will dollars be sold, but the need to recycle them into US Treasuries and other investments will fall away. Unless the US Government acts to radically cut its borrowing requirements, it will face a rapidly deteriorating funding situation. The dollar costs of commodities, raw materials and imported goods will rise due to the dollar’s weakness. Consequently, dollar interest rates are bound to rise to reflect the premium foreign holders will demand to retain their dollar balances. And even that is unlikely to be enough. The great unwind of the last fifty-two years of pure fiat dollars will surely threaten not only the dollar’s existence, but its highly leveraged banking system.

  The discarding of the fiat currency past for a currency or currencies more closely allied to energy and commodities, which is actually what gold represents, is not limited to the destruction of fiat dollars, but of all other fiat currencies as well. For our current purposes, what also concerns us is the same threat faced by the other major currencies: the euro, yen, and sterling.

  It has already been mentioned that an initial failure in the US banking system will be the likely course of events because it is the most over-owned of all the major fiat currencies. But if a banking crisis does break out elsewhere first, it could lead to the dollar being temporarily bought as a safe haven until financial contagion undermines all banking relationships. It behoves us to look at the position in these other major currencies. And the example we will take is of the issues which face banks in the Eurozone.

  The euro system

  In common with other major central banks, the ECB and its network of national central banks, together the euro system, have accumulated government and other bonds through quantitative easing. The extent to which it has boosted the size of the euro system balance sheet and subsequently declined is shown in the chart below.

  

  Having hit a high point of €8,828 billion fifteen months ago, the ECB’s and national central banks’ combined assets have declined to €7,167 billion. Most of the increase from the last financial crisis to the peak had been through what the ECB calls asset purchase programmes, but otherwise known to us as quantitative easing. The decline in total assets has been achieved by allowing short-term assets to mature and for the funds to be not reinvested, leading to the liabilities to commercial banks being reduced.

  Nevertheless, on the remaining securities holdings totalling €4,865 billion currently, there are significant losses on a mark-to-market basis. Assuming an average maturity of five years, and an average rise in yield from 0% to 3.2% on Eurozone government bonds, over the last year the losses in the euro system amount to about €700 billion. This is nearly six times the combined euro system’s equity. The valuation problem is concealed by euro system accounting, which values bonds on a straight line basis between purchase price and final redemption value.

  To assume that this is not a problem because the ECB can always print euros is complacent. The only hope for the Eurosystem is for bond yields to decline, and therefore values to rise restoring balance sheet integrity. But for now, yields are rising, and it is becoming clear that they will continue to rise. At some stage, the assumption that inflation will return to target and that interest rates and bond yields will decline will be abandoned, and the recapitalisation of the entire euro system will then have to be contemplated.

  It will not be easy. Undoubtedly, legislation at a national level in multiple jurisdictions will be required. It is one thing for the ECB to railroad its inflationary policies through despite protests from politicians in Germany and elsewhere, but begging for equity capital puts the ECB on the back foot. Questions are bound to be raised in political circles about monetary policy failures, and why the TARGET2 imbalances exist. The whole recapitalisation process could descend into a very public dispute, particularly since national central banks may need capital injections as well before they can recapitalise the ECB in proportion to their shareholder keys.

  Yet, Europeans rely upon the euro system to backstop the entire commercial banking network, whose global systemically important banks (GSIBs) are even more leveraged than the American banks. Furthermore, there are bound to be hidden Eurozone equivalents of Silicon Valley Bank, whose balance sheets have been undermined to the point of insolvency by the unexpected rise in interest rates and the collapse in bond values. The €10 trillion repo market also faces collapsing collateral values. Eurozone GSIBs have heavy exposure to derivative counterparty risks. Yet, the euro system itself is bankrupt, having paid top euros for bonds which have been sinking faster than a tropical sun at twilight. 

  It is in the nature of a banking crisis that several factors come together in an unexpected perfect storm. We will all be wise after the event. But for now, we can only observe the disparate strands likely to come together and destroy the euro system, its commercial banks, and possibly the euro itself.

  That is, if the US banking system doesn’t collapse first.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 22:30

• A Crashed 1954 Ferrari Fetches $1.9 Million At Monterey Auction
  A Crashed 1954 Ferrari Fetches $1.9 Million At Monterey Auction

  Classic Ferraris are hot items at premier auction events, such as RM Sotheby’s Monterey Car Week last week.

  A crashed 1954 Ferrari 500 Mondial Spider Series I by Pinin Farina coachwork fetched $1.87 million. The sports car is one of 13 and will take much more than a buff job to return to road-worthy status.

  

  RM Sotheby’s description of the mangled Ferrari says this one is chassis number 0406 MD, the second one built and assembled in March 1954. 

  Only “13 spiders and two berlinettas were completed by Pinin Farina over a run of first-series cars before Scaglietti assumed coachwork production. Cherished by enthusiasts today for its historical significance, gorgeous aesthetics, and spirited performance, the 500 Mondial is a highly desirable collectible that is eligible for major vintage events, justifying its position at the center of notable collections worldwide,” the auction house said. 

  It was revealed by the auction house 0406 MD had a racing history:

  “In April 1954 the Ferrari was piloted by former factory driver Franco Cortese and co-driver Perruchini at the Coppa della Toscana, finishing 19th overall and 2nd in class. It is interesting to note that Cortese is listed as the owner on the factory build sheets, and his name appears several times in the engineering notes, prompting speculation that the car was purchased by Cornacchia specifically for Cortese’s use.”

  In 1954, Franco Cortese drove the 0406 MD at the Coppa della Toscana.

  

  Then, the ultra-rare Ferrari changed owners a few times in the late 1950s and suffered a crash with extensive fire damage in the mid-1960s. 

  “By the early 1970s the Ferrari was acquired by marque specialist Ed Niles, who soon sold it without an engine. After briefly passing through two Maryland-based ownerships, the spider was sold to Walter Medlin by 1978. The Mondial has since been preserved in its race-damaged condition, accounting for 45 years of seclusion from the collectible Ferrari niche. The car continues to wear its factory-issued chassis plate, and it is accompanied by components including rear-axle corners and its matching-numbers gearbox. It is also accompanied by a larger, 3.0-liter Tipo 119 Lampredi inline-four engine, such as would have been used in a Ferrari 750 Monza,” the auction house said. 

  RM Sotheby’s continued to touch on the rarity of the sports car: 

  “It is worth noting that genuine 500 Mondial examples are very rare; chassis number 0406 MD is further distinguished by being just the second car built, and having been raced and owned by one of postwar Italy’s best-known privateers. It is furthermore desirably documented with color copies of the original factory build sheets and CSAI homologation papers.” 

  Regarding the results from Monterey, as pointed out by Bloomberg:

  By the end of the weekend, total sales reached a little more than $400 million across five auction houses, including after-sales, down from $473 million last year. An average sell-through rate of just 68% for 1,225 vehicles fell short of the 78% rate from last year, when there were 1,023 on the block. A sell-through rate of 80% or more is considered healthy for a car auction.

  Average sale prices faltered, too, dropping to $477,981 from $591,768. Several Ferraris struggled, even though they’re largely considered market-proof. At Bonhams a 1967 Ferrari 412 P took $30.2 million after a lackluster show of bidding, far less than the expected $40 million. A 1964 Ferrari 250 LM at RM Sotheby’s reached a high bid of $17 million—but missed its reserve and didn’t sell at all.

  It’s unclear what the new owner plans to do with 0406 MD. Returning the vehicle to race status could cost millions of dollars.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 22:10

• Watch: Trump Warns Tucker, "There's A Level Of Passion… And Hatred I've Never Seen" And That's "Probably A Bad Combination"
  Watch: Trump Warns Tucker, “There’s A Level Of Passion… And Hatred I’ve Never Seen” And That’s “Probably A Bad Combination”

  Tucker Carlson dropped a tease clip earlier in the evening of what to expect in tonight’s interview, taking a jab at his former employer – who will be hosting the GOP debate directly against the discussion with Trump:

  “Whatever you think of Trump he is the far and away indisputable front runner in the Republican race,” Carlson said during the less than minute long video.

  “So when Trump approached us about having a conversation for a far larger audience than he would receive on cable news we happily accepted.”

  Tucker asks some stunning questions, including: “Do you think Epstein killed himself?” and “Whatever happened to Mike Pence?”

  Then Tucker goes there:

  “It started with protests against you, then impeachment twice, and now indictments… Are you worried that they are going to try to kill you? Why wouldn’t they try to kill you?”

  Trump calmly responds:

  I’ve seen the lengths that they go to… when they make up the Russia, Russia, Russia collusion and that’s exposed… these are sick people. I think they hate our country.”

  On the indictments sending Trump’s poll numbers higher:

  “I think the people of this country don’t get enough credit for how smart they are… but they get it…”

  “…the people see it’s a fraud.”

  

  On Biden:

  “Crooked Joe Biden is so bad, he’s the worst president in the history of our country. I don’t think he’s going to make it to the gate, but you never know.”

  “I think he’s worse mentally than he is physically… and he’s not exactly a triathlete.”

  “He’s both the most corrupt president we ever had and most incompetent.”

  On Biden’s links to China:

  “I actually believe he’s compromised… the Chinese have so much on him.”

  “He is in many ways a Manchurian candidate.

  “Do you think the rest of the world looks at Biden and thinks, somebody else must be running the government?”

  “well, somebody else has to be. I don’t think he’s capable of doing anything.”

  Who is pulling the strings?

  We have a president that can’t put two sentences together, can’t speak, can’t walk, can’t talk. I don’t think he gets to the starting gate but these people do miracles… I mean he ran out of his basement and he got away with it because of COVID… and they cheated on the election…

  …but they have people that are very smart, but they’re fascists and they’re radical left lunatics and they’re destroying our country.”

  On EVs:

  “The happiest time for someone in an electric car is the first 10 minutes. The unhappiest time is the next hour”

  Fear of violence?

  “Do you think we’re moving toward Civil War? Do you think its possible that there’s open conflict?” Carlson follows up.

  Trump nods, and responds:

  “there’s a level of passion and love that I have never seen. And there’s a level of hatred of what they’ve done to our country that I’ve never seen… and that’s probably a bad combination.”

  A rigged election?

  “We got way more votes in 20 than in 2016… but the election was rigged…they used COVID to cheat in a lot of different things… and we have so much on it… but we had judges that didn’t want to look… but I have never seen spirit like there is right now.”

  Trump says we should go back to all-paper ballots.

  “There is only one reason they don’t want Voter ID… it’s because they want to cheat.”

  And finally, Tucker asks:

  “you’re saying they stole it from you last time, why wouldn’t they do the same this time?”

  To which Trump replies:

  “well, they will try… they’re going to try…”

  Trump blasted  the GOP establishment’s action during his term, saying that “Mitch McConnell was trying to get senators to impeach me.”

  Trump’s first action as president?

  “close the border… except for people who want to come in legally… and getting the hundreds of thousands of criminals that have been allowed into our country and bringing them back to their country.”

  Watch the full interview below (due to begin at 2055ET):

  Ep. 19 Debate Night with Donald J Trump pic.twitter.com/ayPfII48CO

  — Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 24, 2023

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

  As we detailed earlier, former President Donald Trump is skipping tonight’s GOP debates, and will instead appear for an interview with Tucker Carlson – where the pair will undoubtedly upstage the current crop of GOP candidates, who according to current polls, have no chance in hell of receiving the Republican nomination.

  Trump confirmed in a social media post that his interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson will be released tonight (Aug. 23), just before the network’s Republican presidential primary debate.

  The former president announced on Truth Social that his previously recorded interview with Mr. Carlson will broadcast at 9 p.m.

  “Sparks will fly,” President Trump wrote in his post about the interview, which will reportedly stream on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

  

  “Many people are asking whether or not I will be doing the DEBATES?” Trump wrote on Truth Social last week.

  “ALL AMERICANS have been clamoring for a President of extremely High Intelligence. As everyone is aware, my Poll numbers, over a ‘wonderful’ field of Republican candidates, are extraordinary. In fact, I am leading the runner up, whoever that may now be, by more than 50 Points. Reagan didn’t do it, and neither did others. People know my Record, one of the BEST EVER, so why would I Debate? I’M YOUR MAN. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

  Of note, the former president now holds the largest lead over his rivals according to a CBS News poll released on Saturday, while his nearest rival – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – has fallen even further behind.

  

  When it comes to Trump’s multiple indictments, it’s clear the right sees them as nothing more than a partisan attempt to dislodge him from the 2024 race. And with each new charge, Trump’s status as a martyr (and ratings) continue to rise.

  First, as was the case with Trump’s previous indictments, Republican primary voters’ overwhelming concern about the Georgia charges is that they’re politically motivated.

  They dismiss the premise of the charges: the bulk of them do think Trump tried to stay in office, but to them, it was legal and constitutional because these Republican primary voters overwhelmingly think President Biden didn’t win legitimately. -CBS News

  When asked whether the GOP candidates should argue the case for themselves, 91% agreed, vs. 9% who said they should talk trash against Trump.

  

  What’s more, around 75% of Trump voters are those who “show support for his legal troubles” as their rationale, while 99% say that “things were better under Trump.”

  

  Trump voters also generally believe Trump is telling the truth (duh), which is why the indictments aren’t having an impact in support among his base. Voters who say they place top importance on a candidate being “honest and trustworthy” picked Trump at 61%, followed by DeSantis at 17%.

  The context here is that Republican primary voters believe the political system is corrupt at an even higher rate than Americans overall do. That could mean perceiving Trump as railing against — or prosecuted by — that system might well make him seem, from their perspective, like the one telling a larger truth. 

  

  And when it comes to who voters think has the best chance of beating President Biden, it’s once again Trump in a landslide.

  

  

  Is there a path forward for the other candidates?

  Perhaps if they get used to being called “Mr. Vice President,” if Trump should pick them.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 22:00

• In Her Jan. 6 Courtroom, Judge Who Will Hear Trump's Case Is The Pot Calling The Defendant Incendiary
  In Her Jan. 6 Courtroom, Judge Who Will Hear Trump’s Case Is The Pot Calling The Defendant Incendiary

  Authored by Julie Kelly via RealClear Wire,

  

  At her first appearance in the criminal case against Donald Trump for his alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan repeatedly warned the former president’s lawyers that politics would not be tolerated in her courtroom. 

  “The fact that [Trump is] running a political campaign has to yield to the orderly administration of justice,” Chutkan said during the August 11 hearing. “If that means he can’t say exactly what he wants to say about witnesses in this case, that’s how it has to be.” 

  But even as she warns Trump about his “inflammatory” language, Chutkan has routinely issued politically charged rulings and made incendiary statements of her own while presiding over some 30 cases involving Trump supporters charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, melee at the U.S. Capitol. 

  A review of thousands of pages of hearing transcripts reveal that Chutkan has repeatedly expressed strong and settled opinions about the issues at the heart of United States v. Donald Trump – the criminal case she is now presiding over.  

  These include her public assertions that the 2020 election was beyond reproach, that the Jan. 6 protests were orchestrated by Trump, and that the former president is guilty of crimes. She has described Jan. 6 as a “mob attack” on “the very foundation of our democracy” and branded the issue at the heart of the case she is hearing – Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen – a conspiracy theory.   

  Although judges often make comments from the bench, Chutkan’s strident language raises questions about her impartiality in handling the case against the presumptive GOP nominee for president in 2024. 

  The U.S. code that addresses grounds for recusal states, ”Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” One reason to recuse is if the judge has demonstrated “a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party.”  

  GOP Rep. Matthew Gaetz of Florida recently filed a resolution to condemn and censure Chutkan for exhibiting “open bias and partisanship in the conduct of her official duties as a judge.”  

  But if the aim among Trump loyalists is to get a new judge assigned to the case, it’s a steep legal hurdle. Stephen Gillers, a professor of law at New York University, said that typically a judge can be recused for bias or the appearance of bias “only when the purported bias comes from a source outside the judge’s work as a judge.” He continued, “Almost never will a judge be recused for opinions she forms as a judge – in hearing cases and motions. Judges are expected to form opinions based on these ‘intrajudicial’ sources. It’s what judges do.”  

  A Trump representative declined to comment about Judge Chutkan’s potential bias. The chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the American Bar Association did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did Chutkan.

  Appointed by Barack Obama to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2013, Chutkan has been one of the toughest judges on Jan. 6 defendants. In several cases, she has given defendants longer prison terms than recommended by prosecutors. In at least two cases she sentenced defendants to jail time when prosecutors only sought probation. Chutkan herself admitted during a July 2022 court hearing that she is “one of the few judges that’s given a lot of terms of incarceration” in Jan 6. cases. 

  On at least one occasion, Chutkan suggested in open court that Trump should have been charged for his alleged role in what she routinely describes as “an attempt to overthrow the government” on Jan. 6.  

  Before sentencing Christine Priola, a Trump supporter from Ohio who pleaded guilty to obstruction of an official proceeding, to 15 months in jail, Chutkan appeared to lament the fact Trump was not yet in prison. “[The] people who mobbed that Capitol were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man – not to the Constitution, of which most of the people who come before me seem woefully ignorant, not to the ideals of this country, and not to the principles of democracy,” Chutkan said on Oct. 28, 2022. “It’s a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.” (Emphasis added.) 

  Chutkan accused Matthew Mazzocco, another Jan. 6 defendant, of choosing Trump over the country. In rejecting Mazzocco’s argument that he traveled from Texas to Washington to engage in a legal political demonstration, Chutkan declared at his October 2021 sentencing hearing: “He went there to support one man who he viewed had the election taken from him. In total disregard of a lawfully conducted election, he went to the Capitol in support of one man, not in support of our country or in support of democracy.”   

  Although Mazzocco only spent 12 minutes inside the Capitol and committed no violence, Chutkun rejected the government’s recommendation of three months home confinement for pleading guilty to “parading” in the Capitol, a Class B misdemeanor, and instead sentenced Mazzocco to 45 days in jail.   

  Despite President Trump’s explicit request that his supporters march “peacefully and patriotically” to the Capitol, Chutkan blamed Trump for the Jan. 6 violence while sentencing Robert Palmer, who pleaded guilty in June 2021 to one count of assaulting police officers with a dangerous weapon (a fire extinguisher). In that case, Palmer’s lawyer sought a reduced prison sentence by echoing the judge’s view of Trump.  

  “Mr. Palmer went to the Capitol at the behest of the former president,” attorney Bjorn E. Brunvand wrote in a December 2021 sentencing memo to Chutkan. “Like many others who participated in the Capitol riot, Mr. Palmer blindly followed the many figures who falsely but persistently claimed that the election had been stolen from the president.”  

  Palmer himself told Chutkan that Trump’s claims about a “stolen” 2020 election prompted him to travel from his Tampa home to the nation’s capital to participate in the Capitol protest. In a handwritten note dated November 2021, Palmer told Chutkan that he realized “Trump supporters were lied to by those that at the time had great power meaning the then sitting president, as well as those acting in his behalf.” 

  Palmer apologized to Chutkan for his conduct and begged for mercy. 

  His plea fell on deaf ears. Although Chutkan expressed no sympathy for Palmer, whom she sent to prison for more than five years, she amplified Palmer’s assertions that Trump bore some responsibility:

  And it is true, Mr. Palmer you have made a very good point, one that has been made before – that the people who exhorted you and encouraged you and rallied you to go and take action and to fight have not been charged. That is not this court’s position. I don’t charge anybody. I don’t negotiate plea offers. I don’t make charging decisions. I sentence people who have pleaded guilty or have been convicted. The issue of who has or has not been charged is not before me. I don’t have any influence on that. I have my opinions, but they are not relevant. And you’re correct in that no one who was encouraging everybody to take the Capitol has been charged as of yet, but I don’t think that fact means that you should get a lower sentence. 

  Chutkan’s references to the former president aren’t the only area of concern for Trump. Her comments from the bench also suggest that she shares the same view of Jan. 6 as the man prosecuting Trump in her courtroom, Special Counsel Jack Smith.

  Tasked by Attorney General Merrick Garland with investigating “whether any person or entity unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the Electoral College vote held on or about January 6, 2021,” Smith indicted Trump in the District of Columbia on three conspiracy counts and one obstruction count last month.  

  Throughout the 45-page indictment, Smith repeatedly accused Trump of knowingly promoting falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election. “[For] more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false. But the Defendant repeated and widely disseminated them anyway – to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election.” 

  Chutkan clearly shares that view. On numerous occasions, the judge has insisted the 2020 election was legitimate and fully vetted by the court system – a claim disputed by Trump that lies at the heart of the case she is now hearing.  

  “He went to the Capitol because, despite election results which were clear-cut, despite the fact that multiple court challenges all over the country had rejected every single one of the challenges to the election, Mr. Palmer didn’t like the result. He didn’t like the result, and he didn’t want the transition of power to take place because his guy lost,” Chutkan also said during Palmer’s sentencing. (When not cryptically referring to Trump, Chutkan often describes the former president as “guy.”) 

  She has accused individuals who believe the 2020 election was “stolen” as promoting “conspiracy theories.” In the case of Donna Bissel, who pleaded guilty to the nonviolent petty offense of “parading” in the Capitol, Chutkan cited Bissel’s personal beliefs as reason to sentence her to 14 days in jail rather than impose the three-year probation sentence recommended by prosecutors. 

  “As noted in the government’s sentencing memo, the defendant appears to be susceptible to believing outlandish and absurd conspiracy theories,” Chutkan said during Bissel’s October 2021 sentencing. “To protect the public, it’s important to make sure that she does not fall victim to another lie or conspiracy and act out in a way that again jeopardizes public safety. It’s one thing to believe in conspiracy theories in your basement, and it’s another thing to act out on them and, for instance, to travel from Indiana to D.C. to storm the Capitol to overturn an election.” 

  Court records show that Chutkan has repeatedly scolded defendants who question the integrity of the 2020 election – skepticism shared by 39% of Americans, according to a recent CNN poll. Here are a few examples of Chutkan’s comments on Jan. 6:  

  • USA v. Scott Ponder: “When you say you got caught up, Mr. Ponder, there’s a lot of rage and a lot of emotion and a lot of tension as you describe, and people felt very strongly, right or wrongly, that an election had been stolen. I think the evidence is quite clear that it had not, but that’s neither here nor there.” (July 26, 2022)
  • USA v. Benjamin Larocca: “Everyone standing around with their cameras on that — in front of those doors, every single one of those people contributed to the mob that tried to intimidate those police officers; that tried to gain entry into that building; that were trying to stop the transfer of power and nullify a lawfully conducted election. This was a lawfully conducted election.” (August 10, 2022)
  • USA v. Christian Cortez: “[He] was motivated to come because his candidate didn’t win and he somehow believed this election was stolen and he wanted to get it back. As I said, this wasn’t just a protest. He wanted to — that mob wanted to overthrow the government. They wanted to undo the results of what they considered a stolen election; their guy didn’t win.” (August 31, 2022) 

  Little Nuance: Chutkan’s View of Jan. 6 

  For Chutkan, the events of Jan. 6 provoke strong emotions, which she freely volunteers from the bench. “[Every] single time I watch the videos and look at the photographs of what was going on that day, I am struck anew by how horrible this was, by how violent and terrifying, and how the outnumbered and vastly unequipped law enforcement officers were feeling that day as they were basically struggling for their lives and wondering if they were going to make it home to their kids,” Chutkan told defendant Matthew Caspel in December 2022. “I don’t know if we’ll ever recover from that.” 

  A former public defender in Washington, D.C. – one of the country’s most perennially violent cities, and one generally lenient toward criminals – Chutkan argues that Jan. 6 is among the worst crime scenes she’s ever witnessed.  

  “I watch these videotapes in almost every case, and every single time I am struck anew at how horrifying the events of that day were,” she volunteered to Benjamin Larocca, who pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct misdemeanor and received 60 days in jail. “And I’m struck as someone who is watching – has seen this kind of footage multiple times and was looking at footage on the day – and as somebody, frankly, who has seen a lot of crime scene footage. I was a criminal defense lawyer, I was a public defender for many years. I’m not easily shocked, but it’s shocking.”  

  Many observers believe Trump already confronts a nearly insurmountable task in receiving a fair trial in the nation’s capital, a city that voted 92% for Joe Biden. Further, the Justice Department has a near-perfect conviction rate in Jan. 6 trials. Chutkan’s extensive record of comments suggest the judge presiding over his case will not make it any easier. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 21:50

• Iran Unveils New Drone Rivaling US MQ-9 Reaper & Capable Of Reaching Israel
  Iran Unveils New Drone Rivaling US MQ-9 Reaper & Capable Of Reaching Israel

  This week Iran’s military unveiled a drone which it says rivals the United States’ MQ-9 Reaper drone, touting the aircraft as easily capable of reaching Tehran’s number one enemy Israel.

  The Islamic Republic claims the new Mohajer-10 drone can stay continually airborne for 24 hours, and showcased it as the Defense Industry Day conference on Tuesday.

  

  Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi attended the conference in person in order to inspect the drone, and hailed that it will “firmly introduce Iran as an advanced and technologic nation to the world.”

  According to regional reporting, “The Islamic Republic’s media outlets claimed the drone can fly up to 24,000 feet with a speed of 210 kph carrying a bomb payload of up to 300 kilograms. The drone can also allegedly hold electronic surveillance equipment and a camera.”

  However, some Western analysts have expressed skepticism, particularly regarding the claim that it mirrors the capabilities of the MQ-9 Reaper.

  Steve Bucci, a former Pentagon official, told The Foreign Desk publication that the Iranians “tend to exaggerate a lot, so I will assume that while it may look like a Reaper, I doubt it is as capable.”

  Al Jazeera writes that “media reports said the drone can travel non-stop at an altitude of 7,000 metres (4,350ft) for up to 2,000km (1,242 miles), meaning that it could reach Israel.”

  But there does remain consensus that Iran’s drone program is generally very capable, also given the heavy reliance on Iran-produced drones by Russian forces operating in Ukraine. 

  New footage released by the Islamic Republic’s state media…

  Iran today unveiled the latest entry in its Mohajer drones – Mohajer 10. It has a reported operational range of 2,000 km.

  State media have released the video below. The text in Persian and Hebrew at about 9 second in reads: “Prepare your bunkers”. pic.twitter.com/ji5wyFgOqs

  — Kian Sharifi (@KianSharifi) August 22, 2023

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

  It’s also long been known that Iran’s ballistic missiles are quite advanced, and these have been subject of intense debate alongside Iran’s nuclear program.

  Iran and Israel are still engaged in a proxy war inside Syria, where Israeli air attacks frequently target both Syrian and Iranian military positions, especially in and around Damascus and the south.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 21:30

• I'm Not F**king Eating Bugs: A Manifesto
  I’m Not F**king Eating Bugs: A Manifesto

  Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

  I have often commented that inflation is especially nefarious, because it operates in the dark machinery of the night, as nobody notices or has the time to understand it.

  Inflation robs people every second of every day, with a majority of its victims unable to articulate how it works.

  Inflation’s equally odious and obnoxious cousin is shrinkflation. Shrinkflation is what companies do when they don’t want to violently rub it in your face directly by raising prices. Instead they offer up the gentle rub of giving you less product, for the same price.

  Usually, this douchebaggery is accompanied by exceptionally insulting marketing. For example, here’s some limp-d*cked attempt by a focus group at Proctor and Gamble at trying to convince you that the Arabic numeral “6”, an integer known and understood for millennia, actually means “9”.

  

  Shrinkflation is just as grotesque as inflation, and falls into a chum-bucket of consequences that materializes out of thin air, the excrement of the dollar’s continued loss of purchasing power.

  And not unlike inflation, these consequences need to be kept under wraps just enough so that they can persist, but with nobody noticing them. If you don’t notice the powers that be taking one nanometer in ground a day from you, it’ll be decades before you notice that you’ve been moved a mile.

  There’s been no better example of this “taking one nanometer in ground a day from you” than an emerging and growing chorus of news articles and op-eds beginning to suggest that the populace will one day be eating insects for meals in order to – wait for it – help fight climate change.

  Have you noticed headlines like these popping up over the last few years? Here’s one from earlier this month:

  

  Here’s another from May 2023:

  

  And here’s a third, from the head of the snake over at the World Economic Forum:

  

  The best part? Before the World Economic Forum’s article even starts, there’s disclaimers about how the WEF is the “victim” of this article being widely “misrepresented”, as if people are incapable of reading the fucking title and drawing their own conclusion.

  Before there is one word of op-ed, there’s a “Help us prevent the spread of misinformation” note.

  

  One might ask why this idea continues to pop up, other than the fact that Klaus Schwab is directing his lobotomized sycophants in charge of various world governments and media outlets to push the narrative.

  Surely progressive, left-leaning yuppies believe that it’s for our own good.

  ---

  50% OFF ALL SUBSCRIPTIONS: Subscribe and get 50% off and no price hikes for as long as you wish to be a subscriber.

  ---

  “Insects must be better for us nutritionally and will help save the planet,” they’ll think to themselves. “That’s why the government and media, who always have our best interests in mind, are introducing the idea to us. Thanks guys!”

  But the reality of the situation is that bug-eating, which used to be fodder for shows like Fear Factor, is being pushed on us because it is the next step in drastically moving our quality of life lower to compensate for a widening inequality gap and the continued loss of purchasing power of the dollar.

  

  I have argued for years that our quality of life is slowly deteriorating as a result of not having sound money or sensible Central Bank policies. Shrinkflation is an obvious example. Less obvious examples include our cities slowly turning into demilitarized zones, the quality of products we use deteriorating and an array of campaigns to have us surrender our civil liberties and quality of life in the name of Greta Thunberg.

  As I wrote about in my article “World Economic F*ck’em”, our government and media seem to be happily falling in line with the cues of the puppeteers of the world, many of whom can be found at the World Economic Forum, a collective of self-righteous global elites handing down virtues, values, lessons, lectures and political initiatives to us peons out here in the rest of the world.

  That’s right. This group of globally unelected turbo-dildos knows what’s best for us. And what’s best for us always somehow results in us having less private property, fewer civil liberties and moving us one step closer to literally eating dog shit in order to survive. Thanks, Klaus!

  

  Today I take my stand, because one day we’re making peace with eating crickets…the next we’re eating that weapons-grade slop they were serving up on the Nebuchadnezzar in The Matrix because the machines have taken over and food is no longer a delicacy, it is only a required and necessary source of sustenance and basic nutrients to adequately continue to keep our bodies functioning as batteries.

  

  To put it simply, I’ve had enough. The idea of not having personal property and surrendering my civil liberties is one thing. Hell, I can make peace with both just by virtue of the fact that I don’t own much to begin with, and because the government is just going to take whatever it wants regardless. But when you start to replace my Cooler Ranch™ Doritos and Chick-fil-A with mealworms? Well, then you just found the boundaries of the hill that I’m willing to die on.

  So if you work at NPR, The New York Times or the Washington Post, do me a favor and save your breath when it come to penning Klaus’ next virtuous-sounding op-ed suggesting we start digging through dirt to find earthworms for breakfast.

  I’m not reading it, it’s obvious that you are shills for a globalist agenda that further divides the haves and the have-nots, and, for lack of a better way to put it: I’m not f*cking eating bugs.

  

  QTR’s Disclaimer: I am not a guru or an expert. I am an idiot writing a blog and often get things wrong and lose money. I do not fact check contributor material that I aggregate from other sources. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning and generally trade like a degenerate psychopath. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities or any asset class – just my opinions of me and my guests. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in and I’m sure have lost more than I’ve made in my time in markets. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. Positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it three times because it’s that important.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 21:10

• Wagner Decries 'Murder' Of Prigozhin Amid Reports Anti-Air Missile Struck Plane
  Wagner Decries ‘Murder’ Of Prigozhin Amid Reports Anti-Air Missile Struck Plane

  Update(1605ET): At this point it’s looking like the entire top command of Russian mercenary outfit Wagner Group was aboard the private plane that was downed northwest of Moscow hours ago. Wagner itself is confirming Yvgeny Prigozhin’s death, with Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel Grey Zone calling it a “murder”. 

  “The murder/assassination of Prigozhin will have catastrophic consequences. The people who gave the order do not understand the mood in the army and morale at all. Let this be a lesson to all. You always have to go to the end,” the Wagner channel statement reads.

  The bodies of Prigozhin and his second-in-command Dmitry Utkin, have reportedly been identified, according to statements which have been quick to come out of Russian media. Russian news agency TASS has also made it official: “Evgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin were on board the crashed Embraer plane, the Federal Air Transport Agency reported.”

  Another video of the crash of Prigozhin’s plane #Russia pic.twitter.com/Yx06O8cjql

  — Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) August 23, 2023

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

  Russian authorities have said eight bodies have been recovered thus far. FT has summarized the following details of emerging Wagner statements:

  A post by Grey Zone, a Wagner-connected social media channel, claimed Russian anti-aircraft defences had shot down the plane. It said that residents heard “two bursts of characteristic air defense fire” before the crash. “This is confirmed by inversion traces in the sky in one of the videos,” it added. Mash, a news outlet on social media app Telegram, said locals had heard two loud bangs before the crash.

  The same report cited a Western official to say it was an anti-aircraft missile that struck the private jet: 

  A western official said they had been told the plane had been brought down by a Russian anti-aircraft missile system but could not confirm whether Prigozhin was on board, adding: “Putin doesn’t take prisoners.”

  A Wagner-linked channel says Prigozhin is dead.

  “The leader of the Wagner Group, a Hero of Russia, a real patriot of his motherland – Yevgeny Prigozhin has died at the hands of traitors of Russia. But even in hell he’ll be the best! Glory to Russia!”https://t.co/Kn66YlOWV6

  — max seddon (@maxseddon) August 23, 2023

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  Alicia Kearns, Chair of the UK’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee, has observed in the aftermath, “The speed at which the Russian Govt has confirmed Yevgeny Prigozhin was on a plane that crashed on a flight from Moscow to St Petersburg should tell us everything we need to know.”

  President Biden (who is apparently already back on vacation) has been briefed this afternoon, and told reporters from Lake Tahoe that he’s “not surprised” when asked about Prigozhin’s reported death. “I don’t know for fact what happened, but I am not surprised,” Biden said according to Bloomberg. He then pointed the finger at the Russian President: “Not much happens in Russia that Putin’s not behind,” Biden added.

  Suddenly some of the mainstream is calling Prigozhin a “dissident” – a very strange choice of words considering his complicated role in the Ukraine war…

  This “Russian dissident” must have written a subversive novel satirizing the Kremlin or something https://t.co/jRoi82DbYA

  — Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) August 23, 2023

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  Speculation continues as to precisely what brought the plane down (whether missile or a bomb detonation)…

  Very intresting. More and more russian outlets are reporting that a “terrorist attack/explosion” on board Prigozhin’s jet caused it to crashhttps://t.co/20B09m2HL2 pic.twitter.com/fpOh45wDX7

  — Faytuks News Δ (@Faytuks) August 23, 2023

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  * * *

  The internet has exploded with an avalanche breaking reports that Wagner chief Yvgeny Prigozhin’s business jet has crashed over Russia’s Tver region, northwest of Moscow.

  Unconfirmed reports say anywhere from seven to ten people were on board, all presumed dead – but it was initially unclear if Prigozhin himself was on board at the time. Russian media sources are now confirming that he was on board the downed plane, and is presumed dead.

  TASS says the crashed business jet was on its way from Moscow to St. Petersburg. pic.twitter.com/u3gAjOkY3B

  — Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) August 23, 2023

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  This has led to immediate speculation that the private plane could have been shot down upon Putin’s orders (or people in the military command placed a bomb?… or a sophisticated Western intel op?). Per FT’s Moscow correspondent: “Wagner-linked channels say Russian air defense *shot down the plane* – the same private jet Prigozhin regularly uses.”

  The Kremlin has quickly issued confirmation that the aircraft did indeed belong to the controversial Wagner leader who led a mutiny against the defense ministry June 23-24. Per official news wires out of Russia

  • RUSSIA SAYS 10 PEOPLE KILLED AFTER PRIVATE JET CRASHES IN TVER REGION NORTH OF MOSCOW
  • RUSSIA SAYS EVGENY PRIGOZHIN COULD BE ON BOARD OF PLANE THAT CRASHED IN TVER REGION NORTH OF MOSCOW – TASS

  Russia Embraer Legacy 600 business jet with registration number RA-02795 crashed. This board belonged to the team of Yevgeny Prigozhin and was repeatedly seen in Belarus. pic.twitter.com/DPk9Q8tDaR

  — Getty (@region776) August 23, 2023

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  Russian official sources are confirming, including RT…

  KOMMERSANT: PRIGOZHIN HAS DIED IN THE PLANE CRASH IN RUSSIA’S TVER, RUSSIA’S FEDERAL AIR TRANSPORT AGENCY SAYS

  Below is another video widely circulating of what is purported to be the Wagner chief’s plane going down. A plume of smoke is seen hovering midair as the aircraft plummets straight down, strongly suggesting either a missile shot it down or a bomb detonated mid-air.

  ⚡️ Самолёт, который разбился в Тверской области, принадлежит Евгению Пригожину, утверждают издание Baza и журналистка Ксения Собчак. На борту бизнес-джета Embraer, как утверждается, были 7 человек, они погибли.

  Видео: соцсети pic.twitter.com/EzyZ3PbVT8

  — ЭХО (@echofm_online) August 23, 2023

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  On-ground videos of the burning crash site have quickly circulated, included very graphic ones (not shown).

  Prigozhin’s personal jet crashed near Tver. Prigozhin and 10 other people including Wagner Commander Dmitry (Wagner) Utkin reportedly have died. The jet was flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg pic.twitter.com/zsjLG0tbsa

  — Giorgi Revishvili (@revishvilig) August 23, 2023

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  State news outlet RT writes in an update:

  A private jet traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg crashed on Wednesday in Russia’s Tver Region. The Russian Emergencies Ministry said all 10 people on board had died. Rosaviation has since said that Evgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Private Military Company, was listed among the passengers.

  And additional statements are emerging:

  Former Putin advisor Sergei Markov: “The murder of Prigozhin is the main achievement of Ukraine and all enemies of Russia will rejoice” — Al Jazeera

  But then again…

  ⚡️Reports that Prigozhin’s second aircraft is currently maneuvering over Moscow. pic.twitter.com/AZM7NfQulM

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) August 23, 2023

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  There are emerging reports that Russia’s security services are investigating whether Prigozhin’s jet crashed due to a terrorist attack.

  This is a good moment to recall Joe Biden’s words on Yevgeny Prigozhin, issued July 13, 2023: “If I were he, I’d be careful what I ate. I’d be keeping my eye on my menu.”

  developing…

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 21:00

• Doctor Suspended Over Covid Vaccine Stance To Sue Ohio Medical Board
  Doctor Suspended Over Covid Vaccine Stance To Sue Ohio Medical Board

  Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A doctor whose license was recently suspended by Ohio’s medical board is planning to sue the board.

  

  Dr. Sherri Tenpenny is planning to fight the decision, which members of the State Medical Board of Ohio said was over the doctor’s response to their investigation into her critical comments on COVID-19 vaccines, Dr. Tenpenny’s lawyer says.

  “We’re going to definitely be filing suit,” Tom Renz, the lawyer, told The Epoch Times. “I don’t think there’s really any question about that.”

  The suit will focus on alleged violations of Dr. Tenpenny’s due process rights and will challenge the suspension. Depending on the components, it may be filed in state court or may be filed in federal court.

  “We’re going to just make sure that we do what we wish they would have done, which is to be ethical, to follow the law, and to make sure that justice is served,” Mr. Renz said.

  The board declined to comment.

  Suspension

  Board members voted on Aug. 9 to suspend Dr. Tenpenny’s license until she meets certain conditions, including paying a fine and cooperating with investigators.

  Members and the office of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said that Dr. Tenpenny did not properly respond to questions prompted by complaints filed over her public testimony before the Ohio House of Representatives that included references to claims that vaccinated people had become magnetic.

  “This case is not about Dr. Tenpenny making comments about how when you’re vaccinated, 5g Towers could interfere with [you]. It’s not about Dr. Tenpenny saying, when you are vaccinated, your body becomes magnetized. It’s not about any of that, right?” Dr. Amol Soin, a board member, said ahead of the vote. “It really is about this whole issue of cooperation or not.”

  Dr. Tenpenny’s actions included failing to appear at a deposition, according to Kimberly Lee, the state official who served as hearing examiner for the case.

  “This is not punitive. This is procedural,” Assistant Attorney General James Wakley said before the vote. “This is a stick necessary to ensure that we get the answers that we require based on the board’s responsibility for ensuring the safety of the public.”

  Dr. Tenpenny and Mr. Renz say the state is mislabeling how she responded to questions and other investigative steps. They say she filed legal objections to the subpoena and other documents, that the investigation was unconstitutional in part because the state could not define how it defines “failure to cooperate” and because it would not show them the complaints.

  “You may not like her position on vaccines, on COVID, on whatever it is that she has. But that’s not the question before the board,” Mr. Renz told the board. “The question before the board today is one simple question: ‘Were her rights to due process violated? The record shows that they were. We have a hearing examiner who can’t actually define what those rights are.”

  He added: “This appears very much like a witch hunt, like someone who’s looking for an outcome rather than looking to follow the law.”

  The board declined to provide the complaints to The Epoch Times, citing state law. The law says that the board must investigate in a way that “protects the confidentiality of patients and persons who file complaints with the board.”

  The same law says that punitive action can be leveled in the event of failure to cooperate with a board investigation.

  Mr. Renz also says that the state should have gone to court to resolve the matter.

  Mr. Wakley said that going to the courts would lead to “a complete breakdown of the process of investigations” and that “justice delayed is justice denied.”

  If the board went to court for every case, “the board would never get anything done,” added Dr. Jonathan Feibel, another board member.

  Breathalyzer Comparison

  Mr. Yost, a Republican, said that Dr. Tenpenny could have gone to the courts before the vote.

  Mr. Renz said that it was the state’s responsibility to compel and that they were not trying to cause a fight with the board.

  Mr. Yost also told Just the News that Dr. Tenpenny’s actions were like a driver who was pulled over refusing to take a breathalyzer.

  Mr. Renz said that comparison did not make sense.

  “If a cop pulls you over, and says, ‘you need to take a breathalyzer,’ he’s got to have a reason for that, right? He’s not allowed to just randomly pull you over and say you need to take a breathalyzer because he doesn’t like how you look, he can’t pull you over and say that you need to take a breathalyzer unless you’re showing some signs and symptoms or give him some reason to think that you may be intoxicated,” Mr. Renz said. “Otherwise, that’s violating your due process rights.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 20:30

• Philly Real Estate Influencer "Big Bizzneesss" Accused Of Fraud
  Philly Real Estate Influencer “Big Bizzneesss” Accused Of Fraud

  We know this one is going to sound too unbelievable to be true, but a real estate influencer (whatever that means) from Philadelphia who goes by the pseudonym “Big Bizzneesss” has been accused of fraud and deceit. 

  The online persona, whose real name is Greg Parker Jr. and who hails from Philadelphia, has been offering “a dream come true for thousands of young investors looking to break into the real estate market”, according to a report from The Real Deal. 

  His wife, Danielle “Nikki” Morris Parker, has also shared in showcasing his supposedly lavish lifestyle, the report says. But behind the rags-to-riches story and photos of private planes, luxury cars, and a multimillion-dollar mansion, the couple’s promises to empower young investors may not have been what they seemed.

  The report, which cites a Philadelphia Inquirer expose, says that instead of helping young people replicate their success, they left people high and dry after taking in tens of thousands of dollars from some of their 285,000 Instagram followers. 

  

  The couple would routinely hold seminars that ranged from $97 to $297, including upsells like mentorship and opportunities to invest in properties that they picked, the report says. They were offering “secrets of profiting from distressed real estate markets”, the report says. 

  Benjamin Nelson, an undergraduate at Drexel University, was one such aspiring real estate entrepreneur. He shelled out $20,000 to the Parkers for a property purchase but the sale never consummated and then follow up calls to the Parkers were “met with silence”.

  He said: “I keep getting the runaround. I just want to know what’s going on.”

  He texted Parker last year in an attempt to get his money back: “Playing with someone’s hard earned money is one of the worst things you can do.”

  And he’s not the only story. The report says that Federal lawsuits have been filed against the Parkers under the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) fraud act. The suits are alleging that the couple defrauded clients by promising either mentorship or property sales that never took place. 

  Two suits have already been settled and Danielle Parker’s company has filed for bankruptcy, putting two other suits on hold. The Cleveland FBI office may be investigating potential criminal liability, the report says. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 20:10

• Busted! Fox News & Martha MacCallum Caught Presenting Koch Brothers Activist As Fake DeSantis Voter
  Busted! Fox News & Martha MacCallum Caught Presenting Koch Brothers Activist As Fake DeSantis Voter

  Authored by Sundance via The Conservative Treehouse,

  By now we are all too familiar with the schemes and plots of the corporate media as they participate in the political illusion of choice game.  However, for Rupert Murdoch and Fox News debate moderator Martha MacCallum, this catch shreds the remaining little credibility they carried.

  Fox News is hosting the GOP debate in Wisconsin.  During this build up segment, Martha MacCallum introduces the “random Republican voters” in Wisconsin who will watch the debate.  Except, well… there’s a little problem.  MacCallum introduces Chris Lawrence as a “Wisconsin GOP voter” who seemingly supports Ron DeSantis.  However, MacCallum fails to mention that Chris Lawrence actually works for the Koch Network, who have recently pledged to spend $70 million to defeat President Trump.

  Not only has Chris Lawrence worked for the Koch Network for the past 9 years, he is also the Senior Field Director for the Koch group Americans for Prosperity.  In essence, Lawrence is a political operative planted in the group by Fox News to support Ron DeSantis and make it appear like he is an innocuous voter.  Fox News and Martha MacCallum should be embarrassed, but they won’t be.  WATCH (prompted):

  Don’t forget, Ron DeSantis supporters Eric Erickson and Guy Benson sit on the Koch Network AfP Advisory Board (see here).

  It’s all one big game of illusion, and Fox News is once again a big part of the Republican fraud.  Proving yet again, that everything in the Ron DeSantis orbit is astroturf, phony, manufactured and made up.

  

  

  👋🏼 Hi I looked into “Wisconsin voter” Christopher Lawrence, why didn’t you tell people he’s a paid activist belonging to the open borders network that recently pledged $70M to stop Trump?

  👉 https://t.co/AtRDTWMkTc pic.twitter.com/qKDz9F6iwg

  — Raheem. (@RaheemKassam) August 23, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 19:50

• Huawei To Dodge US Sanctions With 'Secret' Network Of Chip Factories
  Huawei To Dodge US Sanctions With ‘Secret’ Network Of Chip Factories

  A DC-based trade group says that Huawei is building a network of secret semiconductor-fabrication facilities across China in what Bloomberg describes as “a shadow manufacturing network that would let the blacklisted company skirt US sanctions and further the nation’s technology ambitions.”

  Huawei, which is receiving some $30 billion in state funding from the CCP and its home town of Shenzhen, moved into chip production last year according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, which says in a recent presentation that the sanctioned company has acquired at least two existing plants and is building at least three others.

  

  The US Commerce Department under former President Donald Trump added Huawei to its entity list in 2019, which prohibits it from working with American companies under nearly all circumstances. If they’re constructing facilities under undisclosed subsidiaries, however, the telecom giant may be able to dodge sanctions and indirectly purchase US chipmaking equipment and other supplies that would otherwise be banned.

  The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, in response to questions from Bloomberg News about the SIA warnings, which haven’t been previously reported, said it’s monitoring the situation and is ready to take action if necessary. It has already blacklisted dozens of Chinese companies beyond Huawei, including two the SIA says are part of Huawei’s network — Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co. and Pengxinwei IC Manufacturing Co., or PXW.  -Bloomberg

  “Given the severe restrictions placed on Huawei, Fujian Jinhua, PXW and others, it is no surprise that they have sought substantial state support to attempt to develop indigenous technologies,” said the BIS in a statement to Bloomberg. “BIS is continually reviewing and updating its export controls based on the evolving threat environment and, as evidenced by the Oct. 7, 2022 rules, will not hesitate to take appropriate action to protect US national security.”

  Last October, the Biden administration slapped China with export controls that prevent Chinese companies from acquiring certain advanced semiconductors and chipmaking equipment in an attempt to slow down the CCP’s military development. The controls excluded older-generation chipmaking equipment, such as those which use 28-nanometer technology or above. Companies on the blacklist, such as Huaei, can’t even buy older equipment without a rarely-issued license.

  

  “These developments were already publicly reported on by multiple media outlets months before SIA simply highlighted these news items at an association meeting discussing market trends,” the SIA said in a statement.

  It’s not clear why the association is sounding the alarm on these issues now. The Washington-based lobbying group represents the majority of the world’s semiconductor makers, including Intel Corp., South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Its members also include companies that produce chipmaking equipment, such as Applied Materials Inc. and the Netherlands’ ASML Holding NV.

  Certain members of the lobbying group will face competition from Chinese rivals if they’re successful in building domestic production facilities, but SIA members like ASML and Nvidia Corp. lose revenue from China as American export controls become stricter. The association may be trying to warn members to be cautious in working with companies that could have hidden ties to blacklisted entities like Huawei. -Bloomberg

  According to the SIA presentation, Huawei is backing five chip plants located primarily around Shenzhen where they are headquartered. If they operate without the Huawei label, it may be difficult for suppliers to know they’re dealing with a sanctioned company.

  

  Under BIS rules, American suppliers are obligated to adhere to “know your customer” rules requiring them to investigate whether customers are buying under suspicious circumstances, such as an item being inconsistent with a customer’s stated needs.

  “If there’s a red flag, then you have an obligation to investigate,” said lawyer Kevin Wolf of Akin Gump. “Absent a red flag, there is no affirmative duty to verify or go beyond the company’s representations.”

  Since it was published in April, the SIA presentation has set off alarm bells both within the industry as well as the Biden administration, which is weighing more stringent export controls over Beijing.

  

  The CCP, meanwhile, says the US is trying to hinder its economic development, and has vowed to develop its own local alternatives for chips, critical tech components, and production machinery.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 19:30

• Federal Judge Sides With Christian Activist Banned By University For Calling Transgender Student 'Male'
  Federal Judge Sides With Christian Activist Banned By University For Calling Transgender Student ‘Male’

  Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  

  A federal judge has blocked the University of Wyoming (UW) from censoring a Christian activist who openly called a female-identifying transgender student “male.”

  In a preliminary injunction issued on Aug. 18, the U.S. District Court in Wyoming sided with Todd Schmidt, an elder at Laramie Faith Community Church, ordering the university to not ban him from tabling on campus while the case proceeds.

  On Dec. 2 2022, Mr. Schmidt set up a table in the UW student union with a sign that read, “God created male and female and Artemis Langford is a male.” Mr. Langford is a transgender student who joined the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority earlier that year, prompting members to sue the national Greek organization for admitting a biological male into the all-female group.

  When asked by a UW administrator to remove the student’s name from his sign, Mr. Schmidt initially refused but complied after they threatened to call the police on him. He continued to debate with students passing by for the remainder of that day.

  “I’m just trying to tell the truth and bring people to God. That’s all there is. There are not any more genders than that. Biology teaches everybody about that,” Mr. Schmidt said, reported the student newspaper Branding Iron, where Mr. Langford is a reporter.

  The incident ultimately led to the university placing a one-year sanction on Mr. Schmidt. While he is still allowed in other areas of campus, he could no longer reserve a table in the UW student union until the spring of 2024.

  In a campus-wide message sent on Dec. 5, UW officials said Mr. Schmidt “violated the university policy prohibiting discrimination and harassment,” noting that “a line was crossed when a student was harassed by name.”

  Mr. Schmidt, on the other hand, argued that the area serves as a public forum and that his message was not harassment but First Amendment-protected speech.

  U.S. Senior District Judge Nancy Freudenthal disagreed with the university, saying that the inclusion of the student’s name was necessary for the Christian activist to fully express his opinion.

  “Schmidt’s speech was expressive, with the intent to convey a particular message,” the judge wrote. “Schmidt mentions Artemis Langford by name, but that is unavoidable, as the debate revolves around the propriety of a particular biological male participating in an activity—joining a sorority—traditionally reserved for biological females.”

  The judge further recognized that the church elder’s action was not harassment or discrimination but a genuine “debate about gender identity, a matter of public importance.”

  “Schmidt does not misgender Langford to denigrate her, but to debate a public issue,” she wrote.

  “This is particularly true on college campuses because they are the ‘marketplace of ideas.’ While elementary and public schools prioritize the inculcation of social values, universities seek to encourage inquiry and the challenging of a priori assumptions,” Judge Freudenthal added. “Therefore, this Court finds that Schmidt’s speech is protected free expression and not harassment or discriminatory conduct.”

  In response to the ruling, the university said in a statement that although it is disappointed, it will comply with the terms of the preliminary injunction while weighing on whether to keep defending its policy in court.

  “The university believed its one-year suspension … was appropriate and lawful, especially considering his prior misconduct and the university’s legal obligations,” the statement read.

  “Providing a forum for free expression and the airing of diverse views is a foundational principle for UW. However, the university must also prioritize protection of its students from unlawful harassment and discrimination,” it argued.

  “The university will continue to take lawful steps to protect the safety of students, employees and members of the public.”

  Sorority Sisters Lawsuit

  In a separate lawsuit, seven sorority sisters from the UW chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma claimed that the organization violated its own rules by admitting Mr. Langford last September.

  The women are seeking damages from the national sorority and the revoking of Mr. Langford’s membership.

  According to the complaint, while Mr. Langford does not live in the Kappa house, he spends time there frequently in areas reserved for women, watching the female members as they walk into the bathroom with only a towel on or spending hours sitting on a couch “staring at them without talking.”

  “Some Plaintiffs sought to live in Kappa’s single-sex environment because of religious or moral beliefs that young, unmarried women should not live with young, unmarried men,” the lawsuit stated, adding that one of the plaintiffs is “a victim of sexual assault who wanted a safe place to interact with other college students without the presence of men.”

  In June, Kappa Kappa Gamma filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, denouncing it as a “frivolous” attempt to remove Mr. Langford for “political purposes.”

  “Kappa defines its membership in its position statement adopted in 2015 as individuals who identify as women,” the motion read. “Plaintiffs cannot identify any bylaw, standing rule, or policy that prohibits Kappa from taking this position, and the term is unquestionably open to multiple interpretations.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 19:10

• An Inconvenient Truth: The Global Wildfire Narrative Mainstream Media Won't Touch
  An Inconvenient Truth: The Global Wildfire Narrative Mainstream Media Won’t Touch

  Corporate media outlets, climate crusaders like Greta Thunberg, and new and improved ‘Greta 2.0’ (Sophia Kianni), as well as progressives across Western governments, who echo climate doom propaganda at the peak of the Northern Hemisphere, have desperately attempted to convince folks the world is on fire.

  However, Bjorn Lomborg, president of the Copenhagen Consensus and visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, served up an inconvenient truth on X, formerly known as Twitter, for ‘science-loving’ climate warriors, citing weather data from European government-run Copernicus. 

  Lomborg said, “Fire has burned lowest area in the US in a decade.”

   But if you were reading mainstream media headlines. You would’ve believed “the world is on fire”: 

  

  “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

  Lomborg continued, “Contrary to what you constantly hear in the media Global fire in 2023 has so far burned 𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨 than normal Yes, the Americas burned much more, but surely the media should also tell you that Africa and Europe burned much less?”

  Contrary to what you constantly hear in the media

  Global fire in 2023 has so far burned 𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨 than normal

  Yes, the Americas burned much more,

  but surely the media should also tell you that Africa and Europe burned much less?https://t.co/scZCc2cFi9 pic.twitter.com/KagbUtav8P

  — Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) August 23, 2023

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

  “Global emissions of CO₂ from fire is down,” he said. 

  Global emissions of CO₂ from fire is downhttps://t.co/PSNDw5CRSc

  — Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) August 23, 2023

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

  Meanwhile, The New York Times insists the “climate crisis” is a “World on Fire”: 

  New York Times literally shows you a world in flames

  — despite less fire globally https://t.co/xaMsaQjayC

  — Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) August 23, 2023

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

  Maybe the NYT is spreading misinformation. 

  Satellites show ever smaller area burned in the world, with 2022 lowest yethttps://t.co/bednTdlbsP

  — Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) August 23, 2023

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

  And other corporate media outlets are doing the same. 

  While the world burns ever 𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨

  Media talks about the world burning ever 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚https://t.co/D7NUAb6JlJ

  — Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) August 23, 2023

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

  The same corporate media outlets that once shouted ‘trust the science’ are now conveniently turning a blind eye to the hard data. Why? Because facts don’t align with their climate apocalypse narrative. So what’s the endgame of the elites just north of Richmond? Well, it’s to ram through a dystopic climate agenda of banning cow farts and forcing an insect diet on the masses. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 18:50

• Why The COVID Delusion Continues
  Why The COVID Delusion Continues

  Authored by Jeff Thomas via InternationalMan.com,

  Well, the COVID panic has been over for more than a year, and most people seem to be breathing a bit easier now, both literally and figuratively.

  

  Most everyone has returned to their pre-COVID lives. The masks are mostly gone, and testing is only undertaken by a few people who remain in fear.

  The great majority of people state that they did the “right thing” and got the requisite initial jabs, although a majority of people state that they decided against the boosters. The reason? Most are unclear on that, except to say that, “I was beginning to have doubts… but I’m still glad I got the initial injections.”

  Of course, since the “all clear” signal was sounded, those doctors who initially jumped on board the COVID Express with both feet have calmed down a bit, and many research facilities have been doing studies on the possibility of vax damage.

  Those studies have been showing with fair consistency that the jab was indeed detrimental – both short-term and long-term. At this point, scores of studies have come to this conclusion, and even many prominent doctors who initially supported vaxxing are now stating emphatically, “We were lied to.”

  So, we might expect that those who filed into clinics like cattle to get the jab would now have learned three important lessons –

  • Don’t trust Big Pharma

  • Don’t trust the media as regards Big Pharma

  • Don’t trust the authorities as regards Big Pharma

  And yet these lessons, with few exceptions, do not seem to have been learned.

  Some people are still getting tested whenever they get cold symptoms. When asked why, they don’t seem to have a clear answer.

  When asked if they would trust those who pushed the vaccines again, their eyes tend to glaze over. Again, they don’t really have an answer.

  Most people who got the jab don’t seem to have advanced their thinking in the last year. Their learning curve appears to have halted the moment the media stopped talking about COVID.

  But why should this be? Surely, the evidence of deception by Big Pharma and its support group is self-evident at this point. One only has to read the results of post-COVID studies that have been undertaken to arrive at the conclusion that the evidence is overwhelming: A major con has been played on the world – a con that netted tens of billions of dollars for Big Pharma.

  The answer to the question, I’m afraid, may well be harder to face than the fact that the majority of people bought into the vaccine charade. The answer as to why very few people have advanced their understanding of what’s been done to them has more to do with human nature than medical perceptions.

  It’s unfortunately true that, back when we went to school, we were taught almost entirely by rote. We weren’t asked to learn why the world believed that warfare was necessary; we were only told to memorise the names of the generals and the dates that the wars took place.

  If we were asked to read the works of great writers, we weren’t expected to develop an understanding of their insights; we were merely expected to memorise some famous quotes by them.

  And, once we had passed our exams, it was perfectly acceptable for us to forget what we’d memorized.

  In short, a primary principle of “normal” education was that all that mattered was that we could parrot back whatever we had been fed most recently.

  No surprise, then, that, in adulthood, we do the same. Of course, adults tend to study less than when they were in school. They rely instead on the evening news to keep them informed. We hear the latest urgent breaking news, and we pay careful attention. We then follow the instructions we receive from the “experts” doing the speaking and wait until the following evening to receive further indoctrination and instructions.

  Along the way, we also hear “non-authoritative” information and are careful to classify such information as “conspiracy theory.” Such information enters the temporal lobe only briefly. In most cases, the human brain has been trained to delete such information, as it has no value with regard to following instructions. Worse, it makes us question that instruction. The temporal lobe becomes adept at deleting such information as though it had never been received.

  And, here, we have a basic function of the human brain that affects the great majority of people – indeed, all people who have not, at some point in their lives, become independent thinkers:

  Respond to controlled input and ignore peripheral input

  For those who questioned the COVID scam early, a great deal was learned even as it was playing out. But the question remains, why did others, who bought into it, not learn from the plethora of studies that have been released over time?

  After all, the controlled input regarding COVID ceased to be pushed a year or more ago. What that translates into is that those who simply memorise information and do not significantly question it now have nothing to go on. They’re stuck in neutral. They’re receiving occasional peripheral input that negates the controlled input, but they interpret it as peripheral input and, in a trained knee-jerk reaction, ignore it on each and every occasion. They don’t ever consider its totality, as they’re not programmed to think in that fashion.

  As unpleasant as it is to consider, this inability is the norm, even for people who are otherwise intelligent and/or educated. Like hamsters on a wheel, they’re under the impression that they’re in forward motion, but in truth, they won’t move an inch forward until they receive controlled input instructing them to do so.

  The COVID masks have been taken off, but an understanding of the fraud that has been perpetrated has, for the majority of people, not been understood.

  It could be argued that the discussion presented above could be seen as being academic – pointless – as the COVID scare is now over, and the masks are gone.

  But, in fact, unless we pay attention to what researchers have been concluding in the last year and, indeed, if we return to our well-ingrained training not to question, but merely to respond to immediate input, we’re primed to get suckered again.

  If we and the majority of the people we know, once again, respond to the controlled input and ignore the peripheral input, we won’t merely have missed the boat on the reality of the COVID scam.

  We’re primed to be fooled again.

  *  *  *

  The wave of political correctness and liberal group-think has taken the US by storm. The effort to silence opposing viewpoints and free speech will continue to accelerate. That’s why Doug Casey has prepared a timely video on surviving this modern American trend. In it Doug exposes the lies and mainstream bias that’s poisoning America… Click here to watch it now.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 18:30

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Europe Is Heading Towards A Triple Crisis
  Europe Is Heading Towards A Triple Crisis

  Via Remix News,

  Europe is unavoidably heading towards a triple crisis, German publicist Thomas Fasbender told Preussische Allgemeine in an interview on the occasion of the publication of his new book, “The eerie century” (Das unheimliche Jahrhundert).

  The subtitle of the book, “Before the turning point,” is a direct quote of an expression taken from Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s special address to the Bundestag on Feb. 27, 2022, in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In it, he used the word “Zeitenwende.”

  While the official translation for the word used by the German government is “turning point” or “watershed moment”, the original German term refers to both a changing of times and a geopolitical shift.

  “I chose the term ‘turning point’ because it was brought into play by Olaf Scholz. Although the book was essentially written before then, we are indeed experiencing a change of epoch. However, it is much more extensive than Scholz described,” the author said in the interview.

  He says that the current triple crisis Europe is facing will have a defining impact on the continent for the rest of the century.

  “Europe is heading for a triple crisis, the effects of which will affect us massively throughout the century.”

  First, there is the rapid loss of power by Western Europe after some 500 years of global dominance.

  “The times when the British, French, Germans, and others left their mark on the world politically, culturally, scientifically, technically and economically is history,” he said.

  Fasbender says the second crisis, the climate change crisis, cannot be tackled by simply stopping it:

  “The second major crisis is climate change. The fact is that it is happening. In recent years, the discussion has focused on who is responsible for it and how it can be stopped. “

  “But we will not succeed in stopping it. So we have to ask ourselves: What does it mean in concrete terms to live in a world that is two or more degrees warmer? What effects will this have, how do we deal with it?”

  “What we do in Germany has virtually no impact. I find it all the more astonishing that we are only now beginning to address the issue of adaptation. This is all the more important because we can only spend each euro once. Either for climate protection (which will not be possible) or for climate adaptation.”

  The third, but by no means least important crisis, is the population explosion in the Sub-Saharan region, which essentially also encompasses the previous two:

  “The third issue is population growth in Africa, especially in the Sub-Saharan region. There, we are seeing a doubling of the population by 2050 and even a quadrupling by 2100.”

  “Sometime in the 22nd century, more than half of the world’s population will come from sub-Saharan Africa. This is where the real turning points lie dormant.”

  “We are entering a world in which Europe may still be perceived as a living museum. Certainly no longer as a beacon or role model,” he said.

  

  People work together to pull, according to the locals, a capsized boat ashore at the beach where several people were found dead in Dakar, Senegal, Monday, July 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

  Fasbender concludes that “We Europeans are also hampered by the fact that many either do not grasp the new realities or do not want to accept them. On the contrary, we continue to overestimate ourselves.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 02:00

• We're All Suspects In A DNA Lineup, Waiting To Be Matched With A Crime
  We’re All Suspects In A DNA Lineup, Waiting To Be Matched With A Crime

  Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

  “Make no mistake about it…your DNA can be taken and entered into a national DNA database if you are ever arrested, rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason… I doubt that the proud men who wrote the charter of our liberties would have been so eager to open their mouths for royal inspection.”

  – Justice Antonin Scalia dissenting in Maryland v. King

  Be warned: the DNA detectives are on the prowl.

  

  Whatever skeletons may be lurking on your family tree or in your closet, whatever crimes you may have committed, whatever associations you may have with those on the government’s most wanted lists: the police state is determined to ferret them out.

  In an age of overcriminalization, round-the-clock surveillance, and a police state eager to flex its muscles in a show of power, we are all guilty of some transgression or other.

  No longer can we consider ourselves innocent until proven guilty.

  Now we are all suspects in a DNA lineup waiting to be matched up with a crime.

  Suspect State, meet the Genetic Panopticon.

  DNA technology in the hands of government officials will complete our transition to a Surveillance State in which prison walls are disguised within the seemingly benevolent trappings of technological and scientific progress, national security and the need to guard against terrorists, pandemics, civil unrest, etc.

  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.

  It’s getting harder to hide, even if you think you’ve got nothing to hide.

  Armed with unprecedented access to DNA databases amassed by the FBI and ancestry website, as well as hospital newborn screening programs, police are using forensic genealogy, which allows police to match up an unknown suspect’s crime scene DNA with that of any family members in a genealogy database, to solve cold cases that have remained unsolved for decades.

  As reported by The Intercept, forensic genetic genealogists are “combing through the genetic information of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in search of a perpetrator.”

  By submitting your DNA to a genealogical database such as Ancestry and 23andMe, you’re giving the police access to the genetic makeup, relationships and health profiles of every relative—past, present and future—in your family, whether or not you or they ever agreed to be part of such a database.

  Indeed, relying on a loophole in a commercial database called GEDmatch, genetic genealogists are able to sidestep privacy rules that allow people to opt out of sharing their genetic information with police. The end result? Police are now able to identify and target those very individuals who explicitly asked to keep their DNA results private.

  In this way, merely choosing to exercise your right to privacy makes you a suspect and puts you in the police state’s crosshairs.

  It no longer even matters if you’re among the tens of millions of people who have added their DNA to ancestry databases. As Brian Resnick reports, public DNA databases have grown so massive that they can be used to find you even if you’ve never shared your own DNA.

  That simple transaction—a spit sample or a cheek swab in exchange for getting to learn everything about one’s ancestral makeup, where one came from, and who is part of one’s extended family—is the price of entry into the Suspect State for all of us.

  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 what police like to refer to a “modern fingerprint.”

  Whereas fingerprint technology created a watershed moment for police in their ability to “crack” a case, DNA technology is now being hailed by law enforcement agencies as the magic bullet in crime solving, especially when it helps them crack cold cases of serial murders and rapists.

  After all, who wouldn’t want to get psychopaths and serial rapists off the streets and safely behind bars, right?

  At least, that’s the argument being used by law enforcement to support their unrestricted access to these genealogy databases, and they’ve got the success stories to prove it.

  For instance, a 68-year-old Pennsylvania man was arrested and charged with the brutal rape and murder of a young woman almost 50 years earlier. Relying on genealogical research suggesting that the killer had ancestors who hailed from a small town in Italy, investigators narrowed their findings down to one man whose DNA, obtained from a discarded coffee cup, matched the killer’s.

  In another cold case investigation, a 76-year-old man was arrested for two decades-old murders after his DNA was collected from a breathalyzer during an unrelated traffic stop.

  Yet it’s not just psychopaths and serial rapists who are getting caught up in the investigative dragnet. In the police state’s pursuit of criminals, anyone who comes up as a possible DNA match—including distant family members—suddenly becomes part of a circle of suspects that must be tracked, investigated and ruled out.

  In this way, “guilt by association” has taken on new connotations in a technological age in which one is just a DNA sample away from being considered a person of interest in a police investigation. As Jessica Cussins warns in Psychology Today, “The fundamental fight—that data from potentially innocent people should not be used to connect them to unrelated crimes—has been lost.”

  Until recently, the government was required to at least observe some basic restrictions on when, where and how it could access someone’s DNA. That was turned on its head by various U.S. Supreme Court rulings that heralded the loss of privacy on a cellular level.

  For instance, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Maryland v. King that taking DNA samples from a suspect doesn’t violate the Fourth Amendment. The Court’s subsequent decision to let stand the Maryland Court of Appeals’ ruling in Raynor v. Maryland, which essentially determined that individuals do not have a right to privacy when it comes to their DNA, made Americans even more vulnerable to the government accessing, analyzing and storing their DNA without their knowledge or permission.

  It’s all been downhill since then.

  Indeed, the government has been relentless in its efforts to get hold of our DNA, either through mandatory programs carried out in connection with law enforcement and corporate America, by warrantlessly accessing our familial DNA shared with genealogical services such as Ancestry and 23andMe, or through the collection of our “shed” or “touch” DNA.

  Get ready, folks, because the government has embarked on a diabolical campaign to create a nation of suspects predicated on a massive national DNA database.

  This has been helped along by Congress (which adopted legislation allowing police to collect and test DNA immediately following arrests), President Trump (who signed the Rapid DNA Act into law), the courts (which have ruled that police can routinely take DNA samples from people who are arrested but not yet convicted of a crime), and local police agencies (which are chomping at the bit to acquire this new crime-fighting gadget).

  For example, Rapid DNA machines—portable, about the size of a desktop printer, highly unregulated, far from fool-proof, and so fast that they can produce DNA profiles in less than two hours—allow police to go on fishing expeditions for any hint of possible misconduct using DNA samples.

  Journalist Heather Murphy explains: “As police agencies build out their local DNA databases, they are collecting DNA not only from people who have been charged with major crimes but also, increasingly, from people who are merely deemed suspicious, permanently linking their genetic identities to criminal databases.”

  All 50 states now maintain their own DNA government databases, although the protocols for collection differ from state to state. Increasingly, many of the data from local databanks are being uploaded to CODIS, the FBI’s massive DNA database, which has become a de facto way to identify and track the American people from birth to death.

  Even hospitals have gotten in on the game by taking and storing newborn babies’ DNA, often without their parents’ knowledge or consent. It’s part of the government’s mandatory genetic screening of newborns. In many states, the DNA is stored indefinitely. There’s already a move underway to carry out whole genome sequencing on newborns, ostensibly to help diagnose rare diseases earlier and improve health later in life, which constitutes an ethical minefield all by itself.

  What this means for those being born today is inclusion in a government database that contains intimate information about who they are, their ancestry, and what awaits them in the future, including their inclinations to be followers, leaders or troublemakers.

  For example, police in New Jersey accessed the DNA from a nine-year-old blood sample of a newborn baby in order to identify the child’s father as a suspect in a decades-old sexual assault.

  The ramifications of this kind of DNA profiling are far-reaching.

  At a minimum, these DNA databases do away with any semblance of privacy or anonymity.

  These genetic databases and genomic technology also make us that much more vulnerable to creeps and cyberstalkers, genetic profiling, and those who would weaponize the technology against us.

  Unfortunately, the debate over genetic privacy—and when one’s DNA becomes a public commodity outside the protection of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on warrantless searches and seizures—continues to lag far behind the government and Corporate America’s encroachments on our rights.

  Moreover, while much of the public debate, legislative efforts and legal challenges in recent years have focused on the protocols surrounding when police can legally collect a suspect’s DNA (with or without a search warrant and whether upon arrest or conviction), the question of how to handle “shed” or “touch” DNA has largely slipped through without much debate or opposition.

  As scientist Leslie A. Pray notes:

  We all shed DNA, leaving traces of our identity practically everywhere we go… In fact, the garbage you leave for curbside pickup is a potential gold mine of this sort of material. All of this shed or so-called abandoned DNA is free for the taking by local police investigators hoping to crack unsolvable cases… shed DNA is also free for inclusion in a secret universal DNA databank.

  What this means is that 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.

  As the dissenting opinion to the Maryland Court of Appeals’ shed DNA ruling in Raynor rightly warned, “A person can no longer vote, participate in a jury, or obtain a driver’s license, without opening up his genetic material for state collection and codification.”

  It’s just a matter of time before government agents will know everywhere we’ve been and how long we were at each place by following our shed DNA. After all, scientists can already track salmon across hundreds of square miles of streams and rivers using DNA.

  Today, helped along by robotics and automation, DNA processing, analysis and reporting takes far less time and can bring forth all manner of information, right down to a person’s eye color and relatives. Incredibly, one company specializes in creating “mug shots” for police based on DNA samples from unknown “suspects” which are then compared to individuals with similar genetic profiles.

  Of course, none of these technologies are infallible.

  DNA evidence can be wrong, either through human error, tampering, or even outright fabrication, and it happens more often than we are told.

  What this amounts to is a scenario in which we have little to no defense against charges of wrongdoing, especially when “convicted” by technology, and even less protection against the government sweeping up our DNA in much the same way it sweeps up our phone calls, emails and text messages.

  As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, it’s only a matter of time before the police state’s pursuit of criminals from the past expands into genetic profiling and a preemptive hunt for criminals of the future.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 08/23/2023 – 00:05

• Ex-Head Of JPMorgan's Precious Metals Desk Sentenced To Prison For Manipulation
  Ex-Head Of JPMorgan’s Precious Metals Desk Sentenced To Prison For Manipulation

  It was not that long ago that a veritable army of trolls would emerge upon our merest mention that precious metal markets (like all other markets) are manipulated, whether by commercial or central banks, or by random assorted hangers on.

  Today, we can table that particular debate in perpetuity, after US District Judge Edmond Chang sentenced the former head of JPMorgan’s precious-metals desk and his top trader to prison for spoofing, fraud and market manipulation.

  Michael Nowak, whom we first highlighted back in 2019…

  JPM’s gold spoofing strategy was adopted by Michael Nowak, who was JPMorgan’s global head of precious metals trading when he was put on leave last month: DOJ.

  And that’s why Jamie Dimon is richer than you

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 16, 2019

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

  … and most recently profiled last year, and who once upon a time was not only an LBMA board member but also ran gold and silver trading at JPMorgan, as well as his top trader Gregg Smith were sentenced Tuesday in Chicago with Nowak receiving a term of one year and one day while Smith was given two years, the stiffest sentence yet in a recent government crackdown on questionable trading practices.

  

  As we reported at the time, both men were convicted at a trial last year. Smith, 59, was described as “the most prolific spoofer that the government has prosecuted to date” while Nowak, 49, has been called “the boss” behind the scheme.
  In imposing sentence, the judge said Smith and Nowak clearly knew what they were doing was wrong.

  “This is a serious offense that you committed,” Chang said to Nowak. “What happened here was the equivalent of putting out lies — and many lies — into the market. Market integrity is a crucial component to the financial markets. These lies moved the market. It’s not like they had zero impact.”

  Smith and Nowak “used their positions as some of the most powerful traders in the worldwide precious metals markets to engage in an egregious effort to manipulate prices for their benefit,” Acting US Assistant Attorney General Nicole M.

  Argentieri said in a statement, adding the Justice Department was committed to holding “accountable those who engage in fraud and manipulation that undermines the investing public’s trust in the integrity of our commodities markets.”

  As Bloomberg reports, the stiff (for a banker) prison sentences were intended to “send a message” that market manipulation will be punished, the judge said. “I’m trying to deter all forms of financial fraud in the market,” he said, clearly unaware of this thing called the Federal Reserve.

  Chang ordered Nowak to start his sentence on Oct. 23 and Smith on Jan. 15. Lawyers for both men said they planned to appeal their convictions.

  Prosecutors had initially sought sentences of six years for Smith and five years for Nowak, but on Tuesday said they were revising those down to around two years. Both men’s lawyers argued that they should be spared jail because neither gained personally from the spoofing. Of course, both main made millions in bonuses which would never have been paid had they not generated huge gains for Jamie Dimon’s criminal enterprise.

  The JPMorgan case was part of a crackdown by federal prosecutors on illegal spoofing, where traders place bogus orders to move prices up or down and then quickly cancel them before they can be executed. Smith and Nowak used the technique to manipulate gold and silver prices from 2008 to 2016, or the entire duration of the period in which we said – and showed – that gold manipulation was rampant, for which were frequently mocked and ridiculed.

  Convictions for Smith, Nowak and a third trader who was found guilty in November, Christopher Jordan, capped a string of wins by prosecutors in spoofing cases targeting some of Wall Street’s biggest banks, including Bank of America, Deutsche Bank AG and Morgan Stanley. Two former Deutsche Bank and two former Bank of America traders previously each received one-year sentences.

  JPMorgan, the largest US bank and the biggest US financial criminal enterprise by far, agreed in 2020 to pay $920 million to settle the Justice Department’s allegations against it — the biggest fine by any financial institution accused of market manipulation since the 2008 global financial crisis.

  Prosecutors also charged several members of the team Nowak led at JPMorgan. Three of them pleaded guilty and testified against Nowak and Smith. The witnesses described how Nowak and Smith routinely placed huge buy and sell orders they never intended to execute — part of their strategy to push prices in the direction that would profit the bank.

  Christiaan Trunz, a former Smith protege and one of the traders who pleaded guilty and cooperated, told jurors that he learned to spoof by watching Nowak and Smith for years. When Trunz came under scrutiny for his own spoof trades, he said Nowak coached him to lie to compliance officials and later counseled him against pleading guilty as prosecutors were preparing criminal charges against top executives on the trading desk.

  Trunz testified that Smith was so fast at placing and canceling bogus orders that his colleagues would joke that he needed to put ice on his fingers to cool them down.

  “This was an open strategy on the desk,” said Trunz, who sat next to Smith and watched him click his computer mouse rapidly to place and cancel trades. “It wasn’t hidden.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/22/2023 – 23:45

• Wake Up!
  Wake Up!

  Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via DailyReckoning.com,

  The last three and a half years have been times of enormous upheaval.

  

  It has affected politics, economics, culture, media and technology. It’s not just about the spreading of economic, cultural and demographic decay. Millions and billions of lives have been wrecked, to be sure, but there is also a big impact on the way we see the world around us.

  What we once trusted, we now doubt and even disbelieve as a matter of new habit. The simple categories of understanding that we once deployed to make sense of the world have been tested, challenged and even overthrown. Old forms of ideological commitments have opened their way to new.

  This particularly pertains to intellectuals. Or should in any case.

  If you have not shifted your thinking in some respect over these years, you are either a prophet, asleep or in denial.

  The way social media works today, influencers are reluctant to admit it lest risk their followings built out of a prior cultural landscape. This is really too bad.

  There is nothing wrong with changing, adapting, migrating and calling out truth even if that contradicts what you once said or how you used to believe.

  There is no need to change your principles or ideals. What should change in light of evidence is your evaluation of the problems and threats, your outlook on the relative priorities of focus, your perceptions of the functionality of institutional structures, your awareness of issues and concerns about which you had limited prior knowledge, your political and cultural allegiances and so on.

  These days, this intellectual migration seems mainly to have affected the left. Nearly daily I find myself having the same conversations with people in person, on the phone or online. It is from an Obama voter and someone with traditionally “liberal” allegiances.

  The COVID era utterly shocked them in what they discovered about their own tribe. They aren’t liberal at all.

  They supported universal quarantine, forced face coverings and then mandatory jabs pushed by a tax-funded corporate monopoly. Concerns about human rights, civil liberties and the common good suddenly evaporated. Then of course they turned to the most blunt instrument of all: censorship.

  The trauma felt by principled people who imagined themselves to be “on the left” is palpable.

  But the same is true of people “on the right” who were aghast to observe that it was Trump and his administration that greenlighted lockdowns, spent many trillions forcing COVID compliance and then threw public monies at Big Pharma to rush a shot by bypassing all standards of necessity, safety and effectiveness.

  The promise to “make America great again” ended in wreckage coast-to-coast. For Trump partisans, this realization that it all happened under their hero is hard to take, a triangulating rope-a-dope.

  Even more strangely, it was the “never Trumpers” on the right who most strongly supported lockdowns, masking and shot mandates.

  The libertarians are another story entirely, one that nearly surpasses understanding. Among the higher echelons of this faction in academia and think tanks, the silence from the start and even years later was truly deafening.

  Instead of standing up to totalitarianism, as the whole of the intellectual tradition had prepared them to do, they deployed their clever heuristics to justify outrages against core freedoms, even the freedom to associate.

  So yes, observing one’s own tribe collapse into craven careerism and coercion is disorienting. But the problem goes even deeper. The most striking alliance of our time has been to observe the lockstep of the elites in government, media, tech and academia.

  The reality blows apart the traditional binary of public vs. private that has dominated ideological discussion for centuries.

  This binary is nicely represented by the sculpture in front of the Federal Trade Commission.

  

  It shows a man holding back a horse. It’s man vs. beast, completely different species and totally different interests, one demanding to move forward and the other holding it back.

  The point of the sculpture is to celebrate the role of government (man) in controlling trade (industry). The contrary position would condemn government for controlling industry.

  But what if the sculpture is pure fantasy even at its very structure?

  In reality, the horse is either carrying the man or pulling a cart that carries the man. Are they cooperating together in a partnership that is allied against consumers, stockholders, small businesses, the working classes and people more generally?

  That realization — the very essence of what was revealed to us in the course of the COVID response — utterly shatters core presumptions behind the dominant ideologies of our times and going far back in time.

  That realization requires a recalibration from honest thinkers.

  I had to reevaluate my own cherished beliefs about markets and politics, which was painful in many ways. But it was necessary.

  Below, I take you on that journey — and show you why we must adjust our thinking to adapt to new realities. Read on.

  The Scales Fell From My Eyes

  I was going through an archive of writings from the 2010s in search of some insight or possibly something to reprint. I found many hundreds of articles. None of them jumped out at me as necessarily wrong but I found myself rather bored with their superficiality. Yes, they are entertaining and fascinating in their way but what precisely did they reveal?

  There was no consumer product unworthy of rhapsodic celebration, no pop tune or movie that didn’t reinforce my biases, no new technology or company undeserving of my highest praise, no trend in the land that was contrary to my conception of progress all around us.

  It’s exceedingly difficult to recreate an older state of mind but let me try. I saw myself as a composer of hymns to material progress all around us, a cheerleader of the glories of all market forces. I lived with this public-private binary.

  All that was good in the world came from the private sector and all that was evil came from the public sector. That easily became for me a simplistic, good vs. evil conception of the great struggle, and also blinded me to the ways that these two ideal types play together in real life.

  Armed with this ideological weaponry, I was ready to take on the world.

  And so Big Tech came in for massive celebration from me, even to the point that I completely ignored warnings of capture and surveillance. I had a model in mind — migration to the digital realm was emancipatory while attachment to the physical world was mired in stagnation — and nothing could shake me from it.

  I had also implicitly adopted an “end-of-history” style of triumphalist thinking that befits the generation that saw freedom win the great Cold War struggle.

  And so the final victory of liberty was always at hand, at least in my fevered imagination.

  This is why the lockdowns came as such a shock to me. It flew in the face of the linear structure of historical narrative that I had constructed for myself in order to make sense of the world.

  This is why the best comparison of the COVID years might be to the Great War, the global calamity that was simply not supposed to happen based on the wild optimism cultivated during the Gilded and Victorian epochs of decades earlier.

  The very foundations of peace and progress had gradually eroded, and prepared the way for terrible war, but that generation of observers did not see it happening simply because they were not looking for it.

  To be sure, and uniquely so far as I can tell, I had been writing about the prospect of pandemic lockdowns for the previous 15 years. I read their research, knew of their plans and followed their germ games. I drummed up awareness and called for hard limits on what the state could do during a pandemic.

  At the same time, I had become accustomed to treating the academic and intellectual worlds as something external to the social order. In other words, I never once believed that these cockamamie ideas would ever leak into our own lived realities.

  Like so many others, I had come to regard intellectual discussion and debate as a challenging and most enjoyable parlor game that had little impact on the world. I knew for sure that there were crazy people extant who dreamed of universal human separation and the conquering of the microbial planet by force.

  But I had presumed that the structures of society and the trajectory of history embedded too much intelligence to actually implement such delusions. The foundations of civilization were too strong to be eroded by gibberish, or so I had believed.

  What I had overlooked were several factors.

  • First, I didn’t understand the extent of the rise, independence and power of the administrative state and the impossibility of controlling its authority through elective representatives. I simply did not anticipate the fullness of its reach.

  • Second, I had not understood the extent to which private industry had developed a full working relationship with the structures of power in its own industrial interests.

  • Third, I had overlooked the way consolidation and cooperation had developed between pharmaceutical companies, public health, digital enterprises and media organs.

  • Fourth, I had failed to appreciate the tendency of the public mind to drop knowledge accumulated from past wisdom. For example, who would have believed that people would forget what they once knew, even from thousands of years of experience, about exposure and natural immunity?

  • Fifth, I did not anticipate the extent to which high-end professionals would give up all principles and curry favor with the new policy priorities of the government/media/tech/industry hegemon. Who knew that nothing about the main themes of patriotic songs and movies would have stuck when it most mattered?

  • Sixth, and this is perhaps my greatest intellectual failing, I had not seen how rigid class structures would feed conflicting interests between the professional class of laptop workers and the working classes who still need the physical world to accomplish their goals.

  On March 16, 2020, the laptop class conspired in a forced digitalization of the world in the name of pathogenic control, and this came at the expense of some two-thirds of the population who depended on physical interactions for their livelihood and psychological well-being.

  This aspect of class conflict — which I had always chalked up to be a Marxian delusion — became the defining feature of the whole of our political lives. Instead, the lack of empathy from the professional class was evident everywhere, from academic opinion to media reporting. It was a society of serfs and lords.

  For those who are researchers, writers, academics or just curious people who want to understand the world better — even improve it — to have one’s intellectual operating system so profoundly disturbed is an occasion of profound disorientation. It is also a time to embrace the adventure, recalibrate and set about correcting and finding a new path.

  When your ideological system and political allegiances fail to provide the explanatory power we are seeking, it is time to improve them or give them up entirely.

  Not everyone is up to the task. Indeed, this is a major reason why so many want to forget about the past three and a half years. They would rather close their eyes to the new realities and default back to their intellectual comfort zones.

  For any writer or thinker of integrity, this should not be an option. As painful as it might be, it is best just to admit where we went wrong and set out to discover a better path. This is why so many of us have adopted a paradigm called the “COVID test.” Few pass. Most fail. They failed in shockingly public and inexcusable ways: left, right and libertarian.

  The influencers who flopped so badly in these years and have yet to own up to it deserve neither attention nor respect. Their attempt to pretend they were never wrong and then move on as if nothing much has happened is embarrassing and disreputable.

  But those who come to terms with the wreckage all around us and seek to understand its causes and the way forward deserve a listen and appreciation. For it is these people who are doing their best to save the world from another round of disaster.

  As for the rest, they are taking up air space and should, in a just world, be tutoring the children with learning losses and delivering meals to the vaccine-injured.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/22/2023 – 23:25

• Middle-Age Crisis: 35-50 Year-Olds Turn To Booze, Bud, And 'Shrooms'
  Middle-Age Crisis: 35-50 Year-Olds Turn To Booze, Bud, And ‘Shrooms’

  In the land of the ‘free’ and the home of the distraught: New research reveals an alarming number of middle-aged Americans are drowning their troubles away in binge drinking and getting higher than a kite to pass the time. 

  The University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future (MTF) found binge drinking, marijuana use, and hallucinogen consumption among middle-aged adults 35 to 50 (prime-age workers) hit record highs in 2022. 

  “While binge drinking has generally declined for the past ten years among younger adults, adults aged 35 to 50 in 2022 reported the highest prevalence of binge drinking ever recorded for this age group, which also represents a significant past-year, five-year and 10-year increase,” MTF wrote in the report. 

  “The value of surveys such as MTF is to show us how drug use trends evolve over decades and across development, from adolescence through adulthood,” said Megan Patrick, research professor and principal investigator of the MTF panel study. 

  Adults aged 35 to 50 aren’t turning to sports cars and wild adventures in what might be a midlife crisis. Instead, a staggering 28% have resorted to marijuana in the past year, while 4% have used hallucinogens. 

  Patrick said, “Behaviors and public perception of drug use can shift rapidly, based on drug availability and other factors. It’s important to track this so that public health professionals and communities can be prepared to respond.”

  Major findings of MTF’s report: 

  • A whopping 44% of young adults smoked marijuana this past year, a drastic climb from the 28% a decade prior.

  • Daily cannabis use? Skyrocketing. Over 1 in 10 young adults smoke marijuana on a daily basis, nearly double from a decade ago. 

  • Middle-aged (35-50) aren’t far behind; their pot smoking has more than doubled in 10 years, with 28% now getting high.

  • Trippy times: Both young and middle-aged adults are experimenting with hallucinogens like LSD and shrooms at higher rates. Specifically, 8% of those 19-30 and 4% of the 35-50 brackets. 

  • The e-cigarette craze is alive and well; young adults vaping nicotine surged from 14% in 2017 to 24% in 2022.

  • Binge drinking: Nearly 30% of middle-aged folks are on a binge-drinking spree, reaching all-time highs in 2022. That’s up from 25% in 2017 and 23% in 2012. 

  The findings aren’t surprising. We reported earlier this year that a ‘shroom boom‘ was blasting off as middle-class soccer moms and average working-class folks were increasing their consumption of psilocybin, the main active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms. Even Janet Yellen joined in on the craze while in China… 

  

  Numerous studies have shown those who used psilocybin were able to curb drinking and other drug addictions easier. These studies add to increasing research showing that psychedelics paired with therapy could treat mental health issues.  

  MTF’s latest report shows Americans are binging on whatever they can get their hands on, indicating a looming mental health crisis. But, of course, the corporate media are blind to this crisis. They would rather focus on ‘climate change’ using fuzzy math. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/22/2023 – 23:05

• How Inflation Destroys Civilization… And What You Can Do About It
  How Inflation Destroys Civilization… And What You Can Do About It

  Authored by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,.

  Thanks to rampant inflation, socialism – and the poverty it inevitably brings – could soon become irreversibly entrenched in the US, just like in numerous Third World countries.

  Rapidly rising food, housing, medical, and tuition prices are squeezing Americans – many do not understand the actual cause of their falling living standards.

  The explosion in the cost of living is a predictable consequence of the Federal Reserve’s ongoing currency debasement.

  

  Since the Covid mass hysteria, the Federal Reserve has printed more money than it has for the entire existence of the US.

  From the founding of the US, it took over 227 years to print its first $6 trillion. But during Covid, the US government printed over $6 trillion in a matter of months.

  It’s important to put such large numbers into context.

  A trillion is a massive, almost unfathomable number.

  The human brain has trouble understanding something so huge. So let me try to put it into perspective.

  If you earned $1 a second 24/7/365—about $31 million per year—it would take you over 31,688 YEARS to make $1 trillion.

  So that’s how enormous a trillion is.

  When politicians carelessly spend and print money measured in the trillions, you are in dangerous territory.

  In short, the Fed’s actions during the Covid scam amounted to the biggest monetary explosion that has ever occurred in the US.

  Initially, the Fed and its apologists in the media assured the American people its actions wouldn’t cause severe price increases. But unfortunately, it didn’t take long to prove that absurd assertion false.

  As soon as rising prices became apparent, the mainstream media and Fed claimed that the inflation was only “transitory” and that there was nothing to be worried about. When the inflation was obviously not “transitory,” they told us “inflation was actually a good thing.”

  Of course, they were dead wrong and knew it—they were gaslighting.

  The truth is that inflation is out of control, and nothing can stop it.

  Even after the most intense rate hiking cycle in US history, price increases remain persistent.

  That’s not to mention that prices are never going back to the levels they were. We’re at a new baseline that only gets adjusted higher.

  It’s like trying to run on a treadmill where the speed only ratchets up.

  That’s why many people struggle to keep their heads above water. They simply cannot keep up with the rising prices.

  Michael Saylor was correct when he said, “The road to serfdom consists of working exponentially harder to earn a currency that is growing exponentially weaker.”

  Even though the media won’t tell you, the Fed’s currency debasement is the primary reason why most people are feeling the economic pain of inflation today. They know it’s becoming harder and harder to maintain their lifestyle—but many don’t understand why.

  They’ll blame supply chain problems, Vladimir Putin, and greedy corporations… anything but the Fed as the source of inflation.

  The media’s search for the real cause of inflation is like OJ Simpson’s search for “the real killers,” only more absurd.

  The deliberate confusion created around inflation opens the door for opportunistic politicians who promise supposed freebies to ease the pain of inflation. Many, unfortunately, succumb to this siren’s call.

  Perverse as it is, the policies offered to people suffering from inflation create even more inflation. In other words, inflation has a way of perpetuating itself, much like a heroin addiction, because people will keep wanting more and more of the very thing that is poisoning them.

  For example, a Newsweek poll shows 63% of Americans “strongly support” government stimulus checks to combat inflation.

  In other words, let’s fight the effects of currency debasement by engaging in even more currency debasement.

  The more inflation reduces living standards, the more people push for misguided government policies like universal basic income, price controls, inflation relief stimulus checks, and a higher minimum wage… which creates a cycle of rising prices.

  It’s only a matter of time before “fight for $15″—the rallying cry for a $15 minimum wage—becomes “fight for $20.” Then it’s “fight for $50,” “fight for $100,” and so forth.

  People should really fight to end the Federal Reserve and the fake money they create out of thin air and force everyone else to use. It’s the only way to end this insidious cycle that impoverishes everyone except the politically-connected insiders closest to the money printing.

  But, of course, that’s not going to happen.

  Instead, the more likely outcome is that the US is headed straight into an inescapable downward spiral of a political-inflation cycle that follows a clear pattern and creates a self-perpetuating doom loop.

  1. In a fiat currency system, the government will inevitably print an ever-increasing amount of currency to finance itself.

  2. This makes prices and living costs rise faster than wages.

  3. The average person feels the pain but doesn’t understand what’s happening.

  4. More people support politicians who promise freebies to supposedly relieve the pain inflation causes.

  5. In order to pay for the “freebies,” the government prints more currency.

  6. This creates even more inflation, and the cycle repeats.

  Most of America Depends on the Government

  At this point, we have to ask ourselves whether the political situation in the US will improve. Unfortunately, the data points to a troubling but inevitable answer… “no.”

  The reason is simple: a growing majority of US voters are receiving money from the government.

  An estimated 47% or so of Americans already receive some form of government benefit. But I don’t think that accurately reflects the situation. At least, not when considering all the government employees and those in the nominally private sector who feed off the warfare state. This includes defense and other government contractors who win huge, no-bid contracts.

  People involved in the military-industrial complex live off government slops as much or more than those who collect food stamps and other traditional forms of welfare. Yet they aren’t counted in the statistics. Any honest account of who depends on the government needs to include them.

  When you count everyone who lives off political dollars instead of free-market dollars, we’re already well north of 50% of the US population.

  In other words, the US has already crossed the Rubicon. There’s no going back.

  The growing majority of voters who collect net benefits from the government is a built-in constituency to perpetuate policies financed by ever-increasing inflation.

  That’s a big reason why I think currency debasement is inevitable.

  What You Can Do

  Unfortunately, most people have no idea how bad things can get when the political-inflation cycle spirals out of control, let alone how to prepare.

  The price of groceries, medical care, tuition, rent, and everything else will only rise. The only question is, how fast will prices rise?

  It’s an established trend in motion that is accelerating and approaching a breaking point.

  We will likely see incredible volatility in the financial markets that could decimate many ordinary people’s life savings and retirement assets.

  But I’m not just talking about a stock market crash or a currency collapse…

  It’s something much bigger… with the potential to alter the fabric of society forever.

  It’s created an economic situation unlike we’ve ever seen before, and it’s all building up to a severe crisis on multiple fronts.

  It could all go down soon… and it won’t be pretty.

  It will result in an enormous wealth transfer from savers to the parasitical class—politicians, central bankers, and those connected to them.

  Countless millions throughout history were wiped out financially—or worse—during periods of profound change because they failed to see the correct Big Picture and take appropriate action.

  Don’t be one of them.

  That’s exactly why I just released an urgent new report with all the details, including what you must do to prepare. It’s called, The Most Dangerous Economic Crisis in 100 Years… the Top 3 Strategies You Need Right Now. Click here to download the PDF now.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/22/2023 – 22:45

• Trump Confirms Thursday Surrender In Georgia Case Over 2020 Election
  Trump Confirms Thursday Surrender In Georgia Case Over 2020 Election

  Authored by Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Former President Donald Trump confirmed on Monday that he will be surrendering to authorities at Fulton County Jail in Georgia on Thursday, Aug. 24, over the charges he faces for contesting the state’s 2020 election result.

  “Can you believe it? I’ll be going to Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday to be ARRESTED by a Radical Left District Attorney, Fani Willis, who is overseeing one of the greatest Murder and Violent Crime DISASTERS in American History,” he wrote on Truth Social.

  “In my case, the trip to Atlanta is not for ‘Murder,’ but for making a PERFECT PHONE CALL! She campaigned, and is continuing to campaign, and raise money, on this WITCH HUNT. This is in strict coordination with Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ. It is all about ELECTION INTERFERENCE!”

  

  Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had brought charges against President Trump and 18 co-defendants, all of whom were charged under Georgia’s Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. In all, the 98-page indictment included 161 acts of racketeering and 41 total charges. President Trump was charged on 13 counts.

  Bond Set at $200,000

  Also on Monday, Judge Scott McAfee began setting bond and release conditions for the defendants.

  According to newly posted court records (pdf), President Trump has agreed to have his bond set at $200,000.

  Following negotiations with the prosecution, Attorney John Eastman’s bond was set at $100,000; Scott Hall, a bail bondsman, had bond set at $10,000; Attorney Kenneth Chesebro’s bond was set at $100,000; and attorney Ray Smith III’s bond was set at $50,000.

  All of the defendants have bond conditions that prohibit what they can say, but President Trump is the only one whose restrictions include specific details, including prohibiting him from making any “direct or indirect threat of any nature” against codefendants, victims, the community, including in his “posts on social media or reposts of posts made by another individual on social media.

  Rising Poll Numbers

  President Trump’s polling has only trended upwards since his first indictment in April.

  Amid a flurry of recent legal action—motions have been filed in both criminal and civil cases that President Trump is named in—the GOP frontrunner’s polling has only improved.

  On Aug. 21, new poll numbers released put President Trump well ahead his challengers, especially as runner-up Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s numbers have been slipping.

  The difference was 62-16 percent according to a CBS poll, 57-18 percent according to a Quinnipiac University poll, and 53-16 percent according to a Fox News poll.

  In Iowa, a poll carried out by Des Moines Register, NBC News, and Mediacom put him at 42 percent of the vote that surveyed likely Republican caucus-goers. Mr. DeSantis came in at 19 percent, and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) placed third with 9 percent. When the former president was indicted for the first time earlier this year, he likewise saw a surge in the polls—and in fundraising.

  Observers have noted that the increased legal action against him may only make his supporters dig their heels in, as the legal challenges might be viewed as political action on the behalf of his rival, the incumbent president.

  President Joe Biden has stayed quiet on the matter, ignoring questions from the media about President Trump’s indictments. President Trump and his legal team have repeatedly denounced the cases brought against him as “election interference” and a “witch hunt” given the timing of the cases.

  Besides the Georgia case, President Trump is facing charges brought against him by the Department of Justice in both Washington, D.C., and Florida. Like the Georgia case, the Washington case concerns his challenge of the 2020 election results, but in federal instead of state court. The Florida case, also in federal court, regards his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Both cases are being overseen by special counsel Jack Smith.

  The Republican favourite is also facing both criminal and civil suits in New York.

  Janice Hisle contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/22/2023 – 22:05

• BRICS Nations Still Trail G7 In Per-Capita GDP
  BRICS Nations Still Trail G7 In Per-Capita GDP

  While the five BRICS nations have caught up with the G7 in terms of collective PPP-adjusted GDP, they still trail the G7’s mature economies by a significant margin in terms of GDP per capita – an often-used measure of economic development and prosperity.

  As Statista’s Felix Richter reports, according to the IMF, none of the five BRICS members even comes close to matching Japan’s GDP per capita, which in turn is the lowest among the G7 countries.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Using PPP-adjusted international dollars, the United States’ per-capita GDP amounts to $80,035, more than three times that of China, which amounts to $23,382.

  India, the world’s most populous country and third largest economy in terms of PPP-adjusted GDP, has by far the lowest GDP per capita among the twelve G7 and BRICS nations.

  The pace of progress has been rapid, nonetheless.

  Since the turn of the century, India’s GDP per capita increased nearly fivefold, trailing only China in that respect.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/22/2023 – 21:45

• Australia's Misinfo Bill Paves Way For Soviet-Style Censorship
  Australia’s Misinfo Bill Paves Way For Soviet-Style Censorship

  Authored by Rebekah Barnett via The Brownstone Institute,

  The Australian Government’s proposed new laws to crack down on misinformation and disinformation have drawn intense criticism for their potential to restrict free expression and political dissent, paving the way for a digital censorship regime reminiscent of Soviet Lysenkoism…

  

  Under the draft legislation, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will gain considerable expanded regulatory powers to “combat misinformation and disinformation,” which ACMA says poses a “threat to the safety and wellbeing of Australians, as well as to our democracy, society and economy.”

  Digital platforms will be required to share information with ACMA on demand, and to implement stronger systems and processes for handling of misinformation and disinformation.

  ACMA will be empowered to devise and enforce digital codes with a “graduated set of tools” including infringement notices, remedial directions, injunctions and civil penalties, with fines of up to $550,000 (individuals) and $2.75 million (corporations). Criminal penalties, including imprisonment, may apply in extreme cases.

  Controversially, the government will be exempt from the proposed laws, as will professional news outlets, meaning that ACMA will not compel platforms to police misinformation and disinformation disseminated by official government or news sources. 

  As the government and professional news outlets have been, and continue to be, a primary source of online misinformation and disinformation, it is unclear that the proposed laws will meaningfully reduce online misinformation and disinformation. Rather, the legislation will enable the proliferation of official narratives, whether true, false or misleading, while quashing the opportunity for dissenting narratives to compete. 

  Faced with the threat of penalty, digital platforms will play it safe. This means that for the purposes of content moderation, platforms will treat the official position as the ‘true’ position, and contradictory information as ‘misinformation.’

  Some platforms already do this. For example, YouTube recently removed a video of MP John Ruddick’s maiden speech to the New South Wales Parliament on the grounds that it contained ‘medical misinformation,’ which YouTube defines as any information that, “contradicts local health authorities’ or the World Health Organization’s (WHO) medical information about COVID-19.”

  YouTube has since expanded this policy to encompass a wider range of “specific health conditions and substances,” though no complete list is given as to what these specific conditions and substances are. Under ACMA’s proposed laws, digital platforms will be compelled to take a similar line.

  This flawed logic underpins much of the current academic misinformation research, including the University of Canberra study which informed the development of ACMA’s draft legislation. Researchers asked respondents to agree or disagree with a range of statements ranging from the utility of masks in preventing Covid infection and transmission, to whether Covid vaccines are safe. Where respondents disagreed with the official advice, they were categorised as ‘believing misinformation,’ regardless of the contestability of the statements.

  The potential for such circular definitions of misinformation and disinformation to escalate the censorship of true information and valid expression on digital platforms is obvious. 

  Free expression has traditionally been considered essential to the functioning of liberal democratic societies, in which claims to truth are argued out in the public square. Under ACMA’s bill, the adjudication of what is (and is not) misinformation and disinformation will fall to ‘fact-checkers,’ AI, and other moderation tools employed by digital platforms, all working to the better-safe-than-sorry-default of bolstering the official position against contradictory ‘misinformation.’ 

  But the assumption that such tools are capable of correctly adjudicating claims to truth is misguided. ‘Fact-checkers’ routinely make false claims and fall back on logical fallacies in lieu of parsing evidence. In US court proceedings, ‘fact-checker’ claims are protected under the First Amendment, confirming that the edicts of ‘fact-checkers’ are just opinion.

  Recent reporting on the gaming of social media moderation tools, most notably from the Twitter Files and the Facebook Files, shows that they comprise a powerful apparatus for promoting false narratives and suppressing true information, with significant real-world impacts. Take the Russia collusion hoax, which was seeded by think tanks and propagated by social media platforms and news media. The suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal is thought to have swung the 2020 US election outcome. 

  ACMA seeks to curtail expression under the proposition that misinformation and disinformation can cause ‘harm,’ but the scope is extraordinarily broad. A shopping list of potential harms includes: identity-based hatred; disruption of public order or society; harm to democratic processes; harm to government institutions; harm to the health of Australians; harm to the environment; economic or financial harm to Australians or to the economy.

  The overly broad and vague definitions offered in the bill for ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘serious harm’ makes enforcement of the proposed laws inherently subjective and likely to result in a litany of court cases – to the benefit of lawyers and the institutionally powerful, but to the detriment of everyone else. 

  Moreover, the definition of ‘disrupting public order’ as a serious and chronic harm could be used to prevent legitimate protest, a necessary steam valve in a functioning democracy. 

  ACMA says that the proposed laws aren’t intended to infringe on the right to protest, yet the erosion of protest rights during Covid lockdowns proves that politicians and bureaucrats are prone to take great latitude where the law allows it. The right to protest was effectively suspended in some states, with Victorian police using unprecedented violence and issuing charges of incitement to deter protestors. 

  In the US, the involvement of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in censoring online speech and, in particular, its framing of public opinion as ‘cognitive infrastructure’ demonstrates how even policies designed to combat ‘threats to infrastructure’ can be subverted as a means clamp down on ‘wrong-think.’

  In the past, extreme censorship has led to mass casualty events, such as the Soviet famine of the 1930s brought on by Lysenkoism. Biologist Trofim Lysenko’s unscientific agrarian policies were treated as gospel by Stalin’s censorious Communist regime. It was reported that thousands of dissenting scientists were dismissed, imprisoned, or executed for their efforts to challenge Lysenko’s policies. Up to 10 million lives were lost in the resultant famine – lives that could have been saved had the regime allowed the expression of viewpoints counter to the official position.

  History tells us that censorship regimes never end well, though it may take a generation for the deadliest consequences to play out. The draft legislation is now under review following a period of public consultation. Hopefully, the Australian Government will take the historical lesson and steer Australia off this treacherous path. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/22/2023 – 21:25

• Top US Food Imports By Origin Country
  Top US Food Imports By Origin Country

  The U.S. is a major producer and exporter of food products, but did you know that it’s also one of the world’s largest food importers?

  As Visual Capitalist’s Govind Bhutada details below, due to seasonality and climate, some foods can’t be grown on home soil, at least enough to fulfill consumption demands. Indeed, many familiar grocery items come from other countries.

  This infographic from Julie Peasley uses data from the Chatham House Resource Trade Database (CHRTD) to show where the U.S. gets its food from, highlighting the top exporting countries of various imported food items.

  
  

   

  The Types of Imported Foods

  The U.S. imported around $148 billion worth of agricultural products in 2020, and according to the USDA, this has since risen to $194 billion in 2022.

  Around 50% of all U.S. agricultural imports are horticultural products like fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, and more. Other large import categories include sugar and tropical products, meat, grains, and oilseeds.

  With that context in mind, we break down each category and highlight the five foods with the largest single-origin import value.

  Farm Fresh: Fruit and Vegetable Imports

  U.S. fruit and vegetable imports have been on a steady rise since 2000. In fact, between 2011 and 2021, fruits and nuts imports made up 44% of domestic consumption, while 35% of vegetables consumed in the U.S. came from outside the country.

  Mexico is by far the largest exporter of fruits and vegetables to the United States.

  

  The U.S. imported $2.5 billion worth of tomatoes from Mexico in 2020, representing 31% of international tomato trade. Avocados, native to central Mexico, were nearly as popular with $2.1 billion worth of imports.

  Generally, the largest exporters of fruits and vegetables to the U.S. are North and South American countries, with products often coming from Guatemala, Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, and Brazil.

  Beefed Up: Meat Imports

  The U.S. is the world’s largest overall consumer of beef (or bovine meat), and the third-largest per capita consumer at nearly 37.9 kg (84 lbs) per person per year.

  Therefore, despite being one of the top producers of beef, the country still imports a lot of it.

  

  Precisely, The U.S. imported $8.7 billion worth of meat in 2020. Canada was the largest source of imported beef, with the U.S. accounting for more than 70% of all Canadian beef exports.

  The sources of meat imports are more geographically diverse than fruits and vegetables, with billions of dollars of imports coming from New Zealand and Australia.

  Making Waves: Seafood Imports

  Despite plenty of coastlines, the U.S. imports 70–85% of all its seafood and accounted for 15% of global seafood imports in 2020 at $21.8 billion.

  Frozen shrimp and prawns were the top seafood import, with $1.9 billion worth from India.

  

  The largest source of U.S. seafood imports overall with $3.1 billion total was Canada, which leads in lobster, crab, and whole fish imports. It was followed by Chile at $2.1 billion, primarily for parts of fish (fillet or meat, fresh or chilled).

  Other Foods: Oils, Grains, Coffee, and More

  There are plenty of other types of foods and agricultural products that the U.S. relies on other countries for. Here are the largest single-origin U.S. food imports for the remaining categories:

  

  Some of the highest and potentially surprising exports? Imports of refined Canadian canola oil totaled $1.4 billion in 2020, while Vietnam exported a whopping $960 million worth of cashews to America.

  A Global Plate: The Diversity of U.S. Food Imports

  The amount and value of food imported to the U.S. highlights the diversity of consumer preferences and the importance of global food stocks, considering America is one of the world’s leading food producers.

  With countries having to rely on others to satisfy demand for limited production supply or exotic foods, the interconnectedness of the global food system is both vital and delicate.

  What’s clear is that the U.S. food plate is indeed a global one, with many foods taking remarkable journeys from farm to fork.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/22/2023 – 21:05

• 204 Chicago Homicides In Mayor Johnson's First 100 Days, Including Four Teenagers Killed Last Weekend
  204 Chicago Homicides In Mayor Johnson’s First 100 Days, Including Four Teenagers Killed Last Weekend

  By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner of Wirepoints

  It would be naïve to think that a progressive Chicago mayor could actually reduce the city’s crime numbers during his first 100 days in office, but Brandon Johnson did have a real opportunity to flip the trajectory. Chicago’s crime had already hit its post-George Floyd, post-covid highs in 2022 (see appendix) and Mayor Lori Lightfoot had made a major mess of policing and criminal justice. Johnson had a perfect chance to lead, and maybe even bring the crime numbers down.

  

  Unfortunately, Johnson has refused to even try to tamp down on crime during his first 100 days. If anything, he’s doubled down on the city’s long-running soft-on-crime approach. He continues to reject calling out the city’s violence for what it is, downplaying mob actions and resorting to semantics. And he keeps talking and talking about ‘root causes,’ but refuses to stop what’s happening nightly on the city’s streets. 

  His failure to act means the bloodshed continues. New Chicago Police CompStat numbers show during Johnson’s first 100 days a total of 204 murders – far more than the mayor’s two immediate predecessors. And in all, major crimes during Johnson’s first 100 days are up 25 percent compared to the same time period last year.

  The events of last weekend capture the essence of the city’s terrible violence, with 40 shot and seven murdered, including four teens (credit to ABC7 for the details):

  • A 14-year-old boy was fatally shot in his head and chest on Chicago’s South Side, police said. The shooting happened in the 8700-block of South Cregier Avenue at about 6:51 p.m. 

  • A 16-year-old boy has died after he was shot Friday at around 7:49 p.m. in the 4400-block of S. Lavergne on the city’s Southwest Side. CPD said the teen was struck multiple times to the body by gunfire.

  • A 17-year-old girl was shot to death at a West Side Park on Saturday afternoon. Chicago police said she, along with a 16-year-old boy, were shot while a block party was going on nearby. The shooting happened in the North Austin neighborhood’s 5700-block of West Bloomingdale Avenue at about 4:10 p.m.

  • An 18-year-old passenger of a car was shot and killed Friday night in the West Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side. The youth was inside a car just before 10 p.m. in the 4300-block of West Maypole Avenue when someone fired shots, striking him in the head, cheek and abdomen, Chicago police said.

  In all, the total number of teens aged 18 and under killed since Johnson took office has grown to 33.

  

  The 204 homicide total during Johnson’s first 100 days is 25 percent higher than it was under Lori Lightfoot’s first 100 days and 33 percent higher compared to Rahm Emanuel’s back in 2011.

  

  And while it’s true that Chicago has experienced a decline in homicides – murders in 2023 are down 7 percent compared to the same period last year – the other big cities with the nation’s most homicides are seeing far bigger declines in murders YTD. Los Angeles homicides are down 24 percent this year, while Philly’s and Houston’s are down 21 and 23 percent respectively. New York is down 11 percent.

  And major crimes overall this year are still up 34 percent – on top of last year’s own 33 percent increase.

  Slower growth in crime?

  One claim Johnson might make is that he’s presiding over a decline in the growth of the crime rate since he took over. Major crimes are up 25 percent since May 15th (versus the same period in 2022), slower than the 42 percent increase that occurred during the nearly five months of 2023 when Lightfoot was still in charge. 

  But the “reduction” in crime growth can be attributed largely to the relatively stable number of motor vehicle thefts Chicago is experiencing in 2023 as compared to 2022, when an explosion in motor vehicle thefts began in June and peaked four months later. 

  The city’s crime rate has grown more slowly the last two months simply because Chicago isn’t experiencing the same massive growth in car thefts it had last year. 

  Note, though, that the actual number of car thefts in 2023 are running much, much higher than 2022 so far. Already, Chicago has experienced 17,000 car thefts in 2023 compared to “just” 8,000 in the same period last year. We just covered those numbers in detail in: Spree of robberies, car thefts drive Chicago crime to new highs.

  

  Root causes, real solutions

  A key point we have to make when discussing crime: Yes, root causes matter. Tremendously. 

  The lack of two-parent households matters. So does a lack of reading, writing and math skills. As does the city’s neighborhoods struggling with few jobs and fewer opportunities. All that has to be fixed.

  But reaching agreement on the causes and solutions of crime – even among allies – can take years or decades. 

  In the meantime, Chicagoans are suffering the consequences of a post-pandemic-high crime wave: more violence, more stolen and destroyed property, and more deaths.

  The short-term solution remains the same for Chicago: deterrence. As we’ve written time and again, that means a dramatic increase in policing, arrests, prosecutions and sentencing.

  Without such changes, Brandon Johnson’s next 100 days will continue to be bloody.

  A final point. The mayor has a unique position to speak directly to offenders and their parents and get them to listen. But so far he has squandered that, making no attempt to say that criminal conduct is deeply wrong. 

  Appendix.

  

  Read more from Wirepoints:

  • Spree of robberies, car thefts drive Chicago crime to new highs
  • Red states, blue cities: Who’s to blame for America’s homicide crisis
  • What Chicago requires immediately is deterrence. Stop the bleed. Fast.
  • Chicago, New Orleans were the nation’s murder capitals in 2022 – A Wirepoints survey of America’s 75 largest cities
  • Not ‘mob action…they are not baby Al Capones’ says Chicago Mayor Johnson about latest youth violence

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/22/2023 – 20:45

• Watch: 'Good Guy' With Gun (& Six-Pack Of Beer) Takes Down 'Bad Guy' With Knife
  Watch: ‘Good Guy’ With Gun (& Six-Pack Of Beer) Takes Down ‘Bad Guy’ With Knife

  Authored by Athena Thorne via PJ Media,

  Today’s feel-good story comes to us from Cass County, Mich. A law-abiding gentleman with a concealed carry permit was picking up a six-pack of Miller Lite in his local gas station convenience store. Suddenly, 35-year-old Cordelius Anthony Martin burst into the establishment. “You know why I’m here,” declared Martin. He pulled a mask over his face and rushed the terrified clerk, brandishing a boxcutter.

  

  From the next aisle, our hero alertly watched the interaction. He would later explain to the police that he “could not see what was in the robber’s hand, but he could see the look of fear on the clerk’s face,” reported WOOD TV8 (video below). Cool as a cucumber, the carrying customer reacted as one expects a hero would: by calmly drawing his firearm and neutralizing the threat to the innocent store worker.

  Of the seven rounds our hero let off, at least three struck the armed robber: in the arm, the back, and the face. The bad guy went down. As he crawled toward the shooter, the alpha citizen realized he had time to run out to the car to fetch another loaded magazine, which he did. He then held the robber at gunpoint until the police arrived.

  Martin spent a couple of days in the hospital before being released — only to be arraigned on three charges, including armed robbery, and held on a $100,000 bond. A three-time felon, Martin faces life in prison for his latest escapade.

  It remains unclear whether the unnamed hero will face charges of his own. “In Michigan, obviously, we do have defense of others as part of the law, in Michigan, that you can defend others if they’re in a situation that there’s dangerous force being used against them,” Cass County Prosecutor Victor Fitz told WOOD TV8. “And certainly in this case, we’ll be looking at the facts in regard to that.”

  The store clerk says, simply, of the Good Samaritan, “He saved my life.” Plus, the hero has plentiful melanin levels in his skin, so he is presumably immune to hate crime charges. His prospects for remaining unmolested by excessive law enforcement look promising in this case.

  The incident occurred at the Stone Lake Marathon mini-mart on July 27, but police only recently released the footage. It can be seen in this report from WOOD TV8. Enjoy!

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/22/2023 – 20:25

• A Letter To Our Betters
  A Letter To Our Betters

  Authored by Eric Lundrum via American Greatness,

  To those who rule over us, though not by our own choice;

  To those who could not care less about this nation we call our home, but instead only care for their own power, glory, and enrichment;

  To those who consider themselves better than us, and view us with nothing but the utmost contempt:

  

  We know exactly who you are. Now, more than ever before, We The People have had the wool pulled from our eyes, due in large part to your own arrogance. You have ended up as our ruling class, through manipulation rather than merit, through deception rather than democracy, and through favoritism rather than free elections.

  And we know all this through the efforts of one man: The man that you are now attempting to sentence to hundreds of years in one of your gulags, all for the crime of exposing your treachery at the highest levels. Most simply, Donald J. Trump committed a sin that, in your eyes, is far more egregious than such trivial crimes as bribery, sexual impropriety, abuse of power, or even outright treason. President Trump’s only crime was to humiliate the lot of you, at every level and in both parties. The damage to your ego is a far greater offense than any actual criminal wrongdoing committed by many career politicians of days gone by.

  That is why you now hunt the man with all the relentlessness of Ahab pursuing his White Whale. And that is why we are now more resolved than ever before to stop you. Quite simply, the fight to save Donald Trump is the fight to save America: His struggle now is unlike any smear, intimidation, and character assassination campaign faced by any other political figure in American history. And it is only so because you have made it so. The more viscerally you react to him, and the more deranged your attacks against him, the more determined his supporters become to stand by him through it all.

  But this all goes far beyond President Trump.

  You dictate to us from your halls of marble, built ages ago by far greater men than you will ever be, and in so doing desecrate the memory of those who came before us. If our Founding Fathers could see the state of their nation today, they would either believe that the Revolution had failed; or, perhaps, they would even regret the Revolution altogether if this was the ultimate end result.

  You have actively led a widespread and systematic effort to erase our nation’s history, from the legacy of those very Founders to the statues and other monuments meant to stand through all of time as a tribute to their greatness. Whether by mobs of roaming thugs or by official decree, you have sought to tear down the very memory of those who built the nation that you now run.

  You speak down to us from your houses of glass, eternally – and perhaps deliberately – oblivious to the two-tiered society you have created for your own benefit and at our expense.

  You claim to fight for “democracy,” and yet actively obstruct the will of we, the 63 million, from the moment our chosen leader laid his hand on the Bible. Your bureaucrats determined that an archaic “interagency consensus” should override the desires of the American people and their elected commander-in-chief.

  When he called out the corruption of one of your leading political puppets, and suggested that such corruption should be investigated, you responded by putting him through a nakedly political impeachment trial. You made a crime out of noticing a crime, even after the former Vice President quite literally confessed to committing the corrupt act to which President Trump was referring.

  You used an over-exaggerated Chinese virus to take away our rights, our way of life, and our sense of self for several years, even while you continued to live your lives freely with your high-class restaurants and extremely essential hair appointments. As the masses starved, financially and otherwise, your very own Marie Antoinette declared “let them eat ice cream.” You even used the then-impending pandemic to enrich yourselves, with no consequences still to this day.

  When the second great disease of 2020 – vicious and violent race riots – tore through the country and devastated thousands of us little people, you actively cheered on the terrorists and agitators. Your PR teams in the mainstream media declared the riots to be “fiery but mostly peaceful.” Your future Vice President openly promoted an effort to release violent anarchists who had just destroyed the property of defenseless American citizens. And your friends in the corporate world, with their black squares and black fists, crowed their support for the violence which cleared out many small businesses that competed with their massive companies.

  And you let savages burn down our country over what? A career criminal, a man who threatened pregnant women at gunpoint, and who, in the end, met his demise not at the knee of his arresting officer, but at the hands of the drugs to which he was addicted. In response, your corrupt judicial system locked up the police officers who simply did their job by restraining a monster. When brave citizens took it upon themselves to fight off other criminals during that fiery summer, you similarly thrust upon them the whole weight of your so-called “justice system,” sometimes with deadly consequences. In a complete inversion that would stun even Orwell, you legalized crime, and then made it a crime to fight crime.

  Your so-called “intelligence” agencies spent years crafting the biggest lie in modern politics, and then doubled down when your narrative of “Russian collusion” was debunked. You then outdid yourselves with an even greater lie, declaring that the stolen election of 2020 was the “most secure” election in our history…and yet, in your arrogance, your propagandists in the rags of the media couldn’t help but admit, in their own smug way, that the election was indeed stolen from the man who was re-elected by we, the 74 million.

  For all your pearl-clutching over the events on January 6th, you have spent years ignoring previous or subsequent acts of violence carried out against government figures: You let protestors storm the Capitol in 2018 in protest of a Supreme Court justice’s confirmation, and you have cheered on as waves of radical, pro-transgender protesters storm state capitols all across the country. When lawmakers of your preferred party embrace such actions that are, by your own definition, “insurrectionist,” you instead make celebrities out of them.

  And yet you continue to shamelessly suppress the rights of hundreds of American citizens over that single short, peaceful protest at the U.S. Capitol. You have sentenced Americans who were not even present that day to decades in prison, with others sentenced to re-education routines more reminiscent of the U.S.S.R. than the U.S.A, determined to purge any “wrongthink” from the minds of rubes who, according to you, just don’t know any better. You even sent your agents to infiltrate the defense teams of unsuspecting defendants, proving that our judicial system and the very notion of the rule of law itself are nothing more than hastily-discarded suggestions for you.

  And once more, your mad power trip has even led to several good American men taking their own lives due to the endless misery to which you subjected them. But no statues are built of them, nor murals painted in their honor, nor streets renamed for them. That luxury is reserved for actual criminals.

  Since the fateful day your senile puppet seized power, your absolute disregard for the wellbeing of the American people has only made itself even more apparent. You have forced all of us to accept some of the most sickening beliefs and behaviors that this world has ever seen, as perfectly encapsulated by the perverse delusions of those who call themselves “transgender.” You have promoted the most vile of degenerate freaks ever to serve in the federal government, only relieving them of their positions after incontrovertible evidence of them committing multiple crimes.

  At the altar of transgenderism, you expressed more sympathy for a mass shooter than for the shooter’s underaged and Christian victims, declaring that the true victims were actually the shooter’s fellow “trans” people. To this day, your mobsters in law enforcement have forbidden the release of the shooter’s manifesto, knowing full well that her demented scribblings would confirm the true beliefs of all who suffer from this anti-biological affliction.

  When transgenders are not massacring children, they are indoctrinating them. You have demanded that America’s impressionable young children obediently accept these teachings, even if it means protecting rapists. If the father of a violated girl speaks out, you have your police beat and arrest him in a demonstration of your power. If more parents join his cause and speak out just as he did, your ersatz Department of Justice and faux Attorney General will label them as “domestic terrorists.”

  The same nonexistent attorney general has rather conveniently turned a blind eye to far-left agitators terrorizing Supreme Court justices in the name of their “right” to murder babies, despite such acts being clear violations of federal law. But he did find the time to revive dismissed charges against a pro-life pastor, even going so far as to have the man arrested at gunpoint by a swarm of agents, all in front of his screaming children.

  And in perhaps the single greatest crime against the American people, you have actively assisted a mass invasion of this fine land by foreign hordes, with the promise of a life in America paid for by We the People. You have even gone so far as to directly import these third-world defilers into our homeland, with your pseudo president openly cheering for the replacement of our people.

  You attempt to distract from such domestic crimes with grand overseas affairs; but these matters too have exposed your corruption and contempt for the American people. You single-handedly delivered the greatest military defeat in our nation’s esteemed history, producing nightmarish images that led to the entire world viewing us as a weak nation. You have continued to demand that We the People silently comply with an endless supply of our money going towards an equally endless conflict in Europe.

  Meanwhile, your installed president cannot even be bothered to comment on the devastating destruction of one of the most beautiful locations on Earth, which just so happens to be located in an American state. But this should come as no surprise: After all, this same Resident of the United States demonstrated his clear preference for the fake nation of Palestine over the American town of East Palestine.

  And all the while, the man now occupying our great White House is actively covering up his entire corrupt family’s past of enriching themselves at the expense of our national sovereignty. His son is free to commit crimes for which others have spent years in prison, knowing that his father’s government will give him the most generous of plea deals.

  So here we arrive, at our current state of affairs. This long train of abuses and usurpations which you have carried out for decades has culminated in the greatest offense yet against the American people, which just so happens to be the one thing that unites every faction of your shadow government: Your unholy hatred of the one man who is fighting for We the People, and the one man who could stop you.

  And that is why we will continue to support Donald J. Trump. That is why he remains the people’s president. Every time you attack him, he only grows stronger, as does our support for him. You continue dragging all of us towards the point of no return, the danger of the looming precipice only surpassed by the extreme thinness of the ice upon which you currently stand. Either you will take us over the edge, or the thin ice will break beneath you first.

  With your increasingly authoritarian displays of brute power and disregard for We the People, you have truly forced our great nation off the edge of the map. But, just as in physics, one law always applies in politics: No matter how far, nor how fast, the pendulum may swing in one direction, it will always, inevitably, swing back in the opposite direction.

  The position in which the pendulum of our nation currently resides has resulted in the Tree of Liberty becoming quite dry. It thus stands to reason that whenever the pendulum swings at last to the other side, it will end up in a position that will ultimately see a long-overdue flood of nourishment for the Tree.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/22/2023 – 20:05

• A Sober Look At Four Indictments
  A Sober Look At Four Indictments

  Authored by Josh Kantrow via AmericanThinker.com,

  I’ve read the indictments and it seems that three of the four cases against Trump are pretty weak.

  

  Georgia (election interference)

  Using tweets to support a RICO case?  

  Come on.  

  Plus taking two and a half years to investigate and now pressing for a trial in six months, to interfere with the primaries, seems to be the very definition of election interference.

  D.C. (election interference)

  If lying politicians can be prosecuted for fraud, as Special Counsel Jack Smith proposes, we’ll need many new prisons.  

  The case impinges on Trump’s free speech rights.  Plus, how does Mr. Smith intend to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, Trump’s subjective belief that he knew that the fraud claims he was advancing were baseless?

  As to these two cases, as I’ve said since January 6, I’m not about to defend Trump’s post-election conduct.  But judgment should be left to voters, not jurors.

  New York (Stormy Daniels hush money payment)

  This indictment is based on falsifying business records to pay a mistress.  

  That’s normally chargeable as a misdemeanor payable by a fine.  

  That Alvin Bragg, who campaigned on getting Trump, has brought felony charges, while he fails to prosecute some cases involving violent crime, is ridiculous.  This case should be settled and go away.

  Florida (refusing to return documents)

  The strongest case.  Trump stepped right into it here.  His lawyers negotiated with the National Archives, DOJ, and others for over a year.  All he had to do was give the documents back.  But it appears as though he did not, then lied about it, then obstructed. 

  Here’s the overarching problem with the cases.  Prosecutors use their discretion all the time not to prosecute, as we see in cities across the U.S. where “progressive” district attorneys choose not to prosecute violent crime, or offer sweetheart deals.  The DOJ does this as well (Hillary and Hunter). 

  Yet in the case of Trump, state and federal prosecutors seem to be going out of their way to bring charges against Trump in venues highly favorable to the prosecutors.  Indeed, many of the counts involve novel, creative, and “unprecedented” legal theories.  This further sows mistrust that we have a two-tier justice system and increases the partisan divide.  Plus there are concerns as to whether Trump can get a fair trial in New York City; Washington, D.C.; and Fulton County, Georgia.

  As noted, the one exception to this is the Florida documents case.  While the DOJ could have used its discretion not to prosecute, as they did with Hillary and Hunter, for example, Trump owns this one due to his behavior.  This case, however, also was brought in the one venue that probably favors Trump.

  In my view, there is a grand bargain that would resolve this legal pile-up.  Trump agrees not to run for public office again, and in return pleads guilty to a few misdemeanors or low-level felonies, pays some hefty fines, and goes away.  The country can then move on to the serious problems it faces, most notably tackling the national debt, entitlement reform, securing our border, reforming our immigration system to allow for more skilled workers and less unskilled ones, figuring out how to deal with artificial intelligence (which may be an even greater disruption to our lives than the internet), and how to confront China. 

  All this is probably just wishful thinking on my part.  The hatred of Trump by the left may prevent prosecutors from dismissing some or all the cases in exchange for Trump not running.  Plus Trump hates to look like a loser, which is how dropping his candidacy may be perceived.

  Instead, these indictments may result in Trump gaining more support.

  If the goal of the prosecutors is to interfere in the Republican primaries to advance Trump to the general election, they may come to see they played with fire, and instead of burning Trump instead caught fire themselves.  

  All Trump has to do is flip 44,000 votes in three states in 2024 to regain the presidency.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/22/2023 – 19:25

• Bud Light Backlash "Shows Little Signs Of Abating", Citi Warns
  Bud Light Backlash “Shows Little Signs Of Abating”, Citi Warns

  The Bud Light backlash shows no signs of stopping: AB InBev’s US volumes tanked 15.2% this past month, according to Citi, citing new data from Nielsen. The brewer has not apologized to its base drinkers for its tone-deaf transgender TikTok campaign in April. 

  Here are the main points of Citi analyst Simon Hales’ note to clients about “the ongoing backlash to Bud Light’s social media campaign”: 

  • ABInBev beer volumes dropped by 15.2% in 4 weeks.

  • Market average decrease: 2.8%.

  • Beer price/mix increased by 4.1%.

  • Total dollar sales for beer fell by 11.7%.

  • ABInBev’s total value share decreased by 484bps.

  • Beer value share dropped by 555bps.

  • Bud Light backlash persists.

  • Bud Light contributes to ~30% of the group’s US revenues (about 8% of the group).

  • Bud Light volumes: -29.7%; previously -29.9%.

  • Budweiser volumes: -25.3%; previously -26.2%.

  In the US beer, flavored malt beverage, cider, and seltzer markets, AB InBev is the only major brewer experiencing widespread declines in total value share and volumes in the last four weeks. 

  

  AB InBev’s brand portfolio is suffering at a time when US beer, flavored malt beverage, cider, and seltzer markets are marginally growing. 

  

  Citi’s Hales shows AB InBev’s sales are at a critical low — where either the brewer can revive demand through proper marketing — maybe an apology might work — or face a second exodus wave as drinkers switch to other beers. 

  

  An in-depth view of AB InBev’s declines by brand. 

  

  Hales shows Molson Coors has been one of the biggest winners following Bud Light Marketing VP Alissa Heinerscheid’s move to ‘nuke’ the brand with ‘woke’ transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. She was eventually fired. 

  

  In a separate report, Deutsche Bank analyst Mitch Collett warned Bud Light faced a 25% permanent loss of its business. 

  Billy Busch, the heir to the Anheuser-Busch dynasty, made a few recent television appearances, telling AB InBev that he would like to buy back the ailing brand to “make the brand great again” (free from woke). 

  Bud Light’s PR nightmare, combined with its summertime marketing flop, has failed to revive the brand (for now). Could consumers have finally seen through the façade and realized Bud Light has been handing them ‘piss water masquerading as beer’ for years? 

  Meanwhile, the new top-selling beer in the US is Modelo Especial. Epoch Times explained more:

  Modelo Especial is now the top-selling beer in the United States, surpassing Bud Light, whose popularity has plummeted in the midst of a lengthy boycott.

  Data from Nielsen IQ shows Modelo Especial’s sales at beer and grocery stores surpassed Bud Light’s for the entire year, according to CNN. Modelo got 8.34 percent share of dollars spent on beer, as compared to 8.28 percent for Bud Light from the start of 2023 to Aug. 12.

  “The fact that we became the number-one beer in America due to a competitor’s moves is not accurate,” Jim Sabia, executive vice president and managing director of Constellation Brands, said in a recent statement.

  Several brewers in the Mid-Atlantic region told us they’ve increased light beer production and expanded portfolios to take market share away from AB InBev. For those seeking a real American-owned beer, ditch the Belgian brewer in favor of local brewers. 

  More in the full note available to pro subs.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/22/2023 – 19:05

• How Much Of Today's 'Racism' Is Manufactured?
  How Much Of Today’s ‘Racism’ Is Manufactured?

  Authored by Roger Kimball via RealClearPolitics.com,

  The real problem with racism in America today is that demand far outstrips supply. Where does the demand come from? Chiefly from our woke elites. It is they who understand that the charge of “racism” is a potent meal ticket and guarantor of institutionalized political power. Accordingly, they have a large stake in perpetuating the reign of racism. In this realm, too, incentives matter.

  

  It is also worth noting that many of these elite race cadets are white. Blacks are invited to participate in this theatrical production, but only so long as they play their assigned roles. They must mouth the pieties about “systemic,” i.e., perpetual, incurable racism. 

  The main narrative of this drama is racial conflict, enforced and perpetuated partly by a woke media machine, partly by governmental fiat. The real goal is the destruction of America as a meritocratic republic that cherishes individual liberty and the rule of law.

  These are points that Thomas D. Klingenstein makes in “Racism in America Today: A Real or Manufactured Problem?”, a powerful speech he delivered at the Women’s National Republican Club earlier this summer and just posted on his website at tomklingenstein.com.

  “To a very significant degree,” he argues, racism is a weapon “crafted by woke Leftists in order to overthrow the American way of life.”

  Klingenstein, chairman of the Claremont Institute, is refreshingly forthright. “To the woke Left I say, ‘if you want to destroy America, then we will fight you and defeat you. America is not yours to destroy.’” Hear, hear.

  This speech is full of hard truths.

  “Blacks commit more than 50% of the violent crime in America,” Klingenstein notes, “yet are only about 13% of population. The woke tell us this is due to racism, but Americans know better. We know that racism does not cause more crime, or out-of-wedlock births, or lower academic achievement.” 

  And here’s the kicker:

  “It is not racism but culture that causes outcome differences. But the woke make it very difficult for the rest of us to say it, because if it’s culture that explains outcome differences then the blame rests not on whites but on blacks.”

  That grinding sound you hear is The Narrative coming unglued. 

  Klingenstein is also clearsighted about the ultimate aim of the woke weaponization of race: “group outcome equality.” Most Americans, he points out, believe in color-blind advancement according to merit. Hence “these two goals are utterly irreconcilable. You can’t offer admission to college, medical school, law school, flight training, or anything else according to race and other quotas and, at the same time, offer admission according to merit. It’s one or the other: merit or group quotas.”

  Klingenstein is right: “These irreconcilable goals make this struggle a war,” a war in which “the woke Left seeks total victory.” We do not often acknowledge the uncompromising nature of this ideology. What it wants is not compromise, and certainly not conciliation. What it wants is the utter destruction of its enemy, which is us. 

  This generally unacknowledged home truth helps to explain why the word “racism” silences conversation and sends an anticipatory shudder of delight down the spines of politically correct vigilantes of virtue. Like the word “heretic” in an earlier age, “racism” is more weapon than word. Its primary effect is not to describe but to intimidate, ostracize, and silence. 

  What semantic significance it may command is overshadowed by its use as an epithet. Once  it is successfully applied to a person or practice, a sort of secular damnation, or at least excommunication, ensues. Seldom is there any appeal, let alone absolution. Those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, said St. Mark, cannot be forgiven. Racism is the eternal, the unforgivable, sin of our age. Those successfully accused of racism are beyond the pale, cast out into utter darkness. 

  It would be a tall order to explain why this should be so, but it seems clear, as Klingenstein notes, that charges of racism and the pursuit of power go hand in hand. 

  The deployment of power always attracts acolytes and entrepreneurs. So it is no surprise that a thriving cottage industry has grown up around accusations of racism. Elsewhere I have called the resulting enterprise “Racism, Inc.” There is no shortage of workers on that assembly line. On college campuses (but not only on college campuses, as such names as Al Sharpton and Ibram X. Kendi remind us), the bludgeon of “racism” is a popular and effective instrument of moral one-upmanship and social control, not to mention intellectual conformity and economic blackmail.

  Given the prominence of “racism” in today’s lexicon of moral opprobrium, it is curious that the word itself is of very recent vintage. Indeed, it is a neologism so recent that it does not appear in the 1971 Oxford English Dictionary. The Supplement to my edition of the OED (printed in 1961) introduces “racialism” – the “tendency to racial feeling; antagonism between different races of men” – but fails to provide an equivalent of our multipurpose imprecation “racism.” 

  Perhaps that fact is itself evidence of a particularly insidious form of racism – all the more insidious because it is unacknowledged. Or perhaps that fact, along with the recentness of the word in any currency, suggests that there is something artificial, manufactured, or even cynically manipulative about the tort it describes.

  Klingenstein’s speech reminded me of a profound observation made some years ago by the philosopher Sidney Hook.

  “As morally offensive as is the expression of racism wherever it is found,” Hook wrote, “a false charge of racism is equally offensive, perhaps even more so, because the consequences of a false charge of racism enable an authentic racist to conceal his racism by exploiting the loose way the term is used to cover up his actions.”

  Hook wrote that several decades ago. Tom Klingenstein reminds us that we have yet to catch up with it.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/22/2023 – 18:45

• China Retaliates Over Fukushima Water Dump: Blocks Seafood Imports As Nobody "Wants To Eat Radioactive Salmon"
  China Retaliates Over Fukushima Water Dump: Blocks Seafood Imports As Nobody “Wants To Eat Radioactive Salmon”

  In July, the UN’s nuclear watchdog gave Japan the “greenlight” to dump ‘treated’ radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima plant into the Pacific Ocean. And now, the world braces for the first release of radioactive water on Thursday. What could possibly go wrong?

  Tokyo Electric Power Company (better known as TEPCO) will begin discharging 1.34 million tons of radioactive water that has accumulated since the 2011 tsunami destroyed the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant. It’s part of a $150 billion clean-up effort after the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. 

  On Tuesday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida cleared TEPCO for the Thursday release at a meeting of Cabinet ministers. 

  Kishida said at the meeting that the release of the water is essential for the progress of the plant decommissioning and Fukushima prefecture’s recovery from the March 11, 2011, disaster.

  He said the government has done everything for now to ensure the safety, combat the reputational damage for the fisheries and to provide transparent and scientific explanation to gain understanding in and outside the country. He pledged that the government will continue the effort until the end of the release and decommissioning, which will take decades. –Bloomberg

  The discharge of radioactive water will be released over three decades and has been filtered and diluted. But that hasn’t stopped China and Hong Kong, some of the largest buyers of Japan’s seafood exports, from issuing warnings about bans on seafood imports from 10 prefectures if the dump begins. 

  Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee stated this week that he had “immediately instructed” trade officials to impose import control measures to “protect Hong Kong’s food safety and public health.”

  “The Japanese government insists on discharging nuclear wastewater into the sea.

  “This unprecedented decision and practice of discharging a large amount of nuclear waste over 30 years — regardless of the inextricable risks to food safety and the irreversible pollution and damage to the marine environment — is an irresponsible imposition on others,” Lee wrote in a Facebook post. 

  In July, Hong Kong banned seafood imports from the Japanese regions of Tokyo, Fukushima, Chiba, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Gunma, Miyagi, Niigata, Nagano, and Saitama. Hong Kong is Japan’s second-largest market, after mainland China, for seafood exports. 

  Reuters spoke with Halry Yu, 42, owner of the Japanese restaurant Hassun in Hong Kong, who said more than 90% of seafood sent to the city is from Tokyo. He warned:

  “If they ban imports that come via Tokyo, I think all sushi restaurants in Hong Kong will be in trouble. There are some seafood supplies from Osaka, but variety is limited.”

  Meanwhile, Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the Chinese state-run Global Times, posted a model of the radioactive water being released that could “Pollute China and the US in 3 years” and “Pollute the whole world in 10 years.” He asked: “Anyone wants to eat radioactive salmon?” 

  According to a model made by Tsinghua University, the nuclear-contaminated wastewater discharged by Japan will:

  -Pollute China and US in 3 years
  -Pollute the whole world in 10 years

  Anyone wants to eat radioactive salmon? pic.twitter.com/m9JcAvuilc

  — Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) August 22, 2023

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

  Oddly enough, there has not been a peep about this clear and present ocean disaster from either the original Greta, or her new and improved version for mass-consumption replacement, Sophia Kianni. 

  Both social media teams of Kianni and Greta are either bashing oil companies this week or promoting the world is burning — still nothing on Japan. 

  Amidst the climate alarmists, Greta and her upgraded version, Kianni (touted as Greta 2.0), seem strangely silent on Japan’s attempt to destroy the oceans with radioactive water. The conspicuous absence of outrage and coverage makes some realize these kids are just puppets, something we’ve known all along, in which they promote nonsense climate ‘news’ to distract from the real disasters. 

  We still remember Greta. 

  

  Where’s the coverage on Japan Greta and Greta 2.0?

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/22/2023 – 18:25

• 14 US Cities Initiate New Globalist Climate Plan In Partnership With Soros & The Clintons
  14 US Cities Initiate New Globalist Climate Plan In Partnership With Soros & The Clintons

  Authored by Jack Hellner via AmericanThinker.com,

  The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group is a globalist enterprise with at least 14 partners right here in the U.S., and, they have set an “ambitious target” to convince the masses to give up meat, dairy, and private car ownership, as well as almost all flights, to supposedly save the planet and control temperatures forever around the current level.

  

  From RedState yesterday:

  Fourteen major American cities are part of a globalist climate organization known as the ‘C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group,’ which has an ‘ambitious target‘ by the year 2030 of ‘0 kg [of] meat consumption,’ ‘0 kg [of] dairy consumption,’ ‘3 new clothing items per person per year,’ ‘0 private vehicles’ owned, and ‘1 short-haul return flight (less than 1500 km) every 3 years per person.’ …

  The organization is headed and largely funded by Democrat billionaire Michael Bloomberg. Nearly 100 cities across the world make up the organization, and its American members include Austin, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Seattle.

  So 14 leftist cities in the U.S. have signed on to this commitment to take away freedom of choice from their citizens, while people suffer under rampant crime and children perform poorly in schools, but their priority is to take away milk, meat, and gas-powered cars. 

  Got it.

  Major funders and partners of the organization include George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, the Clinton Foundation, and The World Bank.

  Michael Bloomberg, the president of the group, is himself transported via gas-guzzling private jets and limousines, to his many mansions around the world.  From Fox News:

  Flight records show that Bloomberg’s private jets took more than 1,700 trips and emitted at least 10,000 metric tons of CO2 from August 2016 to August 2020, a Business Insider analysis found. A typical car emits about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide in one year.

  Bloomberg has access to multiple private jets, but he wants to limit us to one short-haul flight every three years.

  He probably pretends he cares about his carbon footprint by buying worthless pieces of paper called carbon credits.  His real estate portfolio consists of “at least 11 homes,” and he owns a fleet of luxury personal vehicles:

  To suit his luxurious fortune, he owns a Mercedes-Benz Maybach sedan. His Audi R8 is the one that shows athletic personification. Like a mandated SUV in the home of every celeb, Cadillac Escalade is tuned in black color. After not getting satisfied with one, he owns another fullsize SUV from Chevrolet.

  Bloomberg and other green pushers tell people their gas-powered cars are destroying the planet, yet he has a massive car collection of gas-guzzlers.

  They want to outlaw milk; does that include breastfeeding?  Pretty sure that’s a dairy product, and women and babies breathe out that vicious CO2, a non-pollutant, clear gas that makes plants thrive.

  These billionaires generate massive pollution and pollute people’s minds with talking points to indoctrinate the people to fall for pure propaganda.

  What you will never see in these articles or in these policies is scientific data that show a direct correlation between milk and temperature, cars and temperature, meat and temperature, the population and temperature, crude oil consumption and temperature, or CO2 and temperature.  The temperature fluctuates no matter what the other variables do.

  You will also not see any correlation between any of these variables and storm activity or sea levels.

  When there is no correlation, you can’t assume causation.  It is all a scam.

  The sole purpose of these big government policies by leftists is to control our lives.

  These billionaires and other leftists pretend they care about the poor and middle classes and small business, but every day, they show that is a blatant lie.  They are extremely dangerous to our survival as a great and prosperous country, as are all the journalists who regurgitate the talking points without asking questions or doing any research.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/22/2023 – 18:05

• 'Bread And Water': Bankman-Fried Denied Vegan Meals, Adderall — And Is Running Out Of Anti-Depressant
  ‘Bread And Water’: Bankman-Fried Denied Vegan Meals, Adderall — And Is Running Out Of Anti-Depressant

  FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was tossed in pre-trial detention until his Oct. 2 trial after he showed a journalist from the NY Times private writings from his ex-girlfriend and business partner, Caroline Ellison, and used a VPN in violation of a previous order not to, has been denied vegan meals and adderall, and has been subsisting on ‘bread and water,’ like many crypto bros who trusted their life savings to FTX before SBF and pals allegedly used those funds to try and stave off oblivion.

  

  Appearing before a Manhattan federal court on Tuesday to plead for a narrower indictment on securities fraud, wire fraud and other charges, attorneys for the embattled 31-year-old, who was never going to do well in prison, says he’s “literally subsisting on bread and water” and a scant amount of peanut butter.

  The hearing was the first since a judge revoked SBF’s $250 million bail, tossing him into the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York.

  SBF lawyer Mark Cohen says that the FTX founder hasn’t been given any Adderall since he was jailed, and has only a few doses left of antidepressant, Emsam. Cohen also argued that the legal team was struggling to cobble together SBF’s defense without access to their client.

  At Tuesday’s hearing, his lawyers said the jail’s failure to provide him with the medication Adderall to treat attention deficit hyperactive disorder – despite a court order for the facility to do so – and serve him vegan food would hinder his ability to participate in preparing his defense case. -Reuters

  SBF was led into court wearing leg restraints and a beige-colored uniform to appear in front of US Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn, where he pleaded “Not guilty” to seven new criminal charges related to making some $100 million in political campaign contributions using stolen customer funds, federal prosecutors allege, after dropping similar charges related to violating US campaign finance laws because the Bahamas threw a fit and ‘did not intend to extradite the defendant on the campaign contributions count.’

  According to Christian Everdell, another lawyer for the former billionaire, SBF hasn’t been allowed to review any of the millions of pages of evidence against him, a violation of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel.

  His lawyers also rejected a plan to allow SBF to use a laptop in the cell block of the courthouse to review the evidence with his lawyers two days a week from 9am to 3pm, which Everdell said was inadequate.

  “It means he cannot help prepare his defense,” he said.

  Bankman entered his ‘Not guilty’ plea in response to seven counts of fraud and money laundering contained in a revised US indictment. According to prosecutors, SBF’s alleged fraud scheme cost customers and investors billions of dollars.

  The case is US v. Bankman-Fried, 22-cr-673, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 08/22/2023 – 17:45

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• 2023 Women's World Cup Sets Attendance Record
  2023 Women’s World Cup Sets Attendance Record

  Despite the time difference between Australia/New Zealand and major markets such as the United States and Europe playing to the disadvantage of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World in terms of TV viewership, the month-long tournament was a huge success both in terms of at-home audience and stadium attendance.

  Statista’s Felix Richter reports that, according to FIFA, nearly two million people attended the 64 matches played down under, blowing past the previous record of 1.35 million matchday fans at the 2015 World Cup in Canada.

  “In the host countries, we had almost two million spectators in the stadiums – full houses everywhere – and two billion watching all over the world,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in a statement.

  “It’s a great sport, it’s entertaining and people love it.”

  While it needs to be noted that it was the first Women’s World Cup played with 32 teams instead of 24 at the previous two tournaments and 16 before that, it was also only the third Women’s World Cup to surpass 30,000 in average stadium attendance.

  As Statista’s chart shows, the tournaments played in the U.S. in 1999 and in China in 2007 both drew more than 37,000 fans per game, but since they had half the number of games compared to the 2023 competition, they’re far off in terms of total attendance.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Prior to the final, Infantino had angered players and fans of the women’s game alike, when he said that women should “pick the right battles” in their fight for equality.

  “You have the power to convince us, men, what we have to do and what we don’t have to do. You do it, just do it,” Infantino had said, not only suggesting that it was women’s responsibility to convince men of their worthiness of equal treatment, but also belittling many players’ efforts to promote and advance the women’s game in the face of adversity.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 23:20

• Inflation Labeled A "Right-Wing Talking Point" In Response To Hit Working-Class Song
  Inflation Labeled A “Right-Wing Talking Point” In Response To Hit Working-Class Song

  Authored by Jonathan Miltimore via The Epoch Times,

  A new folk song with edgy lyrics is causing quite a stir in America, and it’s not “Try That in a Small Town.”

  Oliver Anthony’s blue-collar anthem “Rich Men North of Richmond” has exploded across the internet, racking up 15 million views in its very first week after debuting on Aug. 9.

  Mr. Anthony’s mournful ballad has an almost Depression-era feel. Sporting a bushy red beard and a twangy guitar, the Virginia native channels the struggles of working-class Americans while strumming away in the woods in front of what appears to be a hunting blind.

  “I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day/Overtime hours for [expletive] pay/So I can sit out here and waste my life away/Drag back home and drown my troubles away.

  “It’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to/For people like me and people like you/Wish I could just wake up and it not be true/But it is, oh, it is.

  “Livin’ in the new world/With an old soul/These rich men north of Richmond/Lord knows they all just wanna have total control/Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do/And they don’t think you know, but I know that you do/’Cause your dollar ain’t [expletive] and it’s taxed to no end/’Cause of rich men north of Richmond.”

  The song has resonated broadly with listeners, but it has also become a sort of political bellwether with lyrics that take aim at taxes, inflation, and welfare.

  The Los Angeles Times notes Mr. Anthony’s song has been criticized by leftists, who’ve dubbed the tune an “alt-right anthem” that’s “offensive” and “fatphobic.”

  The Guardian, meanwhile, accused Mr. Anthony of “punching down” and mocking the poor.

  Right-wing pundits have seen things differently, including Matt Walsh, who called the song “raw and authentic.”

  “One interesting thing about ‘Rich Men North Of Richmond’ is that he (rightly) attacks the welfare state,” Mr. Walsh wrote in a tweet.

  “Many conservatives think that it isn’t populist to criticize entitlements but in reality blue collar Americans are sick of having their money stolen to prop up a system that functions as nothing more than a vote buying scheme for Democrats.”

  It’s not exactly a surprise that Mr. Anthony’s hit song would be received differently by the left and the right, which increasingly operate in different cultural ecosystems with totally different values.

  But some are getting a bit carried away in the effort to turn Mr. Anthony’s blue-collar tune into a right-wing screed.

  Wikipedia’s since edited page on “Rich Men North of Richmond” initially claimed that “the song’s lyrics revolve around common right-wing themes such as inflation ….”

  

  Did you catch that? Inflation apparently is now “a right-wing talking point” instead of an economic phenomenon broadly defined today as a general and sustained increase in consumer prices and a decline in the value of money.

  The claim is bizarre.

  There’s nothing partisan about inflation, after all. It affects everyone. Rich and poor. Republican, Democrat, and Independent. People of every sex, race, and creed.

  For decades, the term “silent killer” has been used by scholars, economists, and financial asset managers to describe inflation because of the gradual and often unnoticed erosion of purchasing power it causes.

  Inflation has destroyed civilizations (Rome) and ushered in totalitarian regimes (Mao in China), which is why it has been decried by an array of intellectuals who were hardly “right-wingers.”

  

  The writer Ernest Hemingway, who moved to Spain during the Spanish Civil War to oppose Franco and wrote for Pravda because he hated fascism so much, called inflation “the first panacea for a mismanaged nation.” (The second, he added, was war.)

  John Maynard Keynes, the staunch anti-conservative English economist who became arguably the most influential macroeconomic thinker in history, warned in 1919 (pdf) that Vladimir Lenin “is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency.”

  “By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens,” Keynes wrote.

  “The sight of this arbitrary rearrangement of riches strikes not only at security but [also] at confidence in the equity of the existing distribution of wealth.”

  More recently, Lawrence Summers, the former president of Harvard and an economist that served in both the Clinton and Obama administrations, warned that inflation is undermining confidence in the American political system.

  “It’s clear that inflation is significantly contributing to distrust in the institutions and to pessimism about the future,” Mr. Summers recently told The Harvard Gazette.

  Clearly, one needn’t be a right-winger to be concerned about inflation. Anyone who goes to McDonald’s and is stunned to see a $50 receipt after ordering a few burgers, fries, and drinks has a right to be concerned over the erosion of their money.

  None of this is to say that there are no political undertones to Mr. Anthony’s song. There clearly are, and this fits snuggly in the long tradition of country music.

  Anyone who has ever listened to Hank Williams Jr. or David Allan Coe or any number of artists can tell you weaving poverty and politics into songs is hardly out of the ordinary in the country music genre. Consider these lyrics from a popular song covered by the band Alabama, “Song of the South”:

  “Cotton on the roadside, cotton in the ditch/We all picked the cotton but we never got rich/Daddy was a veteran, a Southern Democrat/They oughta get a rich man to vote like that. … Well somebody told us Wall Street fell/But we were so poor that we couldn’t tell/Cotton was short and the weeds were tall/But Mr. Roosevelt’s a-gonna save us all”

  The song is more overtly political than Mr. Anthony’s—it mentions a political party and president—but you’ll find no mention of it being left-wing on Wikipedia’s page of the song.

  The primary difference, of course, is that Alabama’s song praised government anti-poverty programs, whereas Mr. Anthony’s song attacks them.

  Sadly, it’s quite possible that we’ve reached a point where any kind of criticism of the federal system is considered “right wing” by many. (After all, even everyday activities such as working out to getting up early have been described as such.)

  But adding inflation to this list of partisan topics isn’t just unwise but dangerous. There is, I suppose, one silver lining.

  The labeling of inflation as a right-wing talking point is a tacit admission that the real cause of inflation isn’t corporate greed or Taylor Swift. Inflation is a policy of the powers in Washington, DC, who are printing trillions of dollars.

  If pointing out basic economic realities makes one “right wing,” I’m not sure what that says about the left.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 23:00

• US Navy's "Death Star" Destroyer Prepares For Hypersonic Weapon Installation
  US Navy’s “Death Star” Destroyer Prepares For Hypersonic Weapon Installation

  In a move that shouldn’t surprise readers, the US Navy is wasting even more taxpayers’ funds to replace new deck guns of the Zumwalt-class stealth destroyer with missile tubes to house hypersonic weapons.

  “USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) arrived in Pascagoula, Mississippi., today [Saturday] to enter a modernization period and receive technology upgrades including the integration of the Conventional Prompt Strike weapon system,” USNI News has learned, citing a statement from the service. It added, “The upgrades will ensure Zumwalt remains one of the most technologically advanced and lethal ships in the US Navy.” 

  Naval warfare journalist and commentator Chris Cavas photographed the guided-missile destroyer as it arrived at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula. 

  USS ZUMWALT DDG1000 arrived at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula MS 19 for a major 2-year modernization that will see large launch tubes for hypersonic Conventional Prompt Strike missiles replace the two 155mm Advanced Gun Systems. The Z boat joins sister LYNDON B JOHNSON … pic.twitter.com/oynInjAQ3U

  — Chris Cavas (@CavasShips) August 21, 2023

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

  We have told readers in two notes, “US Navy’s “Death Star” Destroyer Will Be Armed With Laser Guns And Hypersonic Missiles” and “US Navy’s Zumwalt Stealth Destroyers To Get Hypersonic Missiles” about the push to swap out existing twin 155 mm Advanced Gun Systems and replace them with four 87-inch missile tubes. 

  Each tube will hold three Common Hypersonic Glide Bodies (C-HGB) hypersonic missiles. However, the Congressional Budget Office states, “The United States has not yet fielded such weapons [hypersonic missiles], for both scientific and policy reasons.”

  Besides the Navy building missile tubes for missiles it doesn’t have, the most expensive destroyer ever built for the service has had a series of mechanical failures over the years. Also, it was delivered to the service seven years late and exceeded shipbuilding costs by over 50%. 

  This is the latest saga of taxpayers’ dollars thrown into the abyss, and there’s still no clarity on when the US fields hypersonic weapons.

   

   

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 22:40

• China Emerges As A Global LNG Trading Power
  China Emerges As A Global LNG Trading Power

  By Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com,

  China is expanding its presence in the global LNG trading world, with Chinese traders setting up new or expanding their trading desks in Singapore and London, Reuters writes.

  

  This would put China in direct competition with LNG trade leaders including Shell, BP, TotalEnergies, and Equinor, the report pointed out.

  The trading presence expansion comes even as China secures more long-term supply of the superchilled fuel, the latest deals coming from Qatar and the United States.

  Even so, Chinese importers are not relying on long-term deals only, even if they have swelled to some 40 million tons annually since last year. The amount represents a 50% increase.

  Per the Reuters report, more than 10 Chinese energy trading companies are hiring more traders or expanding their trading desks while state-owned CNOOC plans to open an office in London.

  Speaking of CNOOC, the Chinese major said this month that Novatek’s Arctic LNG 2 project will start production as scheduled before the end of this year. CNOOC has a 10% stake in the Russian project.

  “We’re going to see a paradigm shift in Chinese companies from being total net importers to (being) more international and domestic trading players,” said Trident LNG head of global trading, Toby Copson, as quoted by Reuters.

  The core motive for the trading presence expansion appears to be energy security—the focus of China’s energy policies.

  “Supply security is still at the heart of our business activities. Trading capability is one of the enablers … to help us better deal with market swings,” according to PetroChina International’s global head of LNG trading, Zhang Yaoyu.

  As a result of this expansion, Reuters notes, the total volume of LNG contracted by Chinese traders could reach 100 million tons annually by 2026. That would mean an excess supply of some 8 million tons for that year, per Poten & Partners. On the other hand, ICIS sees the amount as falling short of demand by 5-6 million tons.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 22:20

• Here's How DeSantis Should Fight In This Week's GOP Primary Debate
  Here’s How DeSantis Should Fight In This Week’s GOP Primary Debate

  Authored by Kurt Schilchter via Townhall.com,

  The word “fight” in the title of this column is intentional – Ron DeSantis is walking into the Octagon alone in the first GOP primary debate. The deck is stacked against him. He’s in a half-dozen or so gunsights. It’s Ronbo against the world. He best be ready.

  Let us assume that Donald Trump takes my advice and makes the smart strategic choice – because Trump is known for always making the smart strategic choice just like Hunter Biden is known for his sobriety – of not attending the debate.

  DeSantis is the leader of the also-ran pack, the only conceivable rival to Trump at the moment, and he will be the guy each of the primary lilliputians is looking to take down by creating A Moment that will catapult them from also-also-ran to just also-ran.

  This complicates things for the Florida governor. Everyone else on stage will have one target, him. Alligator Ron will have three.

  His first target is his opponents onstage.

  

  Ron has to demonstrate dominance over each of his rivals.

  That’s easy with Mike Pence, who always gives up and gives in to the establishment. The one time he stood firm was in rejecting Trump’s kooky electoral thing, but just last week he went belly-up for the frame job the enemy has launched against his ex-boss. Pence is one of those cons who pretends that passivity in the face of communist enemies is morally superior to crushing them. He makes submission into a fetish, and if he was not so uptight, he’d probably have a regular dominatrix. 

  “Mike, the time of the soft Republican is over. You should retire, teach Sunday school, and build birdhouses.”

  Nikki Haley is the poster girl for 2005 conservatism, and DeSantis will need to dismiss her agenda of a return to the tired old GOP combo of wars n’ tax cuts for corporations that want to turn our kids trans. She’s all in on something-something Ukraine/Putin bad, that establishment mish-mash of cliches and fuzzy fake-tuff pseudo-thinking that substitutes for an actual national strategy that supports American interests. Nukey Nikki is all in for another Afghanistan, except with borscht, and you know that if her crew ever gets the wheel we’ll eventually be seeing CH47s lifting off from the Kyiv embassy roof. But then someone who was on the Boeing board is probably A-OK with dumping billions into the bloody Slavic blender with no articulated strategy for success. Yet she won’t fight at home. When Disney decided to pervertize our kids, Nikki sided with Disney because corporations are always right and the job of Americans is to obey.

  “Nikki, I’ve been to war and if the voters choose me they will know with absolute certainty that their sons and daughters will never die in another useless one, and that I will use every bit of my power as president to fight back against big corporations that want to impose their San Francisco values on normal families.”

  Tim Scott is no threat. His argument is “I have a neat origin story” and “I am nice.” But what has he ever actually done? The biggest thing he did as a senator was failing to pass his Defund the Police Lite bill. Oh, and he echoes bogus Democrat race-baiting.

  “Tim, I first had my doubts about you when you supported the Democrat defund the police movement, but I really lost respect for you when you decided to repeat what you knew were Democrat and regime media lies about Florida history standards. Our voters do not need a candidate who joins with Kamala Harris to tell the lie that Republicans like slavery.”

  Then there’s Chris Christie, whose only rational reason for being in this debate is to get access to the green room’s snack table. Christie will go after DeSantis because, deep down – and you can get very deep in Christie – he is trying to win back the love of Donald Trump. Sadly, we all have to endure this spurned platonic lover psychodrama. But his failure as a governor disqualifies him just as much as his refusal to take our side in the cultural war fight. Christie is a has-been who is more accurately described as a “never was.”

  “Chris, your own state knew you best and when you finally left under a cloud of scandal you were polling on par with chlamydia. All you have is complaints about more successful Republicans, but I noticed that you don’t seem to have a problem with Biden. Just sign your MSNBC contract and get out of the way of those of us who know how to win.”

  Optionally, DeSantis can refer to him as “Garden State Lizzo.”

  Vivek Ramaswamy is an interesting cat with some good ideas and some really poorly-thought out ones. His whole “China, you can have Taiwan after 2028” initiative is, well, innovative. He’s clearly running for Secretary of Keeping It Real or a similar sinecure in a future Trump administration. He is also about 12 years old.

  “Vivek, you’re a smart guy with no experience but a bright future once you learn how the world works. Go do a hitch in the Marines, kid, then maybe at least win a city council election and get a little salty before you try for the White House. America does not need a president who never watched ‘The Brady Bunch” after school on a UHF station or made a call on a rotary phone.”

  Doug Burgum, the governor of East Dakota or something, is another sensible n’ sober, Republican pol who would be just fine if this was 1996 and our biggest problem was a priapic president. He’s not a bad guy, but there’s no crying need for another generic  milquetoast zillionaire trying to buy his way into the White House. 

  “Doug, I turned a purple state deep red. You kept a deep red state deep red. That’s fine, I guess, but the last time we nominated a soft rich guy he got punked live on TV by Candy Crowley.”

  Ron’s second target is Joe Biden

  Biden often seems forgotten in all the online battling about the primary. Once DeSantis disposes of his competition on stage, he should press his real selling point, which is that he stands the best chance of beating the desiccated old pervert in the White House.

  “I turned a purple state deep red. My competitors have never done that. Nikki, Tim, Doug, and Mike all come from safe red states. Chris tried to turn blue New Jersey red and failed hard. Vivek has never even run in an election before, much less won one. And the Dems agree that I am the threat to Joe Biden stumbling his way to another term – the Dems are not spending their money to beat my opponents. They are spending money to make sure I am not on the GOP ticket because I am the only Republican they are afraid of.”

  And Ron’s last target must be Donald Trump.

  He has to make the case about why he is the better choice. On policy, both are similar enough that it’s not clear how much traction RDS would get pointing out that DJT screwed up COVID by hugging Fauci, failed to fire Wray, and so forth. On balance, America under Trump was a mere million times better than under the corrupt President Daddyshowers. The real case for Ron DeSantis is that he can win the general and Trump can’t. He should proceed under the assumption that most Republicans want to actually win, instead of wallowing in glorious defeat, and that Republican moderates who despise Biden but actively hate Trump for his mean tweets will come home if someone who is not orange is on the GOP ticket.

  “Maybe it’s not right or fair or rational, but about 53% of Americans will never vote for Trump. That’s the reality. If we put him on the ticket, we lose. You’re not making a statement by nominating a certain loser. You’re making the Democrats’ day. They are begging you to nominate Donald Trump. Ask yourself why. If you do, say good-bye to the Supreme Court. To your right to keep and bear arms. To free speech. To the right to practice your faith as you see fit. Say hello to more trans tyranny. To more climate hoax insanity that will have you losing your gas-powered car and eating bugs. To more wars. To more taxes. To more crime, and to more chaos. If you want to send a message to Washington, win. Winning is the message. And I have never lost a race and never will.”

  I like Ron DeSantis, but there are no freebies in politics. He’s got to win this all on his own, one man against everyone there on-stage with him and off-stage Truthing at him. The stakes could not be higher.

  It’s go time.

  *  *  *

  Follow Kurt on Twitter @KurtSchlichter. Get Inferno, the seventh book in the Kelly Turnbull People’s Republic series of conservative action novels set in America after a notional national divorce, as well as his non-fiction book We’ll Be Back: The Fall and Rise of America.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 21:40

• 'Rich Men North Of Richmond' Artist Warns America Will Be Lost In A Generation Unless Country Changes Course
  ‘Rich Men North Of Richmond’ Artist Warns America Will Be Lost In A Generation Unless Country Changes Course

  Oliver Anthony’s anthem for the working class, “Rich Men North Of Richmond,” continues to top the charts on iTunes. On Saturday, he gave a free concert in Moyock, North Carolina, attracting thousands. After the show, he expressed grave concerns about the country’s current direction, suggesting that without significant change, it may not sustain ‘more than another generation.’

  Fox News interviewed Christopher Anthony Lunsford (Oliver Anthony’s real name), who provided a message of ‘unity’ — something the Biden administration has struggled with while it promotes differences and divides this nation. He called out “corporate media” and “education,” which is “making everyone identify each other’s differences and not their similarities.” 

  Oliver Anthony on why he turned down million-dollar recording deals:

  “I just wanna go back to the woods, honestly.” pic.twitter.com/AyIQOfnflq

  — Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) August 21, 2023

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  Lunsford spoke more on the unity subject while also mentioning: “If we continue on the path that we’re going down now, culturally, we won’t have a country very long — 5 years? 50 years? I don’t know.”

  Oliver Anthony knows the score:

  “If we continue on the path that we’re going down now, culturally, we won’t have a country very long — 5 years? 50 years? I don’t know.” pic.twitter.com/8CoepgDabr

  — Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) August 21, 2023

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  As of Monday afternoon, Rich Men North Of Richmond is still the number one iTunes song.

  

  oh, and there’s this headline from Billboard. 

  

  Country legend John Rich said, “Oliver Anthony has the #1 song in America, and I have the #1 record, and neither of us have record deals. I texted Oliver to congratulate him and he responded “God is good!” Yes He is my friend, yes He is❤️ Thank you to all the supporters of our music, it’s truly humbling.” 

  Oliver Anthony has the #1 song in America, and I have the #1 record, and neither of us have record deals. I texted Oliver to congratulate him and he responded “God is good!” Yes He is my friend, yes He is❤️ Thank you to all the supporters of our music, it’s truly humbling 🙏 pic.twitter.com/VYyKikA6MP

  — John Rich🇺🇸 (@johnrich) August 20, 2023

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  Last week, Lunsford said he turned down a $8 million deal from stunned music industry executives. He explained this on Facebook in a lengthy post:

  People in the music industry give me blank stares when I brush off 8 million dollar offers. I don’t want 6 tour buses, 15 tractor trailers and a jet. I don’t want to play stadium shows, I don’t want to be in the spotlight. I wrote the music I wrote because I was suffering with mental health and depression. These songs have connected with millions of people on such a deep level because they’re being sung by someone feeling the words in the very moment they were being sung. No editing, no agent, no bullshit. Just some idiot and his guitar. The style of music that we should have never gotten away from in the first place.

  We noted last week, Is Anyone Surprised? Left-Wing Media Doesn’t Like ‘Rich Men North Of Richmond’… Democrats describe the song as a “right-wing anthem” laced with “conspiracy theories.” 

  Perhaps this is why the political elite north of Richmond hate the most viral song in America… It could be because it encourages the unity of the masses. 

  If you want to know why the #OliverAnthony song scared the establishment. This. pic.twitter.com/hi9ElAEJCV

  — Tacticool Twitorist (@tactictwitorist) August 21, 2023

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  Watching people from all walks of life connect with Rich Men North of Richmond reminds me that we are not alone in the struggles that we’re facing. Nothing scares them more than us unifying against them.
  pic.twitter.com/b9nKEp1tQE

  — TaraBull (@TaraBull808) August 17, 2023

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  … and more from Michael Shellenberger. 

  Mainstream journalists say there’s nothing authentic about Oliver Anthony and his hit song, “Rich Men North Of Richmond.” In truth, there’s nothing authentic about mainstream journalists. They spread propaganda, demand censorship, and smear everyone they disagree with as racists pic.twitter.com/pWG32gD7Jl

  — Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) August 18, 2023

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  Just remember this Ron Paul quote…

  

  Elites have become masters of deceit and spent decades distracting, dividing, and conquering the masses. Maybe this time, the scheme that has left everyone zombified for years is falling apart in front of our eyes as people realize they’ve been brainwashed – manipulated – into a “us” against “them mindset.” Unifying the masses is the worst-case scenario for elites. Queue the next crisis… 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 21:20

• Clean Energy Exploitations & The Death Spiral Of An Auto Industry
  Clean Energy Exploitations & The Death Spiral Of An Auto Industry

  Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

  Biden is so wrong, even the liberal Guardian sees it. But it’s full speed ahead with massive subsidies for something counterproductive…

  

  Ronald Stein at the Heartland institute says Unsold Electric Cars May Be Signaling a Death Spiral for the Auto Industry

  As the future is fast approaching, virtually all the automobile manufacturers, through government mandates to reduce the emissions of their fleet of vehicles, are going all-in to only manufacture EV’s in the coming years. To meet low emissions for their fleet of vehicles, we’re most likely going to see fewer and fewer hybrids as the auto industry manufacturers need to eliminate the gasoline engines in hybrids to meet those lower emission targets.

  The problem is that manufacturers are loading up the “supply chain” with EV’s on dealer lots, but they’re not seeing the “demand” for EV’s coming from the public.

  Demand Flop Reasons

  • driving range,

  • vehicle reliability,

  • price,

  • the availability of electricity for the buildout of the charging infrastructure,

  • charging time,

  • the cost and lifespan of batteries and their environmental impact,

  • the actual impact EVs will have on reducing carbon emissions,

  • the growing statistics about uncontrollable fires of lithium batteries in EV’s,

  • problems with battery recycling and end-of-life management,

  • concerns that the EV free ride of usage of highways and not paying fuel taxes is about to end with the Vehicle Mileage Tax (VMT), i.e., more costs for the EV owners of the future,

  • concerns that home chargers are destined to follow the UK and be on separate meters so that EV charging will be at higher rates to help stabilize the electrical grid, again more costs for the EV owners of the future.

  None of the above is new except perhaps that last bullet point. I have written about the above concern list many times, but it is an excellent synopsis.

  Additional Problems

  Another problem for the automobile industry is convincing the buyers that its ethical, moral, and socially responsible to buy an EV, especially since most of the exotic mineral and metal supplies to build the batteries are being mined in developing countries with limited environmental regulation nor labor regulations.

  Interestingly, the 2021 Pulitzer Prize nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations – Helping Citizens Understand the Environmental and Humanity Abuses That Support Clean Energy does an excellent job of discussing the lack of transparency to the world of the green movement’s impact upon humanity exploitations in the developing countries that are mining for the exotic minerals and metals required to create the batteries needed to store “green electricity”. Complimentary to the book is a  2-minute clip from Michael Moore’s 2020 documentary film, Planet of the Humans, that’s been viewed by more than 14 million, that illustrates how so-called green electricity is made

  It’s not often I agree with Michael Moore on anything, but his video ought to be an eye opener for those who mistakenly believe EV will do anything for the environment.

  The video start at the 36:44 mark, a good spot for the exploitation that goes into producing the minerals needed for EVs and how solar energy is destroying the desert.

  California Leads the Way

  • Most states lack the year-round temperate climate that Californians enjoy, the distribution of EV ownership throughout the nation should be a concern to the auto industry. With 40 percent of the EV’s in America being in California, that leaves the other 60 percent being among the other 49 States, or approximately 1+ percent per State.

  • To support the State’s EV growth, California imports more electricity than any other US state,  more than twice the amount of Virginia, the second largest importer of electricity. California typically receives between one-fifth and one-third of its electricity supply from outside of the state.

  • The other 49 states have virtually non-existent EV charging infrastructures, and a few of them may be exporting their electricity to California!

  UK Madness

  • As of May 30, 2022, in the UK, new home and workplace chargers being installed must be “smart” chargers” connected to the internet and able to employ pre-sets limiting their ability to function from 8 am to 11 am and 4 pm to 10 pm.

  • In addition to the nine hours a day of downtime, authorities will be able to impose a “randomized delay” of 30 minutes on individual chargers in certain areas to prevent grid spikes at other times. 

  • The UK Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021 came into force on June 30, 2022. All home installed electric vehicle chargers are required to be separately metered and send information to the Smart meter data communications network. Potentially this legislation allows the electricity used for charging EVs to be charged and taxed at a higher rate than domestic electricity. The technology enacted also enables the rationing of electricity for EV charging because the government can decide when and if an EV can be charged, plus it also allows the EV battery to be drained into the grid if required.

  Carnage of Child Labor and Ecological Destruction ‘Elsewhere’ acceptable to Wealthy Countries

  Next, please consider Carnage of Child Labor and Ecological Destruction ‘Elsewhere’ acceptable to Wealthy Countries, also by Ronald Stein.

  The Administration is laser-focused on ending the “climate crisis” by switching to “clean” electricity. It has few qualms about importing the critically needed materials from foreign countries, primarily China – regardless of economic, defense, national security, ecological or human rights implications. It just wants the dirty aspects of “clean” electricity far away and out of sight.

  In California, Governor Gavin Newsom has been vocal about his commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the state. However, some of his recent actions of “leaking” emissions to other countries violate many sections of the written legal framework of The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and California Global Warming Solutions Act (AB32).

  The silence is deafening from billionaires like Bill Gates, John Kerry, Mark Zuckerberg, George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, and President Biden.Through the encouragement of tax incentives and subsidies to go to EV’s and electricity from wind and solar, they are providing financial incentives to China, who already controls the supply chain for the minerals and metals to go green, furthering our total dependence on China to achieve the green goals of America.

  “The wealthy country elites continue to demonstrate their lack of ethical, moral, and social responsibilities, by using subsidies that encourage the continued exploitations of people with yellow, brown, and black skin and the environmental degradation occurring elsewhere, out of view of those living in wealthy countries,” says Stein.

  The destruction, however, is not just elsewhere.

  How an Oasis Becomes a Dead Sea

  The Guardian comments Solar Farms Took Over the California Desert: ‘An Oasis Has Become a Dead Sea’

  Kevin Emmerich worked for the National Park Service for over 20 years before setting up Basin & Range Watch in 2008, a non-profit that campaigns to conserve desert life. He says solar plants create myriad environmental problems, including habitat destruction and “lethal death traps” for birds, which dive at the panels, mistaking them for water.

  He says one project bulldozed 600 acres of designated critical habitat for the endangered desert tortoise, while populations of Mojave fringe-toed lizards and bighorn sheep have also been afflicted. “We’re trying to solve one environmental problem by creating so many others.”

  Madness in Michigan

  Last week a reader called me regarding use of solar panels in Michigan. Since he began fighting such projects a few years ago, he has been targeted by IRS audits.

  The harassment continues despite him winning the battles.

  Michigan is probably one of the worst places to place solar. I suggested to my reader to look up Michigan cloudiness. Check this out.

  A 2013 study concluded that over a 31-year period, Michigan winters are filled with clouds more than 50% of the time. That means the months of December, January and February are quite cloudy. Places like Wisconsin, however, are less than 30% cloudy on average in the winter.

  A 2023 update shows it’s even worse. PBS reports Michigan winters are super cloudy and getting worse.

  For nearly two weeks, clouds blanketed large swaths of Michigan, occasionally accompanied by rainfall that transformed our winter wonderland into a muddy mess.

  The bad news is gloomy, muddy winters could become increasingly normal in Michigan as climate change chips away at Great Lakes ice cover, strengthening the forces that drive lake effect clouds, rain and snow.

  And how much of the time would those solar panels be covered in snow?

  Even with subsidies, there is no way solar projects in Michigan can possibly work.

  Solar Energy Is Not Cheaper

  I am sick of all these lies about solar being cheaper. On a new facility, in sunny place, it might appear so on the surface. But that ignores the fact that existing plants are up an running and will need to be mothballed, if and when there is storage capacity to deal with the inconvenient issue that sun does not shine at night.

  Destruction of productive facilities for something only marginally better makes little sense. And it makes no sense at all when one factors in required grid updates, child labor exploitation, and also the destruction of US deserts, the latter discussed in detail below.

  What to Expect When Politicians Try to Pick Technology Winners

  On May 25, with a spotlight on the EU, I commented on What to Expect When Politicians Try to Pick Technology Winners Part 1

  Biden’s Solar Push Is Destroying the Desert and Releasing Stored Carbon

  The Left ignored environment destruction, even in the US.

  

  On May 28, 2023, I noted Biden’s Solar Push Is Destroying the Desert and Releasing Stored Carbon

  Biden is so clearly wrong, even the extremely liberal Guardian sees it. But it’s full speed ahead with massive subsidies for something counterproductive for the goal.

  Electric Vehicles for Everyone?

  On July 19, I asked Electric Vehicles for Everyone? If the Dream Was Met, Would it Help the Environment?

  My follow-up post was What Do MishTalk Readers Think About “Electric Vehicles for Everyone?”

  Math Does Not Add Up

  The EV math does not add up in the EU or here. But the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), better known as the Eurozone, has economic debt brakes and budget rules that make matters more painful for the 20 EMU countries.

  In the US, deficits pile up as do the economic impacts of a massive wave of Bidenomic regulations and mandates.

  We pretend that deficits don’t matter and mainstream media not only looks the other way, but is in on the act with countless fearmongering stories.

  Inflationary Madness Marches On

  On August 17, I commented Yet Another Biden Regulation Will Increase Costs and Promote More Inflation

  It involves a new Biden regulation that will increase the price of all government projects. Click on the link for details.

  Rooftop Solar Panel Madness

  The one place where solar might makes sense is roof top solar panels. But even there, we have environmental madness, taxing the hell out of panels, making them too expensive to use.

  For discussion, please see The Cost of Soup is About to Increase, Thank President Biden

  The above article discusses soup and solar panels. Soup is the sideline.

  US policy is so convoluted that we aim to put solar where it makes no sense at all, and kill the idea where it does.

  Meanwhile, If you actually believe you are doing something positive for the environment by buying a Tesla, you are an environmental fool.

  *  *  *

  Subscribe to MishTalk Email Alerts.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 21:00

• 'Egregious': Biden's Favorite Super PAC Has $12 Million Accounting Discrepancy
  ‘Egregious’: Biden’s Favorite Super PAC Has $12 Million Accounting Discrepancy

  President Biden’s favorite political action committee (PAC), Future Forward, has some ‘splainin’ to do – after a $12 million “discrepancy” was found in its financial disclosures, the Washington Free Beacon reports.

  

  According to the 2021 filings, Future Forward claimed it received a mere $3.4 million in contributions from its dark-money sister entity, Future Forward USA Action. However, the latter group declared to the IRS that it had funneled a whopping $15.3 million to the Super PAC in the same year. The $12 million delta is not only puzzling but raises red flags that could trigger a federal probe. Kendra Arnold, the executive director of the watchdog group Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, didn’t mince words: “This situation calls for an investigation.” And that’s putting it mildly.

  Of note, the White House has endorsed Future Forward as the “pre-eminent super PAC” supporting Biden’s reelection bid.

  This revelation could turn into a PR disaster for Biden, especially as he gears up for the 2024 elections. Remember, Future Forward has amassed a war chest of nearly $400 million in the last five years to fuel Democratic ad campaigns in crucial battleground states. Much of this has been filled by its dark-money affiliate, Future Forward USA Action, which operates under a veil of secrecy.

  And of course – Biden, a hypocrite and a liar, decried dark money last September, labeling it a “serious problem facing our democracy.” A few months later, his deputy chief of staff, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, was singing praises for Future Forward’s “key role” in his reelection bid.

  When asked about the $12 million gap, both Future Forward and its dark money arm provided crickets.

  “Future Forward USA Action admitted to making over $3 million in earmarked political contributions, where they apparently obscured the true super PAC donor’s identity by routing the money through the nonprofit,” GOP election lawyer Charlie Spies told the Beacon. “The U.S. DOJ has sent people to prison for this sort of illegal activity, and the FEC has imposed major fines on conservative organizations accused of less blatant earmarking.”

  From 2018 to 2020, Future Forward’s reporting contained even more discrepancies. In one instance, the Super PAC claimed it had no dedicated staff and had never reported any payroll expenditures to the FEC. Instead, it used staff from its dark money affiliate. And yet, the numbers don’t add up—again. In 2020, Future Forward reported $467,204 in in-kind staff contributions from the dark money arm, which in its IRS filings claimed it provided only $67,479 worth of in-kind staff time. The two amounts should match.

  According to nonprofit attorney Jason Torchinsky, such discrepancies could lead to “substantial fines,” as FEC penalties are often assessed based on the amount in dispute. Paul Kamenar, an attorney with the National Legal and Policy Center watchdog group, is pushing for an “independent audit” and an “investigation and possible enforcement action by both the IRS and the FEC.”

  “There must be an independent audit of both groups for these egregious discrepancies and an investigation and possible enforcement action by both the IRS and the FEC,” said Kamenar.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 20:40

• How Unions Have Betrayed America
  How Unions Have Betrayed America

  Authored by Edward Ring via American Greatness,

  Government unions control and corrupt public services; private sector unions betray the worker…

  

  Anyone suggesting there is no role for unions in America today might first consider a fact of history: more than a century ago, when oligarchs and the companies they owned had treated workers as if they were livestock, reduced to living in squalid pens with rationed food and water, it was unions that organized these workers to resist. It was unions who gave these workers back their humanity, and negotiated collective bargaining agreements and laws that eliminated child labor, enforced workplace safety, established an 8-hour work day, paid overtime, health benefits, and retirement pensions.

  Unions today operate in a very different America. But how Big Labor has adapted calls into question their commitment to helping all American workers have a chance at a middle class lifestyle. In critical areas affecting everyone trying to thrive in 21st century America, unions have betrayed the American worker. In particular, their failure to challenge the globalist agenda of open borders and environmentalist extremism has inverted their priorities, putting them into alignment with the corporations and oligarchs they once so nobly opposed. This betrayal is most exemplified in the agenda of unions that didn’t exist a century ago, America’s powerful unions of government employees.

  Government Unions Control and Corrupt Public Services

  A distinction must be made between public sector unions, and the now less influential private sector unions. Public sector unions today have embraced a potent blend of toxic ideologies, centered around woke politics and environmentalist extremism. The most powerful public sector unions, those representing teachers and school employees, have forced this ideology into the public schools. This has not only indoctrinated a generation of young voters to vote for leftists, it has left them without the literacy and numeracy necessary to more easily grasp the nihilistic essence of leftism.

  In critical ways, government unions don’t even fulfil the basic definition of a union. They don’t negotiate with independent management, they “negotiate” with politicians they elect. In California, public sector unions collect and spend nearly $1 billion per year, applying at least one-third of that spending to explicitly political activities such as lobbying and campaign contributions. Another third is spent on allegedly nonpolitical activities such as public education which almost invariably has a political objective. Even in a state as big as California, spending $1.2 billion every election cycle will buy a lot of politicians and profoundly influence public opinion.

  Government unions also don’t have to rely on the profitability of the enterprise they’re negotiating with. Unions have to be more reasonable when negotiating with private employers because they can go out of business. But government agencies just increase taxes, and in “information campaigns” using public money, abetted by public union money, more taxes and more borrowing are repeatedly sold to voters. In November 2022, in deep blue, union controlled California, taxpayers approved 92 bonds totaling $23 billion in new local government borrowing, and they approved 152 local tax increases, set to raise another $1.6 billion per year in perpetuity.

  Government unions, contrary to the essential notion of a union, are not fighting power structures. They are the power, and they use it to further their agenda – higher pay and more workers, which in-turn means more government programs and higher taxes. And thanks to their ideological preferences, the programs they promote, such as inefficient renewable energy mandates and counterproductive policies towards crime and the unhoused, repeatedly fail and in so doing require even more spending. Thus, for government unions, failure is success, because the remedy is always more government. But what about private sector unions?

  How Private Sector Unions Betray the American Worker

  The problem with private sector unions is not because they want to maintain and increase their wages and benefits. There are compelling reasons why private sector unions, properly regulated, ought to be a necessary counterweight to private corporate interests. The problem is that the American oligarchy, which intends to flatten the world, erase national sovereignty, obliterate the middle class, and abolish borders, cultures, cash, small businesses, medium size businesses, and decentralized private ownership, has coopted private sector unions.

  When was the last time anyone heard the leader of a national labor organization call for controlled immigration, which is a certain way to keep upward pressure on wages? When in recent years have any private labor leaders called for anti-trust legislation against the handful of trillion dollar hedge funds that are buying up America’s housing stock to turn us into a nation of renters, or called for the breakup of the cartel that controls the nation’s food supply? Where were the unions, when the nation was in lockdown for nearly two years, devastating small businesses and driving households into crippling debt and bankruptcy?

  America’s private sector unions are vocal proponents of every item on the leftist agenda, but they are not doing anything to help the vast majority of American workers, even as they engage in a handful of labor actions, scattered across the country. And what every defender of leftism and unions must understand is that there is no longer any significant functional difference between “leftist” state ownership and “right-wing” ownership by monopoly corporations that have coopted the state. One is called communism, the other fascism. They are both authoritarian political models that are founded on centralized control. What the American oligarchy has evolved into is soft fascism. Soft, because with the high-tech tools available today, mass persuasion is easy. And it is here, where private sector unions have committed perhaps the biggest betrayal of all.

  Instead of recognizing the so-called Green New Deal, or Great Reset, as a corporate tool designed to transfer upward and further centralize wealth at the same time as it reduces ordinary workers into living in micromanaged pens with rationed food and water, unions endorse it. Their endorsement finds expression in their support for policies guaranteed to achieve this pernicious goal. They support hundreds of billions, and ultimately trillions, in government spending to build, for example, large-scale CO2 capture facilities, EV charging stations, and floating wind turbines. They support urban rezoning to construct high-rise apartments, and light rail mass transit. All of these projects are staggeringly expensive, and not one of them will yield practical economic benefits downstream. Union construction workers will get jobs, big civil engineering firms will get government contracts, but the ordinary American will pay for these projects at a price they can’t afford. It isn’t as if there aren’t obvious alternatives.

  Private sector union leadership has abandoned a common sense principle of fundamental importance: how public infrastructure priorities are set determines whether or not ordinary Americans are able to achieve and maintain a middle class lifestyle. California’s bullet train project is a classic example. After more than a decade of work and more than $10 billion already spent, not a single track has been laid. The cost for the first segment, which transits the emptiest, flattest stretch of the entire planned line, is estimated to cost more than $200 million per mile. The entire project is now projected to cost $130 billion, with no credible completion date, and it will always be an economic drain on Californians.

  In order to follow the path of least resistance private sector unions in California support this fraud. It is make work, designed to appease unions while preventing their workers from completing projects that make economic sense: widening and upgrading roads and freeways, upgrading existing railroad lines, bringing California’s remarkable system of water storage and transport into the 21st century, building wastewater recycling and desalination plants, upgrading the state’s capacity to engage in oil extraction and refining, increasing natural gas drilling and upgrading the distribution pipelines, and building more nuclear power stations. Much of this work could be accomplished with private funds. But the unions, and the corporations with which they have made common cause, will not challenge the extreme environmentalists, or the oligarchy that finds them so useful.

  Private sector unions are one of the last special interest groups left in America that still have the power to change national policy. As the nation slowly transitions into a technology driven police state, with a workforce disenfranchised and impoverished by “climate” mandates, mass immigration, and intelligent machines, the potential will grow for unions to exercise bipartisan appeal. The only question that remains is will any of them have the courage to fight the trend and challenge the power, or will they continue to be part of the establishment they were originally formed to oppose?

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 20:20

• "Bummer Summer": Sad Music Tops Gen Z's Spotify Searches
  “Bummer Summer”: Sad Music Tops Gen Z’s Spotify Searches

  Music can influence our emotions, and listening to happy or sad tunes can reflect the world around us and or even alter it. 

  

  A new report by Spotify Technology SA reveals that Gen Z, aged between 9 and 24 and numbering over 68 million in the US, has been searching for the saddest music on the streaming music platform this summer than any other generation. 

  “Sad” is the most-searched term for Gen Z listeners on Spotify globally, and they’re tuning into our sad playlists—including pop-infused sad hour, R&B-inspired All The Feels, rap-heavy tear drop, sad sierreño, sad girl country, and sad girl starter pack—more than any other age group. –Spotify blog 

  Spotify said they created a new playlist called “bummer summer” to match the mood of Gen Z:

  To match the vibe in the US and Canada, we launched bummer summer, the ultimate lineup of moody jams and soul-filling songs. Complete with tracks from d4vd, Frank Ocean, Phoebe Bridgers, Lana Del Rey, Big Thief, and Billie Eilish, the playlist echoes the honesty and transparency that Gen Zs emulate in their lives and listening—and harnesses the ability of emotive, lyrical music to enhance any mood.

  Krista Scozzari, Spotify’s North American Marketing Lead, explained the trend shows “Something really unique about this generation. They embrace their feelings so much. They’re really flipping the stigma of vulnerability. Gen Z has brought a raw, authentic new reality to expressing their emotions, and we’re seeing that in how they listen. We wanted to celebrate this powerful thing they’re doing.” 

  Spotify spoke with Michael Bonshor, Ph.D., a music psychology expert, who said:

  “Sad music can help us to release, express, channel, or purge our emotions.” 

  We must consider some possibilities of a depressed Gen Z: Is it that corporate media brainwashed them into believing in imminent ‘climate doom’? Or maybe maybe ‘Bidenomics’ and two years of crushing inflation have paralyzed this generation’s economic mobility? Or perhaps this heavily medicated generation is mentally ill. 

  But the sour mood is shared across generations and social classes. We saw this with the viral hit of Oliver Anthony’s gritty coal country ballad “Rich Men North Of Richmond.” The song remains number one on iTunes (as of Monday).

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 20:00

• IRGC Warns "Expect To Be Struck Back" As US Starts Offloading Tanker Suspected Of Carrying Iranian Oil
  IRGC Warns “Expect To Be Struck Back” As US Starts Offloading Tanker Suspected Of Carrying Iranian Oil

  Authored by Charles Kennedy via OilPrice.com,

  • An oil tanker that is suspected of carrying Iranian oil has begun to offload oil near Texas, a development that is sure to lead to an escalation in tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

  • Iran’s Revolutionary Guard had warned that those involved in the offloading of the cargo from the Suez Rajan “should expect to be struck back.” 

  • The tanker’s arrival in Texas was likely the result of a deal between the Biden Administration and the owners and operators of the vessel.

  A tanker suspected of carrying Iranian crude oil has offloaded near Texas, the AP reports, adding the cargo was offloaded on another tanker.

  

  The U.S. seized the Suez Rajan in April this year, prompting quick retaliation from Iran, which seized a Chinese-owned, Turkish-operated tanker that was loaded with crude for delivery to Chevron.

  Iran claimed that the tanker collided with an unidentified Iranian vessel just hours prior to its seizure, with several crew members reportedly falling overboard while others were left injured. The tanker then fled the scene and ignored radio calls for eight hours before a court ordered its seizure.

  The Suez Rajan, according to an FT report from June, had received a license from the U.S. Treasury Department to import Iranian crude into the United States. Its cargo is some 800,000 barrels of crude and, per an unnamed former member of the Biden administration, its arrival in Texas was likely the result of a deal that got struck between the administration and the owners and operators of the vessel.

  That deal appears to not have involved Iran, however. The AP reports that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard had warned that those involved in the offloading of the cargo from the Suez Rajan “should expect to be struck back.” 

  The Suez Rajan was never officially seized by American forces, the AP recalls. The tanker sat for months off the coast of Singapore after an activist group sounded an alarm that it was carrying Iranian crude, and then it suddenly set off for the U.S. Gulf Coast. Two tanker seizures from Iranian forces followed in the Persian Gulf.

  At the time, a senior Iranian military official warned against offloading the cargo of the Marshall Islands-flagged vessel.

  “We hereby declare that we would hold any oil company that sought to unload our crude from the vessel responsible and we also hold America responsible,” Read Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s naval section said.

  This latest development comes at a particularly sensitive moment in U.S.-Iranian relations, with the two countries negotiating over five Iranian-Americans being held in Tehran, billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets, the supply of Iranian drones to Russia, and a broader military buildup in the Gulf.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 19:40

• "If We Press This With Russia, It Will Reach Us Here In The US" – Col. MacGregor Tells Tucker Why The Ukraine War Must End Now
  “If We Press This With Russia, It Will Reach Us Here In The US” – Col. MacGregor Tells Tucker Why The Ukraine War Must End Now

  Tucker Carlson on Monday published an interview with former Trump administration official Col. Douglas Macgregor (Ret.), who explained why the war in Ukraine has put the United States on the brink of a ‘catastrophic war that could easily destroy us.’

  

  Carlson begins with a bold statement: “pretty much everything that NBC and The NYTimes have told you about the war in Ukraine is a lie.”

  “‘The Russian army is incompetent’ – they claim. ‘Ukraine is a Democracy!’ ‘Vladimir Putin is Hitler and he’s trying to take over the world!’ ‘Thankfully, the Ukrainians are winning.’

  “Every claim is false, the last one especially,” said Carlson, adding “the Ukrainian army is not winning – in fact, it’s losing badly. Ukraine is being destroyed. Its population is being slaughtered.”

  “Most American know nothing about Ukraine,” Macgregor continued, adding that “if they knew anything about the history of Eastern Europe, they would all say ‘get out!’… because the wars and the blood and the hatred that’s been fought over for centuries is something we can’t sort out.”

  Macgregor’s comments grow more ominous in their tone as the discussion continues.

  He notes that President Biden has enabled ‘combat pay’ which implies there are American forces on the ground in Ukraine.

  “It would be a mistake to think that the Russian forces do not know where they are,” the retired colonel explains, pointing out that the Russians are sending a message with recent precision missile strikes near the borders of Poland and Moldova:

  “if you think you can hide from us, if you come in here, if you cross these borders, we will annihilate you.” 

  We need to come to terms with these realities because we can’t defeat it,” he remarked reflecting on the fact that people have called him ‘unpatriotic’ for his comments.

  He summed the situation in Ukraine up rather succinctly:

  “if we press this war with Russia in Central East Europe, it will reach us here in the United States.”

  

  According to Macgregor, “The smartest thing we can do is end this war now,” adding “The Russians will never tolerate NATO forces on Ukrainian soil.”

  “Ukrainian forces are in piecemeal fashion, surrendering to the Russians, not because they don’t want to fight; it’s because they can’t fight anymore, they have so many wounded they can’t evacuate them …  we’re going to see this army that we have spent so heavily on, melt away.”

  When it comes to the equipment being used to fight, MacGregor said that “a lot of the equipment we sent over there is quite frankly, obsolete… its very old, it’s not new.”

  “Integrated air defenses will knock virtually everything that flies out of the sky,” he said, adding “We will then fall back on a nuclear deterrent – a tactical nuclear weapon that says ‘if you keep advancing, we’ll have to use a nuclear weapon.’ We don’t want to go there, because the notion that there are so-called tactical nukes ‘oh, it’s just a little nuke, so that won’t precipitate a nuclear war’ – the use of any nuclear weapon is going to precipitate an escalation very rapidly,” he said.

  Ep. 18 Into the abyss: Colonel Douglas Macgregor tells us why the Ukraine war must end now. pic.twitter.com/a3bGLvJC4s

  — Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 21, 2023

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  Carlson ends by asking Macgregor about the “leftist American man dressed as a woman” that is now the mouthpiece of Ukraine who claimed “Vlad Putin is a vampire bathing in the blood of Ukrainian children.”

  

  Macgregor asks “is that a transgender man?” To which Carlson replies, “yes, that’s a guy with fake breasts.”

  Macgregor retorts: “well I think everything else is fake too… this war is a catastrophe… the people bathing blood are in Kiev and Washington.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 19:21

• Should The Fed Declare Defeat And Move On?
  Should The Fed Declare Defeat And Move On?

  Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

  The Wall Street Journal author Jason Furman fires the opening salvo by mainstream media pleading for higher inflation targets…

  

  Total Credit Market Debt Owed courtesy of the Fed, annotations by Mish

  The Fed Should Carefully Aim for a Higher Inflation Target

  Please consider The Fed Should Carefully Aim for a Higher Inflation Target by WSJ author Jason Furman

  The Federal Reserve has appropriately focused on a single objective for a year and a half: getting inflation down. While the war isn’t won, and I fear the hardest battles may be ahead, it is necessary to think about what victory would entail. In the short run, the Fed should be aiming to stabilize inflation below 3%. If it can achieve this goal, then it should shift to a higher target range for inflation when it updates its overall strategy around 2025.

  If the Fed were adopting an inflation target from scratch, it would likely choose a target above 2%. A higher target inflation rate has costs, especially the time and attention people spend trying to account for how much their current dollars will be worth in a year or 10. But a higher target also has the benefit of helping cushion the economy against severe recessions.

  If the Fed were adopting an inflation target from scratch, it would likely choose a target above 2%. The Fed, however, isn’t starting from scratch. The 2% inflation target, which was formalized in 2012 and has been reiterated innumerable times, has had some real benefits. People expected inflation around 2%, and for the most part that’s what they got. If inflation expectations hadn’t been so well anchored, the disinflation over the past year would have been much more painful.

  There are two prerequisites for a successful transition. The first is to make clear that the Fed isn’t raising the inflation target merely to avoid the pain of getting inflation down. The second prerequisite is that if the Fed raises the inflation target, it needs to stick with it. It wouldn’t work to announce, say, a new target range for inflation of 2% to 3% and end up with 3.5% inflation. It would threaten the Fed’s credibility.

  Mr. Furman, a professor of the practice of economic policy at Harvard, was chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, 2013-17.

  No Benefit to Inflation

  There is no economic benefit to inflation. However, it does create winners and losers, with the winners being those with first access to money, especially the banks, the politically well connected, and the already wealthy.

  I have discussed this many times before but it’s worth repeating again. Routine consumer price deflation is a benefit. It’s credit deflation resulting from the bursting of asset bubbles that is very damaging.

  That’s not just my opinion, it’s the opinion of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). 

  Historical Perspective on CPI Deflations: How Damaging are They?

  For discussion, please see Historical Perspective on CPI Deflations: How Damaging are They?

  Concerns about deflation – falling prices of goods and services – are rooted in the view that it is very costly. We test the historical link between output growth and deflation in a sample covering 140 years for up to 38 economies. The evidence suggests that this link is weak and derives largely from the Great Depression. But we find a stronger link between output growth and asset price deflations, particularly during postwar property price deflations. We fail to uncover evidence that high debt has so far raised the cost of goods and services price deflations, in so-called debt deflations. The most damaging interaction appears to be between property price deflations and private debt. 

  Deflation may actually boost output. Lower prices increase real incomes and wealth. And they may also make export goods more competitive.

  Once we control for persistent asset price deflations and country-specific average changes in growth rates over the sample periods, persistent goods and services (CPI ) deflations do not appear to be linked in a statistically significant way with slower growth even in the interwar period. They are uniformly statistically insignificant except for the first post-peak year during the postwar era – where, however, deflation appears to usher in stronger output growth. By contrast, the link of both property and equity price deflations with output growth is always the expected one, and is consistently statistically significant.

  The exception to the general rule was the Great Depression but, that was also an asset bubble deflation coupled with consumer price deflation.

  In their attempts to fight routine consumer price deflation, central bankers create very destructive asset bubbles that eventually collapse, setting off what they should fear – asset bubble deflations.

  Economists fail to see that asset inflation matters, not just CPI inflation. That’s another point Furman fails to understand. The Fed has blown several assets bubbles of increasing amplitude in a foolish attempt to create more inflation while totally ignoring massive inflation in housing and other financial matters.

  Most economists have no idea how to even measure inflation and/or focus only on consumer inflation. The result has been problem after problem.

  Inflation Expectations

  Furman’s noise about inflation expectations is also a hoot. Fed studies and common sense both show inflation expectation theory to be total nonsense.

  Second Fed Study Concluded Inflation Expectations Theory is Nonsense

  Also consider A Fed Economist Concludes the Widely Believed Inflations Expectations Theory is Nonsense.

  Here are some excerpts from the actual study:

  The direct evidence for an expected inflation channel was never very strong. Most empirical tests concerned themselves with the proposition that there was no permanent Phillips curve tradeoff, in the sense that the coefficients on lagged inflation in an inflation equation summed to one.

  In addition, most standard tests of the new-Keynesian Phillips curve suffer from such severe potential misspecification issues or such profound weak identification problems as to provide no evidence one way or the other regarding the importance of expectations (much the same statement applies to empirical tests that use survey measures of expected inflation).

  What little we know about firms’ price-setting behavior suggests that many tend to respond to cost increases only when they actually show up and are visible to their customers, rather than in a preemptive fashion.

  It is far, far better and much safer to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought. John Kenneth Galbraith (1958).

  Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example. Mark Twain, The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894)

  One should not need a study to prove the obvious. And it’s obvious that inflation expectation theory is nonsensical.

  The reason has to do with the way inflation is calculated. 

  What Can the Fed Do About the Price of Food, Medicine, Gasoline, or Rent?

  

  CPI Weights from BLS chart by Mish

  Stupidity Well Anchored: Absurdity of Inflation Expectations in Graphic Form

  I discussed the silliness of inflations expectations theory in Stupidity Well Anchored: Absurdity of Inflation Expectations in Graphic Form

  Inflation Expectations Q&A

  Q: If consumers think the price of food will drop, will they stop eating out?

  Q: If consumers think the price of food will drop, will they stop eating at home?

  Q: If consumers think the price of natural gas will drop, will they stop heating their homes and stop cooking to wait for the event.

  Q: If consumers think the price of gas will drop, will they stop driving or not fill up their car if it is running on empty?

  Q: If consumers think the price of gas will rise, can they do anything about it other than fill up their tank more frequently?

  Q: If consumers think the price of rent will drop, will they hold off renting until that happens?

  Q: If consumers think the price of rent will rise, will they rent two apartments to take advantage?

  Logically speaking, since the vast majority of the CPI is inelastic, and some of “everything else” is also inelastic, how can expectations matter at all? A Fed study concluded the same thing.

  Asset Irony

  People will rush to buy stocks in a bubble if they think prices will rise. They will hold off buying stocks if they expect prices will go down.

  People will buy houses to rent or fix up if they think home prices will rise. They will hold off housing speculation if they expect prices will drop.

  The very things where expectations do matter are the very things the Fed ignores.

  Economic Wizards and Their Targets

  Furman wants the Fed to stabilize targets below 3 percent then aim for something higher later. What is magic about 2 percent, 3 percent or any other number, given the fact there is no benefit to inflation at all?

  The strive for inflation in a disinflationary world created massive asset bubbles and led to global wage arbitrage, outsourcing, and just in time manufacturing.

  Now, we have gale force inflationary winds blowing stiffly in our face thanks to deglobalization, decarbonization, and inane energy policies of the Biden administration.

  

  Don’t Worry It’s Only Temporary

  The push for 3 percent, 4 percent, whatever percent is of course only temporary just as Nixon’s trashing the gold standard in in 1971 was only temporary.

  We still pay the costs of that temporary move. In fact, all of the boom-bust cycles and exponential increase in debt dates to that event.

  It would behoove economists to understand that point.

  Bottom Line is More Inflation

  Not only does Biden demand more clean energy, he also demands consumers pay the maximum amount for it, despite that being counterproductive to the main goal. For discussion, please see The Cost of Soup and Solar Panels is About to Increase, Thank President Biden

  And president Biden has latched on to prevailing wages as discussed in Yet Another Biden Regulation Will Increase Costs and Promote More Inflation

  No one has bothered to do any analysis of how the push to EVs does not scale or the infrastructure costs to achieve the goal even if the idea did scale.

  My readers are far better informed than these alleged economic wizards. For discussion, please see What Do MishTalk Readers Think About “Electric Vehicles for Everyone?”

  But, “It is far, far better and much safer to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought.”

  That’s what made Furman the perfect choice for President Barack Obama’s chair of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). And as you can see, he still has the magic touch.

  At some point Fed will concede it has no control over supply. That’s when we will start getting leaks of raising the inflation target

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 21, 2022

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  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 19:00

• Trump's Georgia Bond Conditions Revealed By Judge
  Trump’s Georgia Bond Conditions Revealed By Judge

  Former President Donald Trump will have to post bond of $200,000 under a set of release conditions outlined by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee.

  

  The Georgia state-level court also set release conditions that include restrictions on co-defendant or witness intimidation, which includes a requirement that Trump refrain from communicating with any co-defendant about the facts of the case without going through an attorney.

  According to the ‘witness intimidation’ section, Trump is not to make an direct or indirect threat against co-defendants, witnesses, unindicted co-conspirators or victims, including “posts on social media or reposts of posts made by another individual on social media.”

  According to constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley, the Georgia indictment is “dangerous,” and “essentially criminalizes challenges to elections.”

  .@JonathanTurley on Trump GA Indictment: “It’s…dangerous. It essentially criminalizes challenges to elections.”

  Sounds authoritarian. pic.twitter.com/wQ4grLy3Qz

  — Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 15, 2023

  Trump and 18 co-defendants were indicted by a grand jury on August 14 over alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 US election. He faces 13 charges, including Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, as well as Solicitation of Violation of Oath by Public Officer and other conspiracy charges, according to the Daily Caller.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 18:40

• Actually, Joe, All Your "Objectives" Were Failures
  Actually, Joe, All Your “Objectives” Were Failures

  Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

  “Name me a single objective we’ve ever set out to accomplish that we’ve failed on. Name me one, in all of our history. Not one!”

  -President Joe Biden, August 16, 2023

  Joe Biden in one of his now accustomed angry “get off my grass” moods dared the press to find just one of his policies/objectives that has not worked. Silence followed.

  Perhaps it was polite to say nothing, given even the media knows almost every enacted Biden policy has failed.

  

  Here is a summation of what he should instead apologize for.

  Biden in late summer 2021 sought a 20th anniversary celebration of 9/11 and the 2001 subsequent invasion of Afghanistan.

  He wished to be the landmark president that yanked everyone out of Afghanistan after 20 years in country. But the result was the greatest military humiliation of the United States since the flight from Vietnam in 1975.

  Consider the ripples of Biden’s disaster. U.S. deterrence was crippled worldwide. China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea almost immediately began to bluster or return to their chronic harassment of U.S. and allied ships and planes. We left thousands of allied Afghans to face Taliban retribution, along with some Western contractors.

  Biden abandoned a $1 billion embassy, and a $300 million remodeled Bagram airbase strategically located not far from China and Russia, and easily defensible. Perhaps $50 billion in U.S. weaponry and supplies were abandoned and now find their way into the international terrorist mart.

  All our pride flags, our multimillion gender studies programs at Kabul University, and our George Floyd murals did not just come to naught, but were replaced by the Taliban’s anti-homosexual campaigns, burkas, and detestation of any trace of American popular culture.

  Vladimir Putin sized up the skedaddle. He collated it with Biden’s unhinged quip that he would not get too excited if Putin just staged a “minor” invasion of Ukraine. He remembered Biden’s earlier request to Putin to modulate Russian hacking to exempt a few humanitarian American institutions. Then Russia concluded of our shaky Commander-in-Chief that he either did not care or could do nothing about another Russian invasion.

  The result so far is more than 500,000 dead and wounded in the war, a Verdun-stand-off along with fortified lines, the steady depletion of our munitions and weapon stocks, and a new China/Russia/Iran/North Korean axis, with wink and nod assistance from NATO Turkey.

  Biden blew up the Abraham accords, nudged Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States over to the dark side of Iran, China, and Russia. He humiliated the U.S. on the eve of the midterms by callously begging the likes of Iran, Venezuela, Russia, and Saudi Arabia to pump more oil that he had damned as unclean at home and cut back its production. In Bidenomics, instead of producing oil, the president begs autocracies to export it to us at high prices while he drains the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve for short-term political advantage.

  Biden deliberately alienated Israel by openly interfering in its domestic politics.

  He pursued the crackpot Iran Deal while his special Iranian envoy was removed for disclosing classified information.

  No one can explain why Biden ignored the Chinese balloon espionage caper, kept mum about the engineered Covid virus that escaped the Wuhan lab, said not a word about a Chinese biolab discovered in rural California, and had his envoys either bow before Chinese leaders or take their insults in silence—other than he is either cognitively challenged or leveraged by his decade-long grifting partnership with his son Hunter.

  Yet another Biden’s legacy will be erasing the southern border and with it, U.S. immigration law. Over seven million aliens simply crossed into the U.S. illegally with Biden’s tacit sanction—without audits, background checks, vaccinations, and COVID testing, much less English fluency, skills, or high-school diplomas.

  Biden’s only immigration accomplishment was to render the entire illegal sanctuary city movement a cruel joke. Given the flood, mostly rich urban and vacation home dwellers made it very clear that while they fully support millions swarming into poor Latino communities of southern Texas and Arizona, they do not want any illegal aliens fouling their carefully cultivated nests.

  Biden is mum about the 100,000 fentanyl deaths from cartel-imported and Chinese-supplied drugs across his open border. He seems to like the idea that Mexican President Obrador periodically mouths off, ordering his vast expatriate community to vote Democratic and against Trump.

  Despite all the pseudo-blue collar dissimulation about Old Joe Biden from Scranton, he has little empathy for the working classes. Indeed, he derides them as chumps and dregs, urges miners to learn coding as the world covets their coal, and studiously avoids getting anywhere near the toxic mess in East Palestine, Ohio, or so far the moonscape on Maui.

  Bidenomics is a synonym for printing up to $6 billion dollars at precisely the time post-Covid consumer demand was soaring, while previously dormant supply chains were months behind rebooting production and transportation. Biden is on track to increase the national debt more than any one-term president.

  In Biden’s weird logic, if he raised the price of energy, gasoline, and key food staples 20-30 percent since his inauguration without a commensurate rise in wages, and then saw the worst inflation in 40 years occasionally decline from record highs one month to the next, then he “beat inflation.”

  But the reason why more than 60 percent of the nation has no confidence in Bidenomics is because it destroyed their household budgets. Gas is nearly twice what it was in January 2021. Interest rates have about tripled. Key staple foods are often twice as costly—meat, vegetables, and fruits especially.

  Biden has ended through his weaponized Attorney General Merrick Garland the age-old American commitment to equal justice under the law. The FBI, DOJ, CIA, and IRS are hopelessly politically compromised. Many of their bureaucrats serve as retrieval agents for lost Biden family incriminating laptops, diaries, and guns. In sum, Biden criminalized opposing political views.

  Biden has unleashed the administrative state for the first time in history to destroy the Republican primary front runner and his likely opponent. His legacy will be the corruption of U.S. jurisprudence and the obliteration of the American reputation for transparent permanent government that should be always above politics, bribery, and corruption.

  If in the future, an on-the-make conservative prosecutor in West Virginia, Utah, or Mississippi wishes to make a national name, then he has ample precedent to indict a Democrat President for receiving bad legal advice, questioning the integrity of an election, or using social media to express doubt that the new non-Election-Day balloting was on the up-and-up, or supposedly overvaluing his real estate.

  The Biden family’s decade-long family grifting will likely expose Joe Biden as the first president in U.S. history who fitted precisely the Constitution’s definition of impeachment and removal—given his “high crimes and misdemeanors” appear “bribery”-related.

  If further evidence shows he altered U.S. foreign policy in accordance with the wishes from his benefactors in Ukraine, China, or Romania, then he committed constitutionally-defined “treason” as well.

  Defunding the police, and pandemics of exempted looting, shoplifting, smashing, and grabbing, and carjacking merit no administrative attention. Nor does the ongoing systematic destruction of our blue bicoastal cities, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. All that, along with the disasters in East Palestine or Maui are out of sight, out of mind from a day at the beach at Biden’s mysteriously purchased nearly 6,000 square-foot beachfront mansion.

  Biden ran on Barack Obama-like 2004 rhetoric (“Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America).”

  And like Obama, he used that ecumenical sophistry to gain office only to divide further the U.S. No sooner than he was elected, we began hearing from the great unifier eerie screaming harangues about “semi-fascists” and “ultra-MAGA” dangerous zealots, replete with red-and black Phantom of the Opera backdrops.

  What followed the unifying rhetoric was often amnesties and exemptions for violent offenders during the 120 days of rioting, looting, killing, and attacks on police officers in summer 2020.  In contrast, his administration lied when it alleged that numerous officers had died at the hands of the January 6 rioters. In addition, the Biden administration mandated long-term incarceration of many who committed no illegal act other than acting like buffoons and “illegally parading.”

  The message was exemptions for torching a federal courthouse, a police precinct, or historic church or attempting to break into the White House grounds to get a president and his family—but long prison terms for wearing cow horns, a fur vest, and trespassing peacefully like a lost fool in the Capitol.

  Finally, Biden’s most glaring failure was simply being unpresidential. He snaps at reporters, and shouts at importune times. He can no longer read off a big-print teleprompter. Even before a global audience, he cannot kick his lifelong creepy habit of turkey-gobbling on children necks, blowing into their ears and hair of young girls, and squeezing women far too long and far too hard.

  His frailty redefined American presidential campaigning as basement seclusion and outsourcing propaganda to the media. And his disabilities only intensified during his presidency. Biden begins his day late and quits early. He has recalibrated the presidency as a 5-hour, 3-day a week job.

  If Trump was the great exaggerator, Biden is our foremost liar. Little in his biography can be fully believed. He lies about everything from his train rides to the death of his son to his relationship with Biden-family foreign collaborators, to vaccinations to the economy. Anytime Biden mentions places visited, miles flown, or rails ridden, he is likely lying.

  Biden continues with impunity because the media feels that a mentally challenged fabulist is preferrable to Donald Trump and so contextualizes or ignores his falsehoods.

  Never has a U.S. president fallen and stumbled or gotten lost on stage so frequently—or been a single small trip away from incapacity.

  So, yes, Biden’s initiatives have succeeded only in the sense of becoming successfully enacted—and therefore nearly destroying the country.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 18:20

• America's Great Investment Firm Migration Reveals Sun Belt Reaped Multi-Trillion Dollar Reward
  America’s Great Investment Firm Migration Reveals Sun Belt Reaped Multi-Trillion Dollar Reward

  Major cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles punished investment firms with high tax rates and a lack of business-friendly policies that only sparked an exodus during Covid. Progressive city leaders in these metro areas also implemented failed social justice reforms that unleashed a crime wave and exacerbated the exodus. Many of these firms fled to Florida, Texas, and other Sun Belt states. 

  From 1Q20 through the end of 1Q23, Bloomberg data shows more than 370 investment firms — or about 2.5% of the US total — with $2.7 trillion assets under management — moved their offices to a new state. 

  “The vast majority of the migration was out of high-cost-of-living locales in the Northeast and on the West Coast and into Florida, Texas, and other Sun Belt refuges,” Bloomberg said. 

  

  The exodus of investment firms from crime-ridden and high-taxed Northeast and West Coast cities show Florida, Tennessee, and Texas were some of the top destinations. While the South booms, the exodus has left northern cities with weakening commercial property markets and a decline in tax revenues that could soon strain local budgets. 

  

  Even though New York City is the world’s financial capital, Wall Street of the South, that is, Miami — is booming. Most of the investment firms fleeing NYC and California moved to South Florida and Dallas. 

  

  “The Sun Belt is continuing to change — no longer just a place of traditional industries like oil and gas, no longer just focused on tourism, or just focusing on the retirement community,” said Amy Liu, the interim president of the Brookings Institution and a researcher on urban policy.

  Liu continued, “These pandemic moves sort of reinforce that the major metros in these states are certainly becoming a destination for new industries.”

  Florida has become a prime location for many financial firms. Ken Griffin’s Citadel moved to Miami, while hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. relocated its headquarters to West Palm Beach. Similarly, Point72 Asset Management, Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, and Millennium Management have all shifted operations to Florida. 

  

  Texas gained the most investment jobs during the great migration. 

  

  It’s only a matter of time before Florida rivals NYC as a finance hub. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 18:00

• Old Dominion Ups Ante With $1.5BN Bid On Yellow's Terminals As Bidding War Heats Up
  Old Dominion Ups Ante With $1.5BN Bid On Yellow’s Terminals As Bidding War Heats Up

  By Todd Maiden of FreightWaves

  Less-than-truckload carrier Old Dominion Freight Line entered a $1.5 billion bid for Yellow Corp.’s terminals, according to a Friday filing in a Delaware bankruptcy court.

  The new offer exceeds the $1.3 billion bid from LTL peer Estes Express Lines, which was revealed at a Thursday status update.

  

  The offer for the 166-terminal portfolio is a stalking horse purchase agreement, wherein the bidder sets the floor for the value of the assets to be sold out of a bankruptcy estate. The properties will still undergo a marketing and sale process in which higher offers from other parties may be accepted.

  The terms provide a maximum breakup fee of $26 million and up to $2 million in expense reimbursement. Old Dominion is required to make a 5% deposit. The bid remains effective for 180 days.

  The Thursday court proceeding also named bankruptcy financing lenders.

  Hedge funds Citadel and MFN Partners will provide $142.5 million in debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing, which will give Yellow’s estate the funds necessary to liquidate assets.

  The deal also includes an additional commitment from MFN for a delayed draw of up to $70 million.

  MFN acquired a 42.5% equity stake in Yellow ahead of its shutdown.

  Citadel recently bought Yellow’s term loan from Apollo Global Management after superior DIP financing offers came forward following Yellow’s Aug. 7 bankruptcy filing.

  Apollo’s DIP deal was said to be the only viable offer provided to Yellow prior to the Chapter 11 petition.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 17:40

• SoftBank's Arm Files For IPO
  SoftBank’s Arm Files For IPO

  In what could be 2023’s largest IPO, SoftBank Group’s semiconductor unit Arm Holdings publicly filed a registration statement on Form F-1 with the SEC relating to the proposed initial public offering of American depositary shares representing its ordinary shares.

  Arm has applied to list the ADSs on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “ARM”.

  The number of ADSs to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have yet to be determined.

  Barclays, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Mizuho are acting as joint book-running managers for the proposed offering.

  The filing lists 24 other underwriters below that top tier.

  Arm plays a pivotal role in the world of consumer electronics, designing the architecture of chips that are found in 99% of all smartphones, making it a key provider of technology to Apple, Google,  and Qualcomm

  

  Bloomberg reports that while Arm had been aiming to raise $8 billion to $10 billion in the IPO, that target could be lower since SoftBank has decided to hold onto more of the company after buying Vision Fund’s stake in it.

  

  Bloomberg has previously reported that Arm was aiming for valuations between $60 billion and $70 billion, as the chip designer tries to cash in on investors’ frenzy for stocks that can benefit from the rise in artificial intelligence.

  • Arm reported $524 million in net income on $2.68 billion in revenue in its fiscal 2023, which ended in March, according to the filing. Arm’s 2023 revenue was slightly down from the company’s 2022 sales of $2.7 billion.

  SoftBank Group Corp., which owns Arm, bought a 25% stake in the company from the Vision Fund at a $64 billion valuation.

  Those kinds of levels are high compared with the valuations that investors have awarded smaller Arm competitors like Synopsys Inc. and Cadence Design Systems Inc.

  Using the price-to-sales ratios of those public companies for Arm would imply a value of between about $32 billion and $43 billion for the chip designer.

  

  That’s based on the $2.68 billlion of revenue from Arm’s latest fiscal year. A representative for Arm declined to comment.

  That range jibes with what analysts at Bernstein Research suggested in a July 23 note, when they said the company should be worth around $40 billion.

  They added that there “could be upside” to that valuation on “the potential for more significant growth based on future AI applications and further profitability improvements,” as more information will be made public during the IPO process.

  Arm is the clear market leader in the market for semiconductor design, Bernstein said.

  Comparables based on price relative to past earnings offers more upside potential to Arm’s valuation…

  

  However, if using an average blended forward price-to-earnings ratio across Nvidia, AMD, Synopsys and Cadence, then Arm would need to generate $1.1 billion of income to justify a $40 billion valuation or around $1.7 billion for a $64 billion value (more than 3x the current level).

  Finally, we can’t help but wonder – with all the exuberance around chipmakers and AI – whether Arm’s long-anticipated IPO could ring the bell on this boom.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 17:20

• The US Will Be Forced To Embrace Gold… Or Become Isolated
  The US Will Be Forced To Embrace Gold… Or Become Isolated

  Authored by Patrick Barron via The Mises Institute,

  Dollar Hegemony Is Ending Due to Geopolitical Changes

  Since the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944, the dollar has been the world’s preferred reserve currency – the major trading nations of the world were willing to hold dollars in vast amounts to satisfy their need for a readily accepted worldwide payment medium. Even when, in 1971, the United States violated its solemn promise to redeem its dollars for gold at thirty-five dollars per ounce, nations were still willing to hold dollars.

  

  Germany Shies Away from Monetary Leadership

  In the mid-2010s, I was certain that Germany would abandon the euro and reinstate the deutsche mark. It was clear, especially to some German central bankers, that Germany was being cheated by the European Central Bank. Germany’s TARGET2 surplus represented a vast excess of German exports to other European Union members, who were pledging near-worthless government and corporate bonds in exchange for newly printed euros from the European Central Bank. These bonds would never be redeemed for anything of real value; therefore, it would be simple rational self-interest for Germany to quit the charade.

  I predicted that such an action would cause the eurozone to collapse, make Germany’s deutsche mark the preferred unit of trade in Europe, and possibly threaten the dollar for worldwide reserve dominance. Obviously, this never happened. Why?

  Germany knew and feared that alarm bells would sound all over the world that, once again, Germany was rising and would dominate Europe. The French, especially, would panic for at least two reasons. One, the collapse of the euro would force France to make a stark choice. Either adopt the deutsche mark—as I expected most northern-tier European countries to do—or try to revert to the French franc, knowing that almost no other nation would be willing to hold francs. France would be cut off from international trade unless it reformed its unsustainable welfare system. However, every time France tried to institute any modicum of welfare reform, the population rioted.

  Two, France benefited immensely from internal EU transfer payments—most importantly, farm subsidies. French farmers would be forced to reform or go bankrupt, ending a cushy lifestyle that seemed to be synonymous with France itself. The stark fact was that France had nuclear weapons, and Germany did not. It was unthinkable that either Germany or Japan—the losing Axis powers of World War II, along with Italy—would ever get nuclear weapons. Independent control of one’s own nuclear arsenal was the minimum stake for playing the reserve currency game. Thereafter, the game belonged only to nations with large economies that produced a variety of export goods and services desired throughout the world. That left only America in the game.

  The great question is why Germany, even though it eschewed nuclear weapons under its own control, would assent to giving up the deutsche mark and adopting the euro in the first place. At the time, Germany wanted to reunite East and West Germany. The French, who legally held veto power over such a move, made adopting the euro a condition for reunification.

  However, why couldn’t Germany just ignore this now-irrelevant agreement in more recent years? The answer is just a theory but probably pertains to some extent to all major European nations. Germany had suffered between six and seven million military losses during the two great wars (World War I losses and World War II losses). Germany’s best and brightest, its future leadership, was lost for all time. These were wars in which the elite of all belligerents fought. Such leadership can never be replaced. The loss of future leadership was equally harsh on the other major European combatants. In the two world wars, the Soviet Union/Russia suffered between nine and thirteen million military dead. France suffered a million and a half dead, the vast majority in World War I. The United Kingdom suffered slightly over one million dead (this number excludes India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.) As former member of the European Parliament Godfrey Bloom has stated: “The 1914–18 war killed the best of the British Empire. The 1939–45 war killed what remained. Then the welfare state danced on their graves.”

  The Event that Changed Everything

  Then, a great geopolitical event occurred—Deng Xiaoping rose to power in China following the death of Mao Zedong. Deng instituted sweeping, capitalistic economic reforms, and China rose to become a rival to America in terms of economic power. China had obtained nuclear weapons under Mao. Despite the fact that China was and remains a one-party dictatorship, it now had the two ingredients to challenge the US dollar—a large economy and nuclear weapons. China was blackmail proof.

  Like China, Russia had thrown off the worst of its Soviet economic policies under Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, but its small population and relatively backward economy was not in the same league with America and China. Nevertheless, Russia had been a great ally in World War II and had every reason to believe that, now that it had thrown off communism, it could become a vital part of Europe once again. When the US, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the European Union spurned Russia’s attempt to rejoin the old Concert of Europe, it gradually saw its future as aligned with China.

  So, what does all this have to do with the end of the dollar hegemony? The answer is that the new Asian nexus saw a way to break the US use of the dollar hegemony as a political tool. The Achilles’ heel of the dollar is that it is a fiat currency. This suits the US political establishment very well since it allows the US to inflate the dollar at will to pay for welfare and warfare. It also allows the US to impose sanctions on its perceived enemies, such as Russia and Iran, by cutting them out of the Swift international trade messaging system.

  It is similar to what happened to Brexit advocate Nigel Farage in the UK. For strictly political reasons, his bank closed his accounts, and Farage was unable to find another that would accept his money for deposit. No bank account means no way to exist in a modern economy. Farage feared that he might be forced to leave his own country.

  The US-imposed Russian sanctions froze billions of Russian-owned assets. Rather than cause Russia to back down in Ukraine, however, it seems to have sped up the process—started by Russia—to develop a new world reserve currency backed in some measure by gold. The “BRICS” nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—have been joined by dozens of others who are determined to break away from the fiat dollar hegemony and use an honest, gold-backed trading settlement system. This new BRICS+ group claims that it will announce a first step in pursuing this goal at its meeting in Johannesburg at the end of August.

  The US Will Be Forced to Embrace Gold . . . or Become Isolated

  There are many who dismiss this development. After all, the US and the US dollar have been supreme worldwide for eighty years. These critics fail to understand real economics, real monetary theory, and real international statesmanship.

  The US has been enthralled by three destructive concepts.

  • The first is Lord John Maynard Keynes’s economics – which ignores Say’s law of markets—effectively endowing the Keynesian concept of “aggregate demand” with godlike status while disregarding “production”—the only means of satisfying the demand.

  • The second is the so-called modern monetary theory, which posits that sovereign states can never go bankrupt due to their ability to print all the money they need.

  • The third concept is the out-and-out arrogance of the US since the end of World War II, which deigns to cancel entire nations.

  All this will come to an end when gold returns as the focal point of the BRICS nations’ monetary reform project. At that point, the US will start losing friends until it, too, reluctantly regains its senses and returns to gold, honest dealing, and honest, respectful statesmanship. America will need new leaders for this task. They are there, waiting to be called by the people. The US and the world will be a much better place as a result.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 17:00

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• Belarusian Forces Conduct Landing & Assault Drills Near Polish Border
  Belarusian Forces Conduct Landing & Assault Drills Near Polish Border

  Via Remix News,

  Belarusian soldiers are engaged in exercises near Brest, including parachute and landing operations…

  

  The Belarusian Ministry of Defense has confirmed that a five-day training exercise for land and assault forces is being conducted in Brest, a city in southwest Belarus on the Polish border.

  It is understood that officers have already practiced parachute landings and embarked on a 15-kilometer march in the region. The training area is just a few kilometers from the Bug River on the border between Poland and Belarus.

  A month ago, the training site near Brest was also used by the Wagner Group mercenaries. This too was acknowledged by the Belarusian defense ministry. 

  

  Source: Telegram/Belarusian Ministry of Defense.

  The Polish authorities are monitoring the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border very closely, and the Polish government announced measures last week to ramp up security in the region.

  The Border Guard is being supported by the army following the incident in which two Belarusian helicopters entered Polish air space.

  “We are increasing the number of our troops on the Polish-Belarusian border; eventually, 10,000 soldiers will defend the Polish border in this sector,” Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak told Polish Radio last Thursday.

  Belarus has also announced its intention to engage in joint military exercises with China.

  The Chinese defense minister has been in Minsk for talks on deepening military cooperation between the two countries. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 02:00

• Escobar: Central Asia Is The Prime Battlefield In The New Great Game
  Escobar: Central Asia Is The Prime Battlefield In The New Great Game

  Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,

  So long as Russia and China remain the region’s dominant political and economic powers, the Central Asian heartland will remain a US and EU target for threats, bribes, and color revolutions…

  

  The historical Heartland – or Central Eurasia – already is, and will continue to be, the prime battlefield in the New Great Game, fought between the United States and the China-Russia strategic partnership.  

  The original Great Game pitted the British and Russian empires in the late 19th century, and in fact, never got away: it just metastasized into the US-UK entente versus the USSR, and, subsequently, the US-EU versus Russia. 

  According to the Mackinder-designed geopolitical game conceptualized by imperial Britain back in 1904, The Heartland is the proverbial “pivot of History,” and its re-energized 21st century historical role is as relevant as in centuries ago: a key driver of emerging multipolarity.    

  So it’s no wonder all major powers are at work in the Heartland/Central Eurasia: China, Russia, US, EU, India, Iran, Turkiye, and to a lesser extent, Japan. Four out of five Central Asian “stans” are full members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO): Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. And some, like Kazakhstan, may soon become members of BRICS+.   

  The key direct geopolitical clash for influence across the Heartland pits the US against Russia and China on myriad political, economic, and financial fronts.   

  The imperial modus operandi privileges – what else – threats and ultimatums. Only four months ago, US emissaries from the State Department, Treasury, and Office of Foreign Affairs Control (OFAC) toured the Heartland bearing a whole package of “gifts,” as in blatant or thinly disguised threats. The key message: if you “help” or even trade with Russia in any way, you will be slapped with secondary sanctions. 

  Informal conversations with businesses in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand and Bukhara and contacts in Kazakhstan reveal a pattern: Everyone seems to be aware that the Americans will go no holds barred to hold the Heartland/Central Asia at gunpoint. 

  Kings of the Ancient Silk Roads

  There’s hardly a more relevant place across the Heartland to observe the current power play than Samarkand, the fabled “Rome of the East.” Here we are in the heart of ancient Sogdiana – the historical trade crossroads between China, India, Parthia, and Persia, an immensely important node of East-West cultural trends, Zoroastrianism, and pre/post-Islamic vectors. 

  From the 4th century to the 8th century, it was the Sogdians who monopolized the caravan trade between East Asia, Central Asia, and West Asia, transporting silk, cotton, gold, silver, copper, weaponry, aromas, furs, carpets, clothes, ceramics, glass, porcelain, ornaments, semi-precious stones, mirrors. Wily Sogdian merchants used protection from nomadic dynasties to solidify trade between China and Byzantium. 

  The meritocratic Chinese elite, which reasons in terms of very long historical cycles, is very much aware of all of the above: that’s a key driver behind the New Silk Roads concept, officially known as BRI (Belt and Road Initiative), as announced nearly 10 years ago by President Xi Jinping in Astana, Kazakhstan. Beijing plans to reconnect with its Western neighbors as the necessary pathway towards increased pan-Eurasian trade and connectivity.         

  Beijing and Moscow have complementary focuses when it comes to relations with the Heartland – always under the principle of strategic cooperation. Both have been engaged in regional security and economic cooperation with Central Asia since 1998. Established in 2001, the SCO is an actual product of the Russia-China common strategy as well as a platform for non-stop dialogue with the Heartland.  

  How different Central Asian “stans” react to it is a multi-level issue.

  • Tajikistan, for instance, economically fragile and heavily dependent on the Russian market as a provider of cheap labor, officially keeps an “open door” policy to every sort of cooperation, including with the west.         

  • Kazakhstan and the US have established a Strategic Partnership Council (their last meeting was late last year).

  • Uzbekistan and the US have a “strategic partnership dialogue,” set up in late 2021. American business presence is very much visible in Tashkent, via an imposing trade center, not to mention Coke and Pepsi in every Uzbek village corner shop. 

  The EU tries to keep up, especially in Kazakhstan, where over 30 percent of foreign trade ($39 billion) and investments ($12.5 billion) come from Europe. Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev – extremely popular for opening up the country five years ago – nabbed $9 billion in trade deals when he visited Germany three months ago. 

  Since the inception of the Chinese BRI a decade ago, the EU, by comparison, invested around $120 billion across the Heartland: not too shabby (40 percent of total foreign investment), but still below Chinese commitments.    

  What is Turkiye really up to? 

  The imperial focus in the Heartland is predictably Kazakhstan, because of its vast oil and gas resources. US-Kazakh trade represents 86 percent of all American trade with Central Asia, which was an unimpressive $3.8 billion last year. Compare that figure with only 7 percent of US trade with Uzbekistan. 

  It’s fair to argue that most of these four Central Asian “stans” in the SCO practice “multifaceted diplomacy,” trying not to attract unwanted imperial ire. Kazakhstan, for its part, goes for “balanced diplomacy”: that’s part of its Concept of Foreign Policy 2014-2020. 

  In a sense, Astana’s new motto expresses some continuity with the previous one, “multi-vector diplomacy,” established during the nearly three-decade rein of former President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Kazakhstan, under President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, is a member of the SCO, the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), and BRI, but at the same time, must be on 24/7 alert to imperial machinations. After all, it was Moscow and prompt intervention by the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) that saved Tokayev from a color revolution attempt in early 2022. 

  The Chinese, for their part, invest in a collective approach, solidified, for instance, in high-profile meetings such as the China-Central Asia 5+1 Summit, held only 3 months ago. 

  Then there’s the extremely curious case of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), formerly Turkic Council, which unites Turkiye, Azerbaijan, and three Central Asian “stans,” Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. 

  This OTS’ overarching aim is to “promote comprehensive cooperation among Turkic-speaking states.” Not much in practice is visible across the Heartland, apart from the odd billboard promoting Turkish products. A visit to the secretariat in Istanbul in the spring of 2022 did not exactly yield solid answers, apart from vague references to “projects on economy, culture, education, transport,” and, more significantly, customs. 

  Last November, in Samarkand, the OTS signed an agreement “on the establishment of a simplified customs corridor.” It’s too early to tell whether this would be able to foment a sort of mini-Turkiye Silk Road across the Heartland.  

  Still, it’s enlightening to keep an eye on what they may come up with next. Their charter privileges “developing common positions on foreign policy issues,” “coordinating actions to combat international terrorism, separatism, extremism, and cross-border crimes,” and creating “favorable conditions for trade and investment.”

  Turkmenistan – the idiosyncratic Central Asian “stan” which vehemently insists on its absolute geopolitical neutrality – happens to be an OTS observer state. Also as eye-catching is a Center of Nomadic Civilizations based in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. 

  Solving the Russian-Heartland riddle 

  Western sanctions against Russia have ended up profiting quite a few Heartland players. Because Central Asia’s economies are closely linked to Russia, exports skyrocketed  – as much, by the way, as imports from Europe. 

  Quite a few EU companies resettled in the Heartland after leaving Russia – with the corresponding process of selected Central Asian tycoons buying Russian assets. In parallel, because of the Russian troop mobilization drive, arguably tens of thousands of relatively wealthy Russians moved to the Heartland, while an extra lot of Central Asian workers found new jobs, especially in Moscow and St. Petersburg.  

  Last year, for instance, remittances to Uzbekistan shot up to a hefty $16.9 billion: 85 percent of this (about $14.5 billion) came from workers in Russia. According to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, economies across the Heartland will grow by a healthy 5.2 percent in 2023 and 5.4 percent in 2024.

  That economic boost is plainly visible in Samarkand: The city is a giant construction – and restoration – site today. Impeccably new, wide boulevards are springing up everywhere, complete with lush green landscaping, flowers, fountains, and wide sidewalks, all sparkling clean. No vagrants, no homeless, no crackheads. Visitors from decaying western metropolises are absolutely stunned.    

  In Tashkent, the Uzbek government is building a vast, stunning Center of Islamic Civilization, heavily focused on pan-Eurasia business. 

  There’s no question the key geopolitical vector all across the Heartland is the relationship with Russia. Russian remains the lingua franca in every sphere of life. 

  Let’s start with Kazakhstan, which shares an enormous 7,500 km-long border with Russia (yet there are no border disputes). Back in the USSR, the five Central Asian “stans” were, in fact, denominated “Central Asia and Kazakhstan,” because a large part of Kazakhstan lies in the south of West Siberia, and close to Europe. Kazakhstan sees itself as quintessentially Eurasian – it is no wonder that since the Nazarbayev years, Astana privileges Eurasia integration. 

  Last year, at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, Tokayev told Russian President Vladimir Putin, in person, that Astana would not recognize the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. Kazakh diplomats keep stressing they can’t afford to have the country as a gateway to bypass Western sanctions – although, in the shadows, that’s what happens in many cases. 

  Kyrgyzstan, for its part, canceled the CSTO “Strong Brotherhood-2022” joint military exercises scheduled for October last year – it is worth mentioning that the problem in this case was not Russia, but a border issue with Tajikistan.

  Putin has proposed to establish a Russia-Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan gas union. As it stands, nothing has happened, and may not happen. 

  All these must be considered as minor setbacks. Last year, Putin visited all five Central Asian “stans” for the first time in quite a while. Mirroring China, they held a 5+1 summit also for the first time. Russian diplomats and businessmen ply Heartland roads full-time. And let’s not forget that the presidents of all five Central Asian “stans” were themselves present in the Red Square parade in Moscow on Victory Day last May. 

  Russian diplomacy knows everything there is to know about the major imperial obsession to extract the Central Asian “stans” from Russian influence. 

  That goes way beyond the official US Central Asia Strategy 2019-2025 – and it has reached hysteria status after the US humiliation in Afghanistan and the impending NATO humiliation in Ukraine.  

  On the crucial energy front, very few remember today that the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, then reduced to TAP (India pulled out), was a priority of the American (italics mine) New Silk Road, concocted at the State Department and sold by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2011. 

  Nothing practical happened with that pie in the sky. What the Americans did manage to do, recently, was to scotch the development of a competitor, the Iran-Pakistan (IP) pipeline, by forcing Islamabad to cancel it, in the wake of the whole lawfare scandal designed to eliminate former Premier Imran Khan from Pakistan’s political life. 

  Still, the TAPI-IP Pipelineistan saga is far from over. With Afghanistan free from US occupation, Russia’s Gazprom, as well as Chinese firms, are very much interested in participating in the construction of TAPI: The pipeline would be a strategic BRI node, linked to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in the crossroads between Central and South Asia. 

  The ‘alien’ collective west

  As much as Russia is – and will continue to be – a known currency all across the Heartland, the Chinese model is unsurpassed as a sustainable development example capable of inspiring an array of indigenous Central Asian solutions.  

  In contrast, what does the Empire have to offer? In a nutshell: Divide and Rule, via its localized terror minions such as ISIS-Khorasan, instrumentalized to foment political destabilization in the weakest Central Asian nodes, from the Ferghana valley to the Afghan-Tajik border, for instance.  

  The multiple challenges facing the Heartland have been discussed in detail in meetings such as the Valdai Central Asian Conference.

   Valdai Club expert Rustam Khaydarov may have coined the most concise appraisal of West-Heartland relations:

  “The collective West is alien to us both in terms of culture and worldview. There is not a single phenomenon or event, or element of modern culture, which could serve as the basis for a relationship and rapprochement between the US and European Union on the one hand and Central Asia on the other. Americans and Europeans have no idea about the culture and mentality or traditions of the peoples of Central Asia, so they could not and will not be able to interact with us. Central Asia does not view economic prosperity in conjunction with the liberal democracy of the West, which is essentially an alien concept to the countries of the region.” 

  Considering this scenario, and in the context of a New Great Game that is becoming increasingly incandescent by the day, it’s no wonder that some Heartland diplomatic circles are very much interested in a closer integration of Central Asia into BRICS+. That’s something bound to be discussed at the BRICS summit in South Africa next week. 

  The strategic formula reads like Russia + Central Asia + South Asia + Africa + Latin America – yet another instance of “Global Globe” (to quote Lukashenko) integration. It may all start with Kazakhstan becoming the first Heartland nation accepted as a member of BRICS+. 

  After that, all the world is a stage for the re-energized Return of the Heartland in transportation, logistics, energy, trade, manufacturing, investment, infotech, culture, and – last but not least, in the spirit of the Silk Roads, old and new – “people to people’s exchanges”. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 08/21/2023 – 00:00

• China's Shadow Bank Crisis Stokes Fear Of Housing Spillover
  China’s Shadow Bank Crisis Stokes Fear Of Housing Spillover

  By Charlie Zhu, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and strategist

  Three things we learned last week:

  1. One of China’s shadow banking giants fell into a liquidity crisis, showing how contagion from the troubled real estate industry is spreading and raising questions of how far the crunch will now go. Trust companies linked to Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Co., which has assets of more than 1 trillion yuan, missed payments on dozens of products, many of which may have been backed by real estate projects real estate projects.

  “Markets still underestimate the aftermath of the significant collapse in China’s property sector,” Lu Ting, chief China economist at Nomura Holdings Inc., wrote in a report. China’s trust wealth management industry is set to face turbulence in coming months, which is likely to cause further headwinds to its already weakening economic momentum, according to the report.

  Zhongzhi’s troubles have already sparked protests, leading the police to clamp down on unhappy clients. It has 270 products totaling 39.5 billion yuan due this year, according to data provider Use Trust.

  While the reported Zhongrong Trust defaults don’t yet appear to be of systemic concern, a disorderly wind-up of any large trust or wealth management company could test near-term financial stability, Zerlina Zeng, CreditSights senior research analyst, wrote in a note.

  

  2. Fallout from Country Garden is spreading to investment-grade names as China’s property downturn deepens. Dollar bonds from units of Gemdale Corp. and Seazen Group Ltd. — developers that were also among those chosen to sell state-guaranteed local notes like Country Garden did — accelerated declines last week. Notes issued by Longfor Group Holdings Ltd. and China Vanke Co., two of the country’s few private-sector investment grade developers, suffered the same fate.

  Country Garden’s delayed payment is likely already exacerbating a loss of confidence and a default would only worsen matters, S&P Global Ratings analysts led by Edward Chan wrote in a report. They said an “L”-shaped national sales recovery seems increasingly likely to shift into a “descending staircase” figure.

  

  3. The central bank stepped up to deliver unexpected rate cuts, and vowed to maintain financial stability. The People’s Bank of China lowered the cost of its one-year and seven-day loans to financial institutions, before the release of data that showed weak consumer spending growth, sliding investment and rising unemployment in July.

  In its second-quarter monetary policy implementation report, the PBOC vowed to “step up macroeconomic policy adjustment” and “resolutely prevent excessive correction in the exchange rate,” as the yuan slid toward its weakest level since 2007.

  It’s an age-old dilemma for central banks faced with a weakening economy — control the interest rate or the currency? Attempting to do both, as Bank of Japan recently tried, frequently fails to sway traders who see an opportunity.

  “If markets are convinced that property sector could be stabilized and the downward spiral is resolutely curbed,” sentiment toward the yuan could improve, said Zhi Xiaojia, head of research at Credit Agricole CIB.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 23:30

• Which Airports Move The Most Cargo Around The World?
  Which Airports Move The Most Cargo Around The World?

  From facilitating crucial international supply chains to ensuring the smooth delivery of personal Amazon packages, cargo shipping is an important part of the global economy.

  Total air cargo shipped measured around 117 million metric tons in 2022.

  In the following map, Visual Capitalist’s Avery Koop and Athul Alexander, using data from Airports Council International (ACI), showcase the global airports that move the most goods.

  

  The Busiest Cargo Airports

  The world’s busiest airport in terms of cargo is Hong Kong’s, which has held the number one spot for almost 28 years. Here’s a look at the ranking:

  

  Some of these busy airports are not well-known, and none of them, aside from LAX, rank as highly in terms of passenger traffic. For example, Anchorage ranks in the top 10 in cargo processed because it is cheaper for cargo carriers to stop over and refuel there, rather than flying nonstop from Asia to the United States.

  The Memphis airport handles the most cargo in North America, largely because of FedEx’s significant presence there. FedEx processes over 245,000 documents and 180,000 packages an hour at Memphis’ airport.

  On top of being home to UPS’ Worldport, the world’s biggest fully automated package processing facility, Louisville is also central to other transport routes in the United States. Packages come into this hub and then head out on the many highways and railways, as well as the Ohio River, which connects to the Mississippi River, one of the country’s main waterways for barge transit.

  Cargo Shipment

  Nearly every airport has seen significant increases in the amount of cargo moved year-over-year, with numbers now rising above pre-pandemic benchmarks. Notably, however, Shanghai and Hong Kong have experienced decreases due to geopolitical tensions.

  In Hong Kong, goods movement via air travel is integral to the economy. Around half of the entire region’s external trade went through the airport in 2022.

  Cargo transit is inherently important to the global economy. Around $6 trillion worth of goods move through airports annually, representing approximately 35% of world trade.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 23:00

• US 'Rent-A-Womb' Industry Thrives Due To Demand From Parents In China: Researcher
  US ‘Rent-A-Womb’ Industry Thrives Due To Demand From Parents In China: Researcher

  Authored by Ella Ella Kietlinska and Joshua Philipp via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The “rent-a-womb” industry pipelines children born of surrogates in the United States to parents in China, a researcher said. Babies born this way automatically gain U.S. birthright citizenship.

  

  Chinese “rent-a-womb” industry, has been burgeoning in the United States for about a decade, particularly in California, where laws regulating commercial surrogacy and in-vitro fertilization (IVF) are permissive, said Emma Waters, a research associate for the Center for Life, Religion, and Family at The Heritage Foundation.

  Surrogacy, a practice where a woman carries a pregnancy and gives birth to a baby for another person or couple, is completely banned in China.

  Therefore Chinese couples use services offered by American fertility clinics that create for them embryos potentially having the biological makeup of the Chinese nationals, and birth the baby in the United States, Ms. Waters said in an interview on Epoch TV’s “Crossroads” program on Aug. 11.

  With birthright citizenship laws in the United States, that child, who may be 100 percent Chinese national in their biology and genetic makeup, actually gains and maintains the full rights of U.S. citizenship, Ms. Waters explained.

  When that child turns 21, even the parents can apply for a green card and eventually get citizenship, “which is a much faster and cheaper process than if they were to apply for citizenship through some of the traditional methods,” she added.

  Threat to National Security

  Giving foreign nationals full access to American citizenship through the wombs of American women poses “a huge national security threat,” Ms. Waters said.

  “If a child is born and raised in China, inculcated in their culture, and very loyal to their lands, when they come to the United States, they’re not being flagged as a foreign national who’s applying for a job or applying to work in a research lab—they are applying as a U.S. citizen.”

  “There’s not a database that’s publicly available or easy to access where these children are being listed. And so should they apply for jobs, employers in government or private sector have no idea of the background that they’re dealing with.”

  The situation was made possible due to the lack of regulation and laws around this, Ms. Waters said.

  Ms. Waters suggested that the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, which has been studying Chinese investment in areas such as entertainment, farmland, and media, needs to spend more time investigating Chinese investment in Americans through Chinese children created in America by in-vitro fertilization and commercial surrogacy.

  How Fertility Industry Works

  

  When Chinese nationals connect with a fertility clinic, particularly in California, they have an option to “either create an embryo using their own sperm and egg or they can purchase a sperm or egg,” Ms. Waters explained.

  In many cases, they travel to the United States, but with the current technology, they are technically not required to leave China in order to create an embryo, she continued.

  “A Chinese couple or individual can simply work with a U.S.-based agency to send their reproductive material (sperm, egg, or embryo) to an IVF lab and implant it in a hired surrogate [in the United States] to produce a viable pregnancy,” Ms. Waters wrote for the Heritage Foundation.

  Ms. Waters reviewed recently about 450 fertility clinics, particularly in California, but there is many more outside of that. she said. “Many of these fertility clinics actually have a direct or indirect connection to China.”

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 22:30

• NYC Wants To Shove Migrants In Shuttered Jeffrey Epstein Jail
  NYC Wants To Shove Migrants In Shuttered Jeffrey Epstein Jail

  A New York jail which was shuttered following Jeffrey Epstein’s death, the Manhattan Correctional Center, may wind up housing illegal immigrants.

  

  A proposal mentioned in an Aug. 9 letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul aims to mitigate the impact of some 100,000 migrants estimated to have arrived in the city since last year after crossing the southern US border, AP reports.

  Under NYC rules, officials are legally obligated to obtain shelter for anyone needing it. And with homeless shelters packed to the brim, NYC Mayor Eric Adams (D) has been renting out hotels, shoving cots in recreational centers and school gyms, and creating official tent cities.

  The letter, written by a senior counsel for the city’s law department, identifies several other sites in which migrants could potentially be housed, including the defunct Metropolitan Correctional Center, which closed in 2021.

  That shutdown came after the detention center, whose prisoners have included Mafia don John Gotti, associates of Osama bin Laden and the Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, came under new scrutiny because of squalid conditions and security lapses exposed following Epstein’s death. -AP

  According to the report, lawyers have described the jail as ‘filthy’ and infested with bugs and rodents, as well as plagued by water and sewage leaks which caused structural issues.

  Pro-immigrant groups have denounced the plan.

  “Mayor Adams likes to say that all options are on the table when it comes to housing asylum seekers, but certain places should most definitely be off the table,” said Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, adding: “The Metropolitan Correctional Center was a notoriously decrepit jail, and is not a suitable place to support people trying to build a new life in a new country.”

  Meanwhile, hundreds of NY residents recently turned out to protest against a proposal to turn a former assisted living facility on Staten Island into a migrant shelter.

  Hundreds out in New York protesting against a proposal to turn a Staten Island former assisted living facility into a migrant shelter pic.twitter.com/WNBMtnBaxo

  — Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) August 20, 2023

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

  While New York State has been accused of being slow to respond to the immigrants, a Hochul attorney pushed back, rejecting allegations that the state failed to deal with the migrant influx in a substantial way.

  “The City has not made timely requests for regulatory changes, has not always promptly shared necessary information with the State, has not implemented programs in a timely manner, and has not consulted the State before taking certain actions,” reads the letter.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 22:00

• Rep. Gaetz Introduces Bill To Censure, Investigate Judge In Trump 2020 Election Case
  Rep. Gaetz Introduces Bill To Censure, Investigate Judge In Trump 2020 Election Case

  Authored by Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is introducing a resolution to censure U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan and open an investigation into her “for showing open bias and partisanship in her official duties on the bench.”

  

  Judge Chutkan is overseeing a case against former President Donald Trump, brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for conspiracy in his challenge of the 2020 election results. She has already overseen many other cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol protest, which is being investigated by special counsel Jack Smith. About 1,000 people have already been sentenced for crimes related to the day’s events, and Judge Chutkan has been known to hand down harsh prison sentences.

  “Judge Tanya Chutkan’s extreme sentencing of January 6th defendants, while openly supporting the violent Black Lives Matter riots of 2020, showcases a complete disregard for her duty of impartiality and the rule of law,” Mr. Gaetz said.

  He appeared to be referring to remarks the judge made in one Jan. 6-related sentencing.

  “People gathered all over the country last year to protest the violent murder by the police of an unarmed man,” she said, referencing violent riots that erupted after the death of George Floyd. “To compare the actions of people protesting, mostly peacefully, for civil rights, to those of a violent mob seeking to overthrow the lawfully elected government is a false equivalency and ignores a very real danger that the January 6 riot posed to the foundation of our democracy.”

  Mr. Gaetz’s resolution points to a few other cases of “open partisanship,” including the fact that the Obama-appointed district judge had donated thousands of dollars to his presidential campaign, and that during another Jan. 6-related sentencing she “lamented” that President Trump “remains free to this day.”

  “Such partisan commentary by Judge Chutkan has been ongoing and calls into question her fitness as a judge and … Chutkan’s comments and activities on and off the bench violate all 5 canons of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges,” the resolution reads (pdf).

  The canons are that a judge should uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary; avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities; perform the duties of the office fairly, impartially, and diligently; engage in extrajudicial activities that are consistent with the obligations of judicial office, and refrain from political activity.

  “It is deeply concerning that a United States District Court judge would exhibit such blatant political bias from the bench,” he said in a press release. “Justice may be blind, but the American people are not—we see Judge Chutkan for her actions, and we rebuke them in the greatest possible sense.”

  Mr. Gaetz is proposing Judge Chutkan be censured and condemned via the resolution, and to have the House Committee on the Judiciary, on which he sits, launch an investigation seeking evidence showing that she should be removed from office on impeachment or other misdemeanors.

  The Epoch Times reached out to Judge Chutkan’s office for comment.

  Trump on Chutkan

  President Trump has been critical of Judge Chutkan in multiple social media posts given her earlier remarks.

  “She obviously wants me behind bars,” he wrote, describing her as “highly partisan” and “very biased and unfair.”

  A day after President Trump pleaded not guilty to the felony charges filed by Mr. Smith, he made a social media post: “If you go after me, I’m coming after you!” He later posted a campaign ad that claimed election interference on the part of the Biden administration.

  In response, Mr. Smith’s office filed a motion pointing to the initial social media post as evidence a protective order was needed. He requested the judge issue an order barring President Trump from sharing information about the case.

  “Such a restriction is particularly important in this case because the defendant has previously issued public statements on social media regarding witnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him,” Mr. Smith wrote in a filing (pdf).

  President Trump responded on social media yet again. “No, I shouldn’t have a protective order placed on me because it would impinge upon my right to free speech,” he wrote.

  His legal team filed an opposing motion arguing public speech was not grounds for a gag order.

  Judge Chutkan ended up issuing a limited protective order, which bars President Trump from releasing information the prosecutors label sensitive, not all information.

  The prosecution has also requested a Jan. 2, 2024, trial date, with jury selection to begin as early as Dec. 11.

  On Thursday, President Trump’s legal team proposed a April 2026 trial date, arguing that the prosecution was rushing the case.

  “The government’s objective is clear: to deny President Trump and his counsel a fair ability to prepare for trial,” the lawyers wrote. “The Court should deny the government’s request.”

  They cited a number of reasons an extension was required, including the 11.5 million pages of discovery Mr. Smith’s office has already provided.

  “That is the entirety of Tolstoy’s War and Peace, cover to cover, 78 times a day, every day, from now until jury selection.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 21:30

• Uniparty's Plan To Save "Our Democracy" Unfolds
  Uniparty’s Plan To Save “Our Democracy” Unfolds

  Authored by Roger Kimball via American Greatness,

  The fish are plentiful today…

  • There’s Hunter Biden and his various lies: about the sources of his prodigious income, his payment (that is, non-payment) of taxes, drugs, guns, child support, laptops and prostitutes.

  • There’s Joe Biden and his lies, the sources of his prodigious income, and – the latest – his use of pseudonymous email accounts when writing to Hunter and Hunter’s business partners to discuss the weather – or was it the whether and how to siphon 20 million of the crispest into virtually untraceable bank accounts?

  • There’s the seemingly endless series of indictments directed at Donald Trump. The latest news there, if I am up to date, is that he told people to watch election returns on One America News Network. Clearly part of a RICO conspiracy. Someone whose math is sharper than mine calculated that President Trump is potentially on the hook for 450 years in the slammer for . . . well, his torts are mostly in the eye of the beholder.

  This coming week, Fox News, whose leaders have made no secret of their contempt for Trump, are holding the first Republican debate. Problem: as of this writing, it looks as though Trump will not be participating. How rude! And to Fox News, which hates him, and to the RNC, which doesn’t like him very much. How could he do this?

  The really delicious thing is that even if Trump doesn’t show up for the debate, he will upstage everyone. The word at the moment is that he’ll do an interview with Tucker Carlson on Twitter at the same time as the debate. My bookies report that viewership of that interview, should it take place, would be far higher than the viewership for watching Chris Christie throw his, er, weight around. Quick: who is Doug Bergum and does anyone care? Yes, the event will be an opportunity for Tim Scott and Vivek Ramaswamy to shine. It will also be a sort of last bite at the apple for Ron DeSantis and his sputtering campaign.

  But let’s face it, whether Trump shows up or not, he is the star of the show. If he doesn’t show, his performance will be like that of Tallulah Bankhead who, late in her career, was dissed by some pushy ingenue. “I could upstage you dahling,” Tallulah said, “without even being on stage.” She did, too, by the simple expedient of precariously balancing a champagne glass half-on-half-off a table when she made her exit. The ingenue came on for her big scene, but all eyes were glued to the glass: would it or would it not fall off the table? (No one knew that she had put sticket tape on the bottom of the glass).

  I don’t know what is going to happen in this election anymore than you do, Dear Reader.

  But I have been amused by the absolute certitude of the chattering class, which assures us with hands wringing that:

  1) Trump is a very bad man,

  2) That he cannot win the general election,

  but that 3) The clever but insidious Dems will assure that he wins the nomination, thus assuring a Republican defeat come November 2024.

  

  Maybe.

  But maybe the Dems keep indicting Trump because they are terrified that he could win, and then what?

  Wouldn’t it be better to put him in jail, issue a gag order, say that anything he says is an effort to overturn the 2020, or the 2024, election and thereby undermine Our Democracy™?

  I think that is the more likely explanation, but I admit that these are deep waters.

  There are plenty of scenarios by which someone other than Trump becomes the Republican nominee, beginning with various acts of God. One big problem for the Republican aspirants, though, is that if Trump is prevented by chicanery from being the nominee, a critical portion of his millions of voters will stay home, thus depriving any other candidate of victory. If Trump fails to become the nominee because he is suddenly incapacitated or dies, that is a different story. But so far, he seems surprisingly robust.

  What many of these Trump-can’t-win prognostications overlook, I believe, is that he will not be running in a vacuum. What matters is not just the “37%” of voters (or whatever the real number is) who say they like or agree with him. There also is the candidate from the other party: Joe Biden, probably, but possibly Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, or even (some say) Michelle Obama.

  But let’s say it is Joe Biden. I think that the pollster (and former Clinton advisor) Doug Schoen is right. Despite his many legal woes, Trump could win, less because he is broadly popular himself than because Biden is so unpopular.

  “One has to go back to 1980,” Schoen wrote this weekend, “to look at the last time a Democratic incumbent president was in a situation where he was bordering on unelectable, and that was Jimmy Carter who had a 37% approval rating when Ronald Reagan won a landslide victory, taking with him the Senate, and helping Republicans to gain a net 35 seats in the House of Representatives.”

  Biden is currently hovering over that Carter territory, especially on the critical “it’s-the-economy-stupid” issue. Biden’s approval rating there is a mere 38%, a number that when suitably translated spells J-I-M-M-Y C-A-R-T-E-R.

  The point is, though, that Trump will not be running by himself. He will be running against someone. And that someone is likely to have liabilities at least as huge as Trump.

  The real question was posed by Michael Anton in “They Can’t Let Him Back In,” a black-pilled essay he published in Compact last summer.

  “The people who really run the United States of America,” Anton wrote, “have made it clear that they can’t, and won’t, if they can help it, allow Donald Trump to be president again.”

  Who are those people?

  Mostly Democrats, yes, but really, it’s a bipartisan, deep-state consensus, a uniparty assumption that Trump, being an existential threat to their continued existence must be kept from political power by any means necessary. 

  Think the 2020 BLM riots were awful?

  They were, but they will seem like Lake Placid if Trump is reelected.

  I put that down as a secondary reason to hope that Trump does win, but I understand that others disagree.

  It is curious, as Anton also points out, that for all the fury directed at Trump the individual, the real target of deep state animus is not Trump himself but his supporters, his “base.”

  Trump was right when he said “they’re not after me. They’re after you. I’m just standing in the way.”

  Anton got to the nub of the issue when he observed that “Anti-Trump hysteria is in the final analysis not about Trump. The regime can’t allow Trump to be president not because of who he is (although that grates), but because of who his followers are.”

  I think that is worth bearing in mind.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 20:30

• Progressive Insurance Sued Over 'Patently Unlawful' Racism For $25K Black-Only Business Grants
  Progressive Insurance Sued Over ‘Patently Unlawful’ Racism For $25K Black-Only Business Grants

  Progressive insurance is being sued for “patently unlawful” racism over a program which awards exclusively black-owned businesses $25,000, while allegedly discriminating against businesses owned by white, asian, hispanic and anyone else who isn’t black.

  

  Filed in an Ohio federal court on Wednesday by the conservative group America First Legal (AFL) – which is headed by former senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller – the class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of the owner of Freedom Truck Dispatch, Nathan Roberts, claims that Progressive racially discriminated against non-black small-business owners by offering the grants to 10 “black-owned small businesses to use toward the purchase of a commercial vehicle.”

  The lawsuit claims that on May 24, Roberts – a customer of Progressive – received an email advertising “a grant opportunity for their [Progressive’s] commercial-trucking small-business owners,” but that “Progressive decided that only black-owned businesses would be eligible for these grants,” since “studies have shown how inequities have made it harder for black entrepreneurs to access capital.“

  Progressive is joined by defendant Hello Alice, which it partnered with on the financial award extended to black-owned businesses with 10 or fewer employees and a turnaround below $5 million.

  The insurance company announced its 2023 winners in a Tuesday press release, which stated that “Progressive is stepping in to provide funding to Black entrepreneurs to help navigate their small business journey.”

  According to Roberts’ suit, the entire scheme was nothing more than “racially discriminatory grantmaking” with the “racially discriminatory requirement” to be black in order to qualify.

  AFL lawyer Gene Hamilton told the Daily Mail that the case was part of a larger pushback against big corporations injecting “racial considerations into every aspect of their business operations, employment practices, and so much more.”

  The lawsuit asks that the court declare Progressive’s grants illegal, and to award the plaintiffs “nominal” compensation and legal fees.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 20:00

• EPA Finds Toxic 'Forever Chemicals' In Water Systems Across The US
  EPA Finds Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ In Water Systems Across The US

  Authored by Bryan Jung via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The Environmental Protection Agency discovered toxic, cancer-causing “forever chemicals” in water systems across the country.

  

  The Aug. 17 finding comes after the U.S. Geological Survey found in July that perfluoroalkyl or polyfluoroalkyl chemicals known as PFAS, were found in 45 percent of water taps in the United States.

  The EPA’s separate findings are the latest evidence that these controversial chemicals are widespread in the environment.

  PFASs are called “forever chemicals” because they build up and accumulate in a person’s body over time instead of breaking down and have been linked to a number of serious illnesses, including cancer and birth defects.

  The chemicals are water resistant and do not break down in the environment and can remain in human bodies for years.

  The EPA reported that the toxins could affect the drinking water of 26 million people, according to an environmental advocacy organization called the Environmental Working Group which analyzed the latest agency data.

  The federal regulator said (pdf) that two of the most dangerous types of forever chemicals, known as PFOA and PFOS, were also found at unsafe levels in between 7.8 and 8.5 percent of public water systems.

  PFASs are used in hundreds of household items from cleaning supplies to pizza boxes, which broadens the chance of serious health risks, according to the USGS study.

  They were developed in the 1940s with the creation of Teflon, a non-stick coating for cookware, and are now used in everything from clothing, plastic products, cosmetics, and stain removers.

  Forever Chemicals Contamination Common Nationwide

  The EPA said the cities that had the high concentration of these toxic chemicals were Fresno, California, and Dallas, Texas.

  Samples from Fresno had 16 parts per trillion of PFOA and 29 parts per trillion of PFOS, which was 4 and 7.25 times more than the EPA’s proposed regulatory limit and 194.3 parts per trillion for PFAS particles.

  A sample from Dallas found that PFOA and PFOS were above the EPA’s levels, at 4.7 parts per trillion and 5.1 parts per trillion respectively, with a total PFAS concentration of 53.4 parts per trillion.

  The USGS study found no difference in PFAS exposure between samples from private wells, which are not regulated and public supply, which are monitored by the EPA.

  The study was based on samples collected from 716 locations across the country over several years and found that, in contrast to in rural areas, residents in urban areas are at higher risk of exposure to PFAS in drinking water.

  The chemicals were found in about 70 percent of areas that are either urban or have a known history of PFAS contamination, compared to just 8 percent of rural areas.

  PFAS contamination was more common in the Great Plains, Great Lakes, Eastern Seaboard, and in the Central and Southern California regions.

  New EPA Rules to Reduce PFAS Risks

  Scott Faber, senior vice president of Government Affairs at the Environmental Working Group, told The Hill that he was shocked by the test results.

  “Millions of people have been drinking dangerously high levels of PFAS all of their lives and are learning about it today,” said Mr. Faber.

  Exposure to PFAS can disrupt hormones and liver function, and it has been linked to illnesses including kidney and testicular cancer, thyroid disease, and high cholesterol, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

  The chemicals can also reduce birth weight in infants and compromise the health of pregnant women.

  Finally, after years of public pressure, the EPA proposed the first-ever national drinking water standards for six PFAS in March.

  The new rules would limit them to just 4 parts per trillion, but the new report shows that many water systems in big cities have levels of the chemicals that already exceed that.

  The monitoring of public water systems and disclosure when PFAS levels exceed limits will also be required.

  Meanwhile, the Biden administration allocated almost $10 billion from the recent infrastructure law to help communities reduce PFAS exposure and other chemical contaminants in the nation’s water supply.

  Reuters contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 19:30

• These Are The Dirtiest Cities In America
  These Are The Dirtiest Cities In America

  Baltimore is the dirtiest city in the United States, a new study from HouseFresh has laid out this week. The city received 47,295 complaints over the course of the last 365 days, according to the analysis. 

  The same study found that Milwaukee is the cleanest city in America, with only 309 complaints over the same period of time. Riverside is not far behind, the study noted, with just 1,609 complaints.

  

  The study found that 21213 is the dirtiest individual zip code in Baltimore, with 89,391 complaints about sanitary issues. The cleanest zip code in America is in Houston, 77546, which had just 19 sanitary-related complaints. 

  Houston had 5 of the 6 “fewest complaint” zip codes in the study, while Baltimore had 7 out of the 10 dirtiest.

  The analysis looked at the 12.3 million sanitation-related 311 complaints in a series of U.S. cities as part of its methodology. From there, it “calculated the number of these complaints per 100,000 population, both on a city level and on a zip code level” before ranking the cities based on zip codes and complaint density.

  

  The study looked at 644 categories related to sanitation issues, grouping them with terms like “waste” and “recycling”. Finally, the study crunched the zip codes that each complaint came from. 

  Baltimore was in close company with Sacramento and Charlotte, who received 34,186 and 31,112 complaints about sanitary conditions, respectively. Then came LA, Memphis and Boston, rounding out the top 6 dirtiest cities.

  In New York, Brooklyn was found to be the dirtiest zip code, using the same analysis. Though the city has “a surprisingly low complaint rate of 3,728 per 100k population”, the study notes that 7,664 complaints came from Brooklyn. New York’s sanitation complaints pale in comparison to its west coast counterpart, LA, which had 21,616 complaints per 100,000 population. 

  

  The cleanest zip code in New York was New Hyde Park, 11040, which had only 176 complaints. In LA the neighborhood with the most complaints was found to be Mission Hills and the cleanest, per the data, was found to be Inglewood. 

  West Englewood is home to the dirtiest zip code in Chicago, while Friendswood has that honor in Houston. South Philadelphia took the crown in the city of brotherly love. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 19:00

• FDA 'Clarifies' That Ivermectin Remains Unapproved For COVID-19 But Docs Can Prescribe
  FDA ‘Clarifies’ That Ivermectin Remains Unapproved For COVID-19 But Docs Can Prescribe

  Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Aug. 17 clarified that it had not authorized or approved the use of ivermectin in preventing or treating COVID-19.

  

  Ivermectin is an FDA-approved antiparasitic drug that is used to treat neglected tropical diseases, including parasitic worm infections (helminthiases), onchocerciasis (or river blindness), and scabies.

  The FDA stated 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-19.

  “We’ve seen lots of chatter about ivermectin in the last week. Some of what you’re seeing in videos and social media posts isn’t true,” the FDA stated on X, formerly known as Twitter.

  Doctors in the United States, though, are able to and regularly prescribe approved drugs for purposes for which they are not approved.

  “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.

  The FDA pointed cited the National Institutes of Health COVID-19 treatment guidelines, which recommend against using ivermectin for COVID-19 treatment due to a purported lack of evidence supporting its effectiveness. Some studies have found that ivermectin is effective against COVID-19.

  The agency was responding after some people, including Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-Wis.), claimed that the FDA has “quietly approved” the use of ivermectin for COVID-19.

  “The doctors I’ve been dealing with and talking to for years now, they believe that probably hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their lives because they were denied early treatment and they were denied because the FDA sabotaged, for example, ivermectin,” Mr. Johnson told FOX News on Aug. 11.

  “We are going down a very dangerous path, but it’s a path that is being laid out and planned by an elite group of people that want to take total control over our lives, and that’s what they’re doing bit by bit,” he added.

  Ashley Cheung Honold, a Department of Justice lawyer representing the FDA, had said during recent oral arguments in a legal case that the FDA “explicitly recognizes that doctors do have the authority to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID.”

  The government was defending the FDA’s repeated exhortations to people to not take ivermectin for COVID-19, including a post that said “Stop it.”

  The case was brought by three doctors who allege the FDA unlawfully interfered with their practice of medicine with the statements. A federal judge dismissed the case in 2022, prompting an appeal.

  Ms. Honold said the FDA’s statements “don’t prohibit doctors from prescribing ivermectin to treat COVID or for any other purpose.” She said the agency advised people to consult their health care providers and that they could take medicine if the provider prescribed it.

  “FDA is clearly acknowledging that doctors have the authority to prescribe human ivermectin to treat COVID. So they are not interfering with the authority of doctors to prescribe drugs or to practice medicine,” she said.

  Study On Ivermectin’s Effectiveness

  According to a new peer-reviewed ecological study, a natural experiment occurred when the government of Peru authorized ivermectin for use during the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in evidence of the drug’s effectiveness and ability to reduce excess deaths.

  The paper’s results, published Aug. 8 in Cureus, found a 74 percent reduction in excess deaths in 10 states with the most intensive ivermectin use over a 30-day period following peak deaths during the pandemic.

  When analyzing data across 25 states in Peru, researchers found these reductions in excess deaths correlated closely to ivermectin use during four months in 2020.

  When ivermectin was available without restriction, there was a fourteenfold reduction in nationwide excess deaths. Once access to ivermectin was restricted by the government, a thirteenfold increase in excess deaths was observed in the two months following the limitation of its use. The findings align with summary data from the World Health Organization for the same time period in Peru.

  Zachary Stieber and Megan Redshaw contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 18:30

• China Rapidly Building Airstrip On Disputed Island Close To Vietnam
  China Rapidly Building Airstrip On Disputed Island Close To Vietnam

  China is continuing to militarize disputed islands it has long exercised effective control over in the South China Sea, according to new satellite images.

  The images, taken by Planet Labs PBC in early August, show fresh construction on the westernmost island of the Paracel Islands close to Vietnam (and which are claimed by both Vietnam and Taiwan). What has regional and US officials alarmed is the large airstrip which appears to be progressing at rapid pace.

  

  The apparent Chinese military build-up of the island can be seen by comparing these latest satellite images (below) to prior ones.

  The Drive was the first to report on and analyze the images, with the publication writing:

  The sudden development on the Chinese-controlled Triton Island is revealed in satellite imagery. Clearly, work is still at an early stage, but it’s startling just how rapid the progress has been so far. Construction of this airstrip only began a few weeks ago at the most. The War Zone examined imagery from Planet Labs from mid-July showing no such activity.

  The new airstrip appears to be over 2000 feet in length according to analysis of the images.

  The Drive continues, “As well as the airstrip, satellite imagery reveals a huge new work area, including a cement plant. This has all sprung up within the last month.”

  “Previously, this Chinese outpost was home to an observation station with two radomes and some big Chinese flags, but not much more. The island was previously served by a small harbor and a helipad,” the report added. Chinese state-run Global Times has rejected the allegations. 

  #China Is Building A Runway On Its Closest Island Outpost To #Vietnam

  Triton is the westernmost island in the #SouthChinaSea’s strategic Paracel archipelago and added militarization of it has big implications.

  In just the last few weeks, China has begun to build what appears to… pic.twitter.com/VexSjCjlzn

  — Indo-Pacific News – Geo-Politics & Defense News (@IndoPac_Info) August 16, 2023

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

  China has over the past years used both artificial islands as well as expanding military bases on the tiny land masses in the waters to extend its maritime claims, butting up against that of American allies in the region like the Philippines or unrecognized Taiwan.

  The Chinese military has also repeatedly charged that the US Navy has ‘frequently’ deployed warships in the South China Sea to “show off its force and severely infringe upon China’s sovereignty and security interests.”

  The Pentagon response has typically been that it’s conducting peaceful ‘freedom of navigation’ operations to ensure adversaries adhere to international law for open waters.

  

  The US also rejects Chinese claims of ownership over disputed island chain which are now becoming de facto PLA military outposts. Many of the islands have been under Chinese military control since at least the 1970s.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 18:00

• Milei Is Not Argentina's Problem, Socialism Is…
  Milei Is Not Argentina’s Problem, Socialism Is…

  Authored by Daniel Lacalle,

  Argentina’s problem is not Milei.

  The Central Bank of Argentina does not have to devalue the peso due to the victory of Javier Milei in the primaries.

  The Central Bank of Argentina and the Peronist government have been devaluing the peso and sinking the currency for years. It must devalue because the central bank has run out of reserves.

  Argentina is not facing an “anti-system” or “far-right” threat. They already have a far-left and anti-system government.

  

  The extractive and confiscatory monetary and fiscal policies of the XXI Century Socialism championed by Peronist Fernandez de Kirchner.

  The so-called “Inclusive” monetary policy, as Axel Kicilloff, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s ex economy minister, denominated it.

  The Peronist policy of maximum interventionism as well as fiscal and monetary irresponsibility has destroyed Argentina and left the central bank without reserves.

  The peso has lost more than 90% of its value against the US dollar since Alberto Fernández took office, and inflation in Argentina already exceeds 110% annualized, with 39% of the population living in poverty.

  In the years of the “XXI Century Socialism” governments of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Alberto Fernández, a completely uncontrolled increase in the monetary base obliterated the local currency. The center-right Macri government, which took office briefly between Kirchner and Fernandez, made the mistake of thinking that gradual and soft measures could curb the inflationary spiral, especially because he did not consider the evidence of the time bomb left by Fernandez de Kirchner in future monetary issuance commitments via short-term debt at very high rates accumulated at the central bank (the Leliq, Lebac, and Pases). This central bank remunerated debt grew by 22 billion equivalent US dollars during the years of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. The Macri government reduced it by $26 billion. These issuances of “remunerated” central bank debt are future monetary base increases and guaranteed inflation.

  The government of Alberto Fernández has left a timebomb of Leliq and Pases that exceed 12% of GDP. Thus, a gigantic devaluation of the peso is guaranteed since the central bank’s liabilities exceed its reserves by several times. This is why the central bank must devalue.

  According to data published by the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic in August 2023, Argentina has carried out the largest monetary experiment in the region, second only to Venezuela. The Monetary Base increased by 46.2% annually, 117.2% in two years, and 172% in three years. However, the monetary base, including deposits and the aforementioned Leliq, has soared by 392.6% in three years. This disaster is the legacy left by the Fernandez government.

  Peronism embraced “XXI century socialism” and implemented the most damaging “exchange clamps” (cepo cambiario) that drain exporting sectors of reserves and force them to convert their dollars at fictitious exchange rates. This is state-sponsored theft that has destroyed the entry of new reserves to the country. Instead of maximizing reserves, this policy stopped export growth.

  With the recent creation of the so-called “soybean dollar” (dólar soja), an artificial rate for agricultural producers to liquidate their foreign currency, in Argentina there are more than ten exchange rates.

  How can a country have ten exchange rates against one currency? The answer is simple. All those exchange rates imposed by the government are forms of expropriation of wealth to confiscate the dollars of exporters and citizens at an unrealistic rate.

  The government expropriates the recipients of US dollars with an exchange against the peso that the government itself would not find in any transaction on the open market.

  This monetary madness finances uncontrolled political spending, as the Argentine state cannot be financed via debt as there is no confidence in its solvency as an issuer since it has defaulted on several occasions.

  There is no real local or global demand for pesos, as investors and citizens know that the government will continue to print currency without control.

  In Argentina, in 57% of the provinces, state employment is greater than private employment. The state increases public spending more than tax receipts and inflation, financing it by printing more pesos, which creates more poverty and higher inflation. Meanwhile, the taxation implemented by the Peronist governments is one of the most confiscatory in the region, reaching 106% of its profits for a Small and Medium Enterprise that pays all its taxes, according to the Doing Business report.

  Thus, the government promises huge subsidies in a currency that is constantly losing value and presents itself as the solution to the problem created by its own fiscal and monetary policies. Peronism “gives away” money that is printed massively and has no value. The result, eighteen million poor citizens.

  Many great Argentine economists have analyzed in detail the importance of dollarizing to end this spiral of perverse incentives that leads the government to make citizens more dependent by issuing a currency without value or demand. From Nicolas Cachanosky to Steve Hanke and many others, they remind us that Ecuador, Panama, or El Salvador successfully dollarized.

  Argentina’s problem is not dollarization, but the evidence that they have an unviable and failed currency. Argentina is already dollarized in large part because citizens are fleeing the local currency.

  Why is the Peso a worthless currency?

  Because the government and the central bank have been implementing their own Modern Monetary Theory under the idea that the country’s problems can be solved by issuing more currency. After years of monetary destruction, global and national demand for the peso is at historical lows.

  The peso is, again in 2023, one of the worst currencies in the world against the US dollar, while the increase in the monetary base of the central bank of Argentina is an insane 46% year-to-date. And some people wonder why inflation is over 100%.

  No, Argentina does not face an abyss if Milei becomes president. Argentina, a rich country with enormous potential, is already in the abyss.

  Just like Chavismo in Venezuela, the Peronist governments have destroyed the currency and the productive fabric to boost political spending and turn the country into an economic wasteland where the salaries and savings of citizens are confiscated via high direct and indirect taxes as well as the inflationary tax.

  Milei wants to end this monetary and fiscal insanity with policies that are not radical but logical. Stop the insane monetization of government spending, end the central bank’s dangerous inflationary measures, dollarize, cut excessive political expenditure, reduce taxes, open the economy, and allow free trade and investment to flow back to Argentina.

  Something is very wrong in the developed world when some consider Milei a dangerous radical and say nothing about the radicalism implemented in the Fernandez-Kirchner years.

  Argentina must implement serious fiscal and monetary policies to reach its enormous potential. Milei’s proposals are not anti-system, they are pro-logic.

  Argentina’s problem is not Milei. The problem is that they have implemented point by point the fiscal and monetary policies that many so-called “progressive” parties demand.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 17:30

• Hilary Pounds Mexico's Baja Coast; Southern California Braces For Impact
  Hilary Pounds Mexico’s Baja Coast; Southern California Braces For Impact

  Hilary weakened from a Category 4 hurricane to a tropical storm, moving northward Sunday along the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. Conditions across Southern California are deteriorating as forecasters warned “catastrophic and life-threatening” flooding is likely. 

  The National Weather Service’s National Hurricane Center downgraded Hilary earlier today while indicating the storm made landfall around noon over the northern Baja California peninsula. 

  #Hilary makes landfall in northern Baja California. Tropical storm conditions and heavy rains already affecting portions of the southwestern United States. pic.twitter.com/OS9EYPUM0y

  — NHC Eastern Pacific (@NHC_Pacific) August 20, 2023

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

  Footage from X, formerly known as Twitter, shows major flooding across Santa Rosalía in Mexico’s Baja California Sur. 

  WATCH: Devastating flooding in Baja California brought on by Hurricane #Hilary pic.twitter.com/ONDnSKYiKo

  — PoliticsVerse 🇺🇸 (@PoliticsVerse_) August 20, 2023

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

  Here’s Hilary’s latest track:

  

  With forecasters calling for “life-threatening” flooding across Southern California, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Saturday. Then the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said Hilary “remains on track to impact much of Southern California with heavy rainfall and possibly strong winds this weekend and into early next week.” 

  

  Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula, Southern California, and southwestern Nevada are expected to receive heavy rainfall through Monday. 

  

  “Expect periods of heavy rain; areas of flooding especially in the mtns and deserts; and strong winds especially in San Diego Co, east Inland Empire, mtns, and deserts,” NWS San Diego posted on X. 

  Hilary has weakened to a Tropical Strom and is expected to make it into SoCal this afternoon. Expect periods of heavy rain; areas of flooding especially in the mtns and deserts; and strong winds especially in San Diego Co, east Inland Empire, mtns, and deserts. Be safe!#CAwx pic.twitter.com/TNXEfzFgV4

  — NWS San Diego (@NWSSanDiego) August 20, 2023

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

  Which means an elevated risk of destructive flash flooding. 

  

  In San Diego, the US Navy is taking no risks and ordered warships and submarines to leave naval bases before the storms arrive. 

  US 3rd Fleet has ordered all Navy ships in San Diego to get underway as Hurricane Hilary approaches. The ships will remain at sea until the storm subsides. Those still in port prepare for heavy wind & rain. Standard East Coast procedure, unusual in SoCal https://t.co/6OoUOT60th pic.twitter.com/sjxUV3B8JE

  — Chris Cavas (@CavasShips) August 19, 2023

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

  NBC News said the tropical storm taking aim at Southern California would be the first time in eight years. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 16:00

• What A Steel: Biden Scrambles To Sell Off Trump's Uninstalled Border Wall Before 'Finish It Act' Passes
  What A Steel: Biden Scrambles To Sell Off Trump’s Uninstalled Border Wall Before ‘Finish It Act’ Passes

  Looking for a good deal on steel fencing material that could otherwise help maintain America’s border (and therefore national security?) Look no further!

  The Biden administration has been hawking sections of Donald Trump’s border wall on a government military surplus website called GovPlanet – where they’ve auctioned off 81 batches of square structural tubing and steel columns since April, the Daily Mail reports.

  

  Meanwhile, illegal border crossings (of future Democrats) hit the second-highest level on record in July.

  Last Tuesday, the Biden administration sold 700 28 ft. long hollow beams in five separate lots for $212 each, netting $154,200 according to the report.

  

  13 more lots are set to be auctioned on Aug. 23 and Aug. 30.

  According to Republicans, up to $300 million of taxpayer-funded wall components have been left to rust since the Biden administration took over.

  To address this, the Democrat-led Senate passed a Republican-sponsored bill last month – the “Finish It Act,” aimed at forcing the administration to extend the wall. The legislation will force the federal government to use the leftover materials on new wall construction – or hand them over to Texas to use for their own border defense inittiatives.

  Instead, the Biden administration is rushing to liquidate the wall leftovers before the GOP-led House can pass a matching version of the bill and make it law, the NY Post reports.

  

  “This sale is a wasteful and ludicrous decision by the Biden administration that only serves as further proof they have no shame,” the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MI) told the outlet, calling the move “outrageous, behind-the-scenes maneuvering.”

  “Leaving the border open to terrorists while selling border security materials at a loss is Bidenomics in a nutshell,” saic co-sponsor Tom Cotton (R-AR).

  “The pennies made from selling the border wall will not be enough to pay the families who suffer from a criminal act committed by someone who crossed our open borders during the Biden administration,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-OK)

  According to Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), the move to sell the materials is “reckless.”

  “Our borders continue to be overrun by an unprecedented number of illegal immigrants, turning every district into a border district, and compromising our national security,” she said.

  The GovPlanet auction schedule picked up markedly in May, when Wicker first introduced the Finish It Act, and increased again this month, days after the Senate’s defense bill passed on a bipartisan vote.

  A DOD spokesman identified the tubes, held in an outdoor storage lot in Pima County, Ariz., as “excess border wall materials.” -NY Post

  According to Lt. Col. Devin T. Robinson, who ‘used Defense Department lingo for the process of consigning military surplus items to commercial resellers or the trash heap’ (per the Post), “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers … has already transferred approximately $154 million worth of the roughly $260 million of bollard panels and other materials.”

  One insider told the Daily Upside that GovPlanet has been instructed to keep quiet about the border-wall connection.

  “We are legally not allowed to mention these are the border wall materials, or we could lose our jobs,” said the source.

  And while the lot listings scrupulously avoid identifying the tubes’ original purpose, viewers of the company’s Instagram page weren’t fooled.

  “Good for building a wall,” a user called honest_jake wrote Aug. 3 under a GovPlanet Instagram post touting the sale of “industrial steel tubing” — an entry that was deleted from the social media site Friday.

  “Why don’t you put that up instead of selling it,” added Brian Prewitt. “This is why tax payers are just about done paying taxes.” -NY Post

  “The federal government needs to be utilizing every tool in the toolbox to secure our border,” said Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), who slammed Biden for his “refusal to act.”

  

  “Instead of putting these materials to their intended use, they have been squandered, first collecting dust in the desert and now being auctioned off.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 16:00

• Lies, Damned Lies, And Statistics
  Lies, Damned Lies, And Statistics

  By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

  Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

  As we navigate through a month of partially staffed trading desks, it is more difficult than usual (and it is always difficult) to tell whether narratives are pushing markets or markets are pulling along the narratives.

  Are bond yields rising because there are so many bearish views being expressed (with the data to back up those views)? Or was the data already there and when bonds started to sell-off, those headlines (and the bears) just gained prominence? Ditto for the recent shift in articles away from the “soft landing” scenario. A soft landing seemed like a “certainty” a few weeks ago, but now it seems to be losing a little bit of steam. Did that cause stocks to sell off (about 2% last week and almost 5% for the S&P 500 this month), or did the sell-off just highlight the risks (that had gotten buried on the back pages) to the forefront?

  Making it even more confusing is how easy it is right now to pick and choose data to spin almost any narrative you want.
  For this weekend’s report, after a great week in our San Diego office (where Bloomberg TV interviewed us primarily on China), we wanted to focus on some statistics that have caught our eye and can also be used to spin a variety of narratives.

  China

  You had me at China. If there is a country whose data fits the lies, damned lies, and statistics theme it is China. However, if Bitcoin was a country, it too might qualify, but it isn’t a country so it gets a pass for now.

  We will come back to China, but I just wanted to use the line “you had me at China” before you got bored of reading the report, or it got buried below a bunch of charts.

  The Consumer is Tapped Out

  Despite retail sales (reported on Tuesday) crushing it (a 1% increase for the control group in July after a 0.5% increase in June), there is a narrative that the consumer is getting tapped out.

  Fastest Ever Rate of Increase in Credit Card Debt!!

  

  Credit card debt has been rising at what seems like an alarming rate.

  Credit Card Delinquencies Gapping Higher!

  

  This chart seems almost scary because it shows a rapid rise in delinquencies. While not quite “parabolic” it has increased by almost 50% in a little over a year! However, 0.8% to 1.15% seems a lot less scary than saying it has increased by 50% (which is why I tune out whenever anyone talks about credit spread moves in percentage terms).

  Not only is credit card debt rising at an alarming rate, it is also coming just as delinquencies spike higher!

  The Consumer is Normalizing

  Let’s revisit the prior two charts but use a different time horizon.

  Credit Card Debt Remains Below Trend

  

  Credit card debt rose at a steady pace from 2013 until late 2019. Then COVID, stimulus, work from home, and supply chain issues all seemed to coalesce into an amazing drop in credit card debt. While we can question whether credit card debt should have been rising at the rate that it was before COVID (and whether it was sustainable or not), we should just accept that it was. Maybe population growth has changed (or it was some other factor), but if you “strip out” the COVID phenomenon, we are basically back to trend. I do think that credit card balances are an issue, but it is an issue that we seem to have dealt with in the past.

  On credit cards, I completely ignore any impact from Fed hikes because credit card interest rates have always been very high relative to any other rate. What drives credit card balances doesn’t seem to be a thoughtful analysis of rates. It has always been (at least to some degree) about instant gratification.

  Bottom line is that while the trend may not be sustainable, the recent rise just brings us back to trend, which takes some of the sting out of the fact that the consumer is in dire trouble.

  Delinquencies are Below the 5 and 10-Year Averages!

  

  So, delinquencies aren’t even back to pre-COVID levels. This data series averaged 1.5% for the 5 years prior to April 2020, and was 2.1% for the 10-year period before COVID (and let’s not even think about where it was post GFC).

  I’m not all warm and fuzzy about the consumer, but I’m not alarmed either.

  Auto Loans

  Auto loans are a bit trickier. From the consumer’s point of view, they tend to be at a fixed rate and many were entered into when rates were low. In fact, if memory serves me correctly, the average maturity of auto loans extended in recent years allowing consumers to lock in low rates for longer (hopefully the lenders hedged their rate exposure on those auto loans).

  Used Auto Prices are Receding

  

  Used car prices are declining from record highs. That may pose problems to lenders who calculated too much residual value on loans and leases to consumers who thought that we were in a brave new world where even used cars went up in value.

  Having said that, the prices for used cars remain robust and my understanding is that it is still extremely difficult to buy the most popular new models (and they often fetch a premium to NAV). Nothing like in the heyday of the supply chain issues, but something that should “normalize” over time.

  Auto dealers benefited from a lack of inventory, and I will be curious to see if they can retain their sales with low levels of inventory and (ultimately) pass some of those efficiencies through to the consumer.

  With autos being such an important part of the economy, it is something that I watch, but much like the story we heard in credit cards, a lot of the negatives that I’m reading about are simply a “normalization” which may be healthy for generating not just a soft landing, but a sustainable soft landing. However, the “slowing” is something to think about.

  The Excess Savings Lie

  I will spare you the agony of going through bank deposit charts on a short-term and long-term basis and just jump straight to the long-term chart. I used purple and orange arrows because I generally reserve green for good and red for bad and I’m not sure that these are “good” or “bad” deviations from trend.

  Bank Deposits are Falling! But to Levels Still Around Trend.

  

  I have argued that the “excess” in bank savings was never going to be put into the stock market (one of the bull cases, which may even still be floating around). I also think that there is a lot more than meets the eye about why there is so much in “excess” savings. Sure, without a doubt, COVID boosted savings. One thing that I “forgot” to mention earlier (or maybe I saved it on purpose) about the good things that happened to consumers during COVID is that there were many moratoriums placed on various types of debt service (i.e., student loans).

  We can all agree that some amount of cash stayed in savings accounts because while savings accounts earned 0%, so did everything else. As people realized that they could earn more on their money market funds, some amount was going to be taken out of savings accounts paying little interest. Though, I do have to say that I was at the local bank branch a few weeks ago taking out money from the ATM and someone before me had left a receipt showing $99k in their bank account. I immediately thought “who does that?”, but there are obviously people who want bank accounts up to the FDIC limit.

  My view has been (and will continue to be) that many people “earmarked” money that they would have to pay in the future and set it aside in a savings account. If you know moratoriums will end (and let’s not forget, these loans typically accrued interest during these periods), then it would be prudent to set aside some money for when those payments got turned back on.

  If my theory is correct, you should see bank deposits decline faster as these moratoriums end and the money that was “earmarked” for certain payments is withdrawn to make those payments. Please see American Ingenuity.
  Not great for the economy or spending, but is “normalization” really bad?

  Generative AI

  My intention is to use generative AI to help me do a report on “outliers”. This would include warning signs or positive things that the market may or may not be missing. After about an hour or so of brutally failed attempts this weekend, I gave up. I try to write these T-Reports with an estimate of how long it will take and how long the report will be but had absolutely zero clarity on whether the ChatGPT process would work. Hopefully I can make some interesting progress on the report early this week or I will declare it a failure. In any case, was Google trends (using generative AI) all you needed to buy or sell stocks successfully this year?

  

  No one really cared about AI until February of this year. Yes, there were some searches, but very few. The Nasdaq 100 bounced in January, stagnated for a bit, and then started to do well from April until late July. It has sold off steadily since then. While not matching the trends in “generative AI” search, it might have been the best tool to use. The searches have stabilized and what will be interesting to see is if they peaked or if they increase as we end the summer and people are back at work fulltime across the board.

  We will be focusing more on AI as Academy’s Advisory Board has grown the number of advisors with significant experience in the area and who are active today in the ongoing development of cyber and AI.

  China

  I promised that we’d get back to China, but for now I only want to highlight one chart. And, ironically, it is not a lie. It is the truth, and it is logical.

  China’s Holdings of U.S. Treasuries

  

  I highlight three periods.

  • Post GFC. When the U.S. economy was in tatters and much of the world was struggling, China was able to (or was willing to) accumulate more and more Treasuries. There is a lot of chatter about the decoupling of our economy from China’s right now, which is logical and will continue (the friction is real between the two nations and not getting better). I did, however, find it interesting that China accumulated so many Treasuries in the aftermath of the GFC. Prior to the GFC, the trend seemed obvious (U.S. was growing and buying stuff from China).
  • The tariffs sparked some discussion of potential retaliation from China, including the possibility that they would dump Treasuries. There was some decline in their holdings, but that could just as easily have been COVID related.
  • Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the decision to freeze Russia’s dollar holdings, there has been a steady decline in China’s Treasury holdings.
    • Some of the decline is due to the weakness in China’s economy and their potential need to prop up the property market (and maybe even those overly exposed to the “shadow banking system”).
    • Not only did we freeze Russia’s holdings (which tells me that we can do it again), but we have also been going after China on a myriad of fronts (most notably high tech, but increasingly for rare earths and critical minerals).
    • Our own debt ceiling issues and ratings may not help, but I’d be shocked if that entered into China’s calculus.
    • What I cannot tell from this chart is if it is an indication that China is successfully generating trade globally in yuan and has less need for dollars. That would fit my “shifting from made in China to made by China” view to a tee, but I’d be lying if I said that I could support that on this chart! Maybe generative AI will help me find evidence supporting that theory in places that I haven’t thought to look.

  One thing that I think supports Treasury market bears is that there will be less of a global interest in holding Treasuries (with China leading the way).

  Jobs

  So much to do here and with or without AI, I will add more charts related to jobs later this week.

  We have covered some of these areas in the past such as discrepancies in JOLTS between job openings and hires and the Establishment versus Household gaps. The fact that all these reports come in with declining response rates is another issue. It is difficult (mathematically) to accept the continuity of a data series when the response rate is declining without a serious investigation into why the response rate might be declining.

  While we haven’t discussed it recently, the annual revisions always seem to dramatically reduce the published data for the prior year (but weirdly it doesn’t seem to have a market impact).

  Today, I just bring up one chart because I find it fascinating in the lies, damned lies, and statistics theme.

  The “Almost” Unbelievable Pattern of New Company Formation

  

  The birth/death model is an estimate of jobs created or lost as new companies are formed or go out of business (or at least close enough for our purposes).

  I challenge you to find any other jobs data that looks this “perfect”. It is a beautiful sawtooth pattern that looks almost uninterrupted! For most jobs data, the COVID period makes long-term charts almost impossible to review. The job losses and subsequent job gains are so large relative to any prior periods (or current periods) that these charts look like straight lines on either side of COVID.

  Yet this chart seems almost perfect. This is a symmetrical “beauty”, but it is just a “plug”. It is something that clearly relies heavily on seasonality and I find it almost impossible to believe that this is so “predictable” (which makes me wonder how many other “plugs” or adjustments might be meaningless after the COVID shock). Meaningless, but this data is still used to determine policy and drive markets.

  Inflation

  I couldn’t be bothered. Sure, I will dig into this more, but I really don’t think that despite some Fed jawboning, anything (other than a large/sustained change in inflation) will do much to the Fed’s decision (which means that it will do little for bond markets). I am prepared to be wrong on this and will delve into it this week (with help hopefully from friends at ChatGPT), but inflation is low on my radar screen. However, there is one exception – will companies be able to grow earnings in the current inflation environment where it seems to be more difficult to push through final product price increases while input costs remain elevated?

  Bottom Line

  Seems like we are back to an “inflection” point where the debate between soft landing and “something less fun” is back on the table. The lag effect is regaining credibility (it always should have).

  There are cases to be made for a variety of economic outcomes as we head into September and that is exciting from my seat!

  I do think that we are in a period where price action drives what narratives we see: continued downward pressure on stocks will bring out more and more negative reports. One more short squeeze and suddenly AI, soft landing, and praise for Powell is all that we will see.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 15:30

• "Pathetic, …Pessimistic": Non-White Focus Group Hammers Biden On Economy, Crime, Border
  “Pathetic, …Pessimistic”: Non-White Focus Group Hammers Biden On Economy, Crime, Border

  “Pathetic.” “Discouraged.” “Pessimistic.”

  Those are some of the sentiments shared by non-whites who were recently asked to share their feelings about the economy under President Biden, Politico reports. 

  Liberal polling firm HIT Strategies hosted a focus group of eight non-white voters last week, and found them uniformly unimpressed with President Biden’s handling of the economy. HIT uses “research and data to understand and communicate with hard-to-reach and underrepresented voters.”

  

  A new Quinnipiac University poll found 58% of all Americans give Biden a thumbs-down on the economy. In a worrisome stat for Democratic Party officials gearing up for the 2024 election, 35% of blacks give him a failing grade, as do 50% of Hispanics. The latest Emerson poll has a nationwide Biden-Trump contest as a dead heat, with Biden at 44.4% and Trump at 44.0%. 

  Some in the “people of color” focus group said they preferred the economy under Trump. “Our economy is the lowest it’s been in God knows how long,” said a Hispanic from New Jersey. “We keep [sending] money to Ukraine and other countries rather than helping ourselves.”

  “We don’t know what’s going to happen,” said an Asian American or Pacific Islander participant. “They’re kind of like saying that there possibly is going to be a soft landing, but they’re also expecting a recession of some sorts. It’s kind of a mixed message.”

  

  Some long for an alternative beyond Trump and Biden. “I’m definitely not happy with where America was when Trump was president,” said a black man from Cleveland who’s a registered Democrat. “And I’m not happy with where America is, now that Biden’s president. We’ve already had years of both of them being president and with no kind of good results. So I’m hoping there’s some other you know, candidate or alternative besides these two.”

  While members of the focus group said their economy was their number-one concern, they also hammered Biden on crime and management of the border. 

  Beyond individual candidates, focus group participants also expressed exasperation with America’s two principal parties. “I don’t feel like Democrats really have my back … or Republicans, you know?” said a Los Angeles black-and-Latino man. He gave Trump credit on the economy, however. “Trump got in there and he changed stuff.”

  Asked about indictments against Trump and accusations that he fosters white nationalism, the black-and-Latino man shrugged it off: “If you’re getting the job done, I can’t really hate on that.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 15:00

• Original Snow White Director's Son Slams Disney's 2024 Remake, 'Insulting,' 'Disgrace'
  Original Snow White Director’s Son Slams Disney’s 2024 Remake, ‘Insulting,’ ‘Disgrace’

  Authored by Patricia Tolson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  While the release of the new Snow White movie is still a year away, the son of the man who animated and directed the original version has called the new concept a “disgrace” and labeled the “woke things” they’ve made up as “insulting.”

  David Hand—son of the animator and director of the original version who was known by the same name—issued a harsh rebuke of the remake, telling the Telegraph on Aug. 18 that Disney’s “woke” version is an insult to his father’s work.

  

  “It’s a whole different concept, and I just totally disagree with it, and I know my dad and Walt would also very much disagree with it,” Mr. Hand said.

  He said he disagrees with the entire concept, calling it a “disgrace,” suggesting that Disney is “trying to do something new with something that was such a great success earlier.”

  “Their thoughts are just so radical now,” he said, noting how the Disney of today feels compelled to “change the stories” and “change the thought process of the characters.”

  Disney’s live-version remake of the animated film, “The Little Mermaid,” cast a black actress named Halle Bailey in the role of Ariel—originally portrayed as a white redhead became another box office flop that cost Disney $1 billion.

  “They’re making up new woke things, and I’m just not into any of that. I find it quite frankly a bit insulting,” he added, suggesting that what Disney has done “with some of these classic films” provides evidence that there is “no respect” for what Walt’s Disney and people like his father envisioned and created.

  “I think Walt and he would be turning in their graves,” Mr. Hand said.

  The original film, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” was released in 1937. It was Disney’s first full-length feature film. Along with “Pinocchio,” which was released in 1940, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” is heralded as Disney’s greatest film achievement.

  

  The Original Snow White

  The original film was hailed as a masterpiece, drawing worldwide acclaim and winning several awards from both the New York Film Critics Circle and The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.

  The budget for the movie, initially set at $250 thousand, exploded to $1.5 million due to various delays. The film, which included over 2 million sketches and 250,000 drawings, took about three years to produce.

  Ward Kimball, another animator, nearly quit after two of his main sequences were cut.

  Certain of the film’s demise, critics gave Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs the nickname “Walt Disney’s Folly.”

  In 1989, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was among the first 25 featured films to be preserved in the National Film Registry with the Library of Congress. In 2008, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was named the Greatest Animated Film of All Time by the American Film Institute.

  The Story of Snow White

  The storyline of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” is loosely based on the famous fairy tale, which had been passed down orally long before it was set to paper by the Brothers Grimm in 1812 under the German title “Schneewittchen” or “Little Snow White.”

  The plot of the story is set into motion when the heroine’s stepmother—a vain, wicked queen—consults her magical mirror. For many years, the mirror tells the wicked queen that she is “the fairest in the land,” until one day, the mirror tells her that Snow White now bears the title.

  Hearing this, the wicked queen becomes angry. She calls upon a woodsman and orders him to kill Snow White. For proof, the queen ordered the woodsman to bring back her heart. But the woodsman is unable to commit the murder. Instead, he helps the princess escape by taking her deep into the forest where the wicked queen would never find her. To fool the queen, the woodsman returns with the heart of a pig.

  Safe in the forest, Snow White discovers a cottage inhabited by seven dwarfs—Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sneezy, and Sleepy—who earn their living as miners. After she offers to earn her keep by cleaning their home and cooking for them, the dwarfs offer her to stay.

  The queen, however, learns that Snow White lives.

  Assuming the guise of an old hag, the queen tricks her stepdaughter into taking a bite of a poisoned apple. Snow White then falls into a deep, death-like sleep. It is a spell which can only be broken by a kiss of true love.

  When the dwarfs return from the mine they discover Snow White. Believing she is dead, they are heartbroken. They find the queen, who was attempting to flee back to her castle. They chase her to a cliff, where she falls to her death. To honor Snow White, they create a case to keep her body, standing guard over her. One day, a handsome prince comes upon Snow White and instantly falls in love. With a kiss of true love, he restored her to life and they lived “happily ever after.”

  The New Version

  While the new version isn’t expected to be released until March 2024, its plot and the actress cast to portray the new princess have already become sources of hot debate on social media.

  One obvious difference between the new live-action version of Snow White film and its hand-drawn, animated predecessor is apparent in the title itself, which eliminates “the seven dwarfs.” Moreover, those seven diminutive, white male characters—which have themselves become beloved, worldwide icons—have been replaced by a set of what Disney bills as “magical creatures” of varied colors, sizes, shapes, and genders.

  Prince Charming is cast as a “bumbling idiot.”

  The new Snow White is no longer white. She’s Cuban, played by Rachel Zegler, who also starred in Steven Spielberg’s remake of “West Side Story,” which was a massive flop.

  Ms. Zegler has been publicly critical of the original version.

  In a video on social media, Ms. Zegler dismissed the storyline of the classic version as old-fashioned, saying, “The original cartoon came out in 1937, and very evidently so.”

  “There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her,” Ms. Zegler said. “Weird! Weird. So, we didn’t do that this time.”

  Instead, Ms. Zegler explained that the more progressive version took “a different approach to what a lot of people will, I’m sure, assume is a love story just because we cast a guy in the movie, Andrew Burnap, great dude.”

  Also gone is the romance between the pair. In fact, the prince has all but been eliminated from the story.

  “It’s really not about the love story at all, which is really, really wonderful,” Ms. Zegler shared. “And whether or not she finds love along the way is anybody’s guess until 2024. All of Andrew’s scenes could get cut, who knows? It’s Hollywood, baby.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/20/2023 – 14:30